Thursday, June 11, 2015
Monday, June 8, 2015
Key Problems
I don't know what it is with me and broken computer keyboards but this is the second one that has failed me and required emergency repair so I can continue to expose my emotionally traumatic past.
I don't abuse this keyboard at all although if it had eyes I'm sure it would be in therapy. Maybe it's trying to kill itself so it doesn't have to watch me torture myself anymore. I don't know. I'm not a doctor. But it was connecting and disconnecting randomly and I dreaded a BIOS update and all the keyboards in Latin America are not the same so I would have trouble I don't want. Spanish keyboards have bizarre symbols and if I told you want I have to do to make the @ symbol on a Spanish Keyboard you would laugh in my face. It requires two people. And simply making " quotation marks involves three different key shortcuts, and then the quotation marks do not appear until you type a letter. There are upside down question marks that begin a question. Ctrl+A doesn't do shit to select all the text. No. And Ctrl+T (todos) also doesn't do shit. a comma is where the period normally is. In short, I had to fix this fucking keyboard that I bought in a pawn store in Maine many moons ago. I manipulated the cable and it seemed that either the software was dropping the keyboard exactly when I twisted the cable or else the cable had broken inside the housing, which has never happened to my keyboard before. This was a trip down memory lane into shielded cable, ground wires, data, power, neutral, strain relief, dsub pins, engineer drawing, sweating vodka while I fucked up a semi-conductor cable harness. God, the awful things I've done to survive. Bunch of bullshit but it helped me avoid buying a new keyboard and learning the Latin American layout.
Well, I took the keyboard to an internet shop where I print out my Flintstones Theme Jazz charts and plugged it in and it didn't work there either. Then I tug on the wires and the red one pulls right out. So that's a clue. And it broke right next to the strain relief and for a week or two it was hanging on by a thread and if I held the keyboard perfectly it would power up, but that thread broke finally and would only reconnect when I twisted the wires. Even though it's like .7mA of current the red power wire does succumb to heat over time and also the strain of repeatedly typing "Cheerleader Porn" could have been too much to tolerate. I feel bad for the keyboard, but the world is full of grief these days and we all have to deal with bullshit.
The lesson is that things can be fixed but at this point it doesn't matter if you buy another brand new keyboard.
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| I really suspected it was the power wire. |
I don't abuse this keyboard at all although if it had eyes I'm sure it would be in therapy. Maybe it's trying to kill itself so it doesn't have to watch me torture myself anymore. I don't know. I'm not a doctor. But it was connecting and disconnecting randomly and I dreaded a BIOS update and all the keyboards in Latin America are not the same so I would have trouble I don't want. Spanish keyboards have bizarre symbols and if I told you want I have to do to make the @ symbol on a Spanish Keyboard you would laugh in my face. It requires two people. And simply making " quotation marks involves three different key shortcuts, and then the quotation marks do not appear until you type a letter. There are upside down question marks that begin a question. Ctrl+A doesn't do shit to select all the text. No. And Ctrl+T (todos) also doesn't do shit. a comma is where the period normally is. In short, I had to fix this fucking keyboard that I bought in a pawn store in Maine many moons ago. I manipulated the cable and it seemed that either the software was dropping the keyboard exactly when I twisted the cable or else the cable had broken inside the housing, which has never happened to my keyboard before. This was a trip down memory lane into shielded cable, ground wires, data, power, neutral, strain relief, dsub pins, engineer drawing, sweating vodka while I fucked up a semi-conductor cable harness. God, the awful things I've done to survive. Bunch of bullshit but it helped me avoid buying a new keyboard and learning the Latin American layout.
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| That plastic block is called a strain relief and you can see how well it worked because only one wire broke. |
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| Don't cut the shield or the ground wire that surround the main wires. Split the shield in half and then pull the metallic-wrapped 4 wires out. Take the wrapping off and check for continuity. Cutting the ground wires won't kill the power but it will allow a short to ground to kill your computer. |
The lesson is that things can be fixed but at this point it doesn't matter if you buy another brand new keyboard.
Saturday, June 6, 2015
Brown Recluse
Larry had a small cot inside the woodshed. Electricity
came from an extension cord from the main house. It froze in the winter like a meat locker but when the fog and rain came in
the evening he would lay awake because of the back spasms and prostate
throbbing like the bass drum of Blonde Destiny’s first hit “Rock My Rocket” The
agony Larry described was comical because every day was a struggle with death.
One night he woke up and there was a mattress spring poking into his side. He
said he rode his bike to the hospital for more pain medication on account of
the bleeding but he was denied. “What does it matter if an old carpenter like
me suffers and dies in their waiting room?” Larry had asked.
Oggy stayed in the tool shed a few night, but there was
almost no room on the floor and Larry had to urinate into a plastic milk jug
“every hour on the hour” and Oggy had trouble staying asleep on account of the
troubling holocaust visions. So it had been safe from patrol drones but mostly
a miserable experience. Larry told bedtime stories in his coastal Maine accent,
laughing and groaning, as he waited for the pain killers to numb his throbbing
neck. The stories were similar to this one:
Friday, June 5, 2015
Mean To Me
I've been pondering music in general lately and my conclusions are in two realms. The first realm concerns music itself and the process of learning about music. What is the goal ? What is realistic? What is the fantasy? In elementary education there is a technique knows as KWL.* It's been a while but it's the basic process. 1) What do you already Know? 2) What do you Want to know? 3) What did you Learn? K-W-L. It's important to recognize that those are three questions. Those are not three statements. A teacher who makes statements is probably a pundit. Traditional music education is basically the study of the codified language and symbology related to music along with some history and mechanics. It doesn't create musicians; it creates musical technicians. I had ideals of studying 'art' but I think the approach is more anatomical than that, like dissecting a heart to learn about love.
