Various shenanigans to manipulate the stock price of Gamestop have made it into the news of late. (I assume my readers are at least vaguely familiar with those shenanigans.) I have opinions!

1) The hedge fund that started these shenanigans is merely trying to exploit the stock market to make a quick buck. They have no interest in the underlying ( Read more... )

On this 1st of May, have some links and commentary:

1) A lengthy article on the start of Gamergate. The ex-boyfriend sounds like a full-on sociopath.

2) In certain gun-owning circles, it is an article of faith that the Sandy Hook shootings didn't happen. Tim McGraw begs to differ, which shows how impossible these "conspiracies" are ( Read more... )

As you may have heard, Sony pictures has decided to pull their new movie "The Interview" because of anonymous emailed threats. I'm first going to agree whole-heartedly with Chris Kluwe:

Internet death threat against woman - "Oh that's just boys being boys, deal with it."

Internet death threat against movie - "SRS BIZNESS"I'm also going to say ( Read more... )

The Senate report on torture came out a few days ago. Unsurprisingly, it said we tortured people, sometimes for no good reason. A number of people, including (perhaps shockingly, such loons as Ted Beale) pointed to this article which said that willingness to torture became a "litmus test of seriousness with respect to the fight against terrorism ( Read more... )

On Blackstone, public accommodation and conservatives

I'm doing a lot of driving between branches for the day job, hence my lack of posting. In any event, yesterday's entry seems to have pushed a few buttons. My points in sharing the Blackstone quote were two:

1) The idea that "public accommodations" means all of the public is very old ( Read more... )

Thought #1 - Ebola

The writer Elizabeth Moon is dead-on (pardon the pun) about Ebola and the US response thereto. Her six lessons are:

1) A stitch in time saves nine. the time to prepare is before the excrement hits the air-moving unit.
2) Hubris kills. Incorrectly thinking you're ready can be worse then not being ready.
3) Privatisation is no ( Read more... )

Apropos to yesterday's entry on Gamergate, showing up anonymously and saying, "Yeah, what is the world coming to when a girl can't just exchange sex for favorable gaming reviews with five guys and not be outed by her boyfriend for cheating on him?" is not a particularly persuasive message ( Read more... )

Sometimes links are like tomatoes - you get a bumper crop.

A) 5 Things I Learned as the Internet's Most Hated Person or, Gamergate explained. (Yes, it was every bit as sad and stupid as you'd expect.)

B) Five things I learned as a sex slave in modern America. (Warning, trigger-y as hell).

A trio of military-related links:

1) Charlton Heston ( Read more... )