http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/news/225994411.html
About a year and a half ago, I posted on Wisconsin passing the 100K permit milestone.
http://chariotofreaction.blogspot.com/2012/04/interesting-news-from-wisconsin.html
This milestone puts the adult CCW density in Wisconsin up around 5%, meaning that the probability of at least one CCW holder in any sort of 'mass incident' is pretty high. Clearly it is no accident that pretty much all such incidents occur in 'gun free zones'.
Reactionaries, counter-revolutionaries, and garden variety conservatives should take note in the way the CCW movement succeeds over time where they have failed. It is a matter of rewarding your friends and punishing your enemies and never forgetting either.
Tuesday, October 1, 2013
Thursday, September 12, 2013
In What Bizzaro Universe is Smuggling Guns to One Side in a Civil War NOT An Act of War?
Riddle me this. Suppose the Mormons decided they'd had enough of the US Government and seceded, and USG didn't take this gracefully. Were other nations to arm and train and provide military intelligence to the Mormons, the US sure as hell would consider it an act of war.
So how is it that our actions with respect to the Syrian conflict are NOT acts of war? American exceptionalism?
Reminds me of the passive-aggressive crap that I used to pull in the old Civilization game to get a war I wanted under a republic or democracy. Perhaps old Sid was onto something there, it certainly fits the US MO for getting into conflicts.
So how is it that our actions with respect to the Syrian conflict are NOT acts of war? American exceptionalism?
Reminds me of the passive-aggressive crap that I used to pull in the old Civilization game to get a war I wanted under a republic or democracy. Perhaps old Sid was onto something there, it certainly fits the US MO for getting into conflicts.
Monday, July 22, 2013
George Zimmerman Is More Than A Sacrificial Lamb Unjustly Accused
http://hotair.com/archives/2013/07/22/stranger-than-fiction-george-zimmerman-emerges-from-hiding-to-rescue-victim-of-car-accident/
Throughout the proceedings, I've always held that Zimmerman struck me as a fundamentally decent human being. He's the sort of guy that its honestly unfair to damn him with the faint praise that we'd rather have him as a neighbor than the 'sainted' Martin.
Now we find that he and another man saved a family in an accident that they had no part in from their overturned truck that was on fire. Oh, and like his concealed weapon in the first incident, he had a fire extinguisher handy. Was Zimmerman an old school Boy Scout? He certainly seems to be a role model for prudent preparation.
There is terrific irony in the fact that when Zimmerman DESPERATELY needed and was calling for help, none was forthcoming, despite the fact that it was in his own neighborhood and Zimmerman had repeatedly helped his neighbors. Nobody would stick their neck out for Zimmerman.
It is not Zimmerman who is unworthy of us or of our our society. It is we who are unworthy of him. Where did this man get his chest?
Throughout the proceedings, I've always held that Zimmerman struck me as a fundamentally decent human being. He's the sort of guy that its honestly unfair to damn him with the faint praise that we'd rather have him as a neighbor than the 'sainted' Martin.
Now we find that he and another man saved a family in an accident that they had no part in from their overturned truck that was on fire. Oh, and like his concealed weapon in the first incident, he had a fire extinguisher handy. Was Zimmerman an old school Boy Scout? He certainly seems to be a role model for prudent preparation.
There is terrific irony in the fact that when Zimmerman DESPERATELY needed and was calling for help, none was forthcoming, despite the fact that it was in his own neighborhood and Zimmerman had repeatedly helped his neighbors. Nobody would stick their neck out for Zimmerman.
It is not Zimmerman who is unworthy of us or of our our society. It is we who are unworthy of him. Where did this man get his chest?
Saturday, July 13, 2013
Zimmerman Not Guilty, Is Double Jeopardy Coming?
And should double jeopardy not be enough, will there be Final Jeopardy?
http://isteve.blogspot.com/2013/07/breaking-george-zimmerman-not-guilty.html
I admit it, I was very worried that the all female jury would decide to 'compromise' and go for manslaughter, particularly after they asked a question earlier today about manslaughter. I was encouraged somewhat though by the fact that several of the jurors had concealed weapon permits in the past.
So now we'll see what Obama's minions decide to do. Is it time for Double Jeopardy? Will the urban hordes rage and burn down their own neighborhoods?
http://isteve.blogspot.com/2013/07/breaking-george-zimmerman-not-guilty.html
I admit it, I was very worried that the all female jury would decide to 'compromise' and go for manslaughter, particularly after they asked a question earlier today about manslaughter. I was encouraged somewhat though by the fact that several of the jurors had concealed weapon permits in the past.
So now we'll see what Obama's minions decide to do. Is it time for Double Jeopardy? Will the urban hordes rage and burn down their own neighborhoods?
Wednesday, July 3, 2013
Honest, I Really Don't Have A Powerful CounterIntelligence Network At My Beck And Call
http://joemiller.us/2013/07/unruly-pro-abortionists-in-texas-capitol-chant-hail-satan-video/?utm_source=JoeMiller.US+List&utm_campaign=db79830940-Regular_Campaign_7_3_137_3_2013&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_065b6c381c-db79830940-230803909
Although seeing things like this makes me wonder sometimes. I've sometimes joked with my wife before about getting some guys to dress as Darth Vader and Stormtroopers and have them hang around an abortion clinic and bow obsequiously and salute the abortionist whenever he shows his head. But this is just plain over the top, and it's not counterintelligence. It's like something from the civil war in Mexico back in the 20s. Maybe it'll help radicalize a few more Christians. Hell, these days all you have to be to be 'radical' is half-awake.
The rules of engagement are most thoroughly breached. All that is necessary to advocate something is the will and the desire to do so. Let's face it, mere animus is what is behind pretty much every law in serious contention in the US today. Why should those who are better at veiling theirs be afforded an advantage?
Who...Whom!
Although seeing things like this makes me wonder sometimes. I've sometimes joked with my wife before about getting some guys to dress as Darth Vader and Stormtroopers and have them hang around an abortion clinic and bow obsequiously and salute the abortionist whenever he shows his head. But this is just plain over the top, and it's not counterintelligence. It's like something from the civil war in Mexico back in the 20s. Maybe it'll help radicalize a few more Christians. Hell, these days all you have to be to be 'radical' is half-awake.
The rules of engagement are most thoroughly breached. All that is necessary to advocate something is the will and the desire to do so. Let's face it, mere animus is what is behind pretty much every law in serious contention in the US today. Why should those who are better at veiling theirs be afforded an advantage?
Who...Whom!
Saturday, June 8, 2013
Some Mad Thoughts
Of course I refer to the old Cold War usage of MAD, that being mutually assured destruction.
Of late, the notion of another civil war in the US is much in the news, the polls, and this little sphere of blogs. I have to say it reminds me of this little exchange from Dr. Strangelove. If you've never seen this movie, it would be profitable to remedy that deprivation.
Muffley: What... what is it, what?
DeSadeski: The fools... the mad fools.
Muffley: What's happened?
DeSadeski: The doomsday machine.
Muffley: The doomsday machine? What is that?
DeSadeski: A device which will destroy all human and animal life on earth.
Muffley: All human and animal life? ... I'm afraid I don't understand something, Alexiy. Is the Premier threatening to explode this if our planes carry out their attack?
DeSadeski: No sir. It is not a thing a sane man would do. The doomsday machine is designed to to trigger itself automatically.
