Josh Writes Words

The Cawwm Project

Sun, 06 Nov 2011 22:03:47 -0500

Welcome to the Cawwm Project, where you and I will create an intricate fantasy world from start to finish. Our first world will be tolkienesque with some features predetermined by myself to kick it off, but if it is successful the next world will be entirely decided by you all.

Yes, this will be messy. But note that our finished project will not be treated like Evangelicals treat the Bible, as if one guy wrote it all. We will recognize and celebrate the variety of styles, and where the records conflict, it will be understood to be human error.

How it will work

Once this post reaches 100 notes, a single post will appear on this blog, exactly as below:

*****

The Deities [7]

1. Name

2. Associated Quality(s)/Virtue(s)

3. Favored Deeds

4. Disdained Deeds

[Example Nomination]

1. Ilgath

2. Hard Work, Patience, Persistence

3. Working hard

4. Stealing, Hastiness

These deities will eventually be associated with many other features of our world. For example, they will each be associated with particular elements, which can only happen once the elements have been decided. The blogger who wins this deity nomination will also make these other decisions for their deity.

Submit your nomination.

The Cawwm Project

*****

Note that these deities don’t need to actually exist - they only need to be worshiped by our primary race (to be decided later). We will decide whether these gods actually exist later.

‘[7]’ is the number of deities that will be chosen. Each blogger may only nominate one.

The nominations will all be published at the same time once more than 14 (an arbitrary number) have been submitted. Nominations after that may still win but will be at a disadvantage. The winning nominations will be those with the most notes.

The Cawwm Project will begin once this post gains 100 notes.

"Joseph’s story may be the quintessential illustration of George Santana’s observation that those who..."

Thu, 02 Jun 2011 09:24:55 -0400

“

Joseph’s story may be the quintessential illustration of George Santana’s observation that those who won’t learn from history are destined to repeat it. In fact, Americans (and even the world) appear to be repeating the story of Joseph right now…

…in the first year of the famine, Joseph had 1) cornered the grain market; 2) sold grain to starving Egyptians for such a high price that he collected /all/ of their money (silver); 3) deposited all the money into Pharaoh’s coffers and thereby removed all the money from circulation in the Egyptian economy; and 4) exacerbated the famine by pushing the Egyptian economy into an economic recession…

…thanks to the food shortage and Joseph’s economic manipulations, the Egyptian people /agreed/ to first give all their money, then all of their means of production (livestock), then all of their land, and finally /themselves/ as servants/slaves to the Pharaoh.

Without mounting a military threat, without shooting one arrow, Joseph was able to single-handedly induce the Egyptian people to not merely /consent/ to become the Pharaoh’s slaves, but to /initiate/ the offer to do so. Joseph didn’t ask the people if they would trade their land and bodies for more grain. He simply waited for circumstances to grow so dire that the people had no option other than to prostitute themselves and sell their land to buy another year of life.

”

- Alfred Adask (via thenonviolentcommunist)

The Nonviolent Communist: Predict-It-Yourself!

Sat, 28 May 2011 03:11:23 -0400

The Nonviolent Communist: Predict-It-Yourself!:

You’ve probably heard about the dedicated PIY (Predict It Yourself) efforts of many around the world. ‘Normal’ people are realizing that they don’t need to be famous to make highly improbable predictions to enjoy the giddy suspense and the hilarious post-event ‘spiritualizations’. Anyone can do it!

So give it a go… post your prediction on our Facebook wall, we’ll note it, and we’ll update the page with the outcome when the event has passed without incident… and then you get the fun job of explaining away how it happened spiritually, in another dimension, etc.!

The Nonviolent Communist: Would you share your GPA?

Thu, 26 May 2011 23:27:49 -0400

The Nonviolent Communist: Would you share your GPA?

I'm going to be [exclusively] on Wordpress for [at least] a while.

Thu, 26 May 2011 05:50:52 -0400

I'm going to be [exclusively] on Wordpress for [at least] a while.:

Latest Post: The Immorality of Promises

You can choose whatever name you like for the two types of government. I personally call the type...

Wed, 18 May 2011 09:26:00 -0400

You can choose whatever name you like for the two types of government. I personally call the type of government which can be removed without violence “democracy”, and the other “tyranny”. - Karl Popper

That seems a very bizarre approach, since tyrannical governments can be removed nonviolently. But I like this quote; I would only rephrase it to ‘the type of government sustained without violence “democracy”, and the other “tyranny”.

