Yesterday I saw something I’ve not seen in years:
You know, I even have one of those silver-head 101 KLOL t-shirts in the back of my closet. After Clearchanel bought it, didn’t they turn 101 into a Tajano station?
I spotted this old house today. I pass by it all the time, but I’ve just never seen it before today:
This old house is located just inside the loop on the West side close to I-10. The place even has a 1980-era car parked in the drive.
Did you know that there’s a ghost town just a few hundred feet from downtown Houston? Well, neither did I. Carolyn and I were out riding bikes today and we road near downtown and came across an area of old (as in, turn of the last century) abandoned buildings. Some of the structures were obviously built in the 20s and 30s, but several were well over 100 year old.
I later found out that what we were seeing was what remains of Freedman’s Town. Freedman’s Town, (AKA, the Fourth Ward) was Houston’s Harlem in the 1920s. The town was settled by freed slaves in the 1800s and was very prosperous until the town fell into disarray as the “Houston Harlem” socialites got older. By the 1970s, Freedman’s Town had become a ghetto. In the 1990s, a gentrification effort was undertaken and most of the original Freedman’s Town structures were bulldozed… but a few buildings remain and here they are:
I think this old schoolhouse is amazing! I hope that it doesn’t wind up bulldozed. So many of the structures seem to be awaiting the demolition team. I’m sure as soon as they are gone, developers will waste no time building more of the partial board monstrosities that have sprung up all across what was once Freedman’s Town.
First of all, the type of arguing that I’m referring to here tends to only take place on rather large sites or lists where the users are unlikely to ever meet each other in real life. I’ve noticed that there exists a correlation between the level of anonymity enjoyed by users and the level of vile rancor the user will seek to inspire. I am, of course, talking about “trolling.”
Second of all, if you are going to argue on the Internet, you have to realize that the person you are arguing with is probably arguing because it’s fun and for no other reason. Some refer to it as “Lulz” – that is, being obnoxious in order to inspire anger and frustration from the reader. Doing something for the lulz is a form of Schadenfreude. People who are antagonizing you for the lulz are usually known as “trolls” and the act of seeking lulz is usually referred to as “trolling.” You have to realize this key point if you wish to “pwn” (metaphorically kick their ass) your the troll and thus win.
Here are some points to remember:
1. If you’re angry, upset or frustrated, you’ve lost because you forgot that the person you’re wanting to argue with is only seeking the entertainment of Schadenfreude.
2. The best way to win is to realize that Schadenfreude is the game the troll is playing and do not reply. “Don’t feed the trolls” is an idiom that’s common on the Internet.
3. If you really, really have to engage an internet troll, then do it for the lulz and for no other reason. In other words, reply because you want to troll the troll. You do this by:
Be their shadow-self: This usually works on the obnoxiously religious. When they have condemned you to hell, respond by using a bible verse to condemn them as well… But do it in a way that is far more obnoxious than their condemnation. Use a lot of old tyme hellfire and brimstone speech. There are a lot of firebrand speeches online from around the turn of last century – use them 
After a while, the religious troll will run away because the type of Schadenfreude they are into requires that you argue for your soul while they condemn it from on high.
Turn a troll into a ghost: This only works if you have a friends that will back you up. The objective is to relegate the troll to a 2-dimensional abstract-like ghost status. When the troll posts, pick apart their logic, syntax, diction, etc as if you were serious entomologist discussing an interesting bug that you are about to stick a pin into. Never acknowledge the troll directly. The object is to have a critical discussion about the troll, in the troll’s presence without ever acknowledging the troll.
If you have decided to engage the troll, never, ever engage them seriously. Always, always, always treat them like the jokes they are. In order for a troll to feed, they must inspire you to feel anger, frustration or contempt. If you engage the troll, do it because you want to make them dance like a monkey tethered to a hurdy-gurdy and never because you want them to take you seriously.
I recently said that I thought the the fundamentalist wackos would be coming out of the woodwork soon since they can see the righting on the wall: GLBT people will be afforded the same rights and responsibilities as other citizens in the near future.
Some of you might remember Ruth Jacobs from her public smack-down in DC. She tried to argue that gay men had a high HIV infection rate and therefore should not be allowed to marry. Watching her argument get pulled apart would be almost painful if it were not for the fact that the good doctor seems to be oblivious to her own ineptitude. Check it out:
Ruth is back. Now she’s blasting out crazy-looking emails to people warning that if transgender people are allowed to work, little girls will be raped:
First of all, as a website designer, this piece of junk makes my eyes hurt. It screams, “I’M NOT A PROFESSIONAL! Don’t listen to me! I might be A RAVING LUNATIC!“
Second of all, the substance of the argument is pure fiction… as in, it’s all a LIE.
Some might think after reading Ruth’s vapid remarks, “Wow! From the context, it sounds like those transgender people are already raping little girls.” However, if you are an intelligent person, you might think, “Wait, what? Did she actually come out and say that a child was raped by a transgender person?” If you asked yourself the second, please give yourself a gold star because, you use critical thinking!
Ruth lies. The Doctor is a lying liar who’s lying! Worse, she’s pimping a tragic case of child rape.
The child rape case Ruth is pimping involves no transgender people at all. The poor little girl was raped by a NON-transgender, heterosexual man.
Ruth, I’d like to say that I think your name is fitting since I can’t spell “Ruthless” without you. I don’t know that I’ve ever met someone who could read about the rape of a little girl and then pimp her out like you did. I’ll think of you the next time I read about the death of another transgender person. Liars like you give people the fiction-based fuel they need to drive their hate far enough to actually kill.
I wanted to see what sort of countries spend the most time searching for the term “shemales” on google. To make it interesting, I compared the search trends between “transgender” and “shemale.” What I found was interesting:
First of all, people look for the term “shemale” a lot more than the rather innocuous term, “transgender.” The red line represents the number of searches for shemales and the blue line represents the number of searches for transgenders. This trend didn’t surprise me since “shemale” is a keyword used when searching for transgender porn. However, what did surprise me is who’s looking for the so-called shemales:
The darker the shading, the greater the number of searches. Here’s a list of the top-10 places that’s looking for “shemales” on the internet:
Note that many of the above places are the most repressive places a transgender person could have the misfortune to live.
Libya is the #1 place on earth that looks for shemales. In Libya, it’s against the law to be GLBT (punishable by up to 5 years in prison).
Here’s more on the top 10:
Pakistan: While transgender people just won a major equal rights victory, anything deemed to be a “homosexual” is punishable by death.
Sudan: If you are found to be GLBT in Sudan, you can receive up to 100 lashes and/or death.
Czech Republic: The Czech Republic is actually relatively good on TG issues.
Afghanistan: The penalty for being TG is death. Period.
Yemen: offers torture, public flogging and death to it’s queer community.
Bangladesh: The penalty for being TG can range from ostracization, torture, life imprisonment and death.
Syria: Homosexuality is illegal and TGs are often viewed as being homosexual. However, the government has allowed a few TS people to transition.
Sri Lanka: While being TG is not illegal, TGs are often victims of harassment and discrimination.
Egypt: While the government has allowed a few TS women to transition, it has outlawed music by the Israeli transsexual, Dana International and the topic is very taboo. Individuals suspected of being gay can be locked up, tortured and sentenced to hard labor.
It should also be noted that all of these countries are exceedingly religious. So, here’s a question: Does living in a hyper-religious culture predispose one to TG porn?
