June 26, 2014

Call out the instigators...

Hard to believe sometimes that we were really that innocent. Well, some of us, I mean.

-- Mal

June 6, 2014

Scotty at Normandy

6 June 1944: Lieutenant James Doohan of the 13th Canadian Field Artillery Regiment landed on Juno beach. In the course of moving his men to their firing position he shot two enemy snipers. Then while making the rounds at 2330 that night, he was shot by a sentry with a Bren machinegun, resulting in the amputation of his right middle finger (you have to look hard for that, he usually hides it in films). After healing up from that adventure, he became a pilot-observer for the 1st Canadian army.

Tough dude.


-- Mal

March 27, 2014

You know what I hate about the Affordable Care Act?

Its very name validates the principle that human health -- and thus, by extension, human life -- is a commodity to be bought and sold.

Kind of barbaric, except barbarians don't usually have a money economy.

-- Mal

March 6, 2014

Well, should I get a new computer or what?

Just ruminating. A new computer would put a real strain on my finances. But the box I'm currently running is about as obsolete as it can get: Dual core AMD, "only" 2 GB RAM, a rather old Invidia GeForce 9400GT, running under XP. Which, of course, is no longer going to be supported.

Naturally, the current box does everything I want, but the potential vulnerability of XP after April does cause concern, especially since I know basically diddly about IT security. To say nothing of how badly windoze 8.0 has been panned, although I understand 8.1 is better.

So I'm wondering if getting a laptop primarily for Internet purposes would not be a viable option, and continuing to use the XP box to play my old games (which is the primary thing I use a computer for in the first place, aside from bullshitting on the 'Net). It's not an option I'm in love with, as I am not the tech-junkie type who needs the newest thing. Hell, I still use a rotary phone.

-- Mal

February 10, 2014

William Tenn was a bloody genious...

... just found a link to the complete text of "The Masculinist Revolt." I read it in 1968 when he first published it. It's friggin' hilarious.

http://bookre.org/reader?file=289650&pg=1

-- Mal

February 10, 2014

Found a great link

First read this story in 1968. It is a laff riot.

http://bookre.org/reader?file=289650&pg=1

-- Mal

February 10, 2014

Oh, I found a lovely link...

Read this story in 1968, and have looked for it ever since. It's a riot.

http://bookre.org/reader?file=289650&pg=1

-- Mal

February 10, 2014

Why a woman who is not a feminist is a coward.

Rights are not a sweetmeat granted to a person at the whim of an all-powerful tyrant, rights are qualities that inhere in us by the very nature of being human. Thus a right cannot be "given" nor "taken," though a right may, under sufficient threat of violence (psychological or physical, it makes no difference) be withheld or denied.

At root, I see feminism as a protest against the denial of right. Big rights and little rights, but overall and most especially what should be obviously a right for all humans, the right to the integrity of one's own person. And a person who would willingly surrender a fundamental right, is by very definition craven. For if we will not fight for our rights, for what will we fight?

The careful reader, however, might just detect the hidden consequence of this thought: for if rights inhere in each and all by virtue of being human, then any human who will not struggle against the denial of right is craven, not just any woman. So I find I have mistitled my little rant indeed. It should read "Why anyone who is not a feminist is a coward."

-- Mal