Quarterfinals Day 2

England is the better team, but Sweden is solid at the back. Russia shouldn’t be able to play with Croatia, but given all the upsets in this World Cup, who can say anymore.

At the end of the first half, England is up 1-0 and controlling the game easily. They could have had a second goal if Sterling could either a) finish one-on-ones or b) pass the ball to his open teammates.

And it’s over. 2-0 England. Gareth Southgate has clearly had his team working hard on penalties and set plays.


Dysgenics and failure migration

Be very careful before casually throwing out that “seeking a better life”  rhetoric to justify immigration. Because you’re granting entry to the vast majority of the global population with that rationale:

The victory of Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) in the recent Mexican presidential election likely means an increase in immigration to the United States. AMLO has called immigration a “human right that we will defend” and will probably continue the Mexican government’s meddling in American affairs. AMLO has also reportedly promised to demand “respect” from President Trump and the United States, which probably means less cooperation in stopping Central American migrants from moving through the country.  If Mexico continues its decline into lawlessness or goes into recession, immigration from Mexico itself will sharply increase.

The ironic result of all this: the worse Mexico performs, the more powerful that nation becomes. Many nominal American citizens believe their first loyalty is with Mexico. Though they don’t want to live there, they don’t want to surrender their identity. Exporting its underclass to the U.S. spares Mexico and other Latin American countries the need for internal reform. As Tucker Carlson recently put it: “America is now Mexico’s social safety net, and that’s a very good deal for the Mexican ruling class”.

Furthermore, Mexico and other Latin American countries continue to benefit from the endless flow of remittances from the U.S. America is literally paying welfare benefits to illegal aliens (if only for their anchor babies), some portion of which they then proceed to send home.

This phenomenon should be termed “Failure Migration.” The lower a people’s level of civilizational accomplishment, the more that people is able to expand its influence. This paradox is another example of how the modern social and political system has a destructive and even dysgenic effect.

As I’ve been pointing out recently, it’s going to be interesting to see how the non-Posterity US citizens attempt to thread this particular needle. Why should their German, Dutch, Italian, Irish, and Jewish ancestors have had the right to seek a better life that they are denying to Mexicans, Somalis, Libyans, Syrians, and Iranians today?

Average IQs are plunging across the West, most significantly in the USA and Sweden. This is more than societal self-destruction, it is civilizational suicide.


Dragon Awards 2018

Here are my recommendations for the 2018 Dragon Awards. In the comic book category, note that they want the series name first, then the issue and publisher. And while it might seem a bit much to put John C. Wright’s novels forward in both categories, frankly, I defy you to find a better science fiction novel published in the last year than Superluminary: The Lords of Creation or a better fantasy novel than Tithe to Tartarus. The man is simply the greatest science fiction author alive, and I say that despite being a hard-core fan of both Neal Stephenson and China Mieville.

The rules follow. Be sure to get your nominations in before the deadline. I’ll post a reminder as we get closer to it.

Once you have submitted a nomination for a category you cannot change it. If you are not sure about a category, then leave it blank. You can come back at a later date and add nominations for any category you leave blank using this same form. Make sure your name (First and Last), and the email address match your original submission. No need to fill in your original nominations, the form will append the new nominations to your prior list. Do not nominate a book for more than one category. If the same book is added more than once, all your nominations will be null.

Nomination Deadline: July 20, 2018. We encourage you to get your nominations in early.

Best Science Fiction Novel
Superluminary: The Lords of Creation
John C. Wright

Best Fantasy Novel (Including Paranormal)
Tithe to Tartarus
John C. Wright

Best Young Adult/Middle Grade Novel
Young Man’s War
Rod Walker

Best Military Science Fiction or Fantasy Novel
Wardogs Inc. #1 Battlesuit Bastards
G.D. Stark

