Category: Uncategorized

Britain edges for the exit

A flicker of self-rule sparks in Britain:

As the House of Commons backed the new laws by 304 votes to nil, David Cameron said Britain is “one step closer” to giving voters a choice on Brussels. The result is a major victory for eurosceptic Tory MPs and the UK Independence Party, who have put the Prime Minister under pressure to set out concrete plans for a poll.

The vast majority of Labour and Lib Dem MPs stayed away from the debate, dismissing the whole European Union (Referendum) Bill as a parliamentary “stunt”.

However, not a single MP actually voted against the Bill for fear of alienating the electorate, as the party leaders fear many voters are anti-Europe.

If the British do finally get a substantive vote and elect to stay in the EU
after all the lies and betrayals, after all the Euro-related disasters,
after everything that has happened, they will deserve their fate.  But they have a long history of flirting with disaster and somehow surviving it.  Of course, given the slippery history of the UK europhiles, who knows what “a choice on Brussels” will actually turn out to be.

Irish red flag

Reggie Middleton observes that AIB and the Irish banks look ripe for a bail-in:

It appears that AIB is stating that they have given ‘certain segregated securities’ as security to the ECB whereas the ECB actually decides which securities will be designated as ‘eligible’. The charge is in favor of the Central Bank and is over ‘all present and future liabilities whatsoever’ of AIB. This charge is a floating charge over repo agreements, aka Eligible Securities – securities that the graphic above demonstrates can go on ad nauseum and way beyond the entities prudent ability to repay, yet not appear on the balance sheet or in its regulatory reporting!!!. These securities have been purchased by the ECB through the repo agreements.

Thus, it appears as if this floating charge granted to the ECB is over assets that the ECB already owned. The floating charge was given to the ECB by AIB for emergency funding (emergency liquidity). Do you see a circular argument here? A potential Ponzi even???!!!! I warned my paying subscribers three years ago, Beware of the Potential Irish Ponzi Scheme!

For those who don’t get it, AIB is essentially asset/equity broke. All properties considered as marketable/acceptable collateral (in other words anything of real, tangible value) has already been pledged to the ECB. EVERYTHING!!! To the prudent depositor, this is all that needs to be said, but there’s more, much more, Irish men and women, prepare to be CYPRUS’D!!!

I don’t know how many Irish readers I have – actual Irish, not “wear green on March 17” Americans – but you might want to consider holding cash rather than bank deposits for a few weeks until the picture becomes more clear.

There will be more Cypruses.  Both the EU and the USA have enshrined the principle into policy after it became clear that it is easier and less problematic than hitting up the taxpayer via the various parliaments and congresses.  The only question is where the next one will be.

What confidentiality rules? Part II

I receive some answers to my questions concerning the mysterious “SFWA confidentiality rules” from an SFWA officer:

1. Can you please inform me where in the bylaws these “confidentiality rules” can be found?

“This report contains posts from online Forums, and private emails sent to the Board in conjunction with the investigation.  Just as our Member Discussion Forums and our printed Directory and The Forum are subject to Board policies regarding limited access, so is this report, both for your own protection and for others.”

2. Is it a violation of “SFWA confidentiality rules” to provide a copy of the report to my attorney?

“No.”

So, let’s summarize:

1.  The SFWA Board has openly and admittedly violated the clearly posted SFWA forum confidentiality rules by reposting material from the SFWA discussions forums outside those forums without the explicit permission of me, and presumably, other members.

2. The SFWA Board appears to have invented some imaginary “confidentiality rules” and appealed to them in an attempt to keep its admittedly one-sided “investigative report” from being released to the membership and the public.

3. According to one SFWA officer, these nonexistent confidentiality rules permit the release of the report to non-SFWA members, including, but not necessarily limited to, my attorney, contra the claim of another SFWA officer.

4. The SFWA Board has intentionally misconstrued the SFWA forum confidentiality rules, by claiming “the report contains material from the SFWA Discussion Forums which therefore may not be distributed outside of SFWA”.

This last claim is obviously and knowingly false, as the confidentiality rule is posted right on the front page of the forum and states: “The SFWA discussion forums are for SFWA members only, and all posts made
here are confidential. Material may not be re-posted outside these
forums without the explicit permission of their authors.”  Emphasis added.  Note that there is no special exception for the Board.

