Champions League Final

I’m not a big Barcelona fan, but I loathe Manchester United. United started out fierce, but once the Barca defense withstood their early pressure, it was clear that the Spaniards were the better, more talented team. United keeps trying to send the ball long to Chicharito on the left side, while Barcelona is controlling the ball and patiently working it up the field with a short, ping-pong passing game. Messi is clearly looking for opportunities to make through passes that the strikers can run onto for one-touch shots.

Update: it’s now 3-1 Barca. The United midfield simply can’t stay with the Barcelona mids, who are creating one dangerous opportunity after another.


Mailvox: why yes, the racists are preferable

Unsurprisingly, Dodo fails to reach the correct conclusion concerning why so many people of different political, religious, and ideological stripes keep telling him to shut up:

I love it how I can come on this site and express some of the tamest liberal philosophy and get attacked from all sides, but this guy gets NO RESPONSE AT ALL. But you’re not racists, no.

I find it tremendously amusing that Dodo is whining about the way people react to him while simultaneously calling all of the thousands of daily readers here, including the black ones, racists. He is clearly incapable of realizing that it is his personality defects, and not his political views, that account for the hostile responses he provokes on a daily basis. Of course, it is not only that he is an annoying asshole, as he also makes a regular habit of producing asinine and uninformed comments that have no object except to be disagreeable. Even other atheists have complained about his repetitive idiocy.

The fact is that most people will quite understandably prefer the company of an open racist who keeps his opinion on racial matters to himself except when it is topical to that of an ignorant and unintelligent asshole who insists on constantly forcing his opinion on others no matter the subject. The fact that people tolerate a wide range of diverse opinions, some well outside the zone of the politically correct, while reacting harshly to Dodo’s expressed views does not mean that everyone agrees with any of those opinions or are racists, it merely proves what an exceptional and unmitigated asshole Dodo has shown himself to be.

Moreover, Dodo’s remark underlines his social autism. If he had any social skills at all, he would realize that silence very seldom denotes approval. I also find it interesting that some have inaccurately claimed that this blog is an echo chamber while others have seen fit to criticize the way in which I permit others to freely express their opinions, even on the most sensitive subjects. But if one simply looks at the rules of the blog, one will see that there is no rule which bars any political, ideological, or religious opinion of any kind.


Mailvox: atheist assistance

According to TN, it would appear to be not so much lacking as nonexistent:

My son-in-law and I went to Joplin, MO (about an hour from where I live) and spent a long day in the heart of the disaster area helping several people dig out and sort through what was left of their homes. There was not much to save. The pictures posted on several news sites can’t begin to tell the story.

While driving through the wreckage, we spotted Salvation Army, Catholic, Baptist, Lutheran and Mennonite volunteer work teams. Free child care services are being provided by a host of local churches. Local gyms and warehouse facilities are loaded with donated items from regional churches. Of course, local businesses and individuals shared as well.

Not once did I see one atheist-sponsored group or work team. Not one. They were busy that day snarking on the internet. Just pull up any Joplin or Oklahoma tornado story or YouTube video that has a comments section and you will find hundreds of examples of aspie athiests taking pot shots at any reference to prayer, Divine Intervention or miracle that was witnessed.

As one survivor told me, “129 of us died, but thousands more would have if God hadn’t been with us.” I understood what he meant, but sadly, non-believers would only laugh.

I’m going back in a few days. There’s much more to be done.

I’m told that PZ Myers would very much have liked to help the unfortunate people of Joplin, but he was too busy desecrating Cheez-Its and posting snarky comments about Ken Ham’s Creation Museum. To be fair, the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science did put out an appeal for money, which was sent to the American Red Cross.

In any event, I congratulate TN, his son-in-law, and those who are dedicating their time and effort to help those who are in need. It should never be forgotten that that is one of the core commandments of Jesus Christ.


Mailvox: why do white women choose black men?

