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Queens at war

A historical study of European queens produces some unexpected results:

After sifting through historical data on queenly reigns across six centuries, two political scientists have found that it’s more complicated than that. In a recent working paper, New York University scholars Oeindrila Dube and S.P. Harish analyzed 28 European queenly reigns from 1480 to 1913 and found a 27 percent increase in wars when a queen was in power, as compared to the reign of a king. “People have this preconceived idea that states that are led by women engage in less conflict,” Dube told Pacific Standard, but her analysis of the data on European queens suggests another story.

Interestingly, Dube and Harish think the reason why queens were able to take part in more military policy can be explained by the division of labor that tended to happen when a queen — particularly a married queen — ruled. Queens managed foreign policy and war policies, which were often important to bring in cash, while their husbands managed the state (think taxes, crime, judicial issues, etc.). As the authors theorize, “greater division of labor under queenly reigns could have enabled queens to pursue more aggressive war policies.” Kings, on the other hand, didn’t tend to engage in division of labor like ruling queens — or, more specifically, they may have shared military and state duties with some close adviser, but not with the queen. And, Dube and Harish argue, it may be this “asymmetry in how queens relied on male spouses and kings relied on female spouses [that] strengthened the relative capacity of queenly reigns, facilitating their greater participation in warfare.”

The queens’ marital status made a difference here; as the authors write,
“among married monarchs, queens were more likely to participate as
attackers than kings.” If a queen were single — which was the case with
13 of those they studied — she was more likely to be attacked compared
to the times when a king was in power, perhaps because her country was
seen in the outside world as being more vulnerable and thus easier to attack.

Ironically, as Nate pointed out, this means that female leaders are more strongly correlated with warfare than religion. And it would be hard to argue that this relationship is not causal, given the fact that the queens were responsible for the decision to go to war.

The Littlest Chickenhawk goes to war

He never bothered to enlist for any of the campaigns in the Middle East, because he was saving himself for the noblest of all callings: Milady’s arm was said to have been BRUISED:

“Corey Lewandowski is a thug and Donald Trump is a thug for backing him… This has been a verified account. There’s a report in The Daily Beast this morning that Corey Lewandowski specifically went to Matt Boyle over at Breitbart, a guy I know, and said to Matt Boyle that if he’d known it was a Breitbart reporter, he wouldn’t have done it. As though that’s justification. As though you can go after somebody who’s not a Breitbart reporter just because Breitbart is friendlier to Trump than other publications? The whole thing’s absurd.”

Shapiro added, “And the fact that the Trump campaign continues to play this game, where they put out what’s not just violent rhetoric but in this case, a campaign manager engaging in allegedly violent action, and then they won’t even step down to apologize; it’s beyond disgusting. It’s just gross.”

Kelly then turned to Wohl to defend Trump’s campaign manager. He immediately suggested that Fields could be lying: “this whole thing from the beginning doesn’t look good to me. The reality is there were dozens of people around. No one apparently saw it other than this one Washington post reporter. There were 100 cameras, none of them caught anything?”

Kelly, skeptical, asked Wohl, “Were they acting when they had that exchange on tape?”

Wohl replied that Trump was the real victim: “Trump is under attack on multiple levels. On political, economic, social and a personal level. And this is a way to get at him… if it is a real, legitimate assault or battery, you file a police report, you don’t tweet it out and then 36 hours later, you tweet out pictures of bruises and you say, ‘Lewandowski caused it.’”

Shapiro responded brutally: “This is disgusting. How repulsive are you people?”

Oh, it is well done, noble sir! Milady’s honor has been defended! I’m sure you will all join me in tipping your fedoras to him.

Seriously, this whole Michelle Fields thing is totally surreal. The way Shapiro and
Fox News are going into serial fainting fits, you’d think Donald Trump personally ripped her arm off at the
shoulder and raped her with it.

I cannot exaggerate the extent of my indifference concerning the possibility that a female reporter may have been shoved. I think all reporters, male and female, should be beaten periodically, on general principle.

Reprehensible

If you’re ever wondering why I generally refuse to have anything to do with the so-called “non-profit” world, this scandal at the Wounded Warrior Project is a very good example of why:

Wounded Warrior Project aims to empower wounded veterans, but a recent exposé revealed that the charity spent nearly half of its funding empowering its executives instead. The board of directors responded by beginning to clean house, starting at the top.

