Author: VD

At the Black Gate

Yes, I’m still posting there. This one is for the old school gamers. It’s an interview with Marc Miller, the designer of Fifth Frontier War, Azhanti High Lightning, and, of course, Traveller. It offers substantial evidence in support of the hypothesis that designing games is a natural talent rather than the result of experience and interest in playing games.

The Gay Old Party strikes again

It would seem there are more gay Republicans than genuine conservative republicans in the Senate:

“US Senator Lindsey Graham is gay and while many people in South Carolina and Washington DC know that, the general public and Graham’s constituents do not,” Gheen said in the statement. Though Gheen claimed, both in the statement and at the Tea Party rally, that he does “not care about Graham’s private life,” he again said that Graham must declare his supposed homsexuality “so the public can rest assured he is not being manipulated with his secret.”

I am convinced that, with very few exceptions, there is something intrinsically and fundamentally wrong with the psyche of anyone who genuinely wants to be a national politician. I have no idea what is or is not true about Lindsay Graham, but what sort of lunatic would decide that what the good conservative people of South Carolina really need to represent their political interests is a closet dweller?

What you do is only your concern if you’re a private citizen, but not if you’re a politician positioned as a family values conservative. People have the right to know for whom they are voting.

Expanding interest

It appears to be rather obvious that a lot of people are not buying into the recovery argument. I was surprised to learn today that six months after its release, The Return of the Great Depression is the #6#3 bestselling Kindle book in the Economics category and #37#10 in Business & Investing. That’s not bad at all for a book that has not been reviewed in a single mainstream news, business, or economics publication. And, much to my surprise, at $1.99 it’s not even the least expensive in the top ten as the Economic Report of the President by Council of Economic Advisers is free.

UPDATE: It would appear InstaPundit is the culprit. Thanks, Glenn!

Always call their bluff

Never forget that the smarter and more knowledgeable act put on by many atheists is inevitably nothing more than that, an act, and one that has absolutely no basis in empirical reality except for a three-point average advantage in IQ which is almost surely a statistical artifact of their insignificant numbers and self-selected identification. Do ANY of them, from the Antipope of Oxford on down, know even the first thing about history? Here’s a lovely example:

WorldNetDaily columnist Vox Day bends over backwards to argue that James Watson’s recent criticism is worse than the Spanish Inquisition’s threats of torture against Galileo. Seriously.

I wouldn’t think a great deal of bending is required in order to establish that simple fact. Seriously. Monty Python had it right, no doubt Galileo wasn’t expecting them! And, I wonder, to whom has James Watson been directing his criticism of late?

On a related note, Chad the Elder quotes David Hart’s piece on the decline of intelligent atheism: “The utter inconsequentiality of contemporary atheism is a social and spiritual catastrophe. Something splendid and irreplaceable has taken leave of our culture–some great moral and intellectual capacity that once inspired the more heroic expressions of belief and unbelief alike. Skepticism and atheism are, at least in their highest manifestations, noble, precious, and even necessary traditions, and even the most fervent of believers should acknowledge that both are often inspired by a profound moral alarm at evil and suffering, at the corruption of religious institutions, at psychological terrorism, at injustices either prompted or abetted by religious doctrines, at arid dogmatisms and inane fideisms, and at worldly power wielded in the name of otherworldly goods. In the best kinds of unbelief, there is something of the moral grandeur of the prophets–a deep and admirable abhorrence of those vicious idolatries that enslave minds and justify our worst cruelties.”

And now we have the spectacle of Dawkinsian atheism, which warns of how a revival of the Spanish Inquisition’s terrible witchburnings during the Thirty Years War, which cost Galileo, Bruno, and Sarah Good their lives at the siege of Jerusalem, poses an imminent threat to science.

NFL draft

It was certainly interesting. And for Vikings fans, a little disappointing, because I would very much have liked to see the Vikings draft Tim Tebow. Unfortunately, Denver’s unexpectedly bold move means that they may have to get by with Clausen, assuming that they go for a quarterback with the second pick in the second round. Obviously Tebow has some doubters, but as Cold Hard Football Facts points out, if you don’t buy into the “mechanics” voodoo, Tebow has been the best SEC quarterback since Peyton Manning and cannot possibly be as likely to turn out a bust as JaMarcus Russell was.

I trust passing accuracy, character, and championships a lot more than the dogmatic insistence on a model that has regularly produced the likes of Russell, Leaf, and Harrington. The scouts didn’t think much of one Francis Asbury Tarkenton either, and he only retired with every major passing record in the books. Bradford was probably the right pick for the Rams, but it was a high risk/reward pick that they had little choice regarding. Quarterback is simply so much more important than every other position in the modern NFL that if there is even a 20 percent chance that a quarterback is genuine long-term starter material, a team has to take it.

Which means Clausen even though I suspect he is a little prick of a prima donna. Which is all right, since he’ll be nicely suited to step into Brett Favre’s when old Number Four finally retires for real after next season. Or maybe the season after that. Prior to the Sheppard signing, I’d expected the Vikes to draft a cornerback, but despite Sheppard’s loss of elite status, he’s still a definite upgrade to the secondary once Griffin returns. I would like to see them pick up Clausen with 2(34) and Myron Rolle at S with 2(62), assuming he’s still available. And, since Pat Williams won’t be around much longer, it would be interesting to see them pursue a trade with Washington for Haynesworth.

The Ark-B economy

Greece exemplifies the inherent unreliability of government economic statistics:

Financially-stricken Greece had an even bigger budget deficit for 2009 than previously thought, official figures showed Thursday — at a time the country is considering whether to tap a bailout facility from its 15 partners in the eurozone and the International Monetary Fund.

The European Union’s statistics office Eurostat said that Greece’s budget deficit in 2009 as a percentage of economic output was 13.6 percent — that’s up from the previous estimate of 12.9 percent and nearly double the 7.7 percent recorded in 2008.

Fictional numbers informing the deployment of fictional money by fraudulent financiers. I have a sneaking suspicion that the people of the far future are going to look back on our time as the Idiot Ages. We are the telephone sanitizers.

There goes global warming

Without the ability to hide the data, there won’t be much room for sustaining the manufactured “scientific” consensus:

Scientists at Queen’s University in Belfast have been ordered to hand over 40 years of research data on tree rings after a three-year battle with climate sceptics. The ruling by the Information Commissioner sets a precedent for scientists having to comply with the strictest interpretation of the Freedom of Information (FoI) Act. It suggests that in future academics will not be able to avoid handing over data by claiming that the task would be too onerous or that it would breach intellectual property rights.

No doubt we will soon be hearing great lamentations about how open data and independent verification is anti-science.