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EGOMANIA! A Response to My Critics on the Post-Left
By Alexander Reid Ross - Anti-Fascist News, April 5, 2017
My piece, "The Left-Overs: How Fascists Court the Post-Left," has been shared on Facebook more than 2,000 times now and numerous interpretations have made the rounds. I feel like I must apologize for the inappropriate uses of "Left-Overs," which unfortunately came across to some as against the post-left specifically. I would like to use this space to humbly correct what has been written about me and the subject of my article.
Those who are familiar with my work recognize that I outted Michael Schmidt, a fascist in the platformist tendency. During the heated first months of that episode, a number of post-leftists managed to condemn me for perpetuating "call out culture" while using my work to launch sectarian attacks against platformism. Meanwhile platformists attacked me for being a post-left primitivist. Since then, Schmidt has admitted, "my mind was toying with [national-anarchism's] disastrous, racist arguments" (a taste of the truth, but not the buffet to be sure).[1]
Now, post-leftists who reveled in the controversy of "Schmidtgate" find in my present work "the very definition of a sectarian attack." Although some of the critical engagement with my work bears the marks of sincere inquiry, much of it comes from rage. The recent 5,500 word piece, "Post-Left vs. 'Woke' Left," by Dr. Bones, takes the reader on an extended tour of the latter. I have done my best to counter his efforts by taking on the former.
Forget that Bones antagonized me personally, admitting in a public apology, "I took something I'm sure has no truth to it whatsoever and threw it in his face not because I believed it but because I wanted to hurt him… This was not a fair or even a civil tactic, this was just stupid, cruel, and mean." When one is dealing with a milieu with a reputation for troll tactics, reddit politics, and chan behavior, it helps to have a thick skin. Apology accepted.
What truly matters is that, in his vitriolic critique, Bones gets most facts plainly wrong and his essay is chock full of spurious accusations. I am, in fact, not "calling for the abandonment of any ideas [fascists] might steal to be thrown away," whatever that means (it sounds like it would rid the world of ideas altogether and make us all a bit more like Bones).
Let's look at my most daring claims and see whether or not they deserve the kind of animosity I have faced over the past week:
- "[I]n imagining that anti-capitalism and 'individual liberty' maintain ideological purity, radicals such as my own dear editor tend to ignore critical convergences with and vulnerabilities to fascist ideology." This claim stands up based on evidence I provided, including the correspondence that I had with my editor, as well as the defensive reaction to the piece. I am also clearly positing "radicals" not "post-leftists" specifically.
- "[T]his situation [of ideological cross-over] has provided ample space for the fascist creep." I am not marking the post-left as "particularly" vulnerable to entryism, nor am I saying that the post-left is, itself, fascist.
- "[The] presence [of fascists among former Earth Liberation Front members] serves as food for thought regarding important radical cross-over points and how to approach them." All I am implying here is that cross-over points in ideology and practical work should be recognized as important in the struggle against entryism and the clarification of anarchist ideas.
- "[A]lthough in some cases prescient about the subcultural cross-overs between fascism and the post-left, post-leftists have, on a number of occasions, engaged in collaborative relationships." I list a number of examples, and there are many more to boot. In recent twitter correspondence, one of my critics insisted, aside from the invective they aimed at me, that they agree with my thesis, but did not like the fact that I provided supporting evidence. As the Latin aphorism goes, "Precepts guide, but examples drags along" (Præcepta ducunt, at exempla trahunt).
To clarify, reviewing my central points, I never called the post-left fascist, called any of its leading figures fascist, or even made a claim that it is "particularly" vulnerable to fascist entryism.
What is the Point?
Perhaps the crux of my article is here: "It stands to reason that defending fascists and collaborating with them are not the same, and they are both separate from having incidental ideological cross-over points. However the cross-over points, when unchecked, frequently indicate a tendency to ignore, defend, or collaborate. Defense and collaboration can, and do, also converge." I am saying it would be wise to check those cross-over points to ensure they are not putting a group or person in a vulnerable position in relation to the fascist creep. For example, I know plenty of pagans; many fascists are also pagans; it is wise for my pagan friends to avoid pagan groups tending toward fascism, like the Asatru Folk Assembly. With this in mind, it is incumbent on antifascists to expose fascist groups or persons and the cross-over points that they exploit—this should be seen as a service and a duty, not an attack.
Yet Bones takes me to task for putting anarchists on notice that "scary individualists are particularly weak to 'entryism' and the fascist creep." If this were true, I would agree with my critic, "This is patently ridiculous." I have worked and played with post-leftists for the last ten years, including direct action groups, reading groups, and black blocs, and I have published most of my work on Trump in It's Going Down and Strangers in a Tangled Wilderness, both of which have generously published my articles in zines. My experience shows that I am no sectarian. Before ten years ago (roughly between the years of 1999-2004), my political alignment was basically post-left anarchist and even up to 2009, I was participating in things like a post-left reading group with green anarchist, Dan Todd, at the Dry River Radical Resource Center in Tucson, Arizona, that hosted post-left anarchy luminary, Lawrence Jarach, following his interesting piece, "Why I'm Not an Anti-Primitivist."[2]
I am ecumenical in observing the cross-overs with the far right among collectivists as well as individualists, or as post-leftist, William Gillis, puts it in his review of my book, Against the Fascist Creep, I am "equal opportunity in [my] work."[3] I clarify in the third sentence of my offending piece, "Fascism comes from a mixture of left and right-wing positions, and some on the left pursue aspects of collectivism, syndicalism, ecology, and authoritarianism that intersect with fascist enterprises." The next sentence reads, "Partially in response to the tendencies of left authoritarianism, a distinct antifascist movement emerged in the 1970s to create what has become known as 'post-left' thought."
So when I write about the post-left, I am clearly describing an antifascist tendency that emerged from a rejection of left-wing authoritarianism that shared common traits with fascism. The subtitle of my work is, "How Fascists Court the Post-Left," not "How the post-left turned into a writhing cesspool of fascist ugliness." Those who accuse me of authoring an anti-post-left "hit piece" ignore that I call it a "rich milieu" in "Left-Overs." Oversights happen, but let me note that I have faced criticisms from antifascist post-leftists telling me I should not have pulled as many punches as I did. Suffice it to say that the defensive reactions have been instructive, in no small part, for the facts they get wrong.
Does the Post-Left Exist?
The principle critique of my work is that I have misunderstood or misconstrued the post-left milieu and the thought of its important intellectual rock stars—particularly Max Stirner. This is quite tricky, because post-leftists often insist that the term, "post-left," amounts to nothing more than a sticky signifier—a place-holder that brings together a variety of tendencies based on temporary affinities.
Due to this loose system, which developed amid affinities between nihilists, green anarchists, individualists, egoist communists, and insurrectionaries, Bones claims that I am "literally chasing a ghost, a spook, a figment of his imagination. Egoists see no need to join with anybody. Alexander has decided we're kin to primitivists simply because we don't want to work in a goddamn factory or uphold the wretched consumer society he clearly sees worth saving."
This denial of post-leftism as a milieu is not entirely accurate. According to Bob Black's "Notes on 'Post-Left Anarchism,'" "Among the people I was thinking of as post-left anarchists were Fredy Perlman, John Zerzan, Dan Todd, Hakim Bey, Max Cafard, Michael William, John Moore, the Fifth Estate writers of the 70's and 80's (such as George Bradford/David Watson and Peter Werbe), Wolfi Landstreicher (he had other names back then), the Green Anarchism writers (especially John Connor), and several regular contributors to Anarchy: A Journal of Desire including its editor Jason McQuinn (then known as Lev Chernyi), Lawrence Jarach, and Aragorn."[4] With the caveat that the post-left exists on its own terms, our readers will hopefully recognize, against dissemblances, that I am not higlty-piglty scrabbling together a discursive field out of little else but hot air and black ink. Bones even insists (repeatedly) on the importance of understanding "why a Post-Left even exists."[5]
A Bit About Stirner
Bones accuses me of never having read Stirner or Nietzsche, although I have read virtually all of Stirner and Nietzsche. The sensitivity is incredible, given that I devote only one sentence to Max Stirner in "The Left-Overs," writing that he held a "belief in the supremacy of the European individual over and against nation, class, and creed." For this, I have been subjected to some of the most intense invective I have ever experienced in my life. Bones calls me a "fucking asshole" in his piece and a leftist "class struggle" meme page attacks me as a liberal antifa cuck, deploying the racist vocabulary of the alt-right to denounce antifascism as if they were not proving my point.
Bones does not deny the Eurocentrism of Stirner's insistence on a "really Caucasian" age following the purging of "innate Negroidity" and "Mongloidity."[6] Yet he refuses to acknowledge the tacit racism, despite the fact that Stirner's editor and translator, David Leopold, wrote in his introduction to Cambridge University Press's 1995 edition of The Ego and Its Own, "Individual and historical development are the two primary forms of the Stirnerian dialectic, but in order to clarify its form he inserts 'episodically' a racial (and racist) analogue of the historical account."[7] Those calling my interpretation of Stirner "dishonest," "disingenuous," and "dirty" must hurl the same invective at Dr. Leopold, an Oxford University fellow and professor entrusted with the leading edition of Stirner's main text (available through Libcom).
Can we chalk this up to blind ignorance, friends? Stirner's historical account runs parallel to the then-popular Aryan myth, wherein the passage of humans from Africa to Asia to Europe signifies a cultural-linguistic process of evolution. Bones posits Stirner's rejection of nationalism as a defense against the charge that he was racist. Yet recall now that I mentioned that Stirner held a "belief in the supremacy of the European individual over and against nation, class, and creed." Race and nation are different subjects, and looking at the complex history of ideological cross-overs, we can see fascinating outcroppings of the work of Stirner and Nietzsche that reject modern nationalism while reinforcing racist imperialism. The inability to detect this exposes a crucial vulnerability to racist anti-statism, which we will come to shortly.