Wounded Warrior Project has raised more than a billion dollars in donations since 2003, according to CBS News. Donors might expect their money would be used “to honor and empower Wounded Warriors,” as the nonprofit’s mission states. However, CBS revealed the charity spends between 40 to 50 percent of their money on overhead – while other veterans’ charities spend an average of 10 to 15 percent on the same expenses.

Wounded Warrior Project Chief Executive Officer Steven Nardizzi and Chief Operating Officer Al Giordano were both removed from the organization after accusations arose alleging that the charity’s donations were being misused…. Over $26 million was spent on employee conferences in 2014, compared to $1.7 million in 2010. The events were described as being lavish and boozy, such as one annual meeting held in a luxury hotel in Colorado Springs, where 500 staff members attended a four-day conference that came with a final price tag of $3 million.

The corporate world is predatory, and the mercenary class of executives are certainly in it for no one but themselves, but for sheer thievery, I think only the financial industry can even begin to compete with the non-profit world. At least the corporations have to deliver to their customers on some level, or they go out of business.

Not so the non-profit charities and foundations, which often seem to exist primarily to provide those who run them a very good living.

The fact that these con artists would rip off American military veterans, of all people, just makes them among the lowest of the very low.

Yeah, it pretty much is

Florio trolls the NFL world in search of clicks:

No, this isn’t click bait or trolling or whatever other term the cool kids have come up with. It’s a legitimate question given the current state of the Denver roster.

Should they bring back Tim Tebow?

Manning finished the year averaging 6.8 yards per pass and throwing nine touchdown passes against 17 interceptions, with a passer rating of 67.9. In 2011, Tebow averaged 6.4 yards per pass, threw 12 touchdown passes against six interceptions, and had a passer rating of 72.9. He also added 660 rushing yards and six touchdowns; that’s 666 more rushing yards that Manning (minus-6) had this year.

No, it’s not a legitimate question. There is no way that is happening. Tebow did nothing with the three other opportunities afforded to him post-Denver, and hasn’t played in two years. I refuse to even dignify the absurdity with a link.

Elway got rid of Tebow because Tebow’s inability to throw the ball caused the Hall of Fame rifleman genuine psychological pain every time he watched his offense take the field. And while I was genuinely pleased to see Tebow’s unexpected success, particularly in the games against the Jets and Steelers, I can’t blame Elway at all.

Rabid Puppies 2016: Best Novella

The preliminary recommendations for the Best Novella category.

  • “Fear and Self-Loathing in Hollywood”, Nick Cole
  • “Penric’s Demon”, Lois McMaster Bujold
  • “Hyperspace Demons”, Jonathan Moeller
  • “The Builders”, Daniel Polansky
  • “Slow Bullets”, Alastair Reynolds 

Also, I stand corrected. The intrepid readers at File 770 have been gracious enough to inform us that “Space Raptor Butt Invasion” is not actually a novelette, and therefore belongs in the short story category.

Khitty Hawk
Not sure what VD’s goal is since “Space Raptor Butt Invasion” isn’t even a novelette. The thing’s less than 5000 words. No one could No Award it since it’d get disqualified beforehand.

Aaron
Well, it is pretty much established that Beale simply isn’t particularly bright.

Glenn Hauman
We already know he has trouble counting past 5 without taking off the other mitten. Counting to see if it makes novelette length? He’d get lost after 21. Okay, 20 and a half.

I sincerely apologize for this inexcusable and unconscionable error, and will, of course, make the appropriate adjustments when the final Rabid Puppies list of recommendations is presented next week.

      Other 2016 Hugo categories

      EU idiocy is not Russia’s problem

      What on Earth do the moronic EU officials hope to achieve by whining at Russia? It’s enough to make even Putin crack a smile.

      Konstantin Romodanovsky, head of Russia’s Federal Migration Service, said ‘multiculturalism has failed’ because Europe never formed a unified strategy to integrate refugees into Western society. He told RT: ‘Practicing family reunification and offering refugees generous benefits without integrating them into the labor market, the EU did not expect that such a great number of people would claim these rights.

      ‘This was clearly a mistake. The policy of multiculturalism has failed.’

      He pointed to the mass sex attacks by gang of migrant men on women in Cologne. He said: ‘Note the defiant behavior of refugees and their growing claims and demands. What happened in Germany on New Year’s Eve is a striking example of this.’

      His comments came after it emerged Brussels was seeking a deal with Vladimir Putin to stop fuelling the influx of migrants into Europe. A sharp rise in numbers entering the continent from Russia has led senior officials to plead with Moscow for help. It comes despite warnings that, by bombing Syria and fuelling the flow of refugees, Russia is ‘weaponising’ the crisis to ‘overwhelm’ and ‘break’ Europe.

