Author: VD

Let’s just say I’m underwhelmed:

The discovery of the 95%-complete ‘lemur monkey’ – dubbed Ida – is described by experts as the “eighth wonder of the world”. They say its impact on the world of palaeontology will be “somewhat like an asteroid falling down to Earth”. Researchers say proof of this transitional species finally confirms Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution, and the then radical, outlandish ideas he came up with during his time aboard the Beagle.

Of course they do. Let’s see the hands of all the theory of evolution believers who will disavow it when – not if – Ida turns out to be yet another trivial artifact in the ever-expanding bone box that proves absolutely nothing of import whatsoever. And to think they found it just in time for Darwin’s 200th anniversary too! Why, it must be a scientific miracle!

As Sarah points out, it’s interesting to learn that as of yesterday, evolution had not been confirmed. And it’s good to know that should this fossil du jour fades into obscurity for one reason or another, we’ll know evolution is once more unconfirmed. Unfortunately for the Darwinian faithful, falsification cuts both ways.

Or smarter, faster, richer, nicer, or better-looking than you out there somewhere. I was feeling pretty self-satisfied at the gym today after ripping through four sets of dumbbell shoulder press. I thought I’d go for reps instead of weight, so I did a 12-10-10-10 series starting with a pair of 20 kilos and ending at 26 kilos. I was feeling pretty good, I just felt kind of… felt kind of invincible.

And then this guy came over, picked up the 26-kilo dumbbells and started doing shoulders too. He did a set of 10 as well. The thing is, he did a set of 10 flies.

Whilst I am sympathetic to men who have been royally abused over by their ex-wives and the insane Family Court system in the USA and the UK, I think men also have to take a certain amount of responsibility for the way in which they have abdicated their paternal roles:

Fathers, who enjoyed absolute authority within the household for several millennia, now find themselves at the beck and call of their wives and children. Indeed, most of my male friends are not fathers in any traditional sense at all; they occupy roughly the same status in their households as the help. They don’t guide their children through the moral quandaries of life — they guide them to their extracurricular activities from behind the wheel of a Dodge minivan….

It’s pretty simple. If you are unwilling to do something that’s been demanded of you, then don’t do it. You don’t have to be an ass about it, you don’t need to be impolite about it, you don’t even necessarily have to say anything at all. Just don’t do it. And that goes for the ex-husbands too. If you don’t want to be a court-appointed slave to your ex-wife, then don’t be. Go and lead that exciting life you always kind of wanted to lead but couldn’t. Join a mercenary troop in Iraq or an outlaw drug gang in Colombia. Climb a mountain in Tibet. Become a river guide in the Amazon. Leave and don’t look back. You’re not going to be permitted to be a father to you children anyhow, so stop pretending you are and enabling the system.

We all make compromises. They’re a necessary part of life with other people. But if you’re the only one making them, then you’re not compromising, you’re just surrendering. And yes, that actually does make you less of a man. Spacebunny often points out that women could not be the overweening bitch-queens of the family if their husbands did not permit them to be. If your home life is so terrible, what are you afraid of losing?

I don’t know why this amuses me so much, but it does:

One of science’s most puzzling mysteries – the disappearance of the Neanderthals – may have been solved. Modern humans ate them, says a leading fossil expert. The controversial suggestion follows publication of a study in the Journal of Anthropological Sciences about a Neanderthal jawbone apparently butchered by modern humans. Now the leader of the research team says he believes the flesh had been eaten by humans, while its teeth may have been used to make a necklace.

Now that I think about it, it’s probably because it tends to destroy Rousseau’s concept of the Noble Savage while simultaneously illustrating the way scientists are reluctant to follow the evidence when it doesn’t support their preconceived notions. I rather enjoyed the one scientist’s theory that maybe someone just found the jawbone and turned it into jewelry for some inexplicable reason, although it would have been much more amusing if he’d theorized a series of shaving accidents instead. Neanderthals were rather hairy, after all.

It strikes me that I really do rather better science than the average scientist. After all, how many scientists can claim to be as demonstrably multi-disciplined as the Japanese scientist who developed Dark Vapor Theory in astrophysics while concocting Evolutionary Stable Strategies in biology in the same year? When you’re an Internet Superintelligence, every year is an Anno Mirabilis.

The Flaw in the Ointment

According to the modern Friedman-Keynes synthesis, there are two tools in the hands of most national authorities that permit them to attempt fine-tuning the economy. The first tool, monetary policy, is the bailiwick of the central bank, which in the United States is known as the Federal Reserve. It has great influence over interest rates, which represent the price of money. Increasing the interest rate is supposed to force the economy to contract, while lowering it is believed to encourage the economy to grow.

“There is the possibility, for the reasons discussed above, that, after the rate of interest has fallen to a certain level, liquidity preference may become virtually absolute in the sense that almost everyone prefers cash to holding a debt which yields so low a rate of interest. In this event the monetary authority would have lost effective control over the rate of interest. But whilst this limiting case might become practically important in future, I know of no example of it hitherto.”

