Reason Writers Around Town

Out-of-the-closet Xenaholic Cathy Young raises her sword in salute to the Warrior Princess of nineties syndicated television.

Comments

[smacky]

I don't know about Xena, but that Bruce Campbell as Autolycus....

mmm, mmm, mmm, mmm, mmm!

He can plunder my booty any day.

GodDAMN your server sucks. Fix it right away so that I can continue to clog traffic on reason.com by publicly declaring my affections for Bruce Campbell.

[thoreau]

This seems like an appropriate thread for this comment:

Anybody see Lost last night? Remember those vintage computers in the hatch? Maybe the Reason server is down there.

Hmm, there is a crazy French person on the island...

[thoreau]

This seems like an appropriate thread for this comment:

Anybody see Lost last night? Remember those vintage computers in the hatch? Maybe the Reason server is down there.

Hmm, there is a crazy French person on the island...

[linguist]

smacky,

I second that emotion!

[dead_elvis]

"Xena can't fly!"

"I told you I'm not Xena, I'm Lucy Lawless"

My wife actually met Xe-, uh, Lucy Lawless in an antique shop in Auckland, New Zealand. Got her autograph!

My wife also noticed that the Xena bumpersticker on her car resulted in strangers assuming she was gay.

Buffy doesn't deserve to be mentioned in the same article with Xena. The TV show was such a disappointment after the movie.

[dead_elvis]

"Xena can't fly!"

"I told you I'm not Xena, I'm Lucy Lawless"

My wife actually met Xe-, uh, Lucy Lawless in an antique shop in Auckland, New Zealand. Got her autograph!

My wife also noticed that the Xena bumpersticker on her car resulted in strangers assuming she was gay.

Buffy doesn't deserve to be mentioned in the same article with Xena. The TV show was such a disappointment after the movie.

[The Mad Scientist]

I'm curious about something. Is it just that most of us here all day have computer-type jobs, so the regular H&R posters as well as the the writers tend to be that subset of the population which is just a bit, uh, "geekier" than the average Joe (or Jo)? Or do libertarians in general tend to be geeks? The reason I ask is because subjects like Xena and Firefly and Star Trek and Buffy and video games and role-playing games seem to come up with an amusing regularity here. I'm not dissing anyone for liking those sorts of things, but I'll freely admit that I loathe Star Trek and find very little of interest in the rest of it. Sometimes I feel like the only libertarian who has never bothered to read a book by Asimov or watch the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and that makes me feel like a very small minority within a very small minority. Sniffle. It's kind of lonely in here. Sniffle. I'll understand if I have to turn in my tinfoil hat now.

[Stevo Darkly]

Sometimes I feel like the only libertarian who has never bothered to read a book by Asimov or watch the Lord of the Rings trilogy

Kill the jock! Kill the jock!

[roddy poot]

"But Xena can't fly"
"I told you, I'm not Xena, I'm Lucy Lawless"

Yeah Xena was a pretty cool show, though I always liked Hercules: The Legendary Journeys more, it's a shame Kevin Smith (Ares) died, that guy was a bad dude. I saw Xena as a little too serious, where Hercules was much more lighthearted and fun, that show always makes me smile. Either way, Action Pack ruled, those Hercules movies that they made before the show started.

[dead_elvis]

"Xena can't fly!"

"I told you I'm not Xena, I'm Lucy Lawless"

My wife actually met Xe-, uh, Lucy Lawless in an antique shop in Auckland, New Zealand. Got her autograph!

My wife also noticed that the Xena bumpersticker on her car resulted in strangers assuming she was gay.

Buffy doesn't deserve to be mentioned in the same article with Xena. The TV show was such a disappointment after the movie.

[roddy poot]

Ahaha, dead elvis, you beat me to it, that was the first thing I thought of when I saw xena mentioned, I tried posting my 7:34 post at like 4:30 (really I did!) but the reason servers were not working with me, and yeah autolycus was a bad dude! I bought the second season of Hercules on dvd because of the episode where autolycus and Hercules are in that underground treasure trove and the giant lizard/worm/dragon type thing tries to kill them, while Iolaus is in some kingdom performing ridiculous feats to prove his innocence

[dhex]

according to all of my informal surveying, libertarians are huge dorks. some of them are dorky for comics or star trek or games or sci-fi tv, and some of them are dorky for stats or budget audits or very complicated pornography, but they're all huge dorks.

