And it is Mongolian.

Today seems to be the day on which I give myself some meme time.

This time, fugney infected me with the meme.

Is sex without love a sin?


The questions posits the construct of "sex without love" as a transgressive activity which must meet with the approval of the patriarchy in order to be "confirmed"¹ as trangressive within the arbitrary limits of the acceptable. The physical activity of sex with or without love is carefully, if arbitrarily contextual, limning the essentialist nature of the three letters "S-E-X" as reified masculinity. This is a narrative of subjugation.

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Seen on Cartoon Network: "This programme is sponsored by [some brand name biscuit], [followed by tagline] Silly Rabbit, trix are for kids." Someone has a twisted sense of humour.

Buildingsroman: a novel about a child who grows up to be an architect.

pellonthropy: how a hitman serves humanity

Neuroncide: the mass murder of brain cells caused by over-exposure to stupidity and/or alcohol.

I'm thinking of writing a trilogy about life on an IIM campus. The first volume, A Game of Thrones, will be about two groups linked by strong bonds- the Tharkis and the Tullys, and their struggles with RG(*) wanna-be investment bankers, the Maal-iccha. This supremely ambitious and intensely competitive clan is obssessed with shitting gold. The Maal-icchas also display a positively incestuous desire to stick to their own kind. A Game of Thrones will be about attempts by various parties to occupy the loos till the last possible minute so that others in queue miss the early morning class- thus affecting their grades.

* RG: Relative Grading- has the effect of making human beings behave like live crabs in a over-crowded pot- clawing each other to get to the top.

Indian mission stoned during Islamabad protest.

I think getting stoned is an excellent form of protest.

Sometimes, the unbearable fatuousness of the living amazes me. So The Week has just come out with a massive survey of young people in India. In the section on religious beliefs, one of the questions was "Is God [note capitalisation- judeo-Christian influence alert!] male or female?". 51 per cent say "male", and 28 per cent say "female". I have the following observations to make:

a. This is an incredibly stupid question to ask in a polytheistic culture, in which we have male, female and hermaphrodite gods.

b. It seems reasonable to assume that most of those who responded to the question fall into two classes: i. The vaguely/strongly monotheist. This includes people who might be polytheistic, but have this idea that Someone's Really in Charge of all those gods and demons running/flying around; ii. The reflexive question-answerers.
To the first category, I pose one question: so what do you think God does with his/her dangly/tucked away bits? Does s/he process waste matter? What if the Big Bang was really a Giant Fart? For the reflexive question-answerers, I have one question: why are you such a useless waste of oxygen?

Also in The Week's supplement, a quotation from the Executive Director of Talwalkar's Gym. "Delhiites have good genetics". You twit! Delhiites are not a race! They are merely people living in the city of Delhi. Do you even know what a city is?

There's an interview, in [you guessed it] with HD Kumaraswamy, the new Chief Monster of Karnataka. This is what he has to say: "Ideas like secularism and communalism should not come in the way of development". False dichotomy, Mr. Kumaraswamy, and a dangerous creed.

Edited in response to prashantr's response

I was deeply shocked to read this diatribe against Zinda.

The author of this piece merely displays the self-hating rancour that we've come to expect from pseudo-secularist Communist Bongs. They put sugar in their dahi and listen to Rabindra Sangeet. What would they know about culture and fillums? Their "greatest" film director was actually a well-known author of children's fiction!

Sanjay Gupta was making a point in making Zinda. The East Asians stole an entire religion from us-Buddhism. We are merely reclaiming our culture. Chan-Wook Park is a product of his country's history and culture. And that culture owes everything to India. It is a sign of the greatness of India and Indians that, rather than demanding acknowledgement from the world of its debt, we graciously appropriate the fruits of our cultural children from all over the world and make it our own. Bharat Mata is the proud mother that hangs up the doodlings of her children next to her expensive works of art. We did not whine when those bloody Mohammedans stole our zero and sold it to the goras for oil. Instead, when the goras came up with machines running on zeros [and 1s- also stolen from us by the Mohammedans], we joyfully accepted this gift and used it for the greater glory of Bharat. No longer did we have to shamefully admit that hard-working, much-abused Mallus were pouring millions of dollars into the country for many decades. We could now rejoice in the wealth of desis in suits! But I digress. The point is: did we grudge the gora's use of our zero to enslave and loot the world? Can a mother ever grudge her child's achievements? No, but she can live off the proceeds and grow fat and rich and go on a lot of phoren jaunts-just like our IT professionals. This Gupta-hating Bong, who is apparently working in technology in the US, does not realise that he is doing the same thing that he accuses Gupta of!

