Independence

My friends, today we celebrate independence.

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Two-hundred and thirty-three years ago, the United States declared their independence from the British Empire.

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Just less than a day ago, Alaska realized its independence from Sarah Palin.

Unproductive Escalations

This evening I realized that this is the last day of June and I've only posted six times this month - a disgraceful output to say the least - especially given that it's summer! I began looking over posts I had never finished and published - writing saved as draft material on Blogger. The following was written on March 19th:

For over an hour now I have been reading many of the short, amusing and sad anecdotes that are posted on the site http://www.fmylife.com/. As might be gathered from the site's name, it does have obscenities and the stories within cover a wide range of topics, but anyone could find at least a few of the stories worth the reading, whether for a laugh, some advice, or a view on how stupid people really can be. The purpose of the site is to allow people to lament unfortunate and unusual occurances in their life in punchline form, and all those who read the posting input their opinion as to whether the misfortune was something the person deserved, or whether they deserve pity for their life being so "f-ed". The vast array of stories on the site could spark dozens of various blog posts: For many I just have to say Think before you act! and shake my head and sigh. Many people could obviously be a lot more diplomatic. Rudeness is a common theme, and there are a few amusing stories where being rude in a different language backfires when the person being talked about knows the tongue. Honestly there are many aspects to different stories by which I'm totally surprised. A few times I was just wowed: I didn't even know people acted that way!

For example:

Today, I went to my guidance counselor and told her how I'd been fascinated with space since I was 12, had read about the universe and everything, and how I want to be an astrologist when I grow up. She stared at me for a second, before saying, "But you're... stupid."

I suppose I've heard similar things specific to the counseling profession... Apparently my uncle was told he only had a future in the military or something like that. I don't remember what my dad's supposed future was, but you can be sure he didn't follow it. Regardless, I'd kind of like to back up from all the various misfortunes one can find in daily life and examine one tiny thing: girls and their self-image.

Now, it may seem at this point that this blogger has just set himself an insurmountable and herculean task. Perhaps I have. I would however like to just share one more "FML" anecdote:

Today, all of my friends and teachers asked me what was wrong because I looked sad and tired. One kid even said that I looked like "an abused housewife the day after." I was fine. It was the first time I went to school without wearing any makeup.

To me, that's pretty disturbing. In the grand scheme of things, of course, the popularity of cosmetic application is not a serious issue. I do believe, however, that it is important to examine the kind of false morals that culture creates - and it may be good to see how sometimes competition (and pushing each other to go farther) really leads us nowhere, or sometimes into an even worse condition.

What was my planned direction for this unfinished post? Unfortunately I can't be sure. I can however attempt to finish out my thoughts and add to them a few other points. Without further ado, I will do that now.

-

The application of cosmetics is not all that important a social issue. I don't mind that people use it, and I realize that most people are not obsessed or overly occupied with such things. I do still believe, however, it is a very good example of an unnecessary social norm - the result of an unproductive escalation - an arms race! (in a largely unthreatening realm of activity). If no one wore cosmetics, it seems very likely that people would love each other the way they look naturally, without anyone having to deal with the costs in time and silver for such products. Cosmetics, however, have a very long history, and their spread to the mainstream created powerful pressures: females feel it necessary to make themselves look "better" - many from a young age - and many males in turn come to expect this effort and exertion. Is society the better for it? Hardly. The cosmetics industry and the practice of its application are of course no great threats to society, and I'm sure it "creates jobs" and "impresses men" and makes "artistic statements" all those wonderful things... but think of all the human energy involved there! I'm sure I've made many references to facts on this site before, but near the bottom of the linked-to page you may notice the 1998 statistic that 8 billion dollars were spent on cosmetics in the United States in that year. It was estimated that an additional 6 billion dollars in spending could have ensured universal basic education. Talk about priorities.

I, however, will cease my talk of makeup. Think about the other "arms races" that have occurred in society - besides the obvious state of the world's nuclear armament. In its definition of "the theory that an increasing consumption of goods is economically desirable," the strengthening of consumerism as a whole in our society has been a huge but far more gradual and of course much more complicated example of such escalation. People these days want and expect far more products than in the past. Many of these products improve our lives in certain ways, of course, but some absolutely do not. Are these excesses inevitable? worth the results? or are they more unnecessary results of slippery slopes and unproductive escalations? Think about all the waste in our society: What have been its causes?

There's no way a lone blogger could single-handedly analyze all such causes... so I think I can be satisfied with just one small solution: look for the results of our societies many unproductive escalations - and when you can, challenge them - in your own life, for your own self, and maybe you'll better the world in a small, simple, undeniably non-conformist way.

Death

Little more than a week ago, a nineteen-year-old committed suicide in Ketchikan, Alaska. He was the second suicide here in just a few months, but more than that, he was an upstanding young man, intelligent student, valedictorian of Kayhi's class of 2008, a guy with a future - and a friend. Who knows how many classes I had with him before he graduated last year - two, three, I don't know. We never talked all that much, but in all the time I spent around him, I never saw him cause a problem for anyone. If there were two simple things that anyone could see in him, they were that he was funny, and that he was nice. Nothing more.

