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Trevor Blake: SOPA / PIPA Blackout, Left and Right

18 January 2012 » In blog, freedom of speech, ovo

I believe in the complete freedom of thought and speech [...] I believe that it is better to tell the truth than to lie. I believe that it is better to be free than to be a slave. And I believe that it is better to know than be ignorant . – H. L. Mencken

Wikipedia:

In carrying out this protest, is Wikipedia abandoning neutrality?

We hope you continue to trust Wikipedia to be a neutral information source. We are staging this blackout because (as Wikimedia Foundation Trustee Kat Walsh said recently), although Wikipedia’s articles are neutral, its existence is not. For over a decade, Wikipedians have spent millions of hours building the largest encyclopedia in human history. Wikipedia is a tremendously useful resource, and its existence depends upon a free, open and uncensored Internet. SOPA and PIPA (and other similar laws under discussion inside and outside the United States) will hurt you, because they will make it impossible for sites you enjoy, and benefit from, to continue to exist. That’s why we’re doing this.

Today, 18 January 2012, a number of the websites I read have made their content inaccessible or difficult to access in protest of two proposed laws in the United States. These laws (Stop Online Piracy Act and Protect IP Act) seem likely to have a chilling effect on the internet. If I’m understanding these laws correctly, my linking to a site that in turn links to a site found to be in violation of copyright laws would get me in trouble as well as the site I link to. As I am unable to monitor the content of the sites I link to in my 19,100+ blog posts, I may unknowingly be in violation of these laws when all I wanted to do was point out a funny video or an interesting article.

I make it a point to read across the political spectrum. This is my greatest hope to foster ongoing critical thinking, and often I learn of laws or events from one side of the sausage factory that the other side of the sausage factory is silent about. That silence may be based on ignorance or it may be a willful silence. Whatever the reason, I am not diminished by taking in more information.

I note that the SOPA / PIPA blackout is not common to sites that are likely to self-identify as ‘not-left.’ I use the vague term ‘not-left’ deliberately. My compilation of this list is no claim that these sites are of a kind, aside from a likelihood they would not identify as being on the political left. How far not-left they are, how that is manifest, varies. The sites I list below are not necessarily aware of or in agreement with each other. I am certain that some of them are antagonistic to each other. Inclusion in this list is not at all a claim that anyone on this list agrees with or is aware of anyone else on this list. I have looked at each of these sites at least briefly, and I can say that I also do not agree with the entire content of each one. The problem with SOPA / PIPA is it applies the contagion theory to information: if I link to a site, I’m guilty of what that site contains. If you think my linking to these sites contaminates me, then I suggest you speak out in favor of SOPA / PIPA – and reconsider reading my site any more, lest you yourself be contaminated. At the same time, I caution the reader that some of the following sites are factually incorrect, mean spirited, possibly illegal outside the United States, discriminatory and almost certainly not to be read at work. To the best of my ability, I have confirmed that these sites all reside in the United States.

The Occupy movement in the United States has been allowed months of free speech, then had it taken away. American Renaissance has been denied a single second of public meeting time for two years. Occupy is decidedly ‘not-right’ and American Renaissance is decidedly ‘not-left,’ but both share the thirst for freedom of speech and association. All ‘not-left’ sites are at risk from SOPA / PIPA. But few ‘not-left’ sites are participating in the blackout today.

Not-Left Sites Critical of SOPA / PIPA:

Antiwar.com
Apocalypse Cometh
At Liberty at Leisure
Beast
Hawaiian Libertarian
HBD Chick
Rhymes With Cars & Girls
Stares at the World
Veritas Aculeus
View From The Right [Revision at 11:27pm PST 1/27/2012: added]

Not-Left Sites Not Discussing SOPA / PIPA

Trevor Blake: What Sort of Man Reads OVO?

03 December 2011 » In biographic, blog, books, christianity, commerce, fascism, fight, ovo, portland, race, socialism, theocracy, trevorblake, zine

Image c/o Retronaut.

Thanks to the following for linking to OVO.