Since the Board has already broken discussion forum confidentiality by distributing material from the forums outside them, and since the SFWA officer responsible for the investigation subsequently informed me that the report “may not be distributed outside of SFWA”, I will provide a copy of the investigative report to any SFWA member who emails me to request one.  In light of the remote, but still extant possibility that the double-secret “SFWA confidentiality rules” relating to the release of the report to non-members will magically appear, I will refrain from making it available to the public for the time being.

In addition to the SFWA Board’s violation of existing rules and invention of nonexistent ones, if there is any doubt the process is a farce designed to give cover to their true object, consider the following answer to another question:

5. There are specific claims concerning [REDACTED]. Why was I not provided with the evidence supporting those claims?  The appendix included no copies of [REDACTED].

These are listed for context and the Board will be considering these, but they are irrelevant to the substance of the complaint and shared in confidence with the Board.

So, we are told, the Board will be considering things that are irrelevant to the substance of “the complaint”, which is the same thing as “the investigative report” even though, according to the protocols, the report is supposed to be “comprehensive”.  As I expect will soon be readily apparent to even the most unsympathetic SFWA reviewer, it is far from comprehensive and is strictly prosecutorial.  And I am warned that if I subsequently proceed to release the report to the public and thereby violate the nonexistent “SFWA confidentiality rules”, that will be held against me.

“Pelase be advised that such an action will be added to the material of
the complaint and considered by the Board in its deliberations.” [sic]

As I noted yesterday, what we’re seeing from the SFWA is a petty version of the same tactic one can observe being utilized by various governments and agencies.  Just as the police in Arlington, Massachusetts attempted to secure permission for a “voluntary walk-through” before finally breaking in and doing what they intended to do from the start, the SFWA Board is appears to be trying to provide cover for its predetermined actions in order to avoid alarming the rest of the membership and alerting them to the fact that any of them can be expelled for any reasons that happens to suit eight members of the current Board at the moment.

This charade of due process is only being played out to conceal the fact that, thanks to the revision of the SFWA bylaws, a united Board can quite legitimately expel any member for anything, including their appearance or their opinions.  This is the leftist’s dream structure, in which the only limits on the actions of the ruling body are its own self-imposed restrictions that can be ignored at will. 

The curtain has gone up. The lights will soon be shining bright. Enjoy the play.

What “independence”?

This is what happened back in January 2011, just to set the stage:

In the wake of the recent shooting in Tuscon, Travis put up a post on his blog about how he didn’t particularly feel like shedding any tears over the shooting of a politician, entitled “1 down, 534 to go!” Provocative? Inflammatory? Even tacky? Sure. But it was just speech. Political speech. The kind that’s protected under the 1st Amendment, even when it’s about politicians further up the food chain than congresscritters.

Comic readers tend to trend younger and lefter than the norm, and some of his customers found out about his post and decided to organize a boycott. I have no problem with boycotts; lord knows I’ve called for the boycotts of businesses that did things that annoyed me, such as using murderers for pitchmen. Some people were so butthurt, however, that they went to the authorities, and Travis received a knock on the door: It was the Arlington, MA po-po, there to relieve Mr. Corcoran of his guns, his ammunition, his firearms license, and his 2nd Amendment rights, all for having the temerity to use his 1st Amendment rights in the former Cradle of Liberty, now its grave.

 And this is what happened yesterday, on July 4th, “Independence Day”, 2013:

Well, TJIC got his Massachusetts FID* reissued, and has reapplied for an MA LTC**. Now the local po-po*** is surrounding his crib, wanting to inspect the premises. Without a warrant. In the suburbs of Boston. On Independence Day….

I repeatedly refused the cops’ requests for a voluntary walk-through of the house.

I repeatedly refused to answer any questions.

The cops repeatedly told me that if I had nothing to hide, I should just allow a walk-through, and if I was a good guy, I’d have a “conversation” with them.

In the end they illegally seized my FID (just plan CAN NOT do it, but they took it and wouldn’t give it back) and they illegally seized Jennifer’s firearms. My lawyer was appalled but not surprised.

Jennifer and I have been talking about moving out of MA in 3-6 years.

We are officially looking for real estate tomorrow; I will not spend one more day than is necessary in this totalitarian hell hole.

I ask again, what “independence” was it that you were celebrating yesterday?

