(1) COMPLETE WEAPONS BAN AT SUPERCON. Florida Supercon (July 1-4) will not permit any real or replica weapons to be brought into the con. Includes blades, blunt weapons, whips, tasers, or even things that “cause excessive noise levels like vuvuzelas.”
In light of recent events, we have chosen to tighten security around the event and have recently updated many of the rules. This is done to protect our attendees and make sure that everyone may enjoy the convention without concern.
Florida Supercon is dedicated to the safety and security of ALL attendees.
Use common sense and remember what seems harmless to you may appear like a threat to someone else. All attendees must adhere to Florida State Law at all times during the weekend of Florida Supercon, including laws regarding firearms and weapons. If it is illegal outside of the convention, it is illegal inside the convention.
Please read this entire policy before attending Florida Supercon. Failure to follow this policy may result in your removal from the convention without refund. We have a ZERO TOLERANCE FOR WEAPONS.
(2) FAN OF THE SUPREMES. Michael Z. Williamson had this out earlier in the week: “Orlando: The AAR and BFTNP”.
This is going to be part pep talk and part “There there, here’s a foot in your ass.”
The Orlando shooting was not your fault. You bear no guilt and no shame. By embracing guilt and shame you give the terrorists what they want. Stop it. That way lies madness….
MAKING YOURSELF MORE HELPLESS HELPS NO ONE. “I don’t need guns,” you say. I know more about guns than you, and you’re wrong. You may not want any, and that’s fine, that’s your decision to make, FOR YOU, not for me, nor anyone else. “I couldn’t have done anything.” You’re right. So stop trying to Monday Morning Quarterback the whole thing. “Nobody needs an AR15.” Again, you’re wrong, and at this point you should be reminded of the Dunning-Kruger effect.
See this article here: http://www.michaelzwilliamson.com/blog/index.php?itemid=219
Get that? Access to firearms is a constitutionally protected right, and SCOTUS says so, the end.
(3) FINDING DORY FILLS TREASURE CHEST. Yahoo! Movies confirms the latest Pixar film, Finding Dory, set a record for an animated movie, earning many dollars in its worldwide debut.
Some 13 years after Finding Nemo first hit theaters, Pixar and Disney’s sequel Finding Dory made a huge splash, landing the biggest domestic opening of all time for an animated title with $136.2 million from 4,305 theaters….
The previous crown holder for top animated launch was DreamWorks Animation’s Shrek the Third, which debuted to $121.6 million in 2007. Until now, Pixar’s best was Toy Story 3 (2010) with $110.3 million.
(4) MASSIVE SPOILERS. ScreenRant spills all the beans in “The Alternate History of Independence Day Explained”.
Picking up in real-time, ID:R portrays a much different recent history than our own alien invasion-free world. The alternate events that occur following the War of 1996 in Independence Day definitely depict a darker timeline.
Thanks to a big viral marketing campaign, a prequel comic, a prequel novel – Independence Day: Crucible – and various Independence Day: Resurgence clips and trailers released during marketing, this dark timeline has become a little more clear.
Forget the history you thought you knew, and prepare yourself for some spoilers. Here is the full alternate timeline leading to Independence Day: Resurgence.
(5) JEMISIN IN NYT. N.K. Jemisin’s latest “Otherworldly” column for the New York Times Book Review covers new works by Claire North, Jonathan Strahan, Mira Grant, and Malka Older.
The easiest comparison that comes to mind when reading Malka Older’s INFOMOCRACY (Tor/Tom Doherty, $24.99) is to its cyberpunk forebears. There’s an obvious line of inheritance here from William Gibson and Neal Stephenson to Older’s futuristic world of global information networks and cool, noirish operatives vying for power and survival. Yet there’s also an inescapable “West Wing” vibe to the book. This probably owes to the fact that Older is herself a global player, with impressive bona fides in the field of international affairs. This lends the story a political authenticity that’s unusual in the field of cyberpunk, and very welcome.
(6) PULP FIRST CONTACT. James Davis Nicoll explains why he started Young People Review Old Science Fiction.
Young People Read Old SF was inspired by something award-winning author Adam-Troy Castro said on Facebook.
nobody discovers a lifelong love of science fiction through Asimov, Clarke, and Heinlein anymore, and directing newbies toward the work of those masters is a destructive thing, because the spark won’t happen. You might as well advise them to seek out Cordwainer Smith or Alan E. Nourse—fine tertiary avenues of investigation, even now, but not anything that’s going to set anybody’s heart afire, not from the standing start. Won’t happen.
This is a testable hypothesis! I’ve rounded up a pool of younger people who have agreed to let me expose them to classic works of science fiction1 and assembled a list of older works I think still have merit. Each month my subjects will read and react to those stories; I will then post the results to this site. Hilarity will doubtless ensue!
First in the barrel is “Who Goes There?” by Don A. Stuart (John W. Campbell). The responses are quite articulate and the young readers weren’t too rough on old John.
This reminds me of a “teens react” YouTube series – James may be missing out on millions of views by doing this in text!
(7) YELCHIN OBIT. Anton Yelchin, Star Trek’s Chekov, was crushed to death by his own car this morning.
