“Intellectual” doesn’t just mean “educated,” it also means someone that values thought. Anti-intellectualism is a movement against thought and is one of the primary tools of fascists and totalitarian dictators. Anti-intellectual individuals primarily fall into two camps; they are either people out to control others or they are idiots. Sometimes they’re both. The point is that in order to determine into which camp they fall anti-intellectuals need to be questioned more forcibly on precisely why they don’t want people to think.

The argument, exemplified recently by Samuel Wurzelbacher, a.k.a. “Joe the Plumber,” that gun control led to the Holocaust and other government sponsored atrocities would be amusingly ironic if it wasn’t so frighteningly prevalent. The anti-intellectualism that brought him to fame is a significantly greater factor of how those things occurred than is any measure of gun control.

People are asked for identification when buying decongestants, but no one fears that the government is going to take them away from people that aren’t abusing them. Owning and operating automobiles requires licensing and insurance, but no one is afraid that the government is going to come along and take cars away from people that have not shown themselves to be a danger to others. But even the slightest bit of regulation, monitoring, or accountability in regards to guns, which by definition are WEAPONS and serve no other purpose than to shoot things, is met with howls that everyone’s guns are going to be taken away. No one, except some extremists on the left which are being completely and utterly ignored, is advocating taking away every single gun. That option hasn’t been seriously discussed within my lifetime, it’s not part of the so-called “liberal agenda,” and the only people that think it is are the ones that are truly out of touch.

Taking a step back from that level of extremist reaction, we see that the same people that claim any sort of gun regulation is harmful to lawful guns owners are often the same ones against government provided financial aid to individuals because some people abuse it. The cognitive dissonance at play here is staggering. On one hand they claim the government can’t in any way regulate an elective item because it makes things marginally more difficult for people that want to obtain them, while on the other hand they don’t want to provide aid to anyone that genuinely needs it because some people have abused it. Boiled down further, in one instance they are against inconveniencing the innocent despite the real and present dangers that creates, but in another case they are in support of hurting the innocent to keep the unscrupulous from possibly benefiting.

There is no reasoning with people that are able to so passionately hold onto such incongruous thought patterns. It’s no longer a question of anti-intellectualism but actual non-intellectualism. These people are refusing to think about their own thoughts, and that’s as scary as things get.

I'm still struggling to get around to writing here, I'm typically too sick of looking at a computer to use the one at home.

Tonight we're off to spend time with our friends hooloovoo and celticcowboy68. Tomorrow morning I'm taking my car in for new tires which are definitely needed before winter. Then Bec and I are having breakfast with my mom. After that Bec may be going on a road trip with new friend, Chris, to Toledo, and I'll run errands or goof off. Probably goof off. Tomorrow night we're going over to visit calebbullen at his new apartment to drink and watch horror movies. Then we were planning on visiting habari on Sunday but I don't think we've fully firmed that up yet. Lots of good socializing after a really crappy week at work.

Oh, then Monday there will be the next Pop! Club meeting. They have a website now -- www.popcomicclub.com. Tuesday night I'll probably be playing more of Boderlands with Dave. Wednesday is currently open, but Thursday will have a party of four of us playing Halo 4. Friday I'll be working a half day and may end up going to the Beachland Ballroom with Bec's sister to talk more with them on Bec and mine upcoming commitment ceremony. Then Friday night will be the next Vanity Crash show. I mentioned the last show last entry (showing how long it's been since I've done anything here), but this time I plan on getting dressed up. Finally, that Saturday we have dinner plans with two more friends, skyspirit and ofoghorn. That's as far ahead as I'm looking right now, but somewhere amongst all this I'd like to fit in visting with another friend.

I'm rather shocked at how much I've been socializing, now that I look at it.

Lunch is almost over...

Quite a bit going on lately but I haven't gotten around to much writing.

We went to a highly enjoyable lecture by Lee Harrington and Mo Williams on Wednesday night regarding taboos and boundaries. It was part of their book tour promoting Playing Well With Others, which is still only $1.99 on Amazon for the Kindle version. We bought a hard copy from them there.

Friday we went and saw Vanity Crash at a local bar, they are headed up by a highschool classmate of ours that does some brilliant musical theatre work. I liked him as Hedwig better than the original actor. We ran into a couple of other classmates there and I was told by one that I was more memorable and influential than I realize. OK...

The Barfleet party was a whole lot of fun and we both enjoyed it a great deal. Actually ended up taking yet another old highschool classmate that we recently ran into, at SMART of all places. I think he enjoyed it, we tried to check in reasonably often and he was usually in the middle of a conversation with various people. He volunteered to be the designated driver which I certainly appreciated.

He also downloaded copies of Freakylinks for me. It was a short lived television series in 2000 from the creators of The Blair Witch Project and David S Goyer, and I've been wanting to see it again for years and years and years. And if they ever release it for sale I will definitely pay for it. The quality of the recordings is rough, and some have the ends of the episodes cut off, but it's better than nothing. I'm also glad that I can actually use the media player on the Xbox to view them. Yay, I don't have to watch them on my computer monitor! I'll have to talk more about why I like the series despite its numerous problems, but a lot of it comes down to compassion, which is something you don't expect from a science-fiction/horror series created to compliment with the X-Files timeslot.  

There have been some creative upsets in comics, and I've dropped a number of things. I'm still looking to cut a couple more. But there have also been some really great things and that's what I'd prefer to talk about. Both the Hulk and the Dr. Strange Season One graphic novels were well worth their price. The Transformers comics have been way better than they have any right to be. Boom is putting out some great science fiction series like Hypernaturals and Higher Earth. The relaunches of Glory and Prophet have both been amazing, especially considering their source.

