aka The Puppy Who Sold the Moon
https://twitter.com/damiengwalter/status/598887999867203585
The field for today’s royal rumble includes John C. Wright, Eric Flint, Vox Day, Tom Knighton, Spacefaring Kitten, Wayne Borean, Lis Carey, Lisa J. Goldstein, T.C. McCarthy, Kevin Standlee, Alexandra Erin, Thomas A. Mays, Brandon Kempner, Rick Moen, Peace Is My Middle Name, Bruce Baugh and Damien G. Walter. (Title credit to File 770 contributing editors of the day Whym and Rev. Bob.)
John C. Wright
”Suggested Reading for Sad Puppy Backstory” – May 14
Some of you came in to this theater late, and did not catch the first act.
For those of you puzzled or dazed or disgusted with the goings-on, allow me to provide a partial (and admittedly partial) list of the backstory on Puppy Related Sadness.
From Larry Correia you can get links to his original announcements of Sad Puppies 1,2,and 3. Allow me, at the risk of seeming egomaniacal, of listing only my own contributions to the movement and the columns leading up to it.
[Post includes around a dozen selected links.]
Eric Flint
“And Again On The Hugo Awards” – May 14
[Again, just a small excerpt of a long and wide-ranging post.]
I think one side in this dispute is wrong—that’s the side championed by Brad and Larry. I think that, not because I think the Hugo awards don’t have a lot of problems—I do, and I explained those at length in my first essay—but because their analysis of the problem is so wrong as to be downright wrong-headed. But I don’t think they pose a mortal threat to social justice, western civilization, science fiction or even the Hugo awards themselves.
Why did they launch this brawl and keep pursuing it? Well, I’ve always been a devotee of Napoleon’s dictum: “Never ascribe to malevolence what can be adequately explained by incompetence.” I don’t think there was anything involved except that, driven by the modern American right’s culture of victimization—they are always being persecuted; there’s a war on white men, a war on Christmas (no, worse! a war on Christians themselves!), blah blah blah—they jumped to the conclusion that the reason authors they like weren’t getting Hugo awards or even nominations was because of the Great Leftwing Conspiracy against the righteous led by unnamed Social Justice Warriors—presumably being shuttled around the country in their nefarious plots in black helicopters—and off they went.
If they’d simply said: “We think the Hugos have gotten too skewed against popular authors in favor of literary authors,” there’d have still been a pretty ferocious argument but it never would have reached this level of vituperation.
But simply stating a problem wasn’t good enough for them. No, following the standard modern right-wing playbook, SOMEBODY MUST BE TO BLAME.
Enter… the wicked SJWs! (Whoever the hell they are. They’re to blame, dammit.)
Vox Day at Vox Popoli
“Islands in a sea of rhetoric” – May 14
I stopped commenting at File 770 as it proved to be another exercise in demonstrating the truth of Aristotle’s dictum about those who cannot be instructed. Give them dialectic and they shamelessly attempt to pick it apart, some honestly, most dishonestly, while constantly declaring that any errors or falsehoods on their part are irrelevant. Give them rhetoric to meet them at their level and they either cry about it or concoct pseudo-dialectic to explain why it’s not valid.
VD: SJWs always lie. SJW: I told the truth once back in 2007. See, you’re totally wrong. Your whole argument is disproved. You are a bad person. DISQUALIFIED!
But the ongoing Hugo coverage still makes for interesting reading, particularly as the few remaining commenters possessing intellectual integrity one-by-one throw up their hands and stop trying to force the relevant facts through the SJW’s cast-iron skulls. A pair of neutrals recounted typical experiences, as one of them juxstaposed his treatment at various Puppy sites versus SF-SJW Central:
Tom Knighton
“One problem with the Hugos that will never be solved?” – May 14
I’m sorry, but less than 50 votes got nominations on the ballot? With such low numbers getting a work nominated, you can tell that there just aren’t that many people nominating. This puts the fate of the Hugos in the hands of a few, which makes it possible for small groups to have a disproportional impact on the overall Hugos. Let’s be honest, it’s why Sad Puppies and Rabid Puppies were so effective. Put those exact same groups into a pool of millions, and you’d never notice their impact.