Stirnerists and the Foundations of Fascism
In the 1860s, Stirner would become a topic for historians and philosophers of the mind, from Friedrich Lange's History of Materialism to Hartmann's Philosophy of the Unconscious. There is little doubt that perhaps the most influential thinker of nihilism, Friedrich Nietzsche, was familiar with Stirner, familiar as he was with those two influential texts. He lent his student, Adolf Baumgartner, a copy of Ego and Its Own in 1874.[8] Less than ten years later, shortly before publication of his most essential work, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Nietzsche confessed to his friend Ida Overbeck the deep influence of Stirner on his thinking before worrying, "they will be talking of plagiarism."[9]
Like Stirner, Nietzsche asserted the philosophical importance of iconoclasm—of destroying dominant paradigms that contain the individual. Nietzsche looked at the spirit of his day—the decadence of urban expansion, mundane philosophy, the herds of nationalism and flocks of the Church—as a form of passive nihilism. To overcome it, he predicted a new Superman would come about to annihilate the falsity of everyday life through an "active nihilism" perhaps evocative of an "eternal return" of human freedom.[10]
Anarchist writer George Woodcock notes, "Nietzsche himself regarded Stirner as one of the unrecognized seminal minds of the nineteenth century."[11] By the end of the 20th Century, Nietzsche and Stirner formed fundamental pillars of radical thought. Writer and editor, Benjamin Tucker, discussed the significance of Stirner to anarchism, while Emma Goldman popularized Nietzsche.[12]
Aside from these influences, Stirner and Nietzsche also had a tremendous effect on Dora Marsden, a feminist leader who held the Aryan female genius responsible for breeding humanity into the New Order.[13] Aside from being a Stirnerist, Marsden was also influenced by the anti-Semitic and misogynistic individualist, Otto Weininger, who counted Stirner, with Ibsen and Nietzsche, as the only scholars to ever understand true ethics and individualism.[14] Though she was an egoist and an important member of the women's movement, her agreement with Weininger led her to essentialize the sex binary in her writings. Weininger would also influence the Nazi regime and Evola openly admired him.[15]
As Stirner's work gained traction, it also garnered increasing attention from the right. In his 1908 text, Gospels of Anarchy, and Other Contemporary Studies, Vernon Lee observed a similarity between Stirner's "psychology" and that of anti-Semitic reactionary, Maurice Barrès.[16] This similarity was not an anomaly—Barrès was aware of the Young Hegelians and Stirner through the works of Saint-René Tallandier, and Stirner's influence could be found in the first two volumes of Barrès's Cult of Myself as well as Enemy of the Law.[17] By the 1920s, James Huneker's book, Egoists: A Book of Supermen, could place Stirner and Nietzsche alongside Barrès within the same individualist milieu without controversy.[18]
Significantly, Barrès and his reactionary ally, Charles Maurras, would forward the earliest prefigurations of fascism. In his journal, La Cocarde, Barrès sought to reach out to "the proletariat of bacheliers, to those youths whom society has given a diploma and nothing else."[19] To achieve such a goal, Barrès included the left-wing voices of Eugéne Fournière and Fernand Pelloutier, along with nationalist compatriots. In the spirit of La Cocarde, Maurras joined with the former anarcho-syndicalist, Georges Valois, to launch the Cercle Proudhon with Eduard Berth, a close associate of the famous syndicalist, Georges Sorel. Despite Maurras's importance, Valois would later claim Barrès as the progenitor of original fascism.[20]
Here in its germ, at the merger of individualism and collectivism, nationalism and socialism, fascism could be found. Following the developments of the day, Benito Mussolini called Sorel the "notre Maître (Master)" and encouraged his followers to return to Stirner.[21] In Germany, conservative revolutionary, Ernst Jünger, conjured up the figure of the "magic zero," exhorting readers to annihilate the modern world and produce the New Age of the "Anarch"—who "embodies the viewpoint of Stirner… that is, the anarch is unique."[22]
It was the desire for the New Man and the New Age that created the conditions for fascist palingenesis (the ideology of rebirth). This movement was facilitated by avant-gardists like Filippo Marinetti, who praised the "destructive gesture of the anarchist," and Gabriel D'Annunzio, who theorized an aesthetic, poetic and spiritual unity of the nation.[23] Hence, there is no doubting the influence of Stirner in the seedbed of fascism—from Barrès, Mussolini, and Jünger to Marinetti, D'Annunzio, and Weininger. But wait! There's more!
The Problem with Bataille
Another critical mistake my critics have made is denying that avant-gardist, Georges Bataille, was influenced by Stirner. This fact is supported by among the most basic works on Bataille.[24] Not only was Bataille influenced by Stirner, but his reading of Stirner came during the crucial window between his denunciation by the Surrealists in 1930 and his publishing of "The Psychological Structure of Fascism" three years later, in which he calls fascism, "the constitution of a total heterogenous power whose manifest origin is to be found in the prevailing effervescence… the emanation of a principle which is none other than that of the glorious existence of a nation raised to the value of a divine force (which, superseding every other conceivable consideration, demands not only passion but ecstasy from its participants)."[25] Since "fascism is an imperative response to the growing threat of the working class movement," for Bataille, those who believe in the "liberating subversion of society" must recreate the process through which human lives would be emancipated.[26]
The problem with Bataille is that this recreation looked a lot like fascism. In 1934, a year after writing "The Psychological Structure of Fascism," Bataille attended the "Exhibition of the Fascist Revolution" in Rome. In response to what he saw as the inevitable rise of fascism, in a letter to his friend Pierre Kaan, he declared, "I have no doubt about the level on which we will have to place ourselves: it can only be that of fascism itself, which is to say the mythological level. It is therefore a question of posing values participating in a living nihilism, equal to the fascist imperatives."[27] In the words of scholar Rainer Friedrich, "Doubtlessly, at that point, Bataille's discourse displayed a strong affinity to fascism."[28] As did members of his coterie.
A member of Bataille's 1935-1936 group, Counter-Attack, wrote, "We prefer, in any case, and without being duped, the anti-diplomatic brutality of Hitler, which is surely less fatal to peace than the drooling excitation of diplomats and politicians."[29] A few months later, Surrealists who had participated in Counter-Attack released a statement attacking the "so-called group, within which had emerged some tendencies called 'superfascist' whose purely fascist character has become more and more evident."[30] Identifying Bataille's outlook as "surfascisme" and calling him "more fascist than the fascists" was not necessarily inaccurate.[31] In the translator's introduction to Bataille's own book, On Nietzsche, Stuart Kendall notes, "There was more than a little truth to the accusation, and intentionally so."[32]
It is interesting that Bataille deploys the nihilist meta-narrative, which in a lot of fascist ideology functions as a part of the palingenetic core of rebirth. Although fascists often reject nihilism, individualism, and egoism, those denunciations come in connection to multiculturalism, liberalism, and democracy. On a deeper level, fascists like Jünger and Martin Hiedegger celebrated the dialectic of passive and active nihilism found in Nietzsche.[33] For Julius Evola, Stirner epitomized the first stage of a two-step process of emptying modern civilization of meaning—his form of "passive nihilism" is carried forward by philosopher Friedrich Nietszche into a New Age of spiritual realization by the New Man through "active nihilism."[34]
It is crucial to recognize that Stirner's rejection of modern nationalism is supported in fascism. Evola also championed the spiritual superiority of the "Aryan race" vis-à-vis "culture" and against modern civilization, which he identified with petty nationalism. Mussolini's squadristi attacked nationalists as well as leftists.[35] Mussolini's party saw palingenetic ultranationalism as the only way, a kind of organic rebirth of Ancient Rome in the height of Imperial grandeur under Scipio Africanus.[36] Fascism is Imperial rather than national, so Stirner's call for a "truly Caucasian" age had its resonances on the right and left.
Individualism and Nihilism in Post-War Fascism
Stirner could not (and cannot) easily be shelved as left or right; his influence was perhaps more liminal and affective than direct and intellectual. As anarcho-syndicalist Rudolf Rocker lamented, "While the atomization of the individual is the constant, while humongous buildings populate the cities, while avenues are designed for machines, while collective transportation is designed for cattle and not human beings, anti-social/anti-communitarian actions will certainly remain present, expressed with the bitter angst shown throughout Stirner's work."[37] As much as his prejudices can be considered a symptom of his time, Rocker viewed Stirner's reception by nihilists and individualists as similarly conditioned by the environment.
After the War, Stirner's work was preserved in perhaps the definitive text on US individualism, James J. Martin, Men Against the State: The Expositors of Individualist Anarchism in America, 1827–1908. Published in 1953, Martin's text noted Stirner's influence in upholding the individual over and against the notion of natural rights in anything other than their voluntary manifestation.[38] Going on to publish anti-interventionist texts, Martin fell into the circle of a young Murray Rothbard, whose own writings on "anarcho-capitalism" in his journal Left & Right attempted to draw anti-war radicals toward free market ideals.[39]
Rothbard and Martin connected on their appreciation for Holocaust denier, Harry Elmer Barnes, who called Martin's work "the most formidable achievement of World War II Revisionism." Following Barnes's death in 1968 (and a glowing obituary in the final issue of Left & Right), Martin founded his own publishing house and published texts on anarchy, Holocaust denial, and anti-interventionism.[40] Martin's individualism and Rothbard's incipient neoliberalism formed no small part of the seedbed from which the most right-wing faction of the libertarian movement sprang into being.