Best Alternate History Novel
Hammer of the Witches
Kai Wai Cheah

Best Media Tie-In Novel   
Before the Storm (World of Warcraft)
Christie Golden

Best Horror Novel    
The Death and Life of Schneider Wrack
Nate Crowley

Best Comic Book
Alt-Hero
Alt-Hero #2 Rebel’s Cell, Arkhaven Comics

Best Graphic Novel
Rebel Dead Revenge
Gary Kwapisz, Dark Legion Comics

Best Science Fiction or Fantasy TV Series, TV or Internet
Stranger Things
Netflix

Best Science Fiction or Fantasy Movie
Incredibles 2
Brad Bird

Best Science Fiction or Fantasy PC / Console Game
Kingdom Come: Deliverance
Warhorse Studios

Best Science Fiction or Fantasy Mobile Game
Hearthstone
Blizzard

Best Science Fiction or Fantasy Board Game
The 7th Continent
Serious Poulp

Best Science Fiction or Fantasy Miniatures / Collectible Card / Role-Playing Game
Starship Samurai
Plaid Hat Games


Vaccinated sterility

It is becoming abundantly clear that the material costs of vaccines now considerably exceed even their theoretical benefits:

Birth rates in the United States have recently fallen. Birth rates per 1000 females aged 25–29 fell from 118 in 2007 to 105 in 2015. One factor may involve the vaccination against the human papillomavirus (HPV). Shortly after the vaccine was licensed, several reports of recipients experiencing primary ovarian failure emerged. This study analyzed information gathered in National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, which represented 8 million 25-to-29-year-old women residing in the United States between 2007 and 2014. Approximately 60{f82a6d9b5e5cff01d97267394322fca158507b75156f51cfa613d94c4c7ae29a} of women who did not receive the HPV vaccine had been pregnant at least once, whereas only 35{f82a6d9b5e5cff01d97267394322fca158507b75156f51cfa613d94c4c7ae29a} of women who were exposed to the vaccine had conceived. For married women, 75{f82a6d9b5e5cff01d97267394322fca158507b75156f51cfa613d94c4c7ae29a} who did not receive the shot were found to conceive, while only 50{f82a6d9b5e5cff01d97267394322fca158507b75156f51cfa613d94c4c7ae29a} who received the vaccine had ever been pregnant. Using logistic regression to analyze the data, the probability of having been pregnant was estimated for females who received an HPV vaccine compared with females who did not receive the shot. Results suggest that females who received the HPV shot were less likely to have ever been pregnant than women in the same age group who did not receive the shot. 

All of this to try to reduce the incidence of a very widespread virus that is so non-lethal that it annually kills one out of every 5,575 women who have it. I wonder how many young women will be willing to be vaccinated against HPV once they have a better understanding of how it will lower their chance of ever having children.


Quarterfinals Day 1

France had no trouble at all with Uruguay. Belgium-Brazil promises to be a better game.

Wow! 30 minutes in, it’s 2-0 Belgium. The Belgian attack is just destroying the Brazilian defense.


A glimpse into Gamma

He began badly:

(I don’t know what’s your overall opinion about Donald Trump. But, if you mainly support him…)

Don’t be fooled by the fakes.

What I don’t know (being new to this blog, and not having time to read all the posts) is what is the overall opinion of Vox about Donald Trump (being Vox a Patriot, and given the fact that most Patriots support Donald Trump).

And, I just thought that my observation was, nevertheless, an interesting one that I should make – just in case anyone (including the readers of this blog) is not aware of this type of schemes played by the establishment.

A classic Gamma entry. He doesn’t know even the most basic thing about the blog, the blog owner, or the blog readership, but he just thought that his observation was an interesting and necessary one that he should make in the event that these people about whom he knows nothing don’t know it. So helpful!

To which I responded:

Don’t Gamma. No one here likes Gammas. That is Gamma thinking. As a general rule, don’t share unsolicited information. If someone wants to know, they will ask.

Of course, operating as he was in ignorance, the Gamma promptly apologized and stopped annoying everyone, right? No, of course not! Pass up a chance to talk about himself and his motivations? Perish the thought!

You’re immensely wrong, in the evaluation you make of me.

