Category Archives: Opinion

20-Year Anniversary of China’s Public Massacre

by Editor

Twenty years ago, on June 4, 1989, the Chinese government ordered its military to kill the unarmed peaceful student protesters for democracy gathered in Tiananmen Square in Beijing. The army then shot the students and ran them over with tanks. In its murderous effort to suppress any form of free expression or protest, the Chinese government and its military murdered the people in Tiananmen Square while the entire world watched. China is now preventing any sort of commemoration or discussion of those events or the twenty-year anniversary by almost completely shutting down internet access to any material that could possibly mention the murder of Chinese people in Tiananmen Square.

You can see the police with umbrellas blocking the view of the BBC news cameraman in the embedded video. The entire square is closed to the press on this important day in Chinese history. The government does not want anyone in China to know anything about or understand what happened in 1989.

It is an honor to have a web site banned in China. Candlelight Stories receives a large number of visits from China and is actually used in English classes there. However, Candlelight Stories urges the citizens of China to wake up in the morning and completely overthrow and eliminate their oppressive government. It would be enlightening to see the government officials of China dragged by Chinese citizens into the middle of Tiananmen Square where the world could serve as witness to the end of this horrendous period in Chinese history.  Why any company or country does any business at all with the brutal despots ruling China is a complete and pitiful mystery to any rational thinker.  And people who site see in China would have probably been perfectly comfortable touring concentration camps in 1944.

Now, China, press the red button and ban me.

California Supreme Court Legalizes Bigotry

by Editor

The California Supreme Court has upheld a recent statewide vote that amended the state constitution to define marriage as only between a man and a woman.  This is the same court that only months ago ruled that any ban on gay marriage was a violation of rights.  Their recent ruling, however, focuses on the legality of the vote to amend the constitution to rule out the possibility of same sex marriage.  If it is legal for voters to take away the right for gay people to marry by passing a constitutional amendment, then it would be just as legal for those voters to amend the constitution to say that marriage is only between a white man and a white woman.  That’s what California’s Supreme Court has ruled in all its wisdom.  They have legalized rampant bigotry.

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President Obama Moves Toward Fascist Ideas

by Editor | 1 Comment

Watch liberal MSNBC commentator Rachel Maddow in this video.  Watch the whole thing.  She’s leading us through what may amount to the most terrifying fascist speech ever delivered to the people of the United States.  The sitting president is moving toward setting up a legal structure that will place people in ‘prolonged detention’ BEFORE they have committed any crime or have even been charged with a crime if they are determined to be a possible danger to the United States.  Maddow points out how this is the exact premise of the science fiction film Minority Report which was based upon a Philip K. Dick story.  This is a well-known liberal commentator who says at the end of the video that this Obama speech is ‘one of the most radical proposals for defying the Constitution that we have ever heard made to the American people.’

The American Civil Liberties Union has responded with short statement.

The bottom line is that this president is shocking human rights and civil liberties organizations all over the world with his rapid move toward fascism.  These are largely liberal organizations that once looked upon Mr. Obama as a welcome change from eight years of assaults on civil liberties.  They and many liberal voters in the United States are profoundly disappointed and legitimately horrified at what they are hearing from this president.

So, if you write or say something that makes someone somewhere in the Obama administration decide that you might be some sort of danger in the future, you could be arrested and held in a new separate legal structure that could keep you imprisoned indefinitely – forever.

That is a profoundly un-American and illegal idea.

The Idea of a Muse Might be Sexist

by Editor | 2 Comments

Lee Siegel has written an article in the Wall Street Journal called Where Have All the Muses Gone? Huh.  Well, let’s see if we can make a half-hearted stab at figuring that out.  Where have they all gone?  The first important thing to realize is that muses are female.  Apparently.  I’ve read through Mr. Siegel’s article and find it loaded with male artists who seem to require the subtle services of female muses.  Some of these men are even married to wives who are actual female artists but who function for Mr. Siegel and his article as ‘muses’ for their lucky men.

