User:Falsetto

Welcome to the userpage of Jackson Andrew, also known as "Falsetto." Jackson has been on Wikipedia since February 1st, 2006. He is an author, lifeguard, web designer and activist in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. He recently graduated from the University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh with a degree in anthropology. He is the guardian of three Labrador retrievers and a cat. He is a native English speaker, but has studied several other languages. He originally created a Wikipedia account in order to correct minor mistakes in grammar and spelling, which are some of his biggest pet peeves.

I Contributed Heavily To:

 * Spiral Dance
 * Electional Astrology
 * Kemetism

Current Personal Wikipedia Projects and Interests

 * Cleaning up the abysmal Electional Astrology article and other articles with insane amounts of bias.
 * Ensuring Wikipedia conventions regarding transgender and transsexual names and pronouns are upheld.
 * Rearranging your prepositions.
 * Removing the capitalization from your non-proper nouns.
 * Going to the WikiProject pages to see what all needs to be done.
 * Getting rid of words like "imparticular" and "nother."

Or, Jackson's Vendetta with "Criticism" and "Controversy" Sections
What is "fair and balanced coverage?" You've probably heard it on Fox News or heard it referenced somewhere else in terms of a debate. You may have heard it in reference to school systems, for example when people claim we must teach creationism alongside evolution to make sure students understand that there is a controversy and can make their own educated opinions about it. The problem with "fair and balanced coverage" is that, if you do provide equal coverage for all points of view, you will be giving credence to viewpoints which are flat out wrong. This confuses people who may not have a background in the subjects about which people are arguing into thinking, for example, that Erich von Däniken is an authority on ancient Egypt or that Barack Obama could secretly be a Nazi because some screaming woman on television said he was. Creating an area for the criticism and half-baked ideas of people who believe these things gives them credence by creating a false sense of controversy, and results in bad scholarship and popular ignorance. The media and popular science channels have always had a problem with this, implying that these things are simply a "difference of opinion" that should be acknowledged, but the reality is that these are not valid, verifiable, or in many cases even possible. Real controversies, where there are legitimate causes of dissent which are backed by peer reviewed and sound research, belong.

Wikipedia Pet Peeves

 * There really is no reason to have a random fact list in an encyclopaedia. If a random fact is useful to the entry, it can be put into the text.
 * While we're at it, there's no reason to have a "criticisms" page, either. Put it in the text.
 * I do not understand why people feel the need to contact me to apologize for having changed an article to which I contributed. This is Wikipedia.  That's what you're supposed to do.
 * There is no excuse to change the pronouns of an entry about a transgender person to those of their biological sex. This goes against Wikipedia's established convention, which is to use the gendered language preferred by the person in question.  If you debate this, debate it on the Manual of Style page, not an entry about a transgender person.
 * Everybody writes with a bias, and it is useless to pretend otherwise. Having strong opinions about an issue does not mean you cannot write about it, only that you need to be aware of that bias and take extra care to verify your facts.
 * Too often people assume "unbiased" means "white, cisgender, straight, Christian male," but that is because they have the privilege of being unaware that those are biases.
 * Do not take this to mean that I think bias is acceptable, because I do not.
 * Unless you are writing in German, not every noun needs capitalization.
 * Not every word needs linking, even if it has a Wikipedia entry.
 * Pictures should be chosen which add to a reader's understanding of a subject, not because the person who posted them has a fetish.
 * Why was there ever a picture of shit on a dinner plate in the human faeces entry? Why?
 * The entry for pubic hair has a photo gallery. Enough said.
 * Copying and pasting entire articles from websites without permission is one of the banes of my existence.

Personal Pages
Notice: These are my personal websites, and I get very political/spiritual/opinionated on them. If you have a problem with that, you best not click on them.
 * Queer Subversion
 * The personal website version.
 * Queer Subversion Blog
 * The blog. Huzzah!
 * Grimoire of the Lunar Warlock
 * Bunch of essays I wrote on various Witchcraft and Neopagan subjects.
 * Twitter: QueerSubversion
 * Watch me tweet! Yay!

Non-Wikipedia Projects

 * After the Mars Exodus
 * Novel I'm writing in which Mars is colonized by a fringe Christian sect. Heavy bisexual content.

Informative

 * What Evolution Is Not
 * Everybody needs to read this before they try making arguments against evolution. Then they need to read the rest of the article.
 * Lilith
 * Interesting article about an interesting figure.
 * Banned Books
 * A list of books banned by governments. In other words, which books you should read.

Entertaining

 * Human faeces
 * This page seems to be undergoing a constant edit war, particularly over whether or not pictures should be included. Seriously, read the talk page.
 * Lame edit wars
 * It makes me happy to know that there are people out there who take stupidity this seriously.
 * Ejaculation
 * The pictures are beautiful.
 * Ham
 * People really like defacing this one, and the talk page is brilliant too.
 * Island of California
 * You may laugh, but remember there are people right now who believe Hawaii is a part of Kenya!

Content Guidelines

 * Manual_of_Style
 * Wikipedia confirms that self-definition is the proper way to refer to people in its pages.
 * Fringe_theories
 * A huge problem in the Neopagan, astrology, New Age and other similar subjects.

Books and Stories I Love

 * Harry Potter
 * Lord of the Flies
 * To Kill a Mockingbird
 * V for Vendetta
 * Watchmen
 * 1984
 * Jennifer Government
 * Maus
 * My Side of the Mountain
 * Fade
 * The Lottery

Books and Stories I Plan to Read

 * Lord of the Rings (Currently Reading)
 * Animal Farm
 * Ulysses
 * The Color Purple
 * Uncle Tom's Cabin
 * Reading Lolita in Tehran
 * Dead Man Walking

Favorite Authors, Poets, and Cartoonists

 * Bill Watterson
 * E. E. Cummings
 * Alan Moore
 * George Orwell
 * Art Spiegelman