Category Archives: Censorship

Lockout!

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Good god, I’ve been banned!

I can hardly pretend it’s the first time in my life I’ve been banned; it’s the second. The first time was when Smonie banned me from her Only Orlando Bloom perving forum. I wasn’t a visitor there, since I think Orlando’s a nice, polite, decorative hunk of himbo and nothing more, and I only found out about the banning when someone told me there was a big ol’ hate on for me over there. Naturally, I went to look; when someone tells you that you’ve been involved in a horrible trainwreck and you haven’t actually noticed, you go check it out, right? So that’s when I got the message saying I’d been banned. Subsequently, every person except Smonie who posted in that thread was also banned. Was it Machiavelli who first suggested killing off the witnesses? In any case, mission accomplished there. Mandate fulfilled and eloquently manifested.

Idiocy

In any case, I have been banned again. Now, I may well have gone to this forum. It’s possible. It would have been five or more years ago, but it is possible. It’s definitely my kind of thing: Fortean phenomenology is right up my crooked lane.

Critical Information

You have been banned from this forum

Please contact the webmaster or forum administrator for more information

message_die() was called multiple times. This isn’t supposed to happen. Was message_die() used in page_tail.php?

Die??? That’s a little strong, don’t you think? Given my 16-year history on the Web, I think being banned by Smonie and the Fortean Times Online Forum isn’t too bad. They should really get in touch! They have so much in common.

Like their meds.

Let’s Roll-ins

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I was saving pictures, in preparation for making this post, when I experienced a nomenclature crisis. Now, it is not every day that one experiences a crisis of nomenclatory parameters, but it was, indeed, this day. I was, as I explained, saving pictures. And one of the things you have to do when you do that is give them all different names. The problem was, they were all pictures of Henry Rollins, and the only thing that came to mind when looking at these pictures, besides a powerful urge to crawl under the desk and cover my vitals with the office chair, were the words “Rollins Angry.” Eventually I settled on “Rollins Angry,” “Rollins Threatening,” “Rollins Screaming,” and “Rollins Not Actively Menacing Anything.”

Rollins Screaming

Would you mess with this man?

Well, Sploid reports that a couple of hapless Aussies have. In the case of the first one, I don’t blame Rollins for going somewhat apeshitish, particularly as that is the Rollins default. In the case of the second, I think he was out of line for killing the messenger, although that is surely a longstanding, if snivelly and tyrannical, political tradition, and therefore possibly considered acceptable, at least in DC and LA.

Henry Angry

 

 

No, no Henry, I wasn’t saying anything. Don’t mind me. Nothing to see here…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In any case, here is the article, in its glorious entirety. I’m too scared to take it out of context. Kudos to Rollins, though, for being one of the few who can distinguish between the role of the military in Iraq and the role of the politicians. Sucky enough? I don’t wanna get beat up.

 

‘The Aussie PM can go f@ck himself’

Henry WSJOn a recent flight from New Zealand to Australia a man found himself seated next to a musclebound gentleman reading a book bearing the ominous tile “Jihad: The Rise Of Militant Islam In Central Asia.”

He did what any hopelessly paranoid slab of quivering milquetoast would do: He reported the guy to Australia’s National Security hotline.

That guy was punk rock legend Henry Rollins.

 

 

Rollins received a letter warning him of his status as a suspected terrorist from a “nice lady” in the Australian government:

The person who sat next to you on the flight from New Zealand does not agree with your politics or choice of reading and so nominated you as a possible threat. As they were too cowardly or stupid to leave their details I can’t call them to discuss their idiocy with them.

In his response to the kindly tipster the former Black Flag frontman noted the irony that the book is written by a reporter from the Wall Street Journal, one of America’s more conservative newspapers, and was published by Yale University, President Bush’s alma mater.

The D.C. native then asked the woman to send along a message to her higher-ups:

Please tell your government and everyone in your office to go f*ck themselves. Tell them twice. If your boss is looking for something to do, you can tell him I suggest he go f*ck himself. Baghdad‘s safer than my hometown and your PM is a sissy. You have a nice night.

Though firmly against the war in Iraq and no fan of President Bush, Rollins is an unassailable patriot and supporter of the Armed Services. During the Christmas season he made his sixth USO tour.

“The troops, they’re my heroes,” Rollins said. “You don’t need me out there like some Tokyo Rose. I wouldn’t go on a tear on Bush out there, because it’d be distracting.”

Rollins Extreme Closeup

Yes Sir!

Anything you say, Henry. Now can I have your number?

Censorship = Death

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Pakistan don't block the blog

In this particular case, censorship literally does equal death.

From HelpPakistan.com. The Pakistani bloggers are requesting that other bloggers download and display one of their images (such as at right) to display solidarity with their cause and outrage that all Blogspot blogs have apparently been banned in Pakistan:

Over the past few days, The Freedom of Expression of Pakistani Bloggers has been under attack by some, if not all, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) who has chosen to block all blogs hosted on the blogspot.com domain. Political pressure groups have protested to the government to block those web sites displaying the controversial cartoon images of Prophet Muhammed (PBUH) that were hosted on the net. But instead of blocking specific sites, ISPs have simply blacklisted the entire domain, causing thousands of blogs to be inaccessible for viewing or authoring in Pakistan.

I will also take this opportunity to remind my readers that Pakistan’s earthquake-recovery efforts currently still require aid: in fact, they require more winter-grade tents than exist in the world. You can donate here or to the charity of your choice.

Rum, Sodomy, and the Lash

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Gay pirate comics with a very superhero-sounding name: Rum, Sodomy, and the Lash. Just the thing for a Saturday morning, eh? I mean Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

Rum, Sodomy and The Lash

For the Defence

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The fact that I am on his side in a battle to the apparent death with a group of crazed fandom should give John Paulus pause.

