First post: Monday, August 2, 2010
Last post: Sunday, December 16, 2012
Yet another interest of mine is internet archaeology. It started out as simply searching for old and/or rare videos on YouTube and has since evolved into digging up dead Blogger blogs. I'm going to use this series to spotlight these dead blogs. For me to consider a blog dead it must not have any posts within one calendar year and large gaps between posting must not be a regular occurrence.
First up is a blog that has gained a little bit of infamy on the internet lately for allegedly being owned by Adam Lanza, the perpetrator of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.
I had first heard of No Bad Memes on the subreddit r/masskillers in the comments on a different post about Adam Lanza on his recently discovered and since terminated YouTube channel CulturalPhilistine. The comments speculated that No Bad Memes was Lanza and a cursory glance supports this. Not only is the blog filled with longwinded, pseudo-intellectual ramblings about subjects Lanza was known to be obsessed with such as anti-natalism and chimp society but the last two posts made on December 15th and December 16th, 2012 talk about guns and a generic mention of the Sandy Hook shooting (but doesn't mention it by name, only mentioning Connecticut). In addition, any Blogger user knows that posts can be scheduled to publish at a predetermined time meaning it is entirely possible that Lanza scheduled these two posts as a 'parting gift' for society. It would be a mighty large coincidence that a blogger sharing similar views as Lanza would cease posting within days of Lanza killing himself.
However upon closer inspection it appears the blog is not connected to Lanza. For example the blog author, Leaving Society, claims across several posts to be an "IT guy" with "several college degrees". Lanza was a 20-year old jobless, college dropout living with his mother. Perhaps more convincing is that Leaving Society makes several comments well after Lanza's demise. As far as I know it is not possible to schedule comments:
Completed:
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| The three mulberries. I haven't decided which one to keep yet. |
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| The tallest one had its top snipped off by a rabbit. |
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| Olga |
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| Tatiana |
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| Maria |
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| Anastasia |
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| Bonus photo of Tatiana |
"rule by an elite, or oligarchy, is inevitable as an "iron law" within any democratic organization as part of the "tactical and technical necessities" of organization"
The article goes on to state that:
"all complex organizations, regardless of how democratic they are when started, eventually develop into oligarchies"
and
"since no sufficiently large and complex organization can function purely as a direct democracy, power within an organization will always get delegated to individuals within that group, elected or otherwise."
I developed a similar thought to this a few years ago. I came to the conclusion that democracy can not work at a national level, especially in a country as large as the United States, and thus it should not exist beyond the city-level. I guess it goes with the saying the people should care more about local elections than national as they have a more direct effect on their lives.
The article includes the line:
"Michels stated that the official goal of representative democracy of eliminating elite rule was impossible, that representative democracy is a façade legitimizing the rule of a particular elite, and that elite rule, which he refers to as oligarchy, is inevitable."
I had a similar thought that mirrored this, that democracy was little more than a way to get people to consent to oligarchy. The fact that political dynasties can exist in a democracy is proof of this, ranging from the Clinton and Bush families of today all the way back to the Washington and Adams families at America's founding in the 18th century.
A very brief update about some plantings. A while ago I tore up (literally yanked them out of the ground) two mulberry saplings less than a foot tall and transplanted them to a more preferable growing location. Very quickly their leaves turned brown and dried up. I thought I had killed them. Despite that I continued to water them everyday since then and when I went to water them today I noticed that both had small leaf buds sprouting up and down the length of their stems.
To say I'm thrilled is an understatement and because of that I've decided to name one of them Lazarus (I'll have to kill or relocate the other since they are growing six inches from each other).
