Monthly Archives: April 2015

Lightning Round – 2015/04/29

Observations of the over-educated AC man: the HVAC man, the mystic, and the gamer.
Related: Some snippets of wisdom for millennials.
Related: Let God sort it out.

DS asks what is masculinity?

Some thoughts on marriage.

Jack Donovan reviews Professor in the Cage.

Homosexuality destroys male bonds.

SoBL’s weekly NRx reads.

NRx’s stock/flow problem.

The sanity of the king.
Related: On power and divine right: Aemon is the greatest villain in GoT.
Related: What of a Bush-Clinton monarchy?

Revolution.
Related: Charles Murray’s anti-big government idea.

The cultural differences between Europe and America. Part 2.

The left owns the universities; manning up is pointless.
Related: Critical thinking on campus.

The neoreactionary inquisition.

The cleansing instinct.

The middle is disappearing, you’ll have to pick a team.
Related: Black riots as proxies for cowardly leftists.
Related: Tales from the United Way and Head Start.
Related: Baltimore falling apart.
Related: Free speech space to burn.

On difference.

NBS is done with Anissimov. Related.

Some alt-right events.

The media’s lies on Russian economics.

Child support is debt slavery and debtors prisons are an essential public policy tool.

If Adelson bought Maxim.
Related: Sweden’s pop-culture influence due to cultural conservatives.

Breed to win.

The state’s triumph over religion.

Kicking puppies.
Related: Eric Flint, a socialist author I enjoy, on the Hugos.
Related: Vox responds to Scalzi on Sad Puppies.
Related: The death of SF parts 1 & 2.
Related: An anti-puppy caught falsely reviewing.
Related: SJW’s, like Mary Robinette Kowal, always lie.

Vox Day on the Pakman show.
Related: The cowardice of talking of, not to.
Related: A clarification.

A TRP success story.

Benevolent sexism.

Man falsely accused of rape suing university. Related.

The real gender bias in hiring.

Roosh goes on Dr. Oz. Goes exactly as one would expect.

Idaho town forcing Christians to perform gay marriages.

Public schools getting your child young.
Related: 3-year-olds told to sign contract on sexual orientation.

Company stands up to SJW attacks, makes cash.

The liberal bubble in Silicon valley.

Stephen Jay Gould performing SJW science.

The usefulness of the lottery as a social experiment.

Enlisting in the military is mostly genetic.

Why people are skeptical of redistribution.

Petitions for “nonhuman” right for animals.

On cop cams.

High IQ outsiders.

Jewish humour is only for Jews.

How much is the US worth?

H/T: SDA, CC, File770, Pollack, Wright

Public Waste

Walpole talks of “a man and his price.”
List to a ditty queer —
The sale of a Deputy-Acting-Vice-
Resident-Engineer,
Bought like a bullock, hoof and hide,
By the Little Tin Gods on the Mountain Side.

By the Laws of the Family Circle ’tis written in letters of brass
That only a Colonel from Chatham can manage the Railways of State,
Because of the gold on his breeks, and the subjects wherein he must pass;
Because in all matters that deal not with Railways his knowledge is great.

Now Exeter Battleby Tring had laboured from boyhood to eld
On the Lines of the East and the West, and eke of the North and South;
Many Lines had he built and surveyed — important the posts which he held;
And the Lords of the Iron Horse were dumb when he opened his mouth.

Black as the raven his garb, and his heresies jettier still —
Hinting that Railways required lifetimes of study and knowledge —
Never clanked sword by his side — Vauban he knew not nor drill —
Nor was his name on the list of the men who had passed through the “College.”

Wherefore the Little Tin Gods harried their little tin souls,
Seeing he came not from Chatham, jingled no spurs at his heels,
Knowing that, nevertheless, was he first on the Government rolls
For the billet of “Railway Instructor to Little Tin Gods on Wheels.”