So it would seem that if you want to find out where all the muses have gone you would simply need to figure out where a woman would go who might be fed up with dragging her artist boyfriend or husband through the jagged ravine of his writer’s block.  I don’t know for sure but my guess is you might find her down at the municipal court house filing divorce papers.

Honestly, reading through Mr. Siegel’s article just makes me laugh.  Why doesn’t he have a single example of a female artist with a muse of her own?  It staggers the imagination to think that the world has not known a single woman artist with a male muse.  And Dante didn’t have a muse for goodness sake.  Beatrice?  Really?  Dante was a nasty little Italian man with a bone to pick with every passerby he ever ran into.  Reading Inferno is like reading through a litany of every petty wrong Dante felt he had to hold onto and seek literary revenge for.  This guy would have driven any kind of self-respecting muse straight into the nuthouse.  If I were Virgil I would have ditched him around the corner on the third level down.

You know who my muse is?  It’s Mick Jagger.

The illustration is Carl Wilhelm Friederich Oesterly’s portrait of Dante and his supposed muse Beatrice Portinari.

Word Bullets are Destabilizing Guatemala’s Government

by Editor | 1 Comment

The Guatemalan Twitter user named Jean Anleu Fernández who was arrested for making a Twitter post that suggested people should remove their money from the Banrural in order to help break the backs of corrupt politicians has been released from jail and placed under house arrest.  In the video above, you can watch as he greets his friends and makes a Twitter post while in handcuffs.  In one of the most fascinating recent examples of the battle for free expression we are watching a normal guy get persecuted by a Western nation for simply posting his thoughts on the internet.  He has been charged with inciting financial panic and attempting to cause a run on the bank.  I actually think his idea for pulling money out of the bank is a very good one and I fully support his idea.  Why not?  If Guatemala is so afraid of a run on its bank, then it either needs a new bank or a new government.  Perhaps both.  I think that, on the basis of what we are seeing in Guatemala, both the bank and the country’s government should be eliminated as quickly as possible.  The barrage of worldwide outrage toward Guatemala’s government via the internet is illustrative of the power of ‘word bullets’ to destabilize and destroy governments.  This is a fearsome power in the hands of ordinary internet users all over the globe.  It is this power that is the great weapon in the hands of all free people.  But it is also the power that will cause a dangerous reaction from governments seeking to eliminate this potent popular weapon.  I think that we are on the brink of the greatest assault on freedom of expression in history and that the assault will come primarily from free Western nations.  We are seeing it already in attempts like U.S. congressional representative Linda Sanchez’s bill to criminalize the posting of opinions on the internet that may offend anyone at all or emotionally injure a potential reader.  There is absolutely no difference between her attempt at legislation to eliminate freedom of speech and the behavior of the Guatemalan government in arresting a man for suggesting that people withdraw their own money from a bank.

Guatemala Imprisons Man for Twitter Suggestion that People Withdraw Their Money From Bank

by Editor

The government of Guatemala has arrested and imprisoned a man named Jean Anleu Fernández who posted on Twitter yesterday the following message: “The first action people should take is to remove cash from Banrural, and break the banks of corrupt people. #escandalogt”

His Twitter message was in response to the suspected involvement of the Guatemalan president in the recent assassination of a prominent lawyer who was investigating government corruption.  What we are seeing here is the new power of words.  Their power to take down a government.  The outrageous action of Guatemala has created a worldwide eruption of blog and Twitter outrage in which Anleu Fernández’ original message is being reproduced countless times.  Boing Boing is doing excellent coverage of this story.

I agree with Mr. Anleu Fernández in his suggestion that people withdraw their money from a bank that people suspect of corruption.  I would withdraw my money if I were in Guatemala.  I also think the people should probably withdraw themselves from Guatemala if at all possible since it is quite obviously moving toward total collapse.  If Guatemala thinks I’m creating panic, then I would suggest that people actually run screaming from the country because panic is exactly what should be happening there.  When police start arresting people for telling other people to pull money out of a bank, then it’s all over.