[dhex]

speaking of which, they should just give up on the blog stuff and switch the entire format over to phpbb. not only could we get avatars and post banners, but they could put in a girlbanned plug so we could fuck with hakylut.

[TheDumbFish]

I agree that for the most part libertarians are dorks. I can't explain why. Also, I include myself as a dork.

Does anyone have a theory? Why do dorks flock to libertarianism?

Also, Xena is hot in that picture. You don't normally see pictures of her that show her sexy torso.

[toodles!]

Yo i think that maybe we libertarians tend to be more on the dorky side is because dorky kids just like to do their shit and be left alone, at least i know i do, and also, i think libertarians do generally tend to be intelligent people (im not saying that people of other political persuasions are not intelligent) but libertarianism is a political philosophy that has really gained a lot of people throuugh the web, i know thats how i realized i was one, and people who look around on the web will tend to be dorkier than, say, the kid who is bench pressing 75 lbs (ahaha bitch!) in his garage

[toodles!]

Yo i think that maybe we libertarians tend to be more on the dorky side is because dorky kids just like to do their shit and be left alone, at least i know i do, and also, i think libertarians do generally tend to be intelligent people (im not saying that people of other political persuasions are not intelligent) but libertarianism is a political philosophy that has really gained a lot of people throuugh the web, i know thats how i realized i was one, and people who look around on the web will tend to be dorkier than, say, the kid who is bench pressing 75 lbs (ahaha bitch!) in his garage

[Ruthless]

How long is the scimitar Cathy raises anyhow?
Let's get personal here.

[Ruthless]

Is she raising a scimitar or a samovar?
Sexist question.

[dead_elvis]

speaking of which, they should just give up on the blog stuff and switch the entire format over to phpbb.

Agreed. I've never seen a regular bulletin board that had these problems.

[dhex]

and we can girlban people! that's the most important part.

[Rich Ard]

Damn. I came to post the first Bruce Campbell comment, and I got beat to the punch.

"It got in my hand, and went bad...so I lopped it off at the wrist."

[Jason Ligon]

You have two selection issues going on here. Libertarians and blog commenters. A confluence of geekiness.

I have this theory that many libertarians are snagged in high school. Ayn Rand speaks profoundly to the geeky high school kid.

No tech job myself. The cool kids think I'm a geek, but most geeks think I'm insufficiently knowledgeable in certain areas to be a real geek. All alone.

All alone ...

[Mark B.]

smacky, what did you think of Kevin Smith as Ares on Xena? I'm a Bruce Campbell fan, too, but KS had a chiseled body, a great bad-boy character to play and a tremendous sense of humor about himself that put poor Bruce in the shade, at least on that show.

I think libertarianism attracts dorks because the "leave me alone!" part of the philosophy attracts off-beat loners with limited social skills (i.e. the geeky high school kids). Another aspect of dorkdom is that we get extremely tired of having other people tell us what we should like, so we gravitate towards entertainments that "right-thinking" people scoff at, such as Xena. Too bad for the right-thinkers - they missed a pretty entertaining and occasionally thought-provoking show.

[Shem]

What means girlban?

[Shem]

Some of us were born this way. Most of my family, as well as many of our friends and neighbors in the area in which I grew up had a leave me the fuck alone streak that lends itself well to libertarianism. And I know we weren't alone, either. The problem is they usually want to be left alone by all the political parties. Having attended more than a few LP events, I have to say I've come around to their line of thinking; why trade the gaggle of morons with unreasonable ideologies whose reactions you can guess at for the morons who are politically untested and who, one suspects, will be just as happy to exercise their inner tinpot dictator once the chance presents itself?

[Rick Barton]

I think that Xena is, or at least was, kinda cute. (folks under 30, read "kinda hot" Yeah, I know they're different) But howbout if we could repackage her as Scholar Princess? Consider the possibilities. Just a thought.

The Mad Scientist,

How does the oft commented on libertarian affinity for Punk rock fit with your characterization? (Hey, I'm listening to the Sex Pistols as I write this! God Save The Queen)

I think that Reason readers, and libertarians in general, tend to be more intelligent, independent, and open-minded. This, I think, explains their disproportionate interest in many things geeky.