– John Maynard Keynes, “The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money”

In which I consider the possibility of extending the reboot concept to SF/F literature:

There has been a lot of discussion, understandably, about the new Star Trek movie. Let me admit, first off, that I have seen very little Star Trek and what little I have seen I pretty much loathed and despised. (NB: I’m neither judging nor prosecuting here, merely expressing a personal opinion. Live long and prosper.) That being said, the talk about the so-called “rebooting” has me wondering why television and film are so prone to remakes while there appears to be no similar practice in literature.

I should be glad to hear of your candidates for rebooting. As for why I loathe Star Trek, it’s hard to know where to start. But I suppose the smug incoherence of a saga about a warship charged with peacefully enforcing the supremacy of its “tolerant” culture at laser point would be as good a place to start as any. I used to watch re-runs of the original series as a kid, but was deeply disappointed with TNG when it was launched.

Pravda criticizes American Marxism:

Prime Minister Putin, less then two months ago, warned Obama and UK’s Blair, not to follow the path to Marxism, it only leads to disaster. Apparently, even though we suffered 70 years of this Western sponsored horror show, we know nothing, as foolish, drunken Russians, so let our “wise” Anglo-Saxon fools find out the folly of their own pride.

Again, the American public has taken this with barely a whimper…but a “freeman” whimper…. The proud American will go down into his slavery without a fight, beating his chest and proclaiming to the world, how free he really is. The world will only snicker.

It’s absolutely true. When I left more than 10 years ago, one of the first things I noticed was that despite the assumptions and surface appearances, one was actually more free in many European countries than in the United States. Even in corrupt Italy, one need not fear having one’s money arrested, for example, while US corporate tax rates are among the highest in the world these days. And the gulf between perception and reality has only widened in the intervening decade.

Jim Oliver repeatedly attempts to spam the comments with the following:

Score: Vox Popoli 1 Free Speech 0

Former Rules: you come in here slinging insults and acting disrespectfully, you will be treated with a contemptuous and derisive disdain.

As I said, how this blog deals with WBC will evidence much…

One of the regular posters on this site, WBC, so loves innocent children, that he is cruelly intending (anonymously) to cause 2 little girls lifelong pain as the grieve for there recently deceased Father. See WBCs post about Feminism. How this blog deals with this person will evidence much.

A very gentle man, with 2 lovely daughters hanged himself in the Virgin Islands a few weeks ago. Here’s a news story:

Francis was a blogger. Here is his profile: Francis left behind, among others, 2 lovely daughters. Here arei Francis’ comments on them, with their pics:

A blogger on this site WBC, and who lists this site on his blogger page wrote this undeniably revolting comment on Francis’ blog intending Francis’ family and young daughters would read it. After all, one intends the logical consequences of one’s actions. I post this referncing your rules: If you come in here slinging insults and acting disrespectfully, you will be treated with a contemptuous and derisive disdain …

Well, WBC ireferences this blog on his page:

Here are WBC’s anonymous comments on Francis’ blog, and my response.

WBC said…
Well, Francis, you did it. You somehow talked yourself into taking your own life. Quite frankly, I was stunned. For a day or so I refused to believe it, but as the facts became known, I began to understand a number of things:

1. You really weren’t that intelligent – merely clever;
2. You were very good at false bravado;
3. You were disgustingly self absorbed;
4. You reduced self-pity to an art form; and
5. Your intellectual dishonesty caught up with you – you finally bought your own bullshit.

I’m sorry Francis – I really am. I am working on forgiving you, with modest success. And I am praying earnestly for the repose of your soul – something you insisted you didn’t have. But it is difficult to maintain a sense of respect for your intellect. Whatever abyss you were staring into was of your own construction – you dug it consciously and systematically. For some reason you chose nihilism as a way to view the world. And after choosing to believe there was no truth, you killed yourself because you wanted truth to exist.

What foolish, shallow, ignorant, crap!!!!

So what do you think now? Were you hoping for oblivion? Did you think you were making some sort of a statement? Did you think it was noble? Did it never occur to you that you were demonstrating a selfish, gutless stupidity?

I earnestly pray that the Lord has prepared a means for your salvation – the alternative is too horrible to contemplate. The tragedy is that the Lord revealed Himself to you during your lifetime and you not only chose to reject this truth, you chose to scorn and ridicule anyone who saw and believed.

Still laughing? Still sneering?

12:02 PM
Jazzbeaux said…
Anonymous WBC – I spent several hours last week trying to get Francis’ Mother and Father to read his blog. I wanted them to be reminded of Francis’ humor, his kindness, and his love.

Now they get to read you.

Anonymous WBC; Francis never needed your approval; Francis’ does not need your forgiveness; and Francis does not need your prayers.

You criticize Francis, apparently in the name of “Christ,” as “foolish, shallow, ignorant…selfish, gutless stupid…”

Anonymous WBC, when you wrote these words (on Francis’ blog, not yours) you intended that those who love Francis, including his daughters Thea and Nina, would read them.