Candlelight Stories Withdraws Support of President Obama

by Editor | 2 Comments

President Barack Obama, in a stunning assault on freedom of information, has decided to object to the planned release of photographs showing abuse of prisoners in U.S. military custody in Iraq and Afghanistan.  This action by a U.S. president who ran on a platform of openness in government and who promised to change the secretive ways of the Bush administration is unconscionable and supremely disappointing.  The U.S. military, in committing acts of torture, committed crimes for which this country itself has prosecuted other nations’ soldiers.  Any photos showing these criminal acts are the property of the American people and must be released for full viewing of the facts.  The argument that releasing these photos somehow reduces the effectiveness of our troops overseas and endangers them any more than they already are is blatantly ridiculous and stretches credulity.  Soldiers are already in harm’s way because they stand in front of enemy guns.  Releasing photos of criminal acts by the military does not change this danger in the slightest.

It is very apparent that Mr. Obama has not brought much change to the White House and would rather continue certain policies of a criminal Bush administration.  On this basis, Candlelight Stories completely rejects Mr. Obama and his presidency and will no longer support him.  Candlelight Stories is convinced that Mr. Obama is a fairly effective public speaker and not much more.  We look forward to a viable Democratic candidate for the 2012 election who is not Barack Obama.

It is truly unfortunate that this country cannot seem to produce a leader with the capacity to stand up to its own military/industrial apparatus.  It is a very dangerous situation when a nation’s military tells its president not to release photos of criminal acts and that president is actually fearful enough to listen.

Western Publishers in Terror of Offending Someone

by Editor

Extremely interesting post over on the MobyLives blog called Dangerous Books about how the radical Islamic outrage over Salmon Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses has led to a pernicious self-censorship by major publishers in the West.  Iran issued a death sentence for Mr. Rushdie who stayed in hiding for many years.  Publishers and translators associated with Mr. Rushdie around the world were killed.  Kenan Malik, in his new book about the Rushdie episode, says that the publishing industry has been forever changed by fear.  Publishers in the West are no longer willing to publish works that might be considered offensive by some other group, religion, or nation.

My take on all this is simple: Dump these publishers.  Yeah.  Seriously.  Ernest Hemingway was good with a hunting rifle.  Can you imaging that guy cowering in front of some outraged religious nut job from Iran?  No.  He would have shot the imbecile down with a high-caliber metaphorical bullet.  We don’t cower with our books and our thoughts in the West.  We write them and publish them and if you get in our way with your stupid radical religious idiocy, we’ll blow you right down into the ground.  That’s it.  We need a new kind of author.  A new kind of publisher.  Fearless.  Willing to shoot.  I have no respect for an editor or a publishing house that reads a book and says, ‘Well, gee… this will inflame radicals all over the world and could lead to riots and to another bloody death threat.  Let’s not publish this.’

I want to inflame with words.  I want words that are bullets.  The fire of the intellect destroys radical religious infections.

No more Western fear.  You want to riot over my book?  Good.  Go for it.  You want to shoot me because of my book?  Go for it.  I’m firing back and I’m not going to miss.  And I’m going to win.  I’m going to steamroll right over you and your culture and turn you into my private paved road.

That’s my attitude.  Live with it – or don’t.

Freedom of Speech and Thought: Endangered?

by Editor | 1 Comment

As I was browsing around my favorite blogs today, I stumbled across this Washington Times book review of Free Speech: A Very Short Introduction by Nigel Warburton.  Here’s a quote from the review:

Mr. Warburton, a philosophy lecturer at Open University, opens with that famous Voltaire quip, “I despise what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it,” explaining, “Freedom of speech is worth defending vigorously even when you hate what is being spoken.”

I agree completely with Voltaire.  This concept of the freedom to offend people with one’s speech is extremely important.  It is also something that Western culture is losing sight of.  There’s a lot of talk on blogs about ‘hate’ speech.  There are laws against certain kinds of hate speech.  I have always thought that the only legitimate limitation to free speech is that which prevents harm to others.  Emotional harm doesn’t count.  My attitude toward free speech is ‘if you can’t take the hate, get out of the fire.’ I have every right to offend you.  You have the right to offend me.  I have the right to shock and disgust you with my words.  Once you limit my right to do these things with words, you side with people who would eventually strip away all right to speech that disagrees with what they want.