I remember near the close of my junior year after he had found out he had to write a speech for graduation - much the same way I would the year after. I think I remember seeing him hand in his speech for review to Mrs. Bowlen - all handwritten. The story goes that he wrote it all totally at the last minute - and then, of course, his speaking at graduation was great. He was someone I never could have expected to have so short a life - and I never could have imagined he'd end it himself.

I think most people will have moments in their lives of deep despair - moments that they really have to pull themselves through. I know I've had one or two of those darkest moments, and although I couldn't say "I've seriously contemplated suicide," I don't find it unthinkable at all that people do at times have such thoughts. When you fall into that pit, though, you simply have to find your way out.

There are perhaps situations in which perhaps a hastened death may be the best way - when you know for certain the inevitability of mortality sits just around the corner, but you know that turning that corner will cause you unimaginably needless pain. Such tragedies are very rare, however, and in my writing on euthanasia previously I stated emphatically that it seems no standardized government policy making such action legal could make it rare enough to leave our society unscathed. Wishing for death is a feeling we all can experience, but for almost every one of us, it is something we can never fulfill without violating our very nature.

Last Wednesday I attended the memorial service for my parted schoolmate. It was a well-conducted and meaningful event, and it touched me very much. In a letter from his immediate family read aloud to those assembled there a hint of what might have been the ever-so-unsatisfactory cause of this tragedy. It referred to a serious problem the young man was having involving possible family embarassment or something similar to that. I have no idea what such a problem might have been, but his family emphasized of course that the choice he made was the wrong one - one that has saddened everyone his life had touched and will forever change the lives of many - none moreso than his own.

In law we find the element of consent is present in many issues. When we consent to another taking a possession of ours, of course, their action is not theft. Without consent, sexual activity becomes assault - or rape. But when it comes to our very lives, the law and I are in agreement that consent has no part to play. When a person is not dying, when you know they have a future, it will always be unconscionable to end their life, even if they beg you to do it. It will always be murder. And when the perpetrator and victim are one in the same - that will always be an incomprehensible tragedy.

No matter what may happen to us after death, the futures of each and every human on this planet are invaluable. For all I know, I may live again a thousand times, reincarnated in a thousand different forms. But I will hedge my bets. I plan on making the most of my future. Cutting life short cuts your chances at everything. Death may be a mystery, but one thing about it is certain: Dying is the destruction of possibility, death its absence. Possibility is the essence of life.

Conservapedia Ban Follow-Up

Obviously this is not too important a topic, nor one on which to linger, but I thought that if any readers were at all amused by the events occurring in this post, they would surely be amused with the continuance of the story.

Almost immediately following my writing of the afore-linked-to-post, I wrote the following email to the administrator on Conservapedia responsible for my ban. (Note my utterly shameless concilliatory writing.)

Dear "TK,"

I have been a member of Conservapedia for a long time. I am a regular visitor of the site and an occasional contributor to many different entries.

A few times during my membership I have criticized news items on the main page. Just yesterday, I decided to do so again regarding what I saw as an innappropriate and ignorant news item on the four Uyghur men released from Guantanamo Bay. The article and the item on Conservapedia seemed to me to make the statement that injustice elsewhere in the world (China) justifies the clearly unjustifiable violations of these men's rights by the United States. Regardless of our corresponding stands on the incarceration of enemy combatants, it's been reported that most of the seventeen Uyghur men sent to Guantanamo in 2001 were determined to not even be enemy combatants as long ago as 2005, so it is particularly frustrating to me that only four have now been released and that Conservapedia (a site that as I said I value and visit very much) would seemingly make so light of their plight.

With this frustration it seems that I was overly sarcastic in my criticism. Nevertheless, I was very surprised to see this today:

Your user name or IP address has been blocked.

The block was made by TK. The reason given is Trolling / Liberal Trolling.

Start of block: 20:42, 16 June 2009

Expiry of block: infinite

Intended blockee: Rockthecasbah

You can contact TK or another administrator to discuss the block. You cannot use the 'e-mail this user' feature unless a valid e-mail address is specified in your account preferences and you have not been blocked from using it. Your current IP address is 206.223.222.68, and the block ID is #54695. Please include all above details in any queries you make.

TK, I am not a common troll. I'm not even an uncommon one. I would very much appreciate it if you removed this block so that I can continue to contribute to the Conservapedia community.

Thank you very much.

Peter Stanton ("Rockthecasbah")

This was the response:

"Been reported" should never be confused with facts, Peter.

You are making an illogical leap, deciding that how you interpret a news item, makes it factual, or even that others would draw the same (wrong) conclusion you did.

You also state a false premise about their supposed rights. People picked up in a battlefield environment, carrying weapons, are not "innocent" by any conventional standard.

In any event, we are an encyclopedia of a political and religious bent you disagree with. We have no obligation, moral or otherwise, to provide you or anyone else, a platform to disagree. Thinking that we do, insisting that you be heard, is illogical.

