Razorfist’s GHOST OF THE BADLANDS has certainly gotten off to a good start on Amazon.
The books purchased via the Arkhaven store are now printing and should arrive before the Amazon books do.
Crushing the Comics
Author: VD
Brave on Linux
I was unhappy with a cheap Chromebook that I bought to take on the road, so at the advice of a very well-travelled friend, I bought a 7-year-old used, but high-quality laptop for less than one-third the price of the Chromebook, then wiped the hard drive and installed Linux on it, specifically, Mint Cinnamon.
The installation was vastly easier than it was back when I was installing Red Hat 9, and I only ran into two minor issues in the process. Here are my notes on what was a surprisingly fast and easy installation.
- There is no need to remove the USB stick on the first reboot after installation. It’s not necessary. And if you do remove it, remove it BEFORE you start the reboot.
- Be sure to update the Update Manager before you install Brave using the commands shown below. If you don’t, you will get an error and it won’t install. You can use Copy and Paste for the strings, just remember that Ctrl-V will not work to paste inside the terminal, you have to select Edit/Paste from the pull-down menu.
- If you see a ~ at the end of a pasted text string, then you haven’t updated the Update Manager.
- Firefox, which comes installed with Cinnamon, has gotten intrusive to the point of unusability. I wouldn’t even consider using it now.
sudo apt install curl
sudo curl -fsSLo /usr/share/keyrings/brave-browser-archive-keyring.gpg https://brave-browser-apt-release.s3.brave.com/brave-browser-archive-keyring.gpg
echo “deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/brave-browser-archive-keyring.gpg] https://brave-browser-apt-release.s3.brave.com/ stable main”|sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/brave-browser-release.list
sudo apt update
sudo apt install brave-browser
Installing Brave on Linux (Debian-Ubuntu-Mint)
Computer technology has now reached the point of declining marginal utility for most users, and Windows is becoming ridiculously intrusive, so you can get some real bargains as long as you are willing to enter the tank zone and don’t have any esoteric software requirements.
UPDATE: I am reliably informed by the resident Linux community that Ctrl-Shift-V is the correct keyboard command to paste text strings in the Linux terminal.
Accountability is Unavoidable
The professional vaxxers are getting worried that their victims are going to hold them personally responsible for what they did:
I was chatting with a friend of mine the other day, from small town Saskatchewan, and he said their local public health nurse has resigned due to death threats. Her father warned her not give the COVID shots, because, he said, “You don’t know what’s in them.” But she was super pro vaccines, so she administered them left, right, and center, and contacted the seniors in her community to come in and “get vaccinated”. She was also somewhat infamous for administering immunizations at the school without parental consent. Well… since 2021, seniors in that small community have been dropping like flies and now, three years later, people are putting two and two together. And they are UPSET.
Then I heard later, of pastors getting death threats for pushing the shot on their congregations for the same reason, so many deaths and side effects. As a side note: if your church is registered under the Canada Corporations Act, it is possible that your pastor or deacon was offered money, by the government to get as many parishioners jabbed up as possible. (If your church issues receipts for charitable donations, it’s registered under the Canada Corporations Act, in case you’re a church going individual and are wondering if this applies to your particular church.)
And now the rats are jumping ship, as well. Health Canada is now saying they were “not aware” that there was DNA in the COVID vaccines. I have a grade nine education and I “was aware’ in 2020, already, that there was sketchy DNA in those shots. If I knew, they knew. And every day I hear of a fresh politician coming out and saying the whole COVID thing was handled wrong, and the vax pass was a bad idea, and they hadn’t supported it from the get-go, and blah, blah, blah. To be clear, they knew EXACTLY what they were doing. Nobody who was pushing this agenda, masks, vaccines, lockdowns, etc. was in the dark. I believe there were unsuspecting individuals who got the shots who didn’t know. But any health care professional, pastor, or politician who was pushing them, or any cop who was enforcing this crap, had been warned by somebody.