On a speculative note, Stirner's influence might make sense here due to his translation of Jean-Baptiste Say's free market works into German.[41] For this same reason, echoes of his thought are often seen in Ayn Rand's ruthless "objectivism" by scholars and observers. Yet Stirner cannot be placed exclusively among neoliberalism, as his legacy continues to inform nihilists, individualists, insurrectionary anarchists, and ultra-leftists who believe in communization. Perhaps due to this mixture, the philosophies of individualism and nihilism continued to find even broader audiences in the cross-over between left and right ideas in the 1970s.
Perhaps the most functionally fascist of these influences came as Evola's work was received by a new generation of fascists who made a concerted effort to infiltrate the left and restore the foundation of fascism. This work of the "European New Right" included the Evolian rejection of nationalism in favor of local cultures composing a larger, federated "spiritual empire." European New Right leader, Alain de Benoist, returns to the process of "positive nihilism" whereby Europeans will "build on a site which has been completely cleared and leveled…. If a new right is to be brought into being we have to start from scratch."[42] While Benoist and his project generally denounce "abstract" individualism, their "communitarian" project arguably tends toward the spiritual reclamation of the Evolian "universal individual" through its tacit elitism.[43]
Much of this was stated relatively plainly in "The Left-Overs," which has been maligned by one respected anarchist as "that insane article." The negative reaction is largely a mixture of defensiveness and inability to understand the central, palingenetic core of fascism, but again the willingness to jump to hostility and invective is extremely telling of the blindspot. If I am insane, I am like Diogenes the Cynic holding a lamp in the daylight in the search for an honest man, taking the winding path of history past those influenced by Stirnerist individualism and nihilism who set the foundation for and participated in fascism, such as Weininger, Marinetti, Barrès, D'Annunzio, Mussolini, Schmitt, Jünger, and Martin (i.e., some of the most important fascists in history).
Hear No Evil, See No Evil, Speak No Evil
Looking up Stirner in the fascist blogosphere today, one finds the most important cross-overs. In the Counter-Currents article, "We Are All Egoists—and Why That's a Good Thing," by former anarchist "race realist," Aedon Cassiel, Stirner's egoism avoids the "immature, anti-social, or sociopathic" approach, moving instead toward a synthesis of individualism and collectivism that provides for "a flourishing social commons." This, of course, is not to say that a reading of The Ego and Its Own that permits such a synthetic social relationship of individuals is automatically fascist, but rather that it has significant weight across the spectrum.
In another article from Counter-Currents, Stirner is referred to approvingly at the beginning of the tradition of Nietzsche and D'Annunzio as developing the "consumate individualist"—"in the space beyond Left and Right, as well as beyond good and evil—with the aristocratic radical on the common ground of Life." It is significant that the first citation used by the author of this piece refers to the exuberant chapter dedicated to D'Annunzio in Temporary Autonomous Zone, a seminal text in the post-left milieu by spiritualist, Hakim Bey (i.e., the text that praises proto-fascist right-left cross-over is then used by a fascist to talk about a "space beyond Left and Right").[44]
Stirner's mercurial attitude and iconoclastic attack on all structures of everyday life quickly elevated him to star-status in the online forums of the post-left during the 2000s, as his cyber-influence extended to the internet subcultures of trans-humanism. Stirner became a reference point for neoreactionaries who joined other interested individualists in message boards like 4chan's /lit/ section. As meme wars grew, Stirner memes emerged from chan boards and neoreactionary websites, along with post-left anarchist forums, green anarchist platforms, nihilist groups, and occult circles.
In some cases, this cross-section produces meme wars of antifascists against fascists and/or anarcho-capitalists against anti-capitalist egoists and/or green anarchists against trans-humanists, and so on. In other cases, there are convergences between otherwise different factions. For instance, in retaliation for "Left-Overs," the admins of Anarchist News posted a hoax article purportedly authored by me but compiled from plagiarized copy-and-pastes of different articles of mine to create rambling nonsense—of course, a fascist posted in the comments. Why not? Am I damned for expecting something more from a site that "repeatedly published 'national anarchists' despite widespread condemnation," according to Gillis?[45]
With the development of the alt-right, newer syntheses of Stirnerism became possible. Stirner soon became a topic of interest, a conversation piece between Stirner-influenced nationalist Jonathan Bowden and alt-right founder, Richard Spencer. Alt-right accounts like "Darth Stirner" emerged, encouraging young radicals to abandon "rose-colored glasses" and open their eyes to the need for interning the enemies of the white race.[46]
Final Thoughts
Despite their recurrence in fascist ideology, I would not leap to the conclusion that nihilist or individualist thought are essentially fascist. Was Marsden proto-fascist? Was Stirner proto-fascist? These may seem like interesting questions, but they're rather superficial. Rather than casting blame against one or another individual, I prefer to think of proto-fascist conditions. Perhaps this is not individualist of me, but it is by no means an attempt to brand the post-left as a fascist milieu. Rather, my article was an attempt to illustrate the conditions that brought and bring about fascism. Recall, I have never claimed that individualism and nihilism were the sole or even the principle influences for fascism, nor that the post-left is "particularly" susceptible to cross-over as opposed to the authoritarian or even anti-authoritarian left.
Now, instead of reflecting on the true, stated intension of my articles, my detractors have jumbled together innumerable conjectures that continue to miss the mark. To attack me for pointing out vulnerabilities to fascist entryism in relation to ideological cross-over points and switch the conversation to utterly false denial of the racist tendencies of white, Eurocentric philosophers is to fall into ignorance. It suggests that one is less concerned with the presence of racism than the accusation (and who is making it). And it indicates a deeply disconcerting pattern of "defending the bros" as opposed to careful consideration of the facts.
In a world where fascists attempt to enter radical milieus and draw people to the right, it is imperative to understand their methods. I have provided (or attempted to provide) a historiographic roadmap through which we can contemplate the cross-over points that act as entryways for the right into the post-left and exit paths from the post-left toward fascism. We must understand these aspects of fascism and its relation to radical politics if we are to defeat it. If we do not respect and uphold the value of truth, we are no better anyway.
Volentem ducunt fata, nolentem trahunt (Fate guides the willing, and drags the unwilling).[47]
Alexander Reid Ross is a journalist and lecturer at Portland State University. He has been published in Truth-Out, ROAR Magazine, and Upping the Anti, and is the author of Against the Fascist Creep (AK Press, 2017).
[1] Michael Schmidt, Letter to the Council of the Institute for Anarchist Theory and History (IATH), Mary 7, 2017. The council refused his resignation and instead terminated his position.
[2] Jarach may recall that he took me to school over the correct dates of the Paris Commune.
[3] William Gillis, "Against the Pull of Simplicity and Disconnect," Center for a Stateless Society, April 2, 2017, https://c4ss.org/content/48385.
[4] Bob Black, "Notes on 'Post-Left Anarchism,'" Anarchist Library, 2015, https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/bob-black-notes-on-post-left-anarchism.
[5] He also, somewhat awkwardly, makes the claim that the post-left is more amenable to resistance movements around the world and particularly in Latin America than "HIS [my] anarchy"—an interesting perspective given the abundance of organizationalist anarchism in Latin America, and the fact that my first book, Grabbing Back: Essays Against the Global Land Grab, is dedicated to assessing non-sectarian, popular resistance movements on their own terms. Ed., Alexander Reid Ross, Grabbing Back: Against the Global Land Grab (Oakland, CA: AK Press, 2014).
[6] Max Stirner, The Ego and Its Own, trans: David Leopold (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), 62-63.
[7] Ibid, xvii.
[8] Albert Lévy, Stirner et Nietzsche, trans. Mitch Abidor (Paris: Societé Nouvelle de Librairie et d'Édition, 1904), https://www.marxists.org/subject/anarchism/levy/stirner-nietzsche.htm.
[9] See Rüdiger Safranski, Nietzsche: A Philosophical Biography, trans. Shelly Frisch (New York City: WW Norton & Co, 2003), 127.
[10] Friedrich Nietzsche, Nietzsche: Writings from the Late Notebooks, trans. Kate Sturge, ed. Rüdiger Bittner (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 120-121.
[11] George Woodcock, Anarchism : A History Of Libertarian Ideas And Movements (New York City: Meridian Books, 1962), 94, http://rebels-library.org/files/woodcock_anarchism.pdf.
[12] Benjamin R. Tucker, Instead of a Book, By a Man too Busy to Write One (New York City: Benjamin R. Tucker, 1897), https://archive.org/stream/cu31924030333052/cu31924030333052_djvu.txt; Andrew Cornell, Unruly Equality: U.S. Anarchism in the Twentieth Century (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2016), 39.
[13] Lucy Delap, The Feminist Avant-Garde: Trans-Atlantic Encounters of the Early Twentieth Century (Cambridge University Press, 2007), 277.
[14] Otto Weininger, Sex and Character, trans. (London: William Heinemann, 1906), 96, http://www.theabsolute.net/ottow/schareng.pdf.
[15] Racist and anti-Semitic aspects of the women's movement were ported through the post-war period by Nazi mystic, Savitri Devi, who asserted a kind of green philosophy not unlike today's Deep Ecology. One can still detect today inflections of a reductionist women's movement in the "Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminists", who aside from engaging in some cross-overs with far-right hate groups also infect tendencies within the radical green movement (specifically the group Deep Green Resistance). See Michelle Renée Matisons and Alexander Reid Ross, "Against Deep Green Resistance," no. 28 (Oakland, CA: Institute for Anarchist Studies/AK Press, 2014), https://anarchiststudies.org/2015/08/09/against-deep-green-resistance-by-michelle-renee-matisons-and-alexander-reid-ross/.
[16] Vernon Lee, Gospels of Anarchy, and Other Contemporary Studies (London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1908), 31.
[17] Ida-Marie Frandon, Barrès: Precurseur (Paris: Éditions Fernand Lanore, 1983), 17-21, 50-57, 70-73.
[18] James Huneker, Egoists, a Book of Supermen: Stendahl, Baudelaire, Flaubert, Anatole France, Huysmans, Barrès, Nietzsche, Blake, Ibsen, Stirnern, and Ernest Hello (New York City: Scribners, 1921).
[19] Maurice Barrès, quoted in Judith Surkis, Sexing the Citizen: Morality and Masculinity in France, 1870–1920 (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2006), 98.
