Category: Uncategorized

Dr. Helen calls out the compassionate

Unlike the good doctor, I don’t believe in human equality, either between the sexes or in any other context.  I believe science, history, and casual observation are in accord on the matter. Nevertheless, I have to concur with her cogent observation on the extraordinary distaste for criticism demonstrated by some women:

I don’t agree with Venker’s whole “theme” about women’s femininity, I
believe in equality between the sexes. However, the response to Venker
just illustrates that women can’t stand being called out in any way. If
men on my blog even complain mildly about something women do, they are
called misogynists, sexists and liars. This just goes to show that most
women can dish it out but can’t take it. Ladies, this double standard is
appalling and sexist.

Dr. Helen adroitly twists the knife with her ironic reference to the myth of superior female compassion in the title to her post.  It is, indeed, a strange form of compassion that wishes death on anyone who dares to view a woman’s actions and ideas in anything but the rosiest light.

The Black Gate Christmas list

I first have to praise John for having the courage to announce a Christmas list rather than the increasingly common, and ludicrously insipid holiday list.  And then, I would be remiss if I did not point out his good taste in including works by Howard Andrew Jones and yours truly in his top 10:

  1. A Guile of Dragons, James Enge ($17.95)
  2. The Bones of the Old Ones, by Howard Andrew Jones ($25.99)
  3. American Science Fiction: 9 Classic Novels, edited by Gary K. Wolfe ($70)
  4. Universal Classic Monsters: The Essential Collection ($149.98)
  5. Lords of Waterdeep, Wizards of the Coast ($49.99)
  6. The Weird, edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer ($39.99)
  7. Epic: Legends of Fantasy, edited by John Joseph Adams ($17.95)
  8. A Throne of Bones, Vox Day ($4.99)
  9. Three Parts Dead, Max Gladstone ($24.99)
  10. Books To Die For, edited by John Connolly and Declan Burke ($29.99)

I should note that if you’re looking for something you can wrap, A Throne of Bones is also available in hardcover from Marcher Lord Hinterlands for $34.99.  To see the rest of the list, which goes 50 items long, go to The Black Gate Christmas List.

Never go full retard

I have to seriously wonder about the sanity of anyone who is genuinely concerned about the world ending in 2012 due to the Mayan calendar.  Remember, we’re talking about a people who were so collectively stupid that not a single one of them ever had the astonishingly brilliant idea of using the wheel to move things more easily from one place to another:

Ahead of December 21, which marks the conclusion of the 5,125-year “Long
Count” Mayan calendar, panic buying of candles and essentials has been
reported in China and Russia, along with an explosion in sales of survival
shelters in America. In France believers were preparing to converge on a
mountain where they believe aliens will rescue them. 

I’m assuming most of this is pure media look-at-the-loonies hype.  But not all of it is a media invention.  Now, I suppose it’s not totally impossible that a group of people who spent centuries dragging heavy things from point A to point B because the concept of an “axle” was beyond every single one of them had some means of calculating the World Reboot, but I am a little dubious, to say the least.  I’m merely surprised the Mayan calendar didn’t end in “fiver”.

Meanwhile, secularists continue to scoff at the Bible even as the events predicted in it keep coming occurring, one after another.  I’ve observed the pattern over the course of my lifetime.  First they scoff.  “Europe will never be one kingdom.”  “No one will ever buy things with a mark on their hands”.  “There is no Israel”.  “What government beheads anyone anymore?”  Then, when it comes to pass, they claim what was previously asserted to be impossible can’t possibly have anything to do with what was very clearly laid out nearly two thousand years ago.

I fail to see the downside

Every book the Baby Boomers consider “classic” should be eradicated from the school curricula:

American literature classics are to be replaced by insulation manuals and plant inventories in US classrooms by 2014. A new school curriculum which will affect 46 out of 50 states will make it compulsory for at least 70 per cent of books studied to be non-fiction, in an effort to ready pupils for the workplace. Books such as JD Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye and Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird will be replaced by “informational texts” approved by the Common Core State Standards.

It’s not an accident that neither Salinger nor Lee published anything of note beside their one-hit wonders.  Neither of them were either good or interesting authors.  They both struck a chord with posers. Salinger resonated with those who wanted to think of themselves as alienated and cool, Lee with those who wanted to think of themselves as morally superior.

Insulation manuals will be of greater benefit to the young reader than either work.  So would the yellow pages.  It’s about as significant as hearing that Bright Lights Big City and The Clan of the Cave Bear will no longer be imposed upon innocent, unsuspecting young minds.