Muffley: But surely you can disarm it somehow.
DeSadeski: No. It is designed to explode if any attempt is ever made to untrigger it.
Muffley: Automatically? ... But, how is it possible for this thing to be triggered automatically, and at the same time impossible to untrigger?
Strangelove: Mr. President, it is not only possible, it is essential. That is the whole idea of this machine, you know. Deterrence is the art of producing in the mind of the enemy... the fear to attack. And so, because of the automated and irrevocable decision making process which rules out human meddling, the doomsday machine is terrifying. It's simple to understand. And completely credible, and convincing.
Turgidson: Gee, I wish we had one of them doomsday machines, Stainsy.
Muffley: But this is fantastic, Strangelove. How can it be triggered automatically?
Strangelove: Well, it's remarkably simple to do that. When you merely wish to bury bombs, there is no limit to the size. After that they are connected to a gigantic complex of computers. Now then, a specific and clearly defined set of circumstances, under which the bombs are to be exploded, is programmed into a tape memory bank. ... Yes, but the... whole point of the doomsday machine... is lost... if you keep it a secret! Why didn't you tell the world, eh?
DeSadeski: It was to be announced at the Party Congress on Monday. As you know, the Premier loves surprises.
Kubrick gives a pretty good discussion of strategic deterrence here. His discussion is quite relevant for the circumstances the US has found itself in. You see, nearly any prospective parties to a 3rd American Revolution are in a MAD scenario, but in general they just don't recognize it. Let's start with the most obvious and work our way down. First, the US still has tons of nuclear weapons. More than enough to produce MAD effects. Not only that, they're a lot less constrained by codes and safeguards than most of us would like to believe. You see, one of the things that analysts really worried a lot about back in the Cold War days was that the adversary would interfere with the delivery of same from the President. Accordingly, a lot of the US arsenal, and probably most other nation's arsenals as well, don't require codes to detonate properly in a ground burst (i.e., on impact). Ground bursts aren't as efficient at killing in the immediate term, but they generate tons more fallout and lasting devastation. That design decision strongly deters the adversary from any attempt to 'intercept the football'. Would one or both sides go nuclear? If they perceived the threat to them was existential, I bet they would in a heartbeat. Second, our infrastructure is much, much more vulnerable than it was back during the Cold War, especially our power grid and transportation system. Lots of it is falling apart right before our eyes without any active enemy action at all. Worse, we've gone way backwards in terms of civil defense, stockpiles, and ability to locally manufacture replacements for the most likely targets. Not only that, we've got much lower social cohesion making the US government even worse at triage than it would have been back in the day. Two percent is probably an overestimate of the fraction of the population that would be required to trigger MAD this way---hell, the Mormons could probably do it with ease. The survival of 80-90% of our population is absolutely dependent on the maintenance of our infrastructure, especially our power grid. My gut tells me all of the prospective sides of this conflict which looks increasingly inevitable grossly underestimate the ramifications of same. My advice to readers is consider carefully your plans B and C. I've no illusions that I might cause an outbreak of sanity. Neither the Cathedral nor its opponents are likely to go gently into the night. More likely they'll channel 'The Wrath of Khan'.
Of late, the notion of another civil war in the US is much in the news, the polls, and this little sphere of blogs. I have to say it reminds me of this little exchange from Dr. Strangelove. If you've never seen this movie, it would be profitable to remedy that deprivation.
Muffley: What... what is it, what?
DeSadeski: The fools... the mad fools.
Muffley: What's happened?
DeSadeski: The doomsday machine.
Muffley: The doomsday machine? What is that?
DeSadeski: A device which will destroy all human and animal life on earth.
Muffley: All human and animal life? ... I'm afraid I don't understand something, Alexiy. Is the Premier threatening to explode this if our planes carry out their attack?
DeSadeski: No sir. It is not a thing a sane man would do. The doomsday machine is designed to to trigger itself automatically.
Muffley: But surely you can disarm it somehow.
DeSadeski: No. It is designed to explode if any attempt is ever made to untrigger it.
Muffley: Automatically? ... But, how is it possible for this thing to be triggered automatically, and at the same time impossible to untrigger?
Strangelove: Mr. President, it is not only possible, it is essential. That is the whole idea of this machine, you know. Deterrence is the art of producing in the mind of the enemy... the fear to attack. And so, because of the automated and irrevocable decision making process which rules out human meddling, the doomsday machine is terrifying. It's simple to understand. And completely credible, and convincing.
Turgidson: Gee, I wish we had one of them doomsday machines, Stainsy.
Muffley: But this is fantastic, Strangelove. How can it be triggered automatically?
Strangelove: Well, it's remarkably simple to do that. When you merely wish to bury bombs, there is no limit to the size. After that they are connected to a gigantic complex of computers. Now then, a specific and clearly defined set of circumstances, under which the bombs are to be exploded, is programmed into a tape memory bank. ... Yes, but the... whole point of the doomsday machine... is lost... if you keep it a secret! Why didn't you tell the world, eh?
DeSadeski: It was to be announced at the Party Congress on Monday. As you know, the Premier loves surprises.
Kubrick gives a pretty good discussion of strategic deterrence here. His discussion is quite relevant for the circumstances the US has found itself in. You see, nearly any prospective parties to a 3rd American Revolution are in a MAD scenario, but in general they just don't recognize it. Let's start with the most obvious and work our way down. First, the US still has tons of nuclear weapons. More than enough to produce MAD effects. Not only that, they're a lot less constrained by codes and safeguards than most of us would like to believe. You see, one of the things that analysts really worried a lot about back in the Cold War days was that the adversary would interfere with the delivery of same from the President. Accordingly, a lot of the US arsenal, and probably most other nation's arsenals as well, don't require codes to detonate properly in a ground burst (i.e., on impact). Ground bursts aren't as efficient at killing in the immediate term, but they generate tons more fallout and lasting devastation. That design decision strongly deters the adversary from any attempt to 'intercept the football'. Would one or both sides go nuclear? If they perceived the threat to them was existential, I bet they would in a heartbeat. Second, our infrastructure is much, much more vulnerable than it was back during the Cold War, especially our power grid and transportation system. Lots of it is falling apart right before our eyes without any active enemy action at all. Worse, we've gone way backwards in terms of civil defense, stockpiles, and ability to locally manufacture replacements for the most likely targets. Not only that, we've got much lower social cohesion making the US government even worse at triage than it would have been back in the day. Two percent is probably an overestimate of the fraction of the population that would be required to trigger MAD this way---hell, the Mormons could probably do it with ease. The survival of 80-90% of our population is absolutely dependent on the maintenance of our infrastructure, especially our power grid. My gut tells me all of the prospective sides of this conflict which looks increasingly inevitable grossly underestimate the ramifications of same. My advice to readers is consider carefully your plans B and C. I've no illusions that I might cause an outbreak of sanity. Neither the Cathedral nor its opponents are likely to go gently into the night. More likely they'll channel 'The Wrath of Khan'.
Thursday, May 2, 2013
The Most Dangerous Game in Public Schools
http://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/index.ssf/2013/04/gunfire_and_moments_of_fear_as.html
Back when I was a student, this little exercise would have been insanely risky. Now it's just outrageously so.