However, back to the subject at hand, you have a handful of people who are essentially deciding who gets nominated for the Hugos, and if they don’t read something, it’s not getting nominated. What if that handful hasn’t read the Best Book Ever Written yet? Well, guess who isn’t getting a Hugo nomination?
That’s what almost happened with Three Body Problem this year. The Puppies just hadn’t read it yet, so it didn’t make either slate. It’s probably happened a dozen times previously, it’s just that this time there’s far more scrutiny being paid to the process.
Spacefaring Kitten on Spacefaring, Extradimensional Happy Kittens
“Disagreeing With Brad” – May 14
Because I so thoroughly disagree with Sad Puppy advocates, I’ve been thinking about doing a fisking of some essential Puppy advocate post. Fisking is a thing Larry Correia does sometimes in his blog, and as far as I’ve been able to decipher, what it means is a mean-spirited rebuttal of everything somebody else has written elseweb, line by line. Generally, it seems to involve a great deal of calling other people morons and idiots, but I’ll try to do it without the nasty parts, because I have no desire to be nasty.
An opportunity presented itself when Brad R. Torgersen published a blog post earlier today. In it, he says a lot of things that I don’t agree on. That let’s us, well, disagree.
Wayne Borean on Zauberspiegel International
“Hugo Gernsback Still Causing Controversy” – May 15
The Hugo Awards have lost their relevance. You might argue with me about the date I picked (1985), or my view of the Hugos, but you cannot argue with me about the demographics of fandom. We are a bunch of grey haired old folks, and the younger generation isn’t rushing to sit at our feet in awe for some reason.
To fix the problem we have to expand the Hugo Awards, and encourage younger people to get involved.
Yes, I am aware that I’m probably going to really annoy a lot of people by saying this, but we brought this on ourselves. We’ve been too self centered, for far too long.
Lis Carey on Lis Carey’s Library
“The Day the World Turned Upside Down, by Thomas Olde Heuvelt (author), Lia Velt (translator)” – May 14
The story is competently written, but it’s the worst sort of “literary” fictions: Nothing needs to make any sense, and the protagonist is not someone I’m inclined to care about at all, for good or ill. I don’t care what happens to him.
Adult Onset Atheist
“SNARL: Totaled” – May 14
I liked this story. I am not using “liked” as a euphemism for “reading this did not make me sick”. This story is a worthy Hugo nominee; the first story that has earned that description from amongst what I have so far read of this year nominees. Before I get into what is right with this story I should point out the a couple issues. This story is told through the juxtaposition of communications, but is recalled in near real time to the reader who does not exist in the story. The reader must carefully examine the types of communication; where it originates, how it is read, how the information is stored, even what type of images are implied by the mechanism of communication. However, when it comes to the story itself the reader is expected to unquestioningly act as an omnipotent recording device.
Lisa J. Goldstein on theinferior4
“The Hugo Ballot, Part 9: Novelettes” – May 14
[“Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust, Earth to Alluvium” by Gray Rinehart] is so slight, in fact, it could have been about half its size. The first section, where Keller asks a Peshari artist to make him a tombstone and the artist refuses, might have been cut, and there are other unnecessary parts as well. (The section gives us some important information about Keller and the Peshari, but that information could be presented in other ways.) I actually like the idea of studying an enemy’s myths in order to defeat them, but I don’t think the story manages to use it to full advantage.
@Book_56 definitely writing it, but not sure where it will wind up. #sadpuppies has fan support, but it's mostly driven by authors.
