Arab Spring or 'Irish Spring'?

******** The Whiteysphere's beloved Trotskyite (among a phalanx of other pundits) has rushed into print with his latest flavour of the moment. In the threads, as at his own blog, Seymour's thought yacht runs aground against the peculiar form of internet utopian reactionism that passes itself off as 'far-left' when it is in reality part and parcel of a 'reactionary right' ******** Thus, the internet left in a few short years reduces itself to nothing more than a smushed sectarian windshield bug fellow travelling with the Iranian/Syrian/Russian express which is running amok through the humanitarian trainwreck that is the Syrian counter-revolution. [mixed metaphor alert] ******** In fact, in the tried and true manner of the 'we cant figure this out so lets blame the shallow mainstream media' parlour game that never goes out of style and never adds a whiff of insight or original thinking, the internet utopians falafel all over themselves, signifying nothing. Same as it ever was. ******** Step back, whiteysphere and ponder the Marxian sweep of history. Ditch the Stalinist/Hitlerian pretence and behold the late imperialist stage of capitalism, that must be traversed before we can enter into the next phase of historical development. Do not take sides in this imperialist struggle. It is not our fight. You are being led astray by your small circle of Russian-financed pundits. The US vs BRICS is an illusion that is being sold to you as if it were a bar of soap. There are no shortcuts to Utopia. This is a war that must be waged. The 'Arab Awakening' is as unavoidable as body odor on a rotting corpse. The Middle East Unraveling is a stealth world war that still flies beneath the radar of the newest highest technology. It remains hidden inside sectarian tribal reckoning that has played out since Biblical times, at least, and if the Word is believed or not, it will play out until the end of teh world (as we know it). Believe it, Whitey, there is no Emerald City at the end of your internet-fed rainbow, and there is no escape from your eventual participation. There is Kansas, and that is all.

This is My New Blog Entry

elusive autograph of notorious, signing grinch Patrick Ewing

I now see my buddy Pat is against giving his signature to fans. I don't blame him. The memorabilia industry is part and parcel of an America gone cold. Sports used to be about innocence. Any of us could have taken a crack at it. Then it became all about the money.

I loved basketball. I knew Ewing was gonna make it big. Cambridge Rindge and Latin's record with him was amazing. They didn't lose many games.

(on edit: Somehow I went on a digression. Yeah, big surprise. The following is superfluous to this entry and needn't be read. Something got mailed into the mailed-in entry. Sorry for any inconvenience... It's about doing the right thing on every issue. That means drastic cuts in the corrupt Military Industrial Complex. It's that simple. Jobs. Environment. Housing, health care, and food for all. It could be done very easily.)


Anyway, Ewing's autograph sells for big bucks. Mine appears to be the only personalised one. Or maybe there are some others out there. I doubt there are more than a relative few. Or I bet they were signed because he got paid. I bumped into him randomly. I asked and received. I must have been a very cute kid.

Mine was also obtained when he was 18. It could be the oldest Ewing autograph of all time!

And check it out. He wrote it fluently like he cared. The next year or two when he went to Georgetown he gave up on signing because no one was asking for his teammates'. I know it's in pencil and on a scrap of paper, but for crying out loud, Ewing wrote down the date! I was a smart bugger for 14, I must say. Maybe this thingie is worth five grand. Or maybe not. It could be worth five hundred, if I can only figure out a buyer. How does one figure out the value of such a thing?

Seriously, go to google images and plug in for his autograph. Good luck finding any besides the ones he'd do for say his sneakers or some rare sittings. Google Ewing something for autographs. He is being blasted across the blogospheric board for not giving them. I could use the money, if someone knows who to contact. Authenticating it is not a problem. I was there. Signature experts will confirm it is Ewing's writing.


myself from a few months ago. obviously a nice, good guy

This is wicked awesome no longer being internet addicted. That means I can kick back and write anything I want or nothing at all. There's plenty of good stuff in the archives, that if so desired, I could retire from blogging at an early age. That was a joke. Haha. uh uhm

I noticed a few referrals. They are not always spam bots. Some website named 12160.info linked to us in a thread on Alex Jones. It linked to the Rivero Exposed as right woos left Joo hater or something entry. That person has been banned. I googled some more and anyone interested can read what a different bloke wrote.

Op-Ed: The hijacking of 12160

He too was banned.

I also saw that Mike Rivero is a member of that oddly numbered website url. I don't know wtf is going on. The Last Name Left has been missing in action for quite a while. He would probably be able to explain. He was the go-to expert for Rivero/Jones milieu analysis and zeitgeist conjecture. He and I struck a mutual chord in regards to right woos left. A note also finally picked up on by "el talent" donkeytale.

And for the rest of you still reading this, the four or five of you, here are the demographics from this last week's visitors to DFQ2.

