"So fair, yet so cold..."

"Denizens of Middle-Earth Speak in Support of Hillary":

Well, it seems as if Hillary Clinton has won some campaign support from the most unlikely of places: Tolkien’s Middle-Earth, where the forces of Sauron, long oppressed by the so-called “free” peoples, have made common cause with the Witch-Queen of New York. 

Mature and Reasoned?

Earlier today, on the Book of Faces, a friend of a friend commented:

"In this country, we desperately need a mature, reasoned discussion about..."

About what doesn't really matter. What I want to talk about is my reaction to that particular phrase: "mature, reasoned discussion".

When I saw that, I had to stop and take a step back. My friend has a fine, upstanding, intelligent, insightful group of folks that participate in and comment on various posts. I had no reason to believe that this individual meant anything by their comment except that they think we need to have a... well. a mature, reasoned discussion about that particular topic.

That's what the words mean.

That's what I read.

What I heard was: "Shut up", he explained.

Which pretty much stopped me in my tracks, because that is not the sort of reaction I am used to having in that context. I was struck by just how negatively that phrase impacted me. I had a very visceral, gut level, negative reaction to those words. I had to do a mental reset to keep it from coloring my opinion of the comment.

Thinking about it, I am pretty sure that it comes from wading deep into 2A discussions online recently. There, use of that particular phrase (or close variations) almost seems to be a talking point. I am pretty sure that you know the general conversational template:

Person #1: "Why can't we just enact reasonable gun control laws?!?!?"

Person #2: [explanation of current gun control laws]

Person #3: [discussion of problems enforcing current laws]

Person #4: [points out problems with gun control legislation du jour]

Person #1: "What we really need is a mature, reasoned discussion..."

When Person #1 hauls out the "mature, reasoned discussion" phrase, what they are implying - whether they actually mean to do so or not - is that they do not consider anything proceeding their comment to be mature or reasoned. Which says something about their opinion of the previous commenters.  More to the point, since they have decided those comments are neither mature nor reasoned, then they cannot be part of the discussion.

It is an insulting, dismissive phrase.

In other words... "Shut up", he explained.

If Jane Austin Worked for a Startup

"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a company in possession of a good product, must be in want of someone to diagnose Unicode issues."

Schrödinger's Amendment

"Seriously. Who needs an AR-15? All they're good is for killing people!"

"Eh. Not me. I want one, mind you. They're fun to shoot. But no, I don't need one."

"Right! So we should pass a law that makes them illegal, then confiscate all of them!"

"Then I'd need one."

"... I thought you said you didn't need one?"

"If they make them illegal and start to confiscate them, then I'll need one."

"What? Why?"

"Because someone will try to come and take it away."

"But you don't even have one!"

"At that point, I won't want to have one. But I'll need to have one."

"WHY?"

"To keep someone from taking it away."

"But you don't have one!"

"Right. But I'll need one."

"But you don't have one now!"

"No one's trying to take it away, now. So I want one, but I don't need one."

"But if they try to take it away..."

"Then I'll need one, but I won't want one."

"WHY?"

"Because I don't want to have to shoot anybody."

"I don't want anybody shooting anybody!"

"Then don't try to take away my AR-15."

"YOU DON'T EVEN HAVE AN AR-15!"

"Right. Because I don't need one... yet."

If It Was Hard To Write, Then It Should Be Hard To Read

OK, yes. I admit it. I laughed out loud.

Repeatedly.

Then I started to memorize the insults.

Life's A Bitter Shame

I took the #1 Minion out for a burger at Five Guys last night, and while we were there, "Crazy Train" started playing...

I've listened to preachers, I've listened to fools;
I've watched all the dropouts who make their own rules.
One person conditioned to rule and control;
The media sells it, and you live the role.

Dang.

It's a hard, cold bite of reality when freaking Ozzy Osbourne has a better insight into the political process than a vast majority of voters.

Well, now.

According to Google's blog stats, the two most heavily represented countries of my readers are the United States (no real surprise, there) and... Russia?

Huh.

Rounding out the top five are Japan, Brazil, and China; the remainder of the top ten are various European countries (Germany, France, Portugal, Poland, Italy).

Well, then - for my foreign readers...

• Добро пожаловать в мой блог!
• 私のブログへようこそ！
• Bem-vindo ao meu blog!
• 欢迎来到我的博客！
• Wilkommen auf meinem blog!
• Bienvenue sur mon blog!
• Witam na moim blogu!
• Benvenuti nel mio blog!

(No, I speak not a word of of any of these languages.  Credit - or blame - goes to Google Translate.)

Warcraft Quick Review

Two thumbs up for Warcraft. They did a solid job with the story, and the best part of the special effects is that they were well-enough done that they mostly faded into the background and just... were. It didn't take too long to stop thinking, "Oh, look at those special effects!" and think, "Wow. Durotan is really worried..."

The actors did a great job, particularly Travis Fimmel as Anduin Lothar and Toby Kebbell as Durotan. Gul'dan was especially loathsome, exactly as he should be, and Daniel Wu did a great job of bringing that across. I'd be lying if I said I didn't really like Ben Schnetzer as a (young!) Khadgar, too.

Someone who's a Warcraft player will obviously get the most out of the film - for example, there's a scene with a young Varian, which was amazingly cool. There were lots of little things like that which will have significance if you already know Warcraft lore; but knowing them really isn't essential to understanding the story, which can stand on its own.

I'm looking forward to watching the director's cut.  I heard that they trimmed the movie about 40 minutes, and I'd have a feeling that the story will flow better if it's spaced out slightly more. Based on the plot points and the box office take, I'm going to bet that there's at least a second movie based on TBC in the future.

Oh, and there's a murloc, which everyone rode past and just ignored. That made me laugh out loud :-)

Found My Candidate...

A Modest Proposal

"Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish, and wine unto those that be of heavy hearts."

– Proverbs 31:6

Given the way this upcoming presidential election is shaping up, I think it is well past time that the US lowered the drinking age to 18 across the board.

I mean... honestly? There are folks who are getting ready to vote in their first ever presidential election. At this point, it looks like they are going to have to choose among voting for the amateur liar, voting for the professional liar [1], or voting their conscience and pulling the lever for somebody who has less than a snowball's chance of winning.

And you want to force them to make that kind of choice sober?

That's just cruel and unusual punishment. 

[1] I will let you argue amongst yourselves as to which is which.