Anton Yelchin, the Russian-born actor who played Chekov in the new Star Trek films, has been killed by his own car at his home in Los Angeles, police say.
It struck him after rolling backwards down the steep drive at his Studio City home, pinning him against a brick postbox pillar and a security fence.
He died shortly after 01:00 (08:00 GMT) on Sunday.
Yelchin, 27, also appeared in such films as Like Crazy (2011) and Green Room (2015).
The third movie in the rebooted series, Star Trek Beyond, comes out in July.
(8) DECORATE OR EDUCATE? The University of Glasgow’s Robert MacLean ponders the question, “How can we be sure old books were ever read?”
Owning a book isn’t the same as reading it; we need only look at our own bloated bookshelves for confirmation. You may remember this great cartoon by Tom Gauld doing the rounds on social media a year or two ago. We love it because, in it, we can clearly see our own bookshelves and our own absurd relationship with books: unread, partially read and never-to-be-read books battling it out for space with those we’ve successfully tackled. With our busy lives and competing demands on our leisure time, the ever-growing pile of unread books can even sometimes feel like a monument to our failure as readers! Although this is surely a more common anxiety in a time of relatively cheap books and one-click online shopping we should be reassured that it’s nothing new: Seneca was vocal in criticising those using “books not as tools for study but as decorations for the dining-room”, and in his early 16th century sermons Johannes Geiler (reflecting on Sebastian Brant’s ‘book fool’) identified a range of different types of folly connected with book ownership that included collecting books for the sake of glory, as if they were costly items of furniture1. When we look at our own bookshelves we can fairly easily divide the contents into those we’ve read and those we haven’t. But when it comes to very old books which have survived for hundreds of years how easy is it to know whether a book was actually read by its past owners? ….
Dog-ears
Different readers have different methods of physically marking their reading progress in a book. Once upon a time (I confess!) I was a dog-earer, who turned over the top corner of the page to mark my place; now – evidence of where I do much of my reading – I tend to use a train ticket as a bookmark. In this fascinating blogpost Cornelis J. Schilt, editor of the Newton Project, describes how one famous reader of the past, Isaac Newton, used large and often multiple dog-ears to act as mnemonic aides reminding him of specific words and references in books he was reading.
(9) TODAY IN HISTORY
- June 19, 1958 — Wham-O filed to register Hula Hoop trademark.
(10) LOVE IS ALL YOU NEED. Word of the Hugo Voter Packet finally reached readers of Sad Puppies 4: The Embiggening on Facebook.
The voter packet is out! Remember, ?#?Wrongfans read before they cast their votes, ?#?trufen just vote how they’re told to NoAward.
(11) ALPENNIA ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED. Heather Rose Jones bids you “Welcome to the New Improved Expanded Alpennia Website!”
Quite some time ago (nearly two years, I think), I decided I needed a more professional looking website for my writing activities. And it could have all sorts of bells and whistles! Book reviews! Forthcoming publications! Future convention schedules! I could not only move the Lesbian Historic Motif Project to the new site, but I could make it the primary home of my blog. And then it could push content automatically to LiveJournal and Twitter and Facebook. And the LHMP could have improved functionality, with better tagging, and a dynamic index page, and…and everything
(12) KEEP ‘EM CLICKING. “If Amazing Stories Were A Hugo Finalist, My Love: The Top 25 Posts of All Time” – Steve Davidson counts off his site’s biggest traffic magnets.
At the top of the list:
(13) SDCC LIVE. Syfy is starting to beat the drum for its upcoming Syfy Presents Live From Comic-Con broadcast.
Syfy will invade the world’s largest pop culture convention this summer with a three-night telecast directly from the heart of San Diego Comic-Con. The special – Syfy’s first-ever live broadcast from Comic-Con – will air on the network Thursday, July 21 through Saturday, July 23 at 8/7c.
Each night, SYFY PRESENTS LIVE FROM COMIC-CON will bring the Con’s non-stop action directly to viewers across the country, featuring celebrity interviews, breaking news and behind-the-scenes reports. The hosted live broadcast will highlight the biggest stars, top franchise reveals, panel news, exclusive sneak peeks of the hottest films, as well as audience interaction, games, party coverage and much more.
(14) ACKERMAN CENTENARY PROJECT. There’s a Kickstarter appeal for a 4E Ackerman tribute: “Famous Monsters is making a star-studded comic book anthology of weird & Terrifying tales in honor of Forry Ackerman’s 100th Birthday” has raised $3,875 of its $10,000 goal with 42 days remaining.
The year 2016 marks what would have been the late Forrest J Ackerman’s 100th Birthday. Famous Monsters and its comic book publishing imprint, American Gothic Press (AGP), are celebrating Forry’s centennial with an original hardcover anthology called TALES FROM THE ACKER-MANSION, to be released in October at our ALIEN CON event in Silicon Valley, CA!
