Jason: I can't believe it, Dad. You stole Adolf Hitler's Mercedes-Benz.
Randy: Well, Hitler had it comin'. What goes around comes around.
Kimberly: Dad, they're gonna be pissed.
Randy: Eh, they're always pissed, Honey. They're Nazis. It's like it's their job.

Jillian Marie, Brody Smith and Jon Lovitz from "Rat Race"

Hey Everybody!

I hope you're all well, and I hope you're all having a jolly-good September!

I realize it's been a bit since I've updated my journal, and I have been busy with one thing or another.
Firstly, before I get off on another one of my not-so-rare and fun rants, I should give out some overdue birthday "Thank-You's."

In my last entry, about 5 days before my birthday, I all but begged for my friends and watchers to shower me with giftart. Mostly because I'm desperate for attention and have acceptance issues. (just kidding... or maybe I'm not.)
But what's even more surprising than my spasmodic requests, was that some of you actually went to the trouble of fulfilling this one!
So I'm more than obliged to give all those who participated their due thanks here.
Firstly there's perhaps my oldest and most long-standing DA friend Who gifted me with this lovely piece.
Nice, isn't it?
Drawing concupiscent, buxom ladies as only he knows how, he made this rather suggestive and most beguiling piece stand out with a lot of class and awesomeness. And how nice of him to remember that what I wanted most for my birthday was to go bowling with a curvy redhead.
Thank you, old friend.

Next up we have my pal A very sweet, globetrotting young lady who was kind enough to lay this little number. :thumb177302302: My favorite LOTR character never looked quite so stylized or awesome. Thank you, my young friend.

Next, a lovely little number from one of my favorite oddball/surrealist Deviants Who gifted me thusly. :thumb172365538:
It was a very kind gesture, and I thank you greatly.

And of course I would be remiss If I didn't mention the infinitely awesome Rarely have I encountered anyone with such an expansibe and encompassing knowledge of the natural world. And for one so young, that's a particularly impressive feat. She was sweet enough to gift me with this.
Thanks, Anna. You're infinitely awesome.

And, just as an aside, I had to add this by the indomitable While it wasn't a birthday gift and can only loosely, loosely be defined as "Giftart" ... It was just too awesome not to mention. Thanks, my dear.

Well, thank you ALL for deeming me worthy of giftart. All your pieces are awesome, but not nearly as awesome as you, the artists who created it.

Well, now to turn this journal from warm n' fuzzy joy, around in a complete 180º smash turn to the world of the disturbing and the macabre.

I've been on DA for awhile. And in my digital travels, I've seen pixelated faces come and go. Some by their own volition, others forcibly.
When a user gets banned from DA, the results can very greatly.
To be perfectly honest, there are some people I'm happy to see get banished from the hallowed, digital halls of DA. I take rapturous schadenfreude in their exile and dance naked around my room, my genitals flopping wildly about, in celebration.
Of course, when punishments fall on your friends, it's less of a cause for naked dancing.

Perhaps my closest friend who's been the victim of random DA admin aggression is the ever-awesome
Confronted at least twice (in my memory) for the graphicness of his subject matter, Fischer has faced temporary suspension and having his pictures deleted. Being on a Christmas card-exchanging basis with the gentleman, I can assure you all that there isn't a sweeter man out there, and certainly not one who deserves punishment for his subject matter.  
Well, in any case, fully back and more virile than ever, Fischer continues his proud tradition of being kind and helpful to those who follow him, being a shining example of ethics and good behavior, and an all-around stellar photographer of beautiful women.
:thumb137217523:

Unfortunately, not everyone who rouses the admins ire comes out with minimal battle scars to show for their troubles like Fischer.
A lesson my pal knows all too well.

Probably one of the most outspoken of the friends I've made on DA, !Shorthand-Hero was a prominent figure in the DA Atheist community. His pieces and his writings strongly reflected his belief... or, lack of beliefs, and he frequently ran into conflict with other users. Almost exclusively those who found his pieces, took issue with them, and then began engaging in that internet activity that we've all done yet most of us are ashamed to admit to; comment fighting.

Awhile ago, !Shorthand-Hero had a bunch of pieces removed from his gallery. The official explanation? Because they were "Demotivational" posters, and he didn't own the images he had been using to make them.
... Really, DA?
You kowtow to people who complain about content and pull down an anti-theistic Demotivational poster that someone found offensive under the guise of "Copyright Infringement."

