Jopsy's JOurnal of PSYchotic ramblings...

2009-06-03T11:22:00.001-07:00

I read a lot of incendiary stuff over on CrooksandLiars that makes me boil for a minute or two, a sentiment I'm confident is shared by many who visit the site. This latest, however, I find repulsive on a whole new level. If you're interested:

Christianist Group's Billboard Compares Atheism To Murder

Truth in Advertising?

2009-05-29T18:19:00.000-07:00

I've been working on my marketing material for various products that I sell in the 3d virtual world known as Second Life®, and as my usual curious self was wondering "Does Truth in Advertising" apply to me promoting an entirely virtual product?

So I went a-googling, found a nice F.A.Q. on advertising and the Federal Trade Commission.

Which got me thinking... (oh dear) ... Isn't it time the FCC adopted some sort of "Truth in Broadcasting" statute?

Fiction, parody, etc, all are fine, free speech and all. But to knowingly assert or imply something blatantly false, as FACT in a "News" or "Social Commentary" setting? There should be *CONSEQUENCES* for reporting deceptive and unsubstantiated claims and passing them off as substantiated truthful facts. Especially if such 'stories' are likely to influence voters.

They're welcome to continue lying their asses off the government shouldn't have the right to censor them... but if a news agency and the interests it serves are benefiting from the mis-information they disseminate... there should be heavy TAXESor FINES on those activities to balance them out.

It goes without saying which "News" corporations I think would be the least interested in seeing such legislation passed.

Seperate is NOT EQUAL

2009-05-26T12:03:00.000-07:00

"Same-sex couples retain all of the fundamental substantive components encompassed within the constitutional rights of privacy and due process, with the sole (albeit significant) exception of the right to equal access to the designation “marriage,” a term that — for purposes of the California Constitution as it now reads — the people have decreed is to be reserved for an official union between a man and a woman. Although Proposition 8 does diminish the rights of same-sex couples under article I, section 1 in this one respect, it does not have the sweeping constitutional effect suggested by the Attorney General’s argument." -- GEORGE, C.J. Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court

Domestic Partnership is not the same as Marriage with a different name. (from wikipedia)

	Domestic Partnerships	Marriages
Can file without being required to share a residence?	NO	YES
Available to minors with parental consent?	NO	YES
Can be filed without witnesses and not included in public record?	NO	YES
Partners of state employees eligible for the CalPERS long-term care insurance plan?	NO	YES
"Putative Spouse Doctrine" ?	NO	YES

Going Postal

2009-05-14T15:47:00.001-07:00

I've just sent a one page LETTER to the California Supreme Court Justices, who have until June 5th or so to render their opinion of Prop 8. An actual real paper letter. It feels so antiquated... and official.

A week on Harbor Island

2009-05-01T15:29:00.001-07:00

So, despite threat of Swine Influenza... I'm on the non-left coast for the week... at the peach colored house in the middle here:

View Larger Map
The panorama from the back porch:The view from the front porch:

The wildlife out here is something else. "The beach is a buffet... and everyone's on the menu." We could see everything from the Osprey carrying off fish... the dolphins and sharks churning up the surf... the pelicans and ?herons? smacking into the water... pale white ghost crabs scuttling around at night... and the horseshoe crab mating season. (photo borrowed from my cousin Sam).

Tea for 2

2009-04-15T19:49:00.001-07:00

Happy FOX syndicated "TEA bag day". Snort. A few hundred people gathered in Boston... and small groups of loyal FOX ditto-heads around the country. Woot.

Kind of pale in comparison to the 80,000+ that gathered in San Diego in protest to Prop 8 passing and other cities. But anyway.

Neologasm of the day: Astroturf. A false 'grass roots' uprising.

Random rantage: There's a rash of 'pro-(traditional/exclusive)-family" videos appearing lately. Far from the worst but the most infamous of which starts with "A storm is coming..." and goes downhill from there.

Over and over folks are decrying that their religious freedoms are being threatened by gay marriage. Best counter argument I've heard yet:

Some churches WANT to perform same-sex marriage... but LAW forbids it in most states. Now.. whose religious freedoms are under attack here? Really?

Tea bagging

2009-04-03T08:56:00.000-07:00

Apparently there are a bunch of people planning to hold a 'tea party' on April 15 because they object to bailouts and paying taxes. I won't link to the right-wing nutjobs frothing at the mouth over it.... but I will re-post my comment on their follow-up thread:

More than he asked for...