Eithin links to Liberating Wednesday.
Monday Vatican links to The Concordant Story.
Financial Advices Blog links to The Bonus Army.
Rambone at Indiana Gun Owners links to The Bonus Army.
The American Book of the Dead links to Unspeakable Horrors.

Ferdinand Bardamu: Bardamu’s Bookbag

17 November 2011 » In anarchism, art, biographic, blog, books, comics, games, krankheit, libertarian, magick, objectivist, ovo, portland, sperm, trevorblake, zine

This review of OVO 20: JUVEN(a/i)LIA by Trevor Blake was written by Ferdinand Bardamu, and appeared at his blog In Mala Fide in November 2011.

This is a best-of collection of articles and artwork from OVO, a zine founded and edited by friend of the blog Trevor Blake, “a public record of [his] interests and inquiries.” It’s interesting, it’s weird, and I don’t entirely know what to make of it. I guess it’s because I’m too young to appreciate it – I was barely out of diapers when Trevor was printing up the early editions of OVO on his pal’s company’s copiers in the eighties. To someone of the Internet Era, where narcissistic self-expression is just a couple of mouse clicks away, the effort and dedication involved in compiling an entire magazine, from writing and gathering the material to binding the physical copies and mailing them out, is difficult to relate to.

Still, this is a great little collection of oddities, ranging from poetry to short stories to investigative journalism on offbeat subjects. They include “Holding Games for Ransom,” about how one tabletop game creator found a way to keep online piracy from cutting into his profits; “A Pit Stop Along the Inward Journey,” a stream-of-consciousness tale beginning with white guilt and ending with madness; and “23 Sperm Stories 23,” the longest article in the book, on just about every aspect of sperm, from its discovery, its function, and its future. Of particular interest to us in the manosphere are “Warbucks Intra-Family Communique” and “Becoming More Free” by Ernest Mann. The former is a satirical article on the emptiness and mindlessness of American consumerism; the latter is on how Mann unplugged himself from the Matrix of American culture:

I am wasting less of my time (LIFE) watching, listening to and reading THOUGHT LEADERS, ie, TV, movies, radio, music, newspapers, magazines and novels. These are like spectator sports. They cause me to live life vicariously, ie, second-hand, not real, only in fantasy. These mind conditioners are subtly designed to create not only fear and anger emotions but also create feelings of guilt and inadequacy. These feeling stifle growth and keep one securely in one’s rut. And of course the more visible purpose of the media is to create the desire to acquire (BUY! BUY! BUY!) and keep up with the Joneses. ‘Buying’ uses up my savings. I spent 22 years of my TIME (life) working as a Wage Slave. I helped perpetuate the status quo, ie a world of 98.6% Slaves and less than 1% Elite (Billionaires). I don’t wish to do that any more.

But the real prize is Trevor’s own writings, comprising the second half of the book. They include book reviews (including an exhaustive review of one of my favorites, L.A. Rollins’ Myth of Natural Rights), interviews with such diverse individuals as a bulimia sufferer and an expert on out-of-body experiences/bilocation, and my favorite, “Trajectory Through Anarchism,” in which Trevor tracks the evolution of his political beliefs:

1996: Feeling free of anarchism and a little burned by what I now see was my own hooded thinking, I call up the imp of the perverse to see what other forbidden ideas might be out there. Ayn Rand is suggested, and I read her works. Having already shed one hood I’m less inclined to put another one on, and I do not become an Objectivist. But moving through Objectivism brings libertarian thinking to my attention. It’s something about the sovereignty of the individual… but I’ve walked down that path already and don’t sign on as a libertarian either.

Like The eXile, OVO 20 comes in a 8 1/2 by 11 inch size, to fit artwork and cartoons on the pages – I was particularly amused by “Attack of the Giant Killer Sperm.” One minor issue I have with the design is that all paragraphs in OVO 20 are punctuated with bullet points. I suppose they’re there to make the book look distinctive, but I found them mildly distracting, fooling my eyes into thinking I was reading a series of lists instead of articles.