The Spartan inquires:

Why is it that in my town, there is a lot of White Women hanging around Blacks. It seems that every Black man in this town has a white wife, white mistress, white girlfriend. Walk into the Salvation Army soup kitchen and every poor white trash woman (or her grandmother) is lugging around some mulatto child.

How does Game answer this? Should not every Beta White male go around in blackface and talk jive? If reproduction is about genes, and moving up the ladder, why are white women flocking to black men, especially on college campuses?

One can never be certain when attempting to ascertain the motivations behind the actions of others. Never forget some of the most important words of Ludwig von Mises from Human Action: “No dialectical artifice can spirit away the fact that man is driven by the aim to achieve certain ends…. We cannot approach our subject if we disregard the meaning which acting man attaches to the situation, i.e. the given state of affairs and to his own behavior with regard to this situation.”

The problem, of course, is that Man in general and women in particular are very seldom able to explain the actual reasons for their actions, they are much better at providing ex post facto rationalizations of them. But, I have made the following observations over time.

1. The media has been pushing multi-racial romance very, very hard for the last 12-15 years, specifically the white female-black male combination. (I would bet that there are at least 10x more WF-BM couples portrayed than BF-WM couples.) There is nary a commercial on television that does not include a token black man with a funky pseudo-afro at the party or a drama that does not feature a romance between a Handsome Black Man and an Open-Minded White Woman. This tends to have an effect on the class most susceptible to mass marketing, the 18-24 crowd, which also the only group without sufficient life experience to understand that the “racist” stereotypes they so enjoy opposing are based on statistical fact.

2. Black men tend to be more aggressive and forward than white men, on the average. They not only take a shotgun approach, but don’t tend to agonize much over being shot down. Possessing -1SD average IQs, they are less likely to be crippled by introspection and second-guessing than white and Asian men. Recall that Roissy has asserted that high intelligence is actually a handicap with regards to sexual status. Also, the observable black male disinclination for monogamous relationships dictates that a higher percentage of them will remain on the market regardless of their current relationship status.

3. Low rank white women tend to be overvalued by black men. The woman who can attract only white 3s is often able to attract black 7s. I know several black male-white female couples where the black man is significantly more attractive than the white woman. This phenomenon is also often seen in white male-Asian female couples. When a woman has the option to increase her sex rank simply by expanding the pool of acceptable men, it should come as no surprise that many elect to do so.

However, it is interesting to note that despite the race-mixing at the prole level, very little of it takes place among the marrying classes. Virtually no white women actually marry black men; even Asian marriages to white men are on the order of 2 percent of all Asian female marriages. As with most cultural degradations such as crime and illegitimacy, multi-racial non-marital relationships are for the lower classes while the shrinking middle and upper classes of all races remain homogenous.

So, on the basis of his email, I can conclude the Spartan’s town is an economically depressed one that is largely comprised of lower class whites with a large minority population. As far as the question about Game goes, the rule is to mimic whatever behavior is proven to be successful. If the Spartan is interested in overweight, peroxide-blonde 3s, he would probably be wise to imitate the behavior of those gentlemen who are presently attracting them.


Hotel privacy

In which I find myself in rare agreement with Megan Mcardle:

I travel a lot, and I’ve had housekeepers walk in on me in various states of undress, especially in hotels with turndown service (yes, yes, now that I’m a more seasoned traveler, I try to engage the chain or the deadbolt before I undress). Not a big deal for me, but I’m sure it could happen to a male traveler perfectly innocently. So could a wardrobe malfunction–the robes in many hotels are not exactly overgenerous, especially for the burgeoning middle-aged physique of a chairborne warrior.

Just last month, I was traveling and staying in a hotel. Despite the fact that I had not checked out yet, the door was locked, and checkout was not for another two hours, I heard housekeeping fumbling with the door as I stepped out of the bathroom fresh from a shower.

And even though I twice called out that I was in the room, the woman unlocked the door, opened it, and walked in on me, before apologizing and retreating in some disarray. I thought nothing of it at the time, but I have no doubt that had I been the one entering the locked room, many women would have considered it a case of sexual harassment and near rape. Especially since there was no “do not disturb” sign on the exterior doorknob.