[20] Zeev Sternhell, Neither Right Nor Left: Fascist Ideology in France, trans. David Maisel (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University, 1986), 107.
[21] Mussolini, Opera Omnia, 35 vols. (Florence, Italy: La Fenice, 1951–1963), 15:194; A. James Gregor, The Ideology of Fascism: The Rationale of Totalitarianism (New York: Free Press, 1969), 156; Stephen B. Whitaker, The Anarchist-Individualist Origins of Italian Fascism (Bern: Peter Lang 2002), 86. I note in my book that "One should resist the temptation to make too much of Fascism's syndicalist or individualist tendencies." See Alexander Reid Ross, Against the Fascist Creep (Oakland, CA: AK Press, 2017).
[22] Julien Hervier, Ernst Jünger, The Details of Time: Conversations with Ernst Jünger, trans. Joachim Neugroschel (New York: Marsilio Publishers, 1995), 82.
[23] Barbara Spackman, Fascist Virilities: Rhetoric, Ideology, and Social Fantasy in Italy (Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1996), 49, 123-126; Zeev Sternhell, The Birth of Fascist Ideology: From Cultural Rebellion to Political Revolution (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994), 187-188.
[24] Michael Richardson, Georges Bataille (New York City: Routledge, 1994), 21.
[25] Georges Bataille, "The Psychological Structure of Fascism," trans. Carl R. Lovitt, New German Critique, No. 16 (Winter, 1979), 81.
[26] Ibid, 76
[27] Stuart Kendall, Georges Bataille (London: Reaktion Press, 2007), 127.
[28] Rainer Friedrich, "The Enlightenment Gone Mad (I) The Dismal Discourse of Postmodernism's Grand Narratives," Arion 19 (3):31-78 (2012), http://www.bu.edu/arion/the-enlightenment-gone-mad-i-the-dismal-discourse-of-postmodernisms-grand-narratives/
[29] Jean Dautry, "Sous le feu des canons français at alliés," Contre-attaque, March 1936, (Mélusine de l'université Paris-III Sorbonne Nouvelle), http://www.andrebreton.fr/work/56600100744230. My translation.
[30] Quoted in Simonetta Falasca-Zamponi, Rethinking the Political: The Sacred, Aesthetic Politics, and the Collège de Sociologie (Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2011), 142, ^152.
[31] Kendall, 127.
[32] Georges Bataille, On Nietzsche, trans. Stuart Kendall (Albarny, NY: SUNY Press, 2015), xiii. These are not at all hidden threads, and are all too well known by Bataille aficionados of the right like Nick Land. At the same time, it might help to remind the reader that I never accused Bataille of being a fascist; I simply noted in "The Left-Overs" that he "experimented with fascist aesthetics," and followed that up with quotes. Yet for such a modest suggestion, I received outlandish (and revealing) vitriol.
[33] Martin Heidegger, Neitszsche, Vols. III & IV, trans. David Farrrell Krell (New York: HarperCollins, 1991), https://taradajko.org/get/books/Heidegger_Nietzsche.pdf. For more on Jünger's nihilism, see Ernst Jünger, Das abenteuerliche Herz. Erste Fassung: Aufzeichnungen bei Tag und Nacht, in Sämtliche Werke, Vol. 9 (Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta, 1979), 116-117. Several people have attacked my evidenced claim of the attraction that Carl Schmitt felt for Max Stirner by referring to his post-war work, avoiding his youth and the inter-war years when he did things like paraphrase the Proudhonian axiom, "whoever invokes humanity is cheating." See Safranski, 125.
[34] See Julius Evola, Ride the Tiger, trans. Joscelyn Godwin, Constance Fontana (Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions, 2003), 18-19, http://www.cakravartin.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2006/08/Julius-Evola-Ride-the-Tiger-Survival-Manual-for-the-Aristocrats-of-the-Soul.pdf. See
[35] George P. Blum, The Rise of Fascism in Europe (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1998), 22.
[36] Peter Bondanella, A History of Italian Cinema (New York: Continuum, 2009), 47.
[37] Rudolf Rocker, Anarchy and Organization, trans. Libcom (Libcom, 2003), https://libcom.org/files/Rudolf%20Rocker-%20Anarchy%20and%20organisation.pdf.
[38] James J. Martin, Men Against the State: The Expositors of Individualist Anarchism in America, 1827–1908 (Colorado Springs: Ralph Myles Publisher, 1970), 201, 215.
[39] John Payne, "Rothbard's Time on the Left," Journal of Libertarian Studies 19, no.1 (Winter 2005): 10–11.
[40] Murray N. Rothbard, "Harry Elmer Barnes, RIP," Left & Right 4, no. 1 (1968), 3; StephenMeansMe, "Reason Magazine Addresses That 1976 "Holocaust Denial Edition," LittleGreenFootballs, July 27, 2014, http://littlegreenfootballs.com/article/43649_Reason_Magazine_Addresses_That_1976_Holocaust_Denial_Edition.
[41] John Powell, Biographical Dictionary of Literary Influences: The Nineteenth Century, 1800-1914 (Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2005), 397.
[42] Alain de Benoist, "Regenerating History," in Fascism, ed. Roger Griffin (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995), 169-170.
[43] Although Evola credits Stirner, Weininger, and Nietzsche, he states that Carlo Michelstaedter's individualism trumps them all. See Joscelyn Godwin, "Forward" to Julius Evola, Men Among the Ruins, trans. Guido Stucco, ed. Michael Moynihan (Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions), 5, http://cakravartin.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2007/02/julius-evola-men-among-the-ruins.pdf.
[44] Among the most hysterical claims is that I accused people like Hakim Bey of being a fascist. Such a brainless misreading of my text distorts my thesis and its supporting evidence. Bey romanticized the imperial occupation of Fiume by D'Annunzio that effectively set the stage for fascism, and compares it to Paris in 1968 and the Autonomia movement of the early 1970s—but that does not make him a fascist. Regardless of whether his comparisons ring true, his description of Fiume is just another example of how post-leftists occasionally find themselves tolerating proto-fascism or even acting (wittingly or unwittingly) in league with fascists. Hakim Bey, Temporary Autonomous Zone (Brooklyn, NY: Autonomedia, 2003), 123-126.
[45] Gillis, op. cit. National-anarchists are fascists. See Graham D. Macklin, "Co-opting the Counter Culture: Troy Southgate and the National Revolutionary Faction," Patterns of Prejudice 39, no. 3 (September 2005): 301–26, http://slackbastard.anarchobase.com/?p=2439.
[46] Matthew Lyons, Ctrl-Alt-Delete (Political Research Associates, 2017), http://www.politicalresearch.org/2017/01/20/ctrl-alt-delete-report-on-the-alternative-right/#sthash.CQimN0ES.dpbs.
[47] "Fate guides the willing, and drags the unwilling" – Seneca
Disclaimer: The views expressed here are not the official position of the IWW (or even the IWW's EUC) and do not necessarily represent the views of anyone but the author's.
The Fine Print I:
Disclaimer: The views expressed on this site are not the official position of the IWW (or even the IWW's EUC) unless otherwise indicated and do not necessarily represent the views of anyone but the author's, nor should it be assumed that any of these authors automatically support the IWW or endorse any of its positions.
Further: the inclusion of a link on our site (other than the link to the main IWW site) does not imply endorsement by or an alliance with the IWW. These sites have been chosen by our members due to their perceived relevance to the IWW EUC and are included here for informational purposes only. If you have any suggestions or comments on any of the links included (or not included) above, please contact us.
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Why You Should Buy Life Insurance?
Deciding whether you need life insurance can be a complicated process. The decision can be even harder when you are younger. This article highlights some of the issues that you should think about. We hope that this will help you to make an educated decision.
Providing for Your Dependents If You Die
Let's start with the most obvious reason for why someone should invest in life insurance … the fact that it can replace your income if you die before your dependents. You may want your children to go to college and your family to enjoy a certain kind of lifestyle. Likely, you still want this to happen even if you die prematurely. But, if you are the primary bread winner for your family, they may not be able to afford it if you die and do not have enough savings to cover their expenses. You can address those concerns by buying enough life insurance.
You Have Options
You have the option of buying a term life insurance policy, which would cover you for a set number of years, generally ranging from 10 to 30 years. These policies pay a benefit only during the term period that the insurance covers. These can be a good option if you want coverage for a set period, say, until the children finish college.
You also have the option of buying a whole life policy, also known as permanent life insurance. There are several types and sub categories of each type, and they usually pay a benefit to your beneficiaries when you die. The amounts the premiums will be will depend on the policy you purchase.
Insurance May Be a Good Investment
Many young professionals are looking for investment options for their savings. For these individuals, a variable life insurance policy can provide a good addition to their investment portfolio, as it allows investments in stocks, bonds and mutual funds. These investments can allow your cash value to increase more quickly, though there are some investment risks. When choosing a policy with an investment feature, you can limit your risks by choosing one with a guaranteed minimum death benefit.
You Can Sell Your Policy
If you become terminally ill and are in need of cash to cover medical and other expenses, you may have the option of selling your policy to a viatical settlement company at a discounted price. In exchange, the settlement company would make the premium payments and in turn collect the amount of the face value upon your death. While the amount you would receive in this case is less than the amount your beneficiaries would receive, if you continued premium payments and they inherited the amount, the lump-sum cash payment can come quite in handy if you have no other cash resource.
You Can Accumulate Cash
With insurance, you also have the possibility of allocating a portion of your premiums to a cash accumulation vehicle, an option usually available under universal life insurance policies. This accumulated amount can serve as a cash reserve, and can be used to pay insurance premiums if your disposable income is no longer sufficient to pay those premiums. However, you will need to ensure that the available cash is sufficient to prevent the policy being lapsed due to unavailability of cash.
How Much Do You Need?
The amount of insurance that you need depends on what you want it to cover. Look at how much you earn, and how many years your family will need to replace that income if you die prematurely versus how much you have already saved. Also look at what items that you want to make sure would be paid for, such as college tuition for your children.
The Bottom Line
Life insurance is not for everyone. But, you should not dismiss it without doing some research. If you have others who depend on you financially, it is very likely that you need it. Your financial advisor can help you to decide which type of policy is best for you. Buying life insurance can be one of the best financial steps that you take for you and your family.
Filed Under: Blog | Tagged With: college, life insurance, life insurance policy, life policy