— T.C. McCarthy (@tcmccarthy_) May 14, 2015
Kevin Standlee on Fandom Is My Way of Life
“Fandom Is A Pot-Luck Dinner” – May 13
My metaphor is that Fandom is a Pot-Luck Dinner. We have lots of acquaintances, we all like to eat, and we decide to hold a big pot-luck dinner where we can share our favorite dishes and socialize. We have so many friends and friends-of-friends that none of us owns a barn big enough to hold everyone, so we have to rent the community center. None of us is wealthy enough to do that on our own, so we ask everyone coming to not only bring a dish, but also to kick in part of the cost of renting the hall, plus the tables, chairs, etc. We’re not running a restaurant, and we’re not making a profit, just covering the cost of putting on the event. Some of us volunteer to schlep tables and chairs, others volunteer to wash dishes, and so forth. Everyone brings something. That means some of the food is stuff I personally like, and other stuff I hate. But that’s okay: I eat what I like, and leave the rest for those who like green bean casserole.
Somewhere along the way, we got the idea of voting among ourselves for what the best dishes were. (“Best Appetizer,” “Best Main Course,” “Best Dessert”) And we started holding this big pot-luck in different places so as to share the fun with our far-away friends who couldn’t necessarily make the trip to Our Fair City.
Well, now we’ve got people who started coming to the pot-luck, paying the share of the hall rental, and are angry that we’ve been choosing things they personally hate to eat, and have decided that they want to knock over all of the tables with food they dislike and insist that the rest of us eat that stuff that they personally like, because they say so. It should not be a surprise to them that the rest of us start saying, “I don’t think we want to invite you anymore; you’re making the rest of us very uncomfortable by your anti-social behavior.” They respond with variations of, “I paid my cover charge to your restaurant, and you’re responsible for feeding me things that I like, and to not serve food I don’t like!” and they don’t understand why that response alternately baffles or infuriates the rest of us.
Alexandra Erin on Blue Author Is About To Write
“The Barker and the Big Tent” – May 14
A pair of burly roustabouts flanked each of the gates. As Jake watched, a couple of people were roughly turned away from one. The bouncers’ faces were murderous, while the people they sent packing just looked scared. All the lines got shorter as people saw this and left in apparent disgust or, in some cases, fear.
“Well, lad, that’s where we let everyone in,” the barker said, then repeated, “Everyone is welcome in the Big Tent.” He cupped his hands over his mouth and shouted, “Come one, come all, to the Big Tent! If you believe that any show is a good show as long as it’s entertaining, this is the place for you!”
“So, who were those people, then?” Jake asked.
“Gatekeepers,” the barker said.
“No, I mean the people your gatekeepers turned away.”
“Our gatekeepers?” the barker said. He let out a loud, raucous laugh, slapping his knee. “We don’t have gatekeepers, son! This is the Big Tent you’re talking about, and everyone’s welcome in the Big Tent! No, those nice gentlemen are there to keep the gatekeepers out.”
Thomas A. Mays in a comment on File 770 – May 14
Just a point of order here. I am not “one of the gentlemen on the other side” as Chris Gerrib put it. I have no dog in this hunt. Chris has admitted that he originally had me confused with James May when he called me one of the louder voices on Brad Torgerson’s blog, but it brought him to my book, A Sword Into Darkness. Yeah, a sale!. I’m glad he enjoyed it somewhat, and as it was intended as an homage to some of the mil and hard SF I grew up with, I do understand his charge that it may seem “recycled” or “trope-ish” (though I and my fans don’t necessarily agree). What I don’t understand is why he keeps copying, spreading, or reposting this review around with the misleading intro. It’s a free ‘Net, so he can do as he pleases, but it seems to suggest he has more ideological axes to grind than I do. For the record, I’m a middle of the road guy and a newbie to this industry. I can see and appreciate both perspectives, but believe the rhetoric and vitriol folks keep injecting into the “discussion” may be actively preventing a fair resolution to the issues at hand rather than expediting that resolution. I myself would have loved to have gotten the recognition of being selected for a non-ideological Puppy slate before it all blew up. Now? I get how the anti-puppies feel about the recommendation slate perhaps skewing results, though I’m reserving judgment on whether or not it was bloc voting until after the ballots are revealed. I will not have any part of the No Award movement though, and I’m about halfway through my reading list. I’m looking forward to the Hugos, and I’m looking forward to seeing how Sad Puppies 4 responds to the criticisms of SP3. For all those who wanna check out my non-nominated, but much referred to novel A Sword Into Darkness, it’s for sale now on Amazon and Smashwords. Take care, Tom Mays
Brandon Kempner on Chaos Horizon
“Hugo Award Nomination Ranges, 2006-2015, Part 4” – May 13
Maybe we don’t want to know how the sausage is made. The community is currently placing an enormous amount of weight on the Hugo ballot, but does it deserve such weight? One obvious “fix” is to bring far more voters into the process—lower the supporting membership cost, invite other cons to participate in the Hugo (if you invited some international cons, it could actually be a “World” process every year), add a long-list stage (first round selects 15 works, the next round reduces those 5, then the winner), etc. All of these are difficult to implement, and they would change the nature of the award (more voters = more mainstream/populist choices). Alternatively, you can restrict voting at the nominating stage to make it harder to “game,” either by limiting the number of nominees per ballot or through a more complex voting proposals.