But you know what? All right.
I'm sure DA handled the situation fairly.
In fact, I'm sure that the admin who deleted the pieces then went around to every gallery that had Demotivational posters in it and then deleted THEM for copyright infringement too.
In fact, I'm certain that there isn't a single Demotivational poster on DA left that's been made with an image that wasn't owned by it's maker.
No sir, I know with all certainty that there isn't one, single, solitary Demote out there on DA that someone made with an image that they don't own and that they didn't get permission to use.

*HAK* *HAK*

Oh, I'm sorry. I was just choking on sarcasm.

Well, I found out that !Shorthand-Hero was banned and I was pissed.
But, much as I hate to admit it, DA is within it's rights to do what it did.

DA is a business. When you strip everything away, DA is a business, and it needs to operate as best it sees fit to stay in business.
And believe me, I've experienced firsthand the power of whining and bitching from customers.
It's gotten to the point now in this country where you can, on a small scale, really get anything you want if you complain to the right person loud enough, and long enough. This holds true particularly for businesses who will bend over backwards to try and please their customers.

Much as it pisses me off and loathed as I am to admit it, DA is within it's rights to ban people for it's own reasons.
It's not as if DA is a country, a physical, geographic location ruled by fiat, and we are the serfs under our vassal lord's command.
Membership on this site is voluntary, and we're still free to come and go as we please.

As angry as I am at the DA admins for banning one of my friends, I can understand why they did it and that they were within their rights to do so.

BUT!!!
(and you all KNEW there was going to be a "but" coming.)

I find :devShorthand-Hero"'s banishment particularly odd, seeing as how it comes right on the heels of a rather drawn-out series of comment fights he was involved in before he was banished.

This wasn't a group of Christians who took offense with his Atheist message.
It wasn't a group of moderates who worries about his frank, uncompromising language.
Nor indeed was it any of the "Traditional Values" crowd, claiming that the framers of the United States Constitution intended us to be laid out under Christian values (Even though you can find quotes from just about any founding father that go both ways on matters spiritual) and how dare he blaspheme Lady America with his profane invectives.

No, it wasn't any of them.

It was Nazis.

Yes, actual Nazis.

Well, before I go on, I should probably address the precept of "Godwins Law" [link]
Although, in all honesty, I don't know how one can even begin to approach the subject of Nazism without violating Godwins Law.
I don't think it can be done.
Well then, maybe I shouldn't worry about violating Godwins Law... Never stopped Glenn Beck [link]

Well, in any case. It might surprise some of you that there is a Nazi community here on DA.
Well... Yeah, there is.
Keep in mind that this is the internet, and what's great about the internet is that everybody has a voice. Conversely, that's what sucks about the internet too.

Now some of you might not even believe that there is a Nazi community here on DA. Well, I assure you it's true.
How many of you knew that Joseph Goebbels, yes, THE Joseph Goebbels has his own club here?

(hopefully it wasn't many of you.)

Now, I'm going to cover briefly here what I shouldn't even have to state... Ahem...

NAZISM SUCKS!!!

I am not, in any way, writing this journal in endorsement of the Third Reich or what it stood for. I'm doing this to make a point (which will come up in my conclusion.)
Three of my four grandparents served in World War ll with the Allied powers. But perhaps more impacting, on me at least, is knowing that I never would have known one of my best friends from high school, had his grandparents not had the foresight to flee Hitler's Germany while they still could and emigrate to the States.
If you're a historian specializing in Nazi Germany, that's fine.
If you're a pair of consenting adults with a private sexual fetish for Nazi uniforms... That's kind of disturbing, but within your rights.
But I believe, nay, I KNOW that all rational people reject Nazism, utterly and unadulteratedly. As do I.
(For that matter, any flames or disparaging comments left against me and mine will be hidden and ignored, thank you very much. )

So, we have free-thinking, empirical science-embracing, atheist Who finds himself embroiled in cyber-conflict with a group of literal DA Nazis. (ironic that there are those who would have us believe that Atheists and Nazis would be allies.)
The melee continued for a time, the DA Nazis and !Shorthand-Hero went at it, !Shorthand-Hero giving as good as he got. Even others of his allies joined in the cause.
Chimed in with this A rather humorous aside and a reference as to how the new breed of Nazi who thrives in the festering, mildewy corners of the internet will use any double talk or logical fallacy while arguing.