The National Geographic pictured here shows the censorship of its cover by Iran to hide a photograph of a couple embracing.  It does seem that most censorship is performed by people with some sort of religious motivation.  It is most obvious in countries like Iran, but it is also happening here in the U.S. where the more religious people get the more they tend to want to limit freedom of speech or expression in their communities, schools and libraries.
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Apple is a Nightmare of Censorship

by Editor | 2 Comments

andasgamecensorLook at the image to the left.  If that image disturbs you to the point of banning the comic book, you are unintelligent.  No doubt about it.  It disturbs Apple so much that they’ve removed the comic book from their App Store.  Clear censorship.  The comic book is by author Cory Doctorow who has written many fiction and non-fiction books.  Most of his work supports open source creativity and remix culture.  I suspect that there’s more to Apple’s censorship of this work than meets the eye.  Apple hates open source stuff.  They lock down their products like nobody’s business.  They even think it’s illegal for you to make your own applications to load onto your own iPhone or iPod Touch.

Recent events at Apple and Amazon paint a disturbing picture of what is going on with these technology-based companies as they try to handle creative content.  It seems that the more efficiently a company designs and builds technology, the more interested they become in controlling and censoring content.  This is the fundamental core of fascism.  It is a very dangerous idea to give control of publishing and content to these companies.  It must not be allowed to happen.  They do not care one whit about freedom of expression.

What has become very obvious over the past year to any discerning observer is that Apple is a far right-wing conservative organization with truly frightening ideas of what content should be made available on a publishing platform.  Censoring the image of the Ork getting his head chopped off in a comic book is just what I would expect from an Islamic fundamentalist group or a right-wing Christian organization.  If the Taliban opened their own app store, I doubt they would publish an application that features a bikini-clad female chopping Muhammad’s head off.

So here it is –  for all intents and purposes as far as creative expression is concerned: Apple = Taliban.

I think Apple has some very smart engineers and designers working for it, but is burdened with a high-functioning nitwit at its helm: Steve Jobs.  We hear a lot about how smart this fellow is, but he appears to be about as clever as your average car salesman.  Apple needs to dump this guy quickly and figure out how to run itself as a content distributor because Mr. Jobs is not up to the job.

In the 21st Century you don’t run around censoring creative work in the United States of America.  You do that in China, North Korea, Cuba, Syria, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Egypt, Singapore, Burma, etc.

I would suggest Mr. Jobs apply for a job in one of these places.  They would simply love to have him.

Remix: Lawrence Lessig’s Book for Free Download

by Editor | 2 Comments

remix_cover_lSome of the most interesting writing about copyright and remix culture comes from attorney Lawrence Lessig.  His latest book, Remix, is available as a Creative Commons licensed download.  In a world where kids can download everything for free, how do you make commerce thrive and how do you avoid criminalizing an entire generation?  These are the primary questions Lessig asks in this book.  If you make a baby video that happens to have Prince playing on the radio in the background and you upload it to YouTube, have you broken a copyright law?  Prince thinks you have.  But Prince is an idiot with a guitar.  I seriously doubt that the guy can even read.  Lessig is much smarter than Prince.  Read his book with Prince playing on the stereo in your room.  Film yourself.  Then upload to YouTube.  That will make Prince go insane.

I found this book via BoingBoing.

And by the way, you have our permission to film yourself with our audio playing on your stereo in the background.  We’re much smarter than Prince too!

White House Terrorizes New York City

by Editor

The Obama administration has committed what amounts to an act of terrorism.  The president’s Air Force One backup plane was flown low in banking circles around lower Manhattan, trailed by an F16 fighter plane that appeared to most observers to be giving chase.  In an FAA memo released today it became clear that the administration knew the flight could cause panic in New York but threatened the New York City police and the mayor’s office with federal sanctions if they let the secret get out into the public.  The president has since apologized and said that he is furious and had no knowledge of the flight.  But it’s his plane.