It should, actually, give him the willies, but he doesn’t know the history there.

So, who is John Paulus? He’s some American guy. I don’t know what he used to do for a living, but I know he has a porn deal now. I know he’s a very steadfast character, and he’s not greedy. I know if I were in a dark alley facing an unknown number of foes, I’d like to have a John Paulus or two on my side. How do I know anything about John Paulus?

Clay Aiken‘s fans went apeshit on him.

Apeshit fans, flamewars, fame, tabloids, lawyers, secret passions: this has “raincoaster” written all over it.

So the back story, as far as I can make out, which is hardly, since the only time I ever watched American Idol was the other night, over the calamari and Mango Madness before Narnia, so I missed Clay Aiken entirely except that I know he didn’t even win and he’s the only famous loser of American Idol, and he has a record coming out this year which has been jeopardized by the whole scandale, is this:

Apparently, John Paulus and Clay Aiken got together and had sex.

That’s it, pretty much. John told, as people who have sex are wont to do, particularly when they have sex with famous people whose record companies would very much like to hint that they are not having sex with people called John, but instead “he just hasn’t found the right girl yet.” John didn’t take any money for telling the story, and he hasn’t changed any of the details of the story since it broke. And he isn’t backing down, despite some rather…pointed…remarks from certain fans known as Claymates (this is ironic, isn’t it? They must not be as literal-minded as I am). Not all the Claymates are wingnuts, but there are enough that I can hear the flapping noises from Canada!

Clay Aiken never actually said he was straight. He’s never said he was gay either, and he hasn’t actually gone and said “John Paulus is wrong,” either, which is interesting. He has posted on his blog (for access to which he charges money) about something that he says is “real,” leading everyone to conclude there are things going around about him which are not real, which, as anyone who knows anything about fandom and fame knows, is by definition true. The lies could be that he’s gay; they could be that he’s straight; they could be that his favorite colour is…whatever. He’s famous, and therefore there are a lot of lies going around about him, true ’nuff. Hell, Viggo Mortensen has been known to complain about lies going around about him that originated with…himself! (Happy Halloween, Viggo!)

Right now the defenders of Clay’s honour are spreading the rumour that it wasn’t Clay on the webcam at all, but some trannie named Coti (again, that’s as I understand it; don’t actually have time to read all 937 comments) and also that John couldn’t have been with Clay because John is straight, to which John says:

if I had a girlfriend please ask her to provide a picture of the two of us together. I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting. If you know something to the contrary I am sure that the National Enquirer would be more than happy to hear your story. I would encourage you to do it. Remember they require you take a lie detector test. Here’s the contact: Abutterfield@nationalenquirer.com.

I’m that confident in myself.

[see why I like this guy?]

You know what’s really entertaining is that Clay knows that he and I were together; he knows that’s him in the webcam as well, but that his fans are saying that he looks like some drag queen named Coti. Clay don’t take it to heart and don’t feel insulted that your fans think you are a female impersonator.

Check out some of the fan posts:

This one is pretty grounded:

I hope that there are more fans like me out there, fans who love the voice, don’t give a crap whether he’s gay or straight, and only worry about this story because his high-risk behavior sounds dangerous. Obviously Clay doesn’t think there are many reasonable fans, but I still think they exist. The bottom line is that Clay can sing and can entertain and it would be a shame if his career were cut short because of this. That said, none of us has any right to demand that he say something or say nothing or that he prove anything other than the fact that he is singing. Insanity

And then there is:

matthew shepard was a killed
very sadly many americans felt he deserved it
umbelievalbe and shameful
does clay really deserve all this

Posted by: totallydifferentanswerthanyesterday whom I am wondering if s/he is asking for Clay to be “a killed” too? And shouldn’t that be “a kilt”? Jez askin’.

Also:

give ME a bed, a toilet and Clay Aiken (with room service for food occassionally) – and I’m pretty much set for life. I don’t want or need anything else. CLAY – call me – you got my number Posted by: ForClayOnly, pretty standard stuff except the part later about getting a dick if that’s what Clay wanted…ew. And…You will NEVER poison OUR minds against Clay, because we LOVE him with a passion you can not hardly begin to comprehend. You would have to have a HEART first…Clay’s blog was NOT patronizing. He likes to give us fun little tests. He is a teacher, remember? It’s fun for him to see who among us can figure it out – and it’s fun for us to try.

Once the meds kick in. Remember, you can’t channel the light until you take the helmet off.

And some posts from John Paulus:

Everything I stated about Clay was fact and truth. The story been floated here about me and some drag queen that I have never met are a fabrication. Claymates you’ve shot yourselves in the foot over the last two months and I have a very funny feeling your[sic] about to shoot yourselves in the head.

You can call me a whore, slut, liar, and accuse me of being a pathetic person. You have a right to your opinion. But, when Claymates make accusations that claim I am involved with drugs- well that crosses the line. Nothing I have stated about Clay was fabricated or concocted. I shared an experience. Also you wrote “John took it way too far in outing Clay in order to start a porn career.” I DID NOT OUT Clay in order to start a porn career. That is a very very false statement. I did a porno only after I lost my job in Real Estate and I have had offers to do porn since 1995.

What’s particularly interesting about this flamewar (besides the fact it is routinely responsible for 10 or so hits on my blog, but that’s only of interest to me) is the vehemence with which significant numbers of the Claymates defend their particular, and rather limited, vision of Clay. Essentially, if he is not exactly as they conceive him to be, he might as well not exist and could, in my estimation, be in some degree of actual danger. I think, under those circumstances, we can all understand anyone’s reluctance to open up the closet door and yell “Surprise!”