Just Blame Fred

Author’s note:

When I wrote this, I was particularly angry and blowing off a lot of steam at what I perceived to be a callous lot of believers, at a particularly sensitive time.  I don’t particularly feel this way most of the time, though I still remain annoyed at the callous self-exalted dogmatic attitudes that I do see in some believers.

So even this is a bit darker than normal — even for me. Don’t take it the wrong way, despite the strong language. But do take it to heart — especially if you are a believer — that some of us are tired of having beliefs we disagree with being constantly pushed in our faces!

I find that, as an Atheist in a Christian country such as the US, I am constantly bombarded by Christian messages, practices, and annoyances. Everything from the “In God We Trust” on every coin and dollar, to the “Do you swear… so help you God” swear-in in the courts.

In court, it is particularly annoying, since I am forced to reveal something of my religious orientation, or lack of the same, when I have to tell the court that I do not swear to “God”.

It’s the Religious Litmus Test that has become pervasive in our society, and it stinks. Especially in a court of law that is supposed to be blind to such things.

Well, I’ve grown up over the years and recognize that all the promises of an “equal” system of government they told us back in civics class is all a wash. You are judged by what Fantasy Sky Daddy you believe in, and you are considered “bad” if you don’t have any such fanciful notions.

Though, things are starting to change a bit. More and more people are declaring themselves as “non-religious” or Atheist around the country. This is a Good Thing.

Now, we must eliminate the institutionalization of the Christian god — and any god for that matter  – from our public offices, our courts, our politics, and everything else that is supposed to be “for the people”. I know. Fat chance of that.

But what I want to talk about here is, how does one, as a non-believer, as an Atheist, live among Christians, many who believe you will go to “hell” if you don’t believe in their brand of religion?

For being a Atheist, I have been called “In League with The Prince of Darkness” and other dark things by some Christians. I really don’t need that type of abuse, so I no longer attempt to associate with them. I am told that I should “tolerate” Christians, but I will NOT tolerate anyone who thinks I am dammed for not believing in their Sky Daddy.  And why should I, really?

Life it too short to waste time with fools.

Another touchy subject is the death of a family member, especially when your own family is Christian. I’ve experienced this twice — my father and my younger brother. Both died within two years of each other.

My Father died first, and at his very Christian funeral, the eulogy presented my father as something other than what I experienced with him growing up. They presented him as though he was some sort of devout saint. That’s now what I remember of him. He was just a man, meant well, but was full of faults. There were issues between him and I that were never resolved; I felt as though I should’ve spent more time with him after I left home.But the real issue is that there was a big chasm between him and I.  And I felt guilty because of it, but it was not my fault really.

My brother died in a horrible truck accident 2 years later, and was burned beyond recognition. It was a closed-casket funeral. There, the same problem, only worse. They presented my brother as though he was the “right-hand of God”, yet he too was just my brother, with good intent but having faults of his own. Him and I disagreed on a lot of things, and actually had a falling out during our father’s funeral, which lead to us not talking to each other for a year. We were just about to begin resolving those issues and started talking to each other when — surprise! — he was dead.

If I didn’t feel bad enough about this, one of my family members DURING MY BROTHER’S FUNERAL, a devout Christian, tried to “convert” me, using my brother’s death.

WHAT THE FUCK!!!!!! GODDAMN ALL YOU CHRISTIANS! YOU COULDN’T WAIT UNTIL I WAS OVER THE GRIEVING PROCESS BEFORE YOU DO SOMETHING SO LOW AS TO USE MY OWN BROTHER’S HORRIBLE DEATH TO “CONVERT” ME? MAY ALL YOU CHRISTIANS BURN IN YOUR OWN SELF-CREATED HELLS.

That’s the way I feel about it, and that’s that. You Christians out there have no tact, no gall; you all think your way is the ONLY WAY, and the rest of us is “hell-bound” in your myopic “holier than thou” eyes. You are the most intolerant, rancorous bunch, and your history finds you out as all the pogroms, the inquisitions, the tortures, the wars, the blood spilt as you throughout all history put down those who disagreed with you.

And damn it, you bloody Christians are still at it. Just yesterday I saw a big nasty billboard that said something like “Jesus — the ONLY way to God”.  That dogma opened up all the raw wounds for me and ruined what would have been  a great day for me.

