Author: VD

She did the math

Nice to see that women are capable of grasping that feminism is bad for more women than it benefits economically:

Author Fay Weldon has risked infuriating fellow feminists by claiming their cause left two-thirds of British women worse off. In an interview in The Mail on Sunday’s Event magazine today, Weldon, 85, says the feminist revolution had adverse implications by ‘halving the male wage, so it no longer supported a family.’ That meant some women had to get jobs, even if they would rather have been at home with their children. ‘Women had to work to support the family. So for two in three women, it really was a problem.’

I first pointed this out back in 2007:

Anyhow, it’s interesting that people are finally beginning to pay some attention to the basic economics of the issue. I expect more than a few people on both sides of the feminist aisle are going to be very upset when the period from 1970 to the present is studied.

Feminists will be upset because it will make feminism look like a disaster for women. Working, married non-feminists will be upset because they’ll realize that they are essentially working for nothing. Men won’t like it either, since they’ll realize that they’re getting paid less for the same work that their fathers did.

It’s interesting how everyone understands that immigrants cause labor prices to fall, but most people don’t grasp that a substantial increase in domestic work force participation, by any group, has the same effect.

For the benefit of those who needed me to type more slowly, I spelled it out in more detail in 2013:

While immigration too plays a role here, the only significant effect native women have when they enter the labor force in greater numbers is to depress the price of labor.  Unlike immigrants, they don’t bring in new consumption to help mitigate their wage-depressing effects; the reason real hourly wages peaked in 1973 and have been falling ever since is because that was the year that the number of men younger than 20 and older than 65 leaving the labor force was surpassed by educated, middle-class women entering it.

One-third of working class women have always worked.  The change brought by feminism is that now middle class and upper middle class married women work as well.  And the more women that work, the more women have to work and the less time women who don’t work will have with their husbands who support them, because an INCREASE in the SUPPLY of labor necessitates a DECREASE in the PRICE of labor, demand remaining constant.

And to make matters worse, demand does not remain constant, but actually declines, because a woman who works is statistically much less likely to eventually become a wife and mother, and even when she does, she becomes one several years later and has fewer children.  This means that feminism is a structural economic failure as it creates a downward-spiraling vicious circle of three easily identifiable revolutions:

  1. The increase in the supply of labor causes wages to go down.  This is indisputable in either logical or empirical terms.
  2. Female hypergamy, female independence, and opportunity cost reduces the marriage rate and the average birth rate, while increased male work hours and work-related romantic opportunities increases the divorce rate.  These connections are all logically sound and readily observable.
  3. The reduced birth rate has a negative effect on consumption, and therefore the demand for labor, 20 years before the consequent negative effects on the supply of labor can help balance it out, putting further negative pressure on wage rates.  This is also indisputable, both logically and empirically. 

A theory, falsified, again

One wonders how many times evolutionary biologists are going to see their hypotheses falsified before they finally give up and abandon ship on their pet theory.

Before the advent of rapid, accurate, and inexpensive DNA sequencing technology in the early 2000s, biologists guessed that genes would provide more evidence for increasing complexity in evolution. Simple, early organisms would have fewer genes than complex ones, they predicted, just as a blueprint of Dorothy’s cottage in Kansas would be less complicated than one for the Emerald City. Instead, their assumptions of increasing complexity began to fall apart. First to go was an easy definition of how complexity manifested itself. After all, amoebas had huge genomes. Now, DNA analyses are rearranging evolutionary trees, suggesting that the arrow scientists envisioned between simplicity and complexity actually spins like a weather vane caught in a tornado.

In summary:

  1. Biologists predicted genome size would increase over time, and that was wrong. 
  2. Biologists then predicted that gene number would increase over time, and that was wrong. 
  3. Biologists predicted that complex body parts would develop after simpler body parts, and that was wrong.
  4. Biologists have now found that the oldest living ancestor of animals, comb jellies, already had brain, nervous system, and muscles, and that sponges later lost those genes. Complexity was there at the start. 
  5. Biologists have also found, through experiment, that most mutations cause a loss of complexity.