The actual process of learning music is learning traditional approaches and terminology to music. We learn chord formulas...but those chord formulas were actually manufactured by the study of common practice J.S. Bach compositions from 1640. Bach didn't provide harmonic analysis of his music because the closest thing to theory Bach had was a shorthand notation called 'figured bass' and he operated on a different dimension of music than that. Felix Mendelssohn and others analyzed Bach compositions and arrived at certain conclusions that we now call music theory. If you study Western Music then you are studying the inception and development of Bach's music. The goal of music education is not to create the next Mozart...no, the goal is to create the next cruise ship musician or high school Band director. Earning a living as a musician, who makes music, is almost impossible. Every job has 25 applicants who are equally qualified and there are limited number of jobs. The chances are good that a musician will end up treating music as a hobby. Even top musicians basically work 365 days a year, travel every day, one gig after another and if they decide to take an extended break they will be nearly forgotten about except by their fan club. A performer's value usually transcends his or her own musical talent and it's not a relevant topic. This applies to Madonna as well as anyone. It's incredible that Madonna had a longer career than Patti Page but that's what happened. The biggest puzzle I have concerning Bob Dylan is that he was so one dimensional that he didn't stop recording albums except due to near-fatal accidents for 50 years. You can criticize Miles Davis tracks all you want but at least he stopped playing horn for nearly ten years to smoke crack and pimp some hookers. He had other interests and I like that. I'm very suspicious of one dimensional people like Bob Dylan. How little imagination do you have to possess in order to do nothing but record music for 40 years? I don't get it.
I've been pondering this question because when people see I play guitar and piano they naturally ask questions that have been nagging them about music in general and I've wondered what it is I'm trying to do when answering them. I really wonder if there's any good answer if the question involves experience. What's the fundamental issue? They are asking a question, but what's the bigger question, the question behind the question? And the answer is anatomy.
The second realm I've been pondering is guitar pedagogy. This is the damnation of learning anything as an adult: one also learns to study process. I've taken professional lessons and read everything possible and there is no flawless method. You're better off locking yourself in a closet with a guitar and no food and not leaving until you are happy with your progress. This is not like playing Chess against a computer, which you can conceivably never win. The Guitar never tries to outsmart you. There are rules and the rules never change. The patterns never change. So it should take about 40 hours to theoretically understand the guitar, but I've met people who don't understand it after 40 years. And I've met people who understand it but can't explain it. And I've met people who can explain it but recommend you simply apply yourself to figuring it out. The one common train between the great guitarists is the amount of time they spent with a recording and a guitar trying to decipher a lick or solo. Simply, the ear and the guitar. Why? Because all the great lessons are embedded in the great solos. You can't play the solo without learning the lessons. But that does no good for analytical/deconstructionist folks like me.
When a child learns something they either accept the process or rationalize avoiding the process. But an adult knows that process is everything and they have hopefully learned to translate information into suitable terms that match their own specific intelligence. Guitar pedagogy is definitely one of the more fraught and fragmented processes. Fretted Stringed instruments are like 300 years old but I can assert that no effective method exists, no 'official' method, no 'proven' method. Many methods exist that include effective elements, but none of them are flawless for all people. They all take one or another approach that can easily be considered a baffling mess to some students and to some others it is clear enough and some others it's like the hand of Segovia guiding one to the light. The author of Fretboard Logic method wrote something like, "All methods are equally good. It's merely a matter of the student committing." I'm not sure about that because there are some methods that lead to complete dead ends. I've seen some very good instruction that is completely absent from all other method books. And I've seen some fundamentally horrible demonstrations included in all method books. Basic questions are unanswered, questions that I know the answer to but am perplexed that a method book would ignore. Maybe it's like Alcoholic's Anonymous: the method will work if you work with the method. The generic guitar method always deteriorates on about week 2 of the method into a mess involving an editorial decision to use a single key...and on fretted instruments the key is irrelevant because everything is relative to how one perceives the nut. The authors usually state that the goal is to 'transcend sheet music' but none have figured out how to start out in that transcendent space. Oh, it's frustrating and this isn't the first time I've pondered a categorical unified theory of guitar. What frustrates me further is that I've concluded: 1) it's possible to create an effective unified theory of guitar pedagogy and 2) no one will want to use it.
But the one detail I'd like to develop is the progressive approach of stages, such as one would encounter in Ballet.
Stage 1) In which the student learns manual techniques as an end in themselves.
Stage 2) Student applies manual techniques to traditional music.
Stage 3) Student improvises changes beyond the realm of stage 1. Attempts self expression.
An example of this would look like this:
Stage 1a: The guitarist learns 12 different voicings of the D minor7 chord. These 12 formations, when moved up one fret, are the Eb minor7 chord.
Stage1b: The Guitarist learns the D Dorian scale in three positions: 5th position, 7th position. 12th position. This scale pattern, moved up one fret, is the Eb Dorian scale.
Stage 2a: The guitarist plays the Coltrane song Impressions, which has 16 measures of D minor7, followed by 8 measures of Eb minor7, followed by 8 measures of D minor7. That's the whole song, 2 chords. The guitarist plays rhythm for those 32 measures using the 12 different voicings x the 2 chords. So 24 "different" chords, though they will look identical and played 1 fret apart.
Stage 2b: The Guitarist plays the melody of Impressions in 3 different positions. This melody is built from the D Dorian scale and the Eb Dorian scale.
Stage 3: Guitarist improvises the D Dorian scale when the D minor7 chord is being played. Improvises the Eb Dorian scale when the Eb minor7 chords is being played.
I think that most guitar students would drop this method at Stage 1a because it's tedious, boring, involves no real music at first and ultimately will lead to playing 60 year old basic jazz songs written by a heroin junkie for a saxophone. I accept that this method will not attract nor keep any students. And yet, I see nothing else wrong with the progressive strategy.
