Freak Nation

Featured Content

• posted 06/01/2007New Opinion/Editorial Piece
  Atheists “Versus” Believers?
  The atheists, the rationalists, and the Brights are pissed off, and they’re fighting back against the forces of “Intelligent Design”, public prayer, and superstition. But they’re in real danger of going too far, and the freak community itself could easily become fragmented over issues of faith and belief. Skeptics and mystics can easily remain allies, if they realize that the important thing isn’t what you believe, but what you think should happen to people who disagree with you. An editorial by FN Webmaster Kai MacTane.
• posted 05/05/2007New Video Review
  Spider-Man 3
  Sam Raimi and the Spider-Crew couldn't keep up the high level of the first two movies forever, but the third installment is still entertaining and enjoyable. The action, effects, and storyline are all solid, but the emotional interactions that form the core of the Spider-Man mythos are off-kilter, and it shows. A movie review by Aldyth Beltane.
• posted 01/20/2007New Book Review
  Altered Carbon
  In a world where anyone’s memories and personality can be stored, played back, and “re-sleeved” in a new body, death has become **optional** — at least, for those with the money to pay for new bodies. Takeshi Kovacs doesn’t have that much money, but his employer, Laurens Bancroft does — and can afford to hire Kovacs to find out who killed Bancroft. Emily Crow says Richard K. Morgan’s novel brings the cyberpunk genre back to vivid life, instead of copying previous masters.

Freak News

Here’s the most recent news off our “All the News That Interests Freaks” ticker. If you want stuff from further back, check out our full news section.

• posted 06/01/2007Editorial
  Atheists “Versus” Believers?
  The atheists, the rationalists, and the Brights are pissed off, and they’re fighting back against the forces of “Intelligent Design”, public prayer, and superstition. But they’re in real danger of going too far, and the freak community itself could easily become fragmented over issues of faith and belief. Skeptics and mystics can easily remain allies, if they realize that the important thing isn’t what you believe, but what you think should happen to people who disagree with you. An editorial by FN Webmaster Kai MacTane.
• posted 12/14/2006Editorial
  “FUD” Has Become Meaningless
  Once, the term “FUD” actually meant “disinformation used as a competitive weapon.” But legions of open-source partisans and programming-language fanboys have mangled the term out of all recognition, until it’s become a completely meaningless snarl word. It’s time we let this word die a merciful death, and instead use language that actually means something. An editorial by FN Webmaster Kai MacTane.
• posted 09/16/2006Editorial
  What Happened In Montreal
  As a gamer, and a goth, Kimveer Gill may have been a freak. But when he walked into Dawson College three days ago and became “Trench, the Angel of Death”, he was not behaving as a freak. Instead, he was sinking to the level of an animal. Freak Nation Webmaster Kai MacTane opines on Gill’s failure in this editorial — the Freak Nation response to the Montreal tragedy.
• posted 04/24/2006Editorial
  Just Let It Die, Already!
  Paramount has announced, with great fanfare, that it’s selected Armageddon co-writer and now MI-3 director J.J. Abrams to direct Star Trek XI — and that the movie will star younger versions of Kirk and Spock in their days at Starfleet Academy. Freak Nation webmaster Kai MacTane responds: Why don’t they simply shoot the franchise and put it out of our misery? It’s time to let it die, already, and if Paramount won’t do the job, then it’s up to us.
• posted 03/12/2006Editorial
  Making Numbers Lie for Jesus
  Creationists and the Religious Right (and their thinly-disguised allies, the “Intelligent Design supporters”) are trumpeting the results of a recent Zogby poll claiming that Americans “Overwhelmingly Support Teaching Both Sides of Evolution”. But it’s really just sound and fury, covering the emptiness of their position. Kai MacTane points out the bias in the poll questions, and shows why the results really aren’t that horrible.
• posted 02/20/2006Editorial
  The Great Firewall vs. The DMCA
  How can the US Congress criticize tech firms for cooperating with the Chinese government, when the US Department of Justice is sending them subpoenas asking for their help in reviving COPA, a censorship bill that’s already been struck down by the Supreme Court?
• posted 02/15/2006Editorial
  Dressing Up For Freedom
  Recently a noted political figure was removed from the State of the Union address for wearing a t-shirt in the gallery of Congress. But when the civil rights movement protested in Selma, Alabama, they wore suits and ties — even in the heat of the Deep South. Maybe if we dressed better at our modern political events, our messages might get taken more seriously.