UPDATE: It’s not only the Second Amendment that is under attack. Even the Third Amendment is being openly violated:

Henderson police arrested a family for refusing to let officers use their homes as lookouts for a domestic violence investigation of their neighbors, the family claims in court….  It continues: “At 10:45 a.m. defendant Officer Christopher Worley (HPD) contacted plaintiff Anthony Mitchell via his telephone. Worley told plaintiff that police needed to occupy his home in order to gain a ‘tactical advantage’ against the occupant of the neighboring house. Anthony Mitchell told the officer that he did not want to become involved and that he did not want police to enter his residence. Although Worley continued to insist that plaintiff should leave his residence, plaintiff clearly explained that he did not intend to leave his home or to allow police to occupy his home. Worley then ended the phone call.

Mitchell claims that defendant officers, including Cawthorn and Worley and Sgt. Michael Waller then “conspired among themselves to force Anthony Mitchell out of his residence and to occupy his home for their own use.” (Waller is identified as a defendant in the body of the complaint, but not in the heading of it.)

The complaint continues: “Defendant Officer David Cawthorn outlined the defendants’ plan in his official report: ‘It was determined to move to 367 Evening Side and attempt to contact Mitchell. If Mitchell answered the door he would be asked to leave. If he refused to leave he would be arrested for Obstructing a Police Officer. If Mitchell refused to answer the door, force entry would be made and Mitchell would be arrested.'”

Interesting, is it not, that white suburban Americans appear to be increasingly less inclined to trust or cooperate with the police.

What confidentiality rules?

I received an email from a gentleman from the SFWA today:

Complaints against you have been filed by
multiple members of SFWA. In following our procedures for responding to
such complaints a report was prepared by a Board-appointed investigator
and found, by a Board vote, to merit continuing our complaint process.

Our current protocols mandate presenting you with the report and
adequate opportunity to respond so that the Board may make a
determination. Responses may include, but need not be limited to,
denial, claiming extenuating circumstances, and claiming provocation.
You have 14 days to respond. If you require statements by others to be
submitted for the record, such statements shall be collected and added
to the record. If you request an extension of time to collect these
statements, one additional 7-day-period shall be granted.

Please find attached the Board investigator’s report. This report
and all contents not publicly available fall under SFWA confidentiality
rules and may not be publicly disclosed.

Now, here is what remains something of a mystery.  I examined the organization bylaws and there are no “confidentiality rules”.  There are confidentiality rules in the Forum, which are clearly posted, but an unsolicited email is not a Forum post and is no more protected by expectations of confidentiality than spam.

However, I certainly wouldn’t want to violate any more organization rules than I already have, so I requested more information from the gentleman:


I have received the information you sent me.  I shall be pleased to
review it.  However, I do not recognize that the information falls under
any “confidentiality rules”, as this is not the SFWA Forum, but an
unsolicited email sent to me.  Nor are there any “confidentiality rules”
in the SFWA bylaws.


Please inform me by what “confidentiality rules” you believe this report
falls under within 24 hours or I will assume that there are none
pertinent to this report and I am therefore free to reproduce its
contents in its entirety wherever I see fit.

Now, perhaps there are some double-secret confidentiality rules of which I am unaware, in which case I shall, of course, abide by them.  But if there are no such rules, then I shall certainly not hesitate to make the report available to the public.

Mailvox: correcting Mr. Shetterly

Will Shetterly commented:

Now, do feel free to correct me on the following:

1. Y’all believe in alpha males. In my community, that’s machismo.

2.
Y’all are right-libertarians, which means you’re rightwingers. I’m a
left-libertarian, which means I disagree with a lot of leftwingers, but
I’m still a leftwinger.

3. Y’all believe white people are
superior to black people thanks to the way you cherry-pick science.

1.  Belief in the existence of alpha males no more equates to “machismo” than belief in the existence of elves equates to “homosexual”.  One can believe in the existence of a socio-sexual alpha male without believing that one is such an alpha male; I am an example of this myself.  So are most of those who accept the theory of Game.

2. This is correct.  However, calling me a “rightwinger” tends to mislead a lot of people who think of rightwingers as Republican conservatives who favor big business, the war on drugs, and the death penalty.  None of which fits here.