Still, if you want to take an excursion into the bizarre and come back a little more enlightened, OV0 20 is a fun and informative read. If you’re still not convinced, Trevor maintains a free online archive of all OVO articles here. He also has some words of wisdom for aspiring writers and publishers:

…First and most important, get busy. Your time is already diminished by work and mortality, and neither of those situations is going to improve. Keep a printed copy of what you make and write down the date of when you made it. Large bodies of work and the pleasure they bring are made a few small pieces at a time. Learn about the history of what interests you. Novelty is rare and not always of value for being novel. Your friends are not being documented right now and you are the one who can do a good job with that. Read with regularity outside your area of interests. Nothing will point out your own ignorance and error better than attentiveness to those who disagree with you, nothing makes what you know make sense like learning something unrelated to what you know. Take as many chances as you are willing to take the lumps for.

But most of all, get busy.

Trevor Blake: OVO at the Everlasting Blort

20 September 2011 » In blog, ovo, subgenius, trevorblake

OVO has been a fan and follower of blort dot meepzorp dot com since 2001. Today we got the nod from Madam Jujujive after sending her a link to tENTATIVELY a cONVENIENCE’s video for an anti-Neoist rally. The honor is all our own!

Trevor Blake: Nine Plus Nine

16 March 2011 » In blog, ovo, trevorblake

Nine years ago I made a post on the internet. Here’s what it said…

Oblivio writes: “I once rode a bus into the Berkeley Hills, to the state park up there, while tripping, mildly, on mushrooms. It was a resplendent day, a day much this one, and I was the only passenger on board. I had my journal open on my lap and was filling it with statements on the subject on lostness, the sort of things I always think when I’m tripping — “you can only be lost when you wish to be elsewhere,” “to be lost is to lack a story for where you are,” etc. — when I struck on the idea of addressing my future self, the one who would return to these words one day, looking for wisdom. It has now been nine years. This is what I wrote, using giant, child-like letters:

“HELLO, MICHAEL-READING-THIS-IN-THE-FUTURE. WHY DON’T YOU GO OUTSIDE AND LOOK AT THINGS FOR A CHANGE? YOU HAVE AN INTERESTING MIND BUT WHERE DOES IT GET YOU?”

Well?

Trevor Blake: One Hundred Art Blogs

06 September 2010 » In art, blog

One hundred blogs that emphasize images over text, compiled by Trevor Blake in September 2010. Some few sites include some small amount of nudity or bloodshed. Arranged alphabetically without comment to encourage the reader to try new things. Sites update from several times a day to almost never. Pop-up heavy sites (livejournal), especially popular sites and sites featuring a single artist generally not included. Mostly English, some Russian, no particular language required. Themes include vintage, dark, posters, books, funny ha-ha, funny strange, photography, some video, architecture, paper, maps, DIY, comics, design. Most of these sites contain links to many, many more sites. I’d like to have a large screen hanging on my wall that displayed random images from the sites on this list.

Henry Hanks: The Real Dharma Initiative?

06 May 2010 » In blog, television, trevorblake

The Dharma Initiative. Red herring or consequential? Once one of the biggest mysteries of “Lost,” much of what it was about was revealed in season five. A short refresher course: Dharma (Department of Heuristics And Research on Material Applications) was founded in the 1970s by a couple of scientists named the DeGroots, who were greatly influenced by the work of psychologist and inventor B.F. Skinner. They were given funding by one Alvar Hanso, which allowed them to send a large team to the island to conduct research in meteorology, psychology, parapsychology, zoology, electromagnetism and Utopian social engineering. [...]

One person who has thought about this quite a bit is blogger Klint “Klintron” Finley, who has written about the concept of “real-life Dharma initiatives” extensively at Hatch23.com. “I think it stems from various trends and movements from the ’60s and ’70s,” he said. “More specifically, anywhere that two or more of the following intersected: Eastern spirituality, fringe science, defense spending, disturbing psychological research, experiments in utopian/communal living and experiments social control.” He points to many possible influences for the Dharma concept but thinks there is one in particular that shares a lot with Dharma: the Esalen Institute. Made famous in a 1967 New York Times article, the institute began as a place where one could, as its website says, have “the intellectual freedom to consider systems of thought and feeling that lie beyond the current constraints of mainstream academia.” It still serves as a retreat center at the beautiful Big Sur mountains to this day and, according to the website, has been devoted to the exploration of human potential since the 1960s. It’s here that the “Physics Consciousness Research Group” was allegedly co-founded in 1975 by theoretical physicist Jack Sarfatti. Sarfatti is the author of such works as “Progress in Post-Quantum Physics and Unified Field Theory” and “Super Cosmos: Through Studies Through the Stars.”