It is VERY hard to predict what people are going to do when they unexpectedly come under fire. Back in the 80s, there were still a lot of male teachers, and lots of those teachers were, well, reasonably masculine, and a lot of them had 'seen the elephant' in Vietnam and other foreign adventures. A fair number of them actually gave a damn about their charges too. I could EASILY see my old calculus or physics instructor entering the berzerkergang, and possibly dragging a fair number of his students into that state along with him. Then what are your headlines?
Sometimes I swear that it seems like I've got a powerful and capable counterintelligence network getting the public school system to score enough 'own goals' to keep my side in the game.
Back when I was a student, this little exercise would have been insanely risky. Now it's just outrageously so.
It is VERY hard to predict what people are going to do when they unexpectedly come under fire. Back in the 80s, there were still a lot of male teachers, and lots of those teachers were, well, reasonably masculine, and a lot of them had 'seen the elephant' in Vietnam and other foreign adventures. A fair number of them actually gave a damn about their charges too. I could EASILY see my old calculus or physics instructor entering the berzerkergang, and possibly dragging a fair number of his students into that state along with him. Then what are your headlines?
Sometimes I swear that it seems like I've got a powerful and capable counterintelligence network getting the public school system to score enough 'own goals' to keep my side in the game.
Thursday, April 4, 2013
More On The Philosophy Of The Three
Referring, of course, to that philosophy articulated by my three year old...
One of his favorite games at this age is to pretend he is something, like a bird or a snake, and tell the adults what he 'is'. I often play along with him and suggest some of the logical implications of his choice of 'form'---like, you should look out, our cat is going to chase you if you're a bird or a snake. To which he replies...I'm just a Pretend Bird, she only chases Real Birds.
It's funny sometimes how he winds up expressing ridiculously common behaviors among adults of the Cathedral without any added varnish. You see, our country is CHOCK FULL of 'pretend' environmentalists, 'anti-racists', and 'moral universalists'. The difference is they lack the self-awareness of my three year old.
One of his favorite games at this age is to pretend he is something, like a bird or a snake, and tell the adults what he 'is'. I often play along with him and suggest some of the logical implications of his choice of 'form'---like, you should look out, our cat is going to chase you if you're a bird or a snake. To which he replies...I'm just a Pretend Bird, she only chases Real Birds.
It's funny sometimes how he winds up expressing ridiculously common behaviors among adults of the Cathedral without any added varnish. You see, our country is CHOCK FULL of 'pretend' environmentalists, 'anti-racists', and 'moral universalists'. The difference is they lack the self-awareness of my three year old.
Saturday, March 23, 2013
It Is A Pity That Nobody Expects the Holy Inquisition
http://www.catholic.com/blog/karl-keating/nobody-expects-the-modern-inquisition
89 total members, most of whom are probably not solely dedicated to the task at hand, a task so large as to defy Imagination!
My Lord, as a Protestant---a Quaker for heaven's sake---I find this appalling. Far more resources need to be applied to the suppression of heresy within the Catholic church. As a bonus, when you dig up heretics, you're likely to find a bunch of other miscreants in the same holes, like child molesters, embezzlers, and the like. Lots of people are good for nothing, but almost nobody is BAD for nothing.
Does the Inquisition accept direct donations? Could reactionaries endow, say, a few holy techies and dbas, and the like to make the perceived massive intelligence network and all seeing Eye of the Inquisition closer to a reality? Or at least something we could believe exists and take comfort in rather than something that exists only in the fevered dreams of the far Left?
89 total members, most of whom are probably not solely dedicated to the task at hand, a task so large as to defy Imagination!
My Lord, as a Protestant---a Quaker for heaven's sake---I find this appalling. Far more resources need to be applied to the suppression of heresy within the Catholic church. As a bonus, when you dig up heretics, you're likely to find a bunch of other miscreants in the same holes, like child molesters, embezzlers, and the like. Lots of people are good for nothing, but almost nobody is BAD for nothing.
Does the Inquisition accept direct donations? Could reactionaries endow, say, a few holy techies and dbas, and the like to make the perceived massive intelligence network and all seeing Eye of the Inquisition closer to a reality? Or at least something we could believe exists and take comfort in rather than something that exists only in the fevered dreams of the far Left?
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
A Somewhat Surprising But Encouraging Development
I've talked before about the profound differences between the way the neurotypical and the most common non-neurotypical 'diplomatic models' work. In short, the neurotypical likes you more the more favors he does for you. The non-neurotypical likes you better the more favors you do for him. Those who want to be somewhat deprecating would say that the non-neurotypical is selfish and the neurotypical in ungrateful.
But I'm not in the mood to deprecate anyone today. Today let's consider how you, as a charity, might solicit contributions for a worthy cause from both of these populations. The neurotypical, protest as he might, generally likes it when you 'over-communicate', and send him lots of solicitations. The more often he writes you a check, the more likely he is to write you more of them in the future. It's quite funny really watching neurotypicals CLAIM that they have a non-neurotypical diplomatic model but then demonstrate through their actions time and time again that their model is in fact bog standard. Ever wonder why the typical modes of sales and solicitation are as they are? It's because they work really well on this 95% of the population.
But let's say you want to solicit the non-neurotypical. The more often you have to trouble them for a favor, the less they'll come to like you. The dead giveaway is when you as the charity are getting autopay checks on a monthly or quarterly basis. The more neurotypical a person is, the more they're likely to enjoy the act of writing you a check and mailing it to you, or better yet, giving it to you in person---assuming of course that they value your organization and its work. The non-neurotypical is precisely the opposite. To stay the sort of 'cheerful giver' that God loves, they pretty much have to automate it, and automate it they do.
Now the encouraging development is this---I was recently called by one of the charities my wife and I regularly support. But the instant they recognized that we auto-pay them every month (they called on my name and we autopay with my wife's name), they immediately apologized for bothering us and thanked us for our support. This tells me that at least some charities get it, and have developed a model that has at least adequate resolution on this topic.
But I'm not in the mood to deprecate anyone today. Today let's consider how you, as a charity, might solicit contributions for a worthy cause from both of these populations. The neurotypical, protest as he might, generally likes it when you 'over-communicate', and send him lots of solicitations. The more often he writes you a check, the more likely he is to write you more of them in the future. It's quite funny really watching neurotypicals CLAIM that they have a non-neurotypical diplomatic model but then demonstrate through their actions time and time again that their model is in fact bog standard. Ever wonder why the typical modes of sales and solicitation are as they are? It's because they work really well on this 95% of the population.
But let's say you want to solicit the non-neurotypical. The more often you have to trouble them for a favor, the less they'll come to like you. The dead giveaway is when you as the charity are getting autopay checks on a monthly or quarterly basis. The more neurotypical a person is, the more they're likely to enjoy the act of writing you a check and mailing it to you, or better yet, giving it to you in person---assuming of course that they value your organization and its work. The non-neurotypical is precisely the opposite. To stay the sort of 'cheerful giver' that God loves, they pretty much have to automate it, and automate it they do.
Now the encouraging development is this---I was recently called by one of the charities my wife and I regularly support. But the instant they recognized that we auto-pay them every month (they called on my name and we autopay with my wife's name), they immediately apologized for bothering us and thanked us for our support. This tells me that at least some charities get it, and have developed a model that has at least adequate resolution on this topic.
