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WND column

Occupy Washington and Wall Street

Seeing the so-called “conservative” media wax indignant about the Occupy Wall Street protesters is almost exactly like watching the mainstream media attack the Tea Party three years ago. In the process of purportedly criticizing the protesters they reveal both their ignorance and their ideological bias, and they completely manage to miss the point of the very justifiable protests.

It is true that the Occupy Wall Street protesters are incoherent and advocate inherently contradictory policies. For example, they wish to turn to Washington to limit the havoc that Wall Street has wreaked, and continues to wreak, on the American economy and the American people, little realizing that Washington has been knowingly enabling Wall Street’s capacity to do so from the start.

But it is equally true that the Tea Party activists are incoherent and advocate inherently contradictory policies.

VPFL Week 5

85 Greenfield Grizzlies (4-1-0)
54 Bane Sidhe (1-4-0)

72 Green Reverends (3-1-1)
48 GroverBeach Quixotes (2-3-0)

70 MS Swamp Spartans (3-2-0)
60 RR Redbeards (2-2-1)

53 Bailout Banksters (2-2-1)
43 Moundsview Meerkats (3-2-0)

65 Macau Marauders (2-2-1)
57 Cranberry Rhyneauxs (1-4-0)

This is your weekly NFL open post.

Soporific plasmaphages and the guide to genre

After reading the entire Southern Vampire series and watching an episode of The Vampire Diaries, I have reached the conclusion that John O’Neill is entirely correct to cast a deeply skeptical eye upon the entire genre of the vampire story. As strange as it may seem to assert this, it appears that vampires simply aren’t very interesting in and of themselves. They appear to exist primarily as a means of expanding the appeal of the traditional romance novel to audiences that would find themselves embarrassed to be reading a traditional bodice-ripper or watching a soap opera. For example, if one considers the structure of the Charlaine Harris novels and compares them to other urban fantasies, it becomes readily apparent that this genre is little more than a hybrid of the traditional romance novel with the mystery novel, colored by a dash of fantasy that is exotic only to young readers and older readers coming from the romance and mystery markets. This also explains why the novels hold relatively little appeal to traditional SF/F readers and their irritation at the otherwise reasonable classification of urban fantasy in the fantasy genre.

Read the rest at the Black Gate

Check on three

From my 2011 economic predictions: The 2011 federal deficit will exceed the projected $1.27 trillion despite the Republican House majority. This will likely be the result of emergency spending required for an economic or military crisis.

Treasury announces 2011 deficit is second highest in history. The U.S budget deficit for fiscal year 2011 is $1.299 trillion, the second largest shortfall in history.

I’m only surprised that they exceeded it by so little. Imagine how big the deficit would be if the new military crisis was war with China instead of Uganda.

Incompetence and the art of war

The Obama administration offers a lesson in how not to do it. First, we have the strategic incompetence with the new invasion of Uganda, which marks the Nobel Peace Prize winner’s sixth war in three years. At this rate, if he somehow manages to win reelection, the USA will be fighting 16 wars by the end of his second term.

Offhand, what do you think the dumbest damn place in the world to deploy US troops would be? Why guess? Just watch Obama. Our modern Clausewitz has picked the absolute craziest, most futile, most counterproductive place in the world, central Africa…. Whenever we invade some godforsaken place, we always end up with thousands of new immigrants from that place. Check out Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Somalia, for example. So I suppose this idiotic invasion will, sort of, benefit these new refugee-immigrants which the welfare establishment is already smacking its lips over. So if you think that what this country needs is some more immigrants from central Africa, cheer Obama on!

But it’s not enough that the Commander-in-Chief is strategically challenged, the forces he has at his disposal are tactically given to literally shooting themselves in the foot.

A Marine and a Navy medic killed by a U.S. drone airstrike were targeted when Marine commanders in Afghanistan mistook them for Taliban fighters, even though analysts watching the Predator’s video feed were uncertain whether the men were part of an enemy force.

Now, if one considers how much collateral damage has taken place thanks to no-knock raids in the War on Drugs, imagine how badly awry things are likely to go once Hellfire-equipped Predators are ordered to patrol American skies. I wonder how long it will be before these trends come together and the first Ugandan “refugee” is accidentally killed by a Predator intending to attack domestic terrorists in the United States.