And what about Dharma’s benefactor, Hanso? Aside from maybe Richard Alpert and Charles Widmore, no one character has fascinated and mystified fans more. … In fact, much of the online “Lost Experience” a few years ago revolved around him. (According to Finley, Hanso may have been modeled after people like inventor Charles F. Kettering, who died in 1958.) In ABC’s game “The Lost Experience,” players found out that a main reason for his interest in the Dharma Initiative was the “Valenzetti Equation.” In “Lost” lore, this is a calculation of the exact date on which humankind would wipe itself out, consisting of the familiar “numbers” from the hatch, Hurley’s lottery ticket and, we now know, Jacob’s candidates. Dharma was trying to change these numbers in order to save the world.

Article continues. Congratulations to Klint Finley for this interview at CNN. Disclosure: I am an ‘advising scholar’ for Hatch 23.

Furry Girl: Two on Feminism

19 February 2010 » In blog, commerce, sex

The content of these links may not be appropriate for all readers and all environments. – Trevor Blake

Furry Girl, Introduction, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Non:

After working on the outskirts of the porno industry since 2002, I have steadily been moving from wanting to modernize and re-define the concept of feminism to wanting to stop beating that dead horse entirely. Many of my friends and favorite people consider themselves feminists. A lot of my enemies consider themselves feminists, too, and they exist in larger numbers, with better funding, and with better brand recognition as the face of feminism. [...] I spent way too much of my own time trying to shoehorn myself into feminism, and I look back on that as an embarrassing waste of my energy.

Feminism as a word/identity is used to describe so much of everything that it has ceased to mean anything at all. Is fucking people for money feminist? Is climbing the corporate ladder feminist? Is wearing an abaya feminist? Is shaving your pussy feminist? Is being a stay-at-home mom feminist? Is BSDM feminist? Are sewing and crafting feminist? Is makeup feminist? Is being a woman in the military feminist? Is broccoli soup feminist?!?! You have people lined up, ready to fight to the death over their absolute certainty over whether or not such things are truly feminist. (What the word “feminism” stands in for, of course, is deemed permissible by the “right” kind of people.)

In general, I’m tired of “feminist” being used as a blanket qualifier to mean “awesome”, especially when it comes to the concept of feminist porn. I think “awesome” works just fine as a qualifier for awesome. I seek to advance the idea the first person in any debate to propose that their position is correct because it’s the most “feminist” has hereby lost the argument. I have been guilty of this one plenty of times in the past, but I can learn from my mistakes.

Furry Girl, Biography of a Pornographic Polemic:

Why would you NOT want call yourself a feminist? That means you’re sexist, then, right? Pick a side! We’re at war!
I don’t call myself a suffragette, either, but that doesn’t mean I am against women being allowed to vote. I still consider myself super-duper anti-sexism, because sexism is still a problem in my society. Unfortunately, it’s frequently perpetuated by people who call themselves feminists.

What could you possibly have against feminism?
For starters: “feminism” doesn’t have anything close to a singular meaning, so it’s too hard to have rational debate about it when it means opposite things to different people; the feminist pendulum has run its course and too often turns into pointless misandry; feminism used to be about women’s right to be more than just barefoot and pregnant, and now it fights for the “right” of women to be barefoot and pregnant and be given a ton of government and corporate handouts for churning out babies; feminism is commonly embraced by people who’s underlying beliefs are that women are stupid, feeble creatures who need to be controlled and saved; feminism these days focuses way too much on imaginary first-worlder problems like women choosing to feel badly about themselves because they think they’re not pretty enough, rather than real-world problems in the Global South where women aren’t allowed to own property, vote, or have a safe abortion; some feminists are obsessed with fanning and exploiting insecurities in women in order to indoctrinate them to their style of victim feminism, rather than being positive and helping women see that they’re strong and powerful. Last but not least: it’s REALLY FUCKING DIFFICULT to spend your entire life being viciously picked on by girls and women for various reasons, then swallow the idea that women are your true solidarity sisters and that men are the cruel enemy that oppresses you.

