To invoke the hive-mind representing chaos.
Invoking the feeling of chaos.
With out order.
All that you know, all that you are.
He will tear it apart and leave you afar.
He will call on the beast to devour your soul.
He will take the whole world and make it unwhole.
He comes.
He who will sing the end of the earth.
Such a beautiful song.
Such a beautiful night.
He awaits this night.
He awaits darkness.
He is the chaotic hivemind.
He waits for the call to set him free.
He Waits Behind The Wall.
In a palace of tortured glass, served by legions forged from the tears of the sleepless dead and clad in armor carved from the suffering of mothers.
In his right hand he holds a dead star, and in his right hand he holds the Candle Whose Light Is Shadow. His left hand is stained with the blood of Am Dhaegar.
He sings the song that ends the earth. The hivemind that confounds the living, and perpetuates the torture of the damned.
He takes the eyes, the window of the soul, removes the ability to feel…anything but pain. Once the eyes have been removed, the soul is removed.
The living husk is testament to cruelty and everlasting doom. He cannot be stopped, as fear cannot be stopped.
He is inseparable from reality, as he exists beyond the veil…waiting.
ZALGO.
He waits behind the thin wall you have built in your soul to free yourself from him
He waits… but he shall come.
He will sing the song that will end YOU.
He is the one without eyes.
He is the one without shape.
The Nezperdian hive-mind of chaos. Zalgo.
He who Waits Behind The Wall.
ZALGO!
Which means that people can stop asking me who I think is going to be our next Mayor. I told you months ago, Susan Baldwin or Chris Simmons, and more recently, Susan Baldwin with either Diane Thompson or Chris Simmons in the Vice-Mayor’s seat.
Congratulations to Mayor Baldwin on her election as our chief elected official in the City of Battle Creek. Also, congrats to Vice-Mayor Chris Simmons.
In addition to the usual luminaries being mounted on the tall light poles and the lighting that is happening at Mill Race Park, a crew of workers from ChristmasForRent.com is putting up luminaries on the street lights on Michigan Avenue.
Visible in the front seat is Ron.
According to one of the other guys, he’s worn out after a long night of work and is taking a nap prior to the IFOL meeting tonight. He didn’t even wake up when the flash went off.
Not only are members of Field Services putting up the big decorations (aka “luminaries”) on the light poles around the downtown area, but the trees at Mill Race Park are being decorated with strands of holiday lights in preparation for the annual computerized, musical light show, a gift from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.
Can’t wait to see the display when it’s up and running. Which will be soon, the International Festival of Lights begins with the annual Holiday Parade on November 21.
Today marks the end of an era in Battle Creek. Today, Mayor Mark Behnke steps down from the City Commission after 18 years of public service, and from the officer of Mayor after his second two-year term.
Today was also the last episode of Cereal Bowl Chatter, which was filmed at City Hall in the Mayor’s Office, instead of at the AccessVision studio or on the streets of Battle Creek.
Commissioner Andy Yankama was present, serving as the studio audience for the occasion. The future of the show is uncertain, as it will be up to the new Mayor to decide whether they wish to continue the show as the new host or not.
Mark’s career as a television host is assured as he and I will be working on a new show starting in January. I get to be Beavis.
As I’ve dug deeper into Anonymous, particularly their history of protests against the Church of Scientology here in Battle Creek, I found something I consider very alarming when I started drawing parallels.
As a local activist, I have taken part in the organizing of a number of successful protest actions here in Battle Creek, as a member of Crimewatch and the CCAV. These are not exactly the safest events. We march through hostile territory and do things like shutting down drug houses. The residents are not always friendly, and have shouted things at us as we pass. One recent rally included a rather confrontational landlord who owned the drug house we’d shut down for the night.
Although CrimeWatch does work closely with the PD, and our rallies include a police presence at the staging and rally sites, and an escort as we march, the CCAV actions don’t always include a police presence or escort.
Anonymous’ actions do not include a police presence, unless the Scientologists’ call them. And even then there is confusion about the law. Although the wording of the statute is very clear in regards to “Masks and Disguises”, in March of 2008, a protester was arrested for refusing to remove his mask.
I found this greatly ironic as 5 days prior to that arrest, a gang member was permitted to roam around the school buses while they were loading wearing a bandanna covering all but his eyes. He was trying to incite a gang fight, and although reported to PD, he was not confronted or arrested.