Famous Monsters is a big name, but we are a small company. Despite our well-known magazine and iconic logo, we are a boutique operation. Still, we manage to make an enduring magazine, cool comic books, neat merchandise, run film festivals, and now are producing a major convention in October. As we spin several creative plates in the air at the same time, we are always mindful of “Uncle Forry” and the imaginative endeavors he championed. For Forry’s centennial celebration, we thought TALES FROM THE ACKER-MANSION would be a super-cool tribute, but in order to pull it off, we need help! That’s why we are doing FM’s first-ever Kickstarter/crowdfunding effort to cushion the incredible launch costs of such a project (more details at the end under RISKS & CHALLENGES)….
The magical thing about Forry is that he connected people from all fields and industries — be it film, music, comics, or literature. In the spirit of that connection, we have sought to make TALES FROM THE ACKER-MANSION a truly eclectic offering.
John Carpenter: “For TALES FROM THE ACKER-MANSION, John Carpenter channels O. Henry in an original short horror folk-tale, “The Traveler’s Tale”. It tells the story of an old British traveler who steals a cursed bejeweled box from a Middle Eastern bazaar. Written by the Horror Master himself!”
William F. Nolan: “His contribution for TALES FROM THE ACKER-MANSION is ‘the story of how Forrest J Ackerman and the robot from Fritz Lang’s METROPOLIS became acquainted.’”
John 5: “He currently plays for Rob Zombie on tour and in the studio. John has also produced numerous solo records — one of which, ‘Careful with that Axe’, shares the title of his story for TALES FROM THE ACKER-MANSION, a surreal rockstar fable about a Telecaster guitar that seems to give a young boy special powers.”
Richard Christian Matheson: “His short story ‘Barking Sands’ is appearing in TALES FROM THE ACKER-MANSION as illustrated prose”.
Joe R. Lansdale: “His short story ‘The Dump’ is being adapted for the anthology by MARK ALAN MILLER.”
Also included:
- An apocalyptic monster truck comic from creator Cullen Bunn (HARROW COUNTY) and artist Drew Moss (TERRIBLE LIZARD)
- A painted robot tale from comics writer and artist Ray Fawkes (CONSTANTINE)
- A cannibal story in the style of old Creepy and Eerie from HELLRAISER: BESTIARY’s Ben Meares and Christian Francis
- Stories by FM Editor David Weiner and AGP Editor Holly Interlandi
- An unconventional coming-of-age story by reknowned fantasy author Nancy Kilpatrick, illustrated by Drew Rausch (EDWARD SCISSORHANDS)
- A Golden Age noir-style romp from Victor Gischler (X-MEN)
- A Sci-Fi alien saga by Trevor Goring (WATERLOO SUNSET)
- A legend about lethal knitting needles from Travis Williams and Jonathan La Mantia
- Art pinups by many Famous Monsters cover artists
(15) SMASHUPS. ScreenRant believes these are the “13 Best Comic Book Crossovers of All Time”.
More often than not, this means comic creators throw together as many popular characters as they can get their hands on. It’s good business to throw characters together that no one expects to see sharing a page; companies as adversarial as DC and Marvel have been known to join forces for a good, crazy story. This has led to more than a few fantastic crossover stories over the course of comic book history….
- JLA/Avengers
…Arguably the most famous of all crossover comics, JLA/Avengers was actually the result of over thirty years of negotiations between the two companies, as the initial plans had been made in 1979 before plans were put on hold due to editorial differences between Marvel and DC’s higher ups. For a time it seemed as if JLA/Avengers was the sign of more cooperation between the two comics publishers, but there hasn’t been any further successful attempts to unite the two brands since.
(16) COMIC SECTION. Tom Gauld has been cracking them up on Twitter
A recent cartoon featuring @MarsCuriosity for @newscientist pic.twitter.com/BSkA9CqX7n
— Tom Gauld (@tomgauld) April 10, 2016
'James Bond is driving in his underwater car…' (My cartoon for today's @guardianreview) – pic.twitter.com/JGOUE89yLm
— Tom Gauld (@tomgauld) June 18, 2016
[Thanks to John King Tarpinian, Andrew Porter, James Davis Nicoll, Cat Eldridge, and JJ for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Heather Rose Jones.]
Discover more from File 770
Subscribe to get the latest posts to your email.
My brother was sensible enough to install pipes to the drainage and water so he can gradually change the water in the whole thing without having to use buckets. And reinforced the floor. Not sure of the actual tank size but there’s a whole filtration system in a cabinet underneath that probably holds 1/3 to 1/2 as much again as the main tank.
Must be doing something right as the clownfish and tang are at least as old as my nephew and he’s fifteen.
“Everybody in the whole scrollblock, dance to the pixelhouse rock….”
If it weren’t for how they’d appeal to young kids I’ve been thinking maybe we are tackling the gun culture wrong and should try something different. Why not make guns less manly man like? I’m picturing all AWS style guns needing to be purple and covered with 😀 emoticons. Take the manly black and the cool camouflage colors away. Strut your manliness with purple guns and smiley faces. Just a thought which has been bouncing around my head over the last few days.
Tasha wrote: “If it weren’t for how they’d appeal to young kids” :
Hello Kitty guns
@Bruce Arthurs
Thanks, kinda what I had in mind. I know there are guns out there designed for the girly gun lover.