Rick Moen in a comment on File 770 – May 13
Con Chair: What happen?
SMOF: Somebody set up us the tail.
Operator: We get spoor.
Con Chair: What!
SMOFr: Main piddle turn on.
Con Chair: It’s You!!
Dogs: How are you, fandom!! All your Hugo are belong to us. You are on the way to SJWdom.
Con Chair: What you say!!
Dogs: You have no chance to nominate make your time. Ha Ha Ha Ha ….
SMOF: Con Chair!!
Con Chair: Take off every “Noah”!! You know what you doing. Move “Noah”. For great justice.
Peace Is My Middle Name in a comment on File 770 – May 13
It was a dark and stormy mutt; the rage fell in torrents, except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of whinge which swept up the streets (for it is in Spokane that our scene lies), rattling along the hotel-ballrooms, and fiercely agitating the skiffy flames of the fans that struggled against the darkness.
Bruce Baugh in a comment on File 770 – May 13
Toward the end of a stormy summer afternoon, with the sun finally breaking out under ragged black rain clouds, Castle Worldcon was overwhelmed and its population destroyed.
Until almost the last moment the factions among the fans were squabbling as to how Destiny properly should be met. The SMOFs of most prestige and account elected to ignore the entire undignified circumstance and went about their normal pursuits, with neither more nor less punctilio than usual. A few CHORFs, desperate to the point of hysteria, took up weapons and prepared to resist the final assault. Others still, perhaps a quarter of the total population, waited passively, ready—almost happy—to expiate the sins of fandom.
In the end death came uniformly to all; and all extracted as much satisfaction in their dying as this essentially graceless process could afford. The letter hacks sat turning the pages of their beautiful zines, or discussing the qualities of a century-old essence, or fondling a favorite Powers cover. They died without deigning to heed the fact. The hot-heads raced up the muddy slope which, outraging all normal rationality, loomed above the parapets of Worldcon. Most were buried under sliding rubble, but a few gained the ridge to blog, hack, tweet, until they themselves were shot, crushed by the half-alive power-wagons, hacked or stabbed. The contrite waited in the classic posture of gafiation, on their knees, heads bowed, and perished, so they believed, by a process in which the Puppies were symbols and fannish sin the reality. In the end all were dead: letterhacks, actifen, faans in the lounges; dealers in the dealer rooms. Of all those who had inhabited Worldcon, only the media fans survived, creatures awkward, gauche and raucous, oblivious to pride and faith, more concerned with the wholeness of their hides than the dignity of their con.
Rick Moen in a comment on File 770 – May 13
No one would have believed in the first years of the twenty-first century that the SFF world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences stranger than fen’s and yet as demented as his own; that as fen busied themselves about their various concerns they were scrutinised and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a fan with a mimeograph machine might Letter of Comment about the transient mundanes that swarm and wander in a convention hotel lobby. With infinite complacency fen went to and fro over this globe about their little affairs, serene in their assurance of their empire over genre. It is possible that the mundanes in the convention hotel do the same … Yet, across the gulf of the Internet, minds that are like unto our canines, intellects energetic and cool and unsympathetic, regarded this fandom with envious eyes, and slowly and surely drew their plans against us. — Not Entirely H.G. Wells, Either
Discover more from File 770
Subscribe to get the latest posts to your email.
