Camouflage

Apathy can be used as a camouflage for insecurity, but then again, maybe they just don't care.

TOR's funding

How leading Tor developers and advocates tried to smear me after I reported their US Government ties.  The author's critics don't seem to have much of a substantial case other than everyone's a whore, so it's OK if they are as well!

Who would’ve thought that many of the people we’ve entrusted with protecting our online privacy have the same values as sleazy K Street lobbyists.

They're self-described "libertarians", so sleazy isn't really all that surprising...

See also 81% of Tor users can be de-anonymised by analysing router information, research indicates.

 Guess who the 19% are?

Seems TOR is best avoided.  Don't believe the hype.

Camouflage

The insecure personality sometimes uses apathy as camouflage.

Socialized Group-Think

Socialized group-think is the result of applied behaviorism. A conspiracy is hardly needed where everyone involved have been preselected according to the requirement for all to think the same way.

What have you done for me lately?

i. Recent success provides excellent cover for past failures.
ii. Future failures lesson the significance of past sucesses.
iii.  What have you done for me lately?

Connections

Connections pave the way for success; ability enables one to keep it.

“Borrowing to attend an American college may be hazardous to your dreams.”

From The trigger warning we need: “College is a scam meant to perpetuate the 1 percent” by Thomas Frank:

 Yes! Elite university students must be warned about “classism”! Not on course syllabi or the cover of a book as though it’s comsymp lit or something. No, they need to see it in big red letters inscribed on those elite universities themselves — stamped on every tuition bill and financial aid form and diploma they produce, spelled out in the quadrangle pavement, flashing from a neon sign above every dormitory so no one can miss it:

“Warning: This place exists to enforce class distinctions.”

[...]

 This power over admission to the bourgeoisie is the reason why tuition goes up constantly even as the university successfully transforms professors into low-wage freelancers (the subject of last week’s column)—because what those professors teach doesn’t matter. This is also why people who fake their college degrees often lead long and successful corporate lives without being detected—because the stuff you actually learn to get a liberal arts degree isn’t important in the corporate world. Only the diploma itself has real meaning in the marketplace, and only the marketplace has real meaning in America. This is a situation that clearly requires highly visible warnings, and lots of them.

 Buyer beware.  If you can't pay for college without a loan, then get a trade, save your money and go (or not).  Otherwise you risk being an indentured servant to a bank.

Philosophy

A philosophy can be a stage of life that by-passes living.

Happy 4.20

"Forty thousand rats placed end to end..."

“Let's see,” the doctor murmured to himself, “supposing the length of a rat to be ten inches, forty thousand rats placed end to end would make a line of...”

           

He pulled himself up sharply. He was letting his imagination play pranks, the last thing wanted just now. A few cases, he told himself, don't make an epidemic; they merely call for serious precautions.

Albert Camus

The Plague

Values

Values are less obvious to those with none.

Moochers

Although I generally feel the author to be full of a stinky substance, he pretty much hit the nail on the head with Eastern Washington: Feeding from — and biting — government’s hand.*  As the chart below shows the counties of Eastern Washington, with the exception of Kittitas County, and most counties of Southwestern Washington, are basically a bunch of moochers.

I've often said that if there was a statewide initiative that would require tax money collected to be only spent in the county it was collected, the eastern side of the state would overwhelmingly vote for it.  As their infrastructure decayed, the result would be a third world country, and they would deserve it.

*(Of course, Democrats suck as well, but that is besides the point here.)

Neither the Government Nor The Population - 7th Draft (EPUB)

I've been neglecting this blog as I have been busy compiling my writing for a definitive (and editing--it's not my favorite task).  I have also created an EPUB for Neither the Government Nor The Population - 7th Draft (EPUB).

Download EPUB.

I have also converted it to AZW3 for Kindle but I don't know how it work since I do not own one.