The reason why I shared this type of knowledge (and have posted maybe similar comments in here) was to *Warn* people, about this kind of things, so that they don’t fall in this (and other) kind of traps, put out by the establishment.

And, as with any (important) warning that everyone thinks that they should make, when in doubt if people are already aware of such facts, the best option is to always make such warnings, just in case. (Like, if you know there’s a seller in your city that is scamming people, and you see someone that is heading for his shop, your natural reaction is to go warn the possibly ignorant buyer.)

That’s all there is.

The overall majority of my comments are made up of information that I consider to be of interest to (and important to share with) other people, about different aspects of the powers-that-be. And, I always post them to try to “enlighten” people. I’m not the kind of person who likes to listen to himself. I come from a “citizen journalist” background. And, it’s within the same journalistic spirit that I continue to make posts and comments. To inform people.

But, if you don’t like to receive unsolicited information, then I will stop doing it on your blog.

Let me be perfectly clear. I don’t like to receive unsolicited information. I don’t want people to share their Very Special Opinion or Very Important Advice or Very Breaking News From An Underground News Site That No One Reads Like The Drudge Report here. I ask very smart people for advice on a regular basis. If I do not ask you for your advice, then obviously I don’t want it. Because if I did, I would ask for it.

If you’re a “citizen-journalist”, if you feel the need to “enlighten” and “warn” people, that’s just fine. Go do it on your own site and stop trying to hijack everyone else’s microphones.


Words mean things

It’s really rather remarkable to see all the self-styled “conservatives” who suddenly develop a new predilection for creative linguistic interpretations worthy of a postmodernist disciple of Foucault and concocting ex post facto legal contortions to put the Warren Court’s “emanations and penumbras” to shame when the clear meaning of “Posterity” is pointed out to them.<

Let reason be silent when the dictionary and a comprehensive set of historical examples conclusively gainsay its conclusions.

The undeniable historical fact is that the U.S. Constitution was no more written to protect the interests of 19th century Irish immigrants and their US-citizen descendants than it was to protect the rights of people living in Iran, Libya, or Mexico today. The reason this fact still matters today is that to cede one claim is to automatically cede the other.


Never listen to Trotskyites

Pat Buchanan observes that the failure of the neocons has been comprehensive:

The failures that killed the Bush party, and that represented departures from Reaganite traditionalism and conservatism, are:

First, the hubristic drive, despite the warnings of statesmen like George Kennan, to exploit our Cold War victory and pursue a policy of permanent containment of a Russia that had lost a third of its territory and half its people.

We moved NATO into Eastern Europe and the Baltic, onto her doorstep. We abrogated the ABM treaty Nixon had negotiated and moved defensive missiles into Poland. John McCain pushed to bring Ukraine and Georgia into NATO, and even to send U.S. forces to face off against Russian troops.

Thus we got a second Cold War that need never have begun and that our allies seem content to let us fight alone.

Europe today is not afraid of Vladimir Putin reaching the Rhine. Europe is afraid of Africa and the Middle East reaching the Danube.

Let the Americans, who relish playing empire, pay for NATO.

Second, in a reflexive response to 9/11, we invaded Afghanistan and Iraq, dumped over the regime in Libya, armed rebels to overthrow Bashar Assad in Syria, and backed Saudi intervention in a Yemeni civil war, creating a humanitarian crisis in that poorest of Arab countries that is exceeded in horrors only by the Syrian civil war.

Since Y2K, hundreds of thousands in the Middle East have perished, the ancient Christian community has all but ceased to exist, and the refugees now number in the millions. What are the gains for democracy from these wars, all backed enthusiastically by the Republican establishment?

Why are the people responsible for these wars still being listened to, rather than confessing their sins at second-thoughts conferences?

The GOP elite also played a crucial role in throwing open U.S. markets to China and ceding transnational corporations full freedom to move factories and jobs there and ship their Chinese-made goods back here, free of charge.

Result: In three decades, the U.S. has run up $12 trillion in merchandise trade deficits — $4 trillion with China — and Beijing’s revenue from the USA has more than covered China’s defense budget for most of those years.

