User Profile

Here various news we tell, of love and strife,
Of peace and war, health and sickness, death and life,
Of loss and gain, of famine and of store,
Of storms at sea, and travels on the shore,
Of prodigies, and portents seen in air,
Of fires, and plagues, and stars with blazing hair,
Of turns of fortunes, changes in the state,
The fall of fav'rites, projects of the great,
Of old mismangements, taxations new,
All neither wholly false, nor wholly true.

-The Connecticut Bee, circa 1800.

In so far as I have an image in my mind, I picture the Agnostic as a modest man, politely refusing to kneel before any Gods or Icons in which he does not place his complete confidence; while the Atheist, although operating from the same principles, brings a hammer to the event.

-- Julian Comstock: A Story of 22nd Century America, Robert Charles Wilson.

What a vision may offer, and what the prevailing vision of our time emphatically does offer, is a special state of grace for those who believe in it. Those who accept this vision are deemed to be not merely factually correct but morally on a higher plane. Put differently, those who disagree with the prevailing vision are seen as not merely being in error, but in sin. For those who do not have this vision of the world, the anointed and the benighted do not argue on the same moral plane or play by the same cold rules of logic and evidence. The benighted are to be made "aware," to have their "consciousness raised," and the wistful hope is held out that they will "grow." Should the benighted prove recalcitrant, however, then their "mean-spiritedness" must be fought and the "real reasons" behind their arguments and actions exposed. While verbal fashions change, this basic picture of the differential rectitude of the anointed and the benighted has not changed fundamentally in at least two hundred years."

-- The Vision of the Anointed, Thomas Sowell (1995)

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This LiveJournal was started in 2000, following a summer term with a Bolt journal/blog/thing, and has become a clearinghouse of sorts for my thoughts. I started this at age 19, and I'm 28 now - a radically different human being in all facets. Keep this in mind if you decide to read backwards, there's a lot I'm not proud of.

Things you should know about this journal:

* It's rarely updated on its own: This journal has become a catchall for all my writing, from my various blogging endeavors of the moment. You'll know the difference at the bottom of each post, hopefully. Occasionally, I'll post a friendslocked entry - that rarely happens these days.

* I'm very political: I'm a conservative, that makes my thoughts unpopular. I'm not an Obama fan, which means no one likes me on the left, and I'm not a Bush fan, which means no one likes me on the right. I apologise in advance for offending your sensibilities. I don't talk about politics as much as I used to, but it is part of who I am.

* I like weird things: I enjoy indie rock albums that sell fewer than 10,000 copies, children's and young adult literature, exploitation filmmaking, Lovecrafty-type mythology, D&D, and more. I'm a big ol' nerd.

* I tend to post a lot: Generally, at least once a day, often two to three times. This is not a guarantee of posting.

Quick and Dirty Ground Rules:

* Do not delete your comments, especially on political issues: If you're not sure how to phrase something, think longer before posting it. Nothing bothers me more than deleted comments.

* Friending and stuff: If you friend me, I'll most likely friend you back at some point, as long as you say something. I don't friend non-posting journals or sock-puppet serial adders except by special request, which I will almost always grant. If I friend you, I read you, even if I never comment. Quite simple. If you unfriend me, I'll try not to be too hurt, but at least have the common decency to let me know if I've insulted you or something. If you friend me, at least drop a comment and say hi so I know you're there and I can properly introduce myself.

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If you have multiple filters, I'm typically interested in them if you want to have them. I'll let you know otherwise.

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Current Obsessions:

Music: The Dead Weather - Horehound
Book: Julian Comstock - Robert Charles Wilson
Movie: Away We Go
TV: Lost
Game: Red Faction: Guerrilla

Upcoming Shows:

18 August: Works Progress Administration, Tupelo Music Hall, Londonderry, NH

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