Rachel Bevilacqua: Update on SubGenius Custody Case and New Blog

10 December 2009 » In blog, subgenius, theocracy

Dear Friends,

Thank you all so much for the generous support you’ve given me over the years! I could never have reunited my family and gotten my life back if it wasn’t for all of you, so thank you once again for everything you’ve done!

I’ve finally received the paperwork for the Appeals Court dismissal of my ex’s bid to keep the case in New York State. You can view them on Google Docs, page 1 here: http://tinyurl.com/yara369 and page 2 here: http://tinyurl.com/ydrzh2k. Some people have asked me about the court order preventing me from having my own artwork and writing inside my home, so I have put those orders up on the web also. The legal prohibitions against me having any SubGenius materials in my home are found in numerous court docs. In the latest, currently standing order from Judge Punch it is found at the bottom of page 2 and top of page 3 here: http://tinyurl.com/yc727s9 . It is also seen affirmed by Judge Adams on page 17 here: http://tinyurl.com/y8wozzt .

Essentially, the upshot of the latest Appeals Court decision is that for now the case is dismissed, but my ex has one year from the date stamp, September 22, 2009, to make another attempt to complete this appeal. After that deadline, if nothing further is filed, the case will finally move beyond the jurisdiction of New York State entirely. Never again would my family face the prospect of having to split up and find lodging in New York for months or years on end to fight the case. Never again will I be handicapped by not having any of my local friends and people who know our family available to testify. Although this doesn’t guarantee the case would be completely over, it would return it to a fair and level playing field.

So basically, I’m counting down to September 10, 2010!! I’ll be sure to send out an update then if all is well so you can rest easy!

Of course the legal bills are still a huge burden. I have a monthly payment of over $500 to pay back a legal loan that my father secured with his entire retirement savings, so until that is paid off I am always living under the fear that I won’t be able to pay it and everything my father saved over decades of hard work as a letter carrier will be snatched away from him. Any donations would be greatly appreciated, as always! The link to donate is: http://pledgie.com/campaigns/90

Another way to help is to visit my new blog! http://revmagdalen.blogspot.com/2009/11/welcome-to-my-new-blog.html I started this blog because I’ve begun to feel like the terrible numbing effect all these troubles have had on my mind is starting to wear off, and I’ve begun really wanting to share my opinions and hopefully make some people laugh! And I’ve monetized the blog with ads, so every time anyone just visits and casts their eyes upon the ads, perhaps clicking any that are of genuine interest, it helps out my legal bills!

I’m still in a legal grey area as far as whether or not I can blog about my case, so I’ve chosen not to risk anything by doing that, but I have become pretty involved in activism for the Iranian Green Movement, so I do blog about that and a variety of SubGenius topics. There’s even a section where you can “Ask Magdalen” any questions on SubGenius doctrine, your love life, anything! I’ve also written a post explaining in more detail the answer to that infamous question, “Why a goat?” referring to a costume I wore at a SubGenius event that caused much controversy in the courtroom. Get all the answers here: http://revmagdalen.blogspot.com/2009/11/because-goats-are-funny.html

You can also follow me on Twitter at https://twitter.com/revmagdalen where I also plan to occasionally serve ads, so the more followers I have, the more it will help my legal fund! Feel free to tell your friends to check out the blog and follow me on Twitter, for a great free way to help with a good cause!

Thank you all again so much for everything you’ve done for my family, I don’t know how to repay you except to tell you that you have made a huge difference in a family’s life, and without your help we would still be separated and miserable, but your generosity has allowed us to be reunited and we are so happy and grateful for that!!!