I’m trying to picture MZW, BT, and LC strutting their stuff with those Hello Kitty(TM) guns. I just don’t see them as gung ho if all their guns had to look like that.
I can picture my ex-boyfriend’s face if he had to use a Hello Kitty design for his CCW. He might rethink his need for a gun for self-defense. Something he got after we broke up & he bought into the birther lies about Obama not being a born American which was the beginning of the end of our friendship. He’s done the civilian SWAT training (it was fun!) which sounded interesting but didn’t leave me feeling confident in his ability to be smart and capable in a live shooting situation.
ETA: who knows what story ideas I’ve put in the guys heads. 😉
@Bruce Arthur–
Please tell me it ended with the landlord saying “Hell, no, and if you try to do that to my building and your downstairs neighbors, you’ll never rent in this town again.”
[2] FAN OF THE SUPREMES. Interesting. A friend of mine in real life (online too much of a puppy sympathizer on account of being a Larry Correia fan) just recently posted a Facebook link to an MZW article that had the most vile misogynistic slurs directed against SOMEbody — I don’t even know what MZW was on about or who he was mad at because I didn’t feel like wading through a pile of flaming sewage to find out. I unfollowed the friend. I’m still kinda stewing about it. How could you decide to put that before my eyeballs, supposed friend?
So, I dunno, maybe I’m just in an anti-MZW mood, but he seems like a very poor spokesman for gun rights here. He doesn’t come across as a thoughtful person who weighed the pros and cons and came out in favor of more liberal gun laws. He comes across as a smug jerk who literally does not care that firearms are dangerous.
@Lorcan Nagle
Matthew M. Foster gives the MRA/alt right/Trump supporters/gamergaters/rabid puppies etc. the overarching nickname of “doomsphere” in his book “Welcome to the Doomsphere.” He does a pretty good job of making the case that they belong together because of shared ideologies and narratives. I was kind of hoping that “doomsphere” would catch on.
@Bruce Arthurs: All my sympathy goes to the tenant of the first floor apartment. 4,000 pounds of water, plus the busted ceiling and glass.
@Steve Davidson: Exactly. If you’re going to shoot up a place, you first take out the guy with the visible gun. Now he can’t shoot you, you’ve intimidated everyone else, AND now you have his gun to shoot more!
@McJulie: “Doomsphere” is more specific than “assholes”. And yes, the Venn diagram of them is very nearly a circle.
Chuck Wendig has a good essay on reasonable gun laws.
@McJulie: “[MZW] comes across as a smug jerk who literally does not care that firearms are dangerous.”
“Smug” – yeah, that fits. As for the rest…
I think there’s a condition akin to D-K where, upon attaining a certain degree of competence in a skill, one sees basic competence as impossibly easy and ceases to be able to wrap their heads around the idea that other people do not have it. Likewise, there’s the “nobody I know voted for him” bubble, in which you surround yourself with people of a certain mindset and kind of forget that there are other opinions out there.
In MZW’s case, from what I can tell (including some firsthand experience), he runs with a crowd of generally (or at least apparently) competent, conscientious gun-and-blade owners who share a certain profile of right-wing political views and a taste for blunt speech. Everyone he encounters either fits that mold, is too polite to get into a heated argument about it, or can safely be dismissed as a far-left extremist.
If he doesn’t know your views differ from his, he’s a nice guy who likes to tell un-PC, off-color jokes, a life-of-the-party type. I have no trouble at all understanding his gut reaction to a mass shooting being “if I’d been there with half a dozen of my buddies, it wouldn’t have happened” – and he may be right. Put him, Larry, and a couple of other experienced shooters in that situation, and they might indeed be able to keep their heads and “neutralize the threat.”
The problem is that most people have neither those skills nor that level of experience. Most people are not firearm instructors with years of experience… and that’s where MZW goes astray. He assumes everybody’s swimming in the same water he is, where proper weapon discipline is as natural as breathing. He literally does not see the people whose sloppy attitudes result in children finding loaded weapons, despite that happening every damn week. (Two dozen toddlers so far this year in the US. Toddlers causing fatalities.)
Yeah, if I were in a crowded, dimly-lit club and someone started shooting, I’d want someone like Mike there. If anyone has the skills to take the shooter down, he does. But he’s not the norm. Joe Average is more likely to contribute to the problem than to solve it, and Mike just doesn’t seem to comprehend that possibility. Because, to him, this stuff’s second-nature. It’s easy.
Saltwater fish: I have a friend who keeps a saltwater tank. I think it used to belong to her parents. In any case, she obviously knows what she’s doing, because it always looks good and the fish are healthy. Better her than me.
Hello Kitty guns: I’ve been semi-seriously advocating this sort of thing for years. Imagine the Sig Sauer name in flowing script with the “i” dotted with a little heart. The best part of it is that you could pass a law requiring that all guns be pink or purple and have Hello Kitty or unicorn stickers on them — it does absolutely nothing that anyone could call “infringement” on the rights of gun owners. All it does is remove the “I’m so BAD” factor.