@tuomas I could say yes, but I’d be lying.
alexvdl @ 3:27 pm- That’s what I like about you, Alex. Your consistency. You lack the moral fortitude or the intellectual honest to admit error, even when it’s put in front of you straight from the horse’s mouth. Bravo.
Your inability to reference anything about “Teddy’s” legal issues indicate that it’s either made up or pure speculation, I take it. For a group who seems vested in the righteousness of the cause, it seems to rely on rumor, speculation and innuendo an awful lot. But then again, that isn’t surprising, all things considered.
You are right, however, about me being a bit long winded.
“Moral fortitude.” Am I going to have to quote Col. Kurtz again?
I’m just a Sad Puppy, all alone, on my own. I know the other Sad Puppies are going to come support me soon. I just know it. @tuomas I’m floating away here like china in zero gravity I thought I’d found a safe cabinet was I wrong? Help me, @tuomas. Help me. You’re my only hope.
@Will:
Welcome. Here is a list of the membership benefits: *Presents an empty envelope.*
Oh, @tuomas, it’s been hard here at Sad Puppy Summer Camp, I have to admit. Mom said they’d be just fine with me being an SJW and all and sure, ethics in journalism might mean they’d have to be a little cool to me about it, but I must admit, I thought there were going to be games and fun activities, because last year’s summer camp sure was, even if it was SJW summer camp. But mom says Sad Puppy Summer Camp is “righter,” so I’m trying. I’m trying so hard. But some of the other kids are giving me “you’re always lying” wedgies, and they took my rocket toy away from me that dad gave me and told me was mine forever but the other kids are all like, “we love you. we respect you. give us your freakin’ toy, you moron, and turn around so we can kick you in the hamstrings.” It’s hard to see, but I maintain my faith in the Sad Puppy creed: all are welcome, none are excluded, and everyone’s views are 100% tolerated and will never be stepped upon, no matter how much we despise them, so I’m sure things will be better when we go on the Long Hike Away from All Authority Figures tomorrow. If I don’t write again for a while, just assume I’m having fun. Thanks, bye.
So I’m in, then? Yay! I’ll be celebrating. Drinks are on me if you buy them yourselves. (That’s Puppy tradition, right?)
https://file770.com/?p=22527&cpage=9#comment-262599
I read the first Outlander book a couple of years ago. It’s not my cuppa, but the writing is stronger than most of the stuff I’ve read on the puppy slate. I would rank it (writing-wise) above most of the Dresden Files books I’ve read.
It would certainly qualify as SF in the same way as To Day Nothing of the Dog.
@Tuomas Just to confirm: We’re both puppies, and I’m an SJW.
Steve, you think you would have figured out the speculation part from all of us speculating about it?
And, in the great spirit of teddy, I don’t actually care if it’s true or not. It’s an insurance. I don’t think that you are ACTUALLY dumber than a rock, but I’ve used it to describe you because people understand the metaphor.
Hope that helps.
Damnit. I meant insult. Stupid autocorrect.
@Will https://file770.com/?p=22527&cpage=9#comment-262605
You can be whatever you want to be. Anyhow… I guess I am a puppy. Still have not nominated or voted in Hugos, mainly because nothing “fun” ever gets nominated. Well the preview of Skin Game made chuckle few times… but still. I do not think there is enough fun in the Hugos.
@Tuomos What would you consider a “fun” work that has come out in the past couple of years? What would you have liked to see on the ballot?
I alternate between ‘literary’ reads and beach reads depending on my mood so I’m always looking for good, light reads.
@tuomas You’re confusing me, and it’s causing me some anxiety. I need to know where people stand. Are you a Sad Puppy or not? Because, since I joined, I’ve come to understand it’s the only acceptable viewpoint. Please, say for sure. I can’t say more till I know. Thank you.