3. No.  There is no “cherry-picking of science” here at all, instead, I simply accept the present state of science without any preconceptions either way. Genetic science as well as TENS absolutely dictate the inequality of ALL human population groups.  Not only is the species not intrinsically the same throughout, but what we recognize as human are not even all equally the same species.

Whether one regards one of these unequal human population groups as superior to another completely depends on the metric chosen.  None can be declared intrinsically superior to the others, in fact, any such statement would be literally nonsensical regardless of which population group was nominated.

David Duke may “have claimed to have scientific reasons for believing white folks were superior”.  I do not.  I merely claim to be reasonably well-read with regards to the present state of genetic science and that anyone who claims “white folks” are genetically equal to “non-white folks” is scientifically illiterate.

Trying to pull Pournelle’s strings

Mary Robinette Kowal, who is a leading SFWA pinkshirt, a professional puppeteer, and a mediocre science fiction writer of Regency romances with a little fantasy sprinkled over them, (you know, the sort that wins awards despite nobody reading them), has decided to get tuff now and tell the real SF writers to “shut the fuck up” and leave the organization. Because respect.

Dear Twelve Rabid Weasels of SFWA, please shut the fuck up.

I know you value your freedom of speech. Good on you. However there are 1788 other members of SFWA who also value their freedom of speech and manage to exercise it without being raging assholes.

You are professional writers, so should know the power of words. I therefore must assume that you are deliberately being provocative and trying to set things on fire because you enjoy watching a flamewar.

There are 1788 other members who don’t. Scratch that… there are 1752 because some people just quit because of you….

Please quit. And by “quit” I mean, please quit SFWA in a huff. Please quit noisily and complaining about how SFWA is censoring you for asking you to stop using hate speech. Please quit and complain about the “thoughtcrime” of asking people not to sexually harass someone.  Please quit and bellyache about the good old days when people could be bigoted jerks. I want you to express your opinions clearly so that everyone knows them and knows that you are quitting because the other members of SFWA want you to Shut the Fuck up.

With all sincerity,

Mary Robinette Kowal

First, I note that of the three people that I know who have quit the organization, two quit due to the actions of Kowal and the junior members that the Scalzi administration foolishly encouraged instead of keeping in line.  And if 36 people have really quit of late, then obviously the responsibility lies with those who have actively sown dissension and dissatisfaction throughout the organization with their inept activist leadership rather than the so-called “rabid weasels” who have been there for years, if not decades.

It lies with people like Mary Puppinette Kowal.

Second, no one is complaining about anyone asking people not to sexually harass anyone.  They are objecting, quite reasonably, to the insane idea of setting up SFWA as a sexual harassment police with self-declared jurisdiction over every SF/F convention on the planet. They are objecting to the abuse of the organization by a number of vocal nonentities attempting to use it for their own ideological purposes.

If anyone is going to “Shut the Fuck Up”, it should be irresponsible nobodies like the Puppinette who have absolutely nothing of any value to say, either on their blogs or in their books, and who have contributed nothing to the organization except to bring it to the brink of self-implosion.

I continue with these SFWA-related posts, not because I think anyone is particularly interested in the petty squabbles of writers, but because they are a perfect micro-example of the greater processes in work as part of the Left’s long march through the institutions and organs of society.  Leftists like the Puppinette invade, infest, and then, as soon as they feel strong enough, start issuing dictates and posturing as if they speak for the entire organization in order to cement their control.  They attack, attack, and attack, and when they finally meet up with a modicum of resistance, shriek that their critics are being provocative for no reason at all except personal shortcomings.

Thus we end up with “Christian” churches devoid of actual Christians, a “Republican” party devoid of genuine republicans, a “Democratic” party devoid of proper democrats, and a “Science Fiction  writers” association without any actual science fiction writers.  Learn to recognize the pattern.  It is already at work in an organization near you; it is why every organization that is not firmly vigilant about keeping these destructive invaders out will eventually succumb to them.

Regression from carnism

The Vegan Sellout List’s quixotic mission:

If you’re no longer vegan, you’re going on the list.
 

The spirits of the billions murdered have risen to deliver: The Vegan
Sellout List – an online directory of those who have regressed from
moral consistency to moral depravity.

The Vegan Sellout List is our answer to the epidemic of vegan
sellouts – those who are aware of the suffering caused by meat, dairy,
egg, fur, and leather production, yet choose to look away while the
animals suffer.

