Category: Uncategorized

93 percent corrupt

Apparently it’s very, very profitable running political “non-profits” these days:

Right Wing News hired a researcher who spent more than a month researching 17 conservative PACs so we could do a special report. What we found was shocking.

* The bottom 10 performing PACs we researched spent $54,318,498 overall and yet only paid out $3,621,896 to candidates.

* Did you know that despite the fact that it raised a staggering 13 million dollars, The National Draft Ben Carson for President isn’t affiliated with Ben Carson and the small percentage of money they spent on independent expenditures didn’t go to him? Now you know why Ben Carson’s business manager, Armstrong Williams wouldn’t allow the group’s campaign director to take a picture with Carson and said, “People giving money think it’s going to Dr. Carson and it’s not. …Our hands are tied. We don’t want people exploited.”

* The Republican Mainstreet Partnership is getting an enormous amount of union money.

“Labor unions provided significant funding for the (Republican Main Street Partnership) with Working for Working Americans, the International Union of Operating Engineers, and the Laborers International Union of North America all contributing around $250,000. The United Transportation Union ($30,000), Seafarers International Union ($20,000), were joined by the Teamsters, Air Line Pilots Association, International Association of Firefighters, and various other unions who contributed $10,000.  SEIU contributed $5,000, as did the Laborers Union, the Transport Workers Union and various others.”

In conclusion, “One of the things I realized while I was putting this report together is that perhaps the biggest reason grassroots candidates have been having trouble breaking through in recent years is because such a large percentage of the money that was intended for them is being siphoned off to vendors, wasted, and just plain old pocketed by people in these PACs.”

I’d like to be able to say that I was shocked, but I’m not even a little bit surprised. The only thing that is remarkable is the percentage of the skimming. That’s taking 93.3 percent off the top! They’re even worse than their sob-sister cousin charities; apparently fear-mongering is more profitable than tear-jerking.

Mark your calendars

The International Lord of Hate has announced a coming Book Bomb. Be prepared:

Mark your calenders, our next Book Bomb will be this Wednesday.

My goal is to get the stuff on our Sad Puppies suggestion list out there in front of as many people as possible. If you’re unfamiliar with my Book Bombs, that’s where we get as many people as possible to buy a book on Amazon in the same day. Since their bestseller lists update hourly, through the day the book will move higher and higher. Success breeds success, and the higher it gets, more new people see it and check it out.

The purpose, I believe, is to demonstrate Puppy Power. Keep in mind this means buying from Amazon, not Castalia. Spears will be shaken! Shields will be shattered! And links will be provided!

If you’ve already bought the books, then why not post reviews? They most certainly help too. In the meantime, Patrick Richardson admits that, in being a Sad Puppies supporter, he reveals that he is not a Real Fan:

I read the Hobbit for the first time in Kindergarten.

So I’m not a Real Fan.

I chased the Delikon off Earth in fourth grade and followed Alice down the rabbit hole.

But I’m not a real fan.

I devoured the Chronicles of Prydain and watched the Dark rise in 5th grade.

So I’m not a Real Fan.

By sixth grade I was on my fifth run through of the Lord of the Rings.

So I’m not a Real Fan.

I discovered Col. Falkenberg and met the Moties in 7th grade.

So I’m not a Real Fan.

In the last 40 years I have read hundreds of SFF books, watched hundreds of movies, dreamed of flying on Serenity and riding Sue with Harry Dresden.

So I’m not a Real Fan.

Because it doesn’t matter how much science fiction and fantasy you read, it doesn’t matter how many cons you have attended, if you aren’t a SJW, you’re not a Real Fan.

Addio, Alabama

Forget the Middle East and Europe. Let’s consider something truly controversial. Ohio State is poised to destroy Alabama’s recruiting dynasty:

The state of Ohio is particularly strong in the 2016, with 14 players currently ranked as at least 4-star prospects. And while the national prospects who have already committed to or have shown strong interest in the Buckeyes is certainly encouraging for Meyer, it’s not just the talent working in Ohio State’s favor.

As it currently stands, the Buckeyes are slated to lose 13 scholarship players to graduation at the end of next season. Between transfers and what looks like several underclassmen who have a chance to declare early for the 2016 NFL draft, that number could very well double, and it’s not out of the realm of possibility to think Ohio State could have close to 30 scholarships available in its 2016 class.

