The blog from hell - Latest Comments

Re: How to get a weapon or a bomb onto an airplane

sa — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 12:50:59 -0000

allah akbar

Re: Affirmative Refraction: on forgiving the Afrikaners for appartheid.

A.J. Venter (silentcoder) — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 09:24:31 -0000

That is completely and utterly irrelevant to the topic of this post. Zuma's abilities and the quality of the ANC government, which problems are of their own making and which caused by appartheid and how well they can fix either has absolutely NOTHING to do with the topic under discussion.

So the "propaganda" you are talking about, doesn't apply because that isn't what I'm talking about. I was talking about forgiveness. I was talking about the average South African's perception of Afrikaners.

It's a post about where Afrikaners stand today, how we dealt with what we did in the past, and how the public perceives us as a result.
It has nothing, whatsoever, to do with politics. This is a discussion of philosophy and history - NOT politics.

Re: Affirmative Refraction: on forgiving the Afrikaners for appartheid.

DouglassMitchell — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 22:34:32 -0000

Like really? Actually Apartheid was a basket of flowers.

Get in line behind the rest of the people climbing over each other blaming Operation Savannah Afrikaners for Zuma's Problems, or the NSDAP for the Israeli antagonism of the Arabs.

Next time some-one starts playing the oppression violin and shedding crocodile tears just, look around man. 15 Million people died in the Russian civil war, and no-one even brings it up.

Re: Why (I think) DDO cannot really compete with WoW.

Kurios — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 09:01:29 -0000

Wrathgate aftermath for Horde...Queen Red Dragon asks you to take Saurfang the Younger's armor back to his father (who is main war advisor for the newly promoted --and not yet completely batshit crazy-- Garrosh Hellscream)...then go with Thrall and the undead Queen Sylvanas to retake Undercity from the betrayers and punish them(one of whom was a demon thought to be the right hand of the queen)

Re: Affirmative Refraction: on forgiving the Afrikaners for appartheid.

A.J. Venter (silentcoder) — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 05:07:50 -0000

What propaganda ? I just wrote down what I see around me. If there is any propaganda here -then I am the creator, not the victim.

But your argument is hogwash. "What I did isn't as bad as what somebody else did" is not an excuse. I also never said appartheid was genocide - nobody did - but it WAS a crime against humanity.

Re: Affirmative Refraction: on forgiving the Afrikaners for appartheid.

DouglassMitchell — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 21:24:42 -0000

Actually, you are the victim of propaganda. Lets name names, when it comes to genocide:

Dresden. Nagasaki. Damour. North Kivu. Ukraine. Cambodia.
Was there something essentially wrong with The Germans or the South Africans? perhaps something ethnically conceived?

The 20th Century was a horrible place for the people of the world, Your masochism might find a better place in the bedroom, player.

Re: Five things non-smokers need to realize about smokers

Excuses — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 10:43:48 -0000

Weak willed. If you smoke you are a weak willed individual who needs to self harm by smoking this shit and then telling youself that it's relaxing. Go fuck yourself. If you want to kill yourself by smoking because you're too weak willed to fucking QUIT then fuck you.

Re: The major lies of vegan/vegetarian pseudoscience.

cristian — Mon, 03 Jun 2013 16:22:04 -0000

6 children have died of starvation on the healthy vegan diet.
http://naturalhygienesociety.o...
And don't think for a second that they will not disregard these deaths, based on scientific evidence.

Re: Affirmative Refraction: on forgiving the Afrikaners for appartheid.

Stacey Walter — Mon, 27 May 2013 04:09:04 -0000

Agreed. It is the most infuriating thing trying to explain this to certain people. The need to be right can blind people to a point where they just lose all sense of logic.

Re: Five things non-smokers need to realize about smokers

dogssuck — Sat, 25 May 2013 21:49:12 -0000

Or you can not have a disgusting creature live in your place and not have to worry about it (that includes smokers and those disgusting fucking pussy whipped things called dogs).

Dogs smell bad, they are bitches who are so dependent on their owners, they whimper like bitches, they're incredibly un-agile, and terrible hunters with barely any instinct.

Re: Five things non-smokers need to realize about smokers

boss — Sat, 25 May 2013 21:45:33 -0000

You dumb fucking cunt. If I own a property that I want to rent out, why the hell should I not have the right to pick who I want to live in MY property. If I don't want a smoker living in the place I own and paid for, tough shit, you're not living there.

