Ziggurat Con

is probably the only con in existence where everybody involved (and most people who aren't, including me) hope that it doesn't happen again next year. That being said, it sounds cool and I hope everybody who attends has a good time. Check it out here.

Feel free to rage against the machine;

the machine doesn't care if you're angry with it.

RE: Don Imus

In the interest of broader race relations, we must allow for the fact that people will make the occasional bone-headed remark that will upset others. When this happens, the offender should be allowed to offer an apology and, more importantly, that apology should be accepted.

Philip The Wise's Theory of Prejudice

I like this better than my eariler thoughts. This is along the same lines, but much clearer and more robust than the other post.

Racist, prejudiced thinking comes very easy to people all over the world. I would venture to say that most, if not all, cultures around the world have at some point in their history engaged in stereotyping "Them" as generally negative, if not outright evil. A possible evolutionary reason for is that individuals do not evolve, groups and populations do. So, while I have a specific interest in making sure that me and my children survive, I also have a more general interest in making sure my group survives, even if it's at the expense of another group of the same species. In order to make myself OK with the slow (or rapid) extermination of another group of humans, I develop prejudices and hatreds for them. If I am able to see them as something other than human, I'm fine with succeeding at their expense.

It's a bad sign when

the foreign press compares your country's foreign policy to an an episode of Seinfeld.

It's a worse sign when they appear to have a point.