2009-03-25T14:21:00.000-07:00

I'll be nice and not reveal the name of the person who asked me this in Second Life(tm) today. (chat posted without permission from the other party).

From "A curious resident": Heya jopsy, if your not busy, can you make a script for me, im to lazy to figure it out myself atm. If you can, all i want is it to generate keys starting from NULL_KEY to all z's. Not that hard but i can't think of a way to script it to change all the places of the key, and yea, all keys range from 0 to z each letter.
oh, and it must start at the end of the key and work it's way back to the start (end to index 0)

TRANSLATION: I want the secret unique name for EVERYTHING in Second Life, and every possible name for content that hasn't yet been created too. Every image/texture, person, group, object, sound clip, ... everything. (I'm guessing he wants this so he browse through other people's content and use it without their permission)

I initially replied with: May I ask what you intend to do with these keys?

Regardless of what he replies with... this is the answer he's about to get:

For starters... The list you're asking for is about 10 billion times larger than necessary. (Digits in keys only go up to F, not to Z)

Since each digit has 16 possible digits, and there's 32 digits, your list will have 16^32 keys in it, easy math.

Of course, 16^32, is just a simple, non-scary way of saying: 340,282,366,920,938,463,463,374,607,431,768,211,456
(that's more than 340 "Undecillion" keys. I had to look the word up, actually.)

If you have 100 scripts, each generating 100 keys every second... your list will be done in 107,902,830,708,060 BILLION CENTURIES.

On the positive side, after we've left Earth and it's been consumed by our sun after it goes supernova, maybe we'll have technology that will store that much data.

So anyway. You still want that script?

(I could have just said "no", but where's the fun in that.)

P.S. He replied... and is trying to write something so that he obtain a resident's key from their name. (which is actually probably the only partially legit possible use for something like this.) I softened the message slight upon delivery. ;)

Pillar of Salt

2009-03-18T19:39:00.000-07:00

I'm no biblical scholar... but I recognize exaggeration and cover-up when I see it.

The story of Lot in Genesis (wikipedia) is about the nephew of Abraham. Because of quarrels between Abraham's and Lot's shepards, Lot moves his family and business to Zoar (which is soon destroyed along Sodom & Gomorrah and two other cities). Lot persuades angels to spend the night in his house instead of on the street... and when the depraved of the town came to his door to 'meet' (original word sometimes translates as 'rape' apparent) the angels... Lot offers them his daughters instead. The townsfolk weren't interested. Hmm. In thanks, the angels warn Lot the city would be destroyed, and they should flee and not look back. He flees with his two daughters and wife. The wife looks back, turns to pillar of salt. Later his daughters get their father drunk, sleep with him and get pregnant, giving birth to sons. Sons that later become patriarchs of the nations of Moab and Ammon.

Um. Riiiiiiight.

How about this interpretation:

Lot moves into a new town and sets up business pimping out attractive young men and women. Not content with that, he and his hustlers engaged in theft and other illicit activities. Conflict and trouble with the authorities soon follows. Lot's crew sets fire the town and escapes during the chaos. There likely was no wife to turn into a pillar of salt. Lot retires in the mountains with two of his prostitutes. The greedy young hustlers decide to move on to another city, where the cycle of theft and arson continues until they're caught or disband.

And that bit about Lot's daughters' incest fathering the patriarchs of Moab and Ammon? Just mudslinging against neighbor nations.

In the news

2009-03-05T15:16:00.001-08:00

I couldn't watch the whole thing, it was just awful.

California Supreme Court appears likely to uphold gay marriage ban - from the Mercury News - in brief, Ken Star (defending prop 8) was slick and articulate.... Christoper Krueger, the senior deputy assistant attorney general (challenging prop 8) was incoherent and acting like he'd never spoke in public before.

Justice Joyce Kennard nailed why they'll likely not decide in favor of the challenge: "opponents of the measure would have the court choose between 'two rights ... the inalienable right to marry and the right of the people to change the constitution as they see fit"

Which goads me to ask, what the fricking hell do we have justices for if they will not stand up against changes to law and constitution that are UNJUST.

Without the direct involvement of the judicial branch of government, the democratic process is no better than a lynch mob with a paper trail.

Magic and Betrayal

2009-03-03T13:43:00.000-08:00

Bear with me as I bring this up... again... to say something a little different.

CA's supreme court is in the process of reviewing the legality of Prop 8... and my mind is drawn back to the topic.

First off, a very minor point, I marvel at the 'magic trick' being pulled by the dogmatic types. They cry out that their religious freedoms are being threatened... and demand censorship of all things gay. Imposing religious oppression is not one of the freedoms enshrined in the constitution last I checked.

The Gung-ho Prop 8 supporters are fighting to preserve their right to pretend that homosexuality is some exotic addictive sinful vice like heroin. The moderates, (people that likely voted for Prop 8 on a whim), are more likely to feel that they just don't want homosexuality paraded about in front of children. (I wouldn't want children seeing heterosexuality in practice either.)

Ask any straight guy what they think of two guys having sex, and they'll probably look disgusted. A reaction not unlike the one you'd get if you asked them what they think of their own aging parents having sex, actually. Funny that.

The cornerstone issue for me is this: Appeasing the homophobes by pretending to be straight is wrong.

Pretending is, at best, a temporary thing. The truth inevitably comes out. When it does, people feel betrayed, lied to, respect and trust severed, and in some cases marriages ruined.) The usual daytime soap drama... but with real lives destroyed instead.

In a world where people talk freely about their wives or husbands... gays remain silent and pretend to be single (if they aren't)... or claim to have opposite-sex partner (if they don't). Lying to friends, family, co-workers puts one constantly at risk of exposure, blackmail, extortion... even attack and retribution.

Not to mention the self-loathing that results in leading a duplicitous life.

The lying and betrayal of trust done by those that feel they must pretend to be normal is (in my strongly held opinion) THE root cause for all the other self-destructive things attributed to the so-called "gay lifestyle".

So, pretending that sexual orientation is "no one's business"... or relying on "Don't ask don't tell" merely makes matters worse, not just for gays but for the people who will some day find out they were lied to.

And... without State and Federal recognition of gay marriage, people will be compelled to lie to be successful in society... and others will continue to have the "Freedom" to blackmail and attack them merely for being different.

Not necessarily the kinds of freedoms our founding fathers had in mind either.

/mute ... /ignore ... /ban4life

2009-01-08T12:57:00.000-08:00

Firefox, or Google's Chrome browser need a plug in that silently omits any blog posting that includes any reference to Ann Coulter or Bill O'Reilly. (like this post for example)

So tired of blog-o-sphere being regularly swamped with the latest outrage from these boring old hate-mongers. I'd add Kathy Griffin to the list of negative-attention-whores... but she delivers 'the funny' at least sometimes.

The Globlal WARming Hoax

2008-12-18T16:08:00.001-08:00

Stumbled across some random post stating that arctic melting is proceeding faster than scientists predicted, and saw, rather to my surprise... number of 'global warming' denier trolls spewing illogical irrelevant drivel in response. Are these people paid to spread doubt? Is it some religious conviction that drives them? Are they so enamored of their hummers and top-of-the-food-chain wasteful consumerist habits that they fear eco-friendly policies will threaten their freedom to trash the planet?

Who knows.

To use an analogy... it isn't the driving around at unsafe speeds that kills you... it's the loss of control and the collision with an unavoidable object.

The climate IS changing, and rapidly. Ice that has been carbon dated back centuries ago is melting away, this isn't some "natural cycle" or that ice would have melted off in a previous cycle and wouldn't be there to measure today.

The question isn't "are we causing this" it's "where are things going at this rate?"

As the global climate begins to spin out of control, are there big nasty immovable obstacles it's going to run into? What kind of planet are we going to have 50 years from now? How many stronger storms and record extremes can we withstand before it starts causing problems for the industries that feed the rest of us?

And the deniers? Probably conservative seniors who still believe they'll see The Rapture before they kick the bucket, so who don't care if the world burns.

If I ran the world... Deniers would be denied air conditioning in the summer. See if that gets them to change their tune.

Continental Divide

2008-12-17T19:27:00.000-08:00

Ran into a little surprize on my way back to San Diego today... *SNOW* Whee!

Recent Citings...

2008-12-04T04:20:00.000-08:00

My new device in SecondLife had a wonderful mention on the NPIRL blog this week...