Just because you don't want to be judged or looked at differently I should give up my right to decide who lives in my property? Fuck off shit head.

I used to turnover student apartments before I graduated college, and I worked with a lot of smokers. They would come in from a smoke break outside and I could smell it down the hall and in the elevator that they were in for only a brief period.

So when you stop doing something that can bring down the value of my property then maybe I'll let you live in my place.

Re: Because TERA is the new WoW – And a howto for running Tera on Linux.

A.J. Venter (silentcoder) — Mon, 20 May 2013 05:07:42 -0000

UPDATE: After playing for several hours last night, this morning the game launcher simply refuses to run. Thus far I am quite stumped, there is no discernable error message, just something that worked fine on two computers now working on neither. If I figure out a solution I'll update the post with information. If somebody else does - please let me know what you did.

UPDATE: It would seem the problem was with the TERA login servers, Caryn is reporting that she managed to get in a few hours after I left. I had a suspicion along these lines earlier since it happened simultaneously on two different previously working computers, this seems to confirm it. I'll post more when I can try for myself.

Re: A hypothesis on the origins of capitalist and socialist thought in evolution.

Alison Lewis — Tue, 14 May 2013 14:49:41 -0000

AJ, I have a similar theory I've been mulling over for years. I am considering writing a thesis on it (even though I'm not in a degree program of any kind). I'd like to reference and cite your blog in my work.

Re: Five things non-smokers need to realize about smokers

jinna — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 01:33:12 -0000

I have two CHAIN smokers in my house for a week. It is day 3 and I feel like I am about to die. Head is dizzy and my mouth taste awful and I feel like I live in an ashtray. I also have a baby in this house. SOME SMOKERS ARE INCONSIDERATE BASTARDS it smells sooooooo nasty. god help me.

Re: The major lies of vegan/vegetarian pseudoscience.

sargent_anthro — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 02:47:36 -0000

I love how you claim what your saying is fact then turn around and say In science nothing is EVER considered proven... Didn't you use science to make these claims? Meaning nothing you've said has any proof. Right. Why did i read this? wait of 5 minutes

Re: The major lies of vegan/vegetarian pseudoscience.

vegan — Sat, 23 Mar 2013 22:21:04 -0000

humans are herbivores.. its statistical science that dictates that.. we can't change it. I love the way meat tastes,, and cheese and eggs. after all that does't make any sense right ? well .. what happens is , what you love so much about meat and cheese is the FAT in it. so we love fat and sugar. but fat is bad for you and sugar is good.

Re: James O’Barr

A.J. Venter (silentcoder) — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 04:40:05 -0000

Thank you.

Re: James O’Barr

Kristen Petty — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 01:09:44 -0000

Wow, this was awesome, man! Good job! :)

Re: What is your political DnD alignment ?

Fiercecontinent — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 12:16:11 -0000

I think alignment's a good stepping stone idea for getting people to think about universal concepts instead of labels

Re: Five things non-smokers need to realize about smokers

nonsmoker for 12years — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 11:55:22 -0000

What about fat people they must be weak too., not just n eye sore to the thin. Yet I can't stop them from smelling up the seat next to me. But I tolerated it even tho I don't like it. Thats what you do in a free society. And had friend health nut. Good shape, never smoke. Dead from cancer , was riddled with it. Yet the old lady at the community center chain smokes pallmall no filters and shes 96. Stop living in fear,especially of second hand smoke. Must have God complex, I'm sure he says judgment is his alone.

Re: Five things non-smokers need to realize about smokers

nonsmoker for 12years — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 11:43:18 -0000

Really, obviously this puritan Can't Understand Normal Thinking. I never read such judgmental b.s.. Hitler spoke of a class of people who were a drain on society. And not the jews. This type of tyranical thinking has emasculated or society. My farther ran a pub for 22 yrs. Never smoked or complained about it. Men smoke,drink,fu k,and fight. Anything less we call women. The idea of a man complaining of second hand smoke,just funny to me. Yet all these non smoking puritans will still sit around a campfire roasting marshmallows with thier kids. And that smokes ok? Where do we draw the line. Live Free or Die, Death is not the Worst of Evils

Re: What if the patriarchy was invented by women ?

A.J. Venter (silentcoder) — Sat, 05 Jan 2013 20:44:55 -0000

For those interested - my earlier writings on this particular subtopic of the philosophy tag can be easily found with this link: http://silentcoder.co.za/?s=fe...

