Eccentric Videos

The Watchtower: How To Force People You Don't Like to be "Sinners"

2012-02-19T09:27:00.001-05:00

Smoking PSA

2012-02-15T15:04:00.000-05:00

Smoking is bad for the body; PSAs are bad for the mind.

The Artist

2012-02-13T16:10:00.002-05:00

The Woman in Black

2012-02-11T18:06:00.003-05:00

She's behind you. She's behind you. She's behind you. Oh, look. She's behind you.

The Collab Project is Back

2012-02-06T22:16:00.008-05:00

Also, the sexy is back. Because I brought it back. In my sweat shirt.

Moral Panic! Episode Seven: Jailbait Popstars and Pop Culture

2012-02-04T01:13:00.003-05:00

The Wilson Effect

2012-02-01T04:13:00.007-05:00

If you knew me as a kid, you probably know that I was a big fan of the show Home Improvement as a kid, and I loved Wilson. While my name The Town Eccentric has nothing to do with Home Improvement (there's actually a really nerdy story behind that, but that's another blog entry for another day), he certainly influenced my affection for eccentric characters. If you've seen the show, you know the character: a father figure to Tim, Wilson gives advice to Tim's generally petty problems through the use of quotations from famous philosophers and writers, and references to rituals of other cultures. The advice was generally helpful- but his statements are frequently inaccurate and the quotes are frequently taken out of the original context.

The writers of Home Improvement relied heavily on the fact that most of the viewers where not familiar with the source of the information Wilson was giving. Essentially, they were using the audiences likely ignorance to fairly difficult and obscure philosophical references to mislead the audience into thinking that they meant something that they didn't. However, Home Improvement was just a harmless sitcom, and the inaccuracies were, therefore, also harmless. However, in the case of a someone actually trying to present information in a serious context, this sort of dishonesty is not so benevolent.

If you watch the videos that I script, you will probably notice that most of them have a list of sources. They're not in MLA format, which they probably should be, but they are listed as I use them. Why do I do this? Well, I do this because I don't feel like getting sued for plagiarism. But why should this matter to you?

There's a handful of reasons. I make a lot of pretty strong statements in my videos, and it is important that people who do this are able to actually back them up. I do a lot of research, and I think it is very important for you to know that I'm not just pulling information out of my ass. More importantly, however, if I make a statement that you find to be suspect, it is important for you to be able to check my sources. And then let me know, because if I ever make a statement that I agree to be misleading, I will clarify it. I am an honest person, and after a month of suffering through Michael Pearl's essays, I have been confirmed in my feeling that I'd rather be honest than FLIPPING INSANE!

As I mentioned in my Child Abuse For Sale videos, Michael Pearl has a nasty habit of misrepresenting studies to suggest that his form of corporal punishment is backed up by psychologists- which it is not. Why does he get away with this? Well, for a few reasons. For one, I suspect that Diana Baumrind and Elizabeth Owens don't actually know that that the Pearls are misquoting them. The other reason is that most readers don't check the sources that writers provide; they simply assume that because a writer cites a source, the information in that source must back up the statement the writer made. I am very familiar with this form of manipulation; it is quite popular amongst college freshmen who aren't bright enough to know that their professor probably read the article they are citing as part of his or her job.

It's easier to check some sources than others. If I quote one of Michael Pearl's article from the No Greater Joy website, it's easy enough to Google the title of the article. However, if you don't know how to do it, checking an academic source can seem difficult, because if you Google them, the results tend to be a bunch of websites that want you to pay. However, it's not usually necessary to pay for an article- I never have. Do you frequent the library? Well, ask your librarian to help you find the right database and use it. Even public libraries usually subscribe to several databases. If you're a college student, it's even easier, because your college there's a good chance your college subscribes to JStor as well as many other databases, and if so, you can sign up using your student email address and search it from home. Even if you are still unable to get on these databases, with some time using the search engines, you can most likely find the information you're looking for.

Is this always worth the hassle? Probably not. I'm in love with research, as you can probably tell, which is why I do it. But when it comes to something as serious as child abuse, this research is essential.

Child Abuse for Sale: The Pearls Part Two

2012-01-24T02:06:00.002-05:00

Child Abuse For Sale: The Pearls Part One

2012-01-20T23:00:00.000-05:00

Shelley Segal's album An Atheist Album is on sale on iTunes. I would suggest it regardless of your personal beliefs, because the music is awesome.

"He's not a 'real' Christian"

2012-01-20T05:11:00.007-05:00

Ever notice that whenever a Christian does something repugnant, many other Christians insist that he's not a "real" Christian? Bill O'Reilly did it- to the point that he (surprise surprise) attacked the left for calling the scumbag responsible for the massacre in Norway a Christian. Even though he was a practicing Christian.