Surviving la dolce vita

Speaking of culture, I had a rather exquisite lunch today. Pata Negra squared. Which is to say, Barcelona’s finest jambon and slices of bufalo parmigiano, (technically impossible and yet it exists all the same), washed down with an excellent Spanish red named after the delectable king of all pork. Spacebunny made pizza for dinner and I resorted to a jar of homemade hot oil made by the Dutch Girl which is just ever so slightly cooler than napalm. This, naturally, required the accompaniment of a nicely drinkable red, the aforementioned Spanish bottle being lamentably empty.

Ender had to be picked up from his martial arts training, but I was early, so the head of the dojo, being a hospitable sort, poured us both a glass of local white. And then another.

At this point, I am entirely certain that my arteries are as clean as a newly scoured aqueduct. I can’t say I’m quite as confident about the old liver, however. The great thing about the Southern European approach to wine is that you’re never the least bit drunk. You’re just sort of sporting a vaguely happy buzz from noon until midnight.

When sheep stampede

The retarded groupthink of the female left never ceases to provide amusement at their expense:

You may have heard about Andrew Meyer earlier this week from The Stranger, Jezebel, or Facebook. Meyer’s name was tweeted thousands of times on Monday and Tuesday, often with links leading to articles about him. Jezebel’s story on Meyer got almost 100,000 views, while one of the hundreds of people who weighed in on him on Twitter dubbed him the grand “tool of the week.” For those who haven’t heard about Meyer, his instant fame can be explained thusly: On Friday night, Meyer and a female friend went into Seattle’s Bimbo’s Cantina for food and drinks. Their server that evening was Victoria Liss. According to Liss, after the couple had behaved like jerks—mocking the food, dipping their hands into the tip jar—Meyer paid without leaving Liss any gratuity. He then took his rudeness a step further, by writing at the bottom of his bill, “P.S. You could stand to loose [sic] a few pounds.”

Understandably hurt, Liss did what anyone would do in this day and age: She took her anger to her computer. She posted a photo of Meyer’s receipt onto her Facebook page and wrote underneath it, “[T]he best part is he was dressed like that gay kid on Glee. Yuppie scum!” From there, it was off to the blog races.

Jezebel filed its post on Meyer under “Assholes.” Dan Savage, one of the most widely read alt-weekly columnists in America, also jumped on him, writing, “[Y]ou probably weren’t the only person to stiff a bartender in Seattle this weekend. But you were the only person dumb/hateful/angry enough to write this on your credit card slip.” Crushable picked up the Meyer story and published his full name, where he works, the name of his college, what fraternity he was in, and his full signature, all under the title, “Seattle Area Douchebag Gains Internet Notoriety For Stiffing And Insulting His Server.” The article even included a passage of search terms at the end to up the likelihood it would come up if someone—employers, dates, friends—Googles Meyer’s name.

Like with the lynch mobs of old, things move fast in the age of internet justice. Within about 72 hours from the moment Liss got stiffed, hundreds of people, united and galvanized by blogs, jumped into action and attempted to ruin a stranger’s reputation because he said something mean to another stranger. There was just one problem: They got the wrong guy.

So, in the barely self-aware minds of these ungulates, failing to tip a fat waitress justifies a mass attempt to ruin an individual’s reputation. But it is obvious in light of her subsequent behavior that the waitress probably provided unsatisfactory service and thus merited her lack of compensation, though perhaps not the editorial on her lack of personal fitness.

Surely all of these third-wits merit the very same behavior they dished out to the wrong individual. If I owned Bimbo’s Cantina, I would immediately fire Victoria Liss. And if I owned Jezebel, I would fire the responsible editors. The customer may not always be right, but in no case does he merit a public sheep stampede, especially over what amounts to absolutely nothing.

The transformative magic of the passport

This purported criticism of passport snobbery is still indicative of an amount of silly passport snobbery:

It’s not because there’s something magical about exposure to the quirks and customs of other cultures that transforms you into a better, wiser person. It’s just that there’s a certain provincialism that surrounds populist politicians and those who are attracted to them. And traveling widely — whether on the great continental landmass that Americans live on or across national borders and oceans — tends to not only break down said provincialism but demonstrates a curiosity about the world around you that is a vital characteristic for national leaders.

This was clearly written by the sort of individual, usually left-leaning, who genuinely believes that there is some sort of magic inherent to travel and some sort of evil inherent to what they invariably label “provincialism”. Interestingly enough, in my experience it is Americans living in the East Coast Axis of Boston to Washington DC and Canadians who are most susceptible to the disease of passport snobbery; the only Europeans who are impressed by the low percentage of American passport ownership are those who haven’t been to the USA and don’t realize how big it is.

