Category: Uncategorized

From the Telegraph:

Increasingly, judges are questioning whether consensual sex with a minor should be treated so harshly when the victim is male, particularly if the couple marry. Legal experts are even asking whether the law should intervene if the boy is happy with the relationship…. Last year, a study found that 40 per cent of teachers reported for sexual misconduct with pupils were women.

This seems very strange to me. More law based on feelings? And as women harbor a stronger preference for older men and mature more quickly, why shouldn’t female minors be permitted trans-generational happiness?

Not to mention that whole equality thing that the equalitarians supposedly champion…. It seems to me that the age of sexual consent should be based on sexual maturity, as it has been for most of human history.

The Pan-Gargler tells a tale with a happy ending:

I made my way into our favorite non-union grocery store… and as I went from isle to isle pickin’ up this and thats, I found myself frequently following this little family. Average looking dad… young though… probly mid-20s… beautiful little blonde haired girl in the cart. Curly long hair.. happy.. cute as she could be. She was smilin’ at me…

Then there was the mom… or…. the woman that was with them.. I assume the mom… I don’t know for sure. She was fat. She was ugly. She was a royal bitch. Everything the dad said, she disputed. Everything he picked up was wrong. She berated him continually… I mean the whole time… in the most hateful voice you can imagine. Civilized people don’t talk this badly to unwelcomed dogs.

The dad was simply unphazed. He acted like he didn’t even hear her talking that way. I was so discusted I was hoping he’d actually grow a back bone…

Men, never accept being talked to by a woman in a manner that you would not accept from a man. You don’t have to get physical, just make it very clear that you will not stand for it and if it continues, there will be consequences. You’ll have to follow through a few times as they test you to determine if you’re serious, after which point most reasonable women will adjust their manner of speech accordingly.

Yes, there will be feelings hurt, and yes, you’ll likely be frosted out for a few days… depending on your predilections, it will be a good time to get caught up on your Bible-reading, video game-playing or Internet porn collecting. Remember that in the long run, a woman is a lot more interested in a man she can’t push around than in one she despises.

And women, always remember that silence does not equal acceptance. The weakest, most contemptible little rat of a man is still capable of snapping your neck if you push him far enough. Even overmuscled male bullies know better than to back a scrawny wimp into a corner from which he can’t retreat; if they won’t take that risk, why would you?

Does anyone have an idea why my Sony Cybershot DSC-P150 (7.2 megapixels) tends to take blurry pictures? I don’t know if I have the settings wrong or what, but if there’s any movement at all, the whole thing just blurs, especially if the flash is on.

Any suggestions?

From the Washington Times:

A mother who found out she had cancer after becoming pregnant sacrificed her life for her unborn baby by refusing an abortion and chemotherapy, a British newspaper reported. Devout Catholic Bernadette Mimura, known as Milai, shunned the potentially life-saving treatment because doctors told her it would kill the child, the Northern Echo regional daily reported Friday.

The 37-year-old, a native of the Philippines who lived near Stockton-on-Tees in northeast England with her British partner, Adam Taylor, survived long enough to see the birth of their son, Nathan. But soon after seeing him baptized, she was transferred to a hospice and died about a week later. “Being a Catholic, for her abortion was out of the question,” Mr. Taylor told the newspaper. “It was a tough decision, but the decision was we could not give up on Nathan.”

The boy, now 4 months old, was premature but was born fit and healthy.

Would that all mothers loved their unborn children so. Sadly, there is no shortage of women who will sacrifice their children for a piece of paper and a job making Powerpoint presentations. How contemptible they are when viewed in comparison with this woman!

You’ll have to read this here, lest you scare the little boys from their very serious business:

Hey stupid Christians

Hey Vox Popoli fans – you don’t get it, do you ? We are writing about your champion Vox Day because he’s an imbecile and his absurd moral nihilism is so outrageous that it deserves refutation. We do not want to argue with you. Your amoral and disgusting beliefs do not deserve debate. Go away and complain to your champion about how I’m censoring your discredited worldview, anti-atheist assholes.

PS No seriously, you can stop posting your stupid comments now. You were fun for a while, but this is a serious blog. Enough bullshit.

Yes, this is what passes for that vaunted atheist dedication to reason. Christianity = amoral moral nihilism. High IQ = imbecile. A dedication to free speech = refusal to debate.