The weird part is that all the professional guitar methods follow some kind of similar strategy of progressively guiding a student from chords and scales to performance. But when some one comes to me and says,
"Oggy, I want to learn guitar."
and I say, "It's an irresponsible activity. In maybe two weeks you can learn enough to play every Hank Williams song and be content at every campfire."
And they respond, "But how do these junkie rock musicians who can't keep their pants up learn to play the guitar and I've been trying for 5 years and have no idea what I'm doing?"
And I repeat, "Their tolerance of irresponsibility was much higher than yours. They probably identified patterns on the fretboard without any explanation and most of them could not explain what they play and don't want to explain what they play. There is only one overlapping pattern on the guitar and it always overlaps and always repeats. It never changes and some players immediately recognize this single pattern and realize the position they are playing in makes no difference since they are always working on that single overlapping pattern. Everything about the guitar is applying a chosen matrix (scales/chords) over a set pattern. Neither the matrix nor the pattern changes but you have to know where you are located on the fretboard. For some reasons there are players who immediately accept these facts like their are piano players who can immediately transpose a song to any key and don't understand why others can't since all the notes shift up or down a certain amount."
This goes on and on but it irks me that something mechanical/manual is so befuddling to many including me. And my solution is a method that would not work for anyone I've ever met, but that I stand by as technically flawless, logical, perfect. The object is to be able to start somewhere and progress toward a goal, but I've seen atrocious methods and some rock guitarists pawning 'non-methods' that simply demonstrate a series of common licks or fretboard hacks that sound good without any explanation of what is happening or even how to transpose it to another key. I think I've examined every method book available and I can't recommend any of them without first knowing someone's objectives and learning style. In general, there is no good method available.
The best lesson I've seen involves another activity that would cause pretty much every student to run the other direction: playing half steps up and down the neck in something he calls "An unbroken chain of half steps". The only rule is you can play any half step with any finger. And you move up and down and horizontally across the strings but never by more than a half step. I like this method because it can't be done without some focus and any mistake will be easy to discuss and analyze. Maybe you can't do this perfectly, but to understand the lesson is pretty fundamental to the guitar so there's no point in moving on if this lesson is a puzzle. And a complimentary lesson is to learn every note name on the guitar. This sounds self-explanatory but it befuddled me for the longest time. Amazingly, you don't need to know any of the note names to play pretty good. I've played guitar recitals in exotic tunings without knowing the note names. But if I were in control of the method then this is a fundamental one and isn't too hard. Start with the BC-D notes. One string under those are always the EF-G notes. That only leaves the A note which is always a whole step below the B and a whole step above the G. As basic a lesson as that seems, I've never seen it in a published method book. They seem to think publishing a chart of all the notes on the fretboard will help you deconstruct it and memorize it. Not true, for me.
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| Horizontal Chords |
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| Vertical chords |
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| Middle voicing/horizontal |
I don't know if the goal is to think 'pianistically' because it's way easier to think in groups/shapes. But I suspect advanced jazz players do not think in groups, but rather think as a pianist with each note being played by a finger and they adjust their fingers for different notes, rather than adjusting their fingers for different shapes. It's a subtle difference but important. The hard part is not seeing the strings and frets since your head is behind the fretboard.
That's all for now.
The song I recorded is a great co-dependent tune written by the same people who wrote Nat King Cole's tune "I Don't Know Why"
music by Fred E. Ahlert and lyrics by Roy Turk. Out of respect to them both I combined the two songs into a co-dependent medley. If I had to start with any Jazz standard that isn't monotonous like "All of Me", I think it would be either "Memories of You" by Eubie Blake or "Mean to Me" by Ahlert and Turk.
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| Why the fuck do I watch these things? Why? IS there anything worse than being a Borderline Personality Disorder who is addicted to codependency? |
The compositional elements are flawless and the lyrics are right in the Cole Porter witty wheelhouse, but not so demanding. I tried to play a bunch of Cole Porter the other day and I have to admit defeat. They are too complicated lyrically, melodically, harmonically and philosophically. My fingers were pleading for mercy after 'Love for Sale'. I can not play them adequately because they all have a critical Broadway tempo and non-traditional quirks. Cole Porter is advanced piano technique in my opinion. However, "Mean to Me" is perfect. Like I said, Lester Young and Nat King Cole and Buddy Rich recorded this as a trio. Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra both took a stab at it and I personally prefer Dean Martin or King Cole or Bobby Cole to Sinatra, but I won't judge fans of Old Blue Eyes; he's also awesome. A crash course in jazz could include those three recordings and a long afternoon. All the secrets of Jazz are in a comparison of those three recordings.
* Holy shit, I remembered that from a 1999 pedagogy class.
Monday, June 1, 2015
Free Speech
Imagine you read these messages from me:
You'd probably think old Oggy was having a laugh. Funny guy! Well, one Pennsylvania guy posted similar messages to his fuckbook page and was arrested for federal threats...
And here we are a while later and I'm talking about free speech as it applies to terrorizing Muslim worship.
Big Hero: Oggy, could you clarify your position, you traitorous draft dodging hypocrite?
Oggy: Sure. The thing is...
Big Hero: Cause we're all waiting to hear the next bat shit idea that comes out of your mouth.
Oggy: This is my interpretation of...
Big Hero: Big man behind his computer screen. Fucking world falling apart and you run down to Central America. Real Big Man!
Oggy: FYI...I've been deadly sick for two weeks. Vomiting all night. Shitting in a bag.
Big Hero: Wwaaaaahhh! You want some tampons for your cunt? You pussy bitch.
Oggy: I only get off the toilet to collapse on the floor.
Big Hero: Booooo Hooooo, you got me crying in my corn flakes.
Oggy: Can I finish my essay about Free Speech?
Big Hero: It's a free country, at least where I live, not down in some taco field in Central America where the savage fags run around with sombreros and swim across borders to....