Factor in a 2015 schedule that sets up to keep the Buckeyes’ infomercial playing until at least late-November, and it becomes clear that Alabama’s five-year run of top-ranked recruiting classes is suddenly in danger. Meyer managed to defeat Nick Saban on the field in last season’s Sugar Bowl, and he’s well on his way to picking up another win over his rival next February.

Can you… can you hear the chants? B1G! B1G!

Go to Israel. Now.

I’ve been saying it for a while, but Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu is beating the drum even more strongly:

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday urged European Jews to move to Israel after a Jewish man was killed in an attack outside Copenhagen’s main synagogue.

“Israel is your home. We are preparing and calling for the absorption of mass immigration from Europe,” Netanyahu said in a statement, repeating a similar call after attacks by jihadists in Paris last month when four Jews were among the dead.

The cabinet later on Sunday submitted a plan to encourage the absorption
of Jews from France, Belgium and Ukraine, and would discuss immigration
from other European countries at a later date. 

Jews are neither Europeans nor Christians, neither are they Muslims, so they need to get the hell out of the way and stay safely out of the way of the coming wars. Too many of them have caused too much damage to themselves, to Europe, and to the USA by idiotically encouraging third world immigration in a foolish attempt to protect themselves against Christians who never had any intention of harming them.

Sam Huntington’s long-foreseen Clash of Civilizations (PDF) is approaching. Those who are opposed to Christian civilization are going to lose again; even the European seculars and pagans are beginning to understand the importance of Christian civilization. I’ve read one of his book and Netanyahu is a good student of not only history in general, but military history in particular, and he understands that if Europe’s Jews continue to stupidly stand in the way of Europeans defending their civilization against the Muslim onslaught, they’re going to be wiped out again.

That, incidentally, is why France’s prime minister is desperately arguing against the Israeli prime minister’s appeal to Europe’s Jews. Not because he loves Jews more than Netanyahu, but because he is cynically using them as a means of keeping the nationalist leadership that will replace him at bay.

Israel should no more stand in the way of Europe defending herself against Islamic expansion than Europe should interfere with Israel defending herself Islamic aggression. It appears that Netanyahu, for one, understands that strong Christian nations in Europe are considerably better for Israel than a Muslim-conquered Europe.

At the moment, I am editing a book by a brilliant Israeli military historian that will be available later this month to newsletter subscribers. And in thinking about how Man’s strategic thinking has developed, it is becoming increasingly evident that the modern militaries presently lack the theoretical means to grasp how events are taking shape or what to do with them. Forget the bromide about how generals are always fighting the last war, right now, the politicians and their military advisors are mostly caught up in entirely fictional theater based on a geopolitical structure that has very little relation to either the current reality or the global wars of the future.

Mailvox: dealing with anklebiters

BT was wondering how one best deals with them:

After conversing with a certain individual at length, and realizing only belatedly that they are most likely just another anklebiter, I’ve come to some hypotheses:

Anklebiters are:

  • 0 to +1 SD intellect
  • Mildly autistic at the least, which leads them to overestimate their own intellect.
  • Far more hurt by a mix of dialectic and rhetoric rather than pure rhetoric (they innately believe themselves above it) or pure dialectic (they’ll just retreat to appeals of authority).

For efficacy in pain, the mix of dialectic and rhetoric will probably depend on the level of autism in particular.

The only thing I haven’t figured out in this theory is the best way to handle said anklebiters.  Ignoring them certainly works, as they’re just self-styled intellectual tough-guys walking around with a chip on their shoulders.  It certainly seems to serve to frustrate their efforts on that end.  But anklebiters can look like an expert to the average stranger, and indeed seems to spend their time trying to convince everyone around them that they are an expert, so it may serve in everyone’s best interest to nip that problem in the bud.  How, I do not know.  Domestication training, using dialectic/rhetoric mixes as the stick?

Anklebiters are a brain-damaged form of midwit. They are almost always atheist, further pointing towards the atypical neurological profile required for that, they are usually male, and they tend to be unexpectedly poorly educated and badly read despite their observable intelligence. Most importantly, they lack the normal ability to admit failure, back up, and start over that normal individuals possess. And lacking it, they therefore lack any ability to improve their arguments or even to question any of their adopted beliefs.

