tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-87945568931612569652024-03-05T09:31:18.716-05:00Starlight and Shadowsone small corner of the skies, where light and darkness meet...Zankouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04153993302277024444noreply@blogger.comBlogger142125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8794556893161256965.post-83500759894321676502013-03-22T16:05:00.000-04:002013-03-22T16:05:44.251-04:00What I WatchKind of a quick side note of a post, really.<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
If there's anyone stopping by here who's particularly interested in anime or manga, <a href="http://myanimelist.net/profile/ZankouHoshizora">this</a> might be of interest to you. Yes, I finally discovered MyAnimeList and went ahead to create a profile there. I don't really have any idea as to how well-known that side is among the general anime community, but then that's probably because I have very little connection to any kind of greater online community when it comes to anime.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
So if anyone was curious as to what anime or manga I have an interest in, well, now you know.</div>
Zankouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04153993302277024444noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8794556893161256965.post-79272853678597950442013-03-11T19:56:00.002-04:002013-03-11T19:56:23.200-04:00Lost Logia Halo chapter 6Finally got around to posting a new chapter of my Nanoha/Halo fanfiction crossover story, <a href="http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6551447">Lost Logia Incident Report: Halo Array</a>. That link will take you to the beginning of the story; the newest chapter is here:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6551447/6">Chapter 6: Assault on the Control Room</a><br />
<br />
Ugh, I feel like crap for dragging this out as long as I have, only to tell people that I'm going to drag it out more... And I let this sit for way too long just essentially shuffling words around in the author's note, too.<br />
<br />
I might or might not have more to say about this particular chapter. In all honesty, I actually wrote it so long ago that I've mostly forgotten what was going through my head when I committed it to... well, "paper". If I do end up writing notes for this chapter, it'll probably happen either within the next few days or not at all.<br />
<br />
Anyway, if you're interested, check it out, and let me know what you think!Zankouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04153993302277024444noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8794556893161256965.post-23316930209673156352013-03-01T13:45:00.000-05:002013-03-01T13:45:21.044-05:00Tests of IdeologySo, the sequester is definitely a thing that's going to happen now. And I suppose the messaging from the Republican Party is at least acquiring a new consistency; from what I can see, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/01/us/politics/house-republicans-cheer-boehners-refusal-to-negotiate-on-cuts.html?_r=0">they're starting to adopt the idea</a> that from their point of view, the sequester is a flat-out win for them. Smaller government is going to happen, and it's going to happen through spending cuts. Aside from the defense cuts, what is there to dislike from the conservative side of the argument?<br />
<br />
Anyone familiar with the things I usually write here on this blog could probably guess, then, that I absolutely despise this entire idea. To me, this is going to mean a reduction in the government's ability to function. And in all honesty, that's not really up for debate! Of course less money is going to mean that the government can't do as much.<br />
<br />
The question is whether that's desirable. In the article I linked, Speaker Boehner characterized the dispute thusly: that the debate was "how much more money do we want to steal from the American people to fund more government." That's not how I view the matter.<br />
<br />
I look at what the government does with its money - with the majority of the federal budget going to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Cuts to these programs reduce the resources available to members of "the American people". These are the people least able to make up for the shortfall. These are the people who we've made commitments to when these programs were created. And the programs that help them are solvent for at least the next several decades.<br />
<br />
Then there's defense. I think there are very definite benefits to continuing military development, ensuring that the United States has the most powerful military force in the world. I think that the presence of weapons does not imply their use, and I think it's a very good idea to be prepared for the case (however unlikely) that someone in the world decides to use force against us. I don't think it's in the interests of "the American people" to have a substantially weaker military thanks to defense cuts.<br />
<br />
The last category of government spending? Discretionary spending. If people really think it's productive or useful to go through that list item by item, picking individual bits out as unnecessary, be my guest, I suppose? But I don't see how it will produce a smaller government to pull out million-dollar line items from a federal budget in the trillions... and this is the category that includes things like infrastructure and education, things that are absolutely essential to any semblance of a comfortable life for "the American people".<br />
<br />
And you know what? Then there's the personal level. I see people lined up for furloughs and layoffs, as the government is forced to cut back on budgets everywhere, including personnel. That's members of "the American people" that now have less money, that are forced to find new jobs (or forced to do less of the jobs they have) because this sequester is going through. I'm sure those people are quite pleased that the government is... now denying them the money they otherwise could have had...?<br />
<br />
If there's a simple way to sum this up: every cent of government spending is designed to be a benefit to the American people.<br />
<br />
I'm open to having a discussion on that! Perhaps some government spending doesn't actually provide any benefit. Perhaps in six months we'll find that very little harm has actually been caused to the American people as a result of the sequester (although heaven only knows how we'll even make that determination). If that actually comes to pass, I'll definitely need to do some rethinking on how much government spending is necessary or desirable.<br />
<br />
I just wish there was a way to have that discussion and conduct that test of ideology without actually screwing people over if things end the way I expect them to.Zankouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04153993302277024444noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8794556893161256965.post-7646851547507280542013-02-24T19:43:00.000-05:002013-02-24T19:43:14.719-05:00Still Waiting for an AwakeningOver the last few days, I've been thoroughly sucked in by the newest Fire Emblem game, for the 3DS, called Fire Emblem: Awakening. For the life of me, I have no idea what Awakening has done to me that Sacred Stones or Path of Radiance didn't manage. My only guess would be the support system, but it's not like that's new to Awakening! Perhaps, then, it's not the support system itself but the characters and the conversations within it that have captured my attention.<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
For anyone completely unfamiliar with the Fire Emblem series, the support system is designed to define relationships between characters and grants combat bonuses to characters that are close to one another. As characters spend more time fighting together, their support rank increases; from C rank up to a maximum possible of S. On top of that, characters start out completely unranked with all others; even C rank must be earned.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
And every time characters gain a rank, a conversation occurs between them, showing how their relationship is developing. It would not be an exaggeration to say that those conversations and the relationships between my characters that I'm seeing in those conversations is a huge part of why I'm playing Awakening as much as I am - perhaps even the only part!</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
But, as perhaps might be expected, characters are restricted in who they can build support ranks with. In theory, I don't have a problem with that. I think it reflects real life to an extent in that some people have their own preferences, and that maybe this character just doesn't want to get to know one of their companions that well. Awakening reflects this by making it impossible to build support ranks between some characters at all.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
There is, however, one huge problem that I have with Awakening's support system. Because there's one more element left to be mentioned: the fact that the game also locks some characters out from reaching the highest possible S rank with certain other characters. Again, <i>in theory</i>, I don't have a problem with this. It's not like it's possible in real life to be intimately familiar with everyone you meet!</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
But, the way Awakening did this... well, if you can build support ranks between two characters at all, you can build them to A at least. And you can only build an S rank relationship between two characters of <i>opposite</i> gender. Which doesn't mean you can <i>always</i> build an S rank relationship between characters of opposite gender, but so far the only time that it's been limited to A rank is when the relationship in question is between family members.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
To put it mildly, this is somewhat of a disappointment. In this day and age, it seems like such a pointless restriction! I defy any and all readers of this to give me a good reason why heterosexuality is the only possible option. Heaven knows I can't think of a single one. (I have thought of some flawed reasons, and if I was writing a paper I'd go into them and explain why they aren't good enough, but this blog post is shaping up to be massive already, and a lot of the reasons are fairly spoiler-heavy. I'm happy to talk about it in comments if there's interest in that.)</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
It's worth noting that this is not something that's going to make me put Awakening down and stop playing it. I am disappointed, but I do still enjoy the game a great deal, and I do want to see the relationships that are in the game. What I want even more, though; the opportunity that I think Awakening missed? Is for a game to give me a relationship system that's as progressive as possible, something true to life and effective at inspiring emotion. Because that's the kind of relationship system that will engage me even more deeply and be even more rewarding for me than the one Awakening actually has.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Essentially, I want my games to provide engaging and compelling experiences. And there are a lot of ways that games can do that! Aside from the support system, Awakening is a tactical combat game that has provided me with enjoyment on that level as well. (Although Normal is too easy and Hard is too difficult... *sigh*)</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
