Tag Archive: silly


Today… many people who use LiveJournal who felt strongly about policy and practices, decided to voice their discontent ironically by not voicing. That is to say, forming a ‘strike’ to walk out on their journals and neither post nor comment.

Actions like this annoy the hell out of me. But I will not state how I feel about the situation. Now, I’m talking about the choice of action… or in this case inaction.

I will explain. Many times I have seen, “Wear Denim today to protest mutilating kittens.”

My problem with this becomes two-fold.

One…. What if all I ever wear is denim. Does this basically mean if I support mutilating kittens and don’t have a wardrobe that doesn’t have denim in it somewhere; I have to go buy new clothes?

And B.. or two… What if I didn’t get the memo? What if I show up in my Gap Tan slacks… because it was Laundry day and I utterly forgot or worse didn’t get the memo? Oh for the love of pete… I can guarantee you… I’ll get plenty a hairy eyeball because I obviously would rather make a statement about how kittens should be mutilated.

Personally, while I do have good runs of postings over a month… I also have dry periods. I have days where I’m too busy to post. I have days I’m too busy to post and I still post 2-7 times.

So… for most of last night and most of today I didn’t post. Do I support the Strike? Was I away from a computer? (I realize friends and coworkers may assume the latter is impossible; but I assure you it is in fact possible)

You want to make a statement. Change the format of your LJ to BLACK or maybe even Safety Flag Orange. Put bold text in your post that says, “I don’t support X, and changed my journal today because of it.”

Personally, popping LJ today, all it looks like is ‘a light day’… Very little to indicate the strike.
Now, if I have 60% of my friends list with posts that have a big bold line of protest at the end of the posts… maybe with specific links to words, translations, etc… Maybe I’d take notice and help.

So… did I strike today? You really don’t know. The issue is… Words make change… simple actions that can be lost in the shuffle of everyday life are useless for anything greater than a little ego stroking.

And honestly… stroking oneself doesn’t really accomplish anything for anyone but you.

Yesterday the Sioux nation dropped a bomb on the United States that more than decimated a 5 state area in the northern central plains. It pretty much destroyed Nebraska, took away the famed Devil’s Tower (from Close Encounters) and almost affected Iowa.

Horrors!

Oh, wait.. Maybe I’m overreacting.

Let’s look at what really happened.

A group of self-appointed representatives went to the US Secretary of State and said, “We’re dissolving all US Treaties.”
I assume they did this by invoking Article 15 of the Shadow Proclamation.

The perception is that the Lakota nation would thus take their land and their people and no longer be part of the US. The representative went so far to explain that anyone could live in the lands, get a Lakotan driver’s licenese, passport, and no longer be part of the US. (Including the yummy lack of taxation and prosecution under US laws.)

This is the Sioux Nation we’re talking about. Crazy Horse, Little Big Horn, The defeat of Custer. Why not take them seriously? Why not believe this is real?

Well, when you hear a story like this, you initially want to believe it. Assuming you’re not a diehard abortion-doctor-killin’, flag-burner-ass-whumpin’, love-our-troops-least-til-they-come-home-then-ignore-’em, red-white-and-blue-bleedin’ “AMER’CN”! If you have a shred of open-mindedness, you dream of a place of freedom from the government which you and mostly everyone you know has lost faith in. Bully for the Native (no longer) Americans

Okay.. enough ham-fisting the topic.

I hear a story like this and I want to get the details. I mean… this is the kind of thing that makes most groups kind of shudder. I spent years in the SCA hearing the horror stories about the size of the files that the FBI had on the group because the SCA was the largest freestanding militia not under any country’s direct control. One day we might rise up and take on the US and could potentially destroy their army with our foils and rattan sticks. Personally, I thought it’d be Kit’s talent for eating strawberries. He could make a straight man give pause. (Yes, this last bit is an obscure reference that probably no one will get)

But back to the Sioux… or the Lakhota… or more properly to Russell Means. On December 20, 2007, Means announced the withdrawal of the Lakota Sioux from all treaties with the US Gov’t. He made claim to a slightly larger than previously established land area.

The question now is not how will the US Government deal with this. The question is “How will the Sioux deal with this?” Means has lost election after election for the leadership of the Sioux Nation. So does he really speak for the people of the Sioux Nation?

My personal opinion is that this move could be horribly damaging to the Sioux. The US will probably ignore this as an internal affair. This could be viewed as an attempted political coup. Unfortunately with the track record of his own nation not supporting him, Means will probably not have much support. Either Means will quietly go away and the Sioux will try to remove the egg from their face, or Means’ supporters will rally leading to a possible fracture, schism, or split of the Sioux Nation, making it inevitably…even less of a threat to the US.

To put it in simpler terms: If the Secretary of the SCA stood up and said, “Today we are independent of the US. Pennsic’s lands are ours. Come live in our world.”.. it would do little more than get the person thrown out on their ear.

My predictions:
41% Sioux Nation ignores it
32% Sioux Nation makes PR statement denying it.
25% Means makes more statements of grandiosity and then see previous two predictions.
2% Sioux nation backs Means. Then there will be another post or 20.

One final note… In researching this I have found two different spellings: Lakota and Lakhota. I’d like an official statement on this before I apply for my passport.

MEMETime: Crush tag?

Cribbed from faerievixen2


Get your own CrushTag!

When you are a raised Jewish and then move on to an incredibly non-traditional religion (Say like the EGC)… Dec 25th is that day. Until you have a partner who views the world the same way you do, it’s typically bidding loved ones off to see their families and sitting round the house with nothing to do.

Now, they say that idle hands are the devil’s playthings. After this video, I think I can firmly agree.

I really should be ashamed of liking this one. This one comes with my standard caveat… If you’re under 25-30 and didn’t watch tv as a kid you probably won’t get it. On the other hand if you did… you have to marvel and the apparent hours if not week s wasted in the pursuit of unnecessary perfection.

So… a touch of the Hawaiian spirit on this day of… well this day.

80’s Silly Acts

Last week I asked people to list the top 5 silly acts of the 1980’s

There was a little confusion between group and act. I also don’t think people got the idea of ranking them #1 most silly, #5: 5th most silly.

But none the less I got 80 votes. The ranking went as such:

For each vote you got a point
Then for each #1 you got 5 pts, #2 you got 4 pts, etc…

Below the cut are the 19/32 silliest acts (acts that got at least 2 votes, or 1 “most silly”)

In the comment field, I’d love to hear what people think of the ranking and if they’d like to see this expanded a bit.

But first, the acts that were considered Silly, but not silly enough to make the top 32:

A-Ha, ABC, B-52’s, Baltimora, Bananarma, Beastie Boys, Cameo, Cinderella, Dead Milkmen, Depeche Mode, Doctor & The Medics, Duran Duran, El Debarge, Elmo & Patsie, Europe, Eurythmics, The, Family, The, Flirts, Debbie Gibson, Glass Tiger, Go-Go’s, Haircut 100, Jefferson Starship, Jets, The, Kix, Kool Moe Dee, Cyndi Lauper,Huey Lewis & The News, Loverboy, Megadeath, Olivia Newton-John, Oingo Boingo, Ollie & Jerry, Pet Shop Boys, The Plastics, Quiet Riot, Right Said Fred, The Scorpions, Skid Row, Spinal Tap, Stray Cats, Stryper, T’Pau, The Talking Heads, Tiffany, The Time, Wang Chung, Weird Al Yankovic, ZZ Top

And now the top 19/32: