Category: Uncategorized

The idiot whistle

Whether the subject is equality in the distribution of wealth, sex, or marriage, you can always be certain of one thing.  The appeal to equality is simply the idiot-whistle being blown to summon the support of the unthinking, it has absolutely nothing to do with the objectives of those appealing to that mythic state.

A homogamy aspect is confident enough to admit what was always obvious from the start:

It’s a no-brainer that (homosexual activists) should have the right to marry, but I also think equally that it’s a no-brainer that the institution of marriage should not exist. …(F)ighting for gay marriage generally involves lying about what we are going to do with marriage when we get there — because we lie that the institution of marriage is not going to change, and that is a lie.  The institution of marriage is going to change, and it should change. And again, I don’t think it should exist. And I don’t like taking part in creating fictions about my life. That’s sort of not what I had in mind when I came out thirty years ago.

Vladimir Ilyich had a term that accurately describes those non-activists who support “marriage equality” for reasons of fairness.  Useful idiots.  What the sexually abnormal mean by “marriage” is not what it means to most people, and by expanding the definition they are actively and admittedly seeking to destroy both the institution and the sacrament.

Don’t you have bigger problems, Taiwan?

I’m not sure that attempting to pick a fight with the Phillipines is the right strategic move for the Republic of China.  Especially given the way larger wars tend to start from smaller ones, what on Earth do the Taiwanese think to gain from this?  Is this the geopolitical equivalent of the physically hapless geek rolling his eyes and saying “see, you don’t want to mess with me, man, I’m KRAZY!”

While most consider the Middle-East a hot-bed of geopolitical risk (prone to flare at any moment), it seems hot money flows and territorial disputes are rapidly turning the South China Sea into a powder-keg. As Japan vs China is off the front pages for a moment (and US and South Korea engage in joint naval exercises) it seems Taiwan and the Philippines are escalating rapidly following the death of a Taiwanese fisherman last week after Filipino military fired on his vessel in supposedly disputed territory between Taipei and Manila. The situation is evolving rapidly as the Philippines’ un-apology (though they sent their condolences) may prompt Taiwan to send F-16 fighters, Kidd-class destroyers, and three or more warships, according to The Liberty Times. The threat of escalation is premised on a formal apology coming within 72 hours. As Stratfor notes, Taiwan’s territorial ‘claims’ are “outrageously ambitious” but the various island nations all appear set on rattling sabres as mainland China stiffens its resolve against Japan over the Senkakus.

This is akin to brandishing a fist against the squirrel in your backyard as you steadfastly ignore the very large and hungry tiger sprawled out on your porch.  It’s the sort of thing you read about in the history books and think: “nah, no one these days could possibly be THAT stupid.”

John Piper’s strange god

I wonder what devotees of the Diversity Gospel will make of this admission by one of the leading architects of diversity in Europe:

Labour sent out ‘search parties’ for immigrants to get them to come to the UK, Lord Mandelson has admitted. In a stunning confirmation that the Blair and Brown governments deliberately engineered mass immigration, the former Cabinet Minister and spin doctor said New Labour sought out foreign workers. He also conceded that the influx of arrivals meant the party’s traditional supporters are now unable to find work….

Lord Mandelson’s remarks come three years after Labour officials denied claims by former adviser Andrew Neather that they deliberately encouraged immigration in order to change the make-up of Britain.

Mr Neather said the policy was designed to ‘rub the Right’s nose in diversity’. He said there was ‘a driving political purpose: that mass immigration was the way that the Government was going to make the UK truly multicultural’.

Senior Labour figures have been reluctant to concede they deliberately engineered the influx of migrants who have transformed communities over the past decade.

By the open admission of its most powerful advocates, “diversity” is a purposeful, destructive and genocidal program intended to destroy traditional European Christian culture. And it is John Piper’s bizarre claim that his god desires diversity, even more than his ‘Killer Jesus’ teaching, that demonstrates the very high probability that John Piper’s god is not simply the Christian God of the Bible, but rather a rationalized amalgamation of that God and the god of diversity, who is also known as The Prince of This World.

The Bible says: “Ye shall know them by their fruits.”  That is the Christian’s litmus test. And both diversity and John Piper clearly fail that test.

