Author: VD

Another GT writes:

I would expect that someone who would want to be taken seriously as a scholar and commentator, never mind the lecture on IQ that you should have, would at least do as much as Hugh Hewitt and learn a little bit about what you so recklessly disparage in reference to Mitt Romney. That little bit of infantile and adolescent chatter about sacred underwear, (and that’s it?), is surely beneath you? What gives?

If you’re genuinely naming Hugh Hewitt as a serious political commentator, then no, I don’t want to be taken seriously. Remember how he and a bunch of other Republicans publicly and repeatedly declared that Arnold Schwarzenegger would save conservativism and the Republican Party in California? I seem to recall making some very different predictions… how’d that work out?

Hewitt thinks Romney is electable in both senses of the word, presumably based on his height and his hair. I think an openly homosexual Catholic priest has a better chance of getting nominated and elected and I’ve been stating that Hillary Clinton will win in 2008 for two years now.

Hugh is a nice guy, probably a much nicer guy than me. I merely happen to be correct most of the time. Go with what you like, I don’t care.

I expect remarks like that, ranking up there with the gutter level
politics of MoveOn.org folks, to not be in WND. Have you ever talked to Mr. Romney? He surely deserves a much better level of treatment than a Hillary or Bill Clinton and I don’t remember your addressing their underwear…

Yes, I must be a liberal Democrat, to think that sacred Masonic underwear is weird. In my opinion, “sacred” and “underwear” do not belong in the same sentence unless “Alessandra Ambrosio” and “Victoria’s Secret” are also involved. As for the Lizard Queen, I’m not exactly known for treating her in a particularly respectful manner, and I very much hope to avoid any possibility of ever being forced to speak to her underwear.

(Sweet Darwin, NO!!!!! Writing that just inspired the most hideous thought about Hillary taking a Britney turn….)

SM takes a little less offense:

Being a Member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormon), I appreciate your honesty in your reply to question about the Presidential candidacy of Mitt Romney. I’m not sure “weird” is the best description, but I will agree with “unusual”. But since you are the author of your response, you call it like you see it. I guess people thought Moses was weird when he told the people he saw God and was visited by an Angel of the Lord, also people must have had a lot of fun at the expense of old Noah. I wonder what kind of underwear he wore? And just think of Elijah, the nerve of him challenging all those priest. And Jesus Christ must have been quite a hoot for the religious establishment, with his weird ideas. We maybe we are weird. Or maybe….

I do like your commentary on World Net Daily. Keep up the good work.

I’m guessing Moses went commando, actually… now look, weird is a simple fact of a departure from the norms. If you don’t like getting made fun of for wearing a wool straitjacket under your clothing, then don’t wear it. You cannot do things that are wildly out of the normal realm of behavior, then act all hurt and offended when people point their fingers and laugh at you, as you deserve.

Either have the courage of your convictions or shut up. Whining just makes you contemptible as well as weird.

Mitt Romney has other problems:

People chuckled when presidential candidate Mitt Romney, a Mormon raised in Michigan and elected in Massachusetts, bungled the names of Cuban-American politicians during a recent speech in Miami.

But when he mistakenly associated Fidel Castro’s trademark speech-ending slogan — Patria o muerte, venceremos! — with a free Cuba, listeners didn’t laugh. They winced.

Castro has closed his speeches with the phrase — in English, ”Fatherland or death, we shall overcome” — for decades.

Ah well. At least he has great hair. It’s not enough to overcome the Lizard Queen or the Magic Negro, but at the end of the day, you know what? He’ll still have great hair.

AC wants to know if I can summon the courage to address a daunting topic:

Why is it that being a Mormon is a bad thing when running for President? Why is the media not looking at the other candidates religions? Why only Mit Romney’s??

Dare you answer?

I’ve been the subject of a CAIR email-bombing campaign, there’s dozens of websites quoting my assertion of the theoretical morality of toddler-offing, and you suspect I might be afraid to answer this softball? Seriously?

Anyhow, the reason is that being a Mormon is weird. The vast majority of people aren’t Mormons, and they don’t think much of polygamy, scriptures that require angelic opthalmologists or sacred underwear. Whether you regard that as being fair or not, that’s the reality of what most people think about Mormons.