Doomsphere: I dunno. To me, that sounds like something the g8ers and their ilk would leap on with cries of joy, because of (again) the “we’re so BAD” aspect. “Lusersphere” would be more like it.
@ Rev. Bob: he’s a nice guy who likes to tell un-PC, off-color jokes
This is a self-contradictory phrase — especially when you know that his “off-color” jokes are literally so, as in that horrible racist thing he tweeted last year after the Charlestown massacre. He’s only going to be the life of the party if your party consists entirely of entitled white male assholes.
@Lee: “He’s only going to be the life of the party if your party consists entirely of entitled white male assholes.”
Which, in all honesty, is pretty much the situation most of the times I’ve run into him. WMAs, those who generally share that perspective, those who “go along to get along” despite feeling uneasy, and those who don’t feel they’ll be taken seriously if they say something.
EDIT: There’s also something wrong with the idea that someone cannot simultaneously be a bigot and nice. I’m sure plenty of guys in the KKK have lots of friends. (Were there no nice people in the South before the abolition of slavery?)
Lee: You said the other day you’d known the guy for 40 years — what kind of jokes was he cracking all that time?
Rev. Bob: There’s also something wrong with the idea that someone cannot simultaneously be a bigot and nice. I’m sure plenty of guys in the KKK have lots of friends. (Were there no nice people in the South before the abolition of slavery?)
It all depends on what your definition of “nice” is, doesn’t it? On my Venn diagram, “bigot” and “nice” are inside separate circles which do not intersect — just as “asshole troll” and “nice in person” do not intersect. (If they behave like an asshole online but seem to be nice in person, it’s not because they’re a nice person, it’s because they’re posing as “nice” when they’re face-to-face with people.)
@JJ:
It would certainly be (ahem) nice if bigots and other bad guys were always jerks in their personal interactions, wouldn’t it? We’d never have to wonder about people’s true intentions. We’d be able to spot domestic abusers and rapists in moments, and they wouldn’t pose nearly the threat they actually do. That’d be much cleaner and easier than what we currently have to deal with, wouldn’t it?
But it’s a lie. Reality doesn’t work that way. Beliefs and behavior are not the same thing, and some people have a frightening talent for behaving well while believing truly obnoxious things.
Rev. Bob: But it’s a lie. Reality doesn’t work that way. Beliefs and behavior are not the same thing, and some people have a frightening talent for behaving well while believing truly obnoxious things.
My point was that if they behave badly, or if they are bigots, in neither case do they intersect with “nice” on my Venn diagram.
@Rev Bob There’s also something wrong with the idea that someone cannot simultaneously be a bigot and nice. I’m sure plenty of guys in the KKK have lots of friends. (Were there no nice people in the South before the abolition of slavery?)
For someone to be a bigot and nice it depends on who they are interacting with and whether those people mind bigoted comments and/or jokes. Of course guys in the KKK have friends – mostly with others who think and behave like them. There were people in the south who were against slavery but that’s no guarantee they were nice. Just like there is no guarantee slave owners were nice to their white families or other slave owning families but I’m sure many of the men and women got along.
How many bigots treat those they think of as lesser or not human nicely, with the same level of civility as they treat those they consider their equals? Most studies I’ve read say nope. This goes for unconscious bias for those who believe in equality for all as well. The difference between open bigots is they do negative things to hurt those they think are lesser while those with unconscious bias tend to do things which benefit the in-group with a by-product of negatively affecting minorities.
Terry Pratchett pointed out, via Granny Weatherwax, that nice isn’t the same as good. Bigots and misogynists are certainly capable of being polite and personable, but I’ve been to several parties that died early deaths when white men got comfortable enough to start letting loose with the “non-PC” jokes. Those of us who are not straight white men starting edging towards the doors while the life of the party yells, “hey, wassa matter? You can’t take a joke? That was FUNNY!”
No. It wasn’t.
@ Mike: I’ve known him in the sense that I used to run into him at SCA events when we lived in the same region, and we’d chat. He let me sleep in his tent once when the storm blew mine down in the middle of the night. When I started living with a huckster, we’d run into each other at occasional cons, and we’d talk shop. I’ve never been part of his intimate circle, nor he of mine. So maybe I was just one of those people he fooled for a long time, and he never was a decent human being? I can’t go back and find out now.
@ Rev. Bob: I think the relevant quote here is from Dave Barry: “If a guy is nice to you but rude to the waiter, he’s not a nice guy.” Yes, a lot of bigots and assholes are capable of being charming in person. That doesn’t make them nice people. “Nice as long as they think of you as a Real Person” is not the same thing. Beyond a certain level, that ability to be charming to your face and a bastard behind your back is one of the defining traits of a sociopath.
Stop gendering guns? I like the cut of your jib.
@various:
Another Laura has the sense of my intended meaning. The way I used the term, every date rapist in history has been nice – because they have to be. That’s how they operate. That doesn’t make it any less despicable or evil when they slip a roofie into a drink; they’re smiling sharks. Unless you’re telepathic, you don’t know what’s going on in their heads unless they slip up and give voice to those thoughts.