Us “anti-vaxxers” have said enough; it’s not our job to hold anybody accountable. But those of you who got it because of pressure from your doctor, your family member who is a nurse, your pastor, your boss, whoever. Hold those people accountable. This is a terrible, terrible thing that has been perpetrated on the world, and the spin off effects will go on for years. Never forget. I’m not saying don’t forgive, but we cannot forget, or it WILL happen again. It will take on a different face, but it will happen again.
I think it will be very difficult for the law to find much fault with the actual victims hounding those who victimized them and materially harmed them, whether their actions were based in fear, misplaced virtue-signaling, or greed. As time goes on, and it becomes ever more clear that the vaxxed have been seriously damaged by the various substances injected into them, I won’t blame any victim who seeks retribution beyond mere ostracism and disemployment.
We can’t be certain that all of the parties responsible for every step of the process were mass-murderers, although some of them at the top almost certainly knew exactly what they were doing and intended the lethal outcomes. But those who administrated the vaxx should confess that they committed mass-manslaughter, as they provably did lethal harm without malice aforethought.
The fundamental problem is that the governments are unlikely to be able to control any future vigilante justice because they have negative incentive to permit the victims to seek legal justice, being themselves among the guilty parties.
A Free Pass on Beating Children
Minnesota public schools have completely embraced Somalialand:
In Savage, Minnesota, a distressing incident unfolded at Hidden Valley Elementary School, where a nine-year-old girl was reportedly attacked by classmates for not being Muslim. Shawna Larson, the girl’s mother, shared that her daughter was assaulted during a school playground event, prompting an urgent discussion with the school’s principal and teacher. Despite the severity of her injuries, which included a black eye and multiple bruises, Larson was dissatisfied with the school’s handling of the situation, feeling that the response lacked the necessary rigor and consequences for the attackers.
The alleged assault led Larson to file a report with the Savage Police Department, highlighting a disturbing trend where she feels that racial and religious motives are overlooked in school settings. This incident has raised significant concerns about safety and the enforcement of disciplinary actions in educational environments. Larson was particularly troubled by the lack of immediate action against the students involved, noting that no suspensions or expulsions were issued.
History strongly suggests that the beatings will not end until Christians re-establish crusades and inquisitions in their societies. But I could certainly be wrong, and if being nice and civil to strangers are, as the good Scandinavian Lutherans of Minnesota always insist, the only correct solution, no doubt we can expect to see things rapidly begin moving in the right direction soon.
A Warning Shot
Clown World sends a strong signal to European leaders tempted to break ranks and surrender to Russia before they’ve been given permission:
Robert Fico’s third term as prime minister of Slovakia put him squarely at odds with both the European Union and NATO on the matter of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. RT takes a look at the Slovak leader’s stance that drew the ire of Brussels.
The Slovak PM was shot on Wednesday, during a visit to the town of Handlova, and was rushed to hospital for surgery in a serious condition. His attacker has been arrested but his identity and motives have not yet been revealed.
“This is not only a shot at Fico and Slovakia, but also at Russian-Slovak relations,” Russian lawmaker Konstantin Zatulin said in reaction to the news.
“Fico knew very well that the majority of Slovaks, at least half, sympathize with Russia, despite the campaign of deception that rules the roost in Europe,” Zatulin added, noting that the Slovak PM had been “subjected to endless extortion and threats” from the EU over his political positions that ran counter to those of Brussels.
Fico led the government in Bratislava twice before, from 2006 to 2010 and from 2012 to 2018. He returned to office last October, having campaigned on stopping weapons deliveries to Ukraine and arguing that “people in Slovakia have bigger problems” than the war.
Upon winning the election, Fico stopped all Slovak military aid to Ukraine. The previous government had already sent Kiev $728 million worth of weapons, equipment and ammunition. He also refused to join the coalition of about 20 states for buying weapons for Ukraine, led by the neighboring Czech Republic.
Last month, Fico said Bratislava would block Kiev’s application to join NATO. Admission to the US-led bloc requires the unanimous consent of all 32 member states.
Isn’t it fascinating how it’s always political leaders who oppose Clown World initiatives, whether it be vaccines or Russian sanctions, who end up being attacked.