That’s why anklebiters are always disappearing when trounced, only to reappear again and make the exact same arguments that have already been dismissed. The problem, as BT notes, is that this renders them immune to dialectic, and they tend to ignore pure rhetoric because they are not emotionally invested in their nonsense arguments. The more virulent form, the trolls, are sociopathic and have no meaningful human emotions to which one can appeal.

In effect, anklebiters are little more than genetically human bots, which is why there is no point in arguing with them or insulting them. They are not capable of adding anything to the discourse, so as soon as an anklebiter is identified, they are best ignored by the commenters and spammed by the moderators. There is no reason to concern oneself with how they look to the average stranger, because a) it’s not your problem, b) MPAI, and c) their own bizarre behavior will expose them sooner or later.

A guest blogger at Alpha Game has a timely post that addresses some of the issues raised here as part of his Graduating Gamma series. The most relevant quote:

This flows directly from the Gamma’s ever-present and crippling fear of being wrong somewhere and somehow. The Gamma does not understand the deep matters behind what is going on in his own beliefs, which is ironic since most Gammas vastly overestimate their knowledge and ability in most everything.

They can hear you

In space, the demons can hear you scream.  

Hyperspace Demons is a novella from our newest author, and it is one you’ll want to check out if you’re a science fiction fan. From the reviews:

Mixed in with hyperspace and spaceships is the interesting concept of “hyperspace microbes” that can possess a human mind, driving the person insane. These microbes are kept out of the spaceship by a special shield, so there shouldn’t be any problems, right? That’s where the plot pulls off some unexpected twists and turns, making for a fun read. Moeller keeps up the pace all the way to the end. Amazingly, for a novella there is much more that could be said, but I fear explaining anymore will reveal too much.

The story grabs you, and you don’t want to put it down until it is over.
Once the action begins, it builds and builds without letup until the
very end. I can’t think of any higher praise than: When I was done, I
wished it was longer, because I was enjoying it so much. 

In other Castalia House news, I’m pleased to be able to announce that we will be publishing a second book by Israeli military historian Martin van Creveld this year. In addition to Equality: The Impossible Quest, we will be publishing The Art of War: A History of Military Strategy.

Credentializing comments

No wonder the mainstream media fears comments. This may also explain why so many trolls consider themselves to be self-appointed blog police. Although I doubt they have much effect here:

Ionnis Kareklas, Darrel D. Muehling, and TJ Weber, all of Washington State University, found that the comments on a public-service announcement about vaccination affected readers’ attitudes as strongly as the P.S.A. itself did. When commenters were identified by their level of expertise with the subject (i.e. as doctors), their comments were more influential than the P.S.A.s.

Online readers may put a lot of stock in comments because they view commenters “as kind of similar to themselves,” said Mr. Weber — “they’re reading the same thing, commenting on the same thing.” And, he added, many readers, especially those who are less Internet-savvy, assume commenters “know something about the subject, because otherwise they wouldn’t be commenting on it.” The mere act of commenting, then, can confer an unearned aura of credibility.

That news may be especially disturbing to those already skeptical of comments’ overall quality. Dr. Kareklas and his team were inspired by Popular Science’s decision to get rid of the comments sections on its website; other publications, like Pacific Standard, have done the same. And Tauriq Moosa memorably wrote at The Guardian that the comments section “sits there like an ugly growth beneath articles, bloated and throbbing with vitriol.”

If only those nasty online peasants would shut up, stop interfering with the flow of propaganda, and recognize that communication is supposed to go one way!

The article appears to ignore the obvious fact that most sites permitting comments are communities of a sort, and commenters, being members of that community, are often familiar with the other commenters and therefore know how much stock to put in the credibility of another commenter. I put stock in a commenter for the same reason I put stock in a media site, which is to say, his past performance. Why wouldn’t one trust a known expert, with whom one is familiar, more than a public service announcement from an institution known to be corrupt?