Not to mention that you Christians want to oppress Gays and Lesbians in our country by constantly fighting their right to marry each other. Miscegenation religious style.  Fuck you all.

The concept of “live and let live” is lost on you. The fact that there are many religions in the world, many beliefs, many cultures and ways of life is also lost on you. What crass arrogance to think that the thousands of religions in the world are all “wrong” because yours is “obviously right.”

FUCK ALL YOU CHRISTIANS OUT THERE!

Now, that’s not to say that all Christians are “created equal”. However, if you call yourself a Christian, you are identifying yourself with the entire baggage that that label carries. Islam is not much better, BTW, but it has yet to become a personal thorn in my side.

Do I have my own thoughts? You betcha. Am I perfect? Not in the least. I do make mistakes. I falter. But you know what? I recognize the right of the Individual to be an Individual, and to determine his own course.  You want to be Christian? Fine. Hindu? No problem with that. Islamic? Whatever floats your boat.

But when you start beating others up about not living your way, not taking on your lifestyles, and not believing in your sky daddies, that’s where I draw the line. You become the oppressor at that point, and as everyone who knows me well, I am vehemently anti-oppression.

Some have called me “anti-government” and ‘anti’ other things, but the real issue is that I am anti-oppression. Any individual, agency, group, association, or government that routinely deals out oppression in any form for any unjustified reason I will stand firmly against.

Don’t like it? Don’t oppress.

I’ve said enough. Back to my so-called life…

You know, against my better judgment, I voted for Obama. Why? Because Palin scared the crap out of me. And yet, I don’t consider our political system as functional with regards to individual rights and concerns. Nonetheless, I did have hope that Obama would be a better choice than McCain, that perhaps Obama might actually represent the seeds for real change.

And now I see that I may have been right — but regret it.

This is a direct quote of Obama taken from the NPR Site:

“Now is the time for a strong international response, and North Korea must know that the path to security and respect will never come through threats and illegal weapons,” Obama said to applause. “All nations must come together to build a stronger, global regime … we must stand shoulder to shoulder to pressure the North Koreans to change course.”

What? Did I hear that right? “Global Regime?” In other words, a One World Government?

WTF? (Even Better: Obama’s New World Order)

Now, many of my more conspiracy-oriented friends had been warning me about this, but I tend to be a reserved skeptic, looking at possibilities, but also looking for evidence.

Well, if I didn’t hear this from the man’s mouth itself, I probably would not have believed it.

And folks, this is how it always begins. It always begins with the “big bogyman”,  and the very next thing you always see is government rushing in with “the solution”, which is almost always to grow more government.

But this is a major enchilada here. If I am reading the words of our new fearless leader correctly, he wants to scare the world into accepting a new “Global Regime” that will then issue dicta to various nations they disagree with, and subsequently may also kick that nation’s butt.

But as we all know, once something of that magnitude becomes established, it will go far beyond that. A One World Government would be a Bad Thing, something extremely anti-freedom. We already saw this with the much-vaunted European Union; now it’s going global?

Now, my friends, it turns out that Obama is not the first to be touting a New World Order. George Bush Senior as well! [See YouTube Video]

WTF!!!!

OK, what’s going on here? Obama sounding like Bush Senior? Did I miss something here? Well, there you have it. Solid Evidence that some thing’s afoot. Call me a conspiracy nut if you like, but from the very lips of both Bush and Obama you hear the same message.

>мебели сливенonline casino net and over and over and over again, I keep hearing Obama being referred to as the “44th President, 1st African-American|Black”, as though that’s going to make all the difference.

Well, I don’t care one rat’s bottom about the so-called “race” — and besides, Obama has mixed heritage anyway, which constantly is ignored. All I care about is how he’s going to do his job. Nothing else bloody matters.

However, Obama has major challenges to face, and I am not at all confident if he will be able to meet them. The great hope many have in him may be too strong, and there may be lots of disappointment to go around before long.

Meanwhile, the entired linked web that is our global economy spirals downwards with no stop in sight. “All the King’s horses and all the King’s men” won’t be able to do much to stop it for reasons I have outlined elsewhere. How very sad.

So in due time Obama may turn out to become the world’s “Great Black Disapointment”.  Kinda sad, really. Sad that the world still focuses on race. Sad that so many don’t see the problems for what they really are. Sad that few can think beyond their own nose. Oh well, what’s a species to do?