Federal spies in the sky

Congratulations, you now live in Orwell’s America:

Today EFF posted several thousand pages of new drone license records and a new map that tracks the location of drone flights across the United States.  These records, received as a result of EFF’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), come from state and local law enforcement agencies, universities and—for the first time—three branches of the U.S. military: the Air Force, Marine Corps, and DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency).

Perhaps the scariest is the technology carried by a Reaper drone the Air Force is flying near Lincoln, Nevada and in areas of California and Utah. This drone uses “Gorgon Stare” technology, which Wikipedia defines as “a spherical array of nine cameras attached to an aerial drone . . . capable of capturing motion imagery of an entire city.” This imagery “can then be analyzed by humans or an artificial intelligence, such as the Mind’s Eye project” being developed by DARPA.

It’s hard to imagine how this technology is going to be misused, isn’t it?  The idea that Americans are in any way still a free people is becoming increasingly ludicrous.  And, of course, the spies aren’t all in the sky either.

The FBI records the emails of nearly all US citizens, including members
of congress, according to NSA whistleblower William Binney. In an
interview with RT, he warned that the government can use this
information against anyone.

The need for “sexism” in literature

In which I address a common complaint concerning female roles in fantasy literature at Alpha Game:

The problem with what Wohl advocates is that by putting modern views
on sexual roles and intersexual relations into the minds, mouths, and
worse, structures of an imaginary historical society, it destroys the
very structural foundations that make the society historical and the dramatic storylines credible – in some cases, even possible.  It’s problem similar to the one faced by secular writers,
who wish to simultaneously eliminate religion from their fictional medieval societies,
and yet retain the dramatic conflict created by the divine right of
kings.  However, it is more severe because the sexual aspect touches upon the
most concrete basis of every society: its ability to sustain itself
through the propagation of its members.

The “sexism” of
which Wohl and many of his commenters complain isn’t cultural, it is
simply the logical consequences of biological and martial imperatives.

Errata etc

Team OCD compiled a list of some 225 errata in the ebook, most of which were simple typos, for the final proof of the hardcover which went off to the printers yesterday.  That is actually pretty good in a book this size; the three EW books that were published by Pocket turned out to have over 300 combined in about the same number of words when we prepared the texts for the ebooks.  The upshot is that while I appreciate being sent the occasional typo or error spotted, it’s probably not necessary in this case as we almost surely have it identified based on those that have been sent to me thus far.

I really have to thank everyone who ordered the ebook yesterday; we assumed there would be lower first-day sales due to the preorders and the higher price of A Throne of Bones compared to A Magic Broken.  And yet, the combined total of the preorders and the Amazon orders was higher than the Amazon orders for AMB; it was nearly half again as many as I’d anticipated.

Anyhow, I hope you’re enjoying the book and encourage you to post reviews on Amazon when you finish it.  I’d also encourage you to tell others, particularly Martin fans, about it, since it’s not going to be appearing in any bookstores.  If you are enjoying it, then you’ll probably be pleased to hear that Kirk and I were discussing the cover for Book Two today; I can’t guarantee anything, but there is a chance it will be even more striking than the one for Book One.  Speaking of which, I’ve seen the final dust jacket and can confirm that the rest of the it lives up to the cover.  I think those who have gone the hardcover route won’t be disappointed; for all its size, it’s shaping up to be a very attractive book. 

MJS has posted the second review; here is an excerpt from it:

The novel is more meat and substance than polish and style, though even
the political intrigue was well-written enough that it kept my
attention, which is often not the case. Vox does an excellent job of
piquing your interest and then taking developments in way you don’t
expect. He’s also not shy about killing characters, yet does so in a way
that again compares favorably to Mr. Martin’s nihilistic bloodbath.
This is not a book for children; there is graphic violence and
unflinching presentation of evil. Yet neither is glorified, and though
the world is realistically portrayed with few truly good men, there is
no moral ambivalence here either.

One thing that might amuse some of you is that it wasn’t until reading that review that I suddenly realized I no longer need to write a sequel to Summa Elvetica anymore.  I had become so accustomed to thinking of Arts of Dark and Light as its own creature that I actually forgot the new series can reasonably be considered the oft-requested continuation of the story begun in the shorter novel.

Thom Hartmann interview

THOM HARTMANN: Vox
Day, which is Latin for “the voice of God.” VoxDay.blogspot.com, his
website; Christian libertarian; author of several books, including A
Throne Of Bones, just out today. The blog is “Vox Popoli”, which would be the voice of the people. So, Voice of God, welcome.