Letters not seldom they wrote him, “having the honour to state,”
It would be better for all men if he were laid on the shelf.
Much would accrue to his bank-book, an he consented to wait
Until the Little Tin Gods built him a berth for himself,

“Special, well paid, and exempt from the Law of the Fifty and Five,
Even to Ninety and Nine” — these were the terms of the pact:
Thus did the Little Tin Gods (lon may Their Highnesses thrive!)
Silence his mouth with rupees, keeping their Circle intact;

Appointing a Colonel from Chatham who managed the Bhamo State Line
(The wich was on mile and one furlong — a guaranteed twenty-inch gauge),
So Exeter Battleby Tring consented his claims to resign,
And died, on four thousand a month, in the ninetieth year of his age!

– Kipling

What Is and What Should Be

During the ongoing Rabid Puppies fun (join now), Vox’s many critics have taken to falsely accusing him of approving of the Taliban throwing acid in girls’ faces and ashooting them through the use of out-of-context quotes.

What Vox has actually said is that maybe the Taliban are not just insane, but may have a rational reason for their behavior:

Ironically, in light of the strong correlation between female education and demographic decline, a purely empirical perspective on Malala Yousafzai, the poster girl for global female education, may indicate that the Taliban’s attempt to silence her was perfectly rational and scientifically justifiable.

And that according to strict utilitarianism, acid-throwing might benefit women as a whole and the scientific attitude would be to test this rather:

Because female independence is strongly correlated with a whole host of social ills. Using the utilitarian metric favored by most atheists, a few acid-burned faces is a small price to pay for lasting marriages, stable families, legitimate children, low levels of debt, strong currencies, affordable housing, homogenous populations, low levels of crime, and demographic stability. If PZ has turned against utilitarianism or the concept of the collective welfare trumping the interests of the individual, I should be fascinated to hear it.
…
The scientific attitude would be to develop a hypothesis and test it as best one is able. But it’s quite clear that PZ doesn’t want to consider the possibility of anything beyond his philosophical commitment to the unicorn of so-called “equality”. Wilson is right to observe that PZ’s behavior with regards to these matters is entirely unscientific, indeed, one might even surmise that it is outright anti-scientific.

Given that Vox is neither part of the Taliban nor a utilitarian, it is obvious to anybody who’s not a brain-dead liberal that this is not vouching support of said policies. I’m not writing this as a defence of Vox, he can defend himself better than I can, rather I want to point out something that is probably obvious to most reading my blog, but I’ll state anyway.

The base assumption Vox’s critics is that rational and scientifically justifiable are equivalent to right. Because Vox says something may rational and scientifically justifiable, he must therefore approve of it. This is, of course, stupid.

Rationality is morally neutral, as is science. Neither have moral value in themselves, they can only be used as tools discover, elucidate, or develop pre-existing truths.

Just because something is does not mean it that it ought to be. Vice versa also stands, any ought should fully take into consideration what is. Confusion of is for ought leads to a moral-stuntedness, confusion of ought for is leads to inhumanity.

We can see the former in extreme utilitarianism: Yudkowsky’s specks of dust specks vs. torture argument is the substitution of reason for moral value. Only someone morally broken can think the mathematical comparison of units of pain and pleasure can be substitutes for morality.

A ‘good’ case of the latter is communism: the left thought man is not what he is, but rather what he ought to be, leading to the failure of their inhuman system designed for their idealistic and false conception of man.

Is and ought are distinct and must remain so.

Lightning Round – 2015/04/22

I just passed 1 million hits this week. Hurrah for the blog.

A eulogy for the Spearhead.

What a good job looks like.

Join the Puppies campaign and get some ‘free’ books here. Vote for what you enjoy.
Related: The SJW’s want extermination, so return it.
Related: What we’re up against.
Related: Tribalism in SF.

Rabid Puppies: Blacklisted but don’t care.
Related: Someone actually asked Vox what he believed. Vox comments.
Related: On libertarians and puppies. Related.
Related: Unpersoning.
Related: Psychological lies.

Why the leftists rage at Rabid Puppies.
Related: Why we fight.
Related: Correia responds to GRRM. Vox comments.
Related: Wright (futilely) calls for peace.
Related: Did you know Larry Correia is not Vox Day? Seems some people didn’t.
Related: The threat of nuking the Hugo’s only shows SP were right.