Re: What if the patriarchy was invented by women ?

A.J. Venter (silentcoder) — Sat, 05 Jan 2013 20:30:55 -0000

I felt your second paragraph required another response. I do not believe that all, or even most, feminists are generally guilty of misandry or that feminists like yourself when referring to the patriarchy are attacking men in general - I was referring (and I tried to say this in the post, if I failed then I apologize) to a specific subset largely on blogs who do use these terms that way and deny that misandry even exists, I believe most feminists however would agree with you (and myself) that the current patriarchal system in our society is BOTH misandric AND mysoginistic by enforcing impossible ideals and expectations of behaviour on people of either gender and engendering great prejudice against all who do not fit the mould in their behaviour. Such conscription of behaviour is not only utterly harmful to personal liberty and individualist ideals but also to society as a whole.
I know that many father's rights activists have found feminists organizations campaigning WITH them to give just one example.
I do believe we can one day live in a world where a teenage boy who expresses a desire to run a day-care centre or teach pre-school would not be assumed to be a paedophile by so many people that he'd never consider trying - and where a girl who wants to become a jet-pilot would not be told that "girls can't do math".
These two goals are not in competition with each other in my mind, they are two sides of the same coin.

Re: What if the patriarchy was invented by women ?

A.J. Venter (silentcoder) — Sat, 05 Jan 2013 20:23:20 -0000

I was not so much referring to the use of the word in feminist academia (thank you for those clarifications however, they are valuable to myself and my readers) as the way I see it more commonly used now on blogs - with an anger that, if anything, I fear harms the ideal of equality of people.

But just a small correction - Barbara Ehrenreich coined the term in that usage but it's actually rather older and it's more widely used to refer to a parallel movement to feminism that focusses on discrimination against men (based on the largely FALSE perception that feminism is only focussed on discrimination against women rather than the harm of gender-role casting on both sexes and the equality of the sexes - which the name 'feminism' probably promotes in many people's minds). I say parallel because I don't see the masculinism and feminism movements as being in opposition to each other (though many within both do) but rather as wanting the same thing - and I genuinely believe both would be stronger if they worked together rather than against each other as the outcome they actually want is the same (there are also many 'mens rights' groups which are nothing but a front for perpetuating the status quo and some of them use the term as well, but I believe the core masculism movement does not agree with them and essentially rejects most of their core goals, an example of a masculinist complaint would be the high rate of suicide among teenage boys who are prejudiced against and bullied [by other men and to a lesser degree by women] if they don't fit the macho stereotypes demanded by society.

Re: What if the patriarchy was invented by women ?

Passing feminist — Sat, 05 Jan 2013 17:35:24 -0000

I think you're under a misapprehension that patriarchy has ever been conceived of as merely a product of male dominance. Gerda Lerner (who died this week) the feminist historian whose work on patriarchy was foundational insists that patriarchy was an intersection of male and female interests: she is adamant that patriarchy was constructed by men and women, and that it must be deconstructed by men and women both (The book is 'Creation of Patriarchy'). Deniz Kandiyoti has a well-known and excellent explanation of why women maintain patriarchal relations in traditional societies. Benign sexism or chivalry is not good, but it's preferable to hostile sexism, and if that's all that's on the menu, then that's what you're going to choose.

I use patriarchy in a stricter and more anthropological sense than most feminists: I'm mostly referring to the value systems of pastoral nomads where authority inheres in patrilinear kinship relations - systems which have had an enormous ideological influence through cultural transmission. That the 2nd wave broadened the use of the term patriarchy is undeniable, but I personally prefer masculinism as a way of referring to the perseverance of male dominance within modern societies - this term comes from Barbara Ehrenreich. Nevertheless, even the term patriarchy is not the plural form of men: it refers to a system: just as a critique of capitalism isn't necessarily just 'eat the rich', a critique of patriarchy/kyriarchy/masculinism is not necessarily misandry. In fact, the sex/gender system (to use a term taken from Gayle Rubin this time) is harmful to both genders, through the the enforcement of gender roles which you, and I, would wish to reject as artificial delimitations of human expression. That I call myself a feminist is not because I'm part of a gender war, but a wish to claim the heritage of feminist thought and activism, and a recognition that women are still disproportionately negatively effected by gender stereotypes. I agree with you that the Danish system is fantastic!