Now that the election is over and Obama creamed McCain, time to get on with the real problems that beset us. Obama certainly does have his work cut out for him — “fixing” an ailed and broken system, flawed at the fundamental roots. I kinda liken Obama as a type of ‘Sheradian’ from Bablyon 5 defeating McCain, a type of ‘President Clarke’ from the same show. Actually, President Clarke is more like President Bush, but analogies only go so far.

I am a Libertarian myself, so I look at both the Democrats and Republicans with great disdain. Alas, I saw that McCain and Palin continually beating the war drum, even saber-rattling with Russia. A war with Russia would be very bad for everyone, because for the very reason that when two nuclear powers have a face-off with each attacking each other’s homelands, the loser will be extremely tempted to use the nuclear option, meaning, of course, the end of life as we know it on this planet.

So, scared out of my gourd with McCain and Palin, I got my butt out there and voted for Obama, despite the fact I don’t like his socialist leanings and his support for the very unions that is responsible for chasing manufacturing jobs out of this country, among other things. I don’t like Joe Biden’s support for the very misandrist “Violence Against Women” bill, because it ignores the violence women exact against men, which according to FBI stats, is about equal with violence women exact against men.

But I digress.

What really bothers me is how NPR has been covering this election. At every opportunity, they choose to hit up the election from the race angle, rasing questions about the “Bradley Effect”, which to my knowledge have not been scientifically confirmed, to ignoring half of Obama’s heritage by referring to him as a “Black Man”, by throwing the race question up in the face of nearly all they’ve interviewed and covered and asked opinions of.

What amuses me is that a number of people on their call-in shows asked the very questions I am asking about why NPR chooses to focus on race so much when this election is clearly NOT about race.

NPR’s response? “We have no choice.”

To which I say, hogwash!

We have seen remarkable progress in this country since the Civil Rights movements of the 60’s. We have seen the rise of a new generation that is, for the most part, unbiased on the so-called “race” issue.

The truth of the matter is that the whole “race” issue is of our parent’s and grandparent’s generation. They still live in that world, for the most part, and still think in those terms. Thankfully, though, their influence on the world is diminishing as we move forward to a bold new future.

That’s not to say that there aren’t racists in they younger generations. But it does not compare at all to what existed 50 years ago.

But I ask the question: What exactly is “racism”, anyway? What exactly is “race”? Why would it even matter to begin with?

Firstly, “race” is purely a social construct with no basis in science. This is already widely known. It makes no sense, anyway, because it does not even speak to the culture a person belongs to, but to some silly notions about humanity — notions that were created by the racists in the past to divide people for the purposes of power and control.

The truth of the matter is that there is only one ‘race’ — the human race. What most refer to as ‘racial characteristics’ are merely regional and climatic adaptations our ancestors who branched out from Africa many thousands of years ago underwent. Those who migrated to the northern regions got lighter so their skin could synthesize more of the vitamin D from the reduced sunlight. Those who migrated to the Asian continents were most likely small clans with features differences that were amplified over time to the billions that exist there today.

Genetics show no basis for “race” at all. And many of these so-called “racial characteristics” are poly-genetic in nature, meaning that many different genetic configurations produce the same phenotypic traits. Meaning, of course, nature simply found many avenues to archive the same adaptive benefits.

Well, duh.

Also, from a memetic standpoint, the ‘race’ meme is a thought contagion, meaning that it’s a meme that programs for its own retransmission, much like religion and politics does. But a deep discussion of memetics is beyond the scope of this blog. Feel free to Google the many references on the Internet for your own self-edification.

NPR’s fixation on race does us all a disservice. Personally, I find it condescending, as though “race” can tell you all you need to know about a person. Actually, it tells you nothing beyond the fading social notion and perception of that person — and it would fade far faster if NPR and other media outlets would cease giving it special attention.

Now, I otherwise like NPR, though they are not perfect, and they did knuckle under to Bush’s War Machine during the genesis of the Iraq war. At that time I was so disgusted with NPR that I stopped tuning them in, and have only recently begun picking them up again.

But with their fixation on the ‘race’ question over and beyond what it needs to be, I may indeed tune them out again. I’ll leave it up to them to see reason instead of racism.

Wow, what a whirlwind of news we’ve all heard over the past couple of weeks! Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers, AIG, and who’s next?