An Accurate Review
In which a reviewer of fantasy books tries, and quite understandably fails, to finish reading the award-winning masterworks of one N.K. Jemisin:
I believe that the Broken Earth Trilogy specifically the fifth season which is the first book is so bad
that it’s essentially unreadable. I don’t remember a book that I’ve read that I believe personally is as bad as this one, and it shocks me that not only is this book extremely popular, but every single book in the trilogy won the Hugo award for the best book. This is a beloved series that many people claim
this is the best fantasy series of all time and I could not have a more contrary opinion to my feeling about
this book.The fact that a third of this book was written in the second person is a ridiculous, ridiculous thing. The second person does not work when it comes to books, it works in some other forms of media, it works in video games, it works quite well in video games where you can picture yourself into the main character and people are talking to you in that way, but in a book it comes off so odd that it’s off-putting and difficult to suck in. There is a reason that virtually no books utilize the second person, and it’s not because they’re not as smart as NK Jemisin that they haven’t been able to pull it off, it’s because it doesn’t work.
I believed, constantly, as I read this book, that Jemisin was trying to be too smart and it came off as ridiculous. The second person is horrible, the way that she writes is atrocious. At times where she uses these italics and bolds and all caps within the text to really drive home a point, to really make this strong emphasis, you shouldn’t have to rely on that to make a really strong point. It comes off as kind of crazy.
I thought the twist that was in this book, and there is a major one, and I still don’t know if it actually occurs because I didn’t finish the book. I got 95 percent of the way through, and I said ‘I cannot bear to finish this book’ but I’m about 100 percent confident that there is a major twist that happens at the end of this book that is so obvious that it becomes one of the most telegraphed and poor choices for a twist that I’ve ever read. I can’t say what it is, but I can say that myself, and I suspect a great many readers figured out what it is within the first 50 or so pages. It’s not so much that the twist is ruined, you know. I’ve figured out twists before and it’s disappointing, it doesn’t happen a lot for me. I’m not the smartest guy in the world, I’m oftentimes the last person to pick up on these things, and I really do like it that way. I prefer to be surprised, I don’t want to figure stuff out, I don’t want to be the smartest guy in the room. I want to be, you know, the dummy that is the last one to get it, but man, it’s obvious.
The problem is that the way that the book is structured with this bouncing around in a timeline is ruined
because of the twist. It’s a really poor way to tell the story and the story would have been much preferable to be in a more cohesive, clear, linear fashion, and I don’t think that’s true for all books. I think some books that use time jumps and these different point of views and these things can be very very good, some of my favorite books utilize that, but I think the book sacrificed a great deal in quality to do this and it didn’t work. The twist did not achieve its stated goals.Now when I’ve said this before, I heard a lot of people in the comments say ‘you’re supposed to figure it out.’ No, you’re not! That is a retrospective retelling of the events to try to justify what occurred in this book. Now the last thing I’ll say about a major reason that I disliked this book is the way that characters move on from traumatic events. I think it’s horrible, some horrible things happen in this book, and this book bills itself as being a tear-jerker and just very depressing and these bad things happen, and that
that’s true for the large part, but the characters have these horrible things happen and they reminisce about them for a moment, and they take it in, and then they just move on. That’s crazy, that’s not real life. When horrible things happen people sit with them for great amounts of time, and maybe in later books they reinvestigate this, but in this first book, man, it didn’t work well.So I can’t say enough negative things about this book and I am absolutely floored at how popular this book and this book series are.
The secret is that the book and the book series are not even remotely popular. By her own admission, N… K… Jemisin can’t making a living off them. This is the problem with manufactured “success”. It simply isn’t real, and no amount of fakery and propping up pets, poster children, and other imposters is going to fool anyone who actually knows what they’re talking about.
And yes, the reviewer is correct. One of the cruelest things I have ever done is inspire the SFWA crowd to demolish their own awards by handing a Best Novel award or two to N… K… Yes, I knew “the indirect backlash and overcorrection” would happen. Yes, it was intentional. But no, I never imagined that they would do it THREE straight years in a row. That really exceeded my expectations.
The only thing that would have been funnier would have been if they’d actually followed through on their rhetoric and given an award to Chuck Tingle. But even that would have been less damaging than what they actually did.