United States: 675
France: 154
Russia: 89
Germany: 65
Indonesia: 54
Canada: 51
Poland: 30
United Kingdom: 27
Hong Kong: 13
Latvia: 10


Here's my Johnny Cash to Neal Rauhauser. I've led a good, decent life as a regular guy. I look good. You are some form of slimy freak.

Breaking: The Internet is Fried and Yur Still an Idiot

Online conspiratard tribalisation makes otherwise 'normal' people extremely cynical, overwhelms them with feelings of powerlessness and adds nothing, nothing at all to the stated but never realised objective of bloggers to change the status quo we all waste so much time railing impotently against.

Since Hofstadter’s book was published, our access to information has vastly improved, which you would think would have helped minimize such wild speculation. But according to recent scientific research on the matter, it most likely only serves to make theories more convincing to the public. What’s even more surprising is that this sort of theorizing isn’t limited to those on the margins. Perfectly sane minds possess an incredible capacity for developing narratives, and even some of the wildest conspiracy theories can be grounded in rational thinking, which makes them that much more pernicious. Consider this: 63 percent of registered American voters believe in at least one political conspiracy theory, according to a recent poll conducted by Fairleigh Dickinson University. While psychologists can’t know exactly what goes on inside our heads, they have, through surveys and laboratory studies, come up with a set of traits that correlate well with conspiracy belief. In 2010, Swami and a co-author summarized this research in The Psychologist, a scientific journal. They found, perhaps surprisingly, that believers are more likely to be cynical about the world in general and politics in particular. Conspiracy theories also seem to be more compelling to those with low self-worth, especially with regard to their sense of agency in the world at large. Conspiracy theories appear to be a way of reacting to uncertainty and powerlessness. Economic recessions, terrorist attacks and natural disasters are massive, looming threats, but we have little power over when they occur or how or what happens afterward. In these moments of powerlessness and uncertainty, a part of the brain called the amygdala kicks into action. Paul Whalen, a scientist at Dartmouth College who studies the amygdala, says it doesn’t exactly do anything on its own. Instead, the amygdala jump-starts the rest of the brain into analytical overdrive — prompting repeated reassessments of information in an attempt to create a coherent and understandable narrative, to understand what just happened, what threats still exist and what should be done now. This may be a useful way to understand how, writ large, the brain’s capacity for generating new narratives after shocking events can contribute to so much paranoia in this country

Pay heed, fake leftists and tea baggers. You are on the wrong track, loosers, even in the unlikely event that you are still able to make an occasional foray into a halting attempt at pretending to be somewhat sane.

Alex Jones, a syndicated radio host, can build fame as a conspiracy peddler; politicians can hint at conspiracies for votes and leverage; but if conspiracy theories are a tool the average person uses to reclaim his sense of agency and access to democracy, it’s an ineffective tool. It can even have dangerous health implications. For example, research has shown that African-Americans who believe AIDS is a weapon loosed on them by the government (remembering the abuses of the Tuskegee experiment) are less likely to practice protected sex. And if you believe that governments or corporations are hiding evidence that vaccines harm children, you’re less likely to have your children vaccinated. The result: pockets of measles and whooping-cough infections and a few deaths in places with low child-vaccination rates. Psychologists aren’t sure whether powerlessness causes conspiracy theories or vice versa. Either way, the current scientific thinking suggests these beliefs are nothing more than an extreme form of cynicism, a turning away from politics and traditional media — which only perpetuates the problem.

Of course, you will dismiss this and say the article itself is part of the MSM conspiracy to hold you down. Yes, and the research even offers a pre-emptive answer for that typically inbred piece of polarised nonsense.

In 2006, the political scientists Brendan Nyhan and Jason Reifler identified a phenomenon called the “backfire effect.” They showed that efforts to debunk inaccurate political information can leave people more convinced that false information is true than they would have been otherwise. Nyhan isn’t sure why this happens, but it appears to be more prevalent when the bad information helps bolster a favored worldview or ideology. In that way, Swami says, the Internet and other media have helped perpetuate paranoia. Not only does more exposure to these alternative narratives help engender belief in conspiracies, he says, but the Internet’s tendency toward tribalism helps reinforce misguided beliefs. And that’s a problem. Because while believing George W. Bush helped plan the Sept. 11 attacks might make you feel in control, it doesn’t actually make you so. Earlier this year, Karen Douglas, a University of Kent psychologist, along with a student, published research in which they exposed people to conspiracy theories about climate change and the death of Princess Diana. Those who got information supporting the theories but not information debunking them were more likely to withdraw from participation in politics and were less likely to take action to reduce their carbon footprints.

I just love it when scientific research bears out the accuracy of observations that I have been making for years. I may not be a real man of genius, but I play one on the internets.