All this squabbling over ecomomic growth problems. All this scrambling to “fix” the problems. All the politics being flung around by Obama and McCain over who’s to blame. All the people on “Main Street” staring like deer in the headlights. All the talking heads making crazy pronouncements of impending doom and gloom. All the other financial institutions scrambling to “protect” themselves from being the next major jaw-dropping headline. All the investors, traders, fund manager, market makers on wall-street shooting worthless tokens — whoops, I mean stocks — back and forth to each other in a never-ending zero-sum Ponzi scheme of Ages.

And yet, a true understanding of what’s really going in is so simple even a 5-year-old can grasp it — if you know where to look and how to understand the results.

And so, let me impart this wisdom to you.

The first requirement is that you understand that, dollar for dollar, the stock markets are a zero-sum game. This is a rather tough concept for some to grasp, and I can appreciate that because all the hype you hear about stocks and the related financial instruments tend to hide this plainly obvious fact from you: that every dollar you make on the stock market comes out of someone else’s pocket, and every dollar you loose goes into the pocket of another trader/investor/what have you. That is the definition of “zero-sum”. When you add up all the gains and losses of the entire system, you come up with zero. Get that? Good. Now for my next pearl of wisdom.

If you look at the stock market over time, it indeed looks complicated. A price rises, a price falls. One company rides to success; another goes down in flame. Traders shoot tokens back and forth to each other representing these companies. And when I say “trader”, I mean anyone who dabbles in the exchange of stock tokens on the stock market, directly or indirectly. Long term, day trader, guy in the pit. The distinctions really don’t matter in the long run as you will soon understand.

Now, I will show you something, a simple something. It’s a chart. It’s derivation is not complicated at all, and anyone in the world can pull this same information and understand it, including a 5-year-old. Brace yourselves. Here it comes.

Now, notice that this is the NYSE chart — a calculated average of all stocks traded on the New York Stock Exchange. Notice that this is yearly data going from 1970 to the present (2008). The “candlesticks”, as they are called, show at a glance how the prices shifted for that period. Since this is a yearly chart, a candle represent price movement for the entire year. If the candle is hollow, it means the price ended higher at the end of the year than it began. Red candles mean the price ended lower for that year. The “stick” part of the candlestick represnts the highs and lows of price movements for that year.

Now you are probably thinking, “so what?” Even this chart shows what looks like a general rise in the NYSE, even though that last candlestick looks meanincing (it represents the year to date movenent of this year– 2008). But there’s more to this chart if it hasen’t caught your eye already.

Yes, the bottom part of this chart is where the real story lies. It represents trading volume. The vertical bars are color-coded for the years they represent — a black bar means the candle above ended at a higher price; a red bar means the year ended at a lower price than it began. But that’s not important. The important thing is the trend in volume itself, and it’s relationship to the price movements.

You will note that from 1970 to 2002 the volume has been increasing almost exponentially. Afterwards, you see a leveling off in volume. In fact, this is the first time the volume has been level since 1987. And you will note that the volume now is much higher than it was back in 1987.

And if you haven’t figured it out by now, let me tell you what that 5-year-old can understand once you tell her.

You will recall my quip about zero-sum games earlier. Now, what does the zero-sum game really mean to you as a trader? Come on, think about it! Even a 5-year-old should be able to figure this out!

Ok, if you still didn’t catch on, it means simply this: You, the trader/investor/whatever you are, are a fool for buying a token with no intrinsic value. The only thing you can do with this token, once bought, is to sell it again. And what do you look for when you sell it again, being the fool that you are? Exactly. You need to find a greater fool than yourself to take it off your hands at a higher price than you bought it! That’s right! You only make out if you find a greater fool than yourself.

And so fear sets in if you cannot find a greater fool than yourself and trading is going on below your strike price. Your only options is to go into a “hope and pray” mode and hope greater fools flock back into the market, or to sell it off and take a hit, hopefully advoiding an even nastier hit if you would be so foolish to hold on to this worthless token longer.

Now with that pearl of wisdom, let’s take a look at another chart — NASDAQ.

You see — not suprisingly — the same characteristic volume trend — a near exponential rise until 2001, then a levelling off. You can directly relate the volume to the number of “fools” in the market, and the volume no longer increases exponentially anymore for one simple reason: You have run out of grater fools!!!!!!!!