“Charming” may be a better term, but I had hoped the context would make the distinction I was drawing clear. “Nice” is in no way the same as “good” – there are plenty of smoothly evil bastards, and there are also lots of great people who simply aren’t good at social interaction. Confusing “nice” with “benevolent” or “good” is not merely erroneous – it’s dangerous.
Rev. Bob: Confusing “nice” with “benevolent” or “good” is not merely erroneous – it’s dangerous.
That’s only if your personal definition of “nice” equates to “polite” or “charming”. Mine doesn’t.
@JJ: “That’s only if your personal definition of “nice” equates to “polite” or “charming”. Mine doesn’t.”
While it is true that some definitions of “nice” relate to inner virtue, the more common ones relate to outward behavior. I believe I have made abundantly clear by now that I was using the word in the latter sense, and very explicitly not the former. It’s not “my personal definition” (as if I made it up!) – it’s right there in the bleedin’ dictionary, at the top of the list.
Rev. Bob: It’s not “my personal definition” (as if I made it up!) – it’s right there in the bleedin’ dictionary, at the top of the list.
“Nice” is a highly-subjective word, with numerous varying definitions. You could try to claim that your personal definition is the one ironclad definition, but you’d be wrong.
And this is what the “Good Guy With A Gun” looks like most of the time.
I don’t see why my right to be safe from whackjobs like this should be trumped by their right to own guns and endanger the rest of us. 😐
@JJ I’m no fan of guns, I’d like to round up all the AR-15’s and build an iron throne of out of them but maybe you want to rethink that particular argument?
Iphinome: I’m no fan of guns, I’d like to round up all the AR-15’s and build an iron throne of out of them but maybe you want to rethink that particular argument?
Um, no? Why should the rights of gun nuts take precedence over my rights?
I can’t say that I see Travis Bickle-types as the norm for gun owners or even “Good Guy With Guns”. But of course, there is no working definition for the latter.
@JJ Because it’s the same argument used against people wanting to use the bathroom of their choice.
Iphinome: Because it’s the same argument used against people wanting to use the bathroom of their choice.
No, it’s not. There’s a big difference there. Because people using the bathroom don’t put my life in danger. People waving loaded guns around do.
To the first part, they might you can’t read minds. Anyone who approaches when you’re vulnerable such as with your pants down might do awful things to you. But then again they might not.
To the second part anyone with a loaded gun might do awful things to you, but they might not.
It’s a bad argument. In both cases it prioritizes what makes one person feel safe over what makes another person feel safe. In both cases what a person could do is considered before what they actually do.
Iphinome: It’s a bad argument. In both cases it prioritizes what makes one person feel safe over what makes another person feel safe. In both cases what a person could do is considered before what they actually do.
It prioritizes the documented evidence. The difference is that I have yet to see a single report of someone causing harm to another person simply by using the bathroom — whereas I see hundreds of reports every year about people who’ve caused harm to someone else by waving a gun around.
I understand that you don’t want to support the “I don’t feel safe” arguments of the bathroom alarmists. The difference here is that we know that even just carrying a loaded gun around frequently causes harm, whereas using the bathroom doesn’t.
@JJ you said own guns not wave them around, in that case the argument would have been akin to ‘wave genitals around’, both of which are criminal in their own right, at least in bathrooms, I’d have stayed quiet.
No we don’t know that, if we knew that we’d have data and the argument wouldn’t be about feeling safe. I like data, I like bright lines and non-fuzzy ways of defining things. I also like databases, organizing things and coming up with different ways to manage my bookshelves with just the right balance of space efficiency and keeping things with he same author or subject together. I just have that kind of mind.
What we do know is that lots of people carry loaded weapons without ever doing harm. And we know it only takes one time to mess that all up. What we can’t do is say carrying a loaded weapon always leads to harm. A problem.
What’s worse is that I can think of times when I heartily approve of carrying a loaded weapon, they’re just no the same ones the gun nuts are on about. Hiking the Appellation trail, for real not as a diversion, not all the wildlife is friendly, there’s a whole class of backpacking rifles. Living in populated but remote locations again with unfriendly wildlife. Anywhere you might expect to come across a feral pig because feral pigs in the US need to be dead, they’re non-native and highly destructive. Cattle drives, sheep grazing…. See the pattern? See the problem?
I should also add that gun nuts and mass shootings are the reason I’m not a fan of guns. If people treated them as tools where there’s a time and a place to have them and many times and places not to…
@Iphinome: “Hiking the Appellation trail”
Okay, given my location, I got a solid snorty-laugh out of that. Yes, I know you meant the Appalachian Trail, and your phone is probably the culprit, but it’s still funny. 🙂
In more File-ish news, I’ve been mucking out the TBR stables today. Six books processed and loaded on the e-reader sounds good, but the asterisk is that four of those were already on it. (Formatting and navigation fixes. How do you make a table of contents that lists every chapter, but all the entries point to the same place?!) So that’s only a net gain of two books.
Only, it’s really a push, because I added three books to the e-pile – one I’ve read in hardback, two more new – so while the to-process morass has grown by one overall, the process-to-read count is still what it was yesterday.