Truth is Disinformation
Inversion is the stink of sulfur that always gives away the true nature of Clown World:
BRUSSELS, May 13. /TASS/. The European Commission considers statements that the European Union wants victory in Ukraine on the battlefield to be disinformation, despite the fact that this phrase was previously written by the head of the EU diplomatic service, Josep Borrell. This was stated by EU Foreign Service Representative Peter Stano at a briefing in Brussels. Commenting at the request of journalists on the phrase of Sergei Lavrov, whom Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed to reappoint as head of the Foreign Ministry, that if the West “want [a solution to the conflict in Ukraine] on the battlefield, then it will be on the battlefield,” Stano considered it “ misinformation and distortion of reality.”
In turn, the head of the press service of the European Commission, Eric Mamer, called the same question from journalists incorrect. “The European Union is not on the battlefield. It is Russia that wants victory on the battlefield. Asking us about this, excuse me, means ignoring everything we have said on this topic before,” he argued. He also said that the European Union is “an organization based on a philosophy of peace.”
Borrell was the first European official to say that the conflict in Ukraine “must be won on the battlefield.” He wrote about this on April 9, 2022 on X (formerly Twitter) after a visit to Ukraine in the company of the head of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen. From that moment on, this phrase was constantly repeated throughout 2022 and the first half of 2023 by many European politicians, and then disappeared from the vocabulary of European officials. This roughly coincided with the defeat of the so-called Ukrainian offensive last summer.
I expect they’ll also consider it to be disinformation that anyone ever said “Russia will run out of ammunition in two more weeks” and “the Covid vaccines are safe and effective”. Apparently one has to have the memory of a goldfish to take Clown World seriously.
Way Too Little, Way Too Late
The Biden Adminstration puts tariffs on Chinese imports:
The US rolled out steep tariffs on Chinese products on Tuesday, quadrupling duties on electric vehicles (EVs) to over 100% and imposing new levies on computer chips, solar cells and lithium-ion batteries. The White House says the new measures are intended to “protect American workers and businesses.”
The tariffs will affect $18 billion of Chinese imported goods, including steel and aluminum, semiconductors, batteries, critical minerals, solar cells and cranes.
Biden administration officials claim the measures have come in response to years of “unfair trade practices” by China, including forced technology transfers, intellectual property violations, and cyberhacking of American businesses.
The time for tariffs is when a country still has industrial capacity, not after it has transitioned to a so-called “service economy”. Service economies don’t win wars, they service the soldiers of the victors.
And it’s not like this is going to help US electric vehicle manufacturers. No one wants to buy their products whether a Chinese alternative is available or not.
The Consequences of Boomer Solipsism
It’s no secret that Boomers struggle with technology. But the fact that they can’t figure out how condoms work is downright funny:
Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are surging among older adults, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Cases of gonorrhea among those 55-plus have grown about 600 percent since 2010. Chlamydia cases have quadrupled, while syphilis cases are now nearly 700 percent higher than in 2010.
Older adults tend to shy away from condoms. Those over 55 may associate using condoms with avoiding pregnancy, not preventing STIs. “This generation rarely considers using protection because they came of age when sex education in school did not exist, HIV was virtually unheard of, and their main concern … was to avoid pregnancy,” wrote Janie Steckenrider, associate professor of political science at Loyola Marymount University, in a study published in Lancet Healthy Longevity.
This underlines why it is totally futile to talk to Boomers about the evils of immigration, real estate inflation, student loan debt, or any of a panoply of social ills that plague the younger generations today. When you consider the fact that they can’t even conceive of getting a sexually transmitted disease despite being sexually active, it should be obvious that they won’t be able to grasp less immediately relevant changes in the social environment.
History is Incomplete
The conventional historical narrative leaves more than a few significant gaps in the record that are regularly exposed in a glaring manner by archeology. For example, what culture 2,000 years ago had the ability to surgically repair a fractured skull and successfully install a metal reinforcement? And what culture featured people with skulls shaped like these?
The world is a lot stranger than we’re supposed to believe. Of this, you can be very, very confident. And, of course, the more genetically complicated things get, the more the genetic ranges expand, the more powerful the evidence for MITTENS becomes.