Popular science jumps on the lying bandwagon.
Related: A letter to PopSci.
Related: Wright on Chu’s visit to PBS. More.
Related: The message of the SJWs.
Related: The demographic realities of publishing. Related.

A response to what is neoreaction.
Related: Right-wing filtration.
Related: On the right-wing critics of neoreaction.
Related: On neoreactionary culture.
Related: Cane asks what is neoreaction? A short answer I wrote here.

An intro to evopsych.

Reaction cannot be coopted by the politics show.

Explaining pop kink.

The corporate slave class.

Authority, influence, and power.
Related: On power.
Related: Nobody wants to be king.

How progressives purge corporate culture.

On being a racist.

Punching down and liberal cosmology.

Techno-materialism as a drowning pool.

Rumination on death.

Not giving in to despair.

Why you shouldn’t respect the American state.

Hillary embodies America. Related.

A love letter to conservatives.

Demography is destiny.
Related: Minnesota’s population replacement.

US media silence on Russian finances.

Property taxes are inherently unjust.
Related: The left’s obsession with corporate taxes is futile.

HBD and the thrill of transgression.

On Daniel Moynihan.

Science: Executive functions are almost entirely heritable.
Related: IQ can be estimated using MRI’s.
Related: Being victimized as an adolescent is genetically heritable.
Related: Murray and Thompson on brain size.

Disease can be racial.

The view from Yuggoth.
Related: The protestant question.

Amateur reactionaries in the Orthosphere.
Related: An orthogonal turn at First Things.

Being loving is not the same as being nice.

Cane answers a comment on submission.

Cohabitation produces inferior outcomes to marriage.

Politician being charged with rape for having sex with his wife with Alzheimer’s.

Teacher sues BC school district after false rape accusation based on Law and Order episode.

Oral contraception alters the brain.

The left’s secret raids on conservatives in Wisconsin.

Pinker vs. the singularity. A response.

Nobody reads World Bank PDF reports.

The left is getting more stupid.

FBI admits two decades of “overstated” forensic hair matches.

RotC cadets allegedly forced to wear red high heels for political event.

On the science of sexism in STEM.

9000 Mainers receiving welfare would rather lose it than work.

Pell wrote some satire for Cracked.

The art of turf war.

Corruption is “colour-blind”.

H/T: SDA, SSC, Land, CC

The Bookshelf – Mister

Recently I finished Alex Kurtagic’s Mister, a dystopian novel set in the not-so-distant future. Mister is the story of the everyday frustrations of anarcho-tyranny experienced by an unnamed Englishman referred to as Mister as he goes on a business trip to Spain. The novel could be summed up as ‘This is the Future You Chose: the Book’. This is the fictionalization of the scenarios outlaid in such books as We Are Doomed, America Alone, or Suicide of a Superpower.

Mister is the main character and he functions well as a self-insert for the types of people who would read his books. He’s an intelligent, detached, and cynical observer of the world around him who is trying his best not to get involved in the everyday lunacies that end up overwhelming his life, but throughout the book he finds that although he might not be interested in anarcho-tyranny, anarcho-tyranny is interested in him. He’s not particularly likeable character, but he is sympathetic, if only because of the unjust persecutions the world inflicts upon him will resonate at least some with those aware of the growing anarcho-tyranny in our own society.

There are numerous cameos of varying importance of various alt-right figures occur throughout the book, adding some easter eggs for those in the know. Apart from that, most of the other characters are not very fleshed out, they are mostly caricatures who play their part on the story, but that’s doesn’t harm the book in any way, as the world itself is the main focus of the book not the characters, as it should be.

The Spain Kurtagic paints is a generally realistic extrapolation of current discivic trends happening throughout the Western world. It is a world where government growth, inflation, political correctness, multiculturalism, anti-natalism, mass immigration, pathological altruism, and apathy are rending the fabric of society. The world-building is excellent, and often times its the little things and minor inconveniences, like the price of a coke, that really drive home the dystopia. He really captured the bizarre madness of progressive totalitarianism.