The latter is particularly important, because it renders evolution statistically improbable to the point of impossibility. How many scientific theories can produce so many predictions that are completely proven wrong, so many hypotheses that are falsified, and still be considered orthodox dogma that one must be a madman or a barbarian to question?

I don’t have the answer, but frankly, at this point, I am more inclined to believe in the possibility either alien breeding programs or the grand simulation hypothesis I am in the combination of abiogenesis and the neo-Darwinian synthesis. The combination is not only too temporally difficult and statistically improbable, but reliably produces incorrect hypotheses. I wouldn’t go so far as to say it isn’t science, merely that it is bad and outdated science that is unlikely to ever have any engineering relevance.

Cerno does 60 Minutes

This is an open thread to discuss Mike Cernovich’s recent appearance on 60 Minutes:

During a contentious debate on the nature of truth and what is “fake news,” Mike Cernovich told Scott Pelley what story 60 Minutes would publish before the episode had aired. Find an excerpt of this interview below:

Scott Pelley: Who’s gunning for you?

Mike Cernovich: You are. I’m on 60 Minutes. Right?

Scott Pelley: What do you mean, we’re gunning for you?

Mike Cernovich: Do I really think that you guys are going to tell the story that I would like to have told, no. Your story’s going to be here’s a guy, spreads fake news, uses social media, these social media people better … I know the story you guys are doing before you do it.

Scott Pelley: What’s wrong with that story?

Mike Cernovich: Because it is an agenda. The agenda is … The truth is you’ve talked to a person who sincerely believes true, you must also admit that there have been many stories reported by major outlets like the New York Times, the Washington Post, and Rolling Stone, that were false.

Scott Pelley: Agreed.

Mike Cernovich: People get it wrong, so why then come guns blazing at me, and not guns blazing at everybody? Why isn’t this segment going to say, how did the New York Times get conned? How did the Washington Post believe that Russia had hacked the power grid? We all together, collectively need to discover what the truth is, and converse with one another what the truth is, that’s a different story.

Mike and I discussed whether it was a good idea for him to make an exception to his usual policy to not grant interviews to what he calls the Hoax Media a few days ago. We’ll find out soon enough!

Dear, oh dear

And you see, even if I wasn’t opposed to fake reviews, the following is why, in this case, they are not only wrong and deceptive, but redundant. There will be no shortage of legitimate one-star reviews by Scalzi fans who feel let down by his latest effort, particularly since it is the result of nearly two years of groundless hype.

Half a novel. Don’t bother.
March 25, 2017
Format: Kindle Edition|Verified Purchase

I’ve enjoyed Scalzi’s work enough that I pre-ordered this novel. Having read it (and enjoyed what there was of it) I feel profoundly cheated.

The problem has nothing to do with length — plenty of excellent complete novels have been written in fewer pages. Here though, critical elements of the story are left undeveloped at the end of the novel. I don’t want to spoil what there is of the plot, so suffice it to say that there are no meaningufl resolutions of conflicts facing any of the main characters except, I suppose, for the one who dies and another relatively minor villian. The resolution of the only interesting plot question that is revealed is blindingly obvious half way through the book. So no payoff there either.

I have no objection to setting a plot line that sets up a sequel. The series seems to be almost an imperative in sci-sfi publishing these days. But that’s quite different from a novel that basically ends with a “to be continued” on all fronts that anyone cares about.

As for the fake good reviews, why, the more the better! The more people who fall for the deception and buy the shlockfest, the more disgusted Scalzi-haters there will be. Remember, even I once fell for “the new Heinlein” hype too.