Anonymous WBC, in so doing you have proven two quite remarkable things:

1) that, even with the ultimate last word, Anonymous WBC actually loses his last debate with Francis; and

2) that Francis, a self-described athiest, yet full of grace, will be welcomed by any God in Heaven; while you, apparently a self-defined “Christian” will be (I believe the current phrase is) “left behind.”

Anonymous WBC, we all die.

Francis, bless his heart, merely chose when.

After this, Anonymous WBC, you should try to emulate our friend Francis; as, should you not, it appears very likely that you will be the only person at your funeral.

Yours Publicly,
Jim Oliver

Let me get this straight. Mr. Oliver is so hopelessly clueless that he doesn’t realize that the rules of this blog have ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with what other people might happen to do elsewhere on the Internet. I am not responsible for my readers, I have no idea who most of them are, and to be blunt, I don’t care how they may happen to behave in the publicity of other people’s blogs. It’s how they behave here that matters, and Mr. Oliver has demonstrated that while he may have read the rules, he clearly doesn’t understand them. A few points:

1. None of this has anything to do with me, Vox Popoli or free speech. There is no free speech here, there is only speech that I tolerate. I do happen to tolerate a broader spectrum of speech than the vast majority of blogs, but I don’t permit strange and obsessed people to span the comments. Knock it off. The main reason I posted this was to point out the copious flaws in your reasoning.

2. It seems to have escaped Mr. Oliver that WBC can’t possibly cause those two young girls anywhere nearly as much pain their supposedly “gentle father” did. Since I grew up on the same street as a family where the older son committed suicide, I suspect their views of their father’s choice of when to die will run rather closer to WBC’s than yours.

3. WBC sounds a lot more like someone who knew the dead atheist and is angry at him for selfishly killing himself than a sadist who wishes to obliquely torment anyone, let alone the suicide’s family.

4. Your conception of the dead man’s fate bears absolutely no resemblance to any actual theology. How, one wonders, could an anonymous comment on a dead man’s web site possibly prove anything about who will, or who will not, enter into the kingdom of Heaven? There are many gods, the Christian God among them, who make it very clear that they will not welcome one who has rejected them, and rejected the very gift of life itself, into their presence.

5. If you’re an atheist and you kill yourself, you should probably expect people to conclude that your action is evidence that atheists are unhappy, angry, nihilistic individuals. This is certainly not true of all atheists, given that most of them appear to be capable of living out their days without offing themselves, but the astute observer will probably notice that a statistical predilection for suicide tends to fly in the face of the Atheists are Happy! propaganda put out by American Atheists. So, atheists, if you want to score a point against those stupid Christians, don’t kill yourself!

6. If the auto-deceased was correct, he was merely a specific collection of atoms. He arranged to disperse those atoms into different patterns. Why should this dispersal be of any concern to WBC, the related atom collections or anyone else? I, for one, can testify that it doesn’t trouble me in the slightest.

7. Learn to HTML link. And spell.

8. This blog has no problem whatsoever with WBC. Whoever he is. It do
es have a problem with you at the moment. Keep this discussion here on this thread and it won’t.

In summary, Mr. Oliver, you appear to be a rather stupid and socially autistic individual whose reading comprehension and logical capacities are as deficient as your theology. I won’t pretend to be able to clock down slow enough to understand what your point in spamming the comments here was supposed to be, but on the slim chance that doing so might see some sense slapped into you by the regulars here, I have permitted you an unedited platform. Any comments you might have on the matter belong here and nowhere else on this blog.

The expert economists think Germany is being punished for its failure to stimulate:

Germany’s economy shrank by 3.8pc in the first three months of the year – a record contraction that is almost double the fall of Britain’s gross domestic product in the first quarter. The figures sparked attacks on Germany’s government, which has repeatedly shown reluctance to bail out either its economy or financial system. In figures described by economists as “disastrous”, Eurostat also reported that Italy shrank by 2.4pc, Austria and the Netherlands by 2.8pc, Spain by 1.8pc and France by 1.2pc. The statistics underline the fact that although Britain’s financial system was badly hit in the early months of the crisis, the UK’s economy has not fared as badly as its continental rivals, contracting by 1.9pc in the first quarter….

Economists said that the country’s reluctance to move quickly to cut taxes and raise spending was largely to blame.

Now, let’s take a little look at what the experts very recently said was taking place in the Eurozone.

-1.3 percent: Q4-2008 Expected
-1.5 percent: Q4-2008 Actual
-1.6 percent: Q4-2008 Revised

-2.0 percent: Q1-2009 Expected
-2.5 percent: Q1-2009 Actual

-0.6 percent: Q2-2009 Expected

Keep in mind that the Europeans report their numbers on a quarter-by-quarter basis rather than an annual one, so that 3.8 percent contraction in Germany is what would be reported in the USA as a -6.9 percent annual growth rate. In other words, being off by half a percent is actually a larger error than it looks. Based on what I’ve heard, Q2 will end up being worse than Q1, which leads one to wonder: if the experts can’t even tell if things are improving or getting substantially worse, why should political leaders follow their policy prescriptions?