However, one thing that I keep searching for in the games that I play is an enjoyable relationship system. Fire Emblem is hardly the only game to provide a system of that nature; Mass Effect springs to mind, although I've only played ME1 so far (and my experiences there would be a whole separate post). I have no doubt there are others, although that's the only one I can come up with off the top of my head.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
I do believe, though, that Awakening has come the closest of any game I've yet played. And if it didn't completely ignore any intimate relationships outside of monogamous heterosexual ones, along with mostly ignoring the possibility of limiting some relationships to the "friend" level regardless of sexual orientation...? I think that would have been a major step forward, if it had happened.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
I suppose that is an awakening which the gaming industry has yet to fully embrace. Developers take note: there are a lot of gamers out there that are eagerly waiting for it to happen. If only because this, too, is how we change the world.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
(Commenting note: When discussing either Awakening or any other game, I'd appreciate it if people could try to minimize spoilers and mark any spoilers that they do feel are necessary.)</div>
Zankouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04153993302277024444noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8794556893161256965.post-65973638438442806502013-02-17T20:35:00.000-05:002013-02-17T20:35:06.549-05:00Lost in TranslationAlong with a lot of other people, I am a huge fan of <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=VzEUeWnV73U">Bad Apple</a>, the one Touhou song that you've probably already heard about if you know anything about Touhou at all. And if you don't know anything about Touhou, well, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Touhou_Project">that's what Wikipedia is for</a>. It doesn't really matter for the rest of this post, but it's certainly interesting in its own right.<br />
<br />
Needless to say, given the popularity of this song (sure, it's no Gangnam Style, but three million views is still a lot), numerous different translations have been made. There's a good example of that if you look at the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lNZ_Rnr7Jc">full version</a> of the song; the subtitles there are noticeably different in places, aren't they?<br />
<br />
As it stands, I prefer listening to the full version of the song, but I tend not to notice the translations, because oddly enough there was actually a point to me spending years studying Japanese. I have no real interest in throwing my hat into this particular ring - to be fair, the prior existence of other translations hasn't necessarily stopped me before, but I simply don't have the interest in trying to translate Bad Apple. Not when I can understand it myself and can point other people that need the translations to the already-existing ones.<br />
<br />
But, as long as I'm thinking about it I might as well share my opinion of the existing translations. And on that note, there's one more "translation" of the song that I'd like to take a moment to highlight: the semi-official (mostly by virtue of Internet acclaim) <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owFulRTR1Sc">English version</a> of the song, sung by Cristina Vee.<br />
<br />
It's a very different translation when compared to the other options. I mean, it's clear (or at least it should be) that the dry questions "Is there a future for someone like this? / Do I belong in this world?" creates a very different effect when compared to "Will tomorrow ever come? Will I make it through the night? / Will there ever be a place for the broken in the light?"<br />
<br />
This does set up one question, though: which translation is "better"?<br />
<br />
The answer is complicated and definitely depends on what the translation is intended for. There's a great deal to be said for the value of being as literal as possible; there are several points in the English version that just have no analogue in the original song, and adding details that didn't exist in the original seems to defeat the purpose of translating that song. At the same time, while the more literal translation works as a subtitle displayed on-screen to help people who don't speak Japanese, trying to communicate it verbally causes it to lose a great deal. I've tried to essentially "read" some of the translations I've created for songs, but that always seems entirely insufficient and indeed very awkward.<br />
<br />
In short, I think the former option is the superior choice for a subtitle, but the latter is preferable if you're reading or singing out loud in time with the music. Attempting to read the former out loud highlights its total lack of the poetic or metrical elements of song lyrics, while simply printing the latter as text on a screen makes the differences between it and the source text obvious.<br />
<br />
If there's a broader take-away point, try this: it's important, when translating, to have a clear idea of what you're trying to accomplish and how your translation will be conveyed to others. Failing to do so means you lose that much more in translation, and we usually lose entirely too much as it is.Zankouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04153993302277024444noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8794556893161256965.post-3267290149775562482013-02-09T13:24:00.000-05:002013-02-09T13:24:46.757-05:00League of Legends Championship SeriesI'm usually optimistic about my ability to change even something as broad as the culture and society we live in. It helps, of course, that I live in a time when I can watch that society change right before my eyes. Little changes, perhaps - maybe the concert features a <a href="http://ryugakuchronicle.blogspot.com/2011/03/diva-of-modern-age.html">purely computer-generated singer</a>, instead of a live person, and still draws major attendance in cities across the country from the actual concert (yay simulcasting). Even if it's a little thing, it would have been unimaginable ten years ago.<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Or, you know, maybe an online video game kicks off the start to a league that draws hundreds of thousands of viewers on its opening two days of matches.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The <a href="http://na.lolesports.com/">League of Legends Championship Series</a> (or the LCS for short) is, perhaps, not that much of an innovation. These kinds of leagues have existed in Asia (particularly Korea) for years, to my understanding. It is most assuredly something new in the United States, if nothing else. And speaking as someone who (currently) lives in the United States, it is quite definitely exciting. (There's also a new European league, for people on that side of the Atlantic.)</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
I think it's certainly been the case that video games can have somewhat of a bad reputation outside gaming circles. Indeed, anything that takes place online or uses a computer can be negatively defined as "not real", as if something requires physical form to be counted as "real". I should probably back away from the philosophical minefield that I'm about to step into, but suffice to say that I don't think Miku is any less "real" for being a computer construct, to take one example.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
And this kind of bias against online society as somehow less than face-to-face interaction is <a href="http://www.steamfeed.com/social-media-fail-girlscouts-crush-girl/">very much alive and well today</a>, in case you were curious. "The online, social media stuff does not matter because it is behind a computer", you say...?</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
These people in the LCS are making a living off of video games. They are professional sports players, in a very real sense, although perhaps less well paid than some sports stars. We live in a world where the definition of the word "sports" is changing before our eyes - to accommodate this idea of "e-sports", the arrival of video games on a professional stage.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Don't tell me that it can't be done. It's being done as we speak.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
(Oh, and in a development as critically important as any of the above, <a href="http://na.lolesports.com/season3/split1/teams/curse">my favorite team</a> kicked major butt, going 3-0 in the first week. Priorities!)</div>
Zankouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04153993302277024444noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8794556893161256965.post-36782105444799426312013-02-05T16:55:00.000-05:002013-02-05T16:55:33.752-05:00Unwarranted AssumptionsI stopped by the mall today, mostly because I needed to kill time and didn't have any better ideas. While I was there, I was accosted by one of the people manning a stall in the center of the hallway. I do sort of mind that, because I always have such a hard time saying no when someone's aggressively trying to get me to buy something - or at least, say no in a final enough way to get them to listen to me.<br />
<br />
(And yes, the idea that I can say no and not be listened to is part of <a href="http://www.shakesville.com/2012/02/today-in-rape-culture.html">a much</a> <a href="http://www.shakesville.com/2012/02/today-in-rape-culture.html">larger</a> <a href="http://www.shakesville.com/2009/10/rape-culture-101.html">problem.</a> It's one that this post isn't really going to get into.)<br />
<br />
Interestingly enough, this particular stall was selling, effectively, makeup. That's probably not the best word for it; the stuff that he was trying to sell to me was designed to make one's fingernails look better, and was comprised of several things including lotion and... I guess something kind of like a fingernail file? I wasn't exactly paying too much attention, since I was trying to find a way to extricate myself from the sales pitch without just flat-out saying "go away". Either way, though, damn if it didn't actually work. I have one very shiny fingernail now!<br />
<br />
And yet, even though the guy went through the effort to use my fingernail as a demonstration, even when his own fingers provided ten more examples of the stuff he was trying to sell me... he wasn't really trying to sell this stuff to <i>me</i>.<br />
<br />
The conversation began with him asking if I am married. Then if I had a girlfriend. Both get answers in the negative. He pointed out that Valentine's Day was coming up. When he showed me the results of his little buffing tool, he asked me if I thought my mother would like that effect. When I wasn't inclined to buy the full set of products he was selling (even after three or four discounts on the price) he started asking which one I thought my mother would use.<br />
<br />
Through the entire conversation, he simply assumed that I had no desire to buy this thing, and that he would have to sell it to a family member or friend of mine by proxy through me.<br />
<br />
This is not an unusual incident or a coincidence. While it's the first time that I've seen an obvious example in my life, this happens all the time (more often to women trying to buy something that isn't feminine enough, I would guess), and it's one of the more irritating displays of gender stereotypes in society.<br />
