Category: Uncategorized

Remain embraces Leave

If the British Members of Parliament are foolish enough to force a second referendum on leaving the European Union on the British people, they’re going to be shocked by how many more people vote for Leave. As a result of their devious, anti-democratic machinations, even die-hard Remainers are publicly endorsing No Deal Brexit.

It’s time to end this one way or another. I’ve written about the dangers of a No Deal Brexit. I believe they are real, not some Project Fear construct. But we cannot continue with this paralysis.

There is nothing MPs will learn about Brexit in nine months, or nine weeks, or nine days that they do not know today. The time for more excuses, extensions and procedural sophistry is at an end.

Many MPs think that, by blocking all other avenues, voters will opt to stay, rather than risk No Deal. But they are dangerously deluded. If forced to choose between No Brexit or No Deal, most people will opt for No Deal. And I know this because I’m one of them.

MPs have had their chance. They’ve had their opportunity to set aside their petty differences and allegiances and vanities. And they have failed.

I was a committed Remainer. But this morning I’m now a hard-Brexiteer. I finally understand where the anger comes from.

I don’t think the treasonous MPs will be successful, in part because it is becoming obvious that the public is going to turn on them with a vengeance, in part because the Queen has made her position on the matter clear in her own subtle way. This is probably all political thud and blunder of no consequence whatsoever. But, until the act is successfully accomplished, it cannot be considered done and dusted.

DARKSTREAM: The Descent of TENS

This stream is little more than an hour-long distillation of things I’ve previously written to explain my skepticism regarding the theory of evolution by natural selection, or, more properly, the Theorum of Evolution by (probably) Natural Selection, Sexual Selection, Biased Mutation, Genetic Drift, and Gene Flow, but a number of the viewers apparently found it to be of interest.

My seven core reasons:

  1. The evidence doesn’t exist.
  2. The historical timelines that purportedly support it are constantly mutating.
  3. The theory is a complete failure as a predictive model.
  4. The theory is scientifically and technologically irrelevant. There are no evolutionary engineers.
  5. Theoretical epicycles are increasingly required to maintain its viability.
  6. The theory is a repeated failure as an explanatory model.
  7. There is a very long track record of scientific fraud surrounding it.

My favorite quote about the scientists working in the field of evolutionary is definitely this one:

Scientists usually do not use experimental data because such experiments can be difficult to conduct and because they are very time-consuming.

La Guerre des Gilets Jaunes continues

The protests will continue as long as Macron refuses to resign:

Violence erupted in France for the 11th Saturday in a row today as thousands of so-called Yellow Vest protestors demonstrated against President Emmanuel Macron’s government. It came two days after the head of state had accused British politicians of ‘tearing society apart’ by allowing a Brexit referendum in Britain, but today the chants in his own country were for his resignation.

The worst early violence was in Paris, and in northern towns including Evreux and Rouen, in Normandy, where tear gas and baton charges were used by police to restore order…. Today’s ugly scenes came on the 11th Saturday in a row of violence that now routinely reduces cities and towns to battle zones.

Mr Macron has since pledged that any attempt to damage pubic property will be treated with the ‘most severe action possible.’ Despite a range of concessions by President Macron including scrapping green taxes of diesel and petrol, the Vests continue to call for him to step down.

The anti-democratic whores of the EU do not represent the people. The Macron government is illegitimate and against the interests of France.

Lawsplaining

Nick Rekieta and I will be discussing the law and its relation to comics, crowdfunding, and culture.

Join me for a conversation with Vox Day.  Many of you know of Vox, Some of you probably hate him, some of you probably love him.  He’s a guy who causes visceral reactions, but do you know what he’s actually doing?

I was a little late, so the link begins when I actually showed up for what turned out to be a two-hour conversation. Vox Day Talks Comics, Crowdfunding, and Culture

TENS continues to degrade

Notice that the evolutionary skeptic’s position has consistently proven to be more reliably scientifically post-predictive than the mainstream evolutionist position:

The observation that Galapagos finch species possessed different beak shapes to obtain different foods was central to the theory of evolution by natural selection, and it has been assumed that this form-function relationship holds true across all species of bird.

However, a new study published in the journal Evolution suggests the beaks of birds are not as adapted to the food types they feed on as it is generally believed.

An international team of scientists from the United Kingdom, Spain and the US used computational and mathematical techniques to better understand the connection between beak shapes and functions in living birds.

By measuring beak shape in a wide range of modern bird species from museum collections and looking at information about how the beak is used by different species to eat different foods, the team were able to assess the link between beak shape and feeding behaviour.

Professor Emily Rayfield, from the University of Bristol’s School of Earth Sciences, and senior author of the study, said: “This is, to our knowledge, the first approach to test a long-standing principle in biology: that the beak shape and function of birds is tightly linked to their feeding ecologies.”

Guillermo Navalón, lead author of the study and a final year Ph.D. student at Bristol’s School of Earth Sciences, added: “The connection between beak shapes and feeding ecology in birds was much weaker and more complex than we expected and that while there is definitely a relationship there, many species with similarly shaped beaks forage in entirely different ways and on entirely different kinds of food.

“This is something that has been shown in other animal groups, but in birds this relationship was always assumed to be stronger.”

I’m not even remotely surprised by this, although I am certainly amused given the central importance of bird beaks to the history of TENS. The more that biological science advances, particularly on the genetic front, the weaker, the less necessary, and the more obviously false the theory of evolution by natural selection is consistently proving to be.

Do we need audiobooks?

The audio onslaught continues apace with two new thematically-related audiobook+ releases at Arkhaven.

DO WE NEED GOD TO BE GOOD? by Dr. Christopher Hallpike is 7 hours and 27 minutes long, retails for $14.99, and includes the ebook in EPUB and Kindle formats.