At least, it was, until I saw the email telling me that the glitch with my back issues from the PoCDSF Kickstarter has been resolved, adding 86 more items to the TBR Massif…
Ah cain’t win fer losin’. 🙂
Yes auto-correct will be the death of civilization one day and I can’t sleep. So uh, laugh it up fuzzball? Is that funny? I’m too tired to know if that’s funny.
@Iphinome: “Is that funny? I’m too tired to know if that’s funny.”
If it’s not, I’m too tired to notice.
@Rev. Bob: Just out of curiosity, did you need to email them re the back-issues? I’m about 99.9% certain I requested the Nightmare back-issues but haven’t received them yet (I did get credit for 3 back-issues each of Fantasy and Nightmare and 6 of Lightspeed though)
Iphinome: Yes auto-correct will be the death of civilization one day and I can’t sleep. So uh, laugh it up fuzzball? Is that funny? I’m too tired to know if that’s funny.
Years ago, I got to spend a couple of weeks on vacation with my cousin and her family at their place in Seattle. They have two sons, who at the time were I think 6 and 4 years old.
They had a couple of cats, one of which was an orange striped manx kitty, and which (to my pleasure) slept with me every night. One afternoon, when the 4-year-old and I were hanging out in the kitchen, Puffin No Tail walked in and I said, “Hey ya fuzzbucket, what are you up to?”
A month later my cousin told me that she’d gone to Montessori to pick up her youngest son and the teacher told her “He had to sit in time out today, because he was playing quite nicely with one of the other kids, but then called him a bad word.” My cousin asked, “What did he call him?” and was quite shocked to hear the answer, because she couldn’t imagine where her son had heard that word.
So after they got home, she sat down with him and said, “Where did you hear this word at, and why did you call your friend this?” and he cried and said “Cousin JJ said it, I just called him a ‘fuzzbucket’.”
I felt really bad that he got castigated and punished because he was copying me — but I was more than a bit pissed off about it, too.
What they really should have been doing is asking the other kid where he’d heard the word he claimed that my cousin’s young son said, but didn’t actually say. 😉
@Another Laura: “Terry Pratchett pointed out, via Granny Weatherwax, that nice isn’t the same as good.” He was probably preceded by Sondheim, via Little Red Riding Hood in Into the Woods — but the realization is certainly much older.
@Oneiros: “Just out of curiosity, did you need to email them re the back-issues?”
I did, and it took them a couple of days to respond, but I was kind of expecting it because I had an odd pledge.
I already had the Lightspeed archive as the result of a previous Kickstarter, so this time I pledged at the Nightmare subscription level with the Lightspeed subscription as an add-on. When the pledge manager opened up, I requested the Fantasy back issues instead of “another set” of the Lightspeed back issues, and that’s the part that I needed to follow up on. The promised Nightmare back issues came through automatically.
@Rev. Bob: Well, looks like I’m shooting them what I hope will come across as a friendly, inquisitive email tonight!
So there’s our erstwhile voluntary public defender who managed to sneak his concealed carry weapon into the club; some nut job enters and starts shooting.
Its dark. there are people running all over the place. There’s screaming coming from everywhere and, in that environment, our would-be hero stands up, pulls out his gun, takes aim
and gets shot in the head by another voluntary public defender, who had a bit more sense than the first one – he way lying on the floor and happened to catch the gun in silhouette.
Finally, the police show up, and what do the panicked survivors tell them? There’s at least two shooters inside…if not more. And what do the police do? They hold off breeching until they get a clearer picture. Meanwhile, shots continue to echo from the club.
That clerk that shot a robber in the convenience store? Lucky, lucky, lucky – as I’ve never seen any mention of the company training received by any such individuals.
I’ve been robbed in the middle of the night and mugged on the streets of Camden NJ, assaulted outside a mall by a “gang”. I deterred the robber with a glass coke bottle, the muggers by repeatedly kicking one of them in the head and the “gang” by simply refusing to acknowledge that they’d done anything to me when one of them cold-cocked me from behind (I turned around, looked him in the eye and grinned).
Doesn’t take a gun. The muggers are still in jail (a get parole notices every three years or so). (The mugging took place in a bus stop shelter, so I laid down on the bench and kicked….and yes, I’d ignored my inner alarm bell by sitting IN the shelter – no exits…)
@Tasha
Based on my sample of one, you can replace “bigots” with a bunch of other descriptors and get the same result these days. If I had a nickel for ever incident…..
—
Regards,
Dann
@Steve Davidson: “That clerk that shot a robber in the convenience store? Lucky, lucky, lucky – as I’ve never seen any mention of the company training received by any such individuals.”
Actually, that clerk’s probably going to get fired. Convenience store chains do give training in what to do when faced with armed robbery: give ’em the money, follow their instructions, hit the silent alarm if you can do it without being noticed, and call the cops when they leave. Bringing your own gun to the party is an explicit, no doubt about it, Do Not Do.