--TK

This was my reply:

Dear "TK,"

Firstly, we are not on a first-name basis. The fact that you have decided not to communicate with me as your actual self seems to indicate either a lapse in common civility or a desire to continue hiding behind your position in your own delusional internet realm. (I'm going to assume it's the latter.) Obviously you are quite satisfied with the power you have in that little world of yours, and I will leave you to it.

Your second statement in this email is so absolutely hypocritical I can't even bring myself to explain it to you. And the rest... well, I guess it's just what you have to do to keep your little world pure.

Best wishes,

Peter Stanton ("Rockthecasbah")

Unsurprisingly, there was no response.

Permanently Blocked By Conservapedia

As you may or may not know, I have been a visitor and contributor to the site Conservapedia for quite some time. In many ways, the site is an abominable example of all that is wrong with those who will do all they can to wrap themselves in so many lies that they can no longer differentiate their own pitiful reality from the truth. It is a wellspring of hatred and ignorance, and in many cases absolutely disgusting.

Now don't get me wrong - I am not talking about conservatives. There's no way I think they are "abominable" or living in a "pitiful reality" or wrapping themselves in lies or anything like that. None of what I said above is directed at the many people who are more cautious about changes in our society. Conservapedia, which claims to represent "conservatives," is in fact a conglomiration of radical and senseless individuals devoted to attacking all they see as "liberal" (which is far more than you could ever imagine), including Wikipedia, public schools, "socialism," Hollywood, everything relating to the Democratic party, evolution, atheism, everything that isn't Christian (or seen by them as Christian)... you name it. They also promote such wonderful things as young earth creationism - the idea that the earth is in fact only six thousand years old because the Bible says so. And then they collect "evidence" that supposedly proves such things - and the post it on this site that they call an encyclopedia!

Nonetheless, I have been a registered member of this site for quite some time, largely in the effort to better understand such lunacy. (It has been a very difficult task.) I've contributed to the site many times on entries having little to do with the site's agenda - from additions to Alaska and Ketchikan to grammar corrections on subjects I know little about. Despite all I've said about the site and it's leading denizens, there is still some occaisional good information to be found there - although Wikipedia of course will have many times as much information on any subject Conservapedia covers, and it covers a far larger range of subjects. The original, largely unbiased and vastly superior online encyclopedia has nearly three million English articles. Conservapedia barely has one percent of that number of entries.

Today, however, my account has been permanently blocked from Conservapedia. Here's what I'm shown when I try to edit a page:

The reason given is Trolling / Liberal Trolling.

Start of block: 20:42, 16 June 2009

Expiry of block: infinite

Intended blockee: Rockthecasbah

Why is this? Why was I blocked from a wiki of which I am a frequent visitor and genuine contributor? Let's see:

A day or two ago, the following showed up in Conservapedia's "In the News" section.

Fox New's Catherine Herridge traveled to Bermuda to meet the four Chinese Muslim Uighurs released from Guantanamo Bay and she elicited from them that living in China is worse than life at Guantanamo. Talking to them through an interpreter, Herridge reported she "asked which was worse: Life at Gitmo versus China?" The interpreter relayed: "Of course it's China. There's no guarantee for human rights there." (Link)

Yes. Right. It's perfectly ok that these four men were abducted and held without reason for seven years in prison - because, of course, they would have been worse off in China. Here's what I said on the Talk for the Main Page:

The Stupidity of Spin: Gitmo for Men Ok Because China Was Worse

The U.S. has been accepting fewer immigrants for asylum for years now, so I would just love it if we did more to accept people from troubled areas like Xinjiang - one of the most oppressed regions in China (along with Tibet) - which is where I'm sure these four Uyghur men at Guantanamo must have lived.

But you know, I still just don't think the best way to do that is with extraordinary rendition and imprisonment without charge. Know what I mean?

Rockthecasbah 20:15, 16 June 2009 (EDT)

Of course, that isn't even the whole story. What I didn't know until doing my research and what probably no one on Conservapedia even knows (especially whoever put up the "news item") is this:

Before 2001, seventeen Uyghur Muslim men fled the Xinjiang autonomous region of China - likely because of the oppressive rule of their people there by the Chinese government. Unfortunately, they fled to Afghanistan, so when the U.S. invasion began they decided to move again - to Pakistan. They were detained in Pakistan and then the U.S. decided they should go to Guantanamo. Seventeen bearded Muslim men fleeing Afghanistan have got to be Taliban, right?

Even now, only four of the men have been released and are currently in the Bahamas. Thirteen are still imprisoned without charge and without reason. Radio Free Asia reports that most of the seventeen were determined more than four years ago to not have been "enemy combatants" - which is the bullshit term used to justify our unjustifiable incarcerations in the first place! My heart really goes out to these men, and although living under the Chinese was probably very oppressive compared to many other types of imprisonment, there's no way that fact should be used as some sort of reasoning proving that our illegal incarcerations of people like this is ok.

So - I have been blocked "infinitely" from a website to which I have made countless contributions because I had the audacity to sarcastically criticize a "news item" they posted which is so incredibly stupid as to never merit another thought from me or anyone else.

The absence of freedom elsewhere in the world does not justify our nation in violating our own principles of freedom and justice. It's as simple as that.