Saturday, March 2, 2013
Sometimes I'm Convinced I Have a Vast And Effective Counterintelligence Network
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/03/02/high-school-student-disarms-gunman-gets-suspended/
A network dedicated to my goal of the separation of School and State, unless, of course, counter-revolutionaries like myself control the state. This incident is pretty seriously over the top, and exactly the kind of outrage I'd have my CI assets perform, if I had any such assets, which to the best of my knowledge, I do not. There have been a bunch of similar gun-related outrages at schools lately. Increasing the anger of the population is good. Promoting more homeschooling is even better. Forward the counter-revolution.
A network dedicated to my goal of the separation of School and State, unless, of course, counter-revolutionaries like myself control the state. This incident is pretty seriously over the top, and exactly the kind of outrage I'd have my CI assets perform, if I had any such assets, which to the best of my knowledge, I do not. There have been a bunch of similar gun-related outrages at schools lately. Increasing the anger of the population is good. Promoting more homeschooling is even better. Forward the counter-revolution.
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Perhaps The Outgoing Pope Did More To Clean Up The Catholic Church Than We Realized
http://www.ewtnnews.com/catholic-news/World.php?id=7089
Not being intimately familiar with the actual, as opposed to theoretical Catholic hierarchy, I'm not certain how big a deal removing 2-3 bishops a month is by modern standards, but I wager it represents a good fraction of the Pope's energies over an extended period of time. I think most of us are going to miss Benedict when he resigns this week.
Not being intimately familiar with the actual, as opposed to theoretical Catholic hierarchy, I'm not certain how big a deal removing 2-3 bishops a month is by modern standards, but I wager it represents a good fraction of the Pope's energies over an extended period of time. I think most of us are going to miss Benedict when he resigns this week.
Friday, February 22, 2013
Administrivia: Comments
I've had a user or two report difficulties with embedded comments. Accordingly, I'm going to try using full page comments instead. Apparently blogger has issues with some browsers with embedded comments.
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
Philanthropy Actually Worthy Of The Name
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2013/feb/20/breakthrough-prize-silicon-valley-entrepreneurs
Curing diseases and extending human life has always been something that Christians have worked towards. It's nice to see some philanthropy actually going towards that purpose as opposed to primarily being employed to dispossess the demographic hegemony of me and mine. Life extension research is pretty seriously undersubscribed from a societal point of view. It needs a higher fraction of talent, preferably drained from the FIRE sector.
Curing diseases and extending human life has always been something that Christians have worked towards. It's nice to see some philanthropy actually going towards that purpose as opposed to primarily being employed to dispossess the demographic hegemony of me and mine. Life extension research is pretty seriously undersubscribed from a societal point of view. It needs a higher fraction of talent, preferably drained from the FIRE sector.
Friday, February 15, 2013
The Hunger of the Blood
My oldest of late has started nearly incessantly asking me for stories about one of his great-great-grandmothers. I find this interesting because I've never terribly encouraged this, having only mentioned her obliquely a few times in his presence, and he doesn't know my mother all that well, having seen her only a few times given her geographic separation from him. His knowledge of my mother's mother is even more tenuous, having seen her only once, and the great-great-grandmother passed away more than a decade before he was born.
But the hunger is there for stories and to feel some sort of connection to his ancestors. I'd say the ancestor story is up there with the Bible story in terms of his favorite types. From my experience with other little ones around his age---make no mistake, it appears that pregnancy is contagious within social circles as much or more so than is divorce---this doesn't seem all that unusual. The stories don't have to be terribly unusual, or even funny, or heaven forbid, heroic to delight the little ones. I suspect that there's a lot of 'blood and soil' built into every new child---even to the extent of a fairly strong attachment to the old house we brought him home to after he was born, from which we've moved so as to have adequate space for children to play and for his second little sister to arrive. I am coming to believe this is at least part of the human 'firmware' which our present diseased society is trying like Hell to beat out of us. Hopefully it won't succeed. I don't think it will--I'm betting this impulse is at the root of ancestor worship and that's pretty perennial.
But the hunger is there for stories and to feel some sort of connection to his ancestors. I'd say the ancestor story is up there with the Bible story in terms of his favorite types. From my experience with other little ones around his age---make no mistake, it appears that pregnancy is contagious within social circles as much or more so than is divorce---this doesn't seem all that unusual. The stories don't have to be terribly unusual, or even funny, or heaven forbid, heroic to delight the little ones. I suspect that there's a lot of 'blood and soil' built into every new child---even to the extent of a fairly strong attachment to the old house we brought him home to after he was born, from which we've moved so as to have adequate space for children to play and for his second little sister to arrive. I am coming to believe this is at least part of the human 'firmware' which our present diseased society is trying like Hell to beat out of us. Hopefully it won't succeed. I don't think it will--I'm betting this impulse is at the root of ancestor worship and that's pretty perennial.
Saturday, February 9, 2013
Spam, Spam, and More Spam
Minor rant here---I hate that there's no ready option in blogger to allow anonymous comments without moderation or captchas if and only if they have no links attached. An awful lot of stuff lately is leaking through the spam filter. I really don't want to disallow anonymous commenting, I hate captchas, and I don't want to moderate most things. For the time being I've enabled moderation on posts older than 3 weeks or so. Hopefully the Great Flood of spam is a transient thing.
Thursday, February 7, 2013
Immigration is Not Enough, Manufacturing Yet More Anti-Semitism Through Gun Control
http://chariotofreaction.blogspot.com/2011/12/manufacturing-anti-semitism-in-senate.html
To revisit an old topic, breakdowns by religion of voting habits of US elites, we consider the case of gun control, presently a fairly hot issue.
Current Jewish Senators
From Wikipedia
Current Senators Name Party State
Carl Levin[1][2] Democratic Michigan
Frank Lautenberg[3] Democratic New Jersey
Dianne Feinstein[4] Democratic California
Barbara Boxer[5] Democratic California
Ron Wyden[6] Democratic Oregon
Chuck Schumer[7][8] Democratic New York
Benjamin Cardin[9] Democratic Maryland
Bernard Sanders[10] Independent Vermont
Al Franken[11] Democratic Minnesota
Michael Bennet Democratic Colorado
Richard Blumenthal[12][13] Democratic Connecticut
Grades from the NRA
http://www.margieroswell.com/map_of_nra_grades_for_senators
Levin-F, Lautenberg-F, Feinstein-F, Boxer-F, Wyden-F, Schumer-F, Cardin-F, Sanders-D, Franken-F, Bennet-C, Blumenthal-F . Schatz-C
So you have 2 Cs, a D, and 9 Fs.
By comparison, nearly half of the Senate have A ratings from the NRA.
Jews would be well advised to note that the branding they're getting here is NOT favorable to them in the eyes of large sections of the population, and perhaps most ominously, the section with the most military potential.
It is difficult to get this through the heads of most Jews. The Holocaust does NOT immunize you from criticism. Repeatingly playing as if it does generates tremendous animosity. If you don't get control of your brand you won't like the ultimate outcome. As always, I recommend working on your plan B through Z.
To revisit an old topic, breakdowns by religion of voting habits of US elites, we consider the case of gun control, presently a fairly hot issue.
