November 29, 2009

Still unhappy about that

You remember those people in the last two posts, the one guy who had the 'shaming language' thing going on and the other guy with circular logic?
Their arguments have just been entirely deflated.
How?
The writer of the original Star Treck, the classic, the one with William Shatner as James Kirk and Spock and Uhura the communications operator and Doctor McCoy and Scottie from the "Beam me up, Scotty" fame, was DC Fontana.
Full name: Dorothy Catherine Fontana.
The writer of Star Trek was a woman. Tell me again how women are ruining science fiction?

Also: Ursuala K Le Guin. Andre Norton. Madeleine L'Engle.

November 26, 2009

And another response

We are all Misogynists Now.

To quote:
"...merely highlights your particular lack of logical reasoning and cognitive capabilities to refute an argument in a reasonable and intelligent manner.
What many of you people fail to understand is that people who read and contribute to this site are coming from an entirely different perspective. We do not share the same presumptions and rationales that you do. You who have registered your knee-jerk reactions and poured out your emotional-based outrage…you are merely the manifestation of bleating sheeple, following the herd of mainstream society."


So women have a "lack of logical reasoning and cognitive capablities"? Also that this somehow means we cannot "refute an argument in a reasonable and intelligent manner"? Explain, please. You are wrapped up in logical reasoning. So show me your logical reasoning for why women cannot refute an argument intelligently.

Stating now that this guy has a completly valid and sometimes sadly correct point that feminism which consists of insulting other people is not helpful and indeed harmful in many ways.

So far all I have seen is that you say women/feminists have a knee-jerk reaction to apparent misogyny and that you do not like this on a fudamental level, which makes your reaction a knee-jerk reaction to a knee-jerk reaction; furthermore you have already said that knee-jerk reactions are invalid. So therefore everyone's arguments are invalid and therefore no one is thinking at all.
Also: shaming language. So the feminists are using it, you say; and you are comparing them and those who think like them to bleating sheep and Klansmen and Nazis. How is this not shaming language? Shaming language is also apparently invalid, so again, everyone's arguments are invalid.

More responses to other's writings

The article today? The War on Science Fiction and Marvin Minsky.
Read it and return

Response:
So I cannot possibly like science or technology and must like romance because I am female? I must be more attracted to relationships than real-world issues? I am not allowed to dream or think of the future becuase I am female? I am not allowed to be intelligent because I have a slight genetic difference?
The reason there are less visible female readers, fans, and writers in science-fiction and comics is because of people like you, Pro-male/Anti-feminist Tech. We take abuse dealt out by people like you and some leave when they refuse to take it anymore, and then obviously it is because we are female and not because you feel somehow threatend by us; and you don't even bother to acknoweledge that you are not taking the same kind of critisim and flame and abuse back.
There are less women working in science-oriented fields for the same reason. Cultural conceptions have held it as common knoweldge for centuries that men were superior to women, and obviously you still hold this belief.
Also: "whiny men who were genrally unable to find their way out of a wet paper bag"? Guess what women and girls in nearly all and any media since time immemorable have been? That. Those uncomfortable feelings you've got after seeing these men so characterized? Those are the same ones that many females have had for quite a long time now. Perhaps it is time to find your misplaced sense of empathy which, I am told, is essential to the survival of the human race.
SciFi changed its name to Syfy to escape B-list movie associations and to try and draw in more veiwers who would otherwise not want to set foot in the genre for fear of being called a geek or a nerd. If you feel the need to blame someone for the "more drama" focus of science-fiction now (if there is any, I'm not sure at this point), blame the people who made melodramas and reality TV shows popular.
Those three gay characters you were complaining about? Diversity in action. Do you also complain about racial diveristy? Diversity in general has been a touchstone and defining point in science-fiction for almost the entire history of the genre, understandable and even nessecary when you are writing about many and varied disparate cultures and races dispersed around the universe. Also known as aliens. If aliens are not diveristy, then what is?
Please get over your apparent obsession with "manly men". Those are the worst sort of men.
I would also like to address all these concerns to Sean_MacCloud.
Please, why don't you fall back on the time-honored tradition in science-fiction of inclusion no matter what the differences (that was almost the whole premise of Star Trek: explore to discover new cultures and how to work with them) and apply it to your lives.

