Oh, That Projection....

Remember when the left couldn't stop panicking over how the Rightwing-Zionist-Neocon- Illuminati- Free Mason Cabal was going to criminalize opposition and throw them all in camps? Funny how leftist accusations seem to serve as templates for leftwing legislation.

I don't think they're gonna throw us re-education centers, but the criminalization cometh.

Hitchcock And The Symphony

Tonight the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra will be screening Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho and providing the soundtrack live. There are cooler things in life. But not many. I'll be jetting over to catch it immediately after work.

Taking A Break From...Well...Just About Everything.

So I've been enjoying the weather. It's been unusually pleasant here in Charm City this summer; typically by this time we're swimming in humidity with temperatures regularly in the 80's and 90's hoping that the drought will end, but this year's been mild and drought free- okay, maybe a little too much rain for my tastes, but you can't win them all.

I took some much needed time off from work, went to a few more ball games, made some (modest) progress on the novel, and pretty much ignored politics. I may be going on a legitimate (read: traveling) vacation in August which will (if it happens) produce another long-ish silence here. However, regular (albeit light) blogging will recommence from here on out. Still no blogging on Sundays or Mondays this summer- unless it's by cell phone which, dude, pain in the rear on my phone, but there will be blog(ging).

There will be no politics until I catch up on what I've missed (so think maybe sometime next week). There will be general interest blogging.

Sorry for not giving you folks a heads up, but burnout exploded in my face all of a sudden. (Seriously, this post is kinda wtf, right? Totally time for time off.) I'll try not to let it happen again.

Largest Movie Screen In U.S. Stops Advertising With Local News Paper

Baltimore is home to Bengies Drive In, which boasts the largest movie screen in the U.S. Bengies has been a Charm City staple since 1956 and continues to draw a capacity crowd. Hilariously, they no longer advertise with the Baltimore Sun because the B.S. is...well...bullshit.

So Pretty

This PC design is hot enough to make me start babbling Tron quotes. "Oh my User."

Tar. Feathers. Rope...Optional.

They can't take us all.

Agent Mulder Was Wrong

It turns out that high-as-a kite wallabies are the degenerate culprits behind Aussie crop circles. No, really.

Doing It Wrong

If one is concerned about the large number of citizens feeling increasingly disenfranchised from their government causing trouble interfering with their right to peaceable assembly might not be the way to get what you want. I'm talking to you, Atlanta Democrats.

Up Next Your Kindergartner's Lemonade Stand

Hey, so the FTC wants to monitor blogs because bloggers sometimes (rarely) get gear or trips or money from people with things to sell in order for a review or coverage or something. Apparently some people keep stuff and some people don't, and some people disclose stuff and some people don't, and then some people expect blogs to be something that they're generally not (better run than a personal journal). So clearly this is something us children need Nanny Government to come in and wipe the drool off of our chins over lest we further degenerate and begin trying to eat gravel or something. I mean, heaven for-fucking-bid people learn to stand on their own two feet and adults are left to act and grow as such.

A Civilized Indictment

Clearly not from me. I tend to be scathing and employ language typically associated with sailors.

However, my friend takes aim the memoir as fiction fad and strikes true.

Most of you folks don't know this, but I'm working on my first novel (fiction). In the world of fiction writing cribbing directly from real life (whether it be yours or someone else's) is fairly common. The extent to which it's done varies from cribbing dialog to characters to events to passing off entire memoirs as fiction. It's also lazy, unimaginative, the antithesis of creative writing, dishonest, contemptible, and cowardly.

Everyone gets their knickers in a twist over fiction as memoir, but at least those lying bastards have talent and imagination. Choosing to employ that talent and imagination as little better than a fucking con-artist, is a gross abuse of those abilities, but hell, at least you have them. On the other hand, if honest to goodness legitimate fiction writers were afforded half the opportunities these pretending vapid wastes of ink receive by mere (I hesitate to call it) virtue of having been transcribed by some reality TV loser star they might not feel the need to malign their creativity.

This is one of many reasons I'm glad that science fiction/fantasy has its own (essentially) exclusive corner of the publishing world.

...But It Frequently Rhymes.

When I first started blogging Iran was in the grip of large- dare I say massive- student protests. There was a lot of excitement not just over there, but in the conservative blogosphere as a whole. Then reality stepped in and the bottom dropped out.

So what's different now? Well for starters we've just witnessed a coup. In that respect either way this thing plays out it's still a game changer.

Additionally those early protests were primarily confined to Iranian students, and while there may be a lot of Iranian students, these are being compared to the 1979 protests which led to the ousting of the Shah.

These protests are like 1979 in another, less encouraging, way: Much like the 1979 protests a number of disparate movements including a strong pro-democracy movement are rallying around a convenient point which- should they actually succeed in placing him in power- would prove just as toxic (if not more so for his seeming rationality) to their goals as their current foe. Like the man said, history's less of a stutterer than it is a terrible poet.