Steve Moss: “Moral fiber? Why, you little pasty-face sumbitch. I invented moral fiber! Pappy O’Daniel was displaying rectitude and high-mindedness when that egghead you work for was still messing his drawers!”
@Steve Moss: I stated in my response to the original questioner that “it was speculated and possibly confirmed” that Beale is unable to return to the United States, as I could not find confirmation but did not want to rule out a future person jumping in and saying, “How could you have missed this article here that clearly said that he’s been fleeing the law for two decades?” 🙂 Ditto with the bit about his daddy’s money–I know Beale has said that all the Swiss bank accounts are depleted and he’s not sheltering his dad’s ill-gotten gains, but given Beale’s habit of claiming after the fact that he was simply speaking rhetorically, and given that he has a vested interest in saying that, I pointed out that there was speculation that this was just another of Beale’s rhetorics.
As to the “stool with three legs”, I’ll make it simple. Beale has stated that he’s a believer in “common law”–the idea that there are certain commonly-held and long-established principles of jurisprudence that trump actual written law, and that he can stand on his rights in common law to deny courts the standing to levy a judgment against him. (This is exactly the principle his father used when trying to claim that the judge could not have him imprisoned for tax evasion, and the principle he used in trying to have some of his buddies “arrest” the judge for putting him in jail.) Beale has never, as far as I know, actually invoked this in court, but he has said that he feels like he’s above the law. Claiming you’re above the law when it’s working against you, then citing it as your defense when you’re doing something that is odious but technically legal, then claiming that you despise the hypocrisy of your small-minded opponents who can’t understand how their opinions are contradictory, are three things you cannot do at the same time without at some point bullshitting. 🙂
And lastly, you’d be foolish to believe that Beale could sue the SFWA without ever appearing in court physically. He could perhaps file the motion without entering the country, through a lawyer, but at the very least he’d be called to testify at some point and I can’t imagine a judge being particularly sympathetic to his claims that he won’t leave Italy to come to court himself “just ’cause”. It’s a point at which he’d need to either show just cause why he couldn’t appear, or drop the suit…and given that he’s never pursued the suit despite what you claim is a clear case, I think that’s fed into the general belief that he’s got a case of nerves about re-entering the States. After all, one thing we do know very clearly about Ted Beale is that he’s dogged about making people miserable.
@MickyFinn:
Speaking of moral fiber and tea on spaceships…
From the files of: The Early Days of Ethics In Journalism:
http://conwebwatch.tripod.com/stories/2004/update061604.html
(who knew tripod was even still around?)
@Katya https://file770.com/?p=22527&cpage=9#comment-262610
I think what would I like to see on the next ballot is a better question. I have not read it yet, but I would like to see Terry Pratchett’s ‘The Shepherd’s Crown’ on the next year’s ballot. Not to mention how he is in no position to withdraw his nomination on the grounds of stress marring his enjoyment of the Worldcon.
I may sound cheeky, but yeah—
@Will https://file770.com/?p=22527&cpage=9#comment-262611
I tend to lean on the side with least amount of emotional hyberpoles in their argumentation. Thus based on the blog posts gathered here on File770, I am kind of forced to lean towards the Puppy side of the argument.
I do not care for the subjective perceptions of politics. What matters to me is that usually a maximum of five works can be nominated per category, works voted there by their fans, and regardless of what those fans think… they have the same right to vote and nominate whatever they please.
Rev bob: I now seem to have a TBR pile which is threatening to topple and crush me in unread books (only metaphorically, because they’re mostly ebooks), but I’m putting that very close to the top. It looks very much like my cup of tea.
@tuomas I’m disappointed we aren’t clearly brothers. Well, the puppies will be here for you when and if you can commit to something. And that’s no hyperbole.
Bravo, practically everybody, for all the songs and poems and prose. But please, more puppy contributions! Maybe we can organize some sort of campaign to ensure their writing has an equal shot at getting on the File770 shortlist.