The Trotskyites lost the Soviet Union, but gained the Republican Party. Now they’ve lost that, and all they’ve got is Max Boot, Ben Shapiro, Jordan Peterson, and the pathetic ideogicial non-movement that should rightfully have been christened the Idiotic Dork Web.


The unreliability of science

Remember, this is the standard by which Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris believe truth should be measured:

“The majority of papers that get published, even in serious journals, are pretty sloppy,” said John Ioannidis, professor of medicine at Stanford University, who specializes in the study of scientific studies.

This sworn enemy of bad research published a widely cited article in 2005 entitled: “Why Most Published Research Findings Are False.” Since then, he says, only limited progress has been made….

“Diet is one of the most horrible areas of biomedical investigation,” professor Ioannidis added — and not just due to conflicts of interest with various food industries. “Measuring diet is extremely difficult,” he stressed. How can we precisely quantify what people eat?

In this field, researchers often go in wild search of correlations within huge databases, without so much as a starting hypothesis. Even when the methodology is good, with the gold standard being a study where participants are chosen at random, the execution can fall short.

A famous 2013 study on the benefits of the Mediterranean diet against heart disease had to be retracted in June by the most prestigious of medical journals, the New England Journal of Medicine, because not all participants were randomly recruited; the results have been revised downwards.

So what should we take away from the flood of studies published every day?

Ioannidis recommends asking the following questions: is this something that has been seen just once, or in multiple studies? Is it a small or a large study? Is this a randomized experiment? Who funded it? Are the researchers transparent?

These precautions are fundamental in medicine, where bad studies have contributed to the adoption of treatments that are at best ineffective, and at worst harmful.

In their book “Ending Medical Reversal,” Vinayak Prasad and Adam Cifu offer terrifying examples of practices adopted on the basis of studies that went on to be invalidated, such as opening a brain artery with stents to reduce the risk of a new stroke.

It was only after 10 years that a robust, randomized study showed that the practice actually increased the risk of stroke.

Never forget that science cannot be considered reliable until it is called “engineering”. Until then, the most that one can accurately assume is that it has about a fifty percent chance of actually being correct. The fact that some physicists got some very accurate results in the 1950s says precisely nothing about that study published by a biologist or a medical researcher or an economist 70 years later.


When civility is not the answer

Matthew Cochran explains that civility can be a category error for conservatives:

Because civility is not a moral absolute and its form is always adjusting along with culture, it’s requirements are determined primarily by social contract — the kind of behavior we all implicitly or explicitly agree to when interacting with one another. Historically, some of these contracts have been great blessings while others have been reprehensible, but all are, by nature, contracts.

The detail that conservatives tend to forget is that when one party violates a contract, the other party is no longer bound by all of its terms. If you sign a contract to buy a car, and the dealer refuses to turn it over you, you aren’t “sinking to their level” by refusing to hand over your money. If you contract an employee who never shows up for work, you aren’t “repaying evil for evil” by withholding his wages. The same is true when dealing with people who are deliberately uncivil to civil people — it fundamentally changes what the rest of society owes them.

To be sure, this doesn’t mean that we must recklessly abandon civility whenever we get angry at the latest atrocious behavior from liberals. Civility is extremely valuable and is never something that should be tossed aside lightly. You need only look at the social justice left to see the consequences of doing so. Their enemies are not limited to conservatives. They rail just as hard against common sense when they melt down over beliefs that were shared by virtually everyone who ever lived until last week. They even cannibalize the very leftists who carried them to term whenever they’re triggered. Accordingly, conservatives are quite right to try and conserve valuable social structures like courtesy — they prevent all manner of chaos and suffering.

That said, civility does not actually exist between two parties when even one of them is deliberately uncivil. The unfortunate reality is that we increasingly find ourselves in circumstances in which there is nothing left to conserve. We need to stop taking the lazy road of “be civil though the heavens fall” and begin being deliberate about when to be civil — and when not to be.

First things first. There are no style points being awarded when it comes to saving Western civilization. There is only success and failure.