“The door was locked… I even told him TWICE that the room was occupied, but he INSISTED on entering!”

I’m not attempting to defend DSK’s actions in any way, shape, or form, but it is downright ridiculous to insist that it is the women who are entering locked rooms are somehow the victims of the men they occasionally surprise. I’m not saying that there are no exhibitionists – male or female – staying at hotels whose behavior is objectionable, but I would be willing to be that the greater part of those who are surprised sans clothing are perfectly innocent hotel guests who are operating under the erroneous assumption that a locked door is sufficient to provide them with privacy.


The Ultimate Hunt can’t be far away

Mark Zuckerberg is challenging himself:

When he’s not too busy connecting people across the universe, Mark Zuckerberg is pursuing a new “personal challenge,” as he calls it. “The only meat I’m eating is from animals I’ve killed myself,” says the Facebook founder and CEO.

It’s an odd dietary direction for the 27-year-old Internet billionaire, but since he has taken to killing goats, pigs and chickens, “I’m eating a lot healthier foods. And I’ve learned a lot about sustainable farming and raising of animals,” he says. “It’s easy to take the food we eat for granted when we can eat good things every day.”

Zuckerberg’s new goal came to light, not surprisingly, on Facebook. On May 4, Zuckerberg posted a note to the 847 friends on his private page: “I just killed a pig and a goat.”

I give him five years before he’s hunting humans on his private island off the coast of Africa. In the meantime, he can a) attempt to best Tiger Woods’s off-course record, b) score all 249 stars in Guitar Hero Metallica, and c) dedicate himself to becoming the Ultimate Champion.


Corrupt like a senator

Public Enemy had it right. Congress is shamelessly crooked. This also explains why they behaved in such a shamelessly slavish manner towards Wall Street when their supposed masters, the American public, were vehemently against TARP and the bank bailouts:

An extensive study released Wednesday in the journal Business and Politics found that the investments of members of the House of Representatives outperformed those of the average investor by 55 basis points per month, or 6 percent annually, suggesting that lawmakers are taking advantage of inside information to fatten their stock portfolios.

“We find strong evidence that members of the House have some type of non-public information which they use for personal gain,” according to four academics who authored the study, “Abnormal Returns From the Common Stock Investments of Members of the U.S. House of Representatives.”

To the frustration of open-government advocates, lawmakers and their staff members largely have immunity from laws barring trading on insider knowledge that have sent many a private corporate chieftain to prison.

It’s that last sentence that shows America is not only dead, but well into a state of rigor mortis. Congressman are not only breaking the law, they have openly declared themselves to be above the law as well. And they are getting away with it.


Why Vox Day is chick crack

Over at Alpha Game, Susan Walsh has posted about a recent scientific study which delineated certain aspects of male and female appeal for the opposite sex. The key summary, at least as it related to the post title, was provided by the headline of one article related to the study.

“Brooding, Proud Guys Score High on Sex Appeal”

As I mentioned in the comments to Susan’s post, this provided Spacebunny with no little amusement, given her observation that my tendency to brood is apparently on par with that of Heathcliff and Darcy. My protests that I merely engage in the moderate amount of contemplation that is necessary to anyone dwelling in this vale of tears were met with a) a burst of incredulous laughter, and b) an appeal to the dictionary: “to dwell on a subject or to meditate with morbid persistence”. Emphasis, it would appear, on the morbid….

(Full confession: I tend to think of “brooding” in the sense of incubating eggs rather than a gerund indicating contemplative activity, which in part accounted for my protest.)

As for the other part, well, I am informed that every so often, I am inclined to comport myself in a manner that is indicative of an inclination to consider myself in a rather favorable manner. I would merely point out that these things are relative and is not that I think so well of myself, only that I am so often given reason to think little of others.