Perhaps this will wake up the media

The Obama administration is spying on them too:

As it turns out, the big Friday story of Bloomberg journalists snooping on its clients was just amateur hour compared to what the AP was about to serve. In fact, the Watergate affair may soon appear like a walk in the park compared to the First Amendment shitstorm that is about to be unleashed following the just reported news that the US Department of Justice had “secretly obtained two months of telephone records of reporters and editors for The Associated Press in what the news cooperative’s top executive called a “massive and unprecedented intrusion” into how news organizations gather the news.” First amendment? Freedom of speech and press? Surely not when it comes to the Nobel-peace prize winning President and those who dare to expose his secret ways. And what’s worst, is that the AP breach has all the makings of a spiteful hack driven by personal vengeance against one of America’s premier news outlets.

Probably not.  La carte noire, don’t you know. The media will find it very difficult to turn on Obama unless he starts sending killer drones after AP reporters, and even then, the likes of Eleanor Clift will be babbling about how targeted media assassinations are popular moves that make the president look “decisive”.

This comment at Zerohedge cracked me up: “Obama has a free ride from the press and he is even going to fuck that up….classic.”

Mailvox: of Game Informer and Calvin Klein

Conan asks my opinion about some old friends:

Have you ever met the group at Game Informer?  I could ask many questions, like how y’all mixed (as they come across as SWPL in their mag) but not really that important and probably boring anyhow.

We got along exceedingly well.  Paul was Big Chilly’s younger brother’s best friend, so I used to see him all the time at Big Chilly’s house when we were in high school.  Andy and Paul usually came to our parties at the Digital Ghetto, and I still have pictures of me at one of Andy’s band concerts.  Big Chilly and I didn’t actually mix with them all that much professionally, however, since they were console and we were PC.  I don’t think they ever wrote about our stuff, whereas CGW did, although they knew all about it and sometimes played the pre-alpha stuff when they were over.

In all the years I knew them, and hung out with them, I can’t remember once ever discussing anything political with either Andy or Paul.  We talked about games, music, girls, and botany projects, but never politics.  I suppose we all had too much in common.

If I recall correctly, Andy made some noises about me writing for GI ages and ages ago, but since I was in the St. Paul Paper and nationally syndicated in my own right as a game reviewer at the time, it wasn’t something that ever interested me.  To be honest, we tended to think of their magazine as a cool little thing, but not a truly big deal like CGW or Electronic Entertainment.  I wasn’t always clear on how it was different than, say, Nintendo Power.  I remember it being really, really, thin, actually, since it was put out by a game rental operation or something like that.

It’s amusing that Andy is a bigger deal in the industry than any of us now, although Micron is doing well as the audio director at Epic.  I’m absolutely pleased for Andy.  He did a remarkable job in building up that magazine from almost nothing and he’s one of the few people about whom I have literally nothing negative to say.  I mean, quite literally, nothing.

Paul was a very funny guy in a quiet way.  The kind of guy who would say something with a totally straight face and you’d suddenly start laughing a few moments later when you realized what he’d said. He was also astonishingly good-looking and somewhat embarrassed by it.  A funny story about him: Joel West, the Calvin Klein model, was a friendly acquaintance of mine and accompanied me to the Game Informer offices one day.  After meeting Paul, Joel told him he could have a lucrative career in modeling and should consider coming to New York with Joel to meet with Calvin Klein.

Paul just looked at him as if he was completely and utterly insane.  He didn’t even say anything, he just snorted and shook his head.  Joel didn’t try to argue with him, Paul was clearly no more inclined to pursue a career in underwear modeling than one in infant cannibalism. His ALS and death at 38 was just ridiculously tragic and unfair.

Impeach Obama

It won’t happen due to his all-important carte noire.  But as George Will points out, by past standards, there is little question that Obama now merits impeachment on the basis of the IRS actions:

George Will joined the chorus talking about the prospect of impeachment for President Barack Obama after last week’s admission from the Internal Revenue Service that it had targeted groups with the phrases “tea party” or “patriot” in their tax-exempt applications for extra audits….

Will noted that one of the items in the 1973 impeachment articles of then-President Richard Nixon, which ultimately led to his resignation, described the Nixon administration’s use of the power of income tax audits in a “discriminatory matter.”

“This is the 40th anniversary of the Watergate summer here in Washington,” Will said. “’He has, through his subordinated and agents, endeavored…to cause, in violation of the constitutional rights of citizens, income tax audits or other income tax investigation to be initiated or conducted in a discriminatory manner,’ — Section 1, Article 2, the impeachment articles of Richard Nixon.

Now, I very much doubt Obama knew anything about the audits; I doubt he knows very much about what is going on under the aegis of “his” administration.  He has never been anything more than a tool for certain Chicago interests and their allies.  But he is still nominally in charge, he is still the man sitting in the Oval Office, and he is therefore responsible for the actions of the administration.

Are they afraid of ghosts?