OK, OK, I have to work. I'll be back.

Yesterday was National Coming Out Day, so I think the day after should have something, maybe some reassurance. The problem with it is that there is an unintended level of peer pressure associated with it. Therefore I wanted to say that I think the most important thing is for people to be comfortable with who they are and how they live their life. As long as they aren’t hurting anyone they can do whatever they want, and they can keep it as public or private as they'd like.

But in honor of yesterday, and with my idea for today, I’m going to reveal something: whenever I find out that someone is gay, bi, queer, trans or anything else “non-mainstream” I immediately tend to like them more. Heck, I feel more comfortable and relaxed around them. It’s the “normal” people that make me nervous.

The difference between an excuse for an action and a reason is a sincere apology. It doesn’t matter whether a person just had a bad day, or was drunk, or has depression or another mental issue, they still own their actions and have to take responsibility for them. Any therapist touting that “they separate the problem from the person” is an enabling incompetent that allows people to feel blameless for what they do wrong. People have a conscience for a reason, and they should, no, they NEED to feel bad when they do something wrong.

The takeaway lesson I have is that if I am certain that someone will not react well if I raise a concern, then that’s a sign that the relationship should be broken off. It’s one thing to be concerned that their feelings will be hurt. That’s fair. Nobody really wants to be told that they’ve done something wrong. But there’s a level of reaction that is acceptable. What’s not acceptable is if their reaction to be confronted about their hurtful behavior is to get pouty or pissy for days, possibly even cut off communication “to cool off,” and essentially get angry at the fact that they were told that they hurt someone’s feelings. Not apologize. Not show concern. Get angry. That’s not only immature, that’s abusive, and it should neither be accepted nor tolerated.

This political climate isn’t helping my mood, instead it just reinforces that eloquence outshines honesty. There’s a distinct lack of comprehension skills in the populace. People can lie or misrepresent, hell, they can even say things that are just blatantly wrong, but if they do it with eloquence then people will flock around and declare them brilliant. That, of course, just feeds delusions. Then they end up running for President. And that's why we can't have nice things.

A relationship is not a job.

Oh, relationships need work. Even a stable relationship needs constant monitoring and work to keep it that way. Most trouble arises when partners have different ideas over how much work should be put into the relationship, but every single relationship requires effort. And people that aren’t willing to put in the effort for a relationship shouldn’t expect the rewards.

But what I mean is that people shouldn’t treat relationships like jobs.

Everyone needs a job. Just, flatly, that’s the way it is, everyone needs to have a job. Even someone that is independently wealthy needs to do something with their life, otherwise let’s just kick the fucker off a cliff and take their shit. Of course that means people may end up having jobs they don’t like and doing things they don’t want to do, but them’s the breaks. The good thing is that people have the option to look for a new job while still holding onto that crappy one to fulfill the need of having one.

Can you guess where this is going?

Firstly, people shouldn’t NEED a relationship. If they do, they are being unfair to themselves and anyone they are with. Yes, people should be happier in a relationship than they are out of one, and if they’re not then they have even more problems. But if someone is desperate for a relationship then they are going to end up taking what they can get, which probably isn’t going to be ideal. Everyone has that friend who has been in a string of crappy or even abusive relationships simply because they are afraid to be alone. And if someone is that driven with NEED for a relationship then it is most likely in an effort to find someone to fix them, which never ends well and puts an unreasonable amount of pressure on their partner.

Secondly, people shouldn’t remain in a relationship they don’t like while looking for a new one to replace it. That's fine for a job, but not so good with a relationship. It’s one thing for someone to be working out where they will live and how they will support themself before beaking it off, but it’s another thing to be hunting around for a relationship that they can immediately transition into. That typically ties back to the fear of being alone. And people really need to be comfortable with themselves.

Jobs can suck, but relationships shouldn’t.

New Mexico Gov. Requires Women Seeking Childcare Assistance To Prove They Were ‘Forcibly Raped’

The GOP is getting so self-justified that they are being more obvious about things I've been saying for years. From the same side that is fighting for no abortions under any circumstance comes more and more stringent restrictions for people to get help supporting raising the child. It should be apparent by this point that they are just punishing people for having sex. They are imposing their own religious-based sense of morals on others and it is oppression.

Sure, after the article went out the wording of the proposal was changed, but the fact that it got out like that goes to show their overdeveloped sense of righteousness. The blatant hypocrisy of wanting to give corporations (i.e. folks with money) more freedom while fighting for more and more restrictions on the rights of individuals (i.e. folks without money) should be getting to the point that anyone can recognize it.

Sometimes I have such guilt over things I have no legitimate reason to feel guilt over that you'd think I was raised Catholic. But I wasn't. Hell, my parents aren't even ones that really employ guilt to influence people so I'm not sure what the origin is for this. Either way, it's there. I'm pretty sure that an overdeveloped sense of guilt is one of the leading factors in my depression/anxiety issues. More on that later. And by later I mean eventually. Maybe.

There's been so much shit in my life lately it's sometimes difficult to keep in mind the good. There is good. But I really wish that I had the option to just block some people entirely from my life, you know, like you can on FaceBook. That would be nice. 

Around Cleveland we have oversized guitars set up as art installations, and they periodically swap them out and put new ones up. One of the recent ones is a Superman themed piece.