Christians seem to have the exclusive benefit of denying anyone they don't like of being Christians. No one else gets to do that, really. If someone were to claim that Bin Laden wasn't a real Muslim, he would be laughed off into obscurity (and people have been, and are). Why, then, is it okay for Christians to do so? I refuse to allow them to have exclusive rights to this privilege. So, from now on, I want to make some things very clear:

Richard Dawkins is not a real atheist. Why? Because he's academically dishonest and real atheists aren't. Clearly. All real atheists are completely honest about everything they ever say and are in perfect agreement with each other at all times. Just ask Thunderf00t.

Paris Hilton is not a real... person. Why? Because she's obnoxious.

Snooki is not a real Italian American- wait, that's actually true.

Eric Rudolph is not really white.

Hitler was not a real sugar eater.

There, I have reclaimed denial in the name of the rest of the world. Go ahead. Deny that people you don't like are who they are. It's much easier than acknowledging that there are bad people of all kinds, and one bad person being part of a group doesn't inherently make the entire group bad. Unless it's a group of bad people. Oh, you know what I mean.

The Five Stages of Dickens

2011-12-12T05:40:00.009-05:00

Most readers in the Western world will, over the course of the literary endeavors, find themselves with a book by Charles Dickens in their hands. Many readers find that their love affair with literature, in fact, began with Charles Dickens.

However, if you are an English student, or, at least, someone that has enough interest in the written word to have been exposed to a great deal of literature, you are likely to find yourself going through the following five stages. If you are currently going through this process, do not worry, for once you understand this, the transition from stage to stage will be easier and less stressful.

1. Love: Oh, how he can weave a verbose tale with interesting, anti-Semitic characters and adorable little children who manage to be both incredibly precocious and dumb as a sack of shit.

2. Hatred: Dickens was a total hack! Writers like James Joyce didn't NEED to get paid practically by the page to write excessively long books.

3. Anger: Why on Earth is this 19th century hack so well loved when there are so many better authors to read? Damn the ignorant masses and their ignorant Charles Dickens fandom! Ha! They might as well be reading Twilight fan fiction. ("Ditch the bimbo and do me!" Jacob said. And Edward replied, "rip off your shirt, you beast.")

4. Denial: I never liked that dirtbag. No siree.

5. Acceptance: He's really not bad at all; any writer who can be so witty in a story about an abused orphan deserves some respect. People will always read his books, and they can do a lot worse.

Top Five Most Overplayed- and Annoying- Christmas Songs

2011-12-11T23:42:00.002-05:00

69 Youtube Subscribers

2011-11-29T01:08:00.002-05:00

Alvin

2011-11-28T07:59:00.004-05:00

Why I talk about child abuse, despite not having kids

2011-11-14T16:31:00.003-05:00

Um, because people need to stop beating their kids?

Child Abuse For Sale- Episode One: Red Zone

2011-11-03T23:13:00.000-04:00

Funny Halloween Stories

2011-10-31T14:02:00.001-04:00

Train Tracks

2011-10-30T20:14:00.001-04:00

Good People and Silly Statements

2011-10-28T11:55:00.004-04:00

PS. We rescued this sweet guinea piggy from a lab.

The Obligatory "I'm Still Alive" Blog (with musical accompaniment!)

2011-10-19T03:15:00.005-04:00

Funny: Bush is the exact kind of Nirvana clone band that I normally detest, but I always loved this song.

Yes, it's me. The grave I am not in, nor have I been in prison, although that would probably make for a cooler excuse for my recent absenteeism than the one I have. You are more than welcome to spread the rumor that I was put in prison for beating Michael Pearl to death with pvc water supply hose. Let us just keep it between us that my recent absenteeism has a lot more to do with school, work, and my neglect of my physical and mental needs turning against me once again (translation: When am I going to learn to stay in BED when I'm sick?). Truth is, I'm not the kind of person who takes on too much; I just can't sit still. I could have a fever of a 104 degrees and be hallucinating pink elephants on ceiling, and I still wouldn't be able to sit still. It kind of makes me a pain in the ass to play D&D with.

I'm still planning on doing a little Halloween themed poetry, though I'll probably just make one video of it. The video I make ON Halloween, however, is going to be something different. I'm not being vague here; I legitimately do not know. I was originally going to make a Moral Panic! on candy tampering, but doing research for it was kind of difficult because the information is not very consistent. That's probably because most of the articles I could find on it rely heavily on a Snopes article that contradicts itself several times. There were a couple of decent sources, but again, they tend to contradict each other.

I can say officially that the number of known incidents of candy tampering is somewhere between some and none. There haven't been many, certainly not enough for there be any real concern of it happening to someone you know. By "some," I mean maybe a handful of times since the 1950s. Most of the stories were fabricated or exaggerated. However, I guess I also think that being cautious of unwrapped food people give you is pretty sound advice. I remember one Halloween in elementary school when a couple of classmates of mine got food poisoning because their neighbor unintentionally gave out Halloween cookies with expired ingredients. Speaking of food, it's time to switch songs.

So, in other words, I scrapped the candy tampering thing pretty quickly because I couldn't get enough material.