The same would be true of a candidate who claimed to be a voodoo worshipper or a Thuggee. No doubt these religions have some good points which go beyond beheading chickens and strangling people, but any presidential campaign by an adherent is going to center around the abnormal beliefs instead of the candidate himself. This is fatal in any campaign wherein the nominating process is of interest to the public, which is why you can do anything and be anything and still get elected governor or senator, but not president.

The reason the media isn’t looking at any other candidate’s religion is that they all claim to be normal Catholic or Protestant Christians. They’re almost surely not, of course, but the media is in no position to judge the truth of their claims and is not particularly interested in anything that doesn’t let them play judge, jury and executioner.

Who would have ever thought that the old rugby anthem would be on the cutting edge of science:

This evolutionary process, while known to be common in plants, has long been considered extremely rare among animals. Animals are generally thought to evolve the opposite way, when a single species gradually splits into two over many generations. But some scientists now believe that the behavior that has been called animals’ sexual blunders could be an important force in their evolution. “Given the fact there have been several reported cases of hybrid speciation in animals, I think it’s possible that’s just the tip of the iceberg,” said biologist James Mallet of University College London in the United Kingdom.

In a review of the field appearing in the current issue of the journal Nature, the scientist notes that, on average, 10 percent of animal species and 25 percent of plant species are now known to hybridize.”In the past people have often viewed hybridization as a mistake,” Mallet said. “But this is probably not an unnatural phenomenon.” And, he said, “sex with another species may be very occasionally quite a good idea.”

You realize the supreme significance of this, I hope. It means that we must now begin referring to atheist evolutionaries as “dog-botherers”.

I eagerly await Hillary Clinton’s forthcoming public declaration that having sex with animals is not immoral.

As always. How strange that neither the Republican Party nor the SFWA do:

Our so-called conservatives, who have cut all ties to their own intellectual moorings, now espouse policies and personalities that would get them laughed out of Periclean Athens. The few conservatives still able to hold up one end of a Socratic dialogue are those in the ostracized libertarian wing — interestingly enough, a group with a disproportionately high representation among fans of speculative fiction….

Lack of critical respect means nothing to sci-fi’s creators and fans….

The growing popularity of science fiction, the rise of graphic novels, anime and video games, and the fact that geeks can make lots of money now, have given creators and fans of this kind of art a confidence, even a swagger, that — hard as it is for some of us to believe — is kind of cool now.

Stephenson, the American writer whose intelligence I regard most highly, nails it on several levels here. My personal experience tracks what he’s describing on a more general level; people have always laughed at my devotion to electronic games as well as the level of my interest in the martial arts.

I never cared, I had no interest in whatever stupid television shows they were all watching either, much less in reading the meandering, yawn-inducing, self-preoccupied, tree-murdering tedium produced by the self-proclaimed literati. I’ve never seen any show ending in “Idol” or “90210” or beginning with “The”, (with the exception of “The X-Files” and “The Dresden Files”) nor do I have any clue who won any writing award except for the Nebula for the last decade plus.

(And after looking at this year’s Nebula ballot, I don’t find myself terribly inclined to do that anymore either. Which is ironic, seeing as how I’m on the 2007 jury and everything.)

It is, however, somewhat amusing how the laughter suddenly dies down when your little game happens to sell a few million units.

Apparently I sent in my declaration of candidacy too late, as I’m not on the ballot. That’s all right, next year I’ll run against Scalzi, that should get him elected by a margin bigger than Capobianco running against no one.

This is my 8-point presidential platform, which will be presented to a vote of the active membership during the first 90 days of my imperial mandate:

1. Increase the prestige of the Nebula novel award by awarding the winner a cash prize in addition to the customary trophy. I have already spoken to publishers who have indicated an interest in contributing financial sponsorship for the award. It’s worth noting that the most prestigious prizes in the world, from the Nobel to the Booker, are inevitably accompanied by an amount of cash.

2. Replace the Nebula Scripts category with “Best SF-related non-fiction book”. There are many more of these works being published than eligible scripts these days and there are seldom more than two or three scripts on the ballot anyhow. Furthermore, Hollywood script writers couldn’t care less about the Nebula, whereas the publishers publishing SF-related non-fiction are demonstrably committed to the genre.

3. Foster closer relations with the electronic games industry by revisiting Question 3 of the 1998 Sawyer referendum by opening SFWA membership to writers with three or more writing credits on published electronic games, working with the organization that sponsors the various GDC events around the world to create opportunities for SFWA members in the games industry and creating a new Nebula category to award to honor the best writing in an SF&F-related electronic game.