subset: commoncrawl


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The interplay of volcanism, stream erosion and landslides is evident in this Shuttle Radar Topography Mission view of the eastern flank of the Andes Mountains, southeast of San Carlos de Bariloche, Argentina. Older lava flows emanating from the Andes once covered much of this area. Younger, local volcanoes (seen here as small peaks) then covered parts of the area with fresh, erosion resistant flows (seen here as very smooth surfaces). Subsequent erosion has created fine patterns on the older surfaces (bottom of the image) and bolder, irregular patterns through and around the younger surfaces (upper center and right center). Meanwhile, where a large stream immediately borders the resistant plateau (center of the image), lateral erosion has undercut the resistant plateau causing slivers of it to fall into the stream channel. This scene well illustrate show topographic data alone can reveal some aspects of recent geologic history.
This anaglyph was produced by first shading a preliminary elevation model from data acquired by the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission. The stereoscopic effect was then created by generating two differing perspectives, one for each eye. When viewed through special glasses, the result is a vertically exaggerated view of the Earth's surface in its full three dimensions. Anaglyph glasses cover the left eye with a red filter and cover the right eye with a blue filter.
Elevation data used in this image were acquired by the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour, launched on February 11, 2000. The mission used the same radar instrument that comprised the Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C/X-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar that flew twice on the Space Shuttle Endeavour in 1994. The Shuttle Radar Topography Mission was designed to collect three-dimensional measurements of the Earth's surface. To collect the 3-D data, engineers added a 60-meter-long (200-foot) mast, installed additional C-band and X-band antennas, and improved tracking and navigation devices. The mission is a cooperative project between NASA, the National Imagery and Mapping Agency of the U.S. Department of Defense, and the German and Italian space agencies. It is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, for NASA's Earth Science Enterprise, Washington, DC.
Size: 54.3 x 36.4 kilometers ( 33.7 x 22.6 miles) Location: 41.4 deg. South lat., 70.8 deg. West lon. Orientation: North toward the top Image Data: Shaded SRTM elevation model Date Acquired: February 2000


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Rule #1 - Be Patient - Rule #2 - Don't ask when, if you don't contribute - Rule #3 - You have coding skills - LinuxMCE's small brother is available: http://www.agocontrol.com
svn co http://svn.linuxmce.org/svn/branches/LinuxMCE-1004/svn: E170000: Unrecognized URL scheme for 'http://svn.linuxmce.org/svn/branches/LinuxMCE-1004'
why don't you just go with something like Mister House which is designed just for Homeautomation. You take a fullhouse solution and want to take away about 90% of its features. Doesn't make much sense, right?IF
http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Building_From_Source is the wiki page you might want to start with.


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On the Schedule at a Glance in the Symposium's program, Saturday's list of events included a "Book Blitz" from 5:00-7:00 p.m. The only information about this event were a few pages in the program dedicated to Book Blitz Author Bios and a small box that stated: Each attendee will receive 6 tickets to exchange with these authors for free signed books!
Symposium veterans knew what to expect from the Blitz, but newcomers could be heard Friday evening and Saturday afternoon pondering, "What is this Book Blitz all about?"
This tweet from attendee Lauren Regenhardt sums up the experience pretty well:
Hunger Games: Librarian style – stick 25 authors, free books, and 300 people in one room. #yalsa15
— Lauren Page | She/Her/Hers (@ItsRavenclawren) November 8, 2015
Continue reading 2015 Young Adult Services Symposium: Book Blitz!


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T. rex Bites Back!
A busy day today, one of the Everything Dinosaur team members was asked to speak at the regular, monthly meeting of the Herbert Illuminations, a group that meets at the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum to hear talks on various topics related to exhibitions and displays going on at the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum (Coventry, West Midlands). The talk, entitled "T. rex Bites Back" covered the research into the tyrannosaur family of theropods, focusing on the most famous of all the dinosaurs Tyrannosaurus rex.
An Example of Tyrannosaurus rex
Explaining About Tyrannosaurus rex
Starting with the cervical vertebrae fossils named by Cope in 1892 as Manospondylus gigas, the hour long talk went onto discuss the fossil discoveries of Barnum Brown, the scientific description by Osborn and some of the puzzles and mysteries surrounding this most iconic of all the Dinosauria. For example, the evidence for feathers in tyrannosaurs was reviewed and the question of the length of tyrannosaur arms was discussed. The presentation compared tyrannosaurs to other large theropods and compared the abelisaurids and tyrannosaurids and asked the question – Why these two groups of unrelated apex predators at the end of the Cretaceous and not the allosaurids etc?
Everything Dinosaur
The talk took place in studio 2, the site of an interactive exhibition which links the real world to cyberspace. This is an exhibit at the museum that enables real people to interact with avatars who may be located all over the world. The exhibition is in 3-D, so all the audience at the talk, actually in the room, were asked to wear the 3-D glasses so that they could see the avatars more clearly. The talk by the Everything Dinosaur team member was heard and seen by a number of avatars that were logged on.
After the presentation, the audience (including the avatars), were able to ask questions. The Everything Dinosaur expert fielded the questions, which ranged from asking about the teeth of tyrannosaurs, where fossils of T. rex had been found to whether or not in the fossil record there was evidence of animals like today's hyenas.
Part of the Audience for Everything Dinosaur's Talk
Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur
The background shows the avatars, they were sitting on a big couch and chairs in their virtual world. The presentation concluded by explaining how children's fascination for dinosaurs can be used to help motivate and inspire them to learn more about science in school.
Visit Everything Dinosaur's award-winning website: Everything Dinosaur Company Website.


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Elijah Wood suffered a major Hollywood slump as he approached his 30th birthday, so he enrolled in therapy to deal with his issues.
"The Lord of the Rings" star reveals he didn't work for two years and he sought professional help as he struggled to deal with his emotional problems.
However, Wood, 32, enjoyed the sessions as he learned to "laugh at himself."
He tells Britain's Live magazine, "I've had things that I had to overcome, like everybody does. I went through a period a couple of years ago where I didn't work for two years. When I was 29 and turning 30, I went to therapy for the first time. It was amazing. It made me learn to laugh a lot at myself, but I also learned a lot of groundbreaking things. It was like mental excavation. I found it fascinating."
Also, full article on Britain's Live Magazine (which I don't have access to).