What government has been sustained without violence? In the common definition, none… because government is popularly defined precisely as an agent of violent force, inseparable from a concept of law. And yes, there’s an extent to which government without violence is ‘merely’ a community… but a community may ‘govern’ itself nonviolently through eduction, by appealing to empathy and persuading with evidence.

Alternatively, such a nonviolent community may utilize religion, but it’s hardly necessary to repeat that mistake again.

Every time I encounter a Christian who realizes how incompatible their faith is with Capitalism, I...

Fri, 13 May 2011 09:35:24 -0400

Every time I encounter a Christian who realizes how incompatible their faith is with Capitalism, I experience hope.

Today I got my students to invent Pokemon.

Fri, 13 May 2011 04:33:37 -0400

And to make it somewhat educational we discussed the appendages they had placed on their monsters. One of them was really impressive, something like a cross between Flygon and Dragonite.

"Libertarianism: The belief that pursuing one’s own self-interest, while shirking larger social..."

Thu, 12 May 2011 20:52:19 -0400

“Libertarianism:

The belief that pursuing one’s own self-interest, while shirking larger social responsibilities, is still somehow humanitarian.”

- Urban Dictionary (via ryking)

LOVE the example quote:
‘Libertarianism is how the advantaged describe their neglect of the less-advantaged: they’re “protecting everyone’s freedom” by respecting the impoverished’s right to be poor.’
Also, I could say ‘impoverished’s’ all day and I’d still be giggling.
Also, I know a lot of libertarians who don’t mean to take libertarianism to its fullest conclusions of valuing freedom over equality: libertarianism is often just the best philosophy they’ve come across. But there are seriously people who think freedom/choice/free will has value in and of itself.

Nonviolence (blog)

Thu, 12 May 2011 05:53:42 -0400

Nonviolence (blog):

Nonviolence is a space both for solidarity with those who believe in nonviolent response to evil and for debating the usefulness or otherwise of the systems that sustain or enslave us.

If you would like to join, we’d love to have you.

Just ask.

Osama Bin Laden 'was not assassinated' - Eric Holder

Thu, 12 May 2011 03:39:33 -0400

Osama Bin Laden 'was not assassinated' - Eric Holder:

The logic behind this is essentially that the US Navy Seals would have captured him if he had offered to surrender, whereas an assassination would not have involved that option.

A consideration of the difference between a formal choice and an actual choice is in order.

The start of a hate letter I just received.

Thu, 12 May 2011 01:13:21 -0400

‘Bastard’ doesn’t even begin to cover it. You’re so much more than that. You’re selfish, conceited, arrogant. Narcissistic. Cold-hearted, cruel. Reactionary and violent and unnecessarily aggressive. Pathologically insecure. You’re a motherfucker, an asshole, a son of a bitch. And that’s still just scratching the surface.

The gist of it is summed up in the third-to-last paragraph: I hope this letter brings you pain.

This is a long letter. Ten pages. That’s a lot of trouble to go to just to hate someone.

The worst part of this situation is realizing that there is now one human on earth that I have to stay away from.

I am going to start a Facebook group for those of my friends who play Pokemon Gen IV.

Wed, 11 May 2011 20:51:22 -0400

Yes, yes I am. And I will be the only member.

The Sense in Suicide

Mon, 09 May 2011 04:40:22 -0400

Why did Osama refuse credit for the attacks in 2001 and then claim credit in 2004?

It’s not like the guy was ashamed of the attacks or scared for his life. I can’t think of any good reasons for him to deny ‘responsibility’ for an achievement he would have been proud of… except, uh, humility? On the other hand, I can think of lots of reasons for him claiming credit for the attacks. Perhaps he decided that the ‘movement’ to bring down America needed more direction and leadership and becoming the face of that movement allowed him to provide this, or perhaps Al-Queda wanted to appear more potent than they actually were.

Perhaps the people to blame for the Twin Towers attacks were simply the people who were actually in those planes… who perhaps screwed America over twice by leaving them with no one to unleash their retributive justice on. That is precisely the point of suicide bombing, is it not? Suicide bombing makes sense as the ultimate tool in a world without a concept of nonviolence… simply put, destroy yourself so that the enemy has no means of achieving balance through redemptive violence.