And I was intereviewed for a very an extremely flattering French article at Territoire-Digital.com (Machine-translated English Version)

(and even if you don't care much about SecondLife, the pics on both are very nicely done and worth a peek =)

De-B8

2008-11-25T08:40:00.000-08:00

At last. This has been brewing for a while, and I hope this will be my last rant on Prop 8. For now.

My open letter to Prop 8 supporters (and opponents as well):

Please tell me who is the man and the woman in this line from a very popular 80's song:

I can't stand this indecision, married with a lack of vision.
Everybody wants to rule the world...

Tears for Fears (1985)

Then, GOOGLE for "married it to" and try answering the same question for the thousands of pages you see "married" used in regards to concepts, technology, music, food, ideologies and more.

The term "marriage" is OBVIOUSLY not limited to humans. It is a term, like "mixing" "adding" or "combining" that has a clear and specific meaning, for which no other word is adequate.

And you ... you flagrant hypocrites ... YOU accuse US of attempting to re-define "marriage"?

When it is YOU, running around like crazy doomsday prophets, screaming "Only 1 man and 1 woman!" You act as if that one statistically dominant characteristic of marriage is MORE important then the love, the oaths of fidelity, the commitment, the joining of two together for life, and all the many other aspects of marriage.

This is like trying to define "human" as "only bipeds with opposable thumbs". Yes, the vast majority are lucky to fit that definition. Your pathetic definition does not make the unlucky "non-human". If you are going to re-define things like crazy people, you might as well believe that "Socrates is a dog" and wash your hands of logic and reason entirely.

And, speaking of definitions, have you even bothered to check a dictionary lately? Here, try http://www.merriam-webster.com, or http://dictinary.com Go on, read the ENTIRE definition. I'll wait.

So anyway...

Congratulations. You have successfully crammed your sanctimonious thumbs into the eyes of the government of the State of California, effectively blinding it so that it can no longer recognize gay marriage, even though it is clearly standing right there in plain sight.

You've even fooled many of the citizens into thinking that gay marriage requires state recognition.

I say: IT DOES NOT.

In this country, we are guaranteed Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Religion. Despite your attempts to destroy the beliefs of nearly half the voters in California, you can NOT take away:

Our right to SAY that we are married.

Our right to BELIEVE that we are married.

Our right to LIVE as married couples.

Some day the state will recover from the McCarthist Freedom-Destroying attack that left it blinded to reality. Until then...

We may not be recognized by the state.

But we will be HEARD until we are SEEN.

Anti-8 Rally

2008-11-15T14:41:00.000-08:00

Mr.-Flier-Destroyer failed in his mission to avert today's rally.

My camera phone is tragic... these shots don't properly convey the magnitude of the march. It stretched from the north end of Balboa Park to downtown, (2-3 miles). It was packed with chanters of "What do we want? Equal Rights! When do we want it? Right now!" and "Gay, Straight, Black, White, Marriage is a Civil Right!".

I saw less than five Yes-On-8 counter-protesters along the route. Volunteers successfully encouraged the marchers to just ignore them... (though there was this nine year old girl spoiling for a confrontation... but her parents reigned her in).

I jumped out of the parade a few times to get a good vantage point, and could see neither the head nor the tail of the procession. Of the people I could see, I would guess around 80,000, with unknown more further ahead and behind. And, yes, there were many black people marching with us.

This had none of the flamboyance of a pride parade, the mood was much more serious.

The message was clear: We believe that America is about Justice and Liberty for ALL.
.

Yet more prop 8 hate.

2008-11-13T16:26:00.000-08:00

(no this isn't my last rant as promised in the previous post, that's still brewing).

I was physically assaulted (pushed, grabbed and shoved) today by some un-Christ-like fundie freak.

I had seen him tearing down rally flier after rally flier, and got fed up with it, so I stood between him and one of the fliers. Clearly he interpreted that as an attack and responded physically.

The fliers are for the national Protest Prop 8 rally this coming Saturday. (more on that at: http://protest8sandiego.wordpress.com/)

Anyone that destroys the just freedoms and liberties of others...
deserve to have their own freedoms and liberties revoked.

Taxing their intolerant churches would be an excellent response.

Prop 8

2008-11-05T07:40:00.000-08:00

#&$##*%$*%#$&$#.

So close, and yet.

This isn't over.... and I have one more *major* Prop 8 rant coming after this one.

I still have hope that some day this piece of ... religious bigotry will be erased. Unfortunately we have to wait for most of the selfish, petty & closed-minded to die of old age.