Is that surprising? I mean, the population on this planet is a finite number, and the stock market has grown far faster than the population can. What that ultimately means is that you MUST run out of greater fools. What happens after that? The prices will shift about chaotically. Confused investors will all scratch their heads wondering why the old tried and true approaches of the past don’t work anymore. Any such foolishness as “being in it for the long term” is to be laughed at, and you can plainly see why if you look at these charts.

During the 20th century, as prosperity spread to more and more of the population, more and more people were drawn into the stock market, either directly as “investors”, or indirectly through 401Ks, mutual funds, IRA accounts, and the like. All their foolish stategies were really predicated on the notion that there will always be greater fools to take the market higher and higher. That there will always be an exponential increase in volume. That the supply of money is infinite. That, in point of fact, the zero-sum game that is the stock market is not really a zero-sum game. That the money is not really coming at the behest of the loss from someone else, that this Ponzi — or pyramid — scheme can continue forever.

The 5-year-old is now laughing at you.

What? I don’t want drugs that could HARM me!!!!!

This was an obvious oversight on this new Walgreens that ’s about to open in my area.

Well, it finally came out that Hans offed his Nina after all. How very sad. And what a tragedy, especially for his kids.

Well, Hans, there is no excuse for what you did, but I can understand why you did it. But no matter. The real problem here is that he was convicted on little to no evidence of Nina  being dead. I actually thought Hans was probably innocent, since I’ve been falsely accused many times myself in the past.

Now, the real problem here is that prosecutors all over the country will now feel empowered to convict on flaky evidence, putting more innocent people in jail than we already have.

Plus, it doesn’t reflect well for us uber-geeks. There is a good danger now that the general public may see us in a different light because of this — except the general public does not seem to be paying attention to the Hans Reiser story.

And perhaps that’s a Good Thing.

NEWS FLASH: Pamela D Kelly has stepped down from her 20-year career of screwing divorcing dads! Good bye and good riddens!

Well, I’ll keep this short.

Pamela D Kelly is a Marital Master (”Judge”, for all intents and purposes) that made a final ruling in my divorce.

Now, it did not matter to her that my ex, Rochelle Spector (her maiden name she has now reverted to) tried to knife me, grabbed my face and covered my eyes on a busy highway with the kids in the car, and other horrible things.

It did not matter that the Guardian ad Litem recommended that my younger daughter be returned to her rightful home, here in New Hampshire (the ex managed to go as far as Florida!).

Pamela D Kelly totally ignored these gaping factors and not only granted custody of my younger kid to my vicious ex, but also ordered that I pay over $3000 a month in child support and alimony! Now, I all about supporting my kids, but there is reasonable and there is unreasonable. There is NO WAY I can pay that amount without selling the house, moving to a seedy neighborhood where the rent is cheap, and eating Raman Noodles for the next 7 years or so.

Pamela D Kelly slammed me for making bad financial decisions back in 2000, when I became a day trader and lost a lot of money on the equities market. Many people lost their shirts during the days of the “dot-com bust”, even in more “traditional” investment practices. My losses could’ve easily been much higher, but that’s besides the point. The real point is is that it would not have made much difference, because I along with bazillions of others in the computer field was not only out of work, but was unable to find anything for years. Many of my friends dropped out of the IT field altogether and took up other professions like nursing. Many others became salesmen at retail stores or burger flippers at some fast food chain — making a fraction of what they made before.

Well, Pamela can enjoy her nice waterfront property while my ex and the daughter she managed to escape with lives well off of $3000 a month from me, where her sister and I scrap for bones.

I love both daughters, of course, but I just don’t get the logic of making one daughter suffer while the other daughter gets everything — along with my killer ex, of course. Perhaps I missed something here.

It is clear that Pamela D Kelly simply does not like me at all, and decided to give me the worst possible ruling ever. There was no balance at all in her ruling. She made me out to be the “bad guy”, when I did nothing but good for my wife and kids and managed to get us through some rather difficult times. Considering that Pamela is married to James Patrick Kelly, a science fiction novelist, you’d think she had better brains than that. Then again, I married Rochelle, and what a waste of 16 years of my life that was, kids notwithstanding. Moreover, Rochelle knows James as they both frequented Readercon in Massachusetts, and Rochelle, by her own admission, has had a couple of drinks with this guy. I am thinking it was purely in the interests of discussing SF and fantasy liteature, but what do I know? Clearly there is something unsavory going on here, and clearly Pamela should have recused herself of this case.