Current Jewish Senators
From Wikipedia
Current Senators Name Party State
Carl Levin[1][2] Democratic Michigan
Frank Lautenberg[3] Democratic New Jersey
Dianne Feinstein[4] Democratic California
Barbara Boxer[5] Democratic California
Ron Wyden[6] Democratic Oregon
Chuck Schumer[7][8] Democratic New York
Benjamin Cardin[9] Democratic Maryland
Bernard Sanders[10] Independent Vermont
Al Franken[11] Democratic Minnesota
Michael Bennet Democratic Colorado
Richard Blumenthal[12][13] Democratic Connecticut
| Brian Schatz[14] | Democratic | Hawaii |
Grades from the NRA
http://www.margieroswell.com/map_of_nra_grades_for_senators
Levin-F, Lautenberg-F, Feinstein-F, Boxer-F, Wyden-F, Schumer-F, Cardin-F, Sanders-D, Franken-F, Bennet-C, Blumenthal-F . Schatz-C
So you have 2 Cs, a D, and 9 Fs.
By comparison, nearly half of the Senate have A ratings from the NRA.
Jews would be well advised to note that the branding they're getting here is NOT favorable to them in the eyes of large sections of the population, and perhaps most ominously, the section with the most military potential.
It is difficult to get this through the heads of most Jews. The Holocaust does NOT immunize you from criticism. Repeatingly playing as if it does generates tremendous animosity. If you don't get control of your brand you won't like the ultimate outcome. As always, I recommend working on your plan B through Z.
Wednesday, February 6, 2013
Never Let It Be Said That Wiki Doesn't Have a Lot of Good Red Pill Material
Your friendly neighborhood Dark Lord over at heartiste.wordpress.com writes today to gloat on how his view of neurotypical psychology just keeps getting confirmed over and over again in the scientific literature, despite the conventional 'wisdom'.
After looking over his article, I consulted Wikipedia to see what they had to offer, and its quite a bit.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Franklin_effect
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foot-in-the-door_technique
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compliance_(psychology)
I've talked in some detail about all of these three areas here at the Chariot, but Wiki provides nice summaries of how the security flaws in the neurotypical psychological architecture are exploited again, and again, and again, and how the one having the exploits run on them likes it.
One technique that uses all of these effects on steroids is to have your lover, be she your wife, girlfriend, or whatever, pose for you on her digital camera. Camp it up, use a bogus German or Russian or French accent, whatever strikes your fancy and is fun. Make it as tame or as risque
as is appropriate given your relationship, and give her back her camera containing all the pictures when you're done. She'll have a blast. You don't need to be a good photographer, just point and shoot and give lots of directions and 'photographer-speak' encouragements. But, be warned---you may find that your very conservative wife, girlfriend, or whatever pushes matters a bit closer to the risque end of the spectrum as she gets into it.
After looking over his article, I consulted Wikipedia to see what they had to offer, and its quite a bit.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Franklin_effect
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foot-in-the-door_technique
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compliance_(psychology)
I've talked in some detail about all of these three areas here at the Chariot, but Wiki provides nice summaries of how the security flaws in the neurotypical psychological architecture are exploited again, and again, and again, and how the one having the exploits run on them likes it.
One technique that uses all of these effects on steroids is to have your lover, be she your wife, girlfriend, or whatever, pose for you on her digital camera. Camp it up, use a bogus German or Russian or French accent, whatever strikes your fancy and is fun. Make it as tame or as risque
as is appropriate given your relationship, and give her back her camera containing all the pictures when you're done. She'll have a blast. You don't need to be a good photographer, just point and shoot and give lots of directions and 'photographer-speak' encouragements. But, be warned---you may find that your very conservative wife, girlfriend, or whatever pushes matters a bit closer to the risque end of the spectrum as she gets into it.
Friday, January 25, 2013
Intuit Declares Itself As An Enemy
http://www.saysuncle.com/2013/01/25/stepping-intuit/
I've used Turbotax and Quicken for years. No longer. Unless an abject apology and reversal of policy is offered by Intuit, and I DO insist on the abject apology, there will be no further business from me, or my house. Indeed I will advocate against them at any reasonable opportunity from now forward.
It seems strange---wonder if anyone could make a mint writing a business book with a central thesis of, avoid pissing off your core customers? Nah...too Occam's Razor'ish, we must use Occam's butterknife.
I've used Turbotax and Quicken for years. No longer. Unless an abject apology and reversal of policy is offered by Intuit, and I DO insist on the abject apology, there will be no further business from me, or my house. Indeed I will advocate against them at any reasonable opportunity from now forward.
It seems strange---wonder if anyone could make a mint writing a business book with a central thesis of, avoid pissing off your core customers? Nah...too Occam's Razor'ish, we must use Occam's butterknife.
Thursday, January 24, 2013
Laws Are For The Little People
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2267888/Neighbor-shot-pit-bull-mauling-11-year-old-boy-face-charges.html
Notice that in DC, David Gregory won't get charged, but I bet this guy does. In this case he defended the child of one of his neighbors, a true Good Samaritan. For this he must be punished. If you happen to be on a jury, make sure to remember who...whom.
Notice that in DC, David Gregory won't get charged, but I bet this guy does. In this case he defended the child of one of his neighbors, a true Good Samaritan. For this he must be punished. If you happen to be on a jury, make sure to remember who...whom.
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
Pope Benedict Needs to Get His Senior Minions In Line
http://www.examiner.com/article/apologia-for-church-vatican-radio-gun-rights-attack-rings-hollow
This is a serious unforced error. Being perceived to have taken Obama's side in the gun rights war will alienate a LOT of people. And it will do so on a manner largely orthogonal to the Gospel. Get your minions in line Benedict.
This is a serious unforced error. Being perceived to have taken Obama's side in the gun rights war will alienate a LOT of people. And it will do so on a manner largely orthogonal to the Gospel. Get your minions in line Benedict.
Sunday, January 20, 2013
A Final Solution to the Copyright Problem?
There is no good reason---although plenty of bad ones---for copyright terms to be longer than those for patents. In fact, if you go back in US history, those two term lengths started out a lot closer together. Perhaps nearly everyone has the belief that they MIGHT be able to write, whereas they're under no such delusion as to making a useful invention. Or more likely there's just more sympathy for authors and artists than for engineers and applied scientists.
But be that as it may, there is pretty strong support in the public for radically reining in copyright laws. It's just that the support is diffuse mostly. Diffuse interests nearly always lose in political contests, but they can do very well indeed in pogromical contests.
Here's what I suggest. An acceptable final outcome would be a 20 year non-renewable copyright regime with very clear rules for fair use that correspond to the actual public mores. I suspect that such a regime would have a serious supermajority of support in the general public. But how do you get there?
One way to get there would be to encourage all those who oppose SOPA that it is time for the final solution for those who pushed SOPA. Basically, until they surrender to reduced copyright terms, I say that in any civil or criminal jury proceeding, they automatically lose. It doesn't make a damned bit of difference what the case is about. It could be somebody who slips on a banana at Disneyland. It could be a copyright infringement lawsuit. It could be a zoning hearing for a company numbered among the transgressors. Just commit to hammer them with who...whom every time you're in a jury room or similar instrument of power projection. Ten to fifteen percent of the population commits to this and you've totally defeated trial by jury. All you have to do is let go of the notion that the bourgeoisie follow the rules (hint, you're the petit bourgeoisie). The elite are above them, cue David Gregory and Turbotax Tim, and anarcho-tyranny is the rule for the rest. Time for you to start who...whom. There's no prize for being the last group to follow the rules as intended, or even the rules as written.