In any case, this new scientodical expansion of scientage may help explain why women continue to email me and send me their pictures after expressing their outrage concerning my written opinions and threatening not to have sex with me. I’d like to say that it is hard being an intellectual sex symbol, (although let’s face it, the bar is an extraordinarily low one), but frankly, my dears, I don’t give a damn.


Godlessness is more than a-theism

One thing I always enjoy about atheists is the shameless way they perform the Atheist Dance. They are such hopelessly muddled thinkers that they constantly define and redefine words as it happens to suit them at the moment, not infrequently contradicting themselves multiple times in a single article, blog post, or book. An atheist will claim that there is absolutely nothing that can be determined about him by the mere fact of his atheism except for his non-belief in a creator God, then immediately turn around and insist that of course he doesn’t believe in the power of crystals or Noah’s Flood… because he is an atheist and therefore obviously doesn’t believe in anything insufficiently “proven” by science… except for historical events that a sufficient number of people believe to be true… except for those related to religion. And so forth.

The observation that most atheism is little more than a juvenile psychological disorder tends to be supported by the fact that left-wing politics are far more central to most atheists, including some of the most outspoken ones, than their “atheism”, whatever that might actually happen to be. Consider the Fowl Atheist’s recent statement that godless goals are progressive goals:

All the big shots in the secular organizations I’ve met seem like rather progressive individuals who would agree entirely with Watson’s [radically pro-abortion] position, and I’ve seen some published statements here and there that support such liberal (i.e., rational) causes as women’s rights and gay rights and equality in general, but otherwise, these particular civil rights issues seem more assumed than advocated by the major organizations — they certainly don’t oppose them. I can understand how a non-profit might have to tread carefully on political claims (they can’t come out and damn the Republican party, after all), but Watson has a point.

Maybe there should be more overt activism for civil rights in general, in addition to the more focused attention given to atheist/humanist issues. Freethought movements should be about human dignity and freedom in all domains, not just religion. We should own these issues; we need to be on the right side of history….

Of course, such a move would piss off the libertarian/conservative wing of the atheist movement, but I can’t see a down side to jettisoning them, anyway.

That’s fine with me. I’d quite pleased to have libertarian atheists and conservative atheists on my side; they are proof that godlessness is not completely antithetical to political sanity. And it is amusing that PZ thinks that murdering unborn children is “the right side of history”; I have absolutely no doubt that the atheists of the future will be denying that pro-abortion equalitarians were motivated by their atheism in much the same way that atheists today deny that rabidly murderous Communists were motivated by their atheism.

Calling a feminist a feminazi is an insult to the German National Socialist Workers Party. The feminists and equalitarians have FAR more blood on their hands than the National Socialists ever did. Consider that in India, there are only 893 girls born for every 1,000 boys. In China, the girl/boy birth ratio is .855. And the more educated and wealthy a woman is, the more likely it is that she will murder her daughter.

“That decrease was even more marked in families where the mothers were wealthier and had 10 or more years of education compared with a poor and uneducated mothers – presumably because the wealthy are more easily able to obtain illegal abortions.”

In the name of progress and equality, up to 12 million Indian girls have been slaughtered in the last 30 years. This is not about human freedom and dignity, it is not “the right side of history”. It is nothing less than the greatest crime yet committed by humanity against itself. These progressive atheists and equalitarians will forever bear the curse of the hundreds of millions of innocents whose deaths they have not only demanded, but celebrated.


Cracks in the Euro

A Greek official finally admits the obvious:

Greece must take tough measures to deal with its debt crisis or it will have to return to the drachma, the EU’s Fisheries Commissioner Maria Damanaki said on Wednesday. “I am forced to speak openly,” Damanaki was quoted as saying in a statement by the semi-official Athens News Agency. “Either we agree with our lenders to a programme of tough sacrifices … or we return to the drachma.”

I’m hoping Italy will return to the Lira, myself. I still have a few of them sitting around somewhere in the old filing cabinet. Anyhow, this “forced restructuring” is the only valid option since the ECB, the EU, and the bond-holding banks have repeatedly refused to cut Greece’s debts in a manner sufficient to permit repayment.