The writing itself is impeccable, if a bit high-brow for my tastes. This is very much done in a literary style, with all that entails. Although, it never get so literary that it becomes unreadable, thankfully. Kurtagic is very detailed and very precise in his descriptions which is often a good thing, but sometimes it seems he is drawing the description out. My friend who first recommended the book to me said that it was the greatest piece of fiction he had read and every word was perfect, so your mileage may vary.

One thing I did not like about the book, was that a lot of the minor characters were described as ‘he looked like Obama’, or ‘he was a skinnier version of some-name-I’ve-never-heard-of-before’. Given the precision and descriptiveness of the rest of the book, this tactic of just describing someone as looking like a (somewhat) famous person seemed somewhat lazy to me.

Another problem I had with the book was also with the characterization. I really don’t want to sound PC, but there was far too much overuse of descriptions along the lines of ‘bestial sloped-brow savages’. This is the kind of book I would like to be able to recommend to others as a narrative so they can viscerally understand the problems faced by our descent into anarcho-tyranny, but because of the descriptions there’s no way I can recommend it to ‘normal’ people without it being immediately disregarded and me labelled as a horrible person.

Despite these shortcomings with the characterizations and descriptions, which admittedly not everyone might see as drawbacks, the story itself was excellent. Mister’s torturous journey through the hells of anarcho-tyranny was realistic and frightening. The insane adventures imposed upon Mister are well-done. I particularly enjoyed the interrogations of Mister, which were bleakly humourous in their Kafkaesque madness.

Recommendation:

Overall, despite a few flaws, I very much liked this book. It is an excellent story of anarcho-tyranny that really drives home all the theory the alt-right puts out. I’d highly suggest picking up Mister and giving it a read.

Abortion Regulation and Hypocrisy

I came across this Slate article defending and promoting the dismemberment of unborn children. Abortion is a travesty, but the support of abortion not what was particularly interesting about this piece. Rather this part is:

And partly because the bill was written by nonphysicians using nonmedical terminology, there is a good deal of uncertainty among doctors about precisely which procedures will be illegal come July.
…
In some ways, these new second-trimester bans are of a piece with the national movement to intimidate and harass physicians, with strategies that range from forcing them to perform unwanted ultrasounds and read from factually flawed “informed consent” scripts, to forcing them to obtain admitting privileges at local hospitals (which may refuse to provide them)—or new efforts to simply refuse to let doctors learn about abortion in the first place.

This has echoes of earlier pro-baby-killing insanity in Texas. You might remember that last year the baby-killers got in a fit because Texas instituted laws where abortion clinics had to “meet the same architectural, plumbing, staffing, training and other requirements that apply to surgical centers”.

Didn’t it seem odd to anyone else that somehow baby-killing “clinics” were not held to the same basic safety standards that applied to other clinics? Didn’t it seem even more odd that leftists, usually in favour of safety regulations, were so opposed to the application of safety regulation in this particular case?

But this article combined with the earlier Texas events point out something even more odd: when it came to their sacred rite of abortion, the leftists seem to recognize that stringent regulations have negative effects on the ability of service providers to provide services.

Now compare this to Obamacare: somehow the leftists realize that heavy, arbitrary, and unclear regulation hurts the ability of baby-killers to kill babies while at the same time calling for even heavier, more arbitrary, and more opaque regulation on the health care industry as a whole? Do they want health care to be worse, do they lack the ability to integrate particular reasoning into wholistic worldviews, or are they just base liars and hypocrites?

When it comes to baby-killing, leftists even go so far as to say that basic regulations are simply forms of harassment and intimidation. Yet these same leftists will happily call for far more stringent and arbitrary regulations on everything not related to baby-killing. So, by the leftists own logic it seems that leftists wholeheartedly support the harassment and intimidation of any productive activity.

It it interesting to note how hypocritical leftists are on regulation. When it comes to things that are unimportant to the leftist, like economic production and good health care, stifling regulation is good, but when it comes to something important to the leftist, like massacring babies, any regulation at all is too much. As I’ve written before, the definition of good regulation to a liberal is anything that increases the power of government and doesn’t personally impact them, while the definition of bad regulation is anything that inconveniences them personally.

