Ahem. I think that the post you were looking for is this one.

(Edit: Yes. Yes it would have. But don’t start using it like Twitter, now.)

The thing I’m curious about with Google’s new terms of service and privacy policy, which goes into effect on March 1st:

Sure, it’s easier to read. No legalese and all that. But since there’s no legalese… how, exactly, are you supposed to know exactly how and what you’re violating?

Unless, of course, you make sure to keep yourself well within bounds.

Many different things I could write about the State of the Union address, but… this one.

I mean, I’m happy for her. Genuinely. Glad that she survived, glad that she’s recovering the way that she is. And I don’t blame her for this, and I don’t blame her husband, either. But: read this sometime. Or this. And consider that that type of thing is the so-called “signature injury” of recent conflicts, too.

And then look at how people responded to her.

One has to wonder if she knew it would happen. And if that’s part of why she decided to step down.

As kind of a tangent off of the last post…

It’s a conclusion that I reached some time ago, but hadn’t voiced: when it comes to the whole alpha thing in pickup, or more specifically, to the older idea of “appearing” alpha, there’s an implication that comes along with it. And it isn’t deception. It depends upon whether or not a person takes the larger social context into account. Which includes things like the immigration debates. And artificial insemination. And background checks. And sociobiology, and evo psych, and twin studies, and the like.

With that context, the technique of “appearing” alpha becomes something very different from deception.

It becomes anti-eugenic.

So: why did pickup become such an acridly debated social phenomenon, again? Might be time to revisit that question.

Yeah, a lot of people are focusing on the free speech issue. And a lot of people are focusing on the “break the Internet” issue, too. Though not necessarily in a balanced way in either case, or on either side. But as important as both of those issues are, I find that too bad, mostly. Because I don’t think that either one is the most important thing, as far as what people should be noticing.

I mean, the way that the language of SOPA talks about on-line piracy, counterfeiting and such, and especially the way that the advertisements describe it; and the way that the proposed solutions are supposed to be implemented. Doesn’t that remind anyone of anything? Because it should.

The illegal (and, increasingly, legal) immigration debates.

SOPA and PIPA aren’t just a wrongheaded, unworkable, sledgehammer attempt at a solution to the piracy problem. It’s American xenophobia and racial panic, extended internationally. And that’s what people should be paying attention to.1

1. The song in the previous post should make sense, now. If you get the reference. If you don’t, read this.

(Sigh.)

So, it isn’t just at friends’ apartments.

Walking back from getting groceries, I decided to go around the front of the block, instead of cutting through the alley, like I usually do. Seeing as we’ve had the freezing rain and all. And soon after that was when I realized that I had no idea where I was. When I had to start hunting down landmarks to get my bearings. Only to realize, a bit later, that I’d called one by the name of a place that had shut down and been replaced by a new outfit years ago. (And I eat there every once in a while, and used to eat at the old place, too, so I’m quite aware of that fact.) When I realized that, I realized where I was, and things settled down.

In other words, I got lost.

Half a block from home.

Where I’ve been living for more than a dozen years.

And yeah, I know, people get confused. Brain lapses happen. People age, memory gets worse. But this shit? It ain’t normal.

Yeah, the day that I get my system fixed *would* be SOPA/PIPA blackout day. Timing, huh?

Don’t leave it at that.

Run an I2P node. Learn what Majestic-12 is. Do something after the sun sets today, and after it rises tomorrow, and after the next, and the next, and the next, and the next.