But be that as it may, there is pretty strong support in the public for radically reining in copyright laws. It's just that the support is diffuse mostly. Diffuse interests nearly always lose in political contests, but they can do very well indeed in pogromical contests.
Here's what I suggest. An acceptable final outcome would be a 20 year non-renewable copyright regime with very clear rules for fair use that correspond to the actual public mores. I suspect that such a regime would have a serious supermajority of support in the general public. But how do you get there?
One way to get there would be to encourage all those who oppose SOPA that it is time for the final solution for those who pushed SOPA. Basically, until they surrender to reduced copyright terms, I say that in any civil or criminal jury proceeding, they automatically lose. It doesn't make a damned bit of difference what the case is about. It could be somebody who slips on a banana at Disneyland. It could be a copyright infringement lawsuit. It could be a zoning hearing for a company numbered among the transgressors. Just commit to hammer them with who...whom every time you're in a jury room or similar instrument of power projection. Ten to fifteen percent of the population commits to this and you've totally defeated trial by jury. All you have to do is let go of the notion that the bourgeoisie follow the rules (hint, you're the petit bourgeoisie). The elite are above them, cue David Gregory and Turbotax Tim, and anarcho-tyranny is the rule for the rest. Time for you to start who...whom. There's no prize for being the last group to follow the rules as intended, or even the rules as written.
Saturday, January 19, 2013
Acronym Overloading For Fun and Taqiyya
One of the things I noticed when I was back in grad school and playing the political game was just how many organizations shared the same acronyms. For instance, there's the National Rifle Association and the National Restaurant Association. Rarely, I suspect, do they lobby on the same issues or in the same direction. Both are pretty serious heavyweights though, and I suspect pretty strongly that a person looking at a resume or college application that listed an internship with the NRA would assume one or the other based on their priors---what they expected to see.
Now we know Epenshade et al that members and officers of organizations associated with Red State America, like, say the FFA, JROTC, 4H, and the like are discriminated against pretty heavily by elite institutions (read this as institutions that punch tickets for eligibility to become elites). Similarly, I wager they discriminate very heavily in favor of applicants who have membership and especially officer positions in Cathedral auxiliary groups.
Do you see where I'm going?
Imagine the Southern Pornographer Liquidation Council. SPLC right? A reactionary teenager volunteers with this group, gets a fancy title, and he's got awesome taqiyya made to order.
or perhaps the National Association For the Advancement of Carlyean Prose? How much more a reactionary NAACP do you want? I suppose you could also just have Caucasian People for the CP.
Both of these organizations are almost always acronymized, never spelled out. There are lots of other possibilities to exploit the target's priors. I bet there's something you could come up with that is profoundly reactionary using the initials LGBT too.
Now we know Epenshade et al that members and officers of organizations associated with Red State America, like, say the FFA, JROTC, 4H, and the like are discriminated against pretty heavily by elite institutions (read this as institutions that punch tickets for eligibility to become elites). Similarly, I wager they discriminate very heavily in favor of applicants who have membership and especially officer positions in Cathedral auxiliary groups.
Do you see where I'm going?
Imagine the Southern Pornographer Liquidation Council. SPLC right? A reactionary teenager volunteers with this group, gets a fancy title, and he's got awesome taqiyya made to order.
or perhaps the National Association For the Advancement of Carlyean Prose? How much more a reactionary NAACP do you want? I suppose you could also just have Caucasian People for the CP.
Both of these organizations are almost always acronymized, never spelled out. There are lots of other possibilities to exploit the target's priors. I bet there's something you could come up with that is profoundly reactionary using the initials LGBT too.
Friday, January 18, 2013
We Don't Serve Your Kind Here, Resistance to the TSA in Seattle
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umLw-EPFJKU&feature=youtu.be
Apparently a cafe in Seattle has decided not to serve any TSA agents. Note the comments too, most overwhelmingly support the cafe owner's 'discrimination' against the TSA.
My gut is that there is a truly enormous undercurrent of rage against the TSA and its demand for submission rituals to get on a plane. Perhaps it'll get tapped, although Romney et al were too damned stupid to go there. The NRA is showing a spine lately also, putting out the first real ads hammering Obama as a person. Elitist hypocrite indeed, and that's one of his better qualities.
Apparently a cafe in Seattle has decided not to serve any TSA agents. Note the comments too, most overwhelmingly support the cafe owner's 'discrimination' against the TSA.
My gut is that there is a truly enormous undercurrent of rage against the TSA and its demand for submission rituals to get on a plane. Perhaps it'll get tapped, although Romney et al were too damned stupid to go there. The NRA is showing a spine lately also, putting out the first real ads hammering Obama as a person. Elitist hypocrite indeed, and that's one of his better qualities.
Thursday, January 17, 2013
Germany Repatriates Barbarous Relics
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/germany-bring-home-gold-stored-us-france-205249881--finance.html
No satisfactory explanation has ever been provided by an official source as to why central banks hold gold, despite Ron Paul badgering them. The most he could squeeze out of helicopter Ben was 'tradition'.
The real answer I suspect is that they recognize a reasonable probability that their house of cards---known as fiat currency---has a short historical shelf life. Thus they want to make sure they have hedged their bets in a very literal sense. They know that gold is the most likely Schelling point if their reserve currency game falls apart, so they want to make sure they'll still be on top if that happens. Remonetized gold would probably be way more than 10k in current dollars per ounce.
There is also, I suspect another aspect to them holding gold. By owning a large portion of it, especially a large portion of the portion of the total gold that actually circulates somewhat (an awful lot of the world's gold is tied up in jewelry that only liquidates under very extreme circumstances, e.g. that purchased by fathers in developing nations), they have profound ability to manipulate that market. Since the price of gold is a pretty good proxy for how little the population trusts the banksters and their governmental minions, being able to fox that metric is pretty damned useful. A very steeply rising price of gold, I'd wager, makes its remonetization (and the corresponding collapse of the old financial order) more likely. I seem to vaguely recall Greenspan saying something similar to this back in the days before his reign at the Federal Reserve.
No satisfactory explanation has ever been provided by an official source as to why central banks hold gold, despite Ron Paul badgering them. The most he could squeeze out of helicopter Ben was 'tradition'.
The real answer I suspect is that they recognize a reasonable probability that their house of cards---known as fiat currency---has a short historical shelf life. Thus they want to make sure they have hedged their bets in a very literal sense. They know that gold is the most likely Schelling point if their reserve currency game falls apart, so they want to make sure they'll still be on top if that happens. Remonetized gold would probably be way more than 10k in current dollars per ounce.
There is also, I suspect another aspect to them holding gold. By owning a large portion of it, especially a large portion of the portion of the total gold that actually circulates somewhat (an awful lot of the world's gold is tied up in jewelry that only liquidates under very extreme circumstances, e.g. that purchased by fathers in developing nations), they have profound ability to manipulate that market. Since the price of gold is a pretty good proxy for how little the population trusts the banksters and their governmental minions, being able to fox that metric is pretty damned useful. A very steeply rising price of gold, I'd wager, makes its remonetization (and the corresponding collapse of the old financial order) more likely. I seem to vaguely recall Greenspan saying something similar to this back in the days before his reign at the Federal Reserve.
Monday, January 14, 2013
Because A Political Party is Still A Party
http://freenortherner.wordpress.com/2013/01/15/establishment-conservatives-and-their-wives/
Free Northerner posits one possible reason why so many conservatives 'go native' in Washington.