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This was published 10 years ago
Why can't women like Game of Thrones?
It's a pity some writers get so perturbed by those women who like to spend a little time in Westeros.
By Alyssa Rosenberg and slate.com
Game of Thrones is one of the most outrageously enjoyable shows on television right now, not least because of its incredible roster of female characters; from medieval Girl Scout Arya Stark (Maisie Williams) to court manipulator Lady Olenna Redwyne (Diana Rigg).
What's incredibly not-fun is how much stupid writing the show has inspired about female television watchers, and what we like or don't like.
The latest attempt to explain Game of Thrones in relation to All Ladies comes courtesy of Thrillist's Renata Sellitti in a piece entitled Why Girls Hate Game Of Thrones: The reasons she throws shade on your medieval man show.
Her arguments include such gems as:
"We hate gross things. Know what's gross? Screwing your sibling," in reference to the relationship between twins Cersei and Jaime Lannister.
Girl-trolling, like: "It's hard to follow"
And nerd-baiting, including: "It reminds us of the kids that used to play magic cards in the cafeteria. And people who go to Renaissance festivals."
At least Sellitti has the originality to attribute new obnoxious ideas to all women who watch television, though she doesn't reach the heights of originality scaled by The New York Times' Ginia Bellafante.
Bellafante suggested when the show premiered in 2011 that the incest and prostitution plotlines were "tossed in as a little something for the ladies, out of a justifiable fear, perhaps, that no woman alive would watch otherwise."
This kind of treatment of women, as if they're narrow, fantasy-averse, or pervy, makes me want to slowly and carefully lower my forehead to my desk repeatedly in imitation of Mad Men's Peggy Olson (to use a prestige show reference Bellafante might appreciate).
Bellafante may not have ever met ''a single woman who has stood up in indignation at her book club and refused to read the latest from Lorrie Moore unless everyone agreed to The Hobbit first,'' and Sellitti may believe that "eating a giant drumstick and drinking out of a goblet is cool, just not every Sunday night for three months straight." But there's something bizarre about the inability to imagine that some women dig stories about swords and sorcery, even to the extent that we'll strap on custom costumes ourselves, not just gather in front of the television on Sunday nights to watch other people wear them.
Did it occur to Sellitti that some of us tune into Game of Thrones precisely because it is like a soap opera, except with a wider range of roles available to women?
This kind of treatment of women, as if they're narrow, fantasy-averse, or pervy, makes me want to slowly and carefully lower my forehead to my desk repeatedly in imitation of Mad Men's Peggy Olson.
Or that, for the straight ladies, the show offers up an unusual amount of man candy, particularly in its third season?
Maybe we're actually interested in what will happen when Danaerys Targaryen starts liberating slaves and conquering cities? Maybe we want to know if Tyrion Lannister can find a way to pay off the Iron Bank of Braavos? Or whether Arya Stark will actually get revenge on the people who murdered her friend, killed her father, and brainwashed her sister?
Perhaps we're curious about things other than traditional lady business - what Sellitti calls "the romantic crap" in her advice to men to get the women in their lives on board.
I'm fine leaving them with their Lorrie Moore volumes and their Mad Men episodes - in point of fact, liking The Hobbit and Game of Thrones doesn't preclude me from reading fiction by women or crushing on Ted Chaough.
I just wish they wouldn't get so perturbed by those of their fellow women who like to spend a little time in Westeros.


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Love is a funny thing, especially in the movies, so Vinnie and I have donned our Team Bartilucci romantic screwball comedy caps to spotlight two of our favorites!
"Once upon a time — in 1941 to be exact — there lived in a great, tall forest — called New York — eight men who were writing an encyclopedia. They were so wise they knew everything: The depth of the oceans, and what makes a glowworm glow, and what tune Nero fiddled while Rome was burning. But there was one thing about which they knew very little — as you shall see…"
How could I not fall in love with Ball of Fire (BoF)? To borrow a line from Foul Play, it was fate, Fergie — kismet! The star team of Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck, reunited from Meet John Doe that same year, was a tantalizing draw, plus I'm a sucker for stories set in my hometown, New York City. But I was also interested in BoF because I like comedies about characters who appreciate wordplay and learning (Pygmalian/My Fair Lady, anyone?). I've loved reading, writing, and generally having fun with the English language ever since I learned to read at the age of three (during a family vacation in the Bahamas, but that's a story for another time). My older siblings used to show me off by having me read passages from The New York Times out loud; granted, I didn't always understand what all the words meant, but somehow I figured out what they sounded like phonetically. For another thing, on an even more personal note, BoF's sassy heroine Katherine O'Shea goes by the name "Sugarpuss," or "Shugie" for short. As luck would have it, our daughter Siobhan's nickname happens to be "Shugie"! (For the record, "Shugie" is pronounced like "sugar" ending with "ee" instead of "er." For those of you who've never heard the name "Siobhan," it's pronounced "shuh-VON." Those who pronounce it 'SIGH-oh-ban' will be asked to leave the Internet.) Mind you, this was long before we watched and loved BoF; up till then, we had nicknamed Siobhan "Shugie" in honor of Shaggy's baby sister on the animated TV series A Pup Named Scooby-Doo (yet another story for yet another time. We've got a million of 'em)! Our Shugie thought the name "Sugarpuss O'Shea" was the most hilarious name she'd ever heard!
Professor Potts digs NYC's sub(way)culture! |
Taking good notes for research is important! |
The happiest fellas in Brainiac Land! |
If Shugie's the new neighborhood Avon Lady, we'll take one of everything! |
Mr. Looper, er, Hooper, lilac's not really your color! |
"We'll be steppin', me and the smooch, I mean the dish, I mean the mouse, you know, hit the jiggles for a little rum boogie?...Brother, we're gonna have some hoy-toy-toy!" In turn, the delighted professors roar, "Hoy-toy-toy!" The garbage man adds, "If you want that one explained, go ask your papa."As Miss Bragg, Kathleen Howard is the very model of an uptight, narrow-minded den mother type who, to slightly paraphrase a line from Witness for the Prosecution, has just had an egg-beater thrown into the wheels of her Victorian household. Miss Bragg may mean well in her stick-up-the-butt way, but I couldn't help hoping someone would belt her one, so I couldn't help approving when Shugie did just that — that is, until I read on the TCM Web site that while shooting the fight scene with Howard, Stanwyck accidentally connected too hard with a punch and broke Ms. Howard's jaw — yikes! Just goes to show sometimes it's unwise to go too far for your art!
Is this what they mean by "stopping on a dime"? |
Things that make you go "Yum-yum!" |
Nothing perks up symposiums like a conga! |
One ring to rule them all, one ring to bind her! |
Before Witness for the Prosecution's Monocle Test, there was Prof. Gurkakoff's Reflector Test! |
Hope is the thing with feathers — perfect for tickle torture! |
Vinnie's Pick: Oscar (1991)
To simplify greatly, there are three types of people; those who have never seen Oscar, those who love Oscar, and those who have never forgiven John Landis for Vic Morrow, and refuse to give any of his work since a fair viewing.
It's a comedy, something that star Sylvester ("Stop or My Mom Will Shoot") Stallone is not well known for. Specifically it's a screwball farce, based on a French film from 1967 Director John Landis and his writing team turned it into a period piece, following many of its trappings religiously. It takes place largely in one location, the palatial residence of gangster Angelo "Snaps" Provolone, who has promised his father (a hiLARious cameo by Kirk Douglas) that he'd go straight. On one madcap day as he prepares to invest in a bank and fulfill his promise, he learns that his head accountant "Little" Anthony Rossano (Vincent Spano) is in love with his daughter, Lisa (Marisa Tomei) (except he's not), who is pregnant from another man, the titular Oscar, their chauffeur (except she's not), planned to marry her off to his dialect coach, Dr. Thornton Poole (Tim Curry) who is also in love with her (except he's not), and at random times, 100,000 dollars plays a shell game among three black satchels that make their way about the house.
Snaps, Connie, and Aldo keep it all in the Family |
The meat of the plot is from the French original, the comedy of errors about the people in love and the bags, but Landis added a whole layer of comedy by making it a comedic Prohibition-era period piece. Lots of wordplay comedy, many new characters, and the whole plot about the bankers and Lt. Toomey's insistence that things are not as they appear. And oh, those bags... A classic plot point of comedies, whether used as the McGuffin to get the spies after the wrong guy, or a devious way to hide the diamonds, it's been seen in endless films, in recent years, most famously What's Up Doc?
Lisa and Thornton's budding romance is by the book! |
A couple of important first major breaks in the film as well - It's Marisa Tomei's first major role, and while she got a Razzie for it, The Wife and I knew right away we'd be hearing from her again, and I don't mean a postcard. One year later she grabbed an ACTUAL Oscar for her role in My Cousin Vinny. Similarly, lovable lunkhead Connie was played to slack-faced perfection by Chazz Palmintieri, who just a year before had played a very different kind of mobster in his self-written one-man play A Bronx Tale. Combining this with similarly comedic gunsel Cheech in Woody Allen's Bullets Over Broadway, and he quickly became one of our favorite comedic gangster actors. So when we later saw him in things like The Usual Suspects and the film version of A Bronx Tale, we were blown away by the diametric opposite performances.
"So, boss, which satchel has the secret Government underwear?" |
But in honesty, the shining jewel of performances is Stallone himself. In later comedic performances like Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over, he's more parodying himself, but here he plays a note-perfect comedic gangster in the Damon Runyon tradition. He shares the screen with some heavy hitters, but holds his own expertly. "Snaps" remains exasperated throughout, and some of his best lines are when his emotions get the better of him. As he tries to explain a small part of his day to his wife Sofia (Ornella Muti), including mention of a daughter Theresa, she responds "We don't HAVE a daughter Theresa!", to which he gaspingly replies, "Do you think I don't KNOW that?"
Going to the chapel and they're gonna get married... |


