Category: Uncategorized

Tedious remakes

I don’t usually find myself agreeing with third world Marxists who natter on about “neo-imperialist fantasies of power and domination”, but I have to admit, the man isn’t entirely wrong when he points out how taking a fictional work out of its historical milieu often means sacrificing part of its heart and soul:

Shorn of their historical context, sequels and remakes today seem no
more than rebranding exercises in an age of socioeconomic crisis,
widespread uncertainty and creative stasis. Unlike most novelists, those
refurbishing James Bond or Philip Marlowe can count on a ready-made
store of readerly understanding and good will. As they do with the
numerous renderings of the Ramayana and Mahabharata in India and
Indonesia, audiences respond to familiarity spiced with the right
measure of novelty and strangeness. Such tickling of the mass
unconscious can be remunerative too: Unfocused nostalgia has a powerful
lure in postindustrial cultures that seem to have a recurrent present
but few clear traces of the past nor an avid anticipation of the future.

Naming the recent remakes of Bond  in his witty book “The Man Who Saved
Britain,” Simon Winder blurts out, “I’m sorry: I just can’t go on it’s
all so terrible. They’re roughly the same, come out at irregular
intervals and tend to have the word ‘Die’ in the title.” The
increasingly pained-looking Bond played by Daniel Craig seems to concur.

Britain is geopolitically too insignificant, and non-Western markets —
as well as political sensitivities — matter too much now for 007 to be
able to fulfill neo-imperialist fantasies of power and domination. The
artless seducer of women with names like Pussy Galore and Octopussy, a
man who once charmingly hoped for sex to have “the sweet tang of rape,”
also risks driving away a crucial demographic from the theaters. It is
surely a sign of the times that in “Skyfall” a non-misogynist Bond
retreats to his family estate in secession-minded Scotland, improbably
preoccupied with a childhood trauma after what seems to have been a
wholly unexamined life.

As will become clear in the near future, I’m not intrinsically opposed to remakes. The new Star Trek movies are better than the originals in many ways, in fact, some of their worst aspects are their determination to insert callbacks to their predecessors. No doubt Trekkies found it totally sweet when whoever it was shouted “KHAAAAAAN” just like the other guy did in the movie before him. I just rolled my eyes.

Speaking as one who has created a new detective, (to the extent that Graven Tower can properly be considered a detective as opposed to a law enforcer who applies Arnaud Amalric’s approach to the detective arts), it’s understandable that many writers prefer to simply borrow existing characters. It’s much easier to lean on an existing store of known and well-loved characteristics than to try to create new ones.

One could even make a logical case for encouraging those who are better with plot and style to mine the public domain rather than inflict their cardboard creations on us. The problem is that many of those who are already characterization-challenged can’t seem to resist putting their inept skills to use, thereby transforming the characters we know and love into cheap parodies of themselves.

Sure, it’s not uninteresting to imagine what Holmes might be like if he lived today. But instead, we’re presented with alternative concepts, and asked to imagine what a character might be like if he wasn’t that character at all, but merely happened to be prone to utilizing the same catchphrases. Thus we have Watson transformed into an Asian woman and Holmes depicted as a gay vampire and all the deplorable host of modern politically correct(1) cliches that render most modern fiction so bloody tedious and unreadable.

(1) “People forget that political correctness used to be called spastic gay talk.” – Frankie Boyle

Rights roundup

30 Years of Gun Control Denial

Left-liberals often declare themselves to be on the side of fact and
reason. And yet, they show almost no interest whatsoever in the actual
facts when presented with them, especially when those facts contradict
liberal reasoning.

 The Clueless Kluwe

I am, for my sins, a Minnesota Vikings fan. As one, I am more than a
little familiar with the ex-Vikings punter named Chris Kluwe, who in addition to giving up four punt returns for a
touchdown one season, has been an outspoken advocate of perverting the
sacrament of marriage. One year after being cut by the team and replaced
by a rookie punter at one-fourth the cost, Mr. Kluwe has penned an
outraged screed in which he claimed that he had unfairly lost his job
due to the actions of “two cowards and a bigot”.

Hey warmists

Tell you what. We’ll stop rubbing your face in the unseasonably cold WEATHER this winter just as soon as you stop trying to claim that unseasonably hot WEATHER proves the existence of global climate change.

We understand that one day is not a trend. We understand the difference between weather and climate. But, you seem to have forgotten that we’ve been listening to you babble about how one hot day in August means OMFG POLAR BEARS ARE DROWNING AND LOUISVILLE WILL BE BEACHFRONT AND WE’LL HAVE NO ICE FOR OUR MARGARITAS EVER AGAIN!