<br />
If I express interest in your product, unless I specifically mention buying it as a gift, you damn well better believe that I'm buying it because <i>I</i> want it. And if you're coming after me to sell me something? Before you try to convince me to buy your product, you should probably convince yourself that I want to buy said product first.Zankouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04153993302277024444noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8794556893161256965.post-8842989629873570882013-02-04T13:30:00.000-05:002013-02-04T13:30:02.067-05:00Final notes for Midchildan MusicWell, in case anyone missed the memo yesterday, I finally got around to actually updating one of the stories I had started writing. In this case, Midchildan Music was first posted to fanfiction.net in December 2010, meaning it's been over two years from story start to completion - and this is a work that tops out just over 25k words, when I can and have pounded out twice as many in a month.<br />
<br />
The short version of that paragraph? I may have some issues with procrastination when it comes to things like this.<br />
<br />
Part of that has to do with my personality, I think. I tend to be fairly... anxious about putting my writing on the Internet for all to see. (As an aside, that applies not just to fan fiction, but to blog posts and comments as well.) What happened with this final chapter of Midchildan Music was that I had it essentially finished and ready to post - and then stopped to re-read it. Theoretically to make sure that it was free of errors and that it was what I wanted to post. Then I re-read it again. Then I went to bed, deciding to sleep on it before I posted it. And then, well, it kind of slipped out of my "immediate concerns" pile and didn't find its way back into said pile for around a year and a half.<br />
<br />
To be fair, I did make some edits over the past few days to the chapter that I had written back then. So perhaps it turned out better for the delay? I doubt it ended up better enough to justify as long of a wait as it was, but who knows.<br />
<br />
Anyway! Chapter 5, Miku Append. Spoilers ahead! Go read <a href="http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6578011/5">the chapter itself</a> first.<br />
<br />
Of all of the Vocaloids, Miku is and probably will remain my favorite - and as far as Vocaloid costumes are concerned, in my opinion Miku Append wins hands down, at least as far as "general purpose" is concerned. Then again, I didn't title the chapter entirely on that reason, considering that the Miku in this chapter is very much an evolved form from the Sergeant's first Intelligent Device creation, just as Miku Append in the real world is to some extent an "upgrade" for the original Miku Hatsune.<br />
<br />
There are two major goals that I was aiming for in this chapter. The first is to finish the Sergeant's change of heart. Meeting Miku has affected him. He started this story in a very uncomfortable position as someone who was very inwardly focused on his own goals, and very narrow ones at that. He ends it as someone who cares a little more about the people around him - not only Miku, but he demonstrates in the letter he sent to Haruko that he recognizes the mistakes he's made in ignoring the world around him before Miku showed up. Or at least, that's part of what I was trying to get across.<br />
<br />
The second was to give the Sergeant and Miku a chance to finally win something. And to show off some of my favorite Vocaloids songs as battle themes. The fights are short and sweet, but I hope they are sufficiently awesome all the same. I also enjoyed the chance to link the magic he was using to some particular songs that I enjoy, and I would encourage people to go give a listen to both <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Px7WMtHpOMg">Disruptive Diva</a> (yes, the one line in that song was entirely responsible for calling the spell Prelude to Destruction) and <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dYk5Plhl9Y">Love is War</a>.<br />
<br />
That wasn't the only thing I got out of the second fight with Fate, though. I highlighted the Sergeant's change of heart, as well. He's no longer focusing on sheer and overwhelming power, but on using what he has and what he knows to "defeat" a foe that is (still) far superior to him in raw combat ability. And it works out very well for him in the end.<br />
<br />
Anyway, I should probably cut this off here before I write another several thousand words. I hope everyone that read Midchildan Music enjoyed the ride! And hopefully I'll be able to polish up and properly finish <a href="http://hoshinokage.blogspot.com/2012/12/flawless-victory.html">the sequel that I started working on</a> for last year's National Novel Writing Month...Zankouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04153993302277024444noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8794556893161256965.post-72506935660209770522013-02-03T16:18:00.000-05:002013-02-03T16:18:00.319-05:00Midchildan Music chapter 5Well, I finally got around to dealing with my fan fiction stories again. Yay!<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The next (and final) chapter of Midchildan Music, my Nanoha/Vocaloids crossover, is up.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<a href="http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6578011/5">Chapter 5: Miku Append</a></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The beginning of the story can be found <a href="http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6578011/1">here</a>. Feel free to let me know what you think either here in comments or through Fanfiction.net's review system; I'll try to post a longer kind of author's notes here sometime within the next day or two.</div>
Zankouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04153993302277024444noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8794556893161256965.post-24331250885808436812013-01-25T16:41:00.001-05:002013-01-25T16:41:58.437-05:00Managing ElectionsHonestly considering the 2012 election, I think it's pretty clear that the Democrats won just about everything that we could have honestly expected to get. Sadly, control of the House was never really on the table, but we cut into that majority somewhat, won several major Senate races (although not enough for the 60-vote cutoff, that was also never really on the table) and of course re-elected President Obama. It's pretty obvious that the Republicans lost that election quite severely.<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Needless to say, the Republican Party commenced with a great deal of soul-searching and after-action analysis. Why did they lose the election? What can they do next time to win? I have only a passing interest in such discussions, because as far as I'm concerned the only plan that will actually work is to reform the party entirely so that the numerous intellectually bankrupt ideas they hold aren't treated as gospel anymore. Of course, a GOP that accepted the economic evidence against their orthodoxy (see: anything Paul Krugman has ever written) and the weight of history bearing down on the progressive side of the social debate wouldn't really be the GOP anymore.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
So the question is, how can the Republican Party win an election without changing the viewpoints that make them the Republican Party? I would prefer it if the answer to that question was "they can't", and heaven knows I'll be trying as hard as possible to make that happen! But some state-level conservative governments have come up with a different answer: <a href="http://www.americanprogressaction.org/issues/civil-liberties/report/2013/01/24/50459/grand-theft-election/">change the way electoral votes are handed out at the state level.</a> Give out electoral votes by congressional district rather than state.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
I may not entirely agree with the idea of calling it "cheating" - it's already law in Maine and Nebraska, and it's certainly constitutional. It does, however, lock in the one big problem with the Electoral College: it ignores the will of the people. It's abundantly clear that had this system been in place in 2012, Romney would have been elected president, with 62 electoral votes going the other way. Despite President Obama's 51.1% of the popular vote, to Romney's 47.2%.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
I don't like the electoral college system, and I'd be happy to see it reformed... so long as that reform makes the system <i>more</i> responsive to the desires of the people of the United States, not less. And to the Republican Party, in Virginia and Pennsylvania and Michigan and wherever else they might try to enact this, I have only this to say: if you want to win the 2016 presidential election, you might try convincing a majority of the electorate to back your candidate. If you can't manage that, it won't be the Electoral College that dooms your hopes for office.</div>
Zankouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04153993302277024444noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8794556893161256965.post-47128129244757630122013-01-18T23:53:00.000-05:002013-01-18T23:53:59.547-05:00Verbal Abuse, Online and OffAs with any other online game, League of Legends has its own forums where people can go to discuss the game. The community on said forums is about as pleasant as the in-game community, which is to say it's absolutely not. I mean, probably most of the discussions on there are perfectly civil and productive, and it's nice to read the things that the developers are saying, since they come and post on the forums regularly, but it's still aggravating sometimes to have to wade through the racism and elitism that comes with it.<br />
<br />
Recently, though, I stumbled across a thread on the League's General Discussion forums that I actually ended up participating in. One of the common threads on there, you see, is the "how do we react to verbal abuse" thread, which revives itself in a new form fairly often. Inevitably, it devolves into a flame war between two separate camps: on one side, the decent people who want to try and improve the community by getting people to stop spewing abuse at their teammates and/or opponents; on the other, the not-decent people who complain about how the entire community's made up of thin-skinned babies who can't take a joke.<br />
<br />
No, that's obviously not an even-handed summary of the arguments, but I stopped caring about presenting this "debate" fairly a long time ago. The thread itself is <a href="http://na.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?t=3013562">here</a>, for the curious, although I would be very cautious about following that link given some of the decidedly not-safe-space invective that some of the people on that forum were resorting to. My personal participation in that argument began on page 9 and concluded on page 14 (just the two posts on those two pages) if anyone wanted to see those specifically.<br />
<br />
