Arthur D. Hlavaty

Anthony Burgess's sf novel The Wanting Seed offers a cyclical theory of history. There are two approaches: the Pelagians believe that people are good, so they set up a policy based on trusting people. When that proves disastrous, the Augustinians take over, with the theory that people need Lotsa Rules. Eventually, the rules become so oppressive that the Pelagians return, and the cycle begins.

The approach also applies to trusting those in power. Trust judges to determine criminal sentences, and after a while it is noticed that the rich people and the white people get off easy, so there is an Augustinian outcry for mandatory sentences. After a while, it is noticed that the Rules are trapping relatively harmless people in Draconian sentences.

High schools don't want kids bringing weapons to school. So they have a discretionary policy. Some of those caught are found to have relatively harmless weapons or good excuses, so they are excused. After a while it is noticed that the rich people and the white people get off easy, so there is an Augustinian outcry for Zero Tolerance (which as Bruce Schneier has pointed out, means Zero Discretion). And so on.

Announcing a Zero Tolerance Policy and not following it (as Readercon did) is the worst of both worlds.

sturgeonslawyer informs me that "Rael," by the Who, says that the "red chins" will invade us, rather than "the wretched." I haven't been this disappointed in a song since I learned that "Groovin'" isn't really about a threesome with someone bearing the teasingly epicene name of Leslie. ("You and me endlessly," or so we are told.)

I related it to "the wretched refuse of your teeming shores" in Emma Lazarus's poem about the Statue of Liberty. I used a kinder reference from the same source last year when the fanzine-fan mailing lists I belong to, trufen and fmzfen, were enriched by the closing of the British mailing list Wegenheim. "Oh good!" I thought. "We're gonna get huddled masses."

The Stamford Marriott says that accusing the rape victim who sued them of the "contributory negligence" of trusting them was not their idea, but their insurance company's. I find that credible.

Thanx to Shakesville

The morons who preached hatred for kids who aren't sexually stereotypical enough have cost their radio station lotsa ad money.

Thanx to andrewducker.