Lightning Round – 2015/04/15

Men sharpen men.
Related: The demonization of masculinity.

A run-down if you’re considering the US military.

Donal comments on reconciling the manosphere and tradition.

A couple mental exercises you could try.

Culture war rules of engagement.

The puppy coup & #GG.

Related: This year’s Hugo nominees are better. Related.
Related: A round-up of puppy slander.
Related: Wright’s work disqualified.
Related: GRRM on Hugo campaigning.
Related: GRRM questions the validity of Sad Puppies’ claims. Correia responds.
Related: GRRM on what next. Torgerson on what next. Both reasonable.
Related: Vox on what happen if reason doesn’t prevail.
Related: GRRM not being as reasonable: trying divide and conquer.
Related: Vox responds and issues a debate challenge. GRRM replies.
Related: Vox responds to the slander against him. He’s having too much fun.
Related: Correia replies to GRRM and GRRM responds.
Related: Wright wants people to lay off Tor.
Related: A question of ethics.

Reversing the demographic winter.
Related: After destroying marriage, Europe needs babies.
Related: Retiring from the game.

The stay-at-home mom advantage.
Related: Babykillers and bastard factories.
Related: Where the Lean In girls end up.

Looks like Bryce took himself out. Heard it was health related.
Related: Antidem is dropping Twitter.

More on anonymity.
Related: Anonymity & NRx in Turkey.

Anarcho-tyranny.

Christians need to grow a pair.
Related: The bakery incidences show how fast the leftward ratchet works.
Related: Anti-conscience laws only target Christians.
Related: DS with a different opinion on the bakery debate.

Germans and war.
Related: The Germanization of Christianity.

Germany does not have the will to be a great power.

Heroic reaction.

Blue-eyed privilege.

How Europeans evolved.

Kipling: The Wrath of the Awakened Saxon.

An amusing Fnord.

An alternative to the Gell-Mann hypothesis.

Every now and again a comments section turns up something amazing.

Why Rolling Stone is keeping Erdely.

How egalitarian education misleads parents.

Why women opposed women’s suffrage.

We aren’t running out of oil any time soon.

The wasted heart.

Estimating IQ with brain scans.

Civil service exams making a comeback.

Vancouver’s demographic destiny.

When you can escape the friendzone.

Lawyer claims 13 girls framed fellow student for rape because he was a player.

The NYT lies? How shocking.

Rise in children referred to NHS for transgender treatments.

Rand Paul demands laws against rape and murder be repealed.

How a malevolent AI could take over.

H/T: SDA

Guest Post From Europa: Demographic Figures

Today’s post are some talks and demographic figures compiled by a European reader who wishes to remain anonymous. I haven’t watched the videos, so I can’t guarantee their content.

Remember, we are willing to accept guest posts as long as they are readable, on-topic, and provide some value.

UN figures 2010 European women 1.5
Greece 1.4,
Spain 1.4,
Portugal, 1.3,
Italy 1.3,
Germany 1.3
Ireland 2.1
Europeans over 65 up to 2030 up 40%
Nothing changes by 2040 2 workers per retiree

1900 25% World population in Europe
2050 7%
29 countries, including 12 EU countries Fertility Rate below Replacement Level
Germany 82m – 71m
By 2050 number of 16 – 64 year olds in Europe declined 20%
By 2050 EU Short of 35m workers
Same period South Asia workforce up 50%
Same period Central Africa workforce tripled.
At present there are more people over 65 than under 16 in the UK.
In the EU now 4 workers per pensioner.
By 2050 2 workers per pensioner.
In the US 10,000 Baby Boomers are retiring every day and Social Security has an $80 BILLION deficit.
Germany 80m today four generations 10m.
Scotland extinct within 5 generations.
In Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore the birth rate is falling towards 1.0 meaning a 50% population fall per generation. Not even the Black Death had such a catastrophic impact.
Germany 1.41 children per woman
USA 2.06,
Sweden 1.67,
Spain 1.48,
In the USA there will be more people by 2050 over 80 that under 15.
There are more pets, especially dogs, than children in Japan.
Lee Kwan Yew Singapore elder statesman, unless things change there will be no more original citizens.
Japan current trends Government estimates population 2012 121m today 48m 2112.
60 years of age +
Japan 42%
Germany 38%
These figures assume that Japan and Germany’s birth rate will increase.
Russian population decline.