(Oggy takes gun out and shoots Big Hero 12 times. Reloads. Shoots him another 12 times. Reloads and shoots him another 12 times.)
Oggy: I GUESS I'LL FINISH MY FUCKING SENTENCE NOW SINCE YOU ARE A BIG FUCKING HERO LYING IN A PUDDLE OF BLOOD AND I'LL PISS ON YOUR BONES SINCE I DRANK SO MUCH WATER TO REHYDRATE AND I GUESS I'LL SHIT IN WHAT REMAINS OF YOUR MOUTH TOO BECAUSE YOU ARE CLOSER THAN THE TOILET!
The deal is that posting dumb suicidal and homicidal shit to your fuckbook page or to your blog is that this is not public. It's basically a fictional diary that I publish and fictional diaries have no limit on depravity. That's a key feature. This blog is buried among something like 90,000,000 other fictional blogs. If you find this thing and hang around to read then that's your problem according to the SCOTUS. Death Threats against schools, in the eyes of the Supreme Court, is "Offensive and disagreeable" but not illegal. Actually making plans and going to a school and shooting children is, I'm pretty sure, still illegal. So, this guy was arrested and convicted of federal threats but the SCOTUS overturned the conviction, giving all closet mass murderers reason to cheer because until they kill someone then they can't be prevented from killing any more people. This does puzzle me because I have often written essays and saved them as drafts but not published them. Isn't this a feature of Fuckbook? By publishing the draft I am choosing to go live, to turn my private diary into a public announcement, which is not required to 'vent my emotions'. A diary that is 'just joking' doesn't have to be published. So by publishing it I am making it a public announcement and if it threatens anyone and causes real fear or havoc then it is irrelevant that I was 'just joking'. If I am just joking then keep it as a draft and don't publish it. That is responsible free speech. A threat that is intended to threaten and cause fear can't later be called a joke simply because you got caught before you followed through on the threat. But that's crazy Oggy thinking. SCOTUS wants you to threaten as many as possible but to do it in a way that can later be defended as a joke. They are saying that any threat I think up must be published because I can't hit the 'save as draft' button.
Yes, it's offensive and disagreeable to write about murdering school children. Yes, and I guess if you are busy body who cares about preventing mass murder then you will call the cops and they can investigate the threat. That is the point SCOTUS is getting at. The written threat is simply a starting point to investigate. It does not constitute any preparation to commit the threat that was written. But an investigation may turn up additional evidence, (maps, guns, suicide letter, a wall covered with photos and a few of them are crossed out, etc) and that can be used to prosecute a credible threat. But the simple typed words on a screen do no constitute enough evidence that the threat was anything more than a bleak slip to the dark side. We're all prone to those unless your medication is working perfectly and the SCOTUS isn't going to add to your depression the possibility that you will be arrested and charged and convicted of terrorist threats. No, but the threat may be used to begin an investigation that can be used to convict you, so mind yourself. There are some details of this case that have me scratching my head because this dude obviously intended to be threatening and after getting his restraining order from his ex-wife he continued to "threaten" her and even 'threaten' the FBI who came to investigate 'threats' against the school. His intent was to threaten and place them in fear. That's pretty obvious because he's a no-nut piece of shit and the only kicks he gets are from emotional terrorism. And that emotional terrorism is a violation of a federal threat statute. You can't call in a bomb threat to school and then say, "I was only joking. I don't have a bomb" No, you're getting fucked if you do that because if you're the only one in on the joke then your fake bomb threat will be treated like a real bomb threat and will cause real fear and cause real havoc...just like this idiot's 'threats' did inspire his ex-wife to file a restraining order. Was it a fake restraining order? No. It was real because the fear was real. But he put up disclaimers on his fuckbook account - "This is for entertainment purposes! Merely venting" etc. I guess I could say, "I'm merely venting by running you over with my car. haha. Just kidding! Oh, you broke your leg? Well, that's your fault. I wasn't serious. It was entertainment." This rationale puzzles me because his conviction was overturned. I really hope someone has some entertainment with him too, just for fun, not seriously breaking his spine, but pretending to break his spine. (That would entertainment and kind of like a movie. Not seriously though, just put him dead in a coffin and piss on him. Hahaha. not serious. who would do that? Only a hysterical comic! It's funny to call him a pig fucker who should die! Not serious! haha. I'm going to kill him and piss on his corpse <<<<JUST A JOKE! SCOTUS THINKS IT'S FUNNY.)
How this relates to the Phoenix Mosque terrorist attack by anti-Islam terrorists who have hijacked the 1st amendment is simple: The Pennsylvania guy was posting these messages on his private account. They basically amount to tasteless jokes of the, "Take my wife!" variety and if you don't like them then don't read them. HOWEVER, if this asshole actually marches to a school with cartoons of dead children and several handguns strapped to his back wearing bulletproof vests and begins to march around the school shouting "DEATH TO ALL STUDENTS! FUCK STUDENTS! NO MORE SCHOOLS!"
Then, I ask you, what choice do the students, teachers and parents have to avoid this lunatic? They have no choice and the issue becomes whether his right to denounce schools and verbally threaten and insult and mock them qualifies as free speech when it inspires real fear and can not be ignored? SCOTUS think it's a big joke. All I can say is that if you think this is free speech then PLEASE go experiment with it. But make sure to let me take out an insurance policy on you because you are going to get shot down like fucking dog. Several black people were arrested for making similar threats against white police and this SCOTUS decision pretty much sets the precedent that those people are innocent because they were merely venting. Well, that's good to know the law applies equally to blacks and whites. Threaten cops all you want but just make sure to 'be kidding'.