Thank you so much!!
-Rachel Bevilacqua

Trevor Blake: The Raving (A)Theist

07 September 2009 » In atheist, blog, christianity, fascism, food, islam, magick, theocracy, trevorblake

The Internet Archive suggests that The Raving Atheist started some time in 2002. By September 2002 the site described itself as “an atheistic examination of the culture of belief: how religious devotion trivializes American law and politics.” The site and its author have had a curious history.

The Raving Atheist (TRA) was influential on me in three ways when I found it in 2004. First, TRA’s essays clarified for me the importance of distinguishing between religious belief and theocracy. TRA wrote (quote): “any person asserting a special individual right or attempting to dictate social policy based about a belief in god must first 1) define the god, 2) prove that the god exists and 3) demonstrate how the right or policy follows from the belief in god.” Religious belief can be foolish, harmful and sad (or clever, helpful and joyous) but it is largely a matter of personal choice. The trouble for all of us starts when religion is enfranchised into law. The Raving Atheist helped me understand theocracy is where my criticism should primarily be addressed, with criticism of religion in general coming behind. I often fail, but I’ve tried to criticize theocracy more harshly than religion or any particular religion.

Second, TRA reminded me that no set of beliefs is a package deal. Just because a person is an atheist does not mean they are necessarily also a capitalist or a communist, although some capitalists and some communists would like to claim otherwise. In this case, the reminder came in the form of TRA being strongly in favor of atheism and strongly against abortion. That’s a combination I’d never seen before, TRA himself said it was rare and which remains a minority view. TRA was banned from anti-abortion Christian sites for being an atheist, and looked at askance for being anti-abortion by atheists. This rare combination of beliefs was helpful to me, whether or not I shared them. Just as the Dalai Lama is not a vegetarian, The Raving Atheist and you and I pick and choose and invent our beliefs from a variety of inspirations. Sometimes they seem to go together, sometimes we find others that share our beliefs and they appear to form a self-consistent ideology. But it is just as likely we’re dressing up our preferences in fine justifications.

Third, for better and for worse The Raving Atheist influenced my writing style. He didn’t just use reasoned criticism to address his concern. He also heaped scorn and mockery on those he opposed. TRA took news stories about theocracy and changed the wording so their absurdity and cruelty was emphasized. I do these things as well. If you like my work in this style, thank TRA. If you don’t, blame me.

The better influences that TRA has given me remain, I hope, as I’ve changed in being an atheist and a writer. TRA has also changed. There were few posts to the blog between 2006 and 2009. Among them was a June 2006 post stating TRA “will never write another bad word about Jesus or Christianity on The Raving Atheist.” TRA also wrote:

“Neither Christ nor Christianity shall ever again be maligned on this site, I have vowed. In contemporary America continuing this blog under such constraints might appear to rival the composition of a thousand-page novel without the letter ‘e.’ Or perhaps without the alphabet, given that Christianity equates Christ with God, and that the denial of His existence could be fairly construed as an insult. The seeming impossibility of the challenge might suggest an abandonment of disbelief. Consequently charges of atheist heresy, of conversion to theism, have now been lodged against me. With such conversions I am well familiar. Often I have questioned whether a committed, well-read atheist has ever come to faith. No one is better able to recognize the symptoms of a religious transformation than I. But my own diagnosis I will not disclose. [...] I can only assure you that I will not be acting indifferently or agnostically. What has led me to this point, whatever this point is, is a firm conviction that I must go beyond words and set an example. I will not say whether what lies behind that conviction is God or not. You will have to content yourselves with the understanding that the truth of His existence, whether founded in fact, logic, or a combination of both could not possibly vary with what my words might command you to believe. But I will not tell you what I believe. And I will not tell you why I will not, and you will never trick it out of me.”

Reading that I wondered if I could write in favor of atheism without criticizing religion. I haven’t done so online, but I do have a book manuscript that attempts to do just that. Perhaps someday it will get that last bit of editing and see print.