But, if there is actually anyone reading this who thinks there's a viable debate here, allow me to set the record straight: "just toughen up" and all variants thereof are <i>horrible</i> advice to give someone who's having to deal with abuse or harassment. At the very least, I can say it did <i>not</i> help me. It didn't actually do anything to address the abuse itself, which continued unabated. And even if it "worked" in the sense that it helped me "ignore" the abuse, it did so by forcing me to conceal my emotions and identity - not a price that anyone should have to pay just to get by in society.<br />
<br />
Maybe the rules are different enough online for it to work. Maybe the faceless nature of the Internet is enough to make ignoring abuse a viable strategy. I honestly don't care, because I see absolutely no reason to go with a "maybe" when I have a much better option to offer. It's a simple option, too - all you have to do is say three words.<br />
<br />
"Cut that out."<br />
<br />
It does make a difference. Even if you're only on League of Legends. It will matter to the person who's being abused, tell them that they're not alone and that they have support on their team. It will put the jerk in question on notice that they are being watched and will be held accountable by the people around them. And it's a much better idea than spreading advice that has caused real harm in the past.<br />
<br />
If you actually want to do something about verbal abuse, whether the online abuse in games like League of Legends or the offline that continues to be a problem in schools today, don't tell <i>me</i> to toughen up so that I can ignore the abuse. Tell <i>them</i> not to say abusive things in the first place.Zankouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04153993302277024444noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8794556893161256965.post-40921381984242806522013-01-15T14:03:00.000-05:002013-01-15T14:03:13.993-05:00A Tribute to Aaron SwartzThis blog's <a href="http://hoshinokage.blogspot.com/search/label/Internet">Internet tag</a> serves as a useful way of getting at everything I've ever written about online society. Shocking, I know, the tag serving its stated purpose! More importantly, in light of recent events, it is an excellent way of reading everything I've ever written about... well, what I have called "piracy" in the past, but what the subject of this post would probably not describe as such.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Yeah, I know, I'm a good three days late. Whenever it comes to writing about major events, this always seems to happen...</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
I digress. In case anyone wasn't already aware, <a href="http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/01/aaron-swartz/">Aaron Swartz committed suicide</a> a few days ago, at 26 years old. I was only passingly familiar with his work and his ideas, despite the connection that I had to his family (one which I won't describe in detail, in keeping with my tradition of not discussing personal matters in this forum). Indeed, I don't feel informed enough even to provide a summary of his life; I would encourage people to follow the link to the Wired article for that.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Although, given <a href="http://feministing.com/2013/01/15/aaron-swartz-on-misogyny-in-technology/">some of the things</a> I have found online in the wake of this tragic loss, I can safely say that I can add one more person to the list of people with whom I would love to meet and talk to in person... or rather, the subset of that list that is made up of the people for which that will never again be possible.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
I am too late to discuss his ideas with him in person, but thanks to the Internet which he valued so highly, I have been able to <a href="http://archive.org/stream/GuerillaOpenAccessManifesto/Goamjuly2008_djvu.txt">read (some of) those ideas</a> now. And more importantly, I've re-read the things that I've written - <a href="http://hoshinokage.blogspot.com/2012/01/sopa.html">about SOPA</a> when that was being considered, <a href="http://hoshinokage.blogspot.com/2012/01/post-megaupload-world.html">about Megaupload</a> when that site was taken down, about the ways the American community <a href="http://hoshinokage.blogspot.com/2011/10/role-of-fansubs.html">watches anime</a>.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
I do believe that some of those ideas still stand. I believe that content creators should have the right to determine how their work is shared with others, whether that be posting to the Internet under a Creative Commons license or a DVD collection that costs a staggering three hundred and seventy dollars.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
And yet, focusing on that (as I have done in the past) has caused me, in some major ways, to be guilty of missing the point to an almost staggering degree. Re-reading what I've written and what Aaron Swartz has argued for in the past has forced a rethinking of my own thoughts on these issues. Indeed, forced a rethinking on how I reacted to the "crime" which played a major role in this saga, Aaron's downloading of multiple different articles from JSTOR and his intention to make them widely available, although that reaction is one that I never discussed publicly.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
To an extent, those reactions have been shaped by my concern over the way society functions now. My desire to play by the rules, and a personality that considers intentionally breaking the rules to be usually unjustifiable. This, then, was my failing: to discuss the issue as if the rules we play under today were inviolable. As if society cannot change. It is a failing that is all the more unbelievable considering the way I react to "society can't change" when the subject is misogyny. A failing that is frankly absurd considering that the rules in question, that led to federal prosecution for his actions, are ones that need to change.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Let this mea culpa, then, stand as my personal tribute to Aaron Swartz. If it were possible, I would beg his forgiveness, in that it had to come to this before I gave his ideas the attention they deserved... and I will work to ensure that I do not continue in the errors that have characterized my thinking on these issues.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
My condolences go out to his family and friends, and I would encourage people to visit the <a href="http://www.rememberaaronsw.com/">memorial website</a> that they have set up in his memory.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
May you rest in peace, Aaron Swartz, knowing that your work will not go unfinished.</div>
Zankouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04153993302277024444noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8794556893161256965.post-49928618944988202532012-12-17T19:29:00.000-05:002012-12-18T00:13:45.144-05:00Right Wing Ideology:Reactions to NewtownWhile I could probably be charitably be described as a liberal firebrand, I'd at least like to believe that I'm moderate enough to recognize when my own position is flawed. I try to make a habit of self-examination (as I've <a href="http://hoshinokage.blogspot.com/2012/10/internet-society.html">mentioned before</a>) and dispense with ideas that have been proven not to work. It's probably arguable as to how successful I am in that respect, but still.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
I'd also like to suggest that at least this sets me apart from the right-wing ideologues. Because even in the wake of Newtown, with over two dozen dead and most of those children, <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/health/2012/12/17/1344001/huckabee-blames-tax-funded-abortion-pills-for-newtown-massacre/">numerous</a> <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2012/12/17/1347161/james-dobson-blames-marriage-equality-and-abortion-for-newtown-shooting/">members</a> <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/12/14/1339761/hours-after-kindergarten-shooting-michigan-gop-calls-for-allowing-guns-in-schools/">of the</a> <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/12/15/1341341/meet-the-gun-advocates-who-are-responding-to-the-connecticut-shooting-by-calling-for-more-guns-in-schools/">extreme</a> <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2012/12/17/1349981/gun-lobbyist-americans-should-be-prepared-to-take-on-elected-officials-with-guns/">right</a> <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2012/12/16/1342281/gop-rep-suggests-teachers-should-be-armed-with-assault-rifles/">wing</a> have doubled down on the same gun control policies (or rather, the lack thereof!) that brought us to this point in the first place. One would think that this would at least give them a moment's pause!</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Of course, the arguments take two positions, the religious and the anarchist. The former is embodied in the first two links, people like Huckabee or Dobson saying that this is the inevitable result of our culture turning its back on God. This, of course, ignores the fact that President Obama made open reference to Christian scripture in his speech in Newtown; that Christians of some type are still the majority in this country - we're clearly in the wrong for daring to support birth control, and abortion, and gay marriage.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
I think it's worth noting that this is exactly the same as the Westboro Baptist Church's position: events like these are God's wrath on our sinful nation. And as far as I'm concerned, if that's the way God actually works, I'll burn in hell for eternity before I offer one word of prayer or thanks to Him, much less work to shape public policy to bring it in line with His dictates. Assuming I believed in the Christian God in the first place, which I do not. I'm just grateful that most of the Christians I know don't actually agree with that view of God's will. (I hope.)</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
More worrisome to me, though, are the anarchists, the latter four people I linked. I'm sure they would not appreciate being labeled with that term, but what else am I supposed to believe? These are the people, after all, who believe that yet <i>more</i> guns are the solution to this problem. Who dare to say that the American people should be prepared to take on their own government, and argue that gun rights are an important shield against the tyranny of the government. Who seem to think that the only way to stay safe is to protect yourself, preferably with as much firepower as you can possibly get.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
This really kind of disturbs me. Isn't part of the point of having a government to "provide for the common defense", to quote the Constitution? If I can't trust the government to protect me, why do we even have that government in the first place?</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Now, even if I didn't trust the government in that respect (and for the record, I do), obviously I can think of a few other things that the government should be responsible for, given my position on the political spectrum. But those mostly work out to social welfare, which means that your average right-wing ideologue would hate them even more than providing for the common defense.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Given the way these people are reacting to Newtown, I'm left with nothing to do but wonder. What <i>is</i> the government supposed to do in the ideal world of the right wing?</div>
Zankouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04153993302277024444noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8794556893161256965.post-32252720715707836502012-12-14T15:03:00.000-05:002012-12-14T15:03:28.310-05:00In the Wake of ViolenceI am really fucking tired of having to read <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/12/14/1336101/elementary-school-shooting/">this kind of story</a>...<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Multiple people — including children — were killed on Friday morning when at least one gunman opened fire in an Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown, CT.</blockquote>
I could go ahead and chart out the course of our national dialogue over the next few days. I mean, it's already begun. Although I think in this case the "now they're going to 'exploit' the tragedy to try to push gun control" refrain actually began before anyone on the left actually started calling for stricter firearm laws - indeed, after the president's press secretary <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2012/12/14/1337271/white-house-responds-to-elementary-school-shooting-today-is-not-the-day-to-discuss-gun-laws/">specifically said</a> that today isn't the day for that discussion.<br />
<br />
For my own part? I'm tempted to ask when the hell <i>is</i> the day for that discussion. I could remind everyone of the utter bullshit that it is for the right wing to whine about 'exploiting' the tragedy, given their <a href="http://hoshinokage.blogspot.com/2012/08/having-it-both-ways.html">past behavior</a> when the guns were aimed at them instead of someone else.<br />
<br />
Mostly, though, I'm just tired of this. There are other nations that have actually banned guns outright, you realize. Last I checked, Japan wasn't filled with gun violence to anywhere near the same extent that the U.S. is. China <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/12/american-exceptionalism-the-shootings-will-go-on/266293/#">bore witness</a> to an attack on a school this very same day - one in which the perpetrator used a knife. Dozens of people were <i>injured</i>, not killed. And yet banning guns will only make us less safe, we're told.<br />
<br />
There was a time in this country when guns were more strictly regulated - when assault weapons were banned, reducing the amount of destruction that someone could cause all by themselves. <strike>I haven't found a clear picture yet of what the perpetrators of this mass shooting were armed with yet, so perhaps reinstating that would have done nothing about this incident.</strike> And before I even finish writing this, we've got confirmation that an assault rifle was indeed involved. Because it's critical that we be allowed to 'defend' ourselves with weapons that are better suited for mass annihilation, right?<br />
<br />
Above all, though, I'm tired of slamming into the same brick wall over and over again, for a discussion that isn't even the one we need to have.<br />
<br />
The discussion we need to have isn't the one I laid out above, about the mechanics of gun rights and gun ownership. It has nothing to do with whether banning guns outright would be "effective". Or whether we even could manage to do so in a country with an active set of fringe movements that would no doubt rise up in revolt if the government tried to institute a policy of civilian disarmament. And yet that's always what the discussion becomes, despite the fact that no U.S. administration has ever proposed such a plan for the last century or more.<br />
<br />
The discussion we need to have is about the definition of strength. About the society we've built: the society in which any person who refuses to deal out swift and violent death is 'weak', somehow, despite the fact that it takes far more strength to turn the other cheek and ignore provocation rather than react out of hand. Despite the fact that it would take far more strength to admit to ourselves that something is very seriously wrong when our first reaction to dozens of people dead is to say "don't talk about the problem!"<br />
<br />
I do believe that there will be situations in this world to which the only practical response will be violence. Today, though, is a day to reflect on the inevitable consequences of resorting to violence - a cost that we have seen in every military action the United States has ever carried out. While I do believe that it is a cost sometimes worth paying, I can say with total certainty that this was not a situation in which it was necessary to use force.<br />
<br />
Just I can say with effectively total certainty that every time we avoid this discussion - the one about what violence even is, when we should use it, and how we should react to it - we are repeating the same mistakes that brought us to this point in the first place.Zankouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04153993302277024444noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8794556893161256965.post-76836894975568065472012-12-04T14:21:00.000-05:002012-12-04T14:21:00.766-05:00Campaign RetrospectivePart 2: Connections and ConfidenceWell, my <a href="http://hoshinokage.blogspot.com/2012/11/campaign-retrospective-part-1-personal.html">first look back</a> at the campaign trail was honestly kind of a negative one. I figured I'd take a moment to reassure my readers (particularly if any of those are the people I was working with!) that on balance, I enjoyed my time with the campaign.<br />
<br />
I think I can trace that enjoyment specifically to one facet of the campaign. You see, back when we had about a month to go until the election, there was this team meeting that we all attended, and one of the fun things we did at that meeting was to go around and have everyone say one thing they were looking forward to in the rest of the campaign.<br />
<br />
My answer to that question was shaped in large part by the responsibilities I was taking on by that part of the campaign - as I mentioned in the last retrospective, I was in charge of data entry, and that meant building a team of people that could work together to get that data entry done. I was just starting that task when we had this meeting, and so I said that I was looking forward to building that team.<br />
<br />
In some respects, though, I was less specific than that. What I said was that I was looking forward to building connections with all of the people that would work to help re-elect President Obama. I was looking forward to seeing someone walk in the door of our office and being able to say "Hey, nice to see you again, how are you today?" rather than "Welcome to the Obama campaign office, can I help you with something?"<br />
<br />
In the end, that's the kind of thing that brought me back to the campaign day after day. Even in the position that I had, there was always that voice in the back of my head that suggested I was out of my depth. And then I'd show someone else how to handle the database, fix another computer problem at the office. One of the regular volunteers would come and ask me for help with something. I'd go and find out the answer, whether that meant a search of the Internet or asking the people that we had running the office. In some respects, I was too busy working to have the time to worry about whether I could handle the job!<br />
<br />
Now that it's after the fact, I can say with some confidence that we got the job done. Barack Obama can be called "Mr. President" for another four years. And while that goes a long way toward shutting up that annoying little voice, I can't say that it was all or even mostly my work.<br />
<br />
So let me say that again: <i>we</i> got the job done. The way politics should be handled: with people coming together and working for what they believed to be the common good. In short, as a team.Zankouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04153993302277024444noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8794556893161256965.post-24881173386208761152012-12-03T12:45:00.000-05:002012-12-03T12:45:05.479-05:00Flawless Victory!<a href="http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/participants/counterpower/novels/the-bureau-and-the-kingdom/stats">Sorta, anyway.</a> (Link goes to the graph of my word count by day on the NaNoWriMo website.)<br />
<br />
I mean, I think probably anyone who's ever done <a href="http://nanowrimo.org/">National Novel Writing Month</a> has probably heard of someone who pulled off an incredible comeback. The first year I did NaNoWriMo, I was sure that the one Municipal Liason (in charge of organizing events for a given region) was going to fail, but then he wrote thousands upon thousands of words in a few days, to the point where he was beating me in word count despite my diligent adherence to meeting the expected words per day.<br />
<br />
I've just never expected to pull one off myself. I've never seemed to be able to write more than two or three thousand words in a day, and usually I can't maintain the upper end of that pace for more than a few days at a time. This year, though, I didn't have a choice. I tried to get a few words out on November 1st, but in between helping with the Obama campaign and some dissatisfaction with the story I was trying to write, I didn't get anything else done for over a week - and when I did start writing again, I ditched the story I had started on the 1st in favor or a new one. Essentially returning me to square one in terms of word count.<br />
<br />
The upside to this change in plans is that with the new choice of story, I was able to get fired up enough to maintain a pace of nearly four thousand words a day for the first few days, almost getting me back to par. I did hit kind of a slump in the middle thanks to a nasty case of writer's block (brought on in part by the scenes I was writing), but in the end I recovered and hit the goal line with maybe four hours left in the month.<br />
<br />
So, what happens now? Well, in the end I wrote fan fiction. That's another thing I never expected to do; I've seen more than one story on Fanfiction.net that's over 100k words. Never did understand how people managed that kind of thing, but at this rate I'm going to be writing one of those myself. Yeah, the story's not done. Actually, the story before that story isn't done, since what I wrote is essentially a sequel to <a href="http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6578011/1/Midchildan-Music">Midchildan Music</a>, a story I started a while back.<br />
<br />
It does simplify my goals a little. I need to clean up Midchildan Music's final chapter, post that, deal with some retcons that need to be done to Midchildan Music as a result of inconsistencies that I introduced in the story I wrote over the past few weeks (and things I don't like in Midchildan Music), and then work on finishing the story that was this year's winning NaNoWriMo project.<br />
<br />
And somewhere along the line, I'll probably try to go back to last year's NaNoWriMo. That one didn't end successfully, but it's also a work of original fiction, and I can still try to finish that up sometime...Zankouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04153993302277024444noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8794556893161256965.post-53407577818815756872012-11-20T14:55:00.000-05:002012-11-20T14:55:38.183-05:00Campaign RetrospectivePart 1: Personal BarriersI did mention that I was helping out with the Obama campaign just recently. Well, I'll share with you... I guess it's not exactly a secret, but one would think I wouldn't want it shared widely.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