Pamela D Kelly also attacked my “intellectualism”, which it amusing. No time during the hearings did I ever make any references to being “an intellectual”, whatever that means. Though, I was asked by my ex’s lawyer if I considered myself “an intelligent man”. I simply answered “yes” to that, but perhaps I should have said, “no way hose’! I’m the dumbest guy there ever was!” Some tell me she got annoyed with my use of the term, “autodidact”, but who knows for sure? I am proud to be an autodidact, and if Pamela wishes to chop my head off for that, so be it.

And well, she *did* chop my head off. Oh well, next time I’ll be sure to get a lobotomy before going into divorce court — except there is no frelling way I’ll ever reenter that institution ever again.

Was it George Carlin that said — “Marriage is a great Institution, but who wants to live in an institution?” I will be launching a site on that very institution soon. Stay tuned.

Well, that’s justice for you. Men are screwed in divorce court. Perhaps next time I’ll have a sex-change operation before I go before the judge!! Damned penis! Made me lose everything!!! Funny how the ardent feminists out there who always scream for “equality” never scream about the unfair advantages they have in court!!!!

I live in Nashua, New Hampshire, southern border to Massachusetts. I went out late last night and pulled into a parking area of what turned out to be part of the city park — actually Roby Park. I have always gone to this particular area whenever I needed to clear my head and just think.

So, I turned off my car and let the back of my seat back so I could relax and think about things that were on my mind. It was around 12 midnight, very quiet and pleasant. I think I even nodded off to sleep a bit, a short nap. I was alone, bothering no one, being quiet, doing nothing wrong, to the best of my knowledge. After all, I always come to this particular spot to unwind and reflect.

I was awakened from my short nap by bright lights that were coming from behind. Puzzled, I guess those lights were probably the police.

I was right.

A female officer came up to the car, and without explanation, basically said “show me your papers!” — well, “license and registration”. Wow. I asked what was wrong, and at this point I was informed of a city ordinance about parks being closed after a certain time. I stated that I was not aware of any such ordinance, and that there were no signs posted.

Apparently, this did not matter to the cop. I produced my “papers” as she requested, and she went on with a long series of annoying, pointless questions like “what are you doing here”, and the like.

Really, I am not legally bound to answer any questions at all without a lawyer present. And I was annoyed by these Gestapo tactics when I was bothering no one and minding my own business.

She took my “papers” and said she wanted to run a check on them. I remained in the car.

A second squad car pulled up — this time a male Nashua Police Officer — and he went into overdrive with the Gestapo tactics. He ordered me to get out of the car, to go to the back of the car, and to place my hands on the hood of the car. With this, I thought I was under arrest, and so I asked.

The officer indicated that I was not under arrest. I was rather puzzled by this, since he was treating me as though I was. He too was asking alot of pointless questions like “what’s your address” — when my address was clearly printed on the licenses and registration.

I complained about these Gestapo tactics — though I didn’t call it that — and he responded, “We’re just doing our jobs”.

I thought to myself to say, “Perhaps you should consider other career options unless you love being a Gestapo”, but I stop myself short of saying that.

After the background check came back clean, they let me go and ordered me out of the parking area. They waited until I actually turned on my car and drove off.

You know, all they had to do was politely informed me that I was breaking a city ordinance and I would’ve left. But they decided instead to escalate this minor matter, constantly trying to provoke me to have a stronger reaction so that they would have a “reason” to arrest me. But by keeping a calm head, I avoided getting thrown in the slammer.

And what was my great crime? Oh yes, sitting quietly in my car, bothering no one, thinking and trying to relax.

Nashua Police are Gestapo in their approaches, and I will do something — legally — about this when I get the chance. But they say you have to pick your battles carefully. Not everything is worth fighting, they say. Why the city would have an ordinance like this is beyond me. I love hanging out in the woods to relax at night, and I personally see nothing wrong with it. Perhaps I missed something somewhere. Perhaps I missed the point when my Country ‘Tis of Thee went Fascist.

Well, on to bigger fish to fry, but I’m not letting the NPD off the hook for this one.

Every since the Hans / Nina Reiser case began, I had always considered that it is not likely for Hans to be guilty of murdering his wife; that something strange and untoward happened. Since no body was ever found and no solid evidence of foul play ever uncovered, there’s more than sufficient “reasonable doubt” — there is no evidence that Nina is even dead!