The Child Abuse For Sale project has the opposite problem. There is a lot of information out there. The more I dig, the more I find. It's incredibly disturbing. Yes, I know that there are still a lot of people that support corporal punishment, but there are levels of corporal punishment. The severity of the punishment methods some of these groups support is frightening. And spare me the "fringe group" argument. Focus on the Family is not a fringe group.

Unsurprisingly, Michael and Debi Pearl are probably the must (horrifyingly) interesting child abuse "activists" I've really researched so far. Of course, the Pearls have written volumes on the subject. They are both clever writers, Michael Pearl possessing the ability to present the horrific things he does to children as a miraculous miracle cure to childhood heresy, and Debi Pearl attempting to recruit men and women into her bizarre cultish view of family and marriage in a way that seems an awful lot like that time they tried to assimilate me into the Borg.

But, of course, their excuse is that it is "holy." And SPEAKING of holy, it's time to switch songs.

That's about it for tonight (this morning?). Enjoy JCS and have fun, kids.

Child Abuse for Sale: The Prologue

2011-10-04T01:39:00.001-04:00

Grade School Literary Masterpiece

2011-09-20T00:55:00.002-04:00

The Town Eccentric Does History: The Reformation

2011-09-12T01:08:00.003-04:00

9/11

2011-09-11T02:43:00.003-04:00

Ten years ago, to this day, I sat in tenth grade Biology, of all things, listening to my vile, nasty teacher rambling on about something I didn’t care about. After all, it was one of the first few days of class, and all she was doing was repeating things we learned years ago. Inaccurate things we learned years ago.

As I was sitting, trying to fain interest in the utter bullshit that is high school “science,” another teacher rushed in and told us that a plane had crashed into one of the Twin Towers.

My first thought when I heard that was “why would someone be flying a plane that low in New York City?” That sounds stupid now, but that’s what a lot of my peers thought when we heard about it, as well. We were in second grade when the first attempt on the Twin Towers happened, and in forth grade for the Oklahoma city bombing. These events were a distint memory from years where most of us didn’t pay much attention to current events. To us, terrorism was something that happened in Israel, and sometimes Northern Ireland. I just assumed it was some kind of freakish accident. It wasn’t until the principal got on the loud speaker and announced that the other building had been hit that I realized it was intentional.

That day was kind of strange for me. I saw teachers cry, students terrified, and people lining up by the pay phone to call family and find out if anyone they know was in the building. Because in New York, 9/11 was never just an idea. It was very, very real.

As time went by, I saw how angry politicians and commentators were getting. Ann Coulter calling for Muslim leaders to be converted at gunpoint, arguing that that was how war worked- yeah, Ann, hundreds of years ago, that’s how war worked. People were screaming for blood. The Muslims, the Muslims are the enemy. People were a peculiar, frightening kind of angry, and they thought you strange if you didn’t feel the same. But I wasn’t ready to get that kind of angry; I was still mourning.

I live an hour and a half north of New York City. For a lot of people, that’s their commute to work, living where they could afford to own a house for the family. Everyone I know has either has a loved one who died, or knows someone who had a loved one who died. Yet, here we were, helpless. That was just the reality of living where I live.

One girl I knew lost her uncle. I don’t know what floor he was on. He wasn’t an executive or anything; he was another working guy who just wanted to do his job, get his paycheck, and take care of his family. He died. He died because he went to work. Because that’s what it seemed like. It didn’t feel like an attack on America. It felt a bunch of people where sentenced to death because they went to work that day. So this girl, the one who lost her uncle? Her family was Muslim. Just saying.

I guess I should have known how abused this incident was going to be by pundits and politicians and people who had something to gain from it, but I didn’t. I didn’t expect the site of what destroyed so many people to become a morbid tourist attraction. I didn’t expect the term “9/11” to become a fun political catchphrase, and I certainly didn’t expect it to become a justification for ridiculous things. I should have, but I didn’t. I didn’t expect it to become something that people couldn’t take seriously anymore because of all the bullshit. Maybe I was naïve, or perhaps just hoping very hard.

Boy, were there those who taught me wrong. What bothered me the most were the ones who were there, and could comprehend what we where going through, and used it as a code to manipulate voters, anyway. Fuck you, Rudy.

So ten years have gone by, and every year around this time, it feels like various political schmucks are taking that wound, that wound that should be healed by now, and ripping the skin off of it. For many people, 9/11 hurts, and not because of terrorists. It hurts because it directly affected so many people’s lives, and for people to continue to try to use it for political gain just seems completely despicable. So I ask you to remember that 9/11 isn’t an idea. For many, it is the memorial of losing people they care about. Time has passed. Let the dead rest.

And if that can happen, it would be a 9/11 miracle.

PS. And if you are a 9/11 truther, please feel encouraged to go suck on an exhaust pipe.

To Card or Not to Card

2011-09-10T23:54:00.000-04:00