[Rick Barton]

The cool kids think I'm a geek, but most geeks think I'm insufficiently knowledgeable in certain areas to be a real geek. All alone.

All alone ...

Shit, now I feel sorry for Jason. He's an interesting guy, into philosophy and a libertarian. So those of you who are in proximity to him, wherever that is, (somewhere in Cal?) go hang with him. (and some say that we libertarians don't have a heart!)

[Mad Scientist]

Rick, I'm a big fan of punk myself. I like the rampant individualism. In fact, it's exactly for that reason that I can't stand Star Trek. What I can't quite wrap my mind around is why many libertarians, who I would expect to share a few common interests with, seem to enjoy things like elves and vampires and magic swords so much, whereas I find those things to be, well, less exciting. I like motorcycles and sailboats, which, now that I think about it, are fairly individualistic things as well. I don't mean to impose my interests on anyone else and lest I'm misunderstood, I'm not saying that I'm disappointed, just surprised. I guess I'm wondering if the libertarians HERE are representative of libertarians in general, or are we just the ones who are geeky enough to hang out and yak about current events?

[Jason Ligon]

Rick,

Just a little mock sincerity there for some existential ha has.

I'm not really ronery ...

[Stevo Darkly]

What means girlban?

I, too, would like to know this. Only about 750 references turned up on Google, so it must not be a very common term. And I couldn't find a definition.

[Rick Barton]

Mad Scientist,

Yeah, there has been at least one article in a libertarian pub., I think that it was Liberty, about the collectivist nature of Star Trek, contrasted with the more libertarian Star Wars.

I'm not into fantasy, although I enjoy sci-fi very much. (Here's the big libertarian sci-fi site: http://www.lfs.org/) A libertarian affinity for fantasy has never come onto my radar. Not to say that there isn't any. I agree that an appreciation of motorcycles and sailboats can reflect a spirit of individualism.

I'm only guessing that libertarians here, statistically, might tend to have more literary and academic interests than libertarians in general, (who certainly have more literary and academic interests than the general pop.).

So, are you really a scientist or just mad?

[Rick Barton]

Jason,

I figured that you were mostly, at least, just kidding. Still the idea of you sitting alone with a copy of An Enquiry concerning Human Understanding, just pining for someone to talk with about it motivated me to issue my appeal. 🙂
(Check your email, maybe someone actually responded)

[Eion]

What means girlban?

Girlbanning is a term used on some web bulletin boards whereby you are banned from posting and editing posts (with some variation on this - girlbanned people may still be able to post but not comment). However, everyone else can (and usually will) edit anything you post or have ever posted. This editing is rarely complimentary to the girlbanned user.

Based on the google results, it's really just an oddwebsite.com thing, I think.

[Mad Scientist]

In my madder moments I believe that all the world is mad except for me.

[Douglas Fletcher]

Rick, I'm a big fan of punk myself. I like the rampant individualism.

I suppose that's why the Ramones all wore the same outfit, it was the rampant individualism.

[Larry A]

Overheard on a pistol range:

"Oh, Mom. You just think you're another Xena."

"Darn right. I put them all in the five ring, didn't I?"

[Tim Cavanaugh]

The reason I ask is because subjects like Xena and Firefly and Star Trek and Buffy and video games and role-playing games seem to come up with an amusing regularity here. I'm not dissing anyone for liking those sorts of things, but I'll freely admit that I loathe Star Trek and find very little of interest in the rest of it. Sometimes I feel like the only libertarian who has never bothered to read a book by Asimov or watch the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and that makes me feel like a very small minority within a very small minority.

This is a vicious stereotype and grossly unfair to the thousands of libertarians who are into zombies.

Rick, I'm a big fan of punk myself. I like the rampant individualism.

I suppose that's why the Ramones all wore the same outfit, it was the rampant individualism.

You said it, bub. Anybody who thinks punk is all about rampant individualism didn't spent much time around the punk and/or hardcore and/or alt.rock scene back in the eighties.

[dhex]

yeah, near as i can tell girlbanning is pretty much a hell.oddwebsite.com board type thing. it's pretty atrocious there to begin with. very funny for a few minutes, though.

[smacky]

girlban

That's sexist! 🙂

Sometimes I feel like the only libertarian who has never bothered to read a book by Asimov or watch the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and that makes me feel like a very small minority within a very small minority. Sniffle. It's kind of lonely in here. Sniffle. I'll understand if I have to turn in my tinfoil hat now.