Or he would be, if it was true that Gupta copied Oldboy. In making this allegation, this fellow, and many others, are maligning both Chan-Wook Park and Sanjay Gupta. I've met a lot of Koreans, and I can assure you they have the greatest admiration for India and her cultural influence on the world. All you mean-spirited critics don't realise that Chan-Wook Park has realised this. Oldboy was his guru-dakshina to the master- Sanjay Gupta. Many have pondered the meaning of the octopus-eating scene in Oldboy. In fact, this was Chan-Wook Park's respectful suggestion to Sanjay Gupta about what Gupta was supposed to do with his dakshina. The guru was meant to grab hold of Park's movie, suck all the life from it, and spit it out. And this is exactly what he has done. The title, Zinda symbolises this act; Gupta has drained away the vivid pulse of Oldboy.

Indian ads are very strange. There's one about some kind of hair removal cream for women. This chick decides to get married in the next ten minutes, and then barrels down city streets in a sports car while simultaneously removing hair. Not the strongest endorsement of road safety that I've seen.

Then there are two ads for Titan, starring Amir Khan. He's jobless, so he starts a business to do...exactly nothing. But it hires women based on the watch they wear: hires them to do...exactly nothing. The entire purpose of the exercise appears to be so that he can fake an MBA certificate degree. This is morally reprehensible and undermines our educational system. You can complete a legitimate MBA and be a fraud- and a superbly paid one at that.

Fraud, hair removal, reckless driving...all these are symptoms of the irreversible moral decline of our great nation and its ancient culture. I say it is time for us to go back to our roots. Women should stop wearing jeans and start wearing mini-saris; Hindu men should be encouraged to shamelessly display enormous paunches; none of this Christian, western "fitness" nonsense. In fact, this concept of "sports" is a Christian plot to undermine Bharat. We should stop giving coverage to any sportsperson's achievements and focus on their brazen display of legs instead to show people the evils of this threat to our national pride. If we have to have sports, they must be traditional, pure Indian sports like kushti, in which nearly naked young men roll together in the mud.

Bollywood films should not make movies about love, partnership and committment, and should adhere to pure Indian values and dances involving dozens of well oiled and scantily-clad young women gyrating their hips.

Jai Hind!

Some random dude on TV just claimed that his body is his temple. In my experience, temples are smoky and run on charity. You've got to wonder about the lifestyle he's endorsing...

The tam-Hippie says: Make adai, not adi

btw, why does lj have a mood option for "annoyed" but not "annnoying"?

This strategic brief will provide an overview and certain recommendations relating to the direction and future of the use of torture by the United States.

It seems that Senator McCain's anti-torture bill is likely to be ratified. The Bush administration appears to be increasingly isolated on the issue. This isolation reflects a lack of long-term strategic thinking within the White House. The pain industry is being seen, not in economic terms, but in qualitative terms such as "laws" and "human rights". Arguably, such a point of view represents a major departure, on the part of the current administration, from an approach towards human rights that, hitherto, has been firmly grounded in economic considerations. This approach is fundamentally flawed. An elementary analysis of the relevant stakeholders and an application of the concepts of core competence all point to one conclusion: outsource the United States' torture needs to India. Such collaboration would bring long-term benefits to both economies, with the potential for cooperative research and development in a wide range of civil society suppression services. Instinctual decisions based on emotions like "compassion" and "disgust" will only lead to sub-optimal decisions. The argument here is for a rational and analytical approach regarding the use of torture. The ultimate objective should be the development of a reproducible and efficient business model of terror and control based on new market research paradigms.


The Stakeholder model of the pain industry: Analysis and issues

A superficial analysis would include the following stakeholders:

a. The Presidential administration
b. The legislative bodies; that is, the Senate and Congress
c. Law enforcement agencies
d. The media
e. Businesses

As will be shown, this analysis does not extend far enough. Before that, however, certain related, and important, issues will be dealt with.
Peripheral stakeholders include the people of the United States and, of course, the targets of any attempts at pain infliction. It must be noted that, while these are indeed stakeholders, they are so only by proxy. For example, the people can be influenced by sending a clear, strong message of hope about torture through the media; the people’s influence, in turn, is exercised through the legislature. Therefore, the interests of the people can be formulated and catered to, by these two stakeholders.
The subjects of torture are a different issue entirely. The common presumption is that torture is a one-way transaction; that only those who inflict torture benefit in some way from it. In reality, this is far from the case. The effective delivery of pain infliction services relies on anticipating the needs of the ultimate consumer- the individuals undergoing torture and, in a mutually beneficial transaction, catering to those needs. For example, the tortured subject might be deprived of sleep, or possibly his or her fingernails. But these are merely the subject’s wants. What the subject needs is an end to suffering. This need is addressed through a mutual process of negotiation in which the tortured provides a full confession to those inflicting the torture. The importance of this paradigm shift in thinking about torture can be grasped by studying the case of the Sony Walkman. The implications for Sony were huge; this lesson applies equally to the current discussion.