Selling out veganism is a trend on the upswing, bringing with it
swarms of haughty, nose-turning carnists uttering nonsensical buzzwords
re: veganism being “privileged”, or “trendy”, critiquing themselves into
ethical degeneracy and paleo-terrorism.

I think this one is my favorite example.  And I tend to agree, this Minneapolis woman does merit some form of severe punishment.

“Made us all even eat vegan pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving one year and then found out she closet ate cheeseburgers.”

Vegan pumpkin pie?  Stick to the nuts, twigs, and berries, you freakshows.  The thing I find most entertaining about vegans and vegetarians is their attempt to appeal to a “morality” that somehow manages to be simultaneously nonexistent and incoherent.

And look, it’s time to point out the truth. No straight man has ever been a vegan and very few outside of India are genuine vegetarians.  They simply fake it in order to have sex with the sort of mentally unbalanced women who believe crystals possess healing powers.

If you want to convert a vegan to carnism, take her to Barcelona.  I once unwittingly corrupted a woman there.  A group of us were out to dinner at a conference, she was sitting next to me, and my plate of pata negra proved too tempting.  I simply offered her a piece, not knowing she was a vegetarian, and she scarfed most of the plate in about ten seconds.  It was like watching a single piranha skeletonize a cow.

She apologized afterwards and explained it was the first meat she’d ordered in seven years. I congratulated her on her recovery, ordered two more plates, and until they arrived, kept a watchful eye on her and a hand on my steak knife, just in case she went for my shoulder.

Military coup in Egypt

Egyptian Military Ousts Morsi, Suspends Constitution

On Wednesday, Gen. Abdel Fatah Said Al-Sisi announced a military coup in Egypt. He said that the Constitution had been suspended, that early elections would take place, and that there would be a “code of ethics” for the media. He stated that the chief of the Constitutional court would be taking charge during a transitional period before another election. He said the new government would be “diverse and include all the people,” and that the constitution would be revised to reverse changes made by ousted Muslim Brotherhood President Mohammed Morsi.

As some of you may recall, I predicted that the Arab Spring wasn’t going to go well.  I don’t know why people continue to believe that democracy is equally functional no matter how the electorate is comprised.  It’s simply a form of government, it’s not magic.

Of course, given the state of our own democratic leadership, one wonders if military rule could possibly be any worse.

My convention policy

Inspired by McRapey’s brave decision to tell the SF conventions of the world what is, and what is not, acceptable to the public, I too have decided to provide a list of hard requirements for my being a panelist,
participant or Guest of Honor at a SF convention in the interest of making the world a better, safer, and more respectful place for everyone:

1. That the convention has a harassment policy, and
that the harassment policy is clear on precisely how all Tor authors and editors will be harassing the other attendees, sexually, ocularly, olfactory and otherwise.  I mean, given the probability that McRapey is going to be running around in his little red pumps while “Hands” Frenkel is feeling up the lumpy protruberances of spike-haired shoggoths and the Toad of Tor is squatting in the corner croaking threats at all who pass it by, these are sights and sounds – and smells –  for which one desperately wants to be prepared.  Preferably with a hazmat suit and a flamethrower.

2. That the convention provide a list of the fawning terms by which I am to be addressed at all times by the attendees, by
at least one and preferably more than one of the following: posting the list on their Website, placing it in their written and electronic
programs, putting up flyers in the common areas, discussing the list
at opening ceremonies or at other well-attended common events.

3. In cases when I am invited as a Guest of Honor,
personal affirmation from the convention chair that I will be provided with two (2) attractive cisgendered women, age not to exceed 25, BMI not to exceed 18.5, and height no less than 5’6″, dressed in age-appropriate Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders attire to serve as my personal entourage. Pictures of the prospective candidates are to be provided by email no less than two weeks prior to the event for my approval. 

Thank you for your support of my courage and goodthought. I will now bathe in the smug comfort of my self-regard.

On a tangential note, I would be remiss if I failed to show my support for the reinvention of SFWA as the Science Fiction and Fantasy Sexual Harassment Police.  In their feeding frenzy, the pinkshirts are demonstrating, more convincingly than I could ever have managed myself, that SFWA is no longer fit for purpose and is now essentially divorced from the business of writing and publishing science fiction.