But something went wrong in Phoenix because the war pundits are winning their war to recruit puppet soldiers for their profit wars. That's the only difference. Islam has been demonized by several high profile pundits generating hysteria and they have been so successful that an armed mob can surround a mosque, hinder the worshipers, abridge their civil right to worship in peace, threaten them, insult them, mock them, wear shirts "FUCK ISLAM" make signs "NO MORE MOSQUES" Shout "MUSLIMS MUST DIE" and the police will stand around and consider it 'free speech'. Simply ask the people in the mob and they will tell you they intend to create fear, they intend to disrupt lawful prayer, they intend to terrorize. These protesters were not kidding but they were ignored regardless. Thanks, SCOTUS! Do a similar set of actions at a Yankee game in NY and you will be killed. Do it outside a Mosque? Police shrug. You literally must now shoot someone down like a dog before being considered a credible threat. Emotional terrorism is supported and defended by the 1st amendment in 4 states.
I denounce this because the Muslims have no choice. They must tolerate discrimination and persecution that is prohibited by federal law. I guess they could file a restraining order against all members of American Freedom Defense Initiative, and I would support that. Hell, I'd pay for it. They have no opportunity to turn the computer off or go to a different street. The hate group has not chosen a courthouse to have their event. They went to the mosque to guarantee a disruption of worship, which is prohibited, but the disruption, including emotional terrorism, was considered within the realm of free speech. All playground bullies can now breathe a sigh of relief that as long as they simply emotionally terrorize their targets then they are OK! Just say, "I was only kidding." and all will be forgiven. SCOTUS has your back.
Now, in my recent crusade for Islamic liberties I have learned that identical protests happen outside Latter Day Saint conferences. LDS, for some reason, is a persecuted religion and their prayer has been abridged. I didn't know anything about this because I thought the year wasn't 1840. The LDS are Mormons. I guess they are the same. I recently met some LDS missionaries and we literally sat around, read the bible in Spanish and prayed. I felt it caused no harm and they were respectful. I said, "Jesus Christ, Thank you for sending these two men to spread your glorious word of good and holy salvation. God bless them. God bless Guatemala. Amen."
It was different. I almost videoed it because it was so bizarre.
Well, some people aren't as tolerant as I am and they march on LDS conferences, where I'm sure the Mormons pray before and after the meetings, and the protesters disrupt the prayer. I was asked if I denounce this event too and I see it as very similar. Yes, it's a civil rights violation. If you can't abolish a religion without violating their civil right to worship in peace then you aren't going to abolish that religion. Sorry. Getting desperate only shows your whole premise is flawed. Folks in Utah are persecuting Mormons, abridging their right to worship, infringing on their civil liberties. Just because the religion is Mormon and not Muslim doesn't mean it's permissible. But again, the pundits opposing Mormons have won their local war and police make no arrests. They consider it free speech even though the Mormons have no option to avoid the threats of violence and insults and mockery. You're a fucking asshole if you march on an LDS conference. Yes, the Mormon religion is bat-shit crazy. Obviously an angel did not give Joseph Smith gold books that vanished and he led his people through a persecuted flight through the Mid West, where he was attacked and many were murdered and he advocated pedophilia and also bigamy, plural marriages, doomsday theory, mysticism. A bunch of utterly bat-shit ideas that have survived to this day. What can I say? It's not my business. Thomas Jefferson said, "Religion is a matter for a man and his god." It's not my concern even when two missionaries in Central America insist on praying with me in front of my van. Basically, they go home, they do not insult me. I have options to say, "Thanks, I don't want to meet anymore to pray to a false god. Goodbye." And they will leave and say I'm doomed to damnation. Boo Hoo for Oggy's soul.
When you stalk someone at their place of worship, surround them, insult them, threaten them, then they have no alternative and must tolerate you or kill you. The police do nothing so they have demonstrated their impotence. They are worthless. You must defend yourself because threats are intolerable. Do not accept a bully in your face. No. Emotional terrorists are not thoughtful people and they can't be reasoned with. It's easy to say that violence is not justified when you are not the one being stalked and surrounded and threatened. There's no scenario where I would ask for you to tolerate that and if the police are indifferent then you must defend yourself alone. It's a sad state of affairs when the court refuses to defend the 1st Amendment, but we've reached that stage in Texas, Arizona and also Utah where the abridgement of civil liberties is clearly a new tradition. I blame the pundits who villainize a religion like LDS or Islam or Satanism until they can get a dumb mob with pitchforks and march on a place of worship.
Lots of examples have been thrown in my face: "WHAT ABOUT THE GUY WHO PUT A STATUE OF JESUS ON HIS FRONT LAWN AND PISSED ON IT AND SHIT ON IT?"
My response: did he put it on the front lawn of a church? Can Christians avoid it?
"GAYS MARCH ON WESTBORO BAPTIST CHURCH TO DENOUNCE GAY BASHING"
My response: It's a civil rights violation. Worship may not be abridged.
"WESTBORO CHURCH MARCH ON GAY WEDDINGS/EVENTS WITH SIGNS "GOD HATES FAGS"
My response: It's a civil rights violation. The gay attendees can not avoid the threats and insults.
PRO LIFER LUNATICS BLOCKADE FEMINIST HEALTH CLINICS
My Response: I've received medical care at a feminist health clinic and it wasn't for a common cold. So get the fuck out of my way before I cough on you! It's a civil rights violation because I can't avoid them.
PRO CHOICE LUNATICS GO TO HEALTH CLINICS TO MURDER BABIES
My Response: Because the clinics do the job without a coat hanger, you ignorant fuck. There are 7 Billion people so unless God is going to build an escalator to another planet then let the women kill their sperm tumor before it mutates! Constitutional law is debated in court, not outside a health care clinic.