And when a ship full of moronic “climate scientists” gets stuck in supposedly nonexistent ice, understand that we’re going to give you some stick. Just take it with good humor for a change. I mean, it’s a big fat slow pitch just hanging over home plate. Of course we’re going to knock that sucker out of the park.

Protocols of the Learned Elders of Wye

I thought this 2006 article on Haaretz by Shmuel Rosner
concerning a conference discussing the survival of the Jewish people was intriguing, both for what it suggested in terms of what the future holds in store for America as well as what it implied about the Jewish perception of the transience of their relationship with America:

Two groups of Jews gathered together last weekend
at Wye Plantation, Maryland for a long discussion on the situation of
the Jewish people. The first group, which met Wednesday and Thursday,
consisted of the heads of 15 Jewish organizations such as the
Presidents’ Conference, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee
(AIPAC), the Anti-Defamation League, the Union of Orthodox Jewish
Congregations, the American Jewish Committee and others. In the second
group were the “thinkers,” as the organizers termed them: Natan
Sharansky from Israel, Charles Krauthammer from The Washington Post,
former Canadian justice minister Irwin Cotler, former Jewish Agency head
Sallai Meridor and many others….

The fear expressed that “a real decline of the West,
particularly the United States, would have dramatic consequences for the
Jewish people,” also led to controversy. Brandeis University president
Jehuda Reinharz agreed that this type of decline can be expected “in the
coming two decades” – but Stuart Eisenstadt was less emphatic about it.
He believes the United States will remain the leading power. In all
events, it was agreed the Jews “should strengthen cultural links with
non-Western civilizations, particularly China and also India,” powers
that are on the ascent. This is not a question of preference or
closeness; it is a question of survival, of readiness for the future.

I am very curious to know if there was any recognition that the observed decline of the West has any connection to a number of the policies that these organizations have supported for the last 50+ years? I also wonder why the targeted non-Western civilizations which are supposedly on the ascent, (raising some real questions about the participating economists given the ongoing Chinese meltdown), would be interested in stronger cultural links given the questionable consequences of those cultural links on the United States. The Indians might be amenable, but Chinese history suggests that the Han wouldn’t even blink before taking actions that would make Hitler look like a Righteous Gentile.

As an East Asian Studies major who is neither philo- nor antisemitic, I suggest the Elders of Wye might want to seriously rethink the potential of China as a safe landing place. Japan and Korea, too, are likely out.

The article tends to leave one with the unfortunate impression of rats congregating in order to contemplate the right time to leave a sinking ship. Or, to use a less ominous metaphor, magical golden geese who graciously convey manifold benefits and blessings on those with the courtesy to accept them discussing the right time to stop laying eggs and fly away before being greedily dissected. But regardless of whether one considers those discussing the timing of their exit as rats or golden geese. the mere fact that they are discussing the imminent sinking of the ship should be of no small concern to those who happen to be aboard it.

And before any philosemites feel led to cry holocaust, try to keep in mind that I didn’t forge the freaking article. If there is some non-pejorative way to view these discussions by a group of people actively making ready for an incipient American decline, by all means, feel free to share your interpretation. Regardless, it would be hard to deny that the conference participants do not see themselves as being a part of the American people.

Is Germany’s gold gone?

Zerohedge features an exchange of letters with the Deutsche Bundesbank:

Here is a recent correspondence from our friend Lars Schall, an independent financial journalist, and the German Central Bank, the Deutsche Bundesbank, regarding the exact whereabouts and specifications of Germany’s national gold reserve. From the correspondence below, it appears that the US Central Bank had already leased out Germany’s gold reserves in prior years and no longer has it, as the gold bars the US Central Bankers returned to Germany last year were clearly not the same ones that Germany originally deposited with them. The questions Mr. Schall’s revelations now beg is (1) if the Banque de France and the Bank of England have Germany’s original gold as well; and (2) if the various Central Bankers are deliberately returning Germany’s gold on a painfully slow timeline because they have already leased out Germany’s gold into the open market in prior years, no longer hold it, and must therefore scrape together Germany’s gold from the open market now.

The fact that it is taking eight years for Germany to obtain a portion of its gold upon request, and that those bars are not the same ones that were originally on deposit in New York tends to suggest that the USA’s gold is probably long gone from the Federal Reserve as well.

Scientific evidence that gays can be cured

It’s not really a matter for debate anymore. It is eminently obvious that gays can be cured, and cure themselves, of their same-sex sexual orientations. Setting aside the obvious anecdotal examples, such as the new First Lady of New York City, the mutable nature of sexual orientation is statistically undeniable:

A controversial new study argues that a host of research on gay, lesbian and bisexual teenagers could be based on faulty data because of confused teens and “jokesters” who later said they were straight.