There have also been hostile confrontations. Battle Creek is also notorious due to a video depicting the behavior of one of the members of the church who charged across the street and started tearing up the protesters’ signs, asking “What are you going to do about it?” He was followed by a woman who is also involved in the Church. He walked away and then came back again for more.
Not only is the video all over YouTube, it also was the subject of a report on Channel 3 News. He was not arrested.
What if that had been a drug dealer or a slumlord being targeted by a CrimeWatch rally? What if he’d done more than talk belligerently and tear up signs?
Allowing this behavior from one group being protested against towards the group that is doing the protesting sets a dangerous precendent for all other protest actions in Battle Creek. This is a concern of mine right now as CrimeWatch will be rallying in Washington Heights on Friday evening. And there will be people who won’t be happy to see us.
The right to peacefully assemble and protest is guaranteed in the Constitution, as are the rights to freedom of speech, the press, to bear arms, and the practice of religion. It is these rights which make America the “land of the free”. Just because you don’t like being protested against, does not give you the right to abridge the rights of those protesters-regardless of what they protest against.
Anonymous will return and protest, it’s what they do, just as it is what CrimeWatch does. Will Battle Creek continue to be notorious for unmasking them and arresting them and allowing harrassment of them?
I’ve been writing about Anonymous, aka the “Internet Hate Machine”, for well over a year. And what a year it’s been. I’ve seen them do some of the craziest things. Things that have surprised someone who has chronicled Internet culture for 10 years. Anonymous is a phenomenon that could only exist as a result of the Internet.
I’ve watched on the Internet in realtime as they spammed websites with porn and gore, gotten Oprah Winfrey to say “Over 9000″ on her show, defaced facebook profiles with gay porn and memes, spread a rumor about Glenn Beck raping and killing a child, closed the pool at Habbo hotel, and managed to get the founder of one of the popular image forums named Time Magazine’s “World’s Most Influential Person”.
I’ve also watched them plan what are known as “raids” on Scientology facilities, and viewed the resulting videos and photographs of these protests. They gather in varying numbers and do everything from the can-can and the Virginia reel to RickRolling them. The worst raid I’ve seen was just one guy, with a camera person following him. He covered himself in Vaseline, pubic hair and toenail clippings. Then he entered two separate facilities in New York City, doing his best to smear the payload he was carrying all over people and inanimate objects.
Thanks to a recent article in Wired magazine that I wrote about some time back, I now understand how the protests got started and why. And what that original basis has grown into.
However, until yesterday, Anonymous remained a strictly Internet phenomenon to me, a digital abstraction. They were not people, just Anonymous forum postings.
The most distinctive feature of Anonymous is the Guy Fawkes mask, from the movie V for Vendetta. It was used by the main character, who lived in a totalitarian future Britain ruled by a fascist party, to hide his face, which had been disfigured by burns. The climactic ending scene of the movie V for Vendetta shows thousands of Britains marching on Parliament, all wearing Guy Fawkes masks. And then Parliament explodes. Awesome movie, by the way.
Yesterday afternoon, I was looking out the window of the studio, when I saw three people striding briskly by, all wearing those distinctive masks. They were headed in the direction of the Church of Scientology, so I knew that a protest was in the offing. Not surprising as November 5 is one of the High Holy Days in the Anonymous calendar, along with L. Ron Hubbard’s birthday it is a popular date to protest against Scientology.
I couldn’t leave immediately, because someone had come into the studio to kick the tires, so I had to wait. This caused me to miss out on some excitement, including the police showing up and confronting them, and them taking off their masks.
Once I was clear at the studio, I grabbed my cameras, locked up and set off in hot pursuit. And I scared them. They let me know that I alarmed them because I was following them with a camera and they thought I was a Scientologist trying to get pictures of their faces behind the masks. I followed them all around downtown before I finally intercepted them due to knowing the downtown better than they do. I saw the three of them go into the Police Station, where they asked about the law regarding wearing masks. According to what they told me, they’d checked before the protest and found it was legal, yet were threatened with arrest by a member of the Gang Unit if they didn’t remove them immediately. At the police station, they were told that it is illegal to wear masks in public.
(The photos of the masked Anonymous individuals in this blog posting were taken during a photo shoot that I requested, not as part of any protest activities. Regardless of anything else, I discovered the night of the art walk that people wearing masks can be a fascinating subject for photography because although a mask hides, it also reveals because it provides anonymity. And that’s as arty as I”m going to get on the subject.)