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I figured out a way to disable Norton Anti-virus 2001. It's not to hard to do. There is only 2 Steps
1. In the registry (use the REGEDIT), you need change the key:HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\ CurrentControlSet\Services\ Norton Program Scheduler\ Start
Change the value to 0x00000003 -> This disable Norton Start.
0x00000002-> This enable Norton Start.
2. 2) You can change the "file monitor" too: Inside the file NAVSTART.DAT, in the NAV path... change only
1 (one) byte at offset 43 (hexa) - offset 67 (decimal)....
The value is "00" -> Disable Norton Monitor
"01" -> Enable Norton Monitor


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A research library of key reports on the sports and physical activity sector from a variety of sources.
Displaying 1 to 1 of 1
The Committee's long inquiry has relied on detailed oral and written evidence, academic research, investigative journalism, and whistle-blowers.
This report highlights the failure of sports bodies in their governance and policing of anti-doping rules.
The sporting bodies the Committee has looked at have...


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Adjustable Rate Mortgage (ARM) Topics Covered
- What is an Adjustable Rate Mortgage?
- Who is an Adjustable Rate Mortgage good for?
- Adjustable Rate Mortgages vs. Fixed Rate Mortgages
- Important Considerations with an Adjustable Rate Mortgage
- Adjustable Rate Mortgage FAQs
If you're planning on getting a mortgage in Denver, there are a few different types to consider. Each one has its advantages and drawbacks, so determining which one will work best in your situation is important. One kind of mortgage to consider is an adjustable rate mortgage (ARM).
You may also hear ARMs referred to as variable-rate mortgages or floating mortgages.
What is an Adjustable Rate Mortgage?
Basically, an ARM is a home loan with an interest rate that adjusts over time based on market conditions. Its initial rate stays the same for a fixed period of time; at the end of the fixed period, the interest rate is changed in accordance with the value of a specified economic indicator, also known as an index.
While there are many indexes used to govern ARMs, the most prevalent types are:
- Treasury Constant Maturities (most common index; used on one-year ARMs and hybrid ARMs)
- Treasury Bills (mostly used for three month and six month ARMs)
- 11th District Cost- of-Funds (used mainly on one month and six month ARMs)
To protect you from large rate increases, most ARMs feature some form of limitations on how much your rate can move from fixed period to fixed period. These limitations are called caps. Although many kinds of cap structures are possible, the most common kinds of caps limit your change at any one time to two percentage points, and a total of six percentage points over the life of the loan. In many cases, these caps also restrict how low your rate can go.
Traditional ARMs have interest rates and monthly payments that adjust at fixed, regular intervals.
Hybrid ARMs feature a fixed interest rate for a period of years — commonly 3, 5, 7 or 10 years — before they turn into a traditional one-year ARM for the remainder of a 30-year term.
Numerical form is also used to represent different types of ARMs. This structure involves two numbers: the first number is how long your fixed-rate period will last and the second number is how often the rate will change every year.
The most common types of ARMS are 5/1, 7/1, and 10/1.
- A 5/1 ARM has a fixed rate of interest for the first 5 years of the loan. After that, the interest rate will adjust once annually over the remaining 25 years.
- A 7/1 ARM has a fixed rate of interest for the first 7 years of the loan. After that, the interest rate will adjust once annually over the remaining 23 years.
- A 10/1 ARM has a fixed rate of interest for the first 10 years of the loan. After that, the interest rate will adjust once annually over the remaining 20 years.
Who is an Adjustable Rate Mortgage good for?
An ARM can be a smart financial choice for Denver home buyers that are planning to pay off the loan in full within a specific amount of time. If you plan to move or sell your house within a few years, you can reap the benefits of a low fixed rate and sell the home before it adjusts.
If mortgage interest rates fall, you could get an even lower monthly payment than you had before. Also, if rates do fall, you'll be able to reap the benefits without having to go through the costs or paperwork of a refinance.
Adjustable Rate Mortgages vs. Fixed Rate Mortgages
There are several key differences between ARMs and standard fixed-rate mortgages.
- Fixed-rate loans are most commonly offered as 15- or 30-year terms or custom-term loans, but ARMs are typically 30-year terms.
- Your starting rate may be lower for an ARM than a fixed-rate mortgage.
- The monthly mortgage payment may be more affordable in the first few years of an ARM.
- The minimum down payment for an ARM is 5%, while the minimum down payment for a fixed-rate mortgage can be as low as 3%, depending on the loan
Important Considerations with an Adjustable Rate Mortgage
- What's the current interest rate environment? It can make more sense to get an ARM when interest rates are on the rise, as long as you plan on moving before your rate adjusts.
- How long are you planning on living in your Denver home? An adjustable rate mortgage is an excellent option for those buying a starter home who plan on moving into a bigger house within the next 5 years.Typically, committing to a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage won't grant you the same flexibility as an adjustable rate mortgage. If interest rates continue to rise as predicted through the new year, then an ARM could make more financial sense than a fixed-rate mortgage for your home loan.
- Do you expect any big life events in the next 5 – 10 years (marriage, children, new job)?
- Do you need time to comfortably afford a bigger monthly payment?
- Is your income unstable or going to be unpredictable in the next few years?
- What adjustable rate mortgage options does your lender offer? Remember, different types of ARMs work better in different circumstances. If you plan on living in your Denver home for less than 10 years, a 5/1 or 7/1 ARM may be a good option for you. But if you plan on living in the home long-term or need extra time to create a firm financial footing, a 10/1 may be a better choice.
Frequently Asked Questions
How often does an adjustable rate mortgage change?
ARM mortgage rates will adjust based on a few factors that are determined when the loan is established. These are: the adjustment period (how frequently the lender can adjust the interest rate on the loan), the periodic cap (the time period between each time the loan will adjust), and the lifetime cap (how much the loan can increase over the life of the loans).
What is a margin?
A margin is the number of percentage points the lender adds to the index rate to calculate the interest rate of an ARM at each adjustment. The margin of an ARM is set in your loan agreement and won't change after closing.
What is a floor?
A floor is the minimum rate for which the interest rate can adjust down.
If my credit score is low, how can I raise it?
Paying your bills on time, reducing your credit balances, and trying to not apply for credit too often are all ways that you can raise your FICO score.
Your mortgage is like a reverse investment. Keep in mind that there's risk involved and make sure you consider all of your options. Like any other investment plan, you should have some idea of how you'll want (or need) your investment to perform over a period of time in order to reach your goals. There are many options, each performing differently, each with different risks and rewards. Just as the right investment for your needs can make you money, choosing the right mortgage for your needs can save you money.
Questions? Contact Curtis Helton Today!


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My Bookmark Lists
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Stoneware, celadon glaze
3 7/8 in. long x 3 1/4 in. high
Whittington Collection of Asian Ceramics
Digital object made available by Western Washington University
Western Washington University
WWU Department of Anthropology
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Image captured with Canon PowerShot SD900, June-August 2008 (JPEG format, resolution 96 dpi), edited using Adobe PhotoShop 7.0. These jpegs were resaved in tiff format in November 2020, prior to upload to WWU's MABEL/Islandora platform.
Gift of Floyd and Carol Whittington. Acquisition date: 1987


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A new report underscores the Fraser River's importance to the Lower Mainland economy and calls for an urgent program of dredging and other flood prevention measures, as well as upgrades to critical infrastructure.
Commissioned by the Richmond Chamber of Commerce, in partnership with other chambers in the region, the study warns the region escaped a very close call in 2007.
"The river came perilously close to overtopping the dikes in the Fraser Valley during the spring freshet," says the report, which is to be released at a conference today in New Westminster organized by the Fraser Basin Council.
It cites estimates that another flood rivaling the record flood of 1894 would cause tens of billions of dollars in damage and catastrophic losses for the 300,000 residents of the floodplain, as well as business and industry.
Unlike the sparsely populated farmland of 120 years ago, there is now $50 billion worth of development on the Fraser's floodplain.
"Failure to deal expeditiously with this problem will leave a large part of the Lower Mainland at risk of enormous damage."
The study comes a few days after new provincial government studies projected major floods will be more frequent and severe as a result of climate change, and warned most dikes in the Fraser Valley are not high enough.
The new research on the influence of climate change and the severe flooding in Calgary and Toronto last year "highlighted the need to act urgently to enhance flood protection along the Lower Fraser," according to the report released by the business groups.
It notes estimates of $9.5 billion in spending needed in Metro Vancouver to adapt to an expected rise in sea level.
"With rising sea levels, there is a growing threat of winter storm surges that already could overtop the very extensive diking system along the tidal part of the river and adjacent coastal reaches."
Facing the challenges posed by the river is made more difficult by the fragmented governance of the region, the report said, noting there are 15 municipal governments, 29 first nations and more than 20 provincial or federal ministries involved in administration of the river.
"It is very important that a renewed, collaborative, multi-level government effort be undertaken to renew protection from floods."
The report echoes concerns raised by Port Metro Vancouver over the loss of industrial land along the river to residential redevelopment projects approved by local cities.
It also calls for ongoing active maintenance dredging of the lower river channels to New Westminster for shipping.
And it describes the replacement of the Massey Tunnel with a bridge as "an urgent priority" in light of its vulnerability to an earthquake and the potential for larger or more heavily laden ships to sail upriver once it's removed.
It also urges replacement of the aging New Westminster rail bridge, which causes significant delays for freight trains and is vulnerable to be being knocked out of service by a ship collision. A two-track train tunnel under the river has been suggested but there are no concrete plans.