I really wasn't very good at campaigning.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
That isn't to say that I wasn't helping out that much. In the role I eventually found myself in, I was doing a great deal of work! Then again, the role I found myself in was to be in charge of data entry for a specific (fairly small) area. It was an important job, there's no doubt about that, and it meant that I had to be an effective manager as well, unless I wanted to be doing all of the data entry myself.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
I wouldn't call it "campaigning" though. Not in the sense of going out and talking to people about how they're voting, or whether they'd be willing to volunteer for the campaign. I did small amounts of the latter, with people who had already expressed an interest with data entry, getting them connected to the team I was building and ensuring that they were trained in the system we used. There's quite the difference between that and calling people who have perhaps expressed an unspecified interest in maybe volunteering sometime in the future. The days I tried the latter, earlier in the campaign...? Let's just say they were not pleasant ones.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Admittedly, talking to people about how they're voting went a little better. It helped that the area where I was working was heavily Democratic to begin with; there was very little of trying to convince people to vote for Obama and a lot more of making sure that people already predisposed towards voting for Obama actually got out and voted. As far as I'm concerned, the latter is a lot easier than the former. Either way, though, while it wasn't as wildly uncomfortable as asking people to volunteer, it had all too many unpleasant moments as well.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
I think part of this has to do with my personality. I'm a lot more comfortable supporting from the rear line, so to speak. I'd rather work to enable everyone else to do their jobs more effectively. Certainly I'd take that over chipping away at a job which I'm simply not as good at. Which is how it ended up working in the end; my focusing on getting data entered left everyone else with more time to handle the rest of the things that needed doing. (I think, anyway!)</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The other part of it, though, is the way in which the campaign conducted these operations. This is something which I'm a little more reluctant to talk about, in part because I'm not sure if I'm allowed to. The kinds of information connected to the campaign that were not to be shared honestly surprised me a little. Whether it should be proprietary or not, well, that's a matter for an entirely separate post. For what it's worth, there were good reasons for all of those decisions, to the best of my ability to tell at least. (And lest anyone think "the election's over, it doesn't matter anymore", I have no doubt that there are people already preparing for 2014 and 2016.) It is possible that I'm being overly cautious in this respect, but I'd rather err on the side of caution.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Re-framing it as a matter of my personality, though, I will say that I find it very hard to ignore it and keep going once someone's told me "no". There are a lot of reasons for that which I think probably should be much more widely held, in all honesty. The most basic way to put it, though, is this: that a person who says "no" is establishing a boundary, one that the rest of us are obligated to respect, not tear down or ignore.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Obviously someone's personality will play a part in determining at what they are and are not effective at doing. Just as there are times when it's a good thing to step outside of your comfort zone and try something new. In the end, though, I think the line I just laid out is an absolute one, not to be crossed under any circumstances, as far as my personality is concerned. And I don't regret the effect that had on my role within the campaign. Indeed, in some respects I'm more disappointed that I would be asked to cross that line in the first place.</div>
Zankouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04153993302277024444noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8794556893161256965.post-17282127473871270312012-11-17T16:10:00.000-05:002012-11-17T16:17:58.129-05:00A Little HousekeepingSo... yeah.<br />
<br />
I got just a teensy bit caught up in the recently-concluded political campaign here in the United States. As in, full-time volunteering kind of caught up. Oh, and when I say "full-time", that actually worked out to be ten-hour days more often than I might have liked!<br />
<br />
Not that I have any regrets. As it happens, I don't regret it at all. Not one bit. In some small respect, the work that I did with the Obama campaign probably helped contribute to his successfully winning Virginia for the second time in two presidential elections. Which, even if Ohio was the state that "decided" the election, was certainly part of the dominant electoral victory that ended the presidential race (very) early on the morning of the 7th, rather than weeks later after all the recounts were in. I'll take that.<br />
<br />
Anyway, posting's been nonexistent because of the amount of time that's been demanding from me. Hopefully that will change now that the campaign is over... but then again, it's National Novel Writing Month, which is also one hell of a time sink. *sigh* Well, at least I won't be short of things to talk about. And I'll probably try to look back on the campaign in more detail, too, although given my track record on that kind of promise, I wouldn't blame anyone for not believing that that will ever happen.<br />
<br />
About the only other thing I'm changing is the sidebar, where I'm cleaning up the list of tags a little to make that easier to navigate and adding a list of blogs that I read. I can't control the content on any site other than my own, of course... and at any rate I need to work a little harder on adding content notes to my <i>own</i> blog, much less keeping an eye on anyone else's.<br />
<br />
Well, that's about it for the moment. As always, thanks for reading my blog.Zankouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04153993302277024444noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8794556893161256965.post-2867173649630347242012-10-13T11:45:00.000-04:002012-10-13T11:45:04.847-04:00Internet SocietyI am, perhaps, one of the few people of my generation to have never touched Reddit. And I do mean never. I've found my way there from the occasional link, but only in the context of another story, and I've not spent any time looking around Reddit, itself. Nor do I have an account there. So perhaps I'm not the best person to be commenting on <a href="http://gawker.com/5950981/">this story</a>, seeing how the vast majority of it took place on Reddit.<br />
<br />
But, it is a story about someone's online identity. Or rather, it's a story connecting someone's online identity to someone's offline identity, attaching a real name and face to what was formerly nothing more than a line of text, a pseudonym. And given what this particular online persona (Reddit's Violentacrez) has been responsible for, there can be very little doubt that this particular revelation is intended in large part for its value as intimidation or punishment. That's what's known as "doxing" (a word I had not known until I read that article), and to Internet society, it is a severe crime.<br />
<br />
It's not something I, personally, have worried too much about. By and large, I go by two pseudonyms on the Internet - older accounts as Counterpower, newer ones as Zankou. I don't go to any great lengths to hide connections between those names and my real one, or between those names and my appearance; if Gawker wanted to do an expose of me (highly unlikely at best!) the necessary research would probably take about ten minutes. I haven't (yet?) openly revealed my real name here on this blog, but that's really the only concession I've ever made to "hiding" my real identity.<br />
<br />
By and large, that's because of one simple reason. It's because I try to conduct myself, in <i>any</i> public space, in a way that I would not be ashamed of, were it to become widely known. As far as my online persona is concerned, that mostly means this blog - when I post here, I think about what I'm posting, and why. More than that, I think about how it will be understood, how those whose opinions I respect would react to what I write. And whether or not I would like those reactions.<br />
<br />
That doesn't mean I haven't made my mistakes. We all have. That's what apologies and changes in the way I act are for.<br />
<br />
Nor does it mean that I don't do things that some people might find questionable. I don't talk about them online. Or, you know, at all. Mostly I examine myself (internally) and what I'm doing, comparing my actions to my principles and determining whether or not they're in conflict. Sometimes they are, at which point I've determined that I've made a mistake in the way that I act... and then, well, see above. (Or, more rarely, that I've made a mistake in formulating or holding a given principle.) Sometimes, I decide that they aren't, despite the disapproval of those whose opinions I would otherwise respect.<br />
<br />
But you know... if the day ever comes when I am called to account in public, I'm not going to complain about how I should be allowed to carry on without censure. That isn't how society as a whole works. I am accountable to the people around me for the way I act, and as long as their responses are in and of themselves legal, they may react as they desire.<br />
<br />
Apparently the rules change on the Internet. As <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/news/reddit-adrian-chen-violentacrez-gawker-rumors/">the Daily Dot</a> puts it, "At Web communities like Reddit, <i>which thrive because users are free to say and do anything they want</i>, doxing is a severe crime, both to users and the site’s staff." (Emphasis mine.)<br />
<br />
I don't agree. As it happens, I think Reddit can thrive perfectly fine without its jailbait subreddits. I don't think that the freedom to do <i>anything</i> you want is an integral part of Internet society. And I'm going to go out on a limb and say this: if Reddit in specific or Internet society in general <i>does</i> actually rely on its users' ability to say whatever they want without being called to account for it, it should not exist.Zankouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04153993302277024444noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8794556893161256965.post-70182952013469607012012-09-18T11:25:00.001-04:002012-09-18T11:25:58.647-04:00The Power of a StoryI'm often met with skepticism when I start talking about the kind of world that I'd like to build.<br />
<br />
And you know, going over those goals myself, I can agree it's one hell of a daunting list. As a progressive, as a feminist, I've set my sights on no less than changing the culture in which we live. Perhaps it would be better to say that I want to create entirely new cultural expectations and norms. Well, yeah, not exactly "entirely new", but there are days when it seems like even suggesting that women should not be generally treated as eye candy in the media is a radical proposal. (To take one example.)<br />