The report focuses on the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, a survey that followed a nationally representative group of tens of thousands of teens into adulthood. Add Health, as it is known, is considered one of the most important sources of data on the lives of young people, including those who are gay, lesbian and bisexual.

What caught the attention of Ritch Savin-Williams, a professor at Cornell University, was the fact that more than 70% of the teens who said they had ever had a “romantic attraction” to someone of the same sex later told researchers that they were straight.

Sure, the “jokester” theory is one possible explanation. As is the hoary old “cultural stigma” concept, although that idea looks increasingly shaky as increased media acceptance has produced more gay suicides and other indications of serious psychological problems than the closet ever did. But unless we’re to assume that the vast majority of all self-reported homosexuals are fakes, (which would call into question many assumptions about the size and significance of the homosexual population), we must conclude that most youthful homosexuals eventually grow out of their sexual abnormalities.

Which is entirely understandable. Sex aside, how much Erasure can any man be expected to take?

It is readily observable that there is no such thing as a static sexual abnormality. Was Ian Watkins always a pedophile? Was the thrice-married Meredith Baxter Birney always a lesbian? The dynamic sin model explains observable human behavior rather better than most of the scientific alternatives, particularly the static ones. Regardless, whether it is a simple choice or a curable psychological disorder, the idea that homosexuality is always and necessarily a permanently fixed orientation is demonstrably false. Any homosexual who dares to question this, much less dispute it, must be asked why they deny science. And statistics.

UPDATE: This objection on Twitter made me laugh. Critics, it might help to keep in mind you’re dealing with a superintelligence before you say something stupid, all right? I’m smarter than you are. Just assume that even if you don’t believe it; it may save you some embarrassment. That doesn’t mean I’m always right, it just means that you’re probably wrong.

Buttercup Dew: “Your logic doesn’t follow? I was “bisexual” as a teen, now
unambiguously homosexual. You decided conclusion and worked backwards.”

To which I responded: “No, my logic is correct. You prove the point. The fact of the delta is what matters, not the direction.”

Sympathy for the devils

I don’t have much sympathy for the police, but this account of an unusual traffic offense going full Kafka cracked me up:

There’s an apartment complex in every city that cops just don’t go into without lots of backup. I always imagined it was because those places were littered with armed gangsters, but that’s just a part of it. What really keeps police out of a neighborhood is all the people who absolutely do not give one lonely, mountain-dwelling fuck about the law. Here’s an example:

I was cruising about one night and saw this drunken guy riding a horse through the streets, rolling through every lane, clopping into oncoming traffic. I turned on my lights and tried to pull him over. He decided to run away on horseback. I went after him, with my partner patiently explaining that I’m a moron. The horseman headed for that apartment building, the one our own protocols dictate that any officer who goes inside is always to be accompanied by at least three other officers.

He stopped the horse inside, possibly assuming that no officer would follow him for drunk driving a horse. Well, I sure showed him. We pulled up, and I leaped out of the car to grab the rider. The guy, in keeping with the old joke, immediately assured me that “The horse is sober.”

But the guy was not, and wacky circumstances don’t grant you license to endanger yourself and others while under the influence. I knew I wasn’t getting horse registration off this guy, so I started to book him, at which point this little old lady came up and asked why I was arresting Horse Guy. I began to explain that he was drunk driving, and that horses do count as vehicles under the transportation code, when some random dude ran up and punched the old lady in the head.

Punching little old people is a felony, or at least it should be, so my partner and I chased the assailant through the complex. He vanished somewhere into the labyrinth and was lost to us, so I made my way back to the car, hoping maybe the lady knew who he was. But she had vanished, too. And so had the drunken rider. The horse, however, had been left behind.

No one deals with horses. Animal control didn’t have the right facilities to house one, our station sure as hell didn’t, and not even my sergeant knew what the hell to do with it. I called a towing company and said I wanted a flatbed to move an abandoned horse, and was dismissed as a crank until I pointed out I was using the police-only number and that I did have a goddamn horse that needed to be … impounded. Or something. In the end, we just moved it onto some grass and hoped it knew how to get home.

It’s not that I have any sympathy for the policeman himself. But I can’t help but have some for his partner. Can you imagine how hard it would be to not say “I told you so” afterwards?

The neocons were wrong

They were wrong about Iraq. They are wrong about Iran. They are always wrong and they don’t give a damn about the national security of the United States, the American people, or the foreigners about whom they profess such concern.

According to press reports last weekend, Fallujah is now under the control of al-Qaeda affiliates. The Anbar province, where Fallujah is located, is under siege by al-Qaeda. During the 2007 “surge,” more than 1,000 US troops were killed “pacifying” the Anbar province.  Although al-Qaeda was not in Iraq before the US invasion, it is now conducting its own surge in Anbar.