The problem Tor Books faces is simple. Sooner or later, the truth will out. And the truth is that John Scalzi is a mediocre and derivative midlister who has only reached “major” status in science fiction as a result of his own deceptive self-marketing combined with the extraordinary marketing efforts made on his behalf by Patrick Nielsen Hayden. Scalzi has a legitimate fan base, but it is much smaller than Larry Correia’s; imagine how many books Larry would sell if he was being featured in Audible advertising, having fake New York Times bestseller slots arranged for him, and talked up by Tor-published contributors at the Guardian, then featured in puff pieces in the New York Times, and NPR.

Pity poor Brandon Sanderson, who actually is a major SF author and outsells Scalzi by a significant margin, but doesn’t get one-tenth the attention or support from his publisher that Scalzi does. That’s the price of working with an SJW-converged publisher. They will always put their political agenda ahead of their professional responsibilities.

Anyhow, I’d assumed Scalzi would need to “restructure” his contract after delivering the fourth book. In light of this disaster, he’s probably going to have to do so after he fails to deliver the second book on time and Macmillan finally discovers that PNH has sold them a midlister in major’s clothing.

In any event, Johan Kalsi and I would like to thank you all for making his debut with Castalia House such an unforgettable one. ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED? Mr. Kalsi is already hard at work on the sequel to Corrosion, which will be entitled Corrosion and Empire, and eagerly awaits the announcement from Tor Books concerning the direction of his next new series. And I have to say, perhaps the most amusing thing in all this, to me, is the angry, upset SF-SJWs who are unaware that this little stunt is literally nothing new in the science fiction world; it should hardly surprise anyone that the current publisher of There Will Be War would be aware of the various, perfectly legitimate, marketing possibilities in this regard.

There is more at Castalia House. Including, but not limited, to this video commentary.

The return of Walt Ames

Peter Grant, the author of The Ames Archives, has debuted the title and cover of the second book in the series, the sequel to his very well-received revival of the Western, BRINGS THE LIGHTNING, on his site.

I think perhaps a brief excerpt from ROCKY MOUNTAIN RETRIBUTION would be in order:

As the half-light of dawn began to spread across the eastern horizon, Walt arranged himself into his prone shooting position, tucking the stock of the Remington Rolling Block rifle more tightly into his shoulder. Its powerful .50 Government cartridge would kick back like a mule if he wasn’t positioned correctly to absorb its recoil. He put his eye to the full-length Malcolm telescope sight mounted over the barrel, but the shadows were still too deep and too dark to make out the carcass in the field below.


He waited patiently as the morning light grew slowly brighter. Looking downward from his hide in a rocky outcrop, he began to make out a dark mass against the green grass of the field. It looked larger than it had the evening before, when he set up this position… and, yes, it was moving! He grinned triumphantly and bent his head to the sight once more.


The big brown bear was soon breaking its fast by ripping chunks of meat off the dead cow, eating quickly. Walt reckoned it had probably already learned the hard way that, while farmers’ cattle were easy prey, the farmer would express his resentment of their loss with burning powder and hot lead. Even as he watched, the bear took a last mouthful, then turned, looking up past the rocks as it prepared to climb the hill to the safety of the tree line.


He took a deep breath, let it half-out, and held it. Aim low, he reminded himself. You’re shooting downhill. You’ve got to make allowance for that. He’d already pushed forward the set trigger until it clicked, adjusting its pull weight to mere ounces. He set the sight’s crosshairs on the bottom edge of the bear’s body, to the left of its head, as it walked towards him on all fours. His finger tightened on the trigger, gently… slowly… gently…


The rifle boomed in the still morning air, sparks and white gunpowder smoke erupting from its muzzle. Walt immediately reached up with his right hand, re-cocked the hammer, and flicked open the breech to remove the fired case, then withdrew another fat .50-70-450 cartridge from the box at his side and slid it into the chamber. Closing the action, he pushed the trigger forward to reset it. The whole sequence took no more than three seconds before his eye was back at the telescope sight.