Like cigarette smoke, which I loathe, I don't go to restaurants or bars that allow smoking. If I go to park and people are smoking I move. It's a civil rights violation but I tolerate it because it's a big park and living with aspiring lung cancer patients is a cost of city living, like noise and dog shit. The one thing I liked about the oil field is that no one smoked. It was forbidden at the site because of flammable atmosphere and in company vehicles and the money involved proved you can pay someone to quit smoking because everyone quit. It smelled like diesel fuel and methane and Hydrogen sulfide, which can crystallize your lungs, but at least it didn't smell like cigarettes. But this issue arises with strippers and waiters and performers who look for work and must tolerate cigarette smoke. I would personally starve to death on the street before working around cigarettes but others are not so determined and have petitioned their governments to forbid smoking in their workplace so they don't die of cancer. Many states have accepted their argument but many have not. The reason is lobbyists and pundits.
In conclusion, at least we are having this conversation although there is a dead body with 36 bullet holes in it I have to go clean up now.( HAHA! <<----Just kidding, INTERPOL! ) The Missouri folk who attacked the Mormon wagon train in 1838 did not have this discussion. Maybe that is progress.
I'll say it again: religious persecution never eradicates a religion and I denounce it. Even if religious persecution DID eradicate a religion I would denounce it because I don't want to live with anyone who is capable of eradicating a religion. I denounce terrorism in all forms. ISIS demonizes Christianity to recruit puppet soldiers and Fox news demonizes Islam to recruit puppet soldiers. In the end, a bunch of ignorant poor pawns will fight to profit the elite puppet masters. This has been the history of man and I suspect this will be the final fate of man, but I rest knowing I stood against it when I saw it. I did not ignore it. I did something.
"Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away." Mark 13-31
sign this petition to do something about it.
And while you are there sign the petition to ban infant circumcision because I lost my foreskin for absolutely barbaric reasons more suitable to Sharia law than America.
*The result of this war was a forced migration of Mormons from Missouri. They moved to Indiana. Then they moved to Utah. Then they moved back to Missouri when the extermination order was rescinded in 1976. Then they moved to all states. Now LDS missionaries are everywhere in the world. So, how effective was this war? I'm sure someone made some profit from it but not the men who died. It bore only poisoned fruit on which we still feast.
"There's one way to love you but a thousand ways
to kill you,"
"Enough elementary schools in a ten mile radius to
initiate the most heinous school shooting ever imagined,"
You'd probably think old Oggy was having a laugh. Funny guy! Well, one Pennsylvania guy posted similar messages to his fuckbook page and was arrested for federal threats...
And here we are a while later and I'm talking about free speech as it applies to terrorizing Muslim worship.
Big Hero: Oggy, could you clarify your position, you traitorous draft dodging hypocrite?
Oggy: Sure. The thing is...
Big Hero: Cause we're all waiting to hear the next bat shit idea that comes out of your mouth.
Oggy: This is my interpretation of...
Big Hero: Big man behind his computer screen. Fucking world falling apart and you run down to Central America. Real Big Man!
Oggy: FYI...I've been deadly sick for two weeks. Vomiting all night. Shitting in a bag.
Big Hero: Wwaaaaahhh! You want some tampons for your cunt? You pussy bitch.
Oggy: I only get off the toilet to collapse on the floor.
Big Hero: Booooo Hooooo, you got me crying in my corn flakes.
Oggy: Can I finish my essay about Free Speech?
Big Hero: It's a free country, at least where I live, not down in some taco field in Central America where the savage fags run around with sombreros and swim across borders to....
(Oggy takes gun out and shoots Big Hero 12 times. Reloads. Shoots him another 12 times. Reloads and shoots him another 12 times.)
Oggy: I GUESS I'LL FINISH MY FUCKING SENTENCE NOW SINCE YOU ARE A BIG FUCKING HERO LYING IN A PUDDLE OF BLOOD AND I'LL PISS ON YOUR BONES SINCE I DRANK SO MUCH WATER TO REHYDRATE AND I GUESS I'LL SHIT IN WHAT REMAINS OF YOUR MOUTH TOO BECAUSE YOU ARE CLOSER THAN THE TOILET!
The deal is that posting dumb suicidal and homicidal shit to your fuckbook page or to your blog is that this is not public. It's basically a fictional diary that I publish and fictional diaries have no limit on depravity. That's a key feature. This blog is buried among something like 90,000,000 other fictional blogs. If you find this thing and hang around to read then that's your problem according to the SCOTUS. Death Threats against schools, in the eyes of the Supreme Court, is "Offensive and disagreeable" but not illegal. Actually making plans and going to a school and shooting children is, I'm pretty sure, still illegal. So, this guy was arrested and convicted of federal threats but the SCOTUS overturned the conviction, giving all closet mass murderers reason to cheer because until they kill someone then they can't be prevented from killing any more people. This does puzzle me because I have often written essays and saved them as drafts but not published them. Isn't this a feature of Fuckbook? By publishing the draft I am choosing to go live, to turn my private diary into a public announcement, which is not required to 'vent my emotions'. A diary that is 'just joking' doesn't have to be published. So by publishing it I am making it a public announcement and if it threatens anyone and causes real fear or havoc then it is irrelevant that I was 'just joking'. If I am just joking then keep it as a draft and don't publish it. That is responsible free speech. A threat that is intended to threaten and cause fear can't later be called a joke simply because you got caught before you followed through on the threat. But that's crazy Oggy thinking. SCOTUS wants you to threaten as many as possible but to do it in a way that can later be defended as a joke. They are saying that any threat I think up must be published because I can't hit the 'save as draft' button.