On December 22, 2008, TRA wrote: “Three years ago, I promoted and appeared in the atheist documentary The God Who Wasn’t There, dedicated to the proposition that Jesus never existed. TODAY I DEDICATE THIS SITE AND MY LIFE TO THE WORSHIP AND SERVICE OF OUR LORD AND SAVIOR, JESUS CHRIST.” Is this evidence that some beliefs are package deals, that it’s impossible to stay atheist if you’re against abortion? Some say yes. But I’m going to stick with no. Just because you’re a vegetarian or a nature-worshiper or an occultist doesn’t mean you’re also a fascist. Just because you’re an homosexual it doesn’t mean you’re gay. You are what you are by choice and by chance, and political correctness of every stripe be damned. I am still puzzled when friends have a mix of heresies that don’t match my own. But it doesn’t threaten me like it used to.

As of September 2009 a Google search for “Raving Atheist” returns his blog as the first match, with the byline “Atheistic examination of American law and politics.” The site‘s own byline is “Dedicated to Jesus Christ, Now and Forever.” The back content is mostly there, and what isn’t there is usually at the Internet Archive. TRA’s site isn’t as funny or inspirational to me as it used to be. But the number of anti-abortion atheists was small, and the number of atheists-turned-Christian is also small. TRA’s site is worth reading at minimum for its rarity.

Trevor Blake: Lubna Hussein

05 September 2009 » In atheist, blog, christianity, islam, sex, theocracy, trevorblake

Lubna Hussein, When I think of my trial, I pray my fight won’t be in vain: Next week I will stand trial in a Sudanese court, charged along with 12 other women with committing an “indecent act” – wearing trousers in a public place. I will face up to 40 lashes and an unlimited fine if I am convicted of breaching Article 152 of Sudanese law, which prohibits dressing indecently in public. As an employee of the UN I was offered immunity, and the chance to escape trial, but I chose to resign from the UN so that I could face the Sudanese authorities and make them show to the world what they consider justice to be. [The] director of police has admitted that 43,000 women were arrested in Khartoum state in 2008 for clothing offences. When asked, he couldn’t say how many of these women had been flogged. And it’s not just about clothing. After my arrest, two girls were arrested in a public place and the police discovered that their mobile phones had video clips of scenes from the hugely popular Arab soap Noor and Mohannad in which the main characters kiss each other. The girls were charged with pornography and given 40 lashes. [...] When I think of my trial, I pray that my daughters will never live in fear of these “police of security of society”. We will only be secure once the police protect us and these laws are repealed. I also pray that the next generation will see we had the courage to fight for their future before it was too late. We need Arab, African, American and European leaders to stand with us and help us make sure that the next chapter of our history is less bloody and brutal than the last. This will require conviction and boldness from their side. I hope they will display the qualities of those Sudanese men and women I most admire.

Nesrine Malik [bio: Sudanese-born writer and commentator who lives in London and works in the financial sector] wrote “any whiff of visible western practical support for Lubna Hussein for example, would have robbed her campaign of most of its credibility. What will help Muslim women is spending less time and effort being outraged on our behalf and more on differentiating the different faces and needs behind the burqa.” Malik also wrote “The new date for the trial, 7 September, falls in the middle of Ramadan. This will work in Hussein’s favour. Ramadan is a month when Muslims are supposed to renounce violence and refrain from all intolerant behaviour, dedicating the fast to peaceful contemplation. Perhaps the government will invoke its faux piety and use this as an excuse to delay the trial yet again if no other solution can be negotiated in the meantime. Hopefully, the momentum the case has captured will not ease. Flogged or found innocent, the world will be watching.” Apparently the West is heeding Malik’s suggestion to observe but not speak of Lubna Hussein’s trail. Google is unable to find any mention of Lubna Hussein at the National Organization of Women, feminist.com, The Feminist Majority, Feminist Studies, The European Womens Lobby or Amnesty International. [thanks to Klint Finley for pointing out my error: AI does mention Lubna Hussein, here and here]. Against Malik’s wishes, there is a whiff of visible support for Lubna Hussein at Feminist Blogs and Ms. Magazine. Maybe most Western feminists consider dress reform to be old fashioned, having resolved the issue in the 1850s. If their sisters in the Muslim world are being arrested and flogged for it, well, they just need to get with the times. There’s more support for Lubna Hussein at atheist sites such as Freethinker and OVO than at these feminist sites. Who’s got your back, and who’s putting a whip across your back?