143m today 2030 10% less

EU today & 2050 750m

Spain today 46m 2050 48m through immigration
Italy today 61m 2050 62m through immigration

Germany today 82m 2025 79m
Minus 0.02% Growth Rate
Half the population 44 or younger
1.4 children per woman
21% over 65
Contraceptive use 66%
Life Expectancy 80

Fertility has declined by 50% last 50 years.

Over 90 countries have sub-replacement fertility rates.

During the lifetime of today’s young people the World’s population will start to decline.

The US is the ONLY developed country with a healthy fertility rate.
UN Population office.
Latvia 1.3
Romania 1.3
Andorra 2.13
Spain 1.3
Lithuania 1.3,
Italy 1.3,
Hungary 1.3,
San Marino 2.13
Bosnia 1.3
Germany 1.3,
Russia 1.3,
Japan 1.3,
Armenia 1.3,
Croatia 1.3,
Singapore 1.4,
Estonia 1.4
Austria 1.4
Lichtenstein 1.4
Switzerland 1.4
Portugal 1.5
Georgia 1.5
Czech Republic 1.2
Slovakia 1.2
Slovenia 1.2
Republic of Korea 1.2
Moldova 1.2
Bulgaria 1.2
Belarus 1.2
Greece 1.3
Poland 1.3

In Russia 140 deaths for 100 births
Russia today 145M 2045 70M

Latvia more deaths than births 1989 – 2002 13% population decrease.

Within a generation this situation will unfold throughout Europe.

Since 1970 immigrants and their children have prevented decline in the US population. By 2040 the world population, according to one UN estimate, will start to decline.

World population around 2065 will peak and then start to decline.

The US workforce will remain stagnant over the next two decades.

The EU work force will decline after 2040 indefinitely, as far as demography can see.

The number of Europeans 30 – 40 will decline significantly, by 15% – 20% possibly, in the coming decades.

By 2050 every region of the World will have a significantly higher proportion of older people.

US 3 workers per retiree today by 2030 2 workers per retiree.

As of 2010 the working age population of all the rich countries combined has already started to shrink, see birth rates.
1.78 Norway,
1.74 Finland
1.74 Denmark,
1.68 Holland.

Since 1990 60% of US population growth has come from immigrants and their children. This figure is 80% in Europe.

Population Loss by 2050

Russia 57m 40%
Germany 32.5M 40%
Italy 26.5m 46%
Ukraine 22m 48%
Spain 21m 46%
Poland 18.5m 46%
UK 14m 25%
Czech Republic 5m 50%
Belarus 4.8m 50%
Austria 4m 41%
Serbia 3m 41%
Switzerland 2.9m 38%
Bosnia 2.3m 50%
Lithuania 1.8m 50%

Average 611 divide 14 = 44%

Mexico 6.8 children per woman 1970 and 2.3 today.

The Rape Gulag

The great and good hold that 1 in 4 (or 1 in 5) women will be raped at college. The Soviet gulags had an average mortality rate of 1 in 10.

So, sending your daughter for a 2-3-year college degree has similar odds of rape as 2-3 years in the gulag had of death. It would be fair to say that the great and the good believe that college is a rape gulag. Yet, these people also believe that college should be co-ed and that women should attend college.

Is it just me, or does this strike people as evil? What kind of person would advocate sending young women away to be raped?

Not to mention the young women who believe this? How self-destructive would a person have to be to voluntarily go someplace where the odds of rape were so high?

I think we should prevent women from going to these rape gulags; end co-ed post-secondary education. I’m sure given how horrible rape is and how much they campaign against rape, the great and the good should fully support this measure. How could one not oppose rape gulags?

Or are they being disingenuous with their numbers?