Yes, it's offensive and disagreeable to write about murdering school children. Yes, and I guess if you are busy body who cares about preventing mass murder then you will call the cops and they can investigate the threat. That is the point SCOTUS is getting at. The written threat is simply a starting point to investigate. It does not constitute any preparation to commit the threat that was written. But an investigation may turn up additional evidence, (maps, guns, suicide letter, a wall covered with photos and a few of them are crossed out, etc) and that can be used to prosecute a credible threat. But the simple typed words on a screen do no constitute enough evidence that the threat was anything more than a bleak slip to the dark side. We're all prone to those unless your medication is working perfectly and the SCOTUS isn't going to add to your depression the possibility that you will be arrested and charged and convicted of terrorist threats. No, but the threat may be used to begin an investigation that can be used to convict you, so mind yourself. There are some details of this case that have me scratching my head because this dude obviously intended to be threatening and after getting his restraining order from his ex-wife he continued to "threaten" her and even 'threaten' the FBI who came to investigate 'threats' against the school. His intent was to threaten and place them in fear. That's pretty obvious because he's a no-nut piece of shit and the only kicks he gets are from emotional terrorism. And that emotional terrorism is a violation of a federal threat statute. You can't call in a bomb threat to school and then say, "I was only joking. I don't have a bomb" No, you're getting fucked if you do that because if you're the only one in on the joke then your fake bomb threat will be treated like a real bomb threat and will cause real fear and cause real havoc...just like this idiot's 'threats' did inspire his ex-wife to file a restraining order. Was it a fake restraining order? No. It was real because the fear was real. But he put up disclaimers on his fuckbook account - "This is for entertainment purposes! Merely venting" etc. I guess I could say, "I'm merely venting by running you over with my car. haha. Just kidding! Oh, you broke your leg? Well, that's your fault. I wasn't serious. It was entertainment." This rationale puzzles me because his conviction was overturned. I really hope someone has some entertainment with him too, just for fun, not seriously breaking his spine, but pretending to break his spine. (That would entertainment and kind of like a movie. Not seriously though, just put him dead in a coffin and piss on him. Hahaha. not serious. who would do that? Only a hysterical comic! It's funny to call him a pig fucker who should die! Not serious! haha. I'm going to kill him and piss on his corpse <<<<JUST A JOKE! SCOTUS THINKS IT'S FUNNY.)
How this relates to the Phoenix Mosque terrorist attack by anti-Islam terrorists who have hijacked the 1st amendment is simple: The Pennsylvania guy was posting these messages on his private account. They basically amount to tasteless jokes of the, "Take my wife!" variety and if you don't like them then don't read them. HOWEVER, if this asshole actually marches to a school with cartoons of dead children and several handguns strapped to his back wearing bulletproof vests and begins to march around the school shouting "DEATH TO ALL STUDENTS! FUCK STUDENTS! NO MORE SCHOOLS!"
Then, I ask you, what choice do the students, teachers and parents have to avoid this lunatic? They have no choice and the issue becomes whether his right to denounce schools and verbally threaten and insult and mock them qualifies as free speech when it inspires real fear and can not be ignored? SCOTUS think it's a big joke. All I can say is that if you think this is free speech then PLEASE go experiment with it. But make sure to let me take out an insurance policy on you because you are going to get shot down like fucking dog. Several black people were arrested for making similar threats against white police and this SCOTUS decision pretty much sets the precedent that those people are innocent because they were merely venting. Well, that's good to know the law applies equally to blacks and whites. Threaten cops all you want but just make sure to 'be kidding'.
But something went wrong in Phoenix because the war pundits are winning their war to recruit puppet soldiers for their profit wars. That's the only difference. Islam has been demonized by several high profile pundits generating hysteria and they have been so successful that an armed mob can surround a mosque, hinder the worshipers, abridge their civil right to worship in peace, threaten them, insult them, mock them, wear shirts "FUCK ISLAM" make signs "NO MORE MOSQUES" Shout "MUSLIMS MUST DIE" and the police will stand around and consider it 'free speech'. Simply ask the people in the mob and they will tell you they intend to create fear, they intend to disrupt lawful prayer, they intend to terrorize. These protesters were not kidding but they were ignored regardless. Thanks, SCOTUS! Do a similar set of actions at a Yankee game in NY and you will be killed. Do it outside a Mosque? Police shrug. You literally must now shoot someone down like a dog before being considered a credible threat. Emotional terrorism is supported and defended by the 1st amendment in 4 states.
I denounce this because the Muslims have no choice. They must tolerate discrimination and persecution that is prohibited by federal law. I guess they could file a restraining order against all members of American Freedom Defense Initiative, and I would support that. Hell, I'd pay for it. They have no opportunity to turn the computer off or go to a different street. The hate group has not chosen a courthouse to have their event. They went to the mosque to guarantee a disruption of worship, which is prohibited, but the disruption, including emotional terrorism, was considered within the realm of free speech. All playground bullies can now breathe a sigh of relief that as long as they simply emotionally terrorize their targets then they are OK! Just say, "I was only kidding." and all will be forgiven. SCOTUS has your back.
Now, in my recent crusade for Islamic liberties I have learned that identical protests happen outside Latter Day Saint conferences. LDS, for some reason, is a persecuted religion and their prayer has been abridged. I didn't know anything about this because I thought the year wasn't 1840. The LDS are Mormons. I guess they are the same. I recently met some LDS missionaries and we literally sat around, read the bible in Spanish and prayed. I felt it caused no harm and they were respectful. I said, "Jesus Christ, Thank you for sending these two men to spread your glorious word of good and holy salvation. God bless them. God bless Guatemala. Amen."
It was different. I almost videoed it because it was so bizarre.
Well, some people aren't as tolerant as I am and they march on LDS conferences, where I'm sure the Mormons pray before and after the meetings, and the protesters disrupt the prayer. I was asked if I denounce this event too and I see it as very similar. Yes, it's a civil rights violation. If you can't abolish a religion without violating their civil right to worship in peace then you aren't going to abolish that religion. Sorry. Getting desperate only shows your whole premise is flawed. Folks in Utah are persecuting Mormons, abridging their right to worship, infringing on their civil liberties. Just because the religion is Mormon and not Muslim doesn't mean it's permissible. But again, the pundits opposing Mormons have won their local war and police make no arrests. They consider it free speech even though the Mormons have no option to avoid the threats of violence and insults and mockery. You're a fucking asshole if you march on an LDS conference. Yes, the Mormon religion is bat-shit crazy. Obviously an angel did not give Joseph Smith gold books that vanished and he led his people through a persecuted flight through the Mid West, where he was attacked and many were murdered and he advocated pedophilia and also bigamy, plural marriages, doomsday theory, mysticism. A bunch of utterly bat-shit ideas that have survived to this day. What can I say? It's not my business. Thomas Jefferson said, "Religion is a matter for a man and his god." It's not my concern even when two missionaries in Central America insist on praying with me in front of my van. Basically, they go home, they do not insult me. I have options to say, "Thanks, I don't want to meet anymore to pray to a false god. Goodbye." And they will leave and say I'm doomed to damnation. Boo Hoo for Oggy's soul.