I used to work downtown, and I still remember when I had two tires blow out on me in the same week. The first time, I used my spare, but the second, I had to get off the road, lock the car, and hoof it to someplace with a phone. At around midnight, in a bad part of town. I wasn’t mugged then, and I never have been. The worst I’ve had to deal with were a couple of homeless guys, and they weren’t any trouble.
But then, I lived in the projects and rode the bus downtown to City Court every day after school for a couple of years, because my mother worked there and couldn’t take off to come pick me up. Never had a problem, even when I hiked a few blocks down to spend a few hours at the library until her shift ended. It wasn’t like I was an imposing, athletic figure, either… just a kid who liked to read. I was in more danger at school than on the streets. If I didn’t need a gun then, why should I think I need one now?
(Just don’t ask me about the time I hijacked a school bus. Mom was sick, I had to get to school, the bus pulled into the lot, and I didn’t understand the difference between private and public school buses at the time…)
@Rev Bob The way I used the term, every date rapist in history has been nice – because they have to be. That’s how they operate.
Actually date rapist are constantly testing boundaries – those for the group they are in, their various targets, any social group they are part of. Testing boundaries is not nice behavior. It’s done using a variety of techniques including but not limited to:
1. Off-color jokes
2. Getting into people’s space to see how individuals and the group will react
3. Microaggression touching
4. Microaggressions in general
They get the group used to their behavior and become known as “just x” or “only like that when their a little drunk/stoned/excited”. They make statements getting people to agree with them about stuff like “we’ve all had regrets about drunk sex” so when someone in the group complains about being harassed or raped by them they’ve conditioned the group to think “x just did what we’ve all done so y is overreacting”. Date rapist are good at picking out vulnerable people who can be pressured, they’ve confirmed this beforehand, and they’ve made sure their social groups are used to being pressured by them in how to think and behave.
That’s not nice that’s just someone good at manipulation. And if people in the group step back and think about things they’ll see they’ve been tricked. And many of them, of at least of their target type, will have felt uncomfortable but won’t be able to put their finger on why exactly unless they’ve trained themselves to look for these things and never let themselves relax even around good friends or family. Let me tell you it’s exhausting to never relax when around people, to always look to see which of the ones among your friends are the rapist, to see your best friends dating/married to the rapist and know you can’t do anything except protect yourself from being their target.
Rapist aren’t monsters. They are your co-workers, next door neighbors, your family members, part of any social group you belong to. They are good manipulators. If you are like them or more powerful they are nice to you. But if you are lesser (less powerful, socially, less human) they aren’t in all sorts of ways. When they rape you they are total jerks who deserve to be punished. We need to do more teaching of enthusiastic consent so less decent people get fooled that drunk sex is anything like unconscious body rape which is what rapist mean when they are talking about drunk sex.
It’s like the nice guy complaining he’s been friend zoned. He was never a nice guy. Something always felt off but you could never put your finger on it. I’ve done all the right things, why won’t she be my girl?.
@Tasha: “Rapist aren’t monsters. They are your co-workers, next door neighbors, your family members, part of any social group you belong to. They are good manipulators. If you are like them or more powerful they are nice to you. But if you are lesser (less powerful, socially, less human) they aren’t in all sorts of ways.”
Which is precisely what I described, except that I qualified it as them perceiving that you are “like them” (whether it’s true or not).
This might be a good time, just in case, to make it crystal clear that I’m not accusing MZW, Larry, or anyone else I’ve mentioned of rape. As far as I’m aware, they’re both happily married and completely faithful. However, they do employ the same kind of “nice until they discover you’re not One Of Them, at which point you become Fair Game” technique you describe. They just do so in pursuit of other goals.
@Dann
Some of the reactions you get might be based on how you word things. I can attest to that on the Internet where we’ve bumped into each other. 😉
I’ve found generally treating others with respect and assuming they will treat me the same works 90% of the time. I start out assuming the people I engage with care, are intelligent, and want to engage in real conversation. Although trollish behavior on the Internet has made that harder.
@Rev Bob
But you keep insisting they are nice guys. This is where we differ. Those techniques aren’t used by nice people for any reason IMHO. People using those techniques creep me out when they aren’t making me angry.
@Tasha: “But you keep insisting they are nice guys.”
In their behavior, on the outside. Not in reality, on the inside.
They ACT nice/charming, and they’re skilled at it, but that doesn’t MAKE them nice/virtuous.
I am not now saying, nor have I ever said, and in fact my point is directly opposed to the idea, that “being nice makes you nice.”
How many times to I have to say this?
@Rev Bob
I’m sorry for mis-wording my previous comment. Please forgive me. It should have said “you keep insisting they behave nicely”.
Not acting nice to those one believe their inferiors and using micro-aggressions and pushing boundaries is not acting nice. How many times do I have to say that? Geez just because they act nice to you doesn’t mean they act nice to others. Chances are high you see them act not nice in front of you. You write it off/don’t see it because you unconsciously don’t want to/don’t care/don’t want to rock the boat/whatever your reason is in each situation. Situations such as how they treat significant other, waitstaff, PoC, women, kids, LGBTI, people in authority, people without authority, how they talk about those people, and the jokes they make about them. Is this really that hard to understand?