To know how to live, do we need God and religion, or does religion only produce wars, hatred, intolerance, and unhappiness?

Does giving up God mean giving up morality, or can we finally live a peaceful and fulfilling life as atheists by following science and reason instead?

Anthropologist Christopher Hallpike has spent a lifetime’s research on the morality and religion of different cultures around the world and shows that trying to base a moral life on atheism and science actually has some very nasty surprises in store for us. Featuring a Foreword by astrophysicist Dr. Sarah Salviander.

ON THE EXISTENCE OF GODS is the response to a public challenge posed by a militant atheist who claimed to have never encountered any good arguments for the existence of gods. It is a competitive discourse between a Christian and an atheist, each of whom argue for their position on the subject, after which the arguments are adjudicated by a team of three judges, a Christian, an agnostic, and an atheist, before additional arguments are presented.

The format is compelling and the results are at times surprising, as the discussion takes unexpected twists and turns, while the judges exhibit ruthless impartiality as they criticize the arguments without mercy or favor. Vox Day, the author of THE IRRATIONAL ATHEIST, presents the Christian perspective, while Dominic Saltarelli argues for the atheist position. The debate is wide-ranging and intelligent, but remains civil throughout, even as the momentum swings in favor of one side, and then the other.

ON THE EXISTENCE OF GODS is a compelling test of how open the reader’s mind is to the various possibilities of reality, and is a worthy addition to the long history of Man’s contemplation of his own existence in the face of the divine. The audiobook+ is 3 hours 22 minutes, retails for $9.99, and includes the ebook in EPUB and Kindle formats.

“damning evidence”

The question of Michael Jackson’s long-suspected pedophilia appears to have finally been settled by a new documentary released at Sundance yesterday:

Michael Jackson gave his young male victims jewelry in exchange for sexual acts, according to damning new documentary Leaving Neverland which details fresh allegations of sexual abuse against the singer.

The explosive four-hour film, which had its world premiere on Friday at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, accuses The King of Pop of even staging a mock wedding complete with vows and a diamond ring with one boy, critics say. 

‘Among the many, many disturbing revelations of #LeavingNverland: MJ gave one of his young male victims jewelry in exchange for sexual acts, and even staged a mock wedding complete with vows and diamond ring,’ wrote Patrick Ryan of USA Today.

‘Many common parallels in victims’ stories: MJ grooming them to hate their parents and women in general, saying God brought them together, eventually ‘casting them out’ for younger boys. ‘There was a lot of jealousy and hurt. You were no longer special.” 

The film focuses on the accounts of Wade Robson and James Safechuck, who have long claimed that they were raped and molested by the singer at his Neverland Ranch.

Jackson and Singer are just the tip of the iceberg. It is time for the President to appoint a special commission to investigate Hollywood and break the system of child abuse that pervades it.

Talk talk is better than war war?

As is my usual wont, I’m not going to pronounce my opinion on the God-Emperor’s latest announcement until two days have passed. But it’s difficult to escape the impression that he has badly misread the American people here, or failed to understand that he’s not going to win any more points from the public for “making a deal” than George Bush did in his one and only term.

Yielding to mounting pressure and growing disruption, President Donald Trump and congressional leaders on Friday reached a short-term deal to reopen the government for three weeks while negotiations continue over the president’s demands for money to build his long-promised wall at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Trump announced the agreement to break the 35-day impasse as intensifying delays at the nation’s airports and widespread disruptions brought new urgency to efforts to resolve the standoff.

“I am very proud to announce today that we have reached a deal to end the shutdown and reopen the federal government,” he said from the Rose Garden.

After saying for weeks that he would not reopen the government without border wall money, Trump said he would soon sign a bill to re-open the government through Feb. 15 without additional money for his signature campaign promise. He said that a bipartisan committee of lawmakers would be formed to consider border spending before the new deadline.

“They are willing to put partisanship aside, I think, and put the security of the American people first,” Trump said. He asserted that “barrier or walls will be an important part of the solution.”

Mounting pressure from whom? One of the most remarkable things about this shutdown is the fact that virtually no one outside of Washington DC has been negatively affected by it.

Donald Trump was elected to do two things: Drain the Swamp and Build the Wall. Precisely none of his supporters give a fraction of a quantum of a damn about “getting the government back to work” or “getting the Democrats on board” or “making a really, really great deal”. That was the case in 2016. It is still the case now.

It is looking more and more as if Trump is not a wartime consigliere, which is unfortunate because America is at war. And here is a hint: if the headlines are going to read “Trump caves”, then you probably shouldn’t agree to it.

Trump caves: President agrees to open paralysed US government for THREE WEEKS after 35-day shutdown – but claims he’ll shut it down again or declare a national emergency to build border wall if Congress doesn’t fund it

Does anyone doubt that the Democrats and Republican Establishment believe he’s just bluffing at this point? Anyhow, as always, wait two days.

Shut up and code, bitches

Americans are not exactly full of sympathy for unexpectedly unemployed media figures these days:

After news came out about mass layoffs at HuffPost, Buzzfeed and Gannett — in the midst of the media’s relentless smear-job against the Covington Catholic students — right-wing Twitter had a field day. Tons of leftist journalists announced they were laid off on Twitter and the top meme was telling them to “learn to code” — which is the same advice the media gave middle Americans whose jobs are being taken in traditional industries. 

Of course, the newly-jobless journalists understood the obvious schadenfreude involved, given their past lack of sympathy for Americans disemployed by imports and immigration, and endured the laughter at their expense with all the stoicism and sang froid one would naturally expect of enlightened and superior beings.

A lot of people are going to enjoy telling Kevin Williams that he is a negative asset who deserves to die when he loses his job. Again.