But in this story on Wired about Hans Reiser, it is clear to me that Hans tanked his own case. You see, we geeks and nerds are simply peculiar to the general public at large, the mundanes who lead ordinary and unremarkable lives, many of whom have never seen a geek close up.

I find some of the things Hans did a bit strange myself, but not unbelievable. Some of us uber-geeks have been known to sleep in strange places, and I’m no stranger to that. I have slept at the office myself a number of times and in my car once or twice for various reasons. To me, removing a car seat to have more sleeping space seems perfectly reasonable to me if you are into that sort of thing. Myself, for the most part, prefer a nice warm bed to curl up in on most nights, but if I were working flat out on creating cool and novel systems like Hans has done — and have myself — I could see having sleeping quarters nearby so I can wake up the next morning and continue full-tilt at problem solving. Not at all strange in the world of us computer nerds.

But for the mundane folks — including the jury, which is drawn from — these acts seem bizarre. The mundanes simply have no context to relate. To them, a job is usually a chore that they would never dream of sleeping overnight at. They long to punch that clock and make a bee-line for the door to get home or to go hang out at Joe’s Bar with the buddies to drink beer and watch sweaty men kick a ball around on a field of green. Or if a housewife, gab on the phone with a fellow housewife friend about the latest sitcom, soap opera, or what she bought at the supermarket yesterday. To these types, geeks like you and I would seem very strange and weird. We may as well be aliens form a different planet. Time for the torches and pitchforks!

Hans has an attitude — as do I. He, like myself and many of us uber-intelligent geeks are forced to live in the world with these mundanes, and we get frustrated at their silly ways and lack of intelligence. We can’t understand why they can’t think rationally and with an open mind; why they are forever parochial in their approaches and views of the world.

But that’s the way it is, and I have some theories on why they are that way. You will find some of my write-ups on that here on this site — just poke around a bit. But I have learned the hard way that you simply can’t expect the mundanes to be anything more than mundane, and to expect otherwise is to invite trouble.

When you have a jury of 12 mundanes and a mundane judge tasked to decide your guilt or innocence as a geek, you are stuck with a major problem. It turns into a battle of cultures — yours vs. theirs. It can be troubling, scary, and downright perplexing to understand the “logic” of the mundane. But they are not that hard to figure out, really. But you have to use your UNcommonsense. Understand the problem for what it is.

The very first thing to note and take very seriously is the fact that these mundanes have power over you in that context. These mundanes — quite literally — are your Judge, Jury, and Executioner. This myth about having a “jury of your peers” is just that — a myth. If you actually had a jury of 12 geeks, you would be understood and your case would go better. But you don’t have a jury of your peers — a jury who shares the same cultural ties with you, who think the way you do, values the same things you value, or even see the world the same. You have 12 “aliens” that will judge your actions according to their precepts, not yours. According to their cultural biases, not yours. And to your average mundane, anything that is “different”, that is, does not fit into their own cultural framework, is immediately seen as “bad”, “suspicious”, and “wrong”. Yes, I know this country is supposed to be this great “melting pot”, but that too is another myth — at least outside of geekdom!

So, if you were Hans — with weird idiosyncratic ways, but innocent — what would be your best approach? To challenge the mundanes who hold your life in the balance on their cultural intolerances? Or to keep your mouth shut and allow “reasonable doubt” to prevail? To exert justifications for why you are “strange”, or to understand the mundanes for what they are and try to speak to them at their level? Hans’ approach saved his ego, but cost him his life. He would’ve been far better off to not have said anything at all, and to let his lawyer do all the talking.

But he screwed up big time and opened his mouth. He came off as “arrogant” and disrespectful. Really, he was frustrated and I get that. The way the INjustice system works is a joke at best. But then you have to recall who typically runs the justice system — mundanes!

It is a great tragedy what happened to Hans Reiser. I can’t say for sure if he is innocent or guilty, but I find his guilt unlikely given the evidence or lack of the same. There is simply NO evidence that Nina is dead. None at all. She could turn up tomorrow. Maybe she is back in Russia laughing her fool head off. She knew Hans would hang himself if she did everything just right. And from what I understand her kids are also back in Russia. Wow, a perfect one, Nina!