"Debating Nazis is rather like trying to play chess with a pigeon; it knocks the pieces over, craps on the board, and flies back to its flock to claim victory."

-Paraphrased from Scott D. Weitzenhoffer

And on the subject of the logic of this new breed of Nazi, they're ever-so-quick to attack any of their detractors for falling into the group mentality and not exercising free thought, meanwhile they gather together in groups of like-minded people and reenforce their own beliefs in a self-sustaining environment.

Well, another urban myth has evidently been dispelled; Nazis do not appreciate irony.

Well, anyway. There IS a point to all of this! That point being; you really dropped the ball, DA admins.

You ban an outspoken atheist for expressing his thoughts, but you let the Nazi's he was fighting not more than a week before you pulled the plug on his account glide under your radar without so much as a backward glance.
WHAT THE HELL?!

Penn Jillette was absolutely right when he said, and I'm paraphrasing here.

"The first amendment to the United States Constitution was intended to cover ALL speech, from the most heinous Neo-Nazi slander to the blather of idiotic tree-huggers."

But Deviant Art is not the United States. The Admins DO have the right to act as censors and ban those who have willingly volunteered to use the sight.

But after seeing the above-described example, I have to SERIOUSLY question the judgment and thought processes of the authority figures who have the power to keep the venom of Nazism off their site, but choose not to, and choose to instead punish the atheist who stood in clear opposition to them.

It's your move now, DA.

What are you going to do?  

Well, I'm tired and i should get some sleep.

And I can think of no more elegant a way to close out this little tirade with the closing speech from the 1940 film, written by, directed by and starring Charlie Chaplin;
"The Great Dictator."

[link]

"I'm sorry, but I don't want to be an emperor. That's not my business. I don't want to rule or conquer anyone. I should like to help everyone if possible - Jew, Gentile - black man - white.

We all want to help one another. Human beings are like that. We want to live by each other's happiness - not by each other's misery. We don't want to hate and despise one another. In this world there's room for everyone and the good earth is rich and can provide for everyone.

The way of life can be free and beautiful, but we have lost the way. Greed has poisoned men's souls - has barricaded the world with hate - has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed. We have developed speed, but we have shut ourselves in. Machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge has made us cynical; our cleverness, hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery we need humanity. More than cleverness, we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost.

The aeroplane and the radio have brought us closer together. The very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness in man - cries for universal brotherhood - for the unity of us all. Even now my voice is reaching millions throughout the world - millions of despairing men, women, and little children - victims of a system that makes men torture and imprison innocent people. To those who can hear me, I say: 'Do not despair.' The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed - the bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress. The hate of men will pass, and dictators die, and the power they took from the people will return to the people. And so long as men die, liberty will never perish.

Soldiers! Don't give yourselves to brutes - men who despise you and enslave you - who regiment your lives - tell you what to do - what to think and what to feel! Who drill you - diet you - treat you like cattle, use you as cannon fodder. Don't give yourselves to these unnatural men - machine men with machine minds and machine hearts! You are not machines! You are not cattle! You are men! You have the love of humanity in your hearts. You don't hate, only the unloved hate - the unloved and the unnatural!

Soldiers! Don't fight for slavery! Fight for liberty! In the seventeenth chapter of St Luke, it is written the kingdom of God is within man not one man nor a group of men, but in all men! In you! You, the people, have the power - the power to create machines. The power to create happiness! You, the people, have the power to make this life free and beautiful - to make this life a wonderful adventure. Then in the name of democracy - let us use that power - let us all unite. Let us fight for a new world - a decent world that will give men a chance to work - that will give youth a future and old age a security.

By the promise of these things, brutes have risen to power. But they lie! They do not fulfil that promise. They never will! Dictators free themselves but they enslave the people. Now let us fight to fulfil that promise! Let us fight to free the world - to do away with national barriers - to do away with greed, with hate and intolerance. Let us fight for a world of reason - a world where science and progress will lead to all men's happiness. Soldiers, in the name of democracy, let us unite!

Hannah, can you hear me? Wherever you are, look up Hannah. The clouds are lifting! The sun is breaking through! We are coming out of the darkness into the light. We are coming into a new world - a kindlier world, where men will rise above their hate, their greed and their brutality. Look up, Hannah! The soul of man has been given wings and at last he is beginning to fly. He is flying into the rainbow - into the light of hope, into the future, the glorious future that belongs to you, to me, and to all of us. Look up, Hannah... look up!"