These aren’t libertarians, they’re just confused teenagers in the process of discovering that the totalitarian nature of Man is also present in their own fallen natures.

A few weeks ago, I was asked by a science fiction and fantasy publisher to fill in as a short-term replacement for their Senior Editor, who left for another publishing house. As this didn’t cut into my free time – merely the substitution of reading unpublished work intead of published work, really – I agreed to do so. (I thought it would be interesting, and then, the thought of the fear and horror which would strike certain elements in the SFWA crowd amused me too.)

I’ve been focusing on new writers for now, and it has been intriguing to see how the same sort of mistakes seem to permeate their submissions. In case anyone is interested, here’s a few things I’ve noticed:

1. Good and interesting ideas are surprisingly common. This shocked me, since so much of the modern published work I’ve read while doing Nebula duty is formulaic. Far more often than not, however, that good idea is not implemented effectively and the most interesting tangents are not followed.

2. Exposition is a story killer. I recently read – and rejected – a manuscript which devoted seven (7!) chapters to presenting the reader with information about what a place is like. In that seven chapters, the plot is not advanced at all. Imagine if Tolkein devoted seven chapters to simply describing Rivendell. It’s absurd, and yet this happens.

3. Preserving plot over characters ruins the story. It’s been said before, but it’s worth repeating. If your plot hangs on a character behaving uncharacteristically, you’d better have a very good explanation or it’s just not going to work.

4. Pay attention to the publisher’s guidelines. I’ve now read two historical novels, (part of them, anyhow), as well as a conventional thriller, none of which are the least bit appropriate for this publisher. It’s annoying, even insulting, to grandiosely insist that your masterpiece will of course overshadow petty things like the publisher’s wishes and marketing strategies.

5. Writing competence is an surprisingly uneven thing. One writer can do beautiful descriptions but can’t put together a plot or create decent characters to save her life. Another has decent characters, but no idea what to do with them. Try to learn where your strengths are and where your weaknesses are. If you can focus on a story that will play to your strengths while working hard to shore up your weaknesses, your book will be the better for it.

6. Let the reader see the important events. For example, if you’re going to have a protagonist try to off himself because of a failed romance, you might want to consider showing the big breakup scene rather skipping over it right to the ramifications. And you might at least like to explain why the protagonist is so enamoured of the paramour; sure, you can tell us, but without any direct knowledge, we’re unlikely to care or even understand.

7. Try to keep in mind that the editor is likely at least as well read in the genre as you are. The chances that you can do a book about a magician’s school or rabbit society as well as those who’ve done it already are slim, and changing the sex of the protagonist doesn’t make it an entirely different concept. Go write fanfic if you want to play in someone else’s world, otherwise, invent your own.

8. Don’t rush the climax. Write the story out as it should go naturally, then go back and chop out the fat from the middle. A significant percentage of submissions meander to little purpose for 100 pages, then attempt to hurl everything into a bang-up climax in less than 15 pages.

That’s all that occurs to me at the moment. And no, I’m not looking for more material to review, I have 83 more submissions to plow through already. Should the publisher not pile more on the moment I see my way clear, I’ll go ahead and post something here. In the meantime, don’t ask. The answer will be no.

The regular season has come to an end, and while I have some reservations about some daunting matchups in the playoffs, I can’t complain about the results given a team that has been less than imposing on paper throughout the course of the year. I started off with Trent Green at QB – my 3rd pick – and ended up replacing him with Drew Bledsoe in Week 2. Drew’s done well, and balanced with the addition of Brad Johnson managed to lead me to a 11-3, second place finish behind Spacebunny’s team, which is managed by Big Chilly’s little brother, also at 11-3.

Starting Willie Parker in Week 5 cost me the regular season title, as I blew an eight-point lead and lost by half a point when LaDainian and Antonio went off he couldn’t even rush for 50 yards, otherwise I’d have finished 12-2 versus 10-4. Ah well, such is football.

The White Buffalo also made the playoffs despite a late-season fade that saw him go from 8-2 to 8-6. He’s my first-round opponent and it’s really anyone’s game. He’s Seattle heavy, so his fortunes will largely rest on how badly they beat up Tennessee. Go Titans! I’ll be looking for a big game from Bledsoe, Harrison and Davis, and hoping that Ryan Moats can keep his momentum up against a very bad Rams defense. Lamont Jordan has been a workhorse all year, but with Tuiasosopo at quarterback, defenses can stack up against him and shut him down.