<br />
But then there are also the days when I feel... well, confident. I won't go on overmuch about what particularly sparked my latest round of that confidence, for a number of reasons. I'll just put it this way: I'm feeling like I have the power of a good story on my side of this one.<br />
<br />
It seems impossible to believe, even to me. Wasn't I the one that was just complaining about the way women are portrayed in the media? (Yeah, that was definitely me.) And yet, I see the same messages that I believe in, repeated from the characters and stories that I enjoy. In the mentor explaining that those who commit an action are the ones responsible for it, not the people that they commit that action upon. (Numair, from Tamora Pierce's Wild Magic. If anyone was curious.) In the song that defiantly howls, "even if it's an impossible future, we'll set it in motion." (Nana Mizuki's Young Alive!, originally in Japanese.)<br />
<br />
Surely some of this is confirmation bias. I ignore (or at least, fail to remember clearly) the stories that don't align with my world view. And there are certainly no small number of those - my earlier critique remains a problem area, even today, even with some of the stories that I like!<br />
<br />
And yet, there's one last point to be made: we're the ones that acknowledge the power of these stories in the first place. How many times have I been rebuked with "Lighten up, it's just a story" or some variant thereof...? Dismissing the power of a story to affect the way we think, the way we act, is all but willful blindness to the way people react to the world around them. Acknowledging that power is the only way I'm ever going to succeed in changing the culture in which we live.Zankouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04153993302277024444noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8794556893161256965.post-83169371213247431922012-09-07T17:32:00.000-04:002012-09-07T17:32:00.231-04:00Democratic National Convention 2012One of the things that President Obama does very well, and has always done very well, is to remind me (and everyone else) that the Republican Party does not have a monopoly on soaring rhetoric and claims to moral purpose. Perhaps it was the song they started playing after the speech that sums it up best? "Wherever this flag's flown, we take care of our own."<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
We take care of our own. Listening to the President speak, listening to all of the different speeches at the DNC these last few days, I am reminded of why I support this party in the first place. I am a liberal, a progressive, a Democrat, because I believe that government can be part of the solutions to our problems. Because I believe that some of the problems we face are best addressed at the federal level, that government is the best solution for issues of health care and can do a great deal of good for the economic situation.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
And on these issues and more, President Obama's speech reminded me of why I'm not only going to vote for him in December but also why I'm now putting in my time and effort to volunteer, to ensure that he is re-elected. I can't say whether or not I would have written this last night, immediately after the speech... but it became a moot point, since I was tasked with running the computers and projectors displaying the speech at a watch party in Alexandria. Kept me more than busy enough to ensure I didn't get home until very late. (Doesn't help that I live an hour away from Alexandria...)</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
I could recap the main points - highlight the idea that a plan that forces seniors to continue to deal with insurance companies is a travesty, point out the need to improve and modernize our infrastructure and education, emphasize the importance of continuing to support veterans. I could even go over the things I didn't like about the speech; listening to it, I was struck (again) by the idea that I'm honestly to the left of the President on a surprising number of things. But in all honesty, that's what <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/video/president-obama-dnc-speech-complete-democratic-national-convention-17178902">watching the speech</a> is for. I can't possibly do better than his own words. (Although if people want to have that discussion, have at it in the comments.)</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
So all I truly have to offer is the feelings that the President evoked. The idea that "we take care of our own", as the song puts it. Or, to quote <a href="http://hoshinokage.blogspot.com/2012/01/romancers-neo-lyrics-translation.html">a song even closer to my heart</a> (well, quote my translation of it, anyway), "those who chase their dreams will shine."</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
More than anything else, I am going to be voting for President Obama in November because I believe that his is that path. That he is the President under which we will take care of our own. That he is the President under which we will be able to chase our dreams... and not just chase them, but reasonably expect to reach them, with the support from the people and from the government that is part and parcel of living in a place like the United States of America.</div>
Zankouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04153993302277024444noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8794556893161256965.post-91273597237281367662012-08-18T15:25:00.001-04:002012-08-18T20:32:10.723-04:00Chained Girl Lyrics Translation鎖の少女歌詞英訳The notes for this translation are <a href="http://hoshinokage.blogspot.com/2012/08/translation-notes-chained-girl.html">here</a>. Please direct any comments about this translation to that page's comment field.<br />
<br />
翻訳のノートは<a href="http://hoshinokage.blogspot.com/2012/08/translation-notes-chained-girl.html">こちら</a>です。コメントしたい場合にはそちらにコメントしてください。
<br />
<br />
Chained Girl<br />
鎖の少女<br />
<br />
Lyrics/Composition/Arrangement: Noboru ↑<br />
作詞・作曲・編曲:のぼる↑<br />
<br />
Vocal: Miku Hatsune<br />
歌:初音ミク<br />
<br />
Chorus: Luka Megurine, Gumi<br />
コーラス:巡音ルカ・GUMI<br />
<br />
Lyrics:<br />
<div>
<br />
もう何もかも嫌になる前に<br />
ホントノ愛ヲクダサ…<br />
<br />
Before I come to hate everything,<br />
give me your honest love...<br />
<br />
今日は少し下がった 破り捨てたい<ruby><rb>評価</rb><rp>(</rp><rt>テスト</rt><rp>)</rp></ruby><br />
期待を超えられず 傷が増えてく<br />
<br />
I back off slightly today, a test I want to toss aside,<br />
unable to surpass your expectations, my wounds multiply.<br />
<br />
振り向けば捨ててきた 友達とか夢とか<br />
自由を奪われて生きるどうして…?<br />
<br />
Behind me, the discarded friends and dreams,<br />
my freedom stolen away, why do I live...?<br />
<br />
ココロを鎖で縛られた あやつり人形<br />
わたしはアナタの<ruby><rb>装飾品</rb><rp>(</rp><rt>ジュエル</rt><rp>)</rp></ruby><br />
もっと輝ケリクルケリクルケ<br />
<br />
My heart bound with chains, a doll under your control.<br />
I am your jewel,<br />
here to shine more brightly...<br />
<br />
誰ノ偽ニ生きているのでしょうか<br />
”ジブン”と言えないままで<br />
もう何もかも嫌になる前に<br />
ホントノ愛ヲクダサイ<br />
<br />
For whose sake am I living,<br />
still unable to say "myself"?<br />
Before I come to hate everything,<br />
give me your honest love...<br />
<br />
希望とか指先で 砂に書いても消える<br />
笑顔の子供たち 遠くに見えた<br />
<br />
Even if I write "hope" in the sand with my finger, it vanishes...<br />
I watch the smiling children from afar.<br />
<br />
歩むべき<ruby><rb>人生</rb><rp>(</rp><rt>みち</rt><rp>)</rp></ruby>を決められた 束縛人形<br />
アナタはわたしの<ruby><rb>操り師</rb><rp>(</rp><rt>あくま</rt><rp>)</rp></ruby><br />
ずっと見えない<ruby><rb>鎖</rb><rp>(</rp><rt>いと</rt><rp>)</rp></ruby>で動かすの<br />
<br />
With the path I am to walk already decided, I am a bound doll.<br />
You are my devil,<br />
setting me in motion with your invisible threads...<br />
<br />
こんな作られた物語ならば<br />
全てを塗りつぶしたい<br />
夜中に抜け出すことみたいに<br />
逆らう勇気が欲しい<br />
<br />
If this entire story is created for me,<br />
I want to repaint it all.<br />
As if to break out of this dark night,<br />
I want the courage to defy you.<br />
<br />
街行く人の影追いかけ 留まるカケラ一人<br />
このカラダ 意思の無いままに生きてきた<br />
<br />
Chasing the shadow of those out in town, restrained to this fragment of a person,<br />
this body lived on without a will of its own...<br />
<br />
嘘だらけの言葉で 惑わすのはもうやめて<br />
あなたの言いなりなんか もうやめる<br />
わたしのこのココロは お金じゃきっと買えない<br />
世界で一つだけの…大切なモノ<br />
<br />
Don't deceive me anymore, with your words filled with lies.<br />
Don't make me do everything you say anymore.<br />
This heart of mine surely can't be bought with money,<br />
it is the one and only precious thing in this world...<br />
<br />
誰のために生きているのでしょうか<br />
コタエは目の前にある<br />
わたしの未来を奪うなんて<br />
そんなの許さないから<br />
<br />
For whose sake am I living...?<br />
The answer is before my eyes.<br />
To steal away my future,<br />
that is something I will not forgive.<br />
<br />
もう何もかも嫌になる前に<br />
<br />
Before I come to hate everything,<br />
<br />
鎖の鍵を解いて<br />
<br />
release these chains...</div>
Zankouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04153993302277024444noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8794556893161256965.post-50213743255414740622012-08-18T15:25:00.000-04:002012-08-18T15:26:02.797-04:00Translation notes: Chained GirlThere are a number of Vocaloids songs for Miku that have similar titles, something followed by "shoujo". The first of those was Giant Girl (巨大少女, "kyodai shoujo"), which I found in the second Project Diva game, and then eventually I tracked down Deep-Sea Girl (深海少女, "shinkai shoujo"). Now I've found <a href="http://hoshinokage.blogspot.com/2012/08/chained-girl-lyrics-translation.html">Chained Girl.</a> (The title structure is slightly different - "kusari <i>no</i> shoujo" - but I feel comfortable grouping these songs together anyway.)<br />
<br />
I translated this song for one simple reason: I listened to it, read the lyrics out of the CD booklet as I listened to it a second time, and realized I had a powerful song on my hands. All three of the songs I mentioned did that to me, really. Giant Girl is a song about wanting to be noticed. Deep-Sea Girl is an allegory for depression. Chained Girl is a song about feeling imprisoned by the expectations of others.<br />
<br />
Neither was it a song that was particularly difficult to translate. I do still need work on the vocabulary I have memorized, since it's not really practical to pull out a dictionary in the middle of a conversation. But that wasn't a concern in this case. And in between my ability to listen to the song and the kanji I can read out of the CD booklet, getting the lyrics wasn't a challenge either.<br />
<br />
The one interesting point that I'd like to highlight this time around, from a technical perspective, is the ways furigana (the characters used as a pronunciation guide, printed above certain kanji) are used in situations like this one. In the first two instances, they're simply "converting" the reading from Japanese into English; the word "hyouka" can be translated as "test" (or perhaps more accurately "assessment"), while "soushokuhin" can mean "jewel" (again, more accurately "ornament" or "decoration"). So those aren't a challenge to translate, particularly.<br />
<br />
Later, though, there are three more in quick succession that are a little more complicated. In those instances, the kanji in question are being "pronounced" as entirely different words. It leaves open the question: do you translate the word printed in the book or the word actually sung in the lyrics? Which is closer to the meaning you're trying to capture? Is there a way to account for both intended meanings in the translation?<br />