When you stalk someone at their place of worship, surround them, insult them, threaten them, then they have no alternative and must tolerate you or kill you. The police do nothing so they have demonstrated their impotence. They are worthless. You must defend yourself because threats are intolerable. Do not accept a bully in your face. No. Emotional terrorists are not thoughtful people and they can't be reasoned with. It's easy to say that violence is not justified when you are not the one being stalked and surrounded and threatened. There's no scenario where I would ask for you to tolerate that and if the police are indifferent then you must defend yourself alone. It's a sad state of affairs when the court refuses to defend the 1st Amendment, but we've reached that stage in Texas, Arizona and also Utah where the abridgement of civil liberties is clearly a new tradition. I blame the pundits who villainize a religion like LDS or Islam or Satanism until they can get a dumb mob with pitchforks and march on a place of worship.
Lots of examples have been thrown in my face: "WHAT ABOUT THE GUY WHO PUT A STATUE OF JESUS ON HIS FRONT LAWN AND PISSED ON IT AND SHIT ON IT?"
My response: did he put it on the front lawn of a church? Can Christians avoid it?
"GAYS MARCH ON WESTBORO BAPTIST CHURCH TO DENOUNCE GAY BASHING"
My response: It's a civil rights violation. Worship may not be abridged.
"WESTBORO CHURCH MARCH ON GAY WEDDINGS/EVENTS WITH SIGNS "GOD HATES FAGS"
My response: It's a civil rights violation. The gay attendees can not avoid the threats and insults.
PRO LIFER LUNATICS BLOCKADE FEMINIST HEALTH CLINICS
My Response: I've received medical care at a feminist health clinic and it wasn't for a common cold. So get the fuck out of my way before I cough on you! It's a civil rights violation because I can't avoid them.
PRO CHOICE LUNATICS GO TO HEALTH CLINICS TO MURDER BABIES
My Response: Because the clinics do the job without a coat hanger, you ignorant fuck. There are 7 Billion people so unless God is going to build an escalator to another planet then let the women kill their sperm tumor before it mutates! Constitutional law is debated in court, not outside a health care clinic.
Like cigarette smoke, which I loathe, I don't go to restaurants or bars that allow smoking. If I go to park and people are smoking I move. It's a civil rights violation but I tolerate it because it's a big park and living with aspiring lung cancer patients is a cost of city living, like noise and dog shit. The one thing I liked about the oil field is that no one smoked. It was forbidden at the site because of flammable atmosphere and in company vehicles and the money involved proved you can pay someone to quit smoking because everyone quit. It smelled like diesel fuel and methane and Hydrogen sulfide, which can crystallize your lungs, but at least it didn't smell like cigarettes. But this issue arises with strippers and waiters and performers who look for work and must tolerate cigarette smoke. I would personally starve to death on the street before working around cigarettes but others are not so determined and have petitioned their governments to forbid smoking in their workplace so they don't die of cancer. Many states have accepted their argument but many have not. The reason is lobbyists and pundits.
In conclusion, at least we are having this conversation although there is a dead body with 36 bullet holes in it I have to go clean up now.( HAHA! <<----Just kidding, INTERPOL! ) The Missouri folk who attacked the Mormon wagon train in 1838 did not have this discussion. Maybe that is progress.
We
take God and all the holy angels to witness this day, that we warn all men in
the name of Jesus Christ, to come on us no more forever. For from this hour, we
will bear it no more, our rights shall no more be trampled on with impunity.
The man or the set of men, who attempts it, does it at the expense of their
lives. And that mob that comes on us to disturb us; it shall be between us and
them a war of extermination; for we will follow them till the last drop of
their blood is spilled, or else they will have to exterminate us: for we will
carry the seat of war to their own houses, and their own families, and one
party or the other shall be utterly destroyed.—Remember it then all MEN.[15]
-- Sidney Rigdon
"...Your
orders are, therefore, to hasten your operation with all possible speed. The
Mormons must be treated as enemies, and must be exterminated or driven from the
state if necessary for the public peace--their outrages are beyond all
description." - L.W.
Boggs*
I'll say it again: religious persecution never eradicates a religion and I denounce it. Even if religious persecution DID eradicate a religion I would denounce it because I don't want to live with anyone who is capable of eradicating a religion. I denounce terrorism in all forms. ISIS demonizes Christianity to recruit puppet soldiers and Fox news demonizes Islam to recruit puppet soldiers. In the end, a bunch of ignorant poor pawns will fight to profit the elite puppet masters. This has been the history of man and I suspect this will be the final fate of man, but I rest knowing I stood against it when I saw it. I did not ignore it. I did something.
"Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away." Mark 13-31
sign this petition to do something about it.
And while you are there sign the petition to ban infant circumcision because I lost my foreskin for absolutely barbaric reasons more suitable to Sharia law than America.
*The result of this war was a forced migration of Mormons from Missouri. They moved to Indiana. Then they moved to Utah. Then they moved back to Missouri when the extermination order was rescinded in 1976. Then they moved to all states. Now LDS missionaries are everywhere in the world. So, how effective was this war? I'm sure someone made some profit from it but not the men who died. It bore only poisoned fruit on which we still feast.
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