For Iraq, the US “liberation” is proving far worse than the authoritarianism of Saddam Hussein, and it keeps getting worse. Last year was Iraq’s deadliest in five years. In 2013, fighting and bomb blasts claimed the lives of 7,818 civilians and 1,050 members of the security forces. In December alone nearly a thousand people were killed.

I remember sitting through many hearings in the House International Relations Committee praising the “surge,” which we were told secured a US victory in Iraq. They also praised the so-called “Awakening,” which was really an agreement by insurgents to stop fighting in exchange for US dollars. I always wondered what would happen when those dollars stopped coming.

Where are the surge and awakening cheerleaders now?

One of them, Richard Perle, was interviewed last year on NPR and asked whether the Iraq invasion that he pushed was worth it. He replied:

I’ve got to say I think that is not a reasonable question. What we did at the time was done in the belief that it was necessary to protect this nation. You can’t a decade later go back and say, well, we shouldn’t have done that.

Many of us were saying all along that we shouldn’t have done that – before we did it. Unfortunately the Bush Administration took the advice of the neocons pushing for war and promising it would be a “cakewalk.” We continue to see the results of that terrible mistake, and it is only getting worse.

That quote from Richard Perle is all you need to know about the neocons to understand that they are fundamentally evil people who don’t give a damn about history or anything else. It is not reasonable to reconsider your actions in light of their consequences? That isn’t merely evil, that isn’t merely stupid, that’s freaking insane.

France rises again

It is interesting to see that even the globalist expats are observing precisely the same nationalist phenomenon growing that I have observed across Europe. The key difference, of course, being that they disapprove of it whereas I wholeheartedly approve of this eminently predictable development:

PARIS — It is difficult to go more than a day in France without hearing
someone express the conviction that the greatest problem in the country
is its ethnic minorities, that the presence of immigrants compromises
the identity of France itself. This conviction is typically expressed
without any acknowledgment of the country’s historical responsibility as
a colonial power for the presence of former colonial subjects in
metropolitan France, nor with any willingness to recognize that France
will be ethnically diverse from here on out, and that it’s the
responsibility of the French as much as of the immigrants to make this
work.

In the past year I have witnessed incessant stop-and-frisk of young
black men in the Gare du Nord; in contrast with New York, here in Paris
this practice is scarcely debated. I was told by a taxi driver as we
passed through a black neighborhood: “I hope you got your shots. You
don’t need to go to Africa anymore to get a tropical disease.” On
numerous occasions, French strangers have offered up the observation to
me, in reference to ethnic minorities going about their lives in the
capital: “This is no longer France. France is over.” There is a
constant, droning presupposition in virtually all social interactions
that a clear and meaningful division can be made between the people who
make up the real France and the impostors….

Equality is of course one of the virtues on which the French Republic
was founded, yet critics of the Enlightenment philosophy behind the
Revolution have long noticed a double standard: when equality is
invoked, these critics note, it is understood that this is equality among equals.
Political and social inequality is allowed to go on as before, as long
as it is presumed that this is rooted in a natural inequality….

The American approach to immigration is plainly rooted in historical
exigencies connected to the appropriation of a continent, and it is this
same history of appropriation that continues to induce shame in most
Euro-Americans who might otherwise be tempted to describe themselves as
natives. America has to recognize its hybrid and constructed identity,
since the only people who can plausibly lay claim to native status are
the very ones this new identity was conjured to displace. But in Europe
no similar displacement plays a role in historical memory: Europeans can
more easily imagine themselves to be their own natives, and so can
imagine any demographic impact on the continent from the extra-European
world as the harbinger of an eventual total displacement.

The writer is an idiot multiculturalist, of course, but he does correctly identify the fundamental difference between European attitude towards mass migration and the American attitude. Where he is completely wrong is in forgetting that Europeans don’t have to “imagine themselves to be their own natives”, as they are quite literally the indigenous people of Europe, they have the same rights to protection in Europe that are afforded to indigenous peoples elsewhere, and they cannot permit any displacement there because they have literally nowhere else to go.

Israel for the Jews. Japan for the Japanese. Europe for the various nations of Europe. And France for the French. Nationalism is not a difficult or dangerous concept, it is a moral imperative and a divine decree. The globalist, multicultural dogma is not merely impractical, it is immoral and overtly anti-Biblical, being Babel writ large.

The perils of global warming

Antarctica rescue: Xue Long calls for help after becoming stuck while trying to help Akademik Shokalskiy.

And they say that God doesn’t have a sense of humor. Tell us more about that scientific consensus. That frozen, scientific consensus in need of rescue because it is stuck in the ice.