Way to go people. Screw "Live and let live". Forget "Thou shalt not judge." Embrace "Hate thy neighbor" and save the children from your imaginary harms.

As if same gender parents is worse than being a child of divorce. Prop 8 perpetuates the need for conservative gay Californians to LIE and let themselves be wrongly trapped in straight marriages. Marriages that often fail years later.

I strongly believe that Churches deserve to lose their tax exempt status for pushing Prop 8.

Let that be next election's Prop 8, I'll rally for it.

8 = H8

2008-10-20T11:42:00.000-07:00

Some random thoughts on Prop 8, the "marriage = 1 man + 1 woman, only" amendment to the California Constitution.

1) It is both sad and funny that this "Conservative Christian" initiative is being pushed by groups of people that statistically have HIGHER divorce rates than the educated/liberal/left people that oppose it.

2) Prop 8, in my opinion, is a massive violation of the 1st amendment:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances

3) If marriage were only about sex, we'd call them honeymoons instead. Sex is a small part of marriage. It's about love, commitment, trust/fidelity, support, companionship/partnership, stability and growth. It is about society and government having recognition and respect for two people who have publicly declared that they have joined together, both legally and financially, with the goal of being together for life, and, if their beliefs support it, eternally.

4) Jesus warns that the kingdom of heaven does not await for people that engage in self-destructively immoderate behaviors like: pride, envy, drink, sex, greed, rage, idolatry, fraud, dishonesty, violence, cruelty, arrogance, folly, pandering, prostitution, hatred, ambition, discord, and the like.

A human is less likely to lose himself or herself in 'wicked' behavior when he is actively participating in a committed, caring and loving partnership, with a spouse that guides and relies upon him (or her). Because of this, I really do believe that Jesus may have had some essentially "pro-gay marriage" comments... but they were either omitted or edited out of the bible by people who were not ready to accept such unfashionable ideas.

"My Friends"

2008-10-13T16:42:00.000-07:00

Time once again for "Fun with Photoshop" (click image to enlarge)

Ethereal Slate

2008-10-12T13:19:00.000-07:00

Second Life update: A recent land deal with a virtual neighbor to my north, carefully co-ordinated with my virtual land trust 'silent partner' has concluded successfully, which has slightly more than doubled the territory where my creative impulses can run wild.

An excellent write up of the acquisition event (with snapshots!) is available at the Not Possible In Real Life Blog, courtesy of the incomparable Bettina Tizzy. =)

And further details at Prokofy Neva's "Second Thoughts" blog.

This purchase is certainly a non-trivial commitment... but one I'm happy with.

Religulous

2008-10-10T22:35:00.000-07:00

Saw it. Funny... nothing new to me though. I've long been an Apostle of Uncertainty after all.

Bill's message kinda boils down to "This world isn't big enough for both Religion and WMDs". And neither one is likely to go away peacefully. He calls to the 16% of us "nonreligious" types to step up and get involved. (Shades of "We are all Indpendent!" there.)

And just how would a "Global War on Ignorance & Superstition" play out? Badly, of course.

As far as I can tell, Atheists place a HIGHER value on human life, especially their own. If there is no afterlife or re-incarnation, this one life is all each of us get. No do-overs, no 70 virgins, no St. Peter & the Pearly Gates, just compost filled with preservatives and no noble self-sacrifice can make that inevitability seem any more pretty.

No "Army of Reason" can survive long against the legions of people willing to kill and die for old words in old books. To have a fighting chance, they would have to pick up the tools of the enemy: To believe in their purpose so fervently that they're willing to kill and die for it. Sadly, we're past the point where we can safely fight fire with fire.

As a species and a planet, we're doomed.

There will always be people that will abuse belief to get others to fight for them, and we, as a society, glorify the instigators that are on "our side" and demonize the ones on "that side". When instead we should have a zero tolerance towards those that promote any kind of violence at all. We should collectively shun them, ignore them, disassociate ourselves with them. Of course, both sides of a conflict need to do that or it doesn't work. Which is why it never will.

Prop 8

2008-10-08T13:16:00.000-07:00

Two of the best video's I've seen against Prop 8:

The Funny One:

The Serious One, which speaks directly to those "party line" types that are most likely to vote *for* Prop 8:

Debait

2008-10-07T21:39:00.000-07:00

What a painful debate. The more I watch McCain the less I like him.