4. Rename the Bulletin to SFWA Magazine and turn it into a bona-fide magazine of interest to the greater science fiction and fantasy community by publishing a novella and three short stories in every issue. The objective would be to turn it into a must-read for everyone with any interest in the genre.

5. Increase the power of the Nebula juries by having the short fiction jury submit regular recommendations for the fiction to be published in the SFWA Monthly to the editor and by allowing the various juries to REMOVE works that have qualified for the Nebula ballot. This should bring an end to the award-by-popularity-contest phenomenon that is so grossly embarrassing to the organization.

6. Turn the SFWA web site into the premier online science fiction and fantasy e-library by providing freely downloadable works available in all formats from every SFWA member interested in contributing. All of the available evidence suggests that freely distributable ebooks help authors who are not among the 50 best-selling in the world, they don’t hurt them. The primary problem facing most authors is a surfeit of awareness, not an excess of supply. Blindly following the RIAA’s lead in attempting to protect dubious “rights” is stupid, shortsighted and doomed to failure.

7. Pursue a treaty of non-aggression with the Romance Writers of America prior to launching a joint assault on the Mystery Writers of America. Of course, the SFWA will only honor the treaty until we are in a position of subsequent strength to take on the RWA directly, which I hope to achieve by the spring of 2010.

8. And finally, due to the Regrettable and Very Serious incidents brought to light in the December Forum, I should like to establish an official Do Not Hug Registry to which concerned members of the organization may add their names. Violators will be punished with the removal of the offending limb(s) by a scimitar wielded by the Head of the Grievance Committee.

Thank you for your enlightened support. I look forward to serving as your Maximum Leader.

A complaint on the new National Socialist Review:

Subject “Neocon” Now Has No Meaning Part 3,717,206

You’re often noted that “neoconservative” has a very hazy definition. Indeed to some people it’s become what Orwell said of Fascism just another word for “bad’.

Perhaps Goldberg himself didn’t, but I do seem to recall a few NRO writers claiming that neocon was a synonym for “Jew”. Those who nonsenically expand definitions are in no position to complain about the definition is expanded beyond all usefulness.

After a very busy week, I ended up playing in an indoor tournament over the weekend. Seven 24-minute games was more than a lot of our guys could take; our 30-man roster was divided into three teams and every team lost at least three guys to one petty injury or another.

We did pretty well, though, as my team took second in the tournament despite being the club’s second team. We beat our own first team in the semifinals – which irritated my best friend on squad to no end – then ran out of gas and got brutalized by a team they had beaten in the qualifying round.

Still, it’s nice to have intra-squad bragging rights for once and I was pretty happy that the nagging muscle pull I’ve had since the end of last season held up throughout. My legs feel about as flexible as iron bars today, though. I’m not sure this is the best way to get ready for the resumption of the outdoor season, but we had fun.

I thought I did all right, all in all, and our manager was so pleased with my play that he announced publicly he was moving me up to number 28. Old team joke; a while ago I asked him if I was dropped to number 30 following a game in which I gave up a dumb penalty that cost us two points in the standings, but after a teammate somehow managed to miss what should have been a certain goal, his only comment on the matter was to elbow me and murmur “29 now”.

The book with blood on its binding:

A painter fascinated with best-selling conspiracy thriller The Da Vinci Code committed suicide after becoming convinced she was the subject of a real-life murder plot. Caroline Eldridge, 38, moved to Italy to pursue her interest in Leonardo Da Vinci, but her mind became “muddled” by the mysteries surrounding his work, her father said.

Caroline Eldridge, a Da Vinci scholar and artist, who killed herself after becoming obsessed with the mysteries surrounding the artist and the best-selling novel The Da Vinci Code. She suffered paranoid delusions that she and her family were in danger “because of the knowledge that she had” of Leonardo after working on an exhibition about his paintings.

After repeatedly telling her family, “I’m not going to let them take me alive,” she took an overdose of paracetamol.

I have to admit, I am kind of curious what sort of knowledge of Leonardo she could have possessed that convinced her she was in danger. I mean, what with the Jesus Institute or some other pseudo-scientific foundation declaring its possession of proof that Jesus was actually a gay amphibious alien from Alpha Merovingus every six months, it’s not like the “secret” of the Da Vinci Code was anything that anyone hasn’t heard before.