Finally, some might say that the judiciary is also a stakeholder. As the case of John Gilmore demonstrates, this is no longer the case. The judiciary’s relevance to the legal system is reducing. This trend can be expected to continue. In any case, most of the pain industry's activities are extra-legal in nature, and therefore not subject to judicial oversight.

Issues

Clearly, the foregoing analysis does not take into account the challenges posed by globalisation. The issue is the use of torture by the government. The demand for torture is derived from the government strategic mission of control. Seen in this light, international terrorists, with their substitute service offering of chaos, offer a very serious global challenge. The situation is analogous to the challenge posed by low-cost short-haul carriers, such as Ryanair, to ground transport, such as high-speed trains and buses. Like Ryanair, global terrorism presents a manouverable, highly flexible competitor offering a substitute service that is hard to beat because of low fixed costs and capital investment and the outsourcing of all but the core functions to independent vendors. The core functions of murder and intimidation as part of an overall political vision are executed by a cadre of highly motivated personnel.

This suggests the way forward for the US government: to focus on its core competencies and outsource the unpredictable, non-core functions that could be executed at lower cost by more specialised service providers.

The case for outsourcing

Studies indicate that the costs of incarceration and enforcement in the United States are escalating. In addition, the cost of running effective torture chambers, with proper quality and control and lean production techniques, such as just-in-time confessions to coincide with political crises, could potentially be prohibitive. Given the specialised nature of the equipment and personnel required, this cost can quite reasonably be expected to escalate even further. Also, even if the US government contracts the jobs out to private firms, Corporate Social Responsibility codes could erode the brand value of these contractors and raise difficulties in their access to capital. This could, ultimately, have an impact on the quality of the services offered.

Finally, it must be noted that the United States has had a long tradition of outsourcing torture. Therefore, building internal organisational consensus within the administration will not be an issue.

Why India?

India is, of course, the first name that comes to mind when mentioning the word “outsourcing”. There are far more compelling reasons to select India as the pain-dispensing hub of the world.

Market research organisations focused on the torture industry, such as Amnesty International suggest that India’s paramilitary forces have a fine, blemished record of human rights violations. This forms a readily available pool of torturers from which to fulfil US needs. It must be noted that India is also a democracy. Therefore, local talent also has the experience and capabilities in evasion, judicial manipulation and cover-ups that are readily transferable to the democratic experience of the United States. The stigma of associating with unsavoury dictatorial regimes will also thereby be avoided. Torture in a demoncracy is undoubtedly more palatable.

Low-cost, high-quality labour is not the only reason to go to India. Given the many shared enemies and the proximity of Afghanistan and Pakistan, supply chain issues will also be simplified. Note that ample morphic and genetic material is available for experimentation into advanced, markless techniques such as direct nerve induction. The development of such a Pain Through Nerve Induction [PATNI] system could also provide lucrative domestic revenues, replacing the traditional bride-burning industry. The talent to develop these systems are available locally. It would also have the effect of reducing the overall crime level in India, since the crime would not be provable. In addition, firms such as JP Morgan are investing heavily in financial analysts in India, demonstrating that the Murders & Executions industry is thriving.

The challenges, as might be expected, are regulatory. India, unfortunately, has a Constitution promising basic rights to its citizens, and a Human Rights Commission, as well as several obstructionist citizen's agencies. Therefore, it is essential to provide an extra-constitutional area for the industry to expand without restrictions. The recommendations of this investigation are, therefore, as follows:

a. Establish a Special Executions Zone [SEZ] that will be declared law-free. This can be achieved by way of [Indian] Constitutional amendment that will make it illegal to have laws in the SEZ. Bihar appears to be the most attractive investment destination in this regard, since the vestiges of the legal system in that area can be easily excised.
b. In order to rapidly grow the industry, invest in freelance Russian consultants. Given the strong Soviet links to India, finding interpreters to mediate the process will not be an issue.
c. Collaborate with the India government to jointly provide tax breaks and other incentives to the Brutality and Pain Outsourcing [BPO] industry.