Katya
The 600 series had rubber skin. We spotted them easy. But these Vainio are new, they act human. Typos, bad grammar, everything. Very hard to spot. I had to wait till he moved on you before I could zero him.
Tuomas:
Take away emotional hyperbole, and the Puppies have no reason for being. You calmly repeat the reasoned PR spin that almost no one (and certainly I think no one here?) actually disagrees with: SF/F belongs to everyone, anyone can join, anyone can nominate.
But that’s PR spin.
It’s emotional hyperbole that the “Anti-Puppies” (which is anyone who doesn’t buy the Puppies’ narrative) don’t also want those things.
It’s emotional hyperbole that launched the campaign.
It’s emotional hyperbole that pushes it forward.
For heaven’s sake, what do you think Brad Torgersen was doing when he compared people disagreeing with him on Twitter to being thrown into a communist gulag, if not engaging in emotional hyperbole? What do you think Larry Correia’s tearful account of how mean people were that time he was nominated for a prestigious award he didn’t win was about? What do you think Vox Day’s entire
bloglife is?Take away the emotions and hyperbole, and the Puppies aren’t the Puppies. They’re just some new WorldCon members showing up to nominate and vote.
Which no one would have had a problem with.
I don’t want no SJWs in my car. No Puppies either!
@Brian Z Someone will have to talk Vox into coming back again before that can really happen.
@Rev Bob. I just read the first chapter in the preview. Wow.
All I can say is, “you know jolly well that I’d eat my own pants to get back into space, and yet here I am, still sitting here, wearing them.”
Peace Is My Middle Name: “Mr. Vainio, do you still maintain that anyone can be rid of an internet stalker with a simple day or two’s effort?”
Nah, now he’s claiming that it’s a simple matter to get laws passed in the U.S. which protect individuals from having their personal information sold and passed around by businesses.
And also, that attempting to punish stalkers and harassers is a bad idea. One does wonder why he thinks that is so.
Will: “Apparently, dinosaurs are OK if they’re oddly dinosaurs, my friends. [link] “
HEY! How about putting WARNING! Appallingly Bad Poetry Ahead on that???
Matt Y:
Rick Moen:
invoice for replacement keyboard submitted to Messrs. Moen and Y
@MickyFinn, Katya:
I’ve been disappointed in the formatting of the first two books – paragraphs randomly broken in the middle, lack of clear scene breaks, that sort of thing – but the story itself is fun.
@Darrell Voight-Kampff him.
mc simon milligan, I was just thinking of awarding someone a plate of shrimp. Here you go.
As regards VD, see here – http://www.quatloos.com/Q-Forum/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=2744
A slightly earlier story has VD claiming the Swiss accounts were “depleted” ( http://www.startribune.com/dec-30-2007-ex-ceo-regrets-mission-to-take-on-irs/12916286/ ) – given VD’s record of “rhetorics”, they may well have been “depleted” by having their funds transferred elsewhere…
@JJ LOL. That would be right up there with the worst I’ve ever seen. There’s a kind of natural grace in it…I can’t imagine someone being able to deliberately write something that bad. It’s not even “kitsch,” because it doesn’t really aspire to anything. Maybe “naive”? It would border on outsider. It impresses me, critically speaking.
So far, being a Sad Puppy is kind of dreamlike. I haven’t had to change anything I think, and yet suddenly everything is OK. I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop, even though I know it can’t.
Can someone please explain the “fighting fires with no pants on” reference to me? I’ve obviously missed something.
@John Seavey: I have many horrible and grave character flaws, but am at least not, in fact, @Steve Moss. ;->
And lastly, you’d be foolish to believe that Beale could sue the SFWA without ever appearing in court physically.
Well, I’m a very foolish person. However, I’m correct, which is more to the point.