PM/AFT; consider yourself Bingoed by virtue of There aren’t many women working in mainstream comics(science fiction, in this case) because they’re just not good enough.

Theory on Political Insanity

Lots of people seem to complain when the same politicians get elected time after time, despite how bad they are. Here's my answer to that:
Politics is mostly showmanship.
If you put on a good enough show, then enough people won't care about your platform to vote you into office. People will vote for what they feel is right instead and/or in spite of what they know is right. Think about it:
You remember the charmers and the con artists and the charismatic people in politics. The good speakers and the ones with the good public relations. The people who know what their constituents want and/or need. The masses remember Obama's "Yes we can" and "Change you can believe in" because that's what everyone felt they needed. When everyone was worried about communism, we got McCarthy. When Germany was sore over loosing so much, the world got Hitler. How many times has there been a change in government because people felt they couldn't live with the old one anymore; and then those same people make the government just the same as before? To many times to count since the rise of even a vestige of civilization and there will be many more to come.
Politicians are elected on feelings, it seems, more times than not. Certainly there are politicians who are decent people; I certainly know of some. Given that calling yourself a 'politician' usually gives people a bad feeling anyway, saying that you are a 'legislator' may help. However, that wouldn't change the situation at all if the politicians/legislators didn't change how they worked at all. We'd just have more complaining about 'two-faced politicians'.
If people thought more, perhaps then they would complain less.

Thanksgiving: It's historically innnacurate

Truth.
Here are misconceptions about the great American holiday.

The Puritans came to America.
The Puritans did not come to America. The Separatists came to America.

The Pilgrims were from England.
They went from England to the Netherlands and then back to England and took a ship to America.

The Pilgrims came over on the Mayflower.
They originally had two ships: the Mayflower and the Speedwell. The Speedwell was too leaky to make the transatlantic voyage.

The Pilgrims came to America to flee from religious persecution.
Not all of them. Just over half of the people we now call Pilgrims were on the trip to make money off the land. The Separatists called them the Strangers.

The Pilgrims landed in Plymouth.
They were aiming for northern Virginia (they were being funded by the Virginia Company) and turned up off the coast of Cape Cod. They tried to correct course, but were forced back to Cape Cod and made first landfall in Princetown. They resupplied and then sailed to Plymouth, which wasn't even Plymouth; it was the area John Smith had named Patuxet.

Samoset and Squanto helped the Pilgrims through the winter.
Samoset and Tisquantum helped the Pilgrims through the winter.

Surely there are some people at this point going, 'no, that's wrong; Thanksgiving never happened anything like that!'. Go take it up with National Geographic. They published the book all this is from.

November 16, 2009

My two favorite ones






Two weeks late, but who cares












Will you come with me to the party?
Past the twisted oaken trees
And down the forest path.
See the burning candles
Now you know you're near.
Do you see the fires?
Do you see the dancing?
Will you stay to see
Or will you go to leave?


From the Halloween Party at my brother's school.

First Parish Gorham

I found a wonderful blog today, or at least someone I knew did.
Its called First Parish Gorham, and is the blog of Reverend David Butler, who says of himself:
"I am a non-traditional minister with a passion for social justice, the pursuit of truth and peace, and openness to other points of view (as long as they are open views as well). I am also an actor, writer, and playwright."
One post I really liked, Agnostic Christianity. Go read it.
While you're at it, go visit Senator Olympia Snowe's page. I'm writing a report about her and all her work with bipartisan reform.
Also visit Tamora Peirce's blog; especially if you liked the Girls Read Comics links.

Quotes pulled from various sources:
  • "Faith is the relationship we have with whatever it is that we consider truly transcendent." -Reverend David Butler
  • “Just because we have different views, that doesn't mean that we lack principles.” -Senator Olympia Snowe
  • "Thou art God" -Stranger in a Strange Land; Robert Heinlein

November 13, 2009

Disappointment

Maine repealed the Gay Rights Law. Those California people sent around a petition and got it re-voted on.
Commentary here.