The irony is that the passport snob primarily subscribes to the myth of the mind-expanding magic of travel due to his own provincialism. You may recall the attempt of The Prince of Wängst to label me, a multi-passport multi-lingual, expatriate who studied in Japan, as “provincial”. This was more than a little amusing given Mr. Bakker’s literally provincial existence, having been born in Ontario, educated in Ontario, and presently residing in, you guessed it, Ontario. Even more amusing was the example I have previously related of the self-appointed Canadian Euro-sophisticate from Quebec. He was happily occupied with lecturing Spacebunny and I on the near-European nature of Montreal and how it compared so very favorably to the Minnesota peasantry at the party we were attending when his fiance joined the conversation. And he was visibly put out to discover we had flown in that very morning from either Zurich or Milano, I don’t recall which.

“Well, what were you doing there?” he demanded.

Strangely, he didn’t seem to want to talk to us anymore after he found out we lived in Italy, although we were quite willing to hear more about what a European city Montreal is. Fascinating stuff.

The truth, as those who have not only traveled around the world, but who actually speak different languages and have lived in different cultures for extended periods of time, is that there are far more similarities than differences among the civilized peoples of the world. The mountain peasants of Italy, the agricultural peasants of France, and the rice paddy peasants of Japan have far more in common with each other and with the rural working class in the Midwest than they do with the Milanese industrial magnates, the banking gnomes of Zurich, the powerful, but self-effacing executives of the great keiretsu, or the Wall Street elite.

And neither transnational group has much in common with the angst-laden middle-class would-be intellectuals, whose desperate pretentiousness and feverish pursuit of credentials sets them in a particularly annoying transnational class of their own. The European ones confide to you how American they feel themselves to be while the American version forever bears the imprint of the semester it spent in [insert European capital]. The Canadian version is either the saddest or the funniest, depending upon your perspective, because it genuinely believes that a semester in Nashville or Iowa City counts as magic travel.

But there are interesting things to be learned from every group, in every country. My soccer teammates are mostly peasants, with one notable exception. My social acquaintances are mostly petty international class, and my interests tend to most closely resemble the aspirational middle-class intellectuals. But it is as shallow and ultimately pointless to look down on the rural peasantry for their lack of passports as it is to criticize the rich and powerful for their accounting strategies or the aspirational academics for their insecurities. Such things are more definitive attributes than correctable actions.

Travel doesn’t make you a better or more curious person. It simply presents you with more information. What you do with that information, and how it effects your thought processes and future behavior, will have more to do with who you already were than any transformative magic courtesy that comes from the possession of a government document.

For me, the experience gained from living most of my adult life as an expatriate that has given me a greater respect for the unique nature of historical American society as well as a deeper sorrow for that which Americans have lost.

Overruling the family court judge

Unfortunately, it is becoming increasingly apparent that the most effective way for men to overturn the ludicrously evil child custody system is to utilize violence to render moot the unjust dictates of the family courts:

A gunman who shot dead eight people in an upmarket beauty salon in California is said to have gone on the rampage after losing a custody battle over his son. Scott Dekraai, who is the former husband of one of the stylists, is said to have shot a total of nine hairdressers and customers at Salon Meritage, a beauty salon just blocks from the Pacific Ocean in the upscale seaside resort of Seal Beach.

His ex-wife, Michelle, is also reportedly among those who were killed. The 42-year-old, who used to work in the military, had allegedly threatened violence after losing a court case against Michelle – who was using the name Huff – over the custody of their seven-year-old son, Dominic.

The problem is twofold. First, the family court system is totally unjust. Second, there is simply no other recourse for the man who has been forcibly robbed of his children by the unholy alliance of ex-wife and family court. I have zero sympathy for any woman who would utilize the force of the law to deprive a man of his children, no matter how unhappy the marriage. In fact, one can quite reasonably argue that it is in the interest of women to demand a more equitable family court system; this should become more apparent when “winning” a child custody case amounts to a potential death lottery.

The ironic thing is that society tends to applaud a man who do anything and pay any price to get back his child. There are movies entirely based on this premise. So, why should it surprise anyone that increasing numbers of men are willing to resort to breaking the very law that took their children away from them? Throughout the West, the Muslims have shown the way: threaten sufficient violence in a credible manner and the law will be modified according to your will.