Perhaps Reactionaries need to develop a system of parties in such places. They'd need lots of costume parties, with lots of dancing, generous amounts of alchohol, cigars, et al.. Provide plenty of opportunity for reactionary themes, and plenty of opportunity for wives to play dress up, sometimes as faux royalty, a fantasy near and dear to many (most?) women. It seems to me that reactionaries could arrange far better parties than mere conservatives, who obviously can have more fun than SWPL sneerfests.
Back when I was in college, one of the fraternities---Kappa Alpha if I recall, had lots of cool formal events where they dressed in what amounted to Confederate Dress Uniforms and were accompanied by sorority girls dressed as Southern Belles. All parties concerned appeared like they had a damned good time. Perhaps that's the way to increase the gravity of reaction.
Free Northerner posits one possible reason why so many conservatives 'go native' in Washington.
Perhaps Reactionaries need to develop a system of parties in such places. They'd need lots of costume parties, with lots of dancing, generous amounts of alchohol, cigars, et al.. Provide plenty of opportunity for reactionary themes, and plenty of opportunity for wives to play dress up, sometimes as faux royalty, a fantasy near and dear to many (most?) women. It seems to me that reactionaries could arrange far better parties than mere conservatives, who obviously can have more fun than SWPL sneerfests.
Back when I was in college, one of the fraternities---Kappa Alpha if I recall, had lots of cool formal events where they dressed in what amounted to Confederate Dress Uniforms and were accompanied by sorority girls dressed as Southern Belles. All parties concerned appeared like they had a damned good time. Perhaps that's the way to increase the gravity of reaction.
Sunday, January 13, 2013
Carbon Offsets Are a Pale Imitation of the Real Thing
http://www.catholicsentinel.org/main.asp?SectionID=4&SubSectionID=43&ArticleID=19728&TM=1418.909
Portland's Archbishop explains the theory and practice of Indulgences in the present day. And yes, S.M. Stirling fans, you CAN get one from a pilgrimage to Mount Angel, but only during this 'Year of Faith' as declared by the Pope.
Here's the super short form
Church law and the Catechism of the Catholic Church define an indulgence in this way: “An indulgence is a remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven, which the faithful Christian who is duly disposed gains under certain prescribed conditions through the action of the church which, as the minister of redemption, dispenses and applies with authority the treasury of the satisfactions of Christ and the saints.”
The basic idea is this. Even though sins are forgiven, justice requires some punishment. It’s a grace when a judge may allow you to keep driving, even though you received a speeding ticket, but you still must pay the fine. Our sins are forgiven through the sacrament of Penance and the prayer of the church but temporal punishment is still due to sin. Permanent punishment is not an issue because the sins have been forgiven. An indulgence helps us rid ourselves of the temporal punishment through the power of the church, which is the body of Christ on earth. For those of us seeking an indulgence there is a requirement of the recitation of certain prayers, visiting specified places of pilgrimage or engaging in specific acts of charity.
If only more moderns had less destructive guilt sinks, like Plenary Indulgences. The secular analogs they come up with seriously suck, not just for them, but for the rest of us who have to endure their sanctimonious scolding. But hey, secular SWPL man, convert to Catholicism, this year, and you can get the real thing. Maybe you could stop hating the 'wrong kind of white people' for being white too, and perhaps expiate that self-loathing undercurrent I feel in your nature.
Portland's Archbishop explains the theory and practice of Indulgences in the present day. And yes, S.M. Stirling fans, you CAN get one from a pilgrimage to Mount Angel, but only during this 'Year of Faith' as declared by the Pope.
Here's the super short form
Church law and the Catechism of the Catholic Church define an indulgence in this way: “An indulgence is a remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven, which the faithful Christian who is duly disposed gains under certain prescribed conditions through the action of the church which, as the minister of redemption, dispenses and applies with authority the treasury of the satisfactions of Christ and the saints.”
The basic idea is this. Even though sins are forgiven, justice requires some punishment. It’s a grace when a judge may allow you to keep driving, even though you received a speeding ticket, but you still must pay the fine. Our sins are forgiven through the sacrament of Penance and the prayer of the church but temporal punishment is still due to sin. Permanent punishment is not an issue because the sins have been forgiven. An indulgence helps us rid ourselves of the temporal punishment through the power of the church, which is the body of Christ on earth. For those of us seeking an indulgence there is a requirement of the recitation of certain prayers, visiting specified places of pilgrimage or engaging in specific acts of charity.
If only more moderns had less destructive guilt sinks, like Plenary Indulgences. The secular analogs they come up with seriously suck, not just for them, but for the rest of us who have to endure their sanctimonious scolding. But hey, secular SWPL man, convert to Catholicism, this year, and you can get the real thing. Maybe you could stop hating the 'wrong kind of white people' for being white too, and perhaps expiate that self-loathing undercurrent I feel in your nature.
Friday, January 11, 2013
Since Laws Are Only For The Little People...
http://legalinsurrection.com/2013/01/david-gregory-will-not-be-prosecuted/
I suggest that every member of a jury exercise 'discretion' in deciding who they want to convict. Discretion of exactly the sort of this prosecutor---who...whom.
Let's face it, the rule of law is dead. David Gregory simply adds another face to go next to TurboTax Tim Geithner's mug. Any of us would be crucified for either offense.
Who...Whom, in the jury room.
I suggest that every member of a jury exercise 'discretion' in deciding who they want to convict. Discretion of exactly the sort of this prosecutor---who...whom.
Let's face it, the rule of law is dead. David Gregory simply adds another face to go next to TurboTax Tim Geithner's mug. Any of us would be crucified for either offense.
Who...Whom, in the jury room.
Wednesday, January 9, 2013
Chinese Doomsday Preppers?
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2013/01/07/8-Jan-13-World-View-China-quadruples-rice-imports-for-no-apparent-reason
Or perhaps their government vaguely groks civil defense, unlike ours? Or perhaps it recognizes that war is becoming increasingly likely in the near future and wants to be prepared. Of course our government is positively mental---advocating prepping through organs like ready.gov while calling preppers 'potential terrorist threats' through other organs.
Or perhaps their government vaguely groks civil defense, unlike ours? Or perhaps it recognizes that war is becoming increasingly likely in the near future and wants to be prepared. Of course our government is positively mental---advocating prepping through organs like ready.gov while calling preppers 'potential terrorist threats' through other organs.
Monday, January 7, 2013
A Somewhat Depressing Cultural Realization
It turns out that the works of literature and entertainment that are the most useful for understanding what is lurking in your society's collective gut aren't the great works, or even those produced by authors with an excellent ability to write diverse (in the old sense of the word, not the kind that 'is our strength') characters coupled with superb world building. It's not even the authors who are skilled in using fiction as a way to explore ideas and the consequences of their application.
Rather, it is the mediocre to poor authors who nevertheless sell tons of books that best serve this purpose. Your shades of grey, or twilights, or malnutrition for fun and profit, or even your tales about zombies are what shed light down into the recesses of the oversized societal gut. You see, no particular reason is required to explain the success of a work by an author like Stirling. But when fair to middling stuff rises like a meteor, there's really only one explanation. It has resonated with something in that collective gut. Something we know, but feel constrained in the public expression thereof. Often something damnably simple, like women like dangerous, high-status men who have substantial capability and propensity for violence and who will present a traditional image of masculine power. Or something like, our system is not long for this world and our elites set us against each other for some of the remaining scraps. Or perhaps that our system can't be sustained much longer and we are very conflicted about the struggle that must erupt from the thin veneer when EBT stops working.
