Unicon, Work, Elections and Racial and Religious Madness, Banned Rats!

[tcpip]

Spent the weekend at Unicon with dukeofmelbourne and caseopaya. Not a bad event, first gaming con I've been too in several years. Played "Parallel Flight" (Fireborn, not so good), Restoration (Urban Arcana, very good), Get Who (based on Get Smart, death coincidental, fun but severly limited for characters other than agents 99 and 86), Schools Out (Mutants and Masterminds, a d20 superhero game; OK, but combat orientated) and at the top of my enjoyment list "Four Fists of Righteous Fury" (where we had narrative and character development, deadly seriousness and comic relief!). Surprised to see that there were no D&D sessions. Sessions were far too short. Will give a full write-up on experiences on aus_gamers in the near future. Afterwards went to Mind Games to spend money ;-)

I have been working. Borderlands has shifted offices and their network and all it's wiring needs to be reassembled. This week I start training Prosper Australia on marketing and getting media coverage. I've also picked up a translation job for a set of health clinics in Northern Ireland who apparently need documentation ... in Tetum. Strange but true. CCNA Semester 2 starts on Tuesday. Feeling confident about it.

Schroeder grasps defeat from the jaws of victory and is about to destroy the SPD in the process. Meanwhile, in New Zealand Helen Clark's victory seems assured following the counting of special votes. I will be living in New Zealand by the end of 2006, I swear.

More bombings in Bali. Further evidence to recent suggestions that too much religion is bad for your society. From religious to racial fundamentalism; former US Secretary of Education thinks the way to solve crime is to abort "blacks".

I've banned my rats from the desk drawer and the office. Two keyboard cables and three speakers is too much. They're coping ;-)

Comments

[strangedave.livejournal.com]

You can read that into one word? I think you are hearing what you want to hear. In the context of US politics, where socio-economic status IS strongly statistically correllated to race, and thus statistically correlated to socially constructed activities like crime, his comments (ie that he was acknowledging the statistical correlation BUT rejecting the reasoning that leads from a naive interpretation of that) make sense. Again, he is a creep but not an idiot. While on this argument, you are siding with those who are idiots. I'd prefer to be neither, thanks.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

I make no suggestion that he is an idiot. As I mentioned in the original post, he is a race theorist.

Have a look at a more full transcript;

http://mediamatters.org/items/200509280006

and follows;

http://mediamatters.org/items/200509300008

This is clearly race orientated. Bennett is claiming that blacks are the cause of crime.

[strangedave.livejournal.com]

He says nothing that is not consistent with believing that race and crime are statistically correlated, without implying a necessary causal role. Given that he is rejecting the idea as unsound, you are second guessing which of several grounds for unsoundness he could be using as a basis for rejection, and assuming he chose the one that deserves the most criticism. Which is an unreasonable assumption.

He is certainly being evasive about just who introduced race into the debate, sure. But frankly, you are drawing a long bow, when there are plenty of better things to harrass Bennett over.