The Mad Scientist,

I'm sort of in the same boat as you. Not huge into sci-fi (although I do like it as a genre). I only saw the first Lord of the Rings movie, and that was by extreme coercion from a guy I was dating at the time of its theater release. Never had much desire to see the other two. I mean, my logic is: how great can they be, coming from the same guy who directed "Dead Alive"? (The worst movie, ever). Keep telling myself "need to read the books first", but that will probably never happen.

The cool kids think I'm a geek, but most geeks think I'm insufficiently knowledgeable in certain areas to be a real geek. All alone.

All alone ...

Don't feel bad, Jason. I live near you (Ohio), and I'm stupid, too!

(just kidding about the stupid part, but I'm no full fledged geek...or so I seem to think. I'm just not knowledgeable enough to pass my Geek Qualifiers.) I've been in the same weird social category my whole life. Not careless and/or trendy enough to be cool, not geeky enough to have a bunch of nerd friends. Except I really don't give a crap either way. (I fall into the "leave me alone!!" category of what drew me to Libertarianism).

smacky, what did you think of Kevin Smith as Ares on Xena?

To prove my above statements: I've never actually seen an episode of Xena. I'm just a drooling admirer of Bruce Campbell. In fact, I wasn't even aware that he was on the show until I read his autobiography, "If Chins Could Kill" this past Spring. Had I known that he was on Xena , Hercules , or Brisco County, Jr. , I probably would've watched at least one of those shows. Incidentally, though, I don't think I watched even 5 hours of television in highschool (too busy getting high! hee hee).

[smacky]

Full Disclosure: I am, however, fully geeked-out about Tim Burton's Corpse Bride . I'm seeing it tonight. I can't wait! It better be good.

[mediageek]

Does anyone have a theory? Why do dorks flock to libertarianism?

Probably a result of being a social reject in high school.

Oh yeah? You reject me? Well fine then, I'll just go find a philosophy built around the individual, SO THERE!

[Mad Scientist]

I'm sort of in the same boat as you.

Smacky, I actually live on sailboat. If we're in the same one you must be a very very small woman because I haven't seen you. 🙂

Tim, I never said punk was "all about" rampant individualism. I said I liked the rampant individualism in punk. There are plenty of punk bands which I don't care for at all. Just like zombie movies, every punk band is different.

Douglas, there's more to punk than just the outfits worn by one band.

[smacky]

I'm sort of in the same boat as you.

Mad Scientist,

Well, when I said that, I was trying to be polite about telling you that I'm a stowaway, but...

Have you really searched the boat thoroughly?

On that note, could you start buying two-ply TP instead of one-ply? It chafes. Cheap bastage.
And buy more beer when you dock again. I'm thirsty.
And put down the toilet seat, please!

[Shem]

I read his autobiography, "If Chins Could Kill" this past Spring.

You read an actor's autobiography? Wow, you are a geek.

[Mad Scientist]

Smacky, we're having pizza tonight. I'll slide some through the hatch to the bilge for you. I hope you like anchovies.

[poco]

Smacky, Scientist, I hear ya. All that LotR/D&D genre crap makes me think of Elmer Fudd singing, "I will do it with my spear and magic helmet!" (Was Nibelungen considered the nerds' opera, the LotR of operas, a century ago?) It's just too formulaic to take seriously. I AM kind of a Simpsons nerd -- but then again, who isn't? ("Worst. Episode. Ever.")

[Cathy Young]

Well, good to see a few Herc and Xena fans here. 🙂

Goodness. I had no idea Reason was going to feature this piece so prominently.

What can I say. When I come out of the closet (about my hobby, folks, about my hobby... 😉 ) I really come out of the closet. With a bang.

Interesting question about liberatarianism and geekdom. I don't have that many "geeky" hobbies, really. I'm kinda partial to the original Star Trek, and I liked Farscape and, for a while, First Wave; am indifferent to Lord of the Rings, and like sci-fi and fantasy in moderate doses. I actually consider myself a "high culture" type of gal.

I've never really thought of Xena fandom as geeky. Unless of course you're talking about people who dress up in Xena costumes and the like. (For which, even if I were so inclined, I just don't have the figure.) Xena is... one of a kind.

Anyway, thanks for all the comments!