All praise to Lubna Hussein for her pointed and practical public protest against the contemptible sharia government of the Sudan. Efforts such as hers, Muslims Against Sharia, the Institution for the Secularization of Islamic Society, Irshad Manji and others are the only way that Islam is worthy of existence in the 21st Century. Like all religions, it should wither under the twin suns of reason and scorn. But should Islam accept the secular neutering that Christianity has in the West, it can start to redeem itself. For its evils past and present, the Muslim world is in need of redemption.

The Deal with Disability

04 September 2009 » In blog, krankheit, video

This blog will be videos of people treating me bizarrely. My video camera is mounted to my wheelchair (very discreetly) and I basically just press record whenever I go out and then edit the good stuff for you!

The Deal with Disability

Trevor Blake: At Every Turn in Its Thought…

01 September 2009 » In blog, ovo, trevorblake

Fourth in a series – collect them all! A few more examples of links I’ve posted (harvested in turn from other sources) showing up later at boingboing.net.

Heavy metal monk
posted by David Pescovitz on 18 March 2009.
posted by Trevor Blake on 18 July 2008.

Ritually Stolen Penises and Vaginas – Not a Joke Here
posted by Xeni Jardin on 18 March 2009,
posted by Trevor Blake on 23 April 2008.

Raymond Scott’s Powerhouse Performed by Harmonica Quintet
posted by Mark Frauenfelder on 16 April 2009.
posted by Trevor Blake on 16 July 2008.

Atheists Who’ll Take In Your Pets After the Rapture
posted by Cory Doctorow on 27 August 2009.
posted by Trevor Blake on 1 July 2009.

As J. R. “Bob” Dobbs said, “If you want to be known as a creative, original person, make sure you imitate the right people.” I know I do. I don’t know where boingboing.net gets its links, and I doubt it is from me. But I can say where I get mine. You could do much worse than to spend all of your free time reading metafilter, Dark Roasted Blend, digg and Everlasting Blort. Places I’d like to see quoted more often are Mutate!, Less Wrong, Overcoming Bias and The Hoover Hog. And OVO.

fuck yeah occultism

31 August 2009 » In art, blog, magick

hidden knowledge. witches & sigils.

fuck yeah occultism

Trevor Blake: OVO blog

26 August 2009 » In blog, ovo, trevorblake

Today is the second anniversary of OVO blog. Thank you to my readers, thank you to my critics, and thank you especially to two men who have influenced OVO online the most: Klint Finley and Daniel Rafatpanah.

Klint Finley: Birthers and the Democratization of Media

12 August 2009 » In 9/11, blog, portland

In the 90s, the advent of the Internet age, many people, including myself, thought the Internet’s democratization of media would be vehicle for social progress. R.U. Sirius was correct that “consensus reality” would be demolished. But instead of a new enlightenment, we have a new dark age in which disinformation flows at will and even educated people can’t be bothered to check Snopes before hitting forward on the latest right wing chain e-mail. The thinking seemed to go: access to information outside the mainstream media would in itself cause the media establishment’s authority to crumble and foster a new age of critical thinking. “The people” would get a better sense of what was really going on in the world, and demand change. People, awash in unverified sources, would also become more critical thinkers. By 2002, in the wake of 9/11, and the rise of the “Warbloggers” it should have been clear that this simply wasn’t happening. [...]

There seems to be no point in speaking truth to power. Power does not care what is spoken to it. This should not be read as a reactionary rant. The yearning for a “golden age” of investigative journalism is a case of rosy retrospection. What to do then when the watchmen are evil, and the populace is mad? I have no answers. My only solace at this point is that every outbreak of insanity seems to die down eventually, even if society writ large learns nothing from them.

[Article continues. Highest recommendation for the works of Klint Finley. - Trevor Blake]

OVO

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fuck yeah occultism

Trevor Blake: OVO blog

Klint Finley: Birthers and the Democratization of Media

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