Look, I'm a member of the Whitebread Rap Haters Club. I find most of the genre actively repulsive. But you know what? A lot of people probably feel that way about classical music, Finnish heavy metal and/or bagpipes. 

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 04:15 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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The Nobel Prize for Peace has had something of a chequered history in recent years, but both the recipients this year richly deserved their title. In particular, Malala Yousafzai is awe inspiring. The youngest recipient ever, she took a Taliban bullet to the head in retaliation for demanding that women be allowed to go to school. 

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Brett Kimberlin, a cyberbully and convicted terrorist has lost his defamation suit against several bloggers who pointed out that he is a genuinely nasty piece of work. This was an important case as it threatened to set a troubling precedent with regard to the ability of individuals to shut down online free speech via lawfare and intimidate those with different political views . Additionally, some of the defendants in the case had endured death threats and SWATTings. 

Popehat has a roundup. It is particularly pleasing to me that this was not just a legal victory for the defendants. It was also a thorough, total and ignominious defeat for Kimberlin. Sometimes the good do win.   

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 09:18 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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Suburban Banshee has an extensive, link-heavy post on the utter monstrousness of Marion Zimmer Bradley, child molester and protector of her child molester husband.

Go read the while thing.

I mentioned this to my friend BOB! last night and he said that he'd heard about a lot of this years ago and had written off the author for that reason. Another friend mentioned yesterday that she'd known about enough of this for years that she had long ago burned Bradley's books. 

I, on the other hand, had muddled trough life blissfully ignorant of this.

It's a squalid, foetid affair that involves a couple of truly evil people. That word "evil" gets bandied about a lot, but this is the real deal.

But the reason I'm most angered by this is that the story is actually far worse than the depredations of 2 fiends. 

What is REALLY disturbing about this is the fact that elements in the Sci-Fi community had been covering this up since 1963. Oh, they had banned Breen (Bradley's eventual husband) from a con, but no one bothered to call the cops. 

This passage from the letter is particularly disturbing...After laying out the fact that Walter Breen is a CHILD MOLESTER, he suggests that Breen be...get this...banned from a con.

 I came to this conclusion most reluctantly. I have no axe to grind. And quite apart from my emotional reluctance, I expect some of my friends to get mad at me if I do anything about Walter. Others will be "disappointed" in me because of my "persecution" of Walter, poor innocent Walter who loves and understands children. Also I rather expect some damage in my race for TAFF in 1965.[/quote]

You know, I have something to say to the author of this letter....

Hal 9000, Skynet, and the Krell mind machine, combining their processing power and crunching numbers for a decade could not calculate all the fucks I do not give about your fanboy electioneering. You have, with that paragraph, proven yourself to be a soulless, malignant waste of skin that could be put to vastly better use by burn victims. You know of a child molester and you do not report it to police because you are afraid it will harm your popularity? If ratting out a pederast will endanger ones social standing, then I suggest that it is time to get another peer group. You have no axe to grind? ARE YOU HUMAN?

This was 1963. How many children were raped because no one on this mailing list had the spine to call the cops? (ed: at least 22) Why in the hell didn't SOMEONE call the authorities? Is it because as a member of fandom you'd been bullied and didn't want to cast judgements? If so you deserved every wedgie you got and more...far more. This was not being a beatnik, or some other alternate lifestyle, this was children, and this was a hell of a lot more children who suffered agony and terror because not ONE person in this circle of fen had sufficient ethical grounding to call the police.

The Kitty Genovese story was utter bunk, but this is as real as it gets. 

You know what's almost as disturbing than that?

This.

No news here, just a couple of glowing testimonials...well, the only people covering this are the French and the Italians.

Someone from Google must be an MZB fan.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 09:12 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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In honor of the day here is an animated celebration of the third 5 year plan,

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 06:46 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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 ...we note that Tamara K. has summed up a good bit of recent news in one quote.

If they really hated us because of our freedoms, then they can probably stop hating us any ol' time now. 

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If one is on a passionate and not entirely unwarranted tear about casual sexism and the need for respect in fandom, then referring to a male fan who makes an ass of himself as a "sperm sack" might not be the best was to advance this argument.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 02:18 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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 The Anchoress explores an outburst of both theological and logical fallacy.

Of course hatred rarely follows logic so this message is lost on the haters, but it's these asshats who get all the press. Given the depths of their hate they don't know much about their professed theology either.

She also has kind words for classy behavior.

The server has responded to the incident, saying "The offers to help pay me back are much appreciated, but not at all needed. I’d prefer to let my work ethic and my service do the talking, nothing else.”

That’s a classy response to a rank hatred.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 12:47 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Hah! Saw this on Instapundit. It is rich.
It seems that ABC sent a bunch of actors to incite anti-gay asshattery at a blue collar diner  in Texas. For comparison they did the same at an upscale restaurant in NYC....because...'Journalism' means that narratives must be reinforced.

Well, things did not go as planned.

^{Whaever WILL we do about these provincial
bigots and their pre-conceived notions?}

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 11:03 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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