But perhaps they did not fully appreciate the capability of our media to create whatever we believe to exist. With every attack, there must be someone out there who is still to blame, and there must be a way for us to redeem ourselves through their destruction.

The situation is unspeakably pathetic, but here we are, in the 21st Century, still playing along to this shit. I worry that if someone went back in time to tell Jesus what the world would look like a thousand years later, he would have given up.

An interpretation of 'Jesus is God'.

Sat, 07 May 2011 12:16:35 -0400

Let us begin with the obvious: God is clearly dead. We know this because God did not intervene while a perfectly innocent person, Jesus, suffered a cruel death. And more than innocent, Jesus was radically ethical - and was killed precisely because of being so ethical. The old stories of karma-like justice being served out by a divine being were torn to shreds when Jesus died on that cross. So the statement, ‘Jesus is God’ makes perfect sense: it is the emphasis of the irony that the religious leaders who killed that man to defend their religion proved that their God was dead in doing so. The man Judaism killed is as much “God” as anyone is, and “God” is as dead as Jesus is. At the same time as murdering Jesus, they effectively tore down their religion… perhaps the meaning of the temple veil being torn in two?

Bin Laden may not have been armed himself, however he was being protected by a human shield who I think were armed.

I am not cheering his death by any means; that isn't right. But the guy ruthlessly killed INNOCENT people; for a number of years. That isn't just a desire for stronger punishments, that is a blatantly sick and twisted view of life. Doing it all in the name of God? I would have thought that would of got to you out of all people!

I'm not gonna lie Josh, you have been posting some rubbish lately. You are a lot cleverer than your writing would suggest, I know that much! Why are you trying so hard to be controversial?
Hope your doing well though! Will have to catch you on FB some time! Hope this email didn't upset you! :D

Thu, 05 May 2011 04:08:01 -0400

I’m sorry if I’ve been posting rubbish, but I’m not going to bother responding to the ‘just-trying-to-be-controversial’ argument… I’m pretty fed up with it.

As for your first sentence, I wasn’t there, but I’ll quote this article:

‘The human shield story originally emerged in a pair of background briefings given by officials to reporters on the condition of anonymity. This is one of the reasons “administration officials” like to talk to reporters on the condition they not be identified by name: there’s no accountability if you get facts wrong or make stuff up.’

As for your second paragraph, what are you mad about? That I’m against the death penalty? Sure, using religion for violent ends sickens me. Violence in general sickens me, the myth of redemptive violence sickens me, and thus I am against killing the villain no matter how evil. We both studied Jesus, so this shouldn’t be surprising.

I am doing well though, and let’s catch up :)

Bin Laden was shot unarmed.

Tue, 03 May 2011 20:57:49 -0400

Bin Laden was shot unarmed.:

Humanity hasn’t come as far as I thought. There are still no rules regarding how you treat a scapegoat.

Even disregarding the bigger picture of the West vs. Terrorists narrative… if you honestly...

Mon, 02 May 2011 20:17:04 -0400

Even disregarding the bigger picture of the West vs. Terrorists narrative… if you honestly believe that celebrating the death of a villain is okay, google the ‘Myth of Redemptive Violence.’ And then stop claiming to be a rational person, because you have as much reason to believe in Santa Claus.

The liberal Christian community is definitely the only community I know of that wouldn’t...

Mon, 02 May 2011 07:45:39 -0400

The liberal Christian community is definitely the only community I know of that wouldn’t think twice about forgiving Bin Laden, which is annoying.

Let me know if you know of another one, or I might have to pretend to be a Christian and sneak back into church.

The rich are still rich.

Sun, 01 May 2011 21:36:59 -0400

I’m pretty fed up with hearing about the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer, the middle class declining, etc, etc. Sure, it’s bad that the situation is getting worse. But talking like that plays up to the notion of a Capitalist-Socialist balance - as if we just want the poor to be richer and the rich to be poorer, or a bigger middle class, while maintaining a Capitalist system with a safety net.

As far as I’m concerned, any serious disparity between the rich and the poor is a problem already, and we shouldn’t need any other argument. Have we settled for so little that we are complaining about the richer getting richer than they are already?

It is enough to protest, ‘The rich are still rich.’