Isn’t it interesting how buildings that are involved in events of questionable veracity so often need to be torn down afterwards?

The day after a task force unanimously recommended razing and rebuilding Sandy Hook Elementary School, residents expressed relief tinged with sadness on Saturday in the small New England town that became a focal point of the national debate on gun control…. A 28-member task force of elected town officials decided late Friday night to demolish the 56-year-old school and build a new one on the same site.

This seems more than a little strange.  I went to a school that was built in 1913 and is still being actively utilized.  And how difficult would it be to clean up a few classrooms?  But if a school shooting can be reasonably expected to produce $57 million in construction business, conspiracy theorists may have to seriously rethink who has an incentive to be hiring patsies.

The downside of disruption

Game Developer goes the way of Computer Gaming World:

Had I written this editorial two weeks earlier, I’d probably be writing about how enthusiastic I am to introduce our first-ever mobile-themed issue. In the past few years, mobile games have grown into a part of the industry no developer can afford to ignore, and the fact that Game Developer hasn’t ever devoted an entire issue to the topic until now is rather shortsighted on our part.

Then I found out that Game Developer’s parent company UBM Tech was axing all its print publications. That’s right – if you haven’t already heard, Game Developer’s last official issue is the next one (June-July). Stick around for it; it’s gonna be good.

Interesting timing, as I just happened to hear from the immortal Dr. Johnny Wilson last week. I still very much miss the old CGW from its glory days of the early and mid-1990s.  I used to read that thing from cover to cover the moment it arrived in the mail. And I’m still looking for that 1993(?) issue that Mike Weksler wrote about 3D graphics about me and Chris Taylor; if anyone has a copy of it somewhere or can even ID the issue, I would appreciate it.

I can’t say I’ll miss Game Developer anywhere nearly as much, but it was a good magazine, even if occasionally a little too much given to articles stating the total obvious by lesser developers and idiotic demands for more transgendered and Esquimaux developers.  But it is still a loss to the game development world, and demonstrates what too often happens when a small company, successful in its niche, sells out to a larger corporation.

Health evaders and the B Ark

I wonder what they’re going to call the millions of Americans who refuse to turn over their health information to the IRS next year?  Health evaders?  Health protesters?

When Obamacare’s individual mandate takes effect in 2014, all Americans
who file income tax returns must complete an additional IRS tax form. The new form will require disclosure of a taxpayer’s personal identifying health information in order to determine compliance with the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate. As confirmed by IRS testimony to the tax-writing House Committee on Ways and Means, “taxpayers will file their tax returns reporting their health insurance coverage, and/or making a payment”.

Whatever they call them, I tend to imagine there are going to be a fair amount of them.  Honestly, I don’t see how this whole creaky system is going to survive much longer.  History shows that there is a lot of ruin in a nation, but at this rate, the entire business activity of the USA is soon going to be computers trading stocks with other computers and people filling out forms for the IRS and other government agencies.

Welcome to the B Ark economy.

Pulp Writer review

Jonathan Moeller reviews The Last Witchking:

Last year, I read A THRONE OF BONES by Vox Day, and thought it was one of the more interesting new epic fantasy novels I’ve read. The author was kind enough to send me an advance copy of THE LAST WITCHKING, a group of three short stories set in A THRONE OF BONES’S setting of Selenoth. Specifically, THE LAST WITCHKING, THE HOBLETS OF WICCAM FENSBORO, and OPERA VITA AETERNA.

The first story deals with the titular LAST WITCHKING, and provides an origin story for one of the villains in A THRONE OF BONES. In Selenoth, the “Witchkings” were the pejorative name for a race of extremely powerful sorcerers that once ruled and tyrannized much of the world. The elves eventually destroyed the witchkings, but before they did, the last two witchkings conceived a child and hid him among the humans, intending that child to be the instrument of vengeance upon their enemies….

[T]he Selenoth books are a welcome breath of fresh air. SF/F publishing
has become too ossified and moribund (science fiction and fantasy are
supposed to be the literature of the speculative, yet every writer these
days seems to have the exact same standard-issue SWPL worldview) so
books from a writer who is capable of regarding organized religion as
something other than a peculiar superstition practiced by the peasantry
are most welcome.

It’s always interesting to see which of the three stories contained in Witchking are preferred by various readers.  I also find it amusing that people who haven’t read Hoblets assume it is some sort of Shire ripoff – somewhat ironic in light of how Robert Jordan admitted he was intentionally ripping off The Shire in the first book of The Wheel of Time – whereas those who have read it have expressed some degree of frustration at the way in which it is not even possible to identify what they are.