I am becoming increasingly concerned that my support of Mr. Obama may have contributed to placing an absolute incompetent in the office of president.  An act like this shockingly callous flyover simply beggars belief.  Having lived in New York City for ten years, I know that if you manage to send thousands of New Yorkers running out of their buildings screaming in terror, you have really done something profoundly frightening.  New Yorkers are a hardy lot and have a real ‘been there seen that’ attitude.  These people were terrified at what was happening in the sky above them.  The windows of their buildings were shaking because the plane came in so low.  It came right at them!  The White House says it was for a ‘photo-op’ so that they could take pictures of their airplane with the Statue of Liberty behind it.  Seriously!  These people are running the United States.

I think that the hero-worship of Mr. Obama needs to end immediately and we need to ascertain just exactly what is going on here.  The NBC video above which shows Obama’s press secretary saying ‘I don’t know’ about the flight is very scary.  Perhaps Mr. Obama will consider parking a yellow rental truck in front of an Oklahoma federal building next week for a ‘photo-op.’  That should help build his reputation there, don’t you think?

By the way, NBC news anchor, Brian Williams is furious too and thinks somebody should pay for what happened.

Amazon Appears to Censor Books Related to Homosexuality

by Editor | 2 Comments

In what appears to be one of the worst cases of literary censorship in modern United States history, Amazon.com has listed a wide range of books as what the company calls ‘adult material.’  It would appear that they have included any title that contains any material related in any way to homosexuality.  By being placed on this ‘adult material list’, the books were essentially stripped away from any search results and made very difficult to find by browsing.

The following is from Amazon:

In consideration of our entire customer base, we exclude “adult” material from appearing in some searches and best seller lists. Since these lists are generated using sales ranks, adult materials must also be excluded from that feature.

Candlelight Stories thinks that this represents one of the single most moronic statements ever delivered to the public by a prominent book seller.

The company has announced that this was due to a ‘technical glitch’ but there are very few bloggers who seem to believe that explanation.  It would seem that plenty of ‘adult material’ was left available and that this effort was focused largely on non-heterosexual material.   This is a terrible thing for a major bookseller to do.  It’s a form of book banning.  It reeks of ultra-conservative fear of ideas or differing lifestyles.   Amazon says it was engaged in an initiative to protect its wide customer base by listing certain books as ‘adult material’ so that they would not appear at the top of search results and possibly offend someone.   The complaints of someone who is offended by a book for adults showing up in a list of search results should not be listened to for even a moment.  It is a very short step from this kind of censorship to a book burning.  This is truly indicative of the danger in primarily relying upon a single online source for books.

It would be advisable to immediately move away from Amazon as a source for books.  This kind of behavior, though given a flimsy explanation by the company, tends to indicate a general direction or pattern of behavior in a company.  Candlelight Stories is looking into fully disengaging from our relationship with Amazon and will not be offering their products through our site.  This blog stands fully opposed to discrimination, censorship or book banning of any kind whatsoever.

Once again, we cannot over-emphasize the importance of moving away from Amazon for book purchases.  This is a very serious problem and the company’s explanation is insultingly false.

Here are links to several of the best book sellers on the internet:

Powells.com
Indiebound.org
Barnes & Noble
Borders

Los Angeles Times Newspaper Died on Thursday

by Editor

On Thursday, April 9, 2009, The Los Angeles Times newspaper placed an advertisement disguised as a column of news on its front page!  A major American newspaper cannot do this.  It is totally unacceptable.  The cheapening of the LA Times over the past year due to financial problems and poor management has gradually gutted the paper.  It’s once high-quality book review section on Sundays is now part of another section and has become a smattering of generalized culture articles.

As soon as I found out about the disguised ad on Thursday I ran to the phone and cancelled my 12-year subscription to the paper.  The woman on the phone asked what my reason was and I told her I was disgusted by the ad placement.  Perhaps someone in the paper’s management will realize that the end has arrived and save us all some trees by shutting down the presses and letting the reporters go work for an internet news organization.

Newspapers are in trouble.  It’s imbeciles like the ones running the LA Times that make a recovery impossible for them.

Rest in peace, Los Angeles Times.