      Meanwhile, migrants continued to ignore warnings about that their hopes for quick access to a better life in Europe would fail.

      It’s interesting to note how Serbia and Russia, two nations that are willing to defend their borders and their people, aren’t being overrun by invaders. Perhaps there is a lesson in that for the feckless European leaders.

      But it is funny to see the EU leaders trying to simultaneously blame Russia for the problem and beg them to solve it. Do you think they’d accept an invitation from Putin to send the Russian military to guard their borders for them?

      Wait a minute… they can’t possibly be THAT stupid, can they?

      Deport the neocons

      Seriously, what American gives a damn what these morally bankrupt morons think?

      The neocons who led the George W. Bush administration into Iraq are now touting a fresh crusade to save American democracy — and the Republican Party — from an authoritarian foe: Donald J. Trump.

      Their campaign began with an impassioned essay in The American Interest last month by Eliot A. Cohen, a former Bush State Department official, who depicted Mr. Trump as symptomatic of the broader “moral rot” of America. Then, in an open letter, more than 100 Republican foreign policy mavens, including neocons such as Mr. Cohen and Robert Kagan, as well as more traditional Republican foreign policy figures like the former World Bank president Robert B. Zoellick, announced they were “united in our opposition to a Donald Trump presidency.”

      Now, in a last-ditch effort, leading neocon thinkers have established what they call the National Security Advisory Council to support Senator Marco Rubio. And many are announcing that if push comes to shove, they will support Hillary Clinton over Mr. Trump. Indeed, in the magazine Commentary, the neoconservative historian Max Boot wrote, somewhat hyperbolically, that Mr. Trump is “the No. 1 threat to American security” — bigger than the Islamic State or China.

      They wanted to remake Iraq, so let’s hope that God-Emperor Trump sends them there. They are the architects of one of the most pointless, hapless, anti-democratic foreign policies in American history; the fact that they are vociferously opposed to Trump is alone enough reason to support him.

      Furthermore, the New York Times is blatantly playing games with economic history here:

      So-called mossback Republicans supported the punitive Immigration Act of 1924, which included provisions barring Asians and restricting African immigrants. The party also backed protectionism: In June 1930 Herbert Hoover signed the Smoot-Hawley tariff, which worsened the Great Depression and stoked nationalism around the world.

      The Smoot-Hawley tariff is often blamed for the Great Depression. It’s a complete load of nonsense, as anyone who has read RGD knows. Heilbrunn is attempting to avoid being caught in a lie, because a generic term like “worsened” is virtually unquantifiable.

      An immigration act that barred Asians and restricted Africans would look pretty damned good right now to most Republicans. And more than a few Democrats too. But the end of the article is inadvertently optimistic.

      Once George W. Bush and the neocons led us into Iraq, it was probably
      only a matter of time before the neocons were called to account.

      We can certainly hope so, anyhow.

      Future and current attractions

      For all that we haven’t had any new releases, Castalia House has been extremely busy. We have a number of new projects underway, a number of new authors, and the blog has continued to grow steadily under the leadership of Jeffro.

      It has taken longer than expected, but we have finally finished what is certain to be regarded as a tour de force, which is to say, John C. Wright’s latest novel. It’s a standalone, and once you read it, you’ll understand what he meant when he said that it came to him in a dream. It’s not a big book like Somewhither, but it is one that you’ll almost certainly want to read more than once. Iron Chamber of Memory will be coming out this month; if you’re a New Release subscriber, keep an eye on your emails next week. And if you’re not, well, then you should probably consider subscribing.

      It won’t be out quite as soon, but also en route is the debate between Dominic Saltarelli and I concerning the existence of gods. We’ve always planned to pick up the debate again one day, but after reading the intriguing debate between Umberto Eco and Cardinal Martini, I realized that a) our debate was already longer, b) it was more conclusive, and c) it was arguably even more interesting, if perhaps not quite so erudite. So, On the Existence of Gods will be released later this month, complete with the commentary from all of the judges who didn’t go off the reservation and declare themselves the winner.

      Speaking of which, if the agnostic judge doesn’t send me his additional notes soon, the book will have go to out without them. And, simply because the question is bound to arise, no, I am not even close to being done with A Sea of Skulls yet. You may now proceed with the inevitable George RR Martin comparisons….