In the other bracket, Chokechain might be the favorite despite sneaking into the playoffs at 7-7. He’s riding Larry Johnson and a six-game winning streak, so everything will be riding on SD and LDT versus KC and LJ.

The other little libertarian asserts an all-too-typical Libertarian friendliness towards free speech and the open exchange of ideas:

What is this Christian bullshit ? Whoever asked for your fucking opinion ? This is a LIBERTARIAN blog. You are not desired or wanted here. Aaron has already made all the points needed to refute your champion’s nonsense.

One more Christian comment and I’m closing this comment page. This is not the blog for you. We don’t want to hear from you. We don’t even like you. We want yuo to wither and dissapear from the public square, and from OUR media…. Go back to your blogs and leave us atheists alone, losers.

Actually, all Aaron managed to do, besides demonstrate a complete unfamiliarity with logic, history, theology and empirical fact, was quote Francis as a definitive authority… what was that about going around in circles?

The ironic thing is that there’s no shortage of atheists and agnostics here on this blog. But if those two wish to be left alone in their little sandbox, I see no reason to disrespect their privacy.

Duke begins the grokking:

Ok Vox, I didn’t know you didn’t care much about who read you. I have just read your columns on WND and this is my first time on your blog.

It’s nothing personal, Duke, it’s just that I find it impossible to keep track of precisely who is going to get offended about what, so I simply let my prejudices and idiosyncracies define the limits. There’s no shortage of those who gape for a few seconds in astonished horror and hasten to depart, never to return; fortunately, this is not a commercial enterprise, my readers are not customers and pretty much anyone can stay or go as he pleases.

Never mind the girl rubbing up against you, that’s just Renee and it’s her way of breaking the ice. The two guys drinking in the corner are Jaime and Nate; Nate is the sober one. If a giant blond beast wielding a .50 caliber bursts into the room and starts screaming, it’s only Bane, hit the floor and you’ll be fine, he just likes to hose down hostile intruders every now and then. The talking white horse isn’t drunk, he just sounds like that because he’s off his medication for the nonce, and the two guys flinging monkey feces at each other are Cedarford and Scintan, they’re no trouble as long as you stay out of the crossfire.

Bill’s the guy with the George Bush promise ring, Franger’s the guy in the Che shirt and the little brunette with the introspective look is Crystal Lake. She looks harmless, but don’t mention abortion around her unless you really want to see her werewolf imitation up close and personal. The blonde ice princess is Spacebunny; content yourself with genuflecting before her.

The two guys banging on the tribal drums are MS and Verlch; if you see a pretty redhead laughing at them, whatever you do, do NOT ask her for her life’s story. The guys dancing like it’s 1999 are the Queer Party Friends; the one with no rhythm is Snowdog. As for the three guys with headphones, that’s Chad, St. Paul and JB, they think they’re doing a radio show so humor them and pretend that someone is actually listening.

There’s plenty more characters, should you elect to stick around, you will no doubt encounter them all.

Derb on Dating Hell:

There’s a new columnist in America’s Newspaper of Record: Elizabeth Hayt, author of the book “I’m No Saint,” which sounds to be a sort of dead-tree version of “Desperate Housewives.” In today’s column Ms. Hayt relates an episode from her recent love life. After establishing a satisfactory e-relationship with a poet she refers to only as “Word Guy,” she takes a cab over to his apartment in Brooklyn. One thing leads to another, but then… fails to lead any further. Apparently the guy suffers from performance anxiety. I’ll let Ms. Hayt take up the tale. “‘I’m happy just to talk,’ I said, gritting my teeth. And talk, he did. Word Guy recounted his recent recovery from a sinus abscess that smelled awful whenever he blew his nose. Because he didn’t have health insurance, he couldn’t afford an operation to permanently correct the problem, so the only treatment was daily irrigation of his nasal passages with a saline solution. Naturally, with Word Guy opening up to me, trusting me enough to share his vulnerabilities, I couldn’t just bolt out the door. He needed a merciful shoulder, which I provided for three hours. At 4 a.m., he finally yawned – my cue to say ‘Adieu.'”

This reminds me of the Friends episode when Bruce Willis opens up to Jennifer Aniston, to her surprise and horror. “Chicken? Chickenboy?” Anyhow, the lesson is that you shouldn’t take what women tell you they want too terribly seriously, not if you want them to think of you as something other than a bestest girlfriend.