<br />
In this case, I translated all three as the lyrics that were sung, and I'd like to think it works out so that all of the original meaning remains. The first is the reading of "jinsei", "life", as "michi", "road" or "path". Honestly, though, that's not difficult either; it makes perfect sense in English just as well, in the sense of "the path we take in life" or something like that. Calling it "the path I am to walk" says effectively the same thing as "the life I am to live", and I think the former captures the poetic manner of communicating that thought more effectively.<br />
<br />
Second, we have "ayatsuri-shi", which would be a person who controls a puppet, read as "akuma", a demon or devil. In this case, I felt that the element of being controlled was adequately represented in the following line, and that the song would not suffer greatly from me focusing on the "devil" aspect of the translation. There are ways to account for both by extending that line in the translation, but I felt that none were wildly effective, and I did want that line to parrot the similar line from earlier in the song.<br />
<br />
Finally, "kusari", the focus of this song ("chain" in case it wasn't obvious) read as "ito", "thread". In that sense it's just a matter of picking one of those two words to put in there - is the singer being controlled by chains or threads? Again, with chains being prominent elsewhere in the song, and with thread making more sense as a method of puppet control (especially an invisible one), I felt the song didn't lose anything major by translating as "threads".<br />
<br />
I probably could go on, but I think I'll settle for talking about that one issue and opening up the floor to comments, questions, complaints, what have you. Let me know what you all think.Zankouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04153993302277024444noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8794556893161256965.post-47081032835833817962012-08-16T11:05:00.000-04:002012-08-16T23:15:39.853-04:00Having it Both Ways<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/crime/family-research-council-guard-shot-by-gunman-in-dc/2012/08/15/e420527e-e719-11e1-a3d2-2a05679928ef_story.html">According to the Washington Post</a>, yesterday an armed intruder (IDed as Floyd Lee Corkins II) entered the Washington D.C. headquarters of the Family Research Council and attacked the security guard there, who did his job admirably in preventing the intruder from advancing any further into the building. Said security guard was shot, but is currently in stable condition, so hopefully this will be one of those rare shooting incidents where no one ends up dead.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
While it is still far too early to ascribe definite motivations to the shooting, from the <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57493780/cops-lgbt-volunteer-shoots-conservative-groups-guard/">CBS report</a> on the situation, Floyd Corkins II had been volunteering at an LGBT community center in the months leading up to the shooting and had made a "negative reference about the work of the Family Research Council" in the moments before opening fire.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
I won't mince words here: his choice of action was simply unacceptable. Multiple different LGBT organizations released a <a href="http://www.glaad.org/blog/lgbt-organizations-release-joint-statement-regarding-shooting-family-research-council-frc">similar statement:</a></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
We were saddened to hear news of the shooting this morning at the offices of the Family Research Council. Our hearts go out to the shooting victim, his family, and his co-workers.<br />
<br />
The motivation and circumstances behind today’s tragedy are still unknown, but regardless of what emerges as the reason for this shooting, we utterly reject and condemn such violence. We wish for a swift and complete recovery for the victim of this terrible incident.</blockquote>
So of course, we began the process of healing and recovery from this terrible tragedy, and thanked our respective deities that it wasn't any worse than it was. Heaven knows I've been accused of "politicizing" tragedies so many times - and I've been doing my best to hold my tongue in the wake of the last, oh, four or five shooting incidents in all of a month. Surely no one would think of trying to make this about...<br />
<br />
<a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/243921-shooting-spurs-heated-battle-on-gay-rights-and-hate-group-label">Of course not.</a><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Brian Brown, the president of NOM, pointed to a recent blog post by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), one of the largest gay-rights groups in the country. The post, “Paul Ryan Speaking at Hate Group’s Annual Conference,” called attention to the vice presidential candidate’s scheduled appearance at the FRC’s national summit next month.<br />
<br />
“Today’s attack is the clearest sign we’ve seen that labeling pro-marriage groups as ‘hateful’ must end,” Brown said in a statement issued following the shooting.<br />
<br />
“For too long national gay rights groups have intentionally marginalized and ostracized pro-marriage groups and individuals by labeling them as ‘hateful’ and ‘bigoted.’”</blockquote>
<strike>To the Family Research Council's credit, they have <i>not</i> said anything of this nature, and I'm honestly grateful for that. The National Organization for Marriage could stand to learn from that example.</strike><br />
<strike><br /></strike>
<b>EDIT, 2315 hours:</b> I want it logged for the record that I gave them the benefit of the doubt, right up until, <a href="http://www.metroweekly.com/poliglot/2012/08/anti-gay-slogans-on-display-at-frcs-press-conferen.html">well...</a><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
One day after a Virginia man is alleged to have shot a security guard at the D.C. headquarters of the anti-gay Family Research Council, the organization's president, Tony Perkins, held a press conference to blame the shooting on the Southern Poverty Law Center -- the group that in 2010 named FRC a "hate group" based on the SPLC's documentation of FRC's efforts to "knowingly spread false and denigrating propaganda about LGBT people" -- declaring that the watchdog group had given the shooter a "license" to shoot.</blockquote>
So now I speak to the National Organization for Marriage and anyone who might be inclined to make similar statements, apparently now including the FRC itself. I ask you - do words actually have meaning, or not? Because if they do, if calling someone hateful or wrong contributes to subsequent violence against them, then you need to stop and think. Ask yourselves why <a href="http://www.dayofsilence.org/FAQs/#f6">nine out of ten</a> LGBT students report harassment of some type at school. Ask yourselves what your words are doing to them. Ask yourselves, every time one of them commits suicide, what your <i>actual </i>marginalization and ostracization of those children is accomplishing!<br />
<br />
If our words have that kind of effect, that might cause this attack... well, go back and read that statement above. We've answered, as best we can, for the blood on our hands. Now it's your turn to answer for yours. Until you can do that, calling you out as hateful and bigoted will be nothing less than accurate.Zankouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04153993302277024444noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8794556893161256965.post-28915320333671469272012-08-11T12:53:00.000-04:002012-08-11T22:05:17.371-04:00Romney/RyanBy now, I expect you've heard the news that <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/paul-ryan-is-romneys-pick-for-vice-presidential-nominee/2012/08/11/dc2f5070-e0f1-11e1-8fc5-a7dcf1fc161d_story.html">Paul Ryan is Romney's vice president pick.</a> This is not an entirely unexpected development in the campaign, honestly. Ryan is really the closest thing to a policy wonk the Republicans have, especially on the economic side; as the architect of the last two budgets the GOP's put forward, I feel like this pick represents the Romney campaign's desire to centralize economic issues right up until Election Day.<br />
<br />
Of course, the fact that I call Ryan the closest thing to a policy wonk that the right wing has <i>should</i> be a greatly depressing sentence for anyone that actually wants the GOP to have any influence over policy at all for the next twenty years. I won't hold my breath though.<br />
<br />
Why do I say that? In a word, Ryan's policy proposals are ridiculous. The fact that his ideas are representative of intellectual thought and serious policy proposals on the right wing actively scares me. The budgets that he's put forward would be actively disastrous for everyone other than the top <i>hundredth</i> of one percent of Americans by wealth, cutting pretty much anything and everything from <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/27/pell-grants-paul-ryan-budget_n_1383178.html?ref=education">Pell grants</a> to Medicare. And because it's not enough to gut the social safety net (that he's <a href="http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/04/20/paul-ryan-already-benefitted-from-the-social-security-fund-he-now-wants-to-gut/">already benefited from</a>, no less!), he's proposed <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/06/20/502695/gop-budget-tax-study/">cutting taxes on the wealthy</a> while increasing them on the lower class.<br />
<br />
Of course, the crowning jewel here is the fact that this budget is somehow supposed to <i>also</i> reduce the deficit all at the same time. How? <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/02/opinion/krugman-pink-slime-economics.html?_r=1&ref=paulkrugman">That's an excellent question.</a> No one knows. How he can manage to make all these claims when he himself has to realize how mendacious they are is what truly scares me. Any competent economist (<a href="http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/10/culture-of-fraud/">and those four don't count as competent</a>, not anymore) can tell that there is literally no way to reconcile all of these competing claims. And yet Paul Ryan is hailed as an intellectual genius, the rising star of the right wing policy wonks.<br />
<br />
Anyone who reads my blog regularly could probably have realized before now that I was never going to vote for Romney in November anyway, so in that sense my disapproval means very little. However, prior to today, I would have shied away from voting for Romney because I had no idea which Romney I was going to get; would it have been the hard right wing Romney of the Republican primary race or the more moderate Governor Romney of Massachusetts?<br />
<br />
Now, things have changed. Now, I know exactly what I'm going to get out of a Romney/Ryan ticket. I know full well what kind of economic policy we're going to get out of that White House. It is an economic policy that runs counter to any rational consideration of the needs of the United States or of the needs of the vast majority of American citizens. That it can be hailed as a policy masterpiece, by <i>anyone</i>, scares me a great deal.Zankouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04153993302277024444noreply@blogger.com0