It was kind of a raw day yesterday, so once I’d made contact, found out what was going on, and taken some pictures of the guys in their masks, we adjourned to the Griffin for the interview portion.
I understand Anonymous well enough to know that not only do you not photograph their faces, you also don’t offer your name or ask theirs. They are still completely anonymous to me. All I’ll tell you is that our three visitors were from Grand Rapids, and they are males between 18 and 21. At least two of them are college students, and one works in a video game store that carries Battletoads. They reported that they contacted the BCPD before the protest and determined that as long as they weren’t engaging in criminal activity they could wear the masks, but were told at the police station that any form of masks were illegal to wear.
After we parted and they returned to their home town, I did a little research and was able to get my hands on the Michigan Penal Code and Motor Vehicle Handbook. Chapter 57 MASKS AND DISGUISES 750.396, Sec. 396 reads as follows:
“A person who intentionally conceals his identity by wearing a mask or other devide covering his or her face for the purpose of facilitating the commission of a crime is guilty of a misdeameanor punishable by imprisonment for not more than 93 days or a fine of not more than $500.00, or both.”
This indicates that it is legal to wear a Guy Fawkes (or other) mask in public, as long as it is not “for the purpose of facilitating the commission of a crime”.
Although I didn’t have time to make contact with the Church of Scientology last night to find out their side of the story because it was Citizens Police Academy night, I did publish the photos on facebook. As a result, a member of the church made contact with me via email. The upshot was that he wanted me to take the photos down.
He stated that I was probably “naive” and unaware of who Anonymous is, and that I was “unintentionally forwarding a message of hatred” and compared them to the Neo-Nazis who protest in Skokie, IL. I didn’t take the photos down.
According to the church member who contacted me the three protesters entered the Church building while masked and “attempted to disrupt activities.” They were confronted by the police and they left, “knowing they would be charged with a civil rights violation if their revealed their identity or some other charge by the Battle Creek police department if they were linked to the prior bomb threats which are a federal offense.”
I found out in a subsequent email, and from one of the local gossips, that there was a bomb threat about year and a half ago, made on the Internet, against the Church, and when the protestors at that time showed up at the former Hart Hotel, the Federal Center was placed on lockdown. Someone disobeyed the rules and notified the media, but apparently people took these threats very seriously.
This series of events, part of Project Chanology, took place in late January and early February of 2008, and was followed by a series of organized worldwide protests such as Operation: Party Hard (March 17, 2008-2 days after Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard’s birthday), Operation Reconnect (April 12, 2008), Sea Arrgh! (June 14, 2008, protesters dressed as pirates, the word play references Sea Org, which is an elite organization that is part of the Church of Scientology). Although Project Chanology appears to have ended, protests by groups of Anons around the world continue to be organized, with varying degrees of success.
All because the Church of Scientology took down the YouTube video of Tom Cruise talking about the church and his superpowers, and sounding completely barmy. That minor event triggered a chain reaction that has been felt worldwide by the Church, and has clearly been felt even in Battle Creek, Michigan, where there have been a number of protests. Several of them are documented on the following news(?) video, which tallies up the harassing and threatening phone calls (8,139), malicious emails (3.6 million), and hits against church websites (141 million). As well as 10 acts of vandalism, 22 bomb threats, and 8 death threats.
Interestingly, the entry on Wikipedia includes this information regarding the bomb threats, etc. “In a May 8, 2008 appearance on CNN, Church of Scientology spokesman Thomas W. Davis said that Scientology was “dealing with ninety-six death threats, bomb threats, acts of violence, vandalism” from the group Anonymous. CNN’s John Roberts responded, stating that the Federal Bureau of Investigation found nothing connecting Anonymous to the Church of Scientology’s accusations of violence: “You are leveling these accusations at this group, the F.B.I., which is looking into it, says it has found nothing to connect this group Anonymous with what you’re talking about, or death threats against members of the church, the F.B.I. at this point says – it has no reason to believe that charges would be leveled against this group.”
So, was it Anonymous or not? Who knows, because Anonymous (as I’ve learned from carefully observing them over the past year or so) is not a “group”. There is no organization, no hierarchy, no headquarters. It is a collection of individuals who don’t know who any of the other individuals are, yet occasionally do the same thing. Another thing that makes them fascinating to observe. How the Internet’s anonymous communication channels have facilitated organized worldwide activities by a group that is not a group.