Rather, it is the mediocre to poor authors who nevertheless sell tons of books that best serve this purpose. Your shades of grey, or twilights, or malnutrition for fun and profit, or even your tales about zombies are what shed light down into the recesses of the oversized societal gut. You see, no particular reason is required to explain the success of a work by an author like Stirling. But when fair to middling stuff rises like a meteor, there's really only one explanation. It has resonated with something in that collective gut. Something we know, but feel constrained in the public expression thereof. Often something damnably simple, like women like dangerous, high-status men who have substantial capability and propensity for violence and who will present a traditional image of masculine power. Or something like, our system is not long for this world and our elites set us against each other for some of the remaining scraps. Or perhaps that our system can't be sustained much longer and we are very conflicted about the struggle that must erupt from the thin veneer when EBT stops working.
Friday, January 4, 2013
Rational Economic Spouses Meet the Fiscal Cliff Deal
http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Articles/2013/01/04/For-High-Income-Earners-Time-for-a-Tax-Divorce.aspx#page1
There's some pretty hardcore desacralization by rational economic man and wife here---essentially a strategic divorce for tax purposes while remaining for all other purposes married.
Message to lawmakers: You can't count on the sacral nature of something to prevent people, especially very wealthy people, from acting to reduce the impact on themselves of whatever you choose to do. In fact by making such laws (bracket starting at 400k, 450k if married), with such an aggressive marriage penalty, you are in fact speeding the desacralization of said institution.
There's some pretty hardcore desacralization by rational economic man and wife here---essentially a strategic divorce for tax purposes while remaining for all other purposes married.
Message to lawmakers: You can't count on the sacral nature of something to prevent people, especially very wealthy people, from acting to reduce the impact on themselves of whatever you choose to do. In fact by making such laws (bracket starting at 400k, 450k if married), with such an aggressive marriage penalty, you are in fact speeding the desacralization of said institution.
Wednesday, January 2, 2013
Gun Control is STILL About Who...Whom
http://www.rkba.org/comment/cowards.html
It never has been about crime control, or reducing gun accidents or suicides or the like. Instead, I'll let Snyder give it to you straight:
Gun control is a moral crusade against a benighted, barbaric citizenry. This is demonstrated not only by the ineffectualness of gun control in preventing crime, and by the fact that it focuses on restricting the behavior of the law-abiding rather than apprehending and punishing the guilty, but also by the execration that gun control proponents heap on gun owners and their evil instrumentality, the NRA. Gun owners are routinely portrayed as uneducated, paranoid rednecks fascinated by and prone to violence, i.e., exactly the type of person who opposes the liberal agenda and whose moral and social "re-education" is the object of liberal social policies. Typical of such bigotry is New York Gov. Mario Cuomo's famous characterization of gun-owners as "hunters who drink beer, don't vote, and lie to their wives about where they were all weekend." Similar vituperation is rained upon the NRA, characterized by Sen. Edward Kennedy as the "pusher's best friend," lampooned in political cartoons as standing for the right of children to carry firearms to school and, in general, portrayed as standing for an individual's God-given right to blow people away at will.
The stereotype is, of course, false. As criminologist and constitutional lawyer Don B. Kates, Jr. and former HCI contributor Dr. Patricia Harris have pointed out, "[s]tudies consistently show that, on the average, gun owners are better educated and have more prestigious jobs than non-owners.... Later studies show that gun owners are less likely than non-owners to approve of police brutality, violence against dissenters, etc."
Conservatives must understand that the antipathy many liberals have for gun owners arises in good measure from their statist utopianism. This habit of mind has nowhere been better explored than in The Republic. There, Plato argues that the perfectly just society is one in which an unarmed people exhibit virtue by minding their own business in the performance of their assigned functions, while the government of philosopher-kings, above the law and protected by armed guardians unquestioning in their loyalty to the state, engineers, implements, and fine-tunes the creation of that society, aided and abetted by myths that both hide and justify their totalitarian manipulation.
Have we seen anything to indicate that this is not an accurate summary of the opposition's motivations? Hardly. I recommend relentless hostility towards any who support gun control, with a healthy application of who..whom. Frankly most issues in our society aren't about what they are nominally purported to be. They're about what group can turn their opponents into society's niggers. The whole tempest over teaching evolution, creationism, design, et al is exactly the same---are we really expected to believe that the motive on either side is merely a concern for accuracy in education? In a system that can't even teach functional literacy a good fraction of the time? No, the reason, as before is who...whom. Strip the sanctimonious sophistry swiftly and let's just have a sublime slugfest of self and group interest.
It never has been about crime control, or reducing gun accidents or suicides or the like. Instead, I'll let Snyder give it to you straight:
Gun control is a moral crusade against a benighted, barbaric citizenry. This is demonstrated not only by the ineffectualness of gun control in preventing crime, and by the fact that it focuses on restricting the behavior of the law-abiding rather than apprehending and punishing the guilty, but also by the execration that gun control proponents heap on gun owners and their evil instrumentality, the NRA. Gun owners are routinely portrayed as uneducated, paranoid rednecks fascinated by and prone to violence, i.e., exactly the type of person who opposes the liberal agenda and whose moral and social "re-education" is the object of liberal social policies. Typical of such bigotry is New York Gov. Mario Cuomo's famous characterization of gun-owners as "hunters who drink beer, don't vote, and lie to their wives about where they were all weekend." Similar vituperation is rained upon the NRA, characterized by Sen. Edward Kennedy as the "pusher's best friend," lampooned in political cartoons as standing for the right of children to carry firearms to school and, in general, portrayed as standing for an individual's God-given right to blow people away at will.
The stereotype is, of course, false. As criminologist and constitutional lawyer Don B. Kates, Jr. and former HCI contributor Dr. Patricia Harris have pointed out, "[s]tudies consistently show that, on the average, gun owners are better educated and have more prestigious jobs than non-owners.... Later studies show that gun owners are less likely than non-owners to approve of police brutality, violence against dissenters, etc."
Conservatives must understand that the antipathy many liberals have for gun owners arises in good measure from their statist utopianism. This habit of mind has nowhere been better explored than in The Republic. There, Plato argues that the perfectly just society is one in which an unarmed people exhibit virtue by minding their own business in the performance of their assigned functions, while the government of philosopher-kings, above the law and protected by armed guardians unquestioning in their loyalty to the state, engineers, implements, and fine-tunes the creation of that society, aided and abetted by myths that both hide and justify their totalitarian manipulation.
Have we seen anything to indicate that this is not an accurate summary of the opposition's motivations? Hardly. I recommend relentless hostility towards any who support gun control, with a healthy application of who..whom. Frankly most issues in our society aren't about what they are nominally purported to be. They're about what group can turn their opponents into society's niggers. The whole tempest over teaching evolution, creationism, design, et al is exactly the same---are we really expected to believe that the motive on either side is merely a concern for accuracy in education? In a system that can't even teach functional literacy a good fraction of the time? No, the reason, as before is who...whom. Strip the sanctimonious sophistry swiftly and let's just have a sublime slugfest of self and group interest.
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