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Friday, December 29, 2006

the amazing racist

I stumbled upon some videos of a guy who calls himself "the amazing racist". It's sort of like Jackass or Borat with no ideas and completely missing the point.

It's possible that the people he's harassing are the best actors ever, but I find that difficult to believe.

Basically, he has a small video crew film him as he harasses people who have a different skin color than his.

His domain is registed with godaddy.com

So, I sent this note to tech support.

MY LETTER TO GODADDY.COM

I have several domains registered with you. Not enough to really make a difference, but a few.

I am a firm believer in the 1st amendment of the U.S. Constitution and, an equal supporter of the free market, which is why I'm writing to you.

I am thrilled that I live in a country that allows www.theamazingracist.net to exist. It is a great thing that this man has the freedom to air his racist views and make videos of himself treating people horribly and posting them on the web. Seriously. Good for him. We're so lucky to live in this country.

I'm also thrilled that your terms of service include the following paragraph.


quote

"Except as set forth below, Go Daddy may also cancel Your use of the Services, after thirty (30) days, if You are using the Services, as determined by Go Daddy in its sole discretion, in association with spam or morally objectionable activities. Morally objectionable activities will include, but not be limited to: activities designed to defame, embarrass, harm, abuse, threaten, slander or harass third parties; activities prohibited by the laws of the United States and/or foreign territories in which You conduct business; activities designed to encourage unlawful behavior by others, such as hate crimes, terrorism and child pornography; activities that are tortuous, vulgar, obscene, invasive of the privacy of a third party, racially, ethnically, or otherwise objectionable; activities designed to impersonate the identity of a third party; illegal access to other computers or networks (i.e., hacking); distribution of Internet viruses or similar destructive activities; and activities designed to harm or use unethically minors in any way. Notwithstanding anything to the contrary herein, in the event Go Daddy cancels Your Services during the first thirty (30) days after You purchase the Services, You will receive a refund of any fees paid to Go Daddy in connection with the Services being canceled. In the event Go Daddy deletes Your Services because they are being used in association with spam or morally objectionable activities, no refund will be issued. You agree You will not be entitled to a refund of any fees paid to Go Daddy if, for any reason, Go Daddy takes corrective action with respect to Your improper or illegal use of its Services."

end quote



Though none of his videos are on his web site right now, he does have them posted on various video hosting sites. It looks as though "The Amazing Racist" engages in "activites that are... racially... objectionable..." and, to a lesser extent "activities designed to defame, embarass, harm, abuse, threaten, slander or harass third parties..." and uses his site to promote these activities.

Again, it is terrific that this man can say what he wants about anyone he wants to anywhere he chooses. It's also great that the free market guarantees that his fellow citizens can apply financial pressure on businesses to end their associations with him.

I'm not "outraged" or "horrified" or "disgusted" or any of those words that one is supposed to use when something like this is encountered. Not at all. I'm excited. I'm excited to see our system work the way it's supposed to. I'm excited to see an important decision being made without the involvement of the government. We get to watch "the marketplace of ideas" in action. We're adults. We can handle things like these like grown-ups. We don't need a babysitter to step in and take care of it.

I urge you to cancel "www.theamazingracist.net" as soon as you legally can.

END OF LETTER

I wonder what will happen.

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Friday, December 22, 2006

slow news month...

Lots of stuff and not much all at the same time...

Years ago, when I was a young working actor type, I was told to write stuff for myself and that would keep me in show business. Well, I did. And, it didn't quite work. Nothing ever got made. There was a moment where one script I wrote was going to go with me as a director, but that never happened. Then at the turn of the century (hi, going for the one), a wacky idea that patrick labyorteaux had been working on for 4 or 5 years got made. an actual feature film. and, you know, i didn't have an agent at the time and my manager never saw the movie. never even came to the set. it only took me another 4 years to gather the balls to let them know that i thought it was time we both "moved on".

A couple friends have written and shot tv shows on their own and one is on the air and another looks like it's probably going to hit the small screen, ass well. So, i've written a tv pilot that i want to shoot in january. we'll see. if it doesn't work as a pilot, i've got either a good short flick or the first act of a feature.

in other news, you may be able to tell from reading my whining and ramblings that i am lucky enough to have been blessed by the good lord with serious, mind altering, stare at the walls, depression. it is bad, bad, bad and there are times that it gets really, really scary. my bride is a rock and i don't understand how she can take it sometimes. the only benefit in the last few months is that i've had no appetite and i've lost all the weight i gained buying the house last year... and then some... about 25lbs.

irregardlessly, i started going to headshrinking earlier this year and we've been futzing around with different medications. he's a really rational, science based, shrink and i really appreciate that there is absolutely no woo-woo with him. nothing was working and that makes it worse and then last week he prescribed another medication that's actually used for something other than depression and my world has changed. it is fascinating. truly. man. i actually feel good. i feel like a human. it's pretty awesome. so that's that going on.

i sleep with my ipod playing podcasts. this past summer, i went through a this american life and studio 360 phase. that's all well and good. there are also the robert ingersoll essays that some nutjob has recorded. those are great, too. it's nice to wake in the middle of the night to the soothing sounds of rational. i've tried to find some good skeptic podcasts. the ones i'd found were... okay. nothing too terrific and then i happened upon the new england skeptical society's "the skeptic's guide to the universe" podcast.

Jessie and I refer to them as the Skeptic Superfriends. It's 3-5 skeptics sitting around (they're actually all at their individual homes, connected by skype or something) chatting. they all know enough not to talk over each other. the sound quality is really good. they have different sections that they do every week, one of my faves being "name that logical fallacy". the other one, science or fiction, is pretty damned good, ass well.

http://www.theskepticsguide.org/index.asp

or

http://www.theness.com/home.asp

are the two links to their pages. i highly recommend it.

speaking of content...

let's see if this works:

it's "coreyoke", the 80's karaoke band wot i mangle the bass.



that's all for now.

i'll be officially middle aged in just a couple of days.

holy hell.

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Monday, December 11, 2006

Nigerian Spam Scam Scam

I'm doing spamscam this Saturday at 10pm in L.A. at the Upright Citizens Brigade theater

http://www.ucbtheatre.com/schedule/showdetails.php?showid=1286


It's a really cool theater.

Come down and laff yer balls off.

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Sunday, December 10, 2006

skilljam

I don't work there anymore and I agree with you.

You get a grip.

Sunday, December 03, 2006

Kauai - Day 2

Okay. It's beautiful here but really, the sun needs to come out. I mean, really.

If we wanted overcast and sporadic rain, we'd go to Seattle.

Come on. Come on!!!

It's not ruining the trip. Yet.

Tonight, Jessie is making me go to a luau.

Tomorrow we are kayaking to some waterfall. Then we will be very sore.

Tuesday sees us coasting down a hill on bicycles.

One of these days, the sun will come out.

Everyone is selling fucking timeshares. Jesus. Jesus had a timeshare. The first place we went to book some activities dropped the price from $200 to $0 if we would go sit for 2 hours in some timeshare presentation.

No. No and no. We went somewhere else, instead.

Man, I just want to slather on a ton of sunblock and fall asleep on the beach. Come on, sun! Come on!!!

Yesterday, we drove south (we're on the east coast) and walked along a beach, then went to some touristy place (the entire island... it's cool) and got Jessie some candied pineapple stuff.

Today, we drove north to a big cave and stopped along the way and walked along secluded beaches. Really amazing. On the way back, we saw some blue sky attempting to break through the grey.

If it's raining all day tomorrow, I will officially be bummed out.

Rock on!!!