VOX DAY: Thanks, Tom.
TH: Great to have you with us. You are a self-professed secessionist. Explain this to me.
VD: The way that I would begin it is that I would say that I favor
self-determination for all peoples, whether they’re American, whether
they’re Scottish, whether they’re Catalonian…
TH: You know, any person, including yourself, can hop on a plane and
go to any other country, and if you can get them to take you, you’re
there.
VD: I am. I’ve lived in Europe for 13, 14 years now
TH: Ok. So, you know . . . what’s the problem?
VD: I don’t have any problem, it’s simply an intellectual
thing. It’s simply understanding that, throughout the course of human
history, it is entirely normal for groups of people to come together for
a period of time, and then break apart after a while.  You
know, this is a pattern of history that has existed for as
long as man has written these things down. In fact, in that new novel
that you mentioned, it’s based on the Roman social war of 91BC, which
was, essentially, a secessionist movement, even though they ended up
joining the empire after all.
TH:
So you’re suggesting … let’s translate this into simple English. Are
you suggesting that the citizens of any particular state, on a majority
vote, should be able to simply withdraw themselves from the union as
states did in 1860?
VD: Of course. We’re seeing it happen right now in Scotland. We think it’s unthinkable because America is such a short-lived….
TH:
But Scotland has historically been a separate country. And, they have
profoundly different . . . I spent a fair amount of time in Scotland.
And it’s a very different culture from British culture. And they have
fought wars over the years. I mean, you know, what’s his name, the crazy
actor, Mel Gibson, made a movie out of one of them.  I
mean, they fought wars with the British. England, historically, was a
separate country, just because they happened to be on the same island.
And you could argue that the only reason Scotland was part of the United
Kingdom was because they were conquered, and now they’re “unconquering” themselves.  That’s very different from states voluntarily joining a union like we have here in the United States.
VD:
But they weren’t conquered. They came together as part of the voluntary
Acts of Union from 1707. Their voluntarily, democratically-supported
union has lasted more than twice as long as the history of the United
States [Union].(1)  And so, we’re seeing this all over the world.  We’re
seeing Catalonia, which has been part of Castilian Spain for even
longer than Scotland’s been part of the United Kingdom, voting, again democratically, left and right joining together, to vote the secessionists into power.…
TH:
Right. But, again, don’t you think that that’s because they’re sick and
tired of Spain being part of the EU, and thus having lost their
national sovereignty, and so they’re going to claim their own national
sovereignty and withdraw themselves from the EU?
VD:
That might be the case with the Catalonians. That’s not the case with
the Scottish. The Scottish actually want to get out of the United
Kingdom, and then join  the EU in their own right which….
TH: Which seems crazy to me.
VD:
It’s totally crazy to me, too. But that’s the whole point about
self-determination. What is it to us as Americans or whatever we might
be …
TH:
So do you think Lincoln should have just said when the South seceded,
even before… A number of the states seceded after he was elected but
before he was installed into office, because back then the elections
were in November and you were sworn into office in March. And during
that time, you had a bunch of states that said, “Ok, that’s it, we’re
out of here”… that he should have just said, “Goodbye”?
VD:
Oh, absolutely. In fact, the interesting thing is that before Lincoln,
about, maybe, 30 years before that, the secessionist states were the New
England states. They were the ones who were talking about seceding. I
don’t recall what the deal was, why they were interested. But it was
never really questioned that a state had the right to voluntarily leave
the union because, otherwise, if they didn’t have the right to
voluntarily leave, then it was just another militarily imposed empire.
TH: But that right is not laid out in the constitution.
VD: I’m sorry?
TH: That right is not laid out in the constitution.
VD:
Well, no, because the constitution has to do with the rights of the
federal government. It doesn’t have anything to do with the rights of
the states. If you’re writing a document limiting the federal
government….
TH: Well, actually, it does. It gives the federal government, for example, the right to regulate commerce between the states.
VD: Sure.
TH:
It says how states shall apportion their electors. It says how states
shall determine the number of representatives they’re sending to
Washington, DC. There are a lot of rules for the states in the
constitution.
VD: And those are all things that have to do with the operation of the
federal government. It doesn’t have anything to do with the operation of
the sovereign and several states.  Obviously, when you join a group, you agree to abide by the rules of that group.
TH:
So if Texas secedes, and becomes the independent nation of Texas, what
happens to those Americans in Texas who consider themselves Americans
who don’t want secession?
VD:
Well, presumably in a democratic country, in a free and democratic
country, those people would either have to decide if they wanted to stay
and accept it, the same way that the people in America at the time of
the revolutionary war …  You know,
many them either moved to Canada, or moved back to England, or in some
cases they just decided to stay and become Americans. It would be up to
them, and presumably the Texans would be focused enough on freedom that
they would let those people do whatever it was they wanted.
TH: What is it about the United States that …  first of all, what state do you live in?
VD: I don’t. Like I said, I’ve lived in Italy for 13 years.
TH: So you live in Italy right now?
VD: Yeah. I used to live in Minnesota.
TH:
In Minnesota. So… you really don’t have a dog in this fight. Doesn’t
that diminish your credibility somewhat in making these kind of
statements? I mean, this isn’t going to affect you.
VD:
Well, no, of course it’s going to affect me in the sense that I have friends and family there. I mean, I wouldn’t say that…
Would you say about somebody who lived in the states who has family back
in Scotland that they have no … Of course there’s an interest. But my
primary interest in this, as in practically everything, is primarily
intellectual.  Am I going to shed
any massive tears if Catalonia breaks away from Spain? No. Am I going to
be terribly upset if Texas decides to be independent? No. If you
support self-determination for one group of people in the world, you
should support it for everyone. And why shouldn’t Americans have the
same right of self-determination that we support for the people in
Libya, for the people in Egypt, for the people…
TH:
But most of the states who are talking about secession are states that,
for every dollar that they send to Washington, DC, they get back $1.10,
$1.20, $1.30. Texas gets more federal money in than they send out. So
when they secede, first of all, all the military bases in the state
would close. And that’s not even included in that equation that I just
shared with you. Secondly, everybody loses their Social Security,
Medicare, Medicaid, all those other things.  How is that state going to exist?
VD: First of all, Texas is not going to have any trouble existing,
because Texas is, would be one of the, I believe, twenty largest
economies in the world, thirty largest economies in the world. I mean,
if …
TH: Not without federal infrastructure.
VD:
Obviously it might not be quite as easy for them. But whether it is or
not, that’s their right to say. It’s not for you or me to decide. If
Delaware, for example … let’s take the most absurd example … Delaware
would be like, … Lichtenstein or something. Now, you wouldn’t think that they would have any business going independent.
But if they want to go independent and live in grass huts and that sort
of thing, what is that to you or me? That’s what freedom is all about,
is allowing people freedom to make stupid choices.
TH:
Well, you make a very compelling and libertarian argument…. Hm.
Interesting. I wonder if this is going to be THE thing for the
Republican Party.