What’s really astonishing is that the Scientologists have not quite caught on. As long as they keep freaking out and pushing back and taking them seriously, Anonymous isn’t going to stop. Because Anonymous are trolls, and along as you keep feeding the trolls, they are going to continue trolling. Because they are not doing it out of hate. The three young men I talked with at the Griffin are not angry, other than kind of annoyed at the people who said they’d be there for the protest and didn’t show.
They were polite, well-spoken and intelligent. They enjoy movies and music, and I found them congenial company as the talk moved from protests to general topics to the shooting at Ft. Hood that was on the television sets at the Griffin at the time.
The church member who wrote to me, on the other hand, was absolutely dripping hatred. Which surprised me. I’ve only met him once, but he didn’t seem to be hateful. And don’t get me started on the photos that he posted on facebook that I found offensive.
I had lunch with a couple of police sergeants today, Sgt. Victor Pierce (left) and Sgt. Jeff Case (right). Both of them are friends of mine and instructors for the Citizens Police Academy. As far as I’m concerned, they are two of the best people on Earth. Sgt. Case is a member of the Emergency Response Team (SWAT) and the Gang Unit. Victor, a 30-year veteran, is involved in everything except the Gang Unit and the Bomb Squad.
In addition to being a member of the Emergency Response Team, Victor is also the agency’s videographer, gun instructor, former Officer Friendly, and the commander of the Honor Guard.
He is a great guy, good friend, and a lovable dork.
Victor informed me today that effective the first week of January, he will be the new Chief of Police in Barry Township.
This major metropolitan area includes a portion of Gull Lake, Hickory Corners and Delton. According to the 2000 census, the population of Barry Township is just under 3,500 people.
On August 13, based on the information available to me at that point, I made a set of predictions in the local election, and posted them to my other blog with the intent of revealing them after the election. Let’s see how close I came.
Ward 1: I predicted the winner would be Chris Simmons, and I was right!
Ward 2: I was unable to predict that one, because I didn’t know enough about either candidate. Lynn Ward Gray won the race.
Ward 3: I predicted that Sherry Sofia would take the ward. I was mistaken.
Ward 4: I predicted that Liz Fulton would win over Chuck Asher. I was right.
Ward 5: I predicted that incumbent Andy Yankama would be the winrar. I was right.
At Large: I predicted that 3 winners would be: Ryan Hersha, Susan Baldwin, Diane Thompson. I thought the 4th might be Steve Bessony. I was right on 3 out of the 4.
So, I’m not Karnak the Magnificent, but I didn’t do too badly.
I shouldn’t have to do this. I should not have to explain copyright law, because people and organizations should know better than to assume that photographs they see on the Internet are “public domain”.
According to the US Copyright office, “It is illegal for anyone to violate any of the rights provided by the copyright law to the owner of copyright.”
But since someone mailed out a negative campaign flyer using one of my photographs without contacting me for permission (which I would not have given them) or compensating me, I figured that a brief primer on how those laws work might be a good idea. Before someone else gets themselves into trouble.
From the US copyright office website:
“For works created after January 1, 1978, copyright protection lasts for the life of the author plus an additional 70 years.”
At that time, the work becomes known as “public domain”. Until then, the things I write, photograph or video, are protected under US copyright law.
Period.
According to the US Copyright office, “Copyright protects “original works of authorship” that are fixed in a tangible form of expression. The fixation need not be directly perceptible so long as it may be communicated with the aid of a machine or device.”
Copyright is automatic. It does not require a statement of copyright ownership, it does not require registration, it does not require anything, other than the work be created and fixed in a tangible form of expression.
Once that happens, the work is protected from other people making copies of it. Except under fair use. Fair use is the cause of most copyright litigation.
Under fair use, you can quote copyrighted material, you can use it in a parody, an educational setting, or in a courtroom setting. Parodies cause the most issues, because nobody likes having themselves or their work made fun of.
Bottom line: If you want to use any of the content that you see on my blog, facebook, or YouTube channels, ask for permission. I may allow you to use it at no charge, or it may require compensation-that’s going to be determined on a case by case basis, depending on what you are using the content for.
IF you don’t ask for permission and you use my content, and I catch you at it, you will hear from me. If you’ve done it only online, you will have to remove it. Immediately. If you’ve done it in print, then you will have to compensate me. And if you’ve used that content with intent to harm a friend of mine who is depicted in the content, God help you, it’s time to bring in the lawyers.