The first round had slammed into the top of the bear’s left shoulder and raked downwards into its chest, rocking the beast’s massive body. It roared aloud in pain and anger as it reared upright, standing on its hind legs, looking to see where the unexpected attack was coming from. It spotted the cloud of smoke drifting away on the light morning breeze and roared again – just as Walt’s second bullet smashed into its breast, piercing its heart. It bellowed once more in anguished fury as it fell forward onto all fours. It started up the hill towards him, but within just a few steps its gait grew unsteady, and faltered. With a final groan, the bear toppled forward onto its snout, then slid back a few feet on the dew-wet grass.

Trust the God-Emperor

An insightful comment on Gab by American Nationalist:

Trump’s handling of the AHCA went from questionable to spectacular the moment Jeanine Pirro laid the smackdown on Paul Ryan after he tweeted to watch her show tonight.

It was as I hoped – Trump pledged his support for Ryan’s catastrophe so he could isolate and destroy him – publicly.

Whether that was his original intent or whether this is an example of the God-Emperor adroitly turning lemons into lemonade is irrelevant. The former may be more comforting, but the latter is actually more encouraging; it’s nice when things go according to plan, but it’s even better when one is able to turn setbacks into advances.

Fox News host Judge Jeanine Pirro, whose show President Trump urged his followers on Twitter to watch earlier in the day, opened her program at 9pm on Saturday by calling for Speaker Paul Ryan’s resignation.

“Ryan needs to step down as Speaker of the House. The reason, he failed to deliver the votes on his healthcare bill, the one trumpeted to repeal and replace ObamaCare, the one that he had 7 years to work on; the one he hid under lock and key in the basement of Congress; the one that had to be pulled to prevent the embarrassment of not having enough votes to pass.” Pirro said in her opening statement. “Speaker Ryan, you come in with all your swagger and experience and sell them a bill of goods which ends up a complete and total failure and you allow our president, in his first 100 days, to come out of the box like that, based on what?”

What made Pirro’s fiery comments about Ryan especially notable is that they came hours after Trump tweeted to encourage his followers to watch “Justice with Judge Jeanine.”

Another reason I find the “lemonade” theory to be more convincing is that Obamacare was never a particular focus of Trump’s, which was why I didn’t understand how it had somehow become a supposed priority when it was, and is, primarily a legislative priority for the House and Senate Republicans. Of course, we all know they’re more or less useless, and the Ryancare debacle is only the latest example.

Regardless, I hope Trump has learned that he’s got to work with the more conservative legislators and isolate the mainstream moderates if he’s going to get anything through the House and Senate. The moderates will cave under pressure, the conservatives are much less likely to do so, having successfully resisted most moderate Republican pressure since the first Bush amnesty attempt.

Frankly, I’d like to see him stop getting pulled into these conventional battles and stay totally focused on the strategic ones, such as neutralizing the anti-Constitutional judiciary and making sure the wall is built before the end of his first term. War, Trade, and Repatriation are the three presidential priorities, everything else is trivial in comparison.

Meanwhile, Scott Adams notes that his model for the dynamic media narrative is actually running ahead of schedule:

With the failure of the Ryan healthcare bill, the illusion of Trump-is-Hitler has been fully replaced with Trump-is-incompetent meme. Look for the new meme to dominate the news, probably through the summer. By year end, you will see a second turn, from incompetent to “Competent, but we don’t like it.” I have been predicting this story arc for some time now. So far, we’re ahead of schedule.

Beating up Black Bloc

What an apt metaphor! That’s the photo of the year. To absolutely no one’s surprise, Black Bloc has turned out to be a collection of pussies who can’t fight when they don’t have a heavy advantage of numbers as well as police standing in the way of an open fight and protecting them from retaliation.

A Make America Great Again rally that began with a dove release to symbolize peace turned violent when supporters were doused with pepper spray by anti-Trump protesters in Southern California. The clashes, which led to three arrests after police clad in riot gear intervened, came before the president posted a tweet thanking those who marched. In Huntington Beach alone, almost 2,000 Trump supporters gathered for the pro-Trump rally. 

