Everyone, please get out your textbooks. And set them on fire, thank you. OK, ok, those of you with the disposition and intestinal fortitude to do so may eat them. If there is any one common thread to the gripes I love to hang on to it's ( see topic line ). I've been watching people for all of my life ( oh, shut up ) with great interest in discerning the flow and ebb of what we monkeys like to term as "Good" and "Evil". I can say that defining such gets harder and harder the more sophisticated my viewpoint grows. What is Evil? |
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It works like this. When you take in to heart and believe information that on some level you know is erroneous, this can cause a state of cognitive dissonance. This is a state of discomfort that can manifest itself mildly or severely... even causing physical illness. This is an easily manipulated aspect of human psychology. |
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I attended WonderCon 09 and sat in on a number of writing panels and workshops. This was my very first convention of any kind and it reminds me of a thing. Fandom is fearsome. Fandom isn't even a real word yet we all should know it means being a fan and the collective humanity that are fans of any thing. And fan is short for fanatic. Fanatic people are fearsome. This can be a damaging force. I have seen the palpable fear in the eyes of the celebrities selling signatures. I have heard anecdotes from people who have been frightened by the actions of fans. |
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For the record, I do not hate Burning Man. I have no substantial argument with anyone running it, attending it, promoting it, ingesting it, living it, loving it, enduring it, or being annoyed by it. I've made it a target for satire because I felt the timing was right and that it's evolution had earned for it the status of target. I have bought tickets and will likely do so again, it's kind of the ultimate thing you can go do with camping gear and only minimal risk of breaking a limb. |
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Editor's Note: This text has been extracted with permission of the author from trekmovie.com Here is a link to the original article and discussion thread For those who do not know, Mr Gerrold is a writer who has contributed to the Star Trek universe since the 1960's writing what is generally considered to be a beloved episode "The Trouble With Tribbles", amongst other contributions. |
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I call for an indictment of Nancy Grace, and her producer(s)at CNN. The charge: obstruction of justice. Right along with them should be every newspaper editor that lets a headline slide past that insinuates the reporting of a fact when the fact is not concrete and someone's potential guilt is involved. |
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Every Year in the Black Rock Desert in Northwestern Nevada tens of thousands of people gather to recreate and celebrate ephemeral art, exposed skin, body paint, and push the envelope of human tolerance across the board. They call it Burning Man and with a little reading you can see that there's a guy named Larry who fancies himself a figurehead for this shindig but it's never been too clear exactly why or what he does. |
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