(1)  Just to be clear, I can do the math.  I was referring to the post-1865 Union that was forcibly imposed, not the voluntary one that lasted from 1776 to 1861.

I’d call that a two-for-one

By voting for independence, Scotland will automatically leave the EU:

Scotland ‘would have to apply to EU and lose UK’s opt-out after separation’ Scotland would have to apply to the EU and lose the UK’s opt-out from the euro if voters back separation in the forthcoming referendum, the European Commission is claimed to have confirmed. In what would be a significant blow to Alex Salmond, the commission is said to
have drafted a letter to a Lords committee rejecting his claim that Scotland
would automatically inherit the UK’s membership.

Of course, the European Commission is lying, as it usually does.  I guarantee you that if Scotland voted to leave the UK, the EU will claim after the fact that it is still an EU member.  These guys know they didn’t get on the fascist gravy train by forcing fewer people pay their economic protection money.

The only reason they are discouraging the Scottish vote for independence from the UK is because without the Scots, the English and Welsh Euroskeptics will have a majority.

Speaking of Scotland, you can get an interesting perspective on secession and Scottish history from my interview with Thom Hartmann yesterday.  I’ll be posting a transcript sent in by SL soon.

Expect more Californication

I have no problem with California and New York City jacking up their tax rates to the Moon… so long as they keep their residents there:

Gerald Prante, an economics professor at Lynchburg College in Virginia, and Austin John, a Lynchburg economics student, calculated marginal tax rates — the highest rates on the highest levels of income — for all 50 states. They combined state, federal and, where applicable, local income taxes, plus payroll taxes for Social Security and Medicare and included the deductibility of some taxes.

Proposition 30 added three percentage points to the marginal state income tax rate for California’s highest-income taxpayers, bringing it to 13.3 percent. That action raised California over other high-tax jurisdictions to a marginal rate of 51.9 percent, slightly higher than New York City’s level. Hawaii was the only other place with a calculated rate above 50 percent.

The problem, of course, is that higher taxes cause left-leaning voters who support them to flee those high-tax jurisdictions, who then Californicate their new places of residence.  And so the disease spreads.  Given that border walls present their own evils and are not presently possible without secession, I think the problem is best resolved by not permitting anyone with less than 18 years residence to vote on state and local affairs.  The mechanism is already there in the age-related voting laws, just make them dependent upon 18 years of residence rather than age.

One would hope that after 18 years, either some sense would have been inculcated into them, or more likely, they would have moved on again.