Again, hoping you will take this the right way (and that there actually is a right way), but your middle paragraph about the ‘stool with three legs’ still appears to boil down to nil relevant semantic content, except this time at somewhat greater length.
at the very least he’d be called to testify at some point
Calling the plaintiff as a witness would be a bold defence tactic, but critically one that would require a strong showing to the judge that the plaintiff had testimony deemed material to the facts being judged. In the hypothetical case, I cannot easily imagine any material facts for which Mr. Beale would be a plausible witness for defence to call to the stand. Can you cite any such facts?
Your supposition that he’d be obliged to drop the hypothetical suit if he were unwilling to satisfy a highly hypothetical subpoena to appear physically in court strikes me as non-sequitur.
This is all not to mention that this whole underlying ‘Beale cannot lawfully enter the USA’ supposition appears to be pretty blatant gossip that gets repeated frequently but never substantiated. I readily admit to being a cynic, but I wonder why, and am currently running with some very unflattering suspicions.
Facts first, people. I get extremely tired of the people who claim to be on my ‘side’ making me look like an idiot by association.
Rick Moen
[email protected]
@JJ:
It has something to do with an assertion that the military provides flame-retardant underwear to its soldiers. Somehow that came up as part of the discussion of spacefaring teacups, yet there has as yet been no mention of Bertrand Russell.
JJ: I think it’s part of the Mithra initiation rituals.
@Alexandra Erin https://file770.com/?p=22527&cpage=9#comment-262626
Yet if the discussions here on File770 were to be weighted in, we find a multitude of comments and blogs about wrong ways to nominate. Not to mention how attempts to discuss are met with snark when a dissident refuses to conform to unbacked opinions alone. You could say the community is not acting on its best manners at the moment.
As for Vox Day, he is Vox Day. Who cares? And even if I did, the combined emotional hyperboles Brad, Larry, and Theodore can muster together… just falls short in quantity and at times quality when pitted against those of the ‘Anti-Puppies’ or whatever.
@JJ https://file770.com/?p=22527&cpage=9#comment-262635,
Triggered, hah! If you had paid more attention, you could have noticed the stament on the left side of the page where I claimed to be Earth’s worst poet.
I just got welcomed to the puppy house.
Tuomas Vainio: “the stament [sic] on the left side of the page where I claimed to be Earth’s worst poet”
Congratulations! That’s the first true comment you’ve made on File770.
Tuomas
It’s your birthday. Someone gives you a calfskin wallet. How do you react?
“It has something to do with an assertion that the military provides flame-retardant underwear to its soldiers. Somehow that came up as part of the discussion of spacefaring teacups, yet there has as yet been no mention of Bertrand Russell.”
I did mention Wittgenstein’s poker at one point, but it was not related to this specifically.
@darrell My wife just wondered why I was laughing at my computer screen.
I would point out how they got the day wrong. (If you are doing a quizz, link it to me and I can just give you the result.)
Tuomas Vainio: “Yet if the discussions here on File770 were to be weighted in, we find a multitude of comments and blogs about wrong ways to nominate. Not to mention how attempts to discuss are met with snark when a dissident refuses to conform to unbacked opinions alone. You could say the community is not acting on its best manners at the moment.”
The comments are not about “wrong ways to nominate”. Nor are attempts to discuss “met with snark when a dissident refuses to conform to unbacked opinions alone”.
I’m going to be overly-generous here, and presume that you’re not knowingly making false statements, but rather that your reading comprehension is so extremely poor because English is not your first language.
The comments are about how the nominating process was gamed by a small group of selfish people acting in bad faith.
Attempts to discuss are met with snark when a dissident knowingly makes false statements, refuses to provide evidence to back up such statements, and tries to change the subject to something irrelevant to what is being discussed.
If you genuinely do not understand the difference between what you’re claiming is being said on File770, and what is actually being said, then you would be well-served by spending time improving your grasp of the English language before posting more of these comments which make you look so foolish.
Tuomas:
The community is reacting against a bunch of hyoerbolically angry people using their wild imaginings to justify treating the community as a monolothic despised enemy.
Tuomas
You’ve got a little boy. He shows you his butterfly collection plus the killing jar. What do you do?