It never gets old

Seriously, it just doesn’t. Hitler finds out about Brian Williams’s proclivity to, shall we say, exaggerate his experiences:

While the best line concerns Sofia Vergara and Kate Upton, I genuinely cracked up at the last one. Watch the whole thing. Williams is done after this. There is no way he can possibly come back from it; literally everything he says is going to be immediately transformed into parody.

The tedious Thor

It would have been vastly more entertaining had Thor come out of the closet. The Fabulous Thor! His outfit was always a little camp anyhow. Turning him into a grim transgendered feminist fighting to impose equalitarian thought control is as boring as it is offensive:

Thor a woman? It’s hard to believe the most macho, overtly masculine character in the comic canon could possibly be reimagined as a broad. But that’s almost certainly precisely the reason Thor was chosen: as a fuck-you to so-called nerdbros from the achingly progressive staff of today’s comic book establishment.

This has led to some questions from comic book fans. Questions such as: will Wonder Woman turn out to be a tranny? Is the Incredible Hulk only incredible because he endured cruel fat-shaming as a teen but didn’t let his size define him? And shouldn’t Spider-Man be a gay latino?

That last one’s not a joke, by the way: in 2011, Marvel unveiled a bisexual Spider-Man that was half-black and half-latino, called Miles Morales, to the consternation and confusion of ordinary comic book fans, as part of its Ultimate series of character reboots. We’re told “erasure,” whereby people’s pasts are scrubbed out by those in authority, is a social justice issue. Well, right now there’s erasure going in the basic, canonical biographies of some of Marvel’s most cherished superheroes.

Captain America, too, is changing: he’s becoming black. Changes like this are designed to provoke readers, and they do–not because readers are racist or sexist, but because they understand that certain characteristics are intrinsic to certain characters. James Bond and Captain America are obviously white. It is a part of their personalities. Thor is obviously a man; to suggest otherwise is daft.

What sticks in the craw of the fans I’ve spoken to about female Thor is how utterly transparent the political posturing is behind the change. There is no good literary justification for making Thor a woman, they say–and the results have been execrable. You can write intelligent satire about masculinity without making a classic masculine icon into a girl, an observation that seems to have escaped Marvel’s writers.

Of course, what all of these transformations most strongly indicate is the fact that Marvel believes women and minorities to be totally uninteresting. Not only does it highlight the fact that women and minorities can’t create their own characters, but even pro-intersectional white men can’t manage to create them in a manner that interests anyone, least of all women and minorities.

It’s exactly the same thing as a communist government taking over a capitalist society. They don’t understand how it works or why it works, they can’t create it or maintain it, but they can certainly manage to run it into the ground.

This comment from the SJWs at IGN is hilariously inapt:

“Not only do these scenes subtly acknowledge and render inert the
concerns voiced by real life detractors, but they also paint the
character in a stronger, more resilient light.”
— IGN

Subtle? The only way Marvel could have handled it any less subtly was if Thor spent the entire issue reading The Vagina Monologues with Gloria Steinhem at Wellesley.

A succinct argument

A debate on free speech in Denmark ends abruptly:

One dead in shooting at a Copenhagen cultural centre, where a meeting about freedom of speech was being held – organised by a Swedish artist who had caricatured the Prophet Muhammad. Police hunt for lone Danish-speaking gunman behind attack.

• 40-yr-old Danish man killed in shooting at cultural centre
• Three policemen reported injured
• Police hunt for lone Danish-speaking gunman
• Danish PM says attack was terrorism
• French ambassador to Denmark inside but unharmed
• Meeting about freedom of speech was being held at the time
• Gathering organised by controversial Swedish artist Lars Vilks
• Lars Vilks caricatured Prophet Muhammad in 2007

Well, I guess that is one way to reach consensus.

UPDATE: A man, aged 40, has died after masked gunmen opened fire on the
Krudttoenden cafe in Copenhagen during a meeting
entitled Art, Blasphemy and Freedom of Speech. Two people were taken
away on stretchers after the attack after the cafe
was sprayed with 200 bullets. The French ambassador, who was present at
the debate on free speech, has said it was an attempt at a Charlie
Hebdo-style attack in the Danish capital.

200 shots and one kill? It certainly sounds like jihad. By way of comparison, Anders Breivik required 121 shots to kill 77.