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You've done it: found what's soon to become your family's new Anchorage Real Estate home! It's in a great neighborhood…reasonable commute…decent kitchen (size is right; definitely upgradeable). All this and it fits the budget! Congrats! Looks like your housing hunt is over...
YET…before you sign on the dotted line, there should be one last check-off. Factor in all the costs that improving the house to your liking will entail. The cost of home improvements in Anchorage can be light—but since that's not always the case, there are areas where the possible impact on your bottom line can be meaningful. For instance:
Anyone who has had the experience of paying for new fencing—even for just a section in need of replacement—has learned to respect the fencing cost factor. Depending on the type and size (and whether you have a neighbor who's willing to split the cost!), it will be fairly simple to go online to find a generic online calculator that will estimate an all-in price.
Although repairing split or broken concrete can sometimes be as easy pouring new concrete over the old, often the old has to be jackhammered and hauled away before new concrete can be poured. There are different types of concrete to choose, including coloring and texturing. This is one Anchorage Real Estate home improvement that can easily run to several thousand dollars, depending on the size of the renovation.
This one's a sleeper: the home improvement involving a clogged or blocked drain (or any of a variety of other drainage issues). If drainage issues come up in the inspection report, the long-term health of the property calls for prompt remediation. Usually this is a minor expense, but in extreme instances, you could be looking at clogs that must be excavated to be removed, topography changes, installing new drains, re-sloping concrete, or other fixes.
If sick or otherwise damaged trees are on the property, you could be a storm or two away from a dangerous issue. If removing the tree or trees has been advised, it will be best to plan on acting promptly.
Window replacement, when called for, requires an estimate by an Anchorage Real Estate home improvement contractor experienced in the specialty. Depending on how many windows and the type of trim involved, it's a Anchorage Real Estate home improvement project that usually runs in the hundreds of dollars per window. The good news: it also increases the value of the home.
If you're considering a property with old wiring, ungrounded outlets, or other known electrical issues, a certified electrician's estimate is your best bet to foresee the extent that re-wiring could be needed.
Home improvements in town can be immediately gratifying (such as a stunning kitchen remodel!)—or they can be the kind where peace of mind is the principal reward. Either way, after you've found a house that looks like a great find, it's worth the effort to project the cost of improvements you will want to undertake during the first year.
If you're looking to buy this fall, I'm here to help with a full portfolio of quality Anchorage home improvement resources and referrals.


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In Episode 48 we catch up on most of the BC Lions and CFL news of the off-season. The Lions have signed receiver Austin Collie, and have a new coaching staff. Matthew Seymour of the New Westminster Hyacks joins us to talk about signing his NCAA Letter of Intent with Ohio University.
To stay up to date with our podcasts, blogs and other Lions news, follow us on Twitter @BCLionsDen Please leave us a comment on the site and let us know how we're doing. You can also leave us a ranking and a review on iTunes, we would really appreciate it!
You can follow our guest on Twitter: Matthew Seymour: @MattSeymour_85
Listen and Subscribe on iTunes


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Corbin's Curly Maple Masterpiece — .243 Win Prone Rifle
As a visual treat for our Daily Bulletin readers, we went back to our Gun of the Week archives to showcase a very special rifle. This humdinger could be the prettiest prone rifle we've ever seen. Commissioned for Forum member Corbin S., this is one handsome rifle, built with all-premium components and a stunning Curly Maple thumbhole stock with adjustable cheekpiece. The rifle is chambered in .243 Winchester. It features a custom stainless RBRP action Nesika R action, with keycuts in the bottom instead of recoil lug. A Grünig & Elmiger trigger has been specially modified (milled and pinned) to work with the Nesika action. The barrel is a 30″ Broughton 5R Palma-contour tube, and there is another 30″ Broughton 6BR barrel that Corbin uses at shorter ranges. The trigger guard, fore-arm rail, cheek adjuster, and 4-way adjustable butt assembly are all custom metal, designed by Dan Gleason. The stock is cut from exhibition-grade fiddleback maple (from Cecil Fredi Gunstocks in Las Vegas) with a Gaboon Ebony tip wood and butt-plate spacer.
Very Accurate with Fast-Flyin' Berger 105s
Corbin tells us the gun will put five shots into the size of a quarter at 300 yards "when he does his part." Corbin shoots pointed Berger 105gr VLDs and 45.5 grains of H4831SC. That load runs 3180 fps. He can push it faster, but "that's where the node was and where it shoots best", according to Corbin.
Forum member Jim Hardy has seen (and shot against) this beautiful rifle. He reports:
"A casual observer might think that the trigger guard, cheek plate and butt plate hardware are Anschutz — as the stock takes on the Anschutz prone pattern. However, this is ALL custom metal. The G&E trigger breaks like a glass rod and will makes my BR triggers feel inferior at best. I had the pleasure of holding, shouldering, and lusting over this gun at Camp Perry last year, and it is even more impressive in person. The killer is that there is yet ANOTHER one in a beautiful, dark figured walnut owned by Corbin's shooting partner. BTW, both guns will hammer at 1000 yards prone."


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Friday Night Bubbles
NV Domaine Spiropoulos Ode Panos, $15, Athenee Importers of New York.
I don't drink a lot of Greek wine. I saw this bottle while browsing a favorite store and knowing nothing whatsoever about it, the following clues convinced me that it might indeed be a good wine: It's made from organically grown grapes. I have no idea what they do to those grapes in the wine making process. For all I know they could treat their organically grown grapes with all sorts of enzymes and loads of chemicals. But organically grown is a good start. It's
11.5% alcohol, a nice low level, but doesn't necessarily indicate a sweet wine. Also, there is a striking dearth of lizards, ladybugs, kangaroos, or any kind of marsupial on the label.
If you visit the Ode Panos page on the Domaine Spiropoulos website, these are the first sentences you are likely to read:
It is well known that Moschofilero is the best variety to use, in order to produce sparkling wines. ODE PANOS did not refute this believe.
I had much the same experience contemplating those words as I did drinking this sparkling wine - a giggle followed by a bit of confusion.
Located on the Island of Peloponnese, Domaine Spiropoulos has vines in Mantinia and Nemea, the two appellations on the island, totalling 50 hectares. That's a big holding of land. They grow indigenous grapes such as Moschofilero and Agiorgitiko, and also grow Cabernet Franc, Syrah, Sauvignon Blanc, and other varieties - how they can do that successfully without an incredible diversity of soil and many micro-climates is beyond me. Which is why I have suspicions about the actual wine making and doubt that it lives up to the organic standards of the grape cultivation. But that is pure supposition. In fact, let's get back into the positive spirit of things with the following quote, also taken from the website:
We are the first to prove than Organic Cultivation methods, careful vinification and provision of high quality products is a way of living.
So there.
At first I was stunned by the amazing nose of salt water and flowers. So fresh. And there was something else that I've never smelled in wine, something that I cannot name, but something very appealing. Something woody, like Balsa wood maybe? Light bodied and crisp, with a briny citrus palate, and a finish of that same balsa wood (?) sensation. I was thinking it would be beautiful with grilled whole sardines with olive oil and sea salt. Fresh feta cheese and olives. Or grilled calamari. Or any of the local delicacies we sampled years ago in Crete. This is a new set of aromas and flavors in sparkling wine for me, and I wonder if it is unique to the Moschofilero grape.
But things quickly went downhill. I'm sorry to say that after no more than 45 minutes open, this wine fell off the deep end and was dominated by that confusing balsa wood aroma and flavor. I persevered, but BrooklynLady pronounced it undrinkable, and she's probably right. I wish that someone who is better at identifying aroma in wine had been there to taste with us, because Balsa seems too benign. But that's as close as I can get. We agreed that it wasn't corked or cooked or anything like that. Just so unusual, and not all that pleasant. The beginning was so good that I may have to try another bottle, just to see if this one was wrong. If anyone has experience with this wine or this grape, please step in and educate us because I'm lost on the Island of Peloponnese.