The guy getting chased in the photograph was subsequently arrested.

Stand firm. Fight back. The police will stop being amenable authorities for the SJWs once they realize that there are far more anti-SJWs now willing to fight than there are SJWs willing to do so.

Remember, their entire strategy is to cause fear and to intimidate the opposition into silence. And as you can see, nothing terrifies them more than unexpectedly determined resistance.

A comment on Gab: At the Trump rally in Huntington Beach California supporters were chanting, “u can’t run, u can’t hide, u get helicopter rides!”, with one young man in front holding a “da goyim know” placard. Is it just me, or is the Alt-Right spreading like wildfire?


It is indeed. Conservatives don’t fight. The Alt-Right exists to fight. Remember, the Alt-Right is a political taxonomical description, not a membership club with monthly dues. If you’re beating the hell out of a Black Bloc thug, then you’re Alt-Right even if you don’t know it yet. The lion doesn’t know that he’s called a “lion”, after all.

Is anyone actually surprised

The individual behind a series of “anti-Semitic bomb threats” turns out to be an Israeli-American Jew:

Israeli police have arrested a 19-year-old Jewish Israeli American from Ashkelon for his suspected role behind a slew of bomb threats made against Jewish community centers across the globe.

The arrest comes after bomb threats were made against dozens of community centers in Australia, the U.S., Europe and New Zealand over the last six months. Israeli investigators found that many of the threats led back to Israel, though the suspect is not believed to be responsible for all of the threats, according to The Jerusalem Post.

Israeli officials withheld the suspect’s name and offered few details on their background. Here’s what we do know: The person is a dual Israeli-American citizen, he is not a member of the Israeli Defense Forces, he is not ultra-Orthodox and at some point he made aliya (immigration to Israel by Jews in the diaspora) to Israel.

This Marxian dialectical summary was amusing, particularly in light of the philosemitic rhetoric one sees from Christian Zionist Americans from time to time.

thesis: The Jews did it!
antithesis: The Jooos did it!
synthesis: Seriously, though, the Jews did it.

Of course, it’s not just Jews. It’s all minorities. Any time there is a “hate crime” against any minority, particularly the sort of crime in which the perpetrator is able to remain hidden, one can be relatively confident that the perpetrator is a member of that minority group and that the crime is a hoax. I assumed these threats were being made by an American Jew; the SPLC has constructed a $300 million business on hoax crimes and Muslims tend to be more inclined to simply bomb things than idly threaten to do so.

It’s the same reason that you can be certain that a noose or a spray-painted KKK on a college campus will spark outrage up until the inevitable moment it is discovered that a black student is responsible.

The reason minorities do this, and not majorities, is that minorities are ultimately dependent upon maintaining the good will of the majority populations, and one way to achieve that is through instilling guilt in the majority population through obtaining and maintaining victim status. That’s why it is significant that the perpetrator here was an Israeli-American; American Jews consider themselves to be a minority, whereas Israeli Jews do not. Homeland matters.

Uber’s driverless car crashes

That’s not confidence-inspiring:

A self-driving car operated by Uber Technologies Inc. was involved in a crash in Tempe, Arizona, the latest setback for a company reeling from multiple crises.

In a photo posted on Twitter, one of Uber’s Volvo self-driving SUVs is pictured on its side next to another car with dents and smashed windows. An Uber spokeswoman confirmed the incident, and the veracity of the photo, in an email to Bloomberg News.

The spokeswoman could not immediately confirm if there were any injuries, or whether the car was carrying passengers. Uber’s self-driving cars began picking up customers in Arizona last month.

I have to admit, I do not understand the fascination of technology-companies with self-driving cars. I suppose one has to be a bit of a fascist, or at least a monopolist, to be enamored of the concept, which would explain why Apple and Google have gotten involved.