      And finally, I am very pleased to be able to announce that the Compost Everything audiobook, written and narrated by David the Good, is now available on Amazon and Audible. It is three hours of gardening genius that contains everything you need to get rid of your enemies forever.

      Even the half-Swedes are scared

      Paul Joseph Watson receives a letter from Sweden:

      I am a 16 year old half Swedish, half Turkish girl living in the municipality that has taken in the most refugees in whole of Sweden. I believe in no god, have never adopted any of the muslim values forced on children during my time in Turkey nor have I opened my heart to all the lovable rapists that Sweden imports daily. I also don’t blame each failure throughout my short span of life on the evil patriarchy as so many of my self proclaimed feminist piers do. So as you can probably see, I have been the only sane person in the three societies I have lived in (U.K, Sweden and Turkey), and never truly fit in in neither of them. I’m glad I don’t.

      While living in Turkey I experienced real sexism, real racism (against Kurds mainly, but also myself for refusing to start my school day with a vow claiming that the “Turk is righteous, the Turk is proud”) and real inequality taught as normal. I know what it is, but I’ve just been too blind to see it.

      Since I’m currently living in Sweden, I wanted to tell you about just how fucked up it is. This month I had a revelation, mostly thanks to your videos and my CIS gendered white male father (GASP) who shares opinions with you quite frequently as I have noticed.

      Up till this date I was the model Swedish girl. Only last year I went to a `Refugees Welcome` rally in my nearest town, and accused everyone who thought letting refugees in would have consequences as nazis. I was blind, deluded and let the thought of love and false equality drive me to a state of false acceptance/tolerance. If I were eligible to vote, I would have voted for Fi! (Feministic Initiative). Exactly as the Swedish media wants me to.

      I think my highly racist, misogynistic thoughts appeared first when several women where raped in Kalmar, where I go to school. I’m sure you have heard of it already. While us Swedes should be sticking up to the women who were TOO AFRAID TO TELL THE POLICE THEIR RAPISTS WERE MIGRANTS, we have instead embraced all the innocent refugees who didn’t commit a crime. Instead of standing beside the women that were raped, we stood with the migrants who did nothing at all. Or they might have raped, there is no way to show. The day after, the newspapers were bombarded by young female journalists making this a problem of feminism and not culture. The cultural marxism was dripping off each word I read, whereas this young, Swedish girl just like myself was writing that we need to educate half of the human population to not rape. That she was just as likely to get raped by a Swede as by a muslim migrant (who has never faced consequences for rape where he comes from).

      I was so scared, you know. Because if I were to publicly talk about the rapes, and if I were to notice the fact that the rapists were migrants and that we can possibly not turn a blind eye to that women face this kind of abuse DAILY in the rapists’ country of origin, I’d be shunned. To just as little as to notice this is what I identify as real, necessary feminism. But when I opened up to this with a close friend, it turned out to be the last time I ever even got to talk to her. Because she is the perfect Swedish girl too.

      What I have realised is that we Swedes have become so ridiculously coward, overly sensitive and politically correct that there is no freedom of speech left. Whatsoever.

      There are several interesting things to note there. First, even those most inclined to swallow the bullshit can’t do it anymore. They’ve reached the earliest possible breaking point, which is when everyone ceases to believe, but doesn’t realize that everyone else is just pretending.

      Second, she’s still clinging to “real, necessary feminism” even though she’s figured out that the feminism she’d been taught was nonsense. This is why you NEVER permit converts or immigrants in positions of leadership. Despite their fervor, they do not truly get it. If allowed to lead, they will immediately steer the ship onto the shoals of moderatism.

      Third, note that as a half-breed, she is aware she doesn’t genuinely fit into either nation. This is what the Proposition Nation people can’t seem to grasp. Nation is family is blood. Genetics are far more complicated than we understand, they are far more significant than most of us are willing to admit, and they are ignored at everyone’s peril.

      Rabid Puppies 2016: Best Novelette

      The preliminary recommendations for the Best Novelette category.

      • “Flashpoint: Titan”, Kai Wai Cheah
      • “Folding Beijing”, Hao Jingfang
      • “What Price Humanity?”, David VanDyke
      • “Space Raptor Butt Invasion”, Chuck Tingle
      • “Obits”, Stephen King

      We have been repeatedly informed that homophobia and the lack of diversity is a serious problem in science fiction, and speaking as the leader of Rabid Puppies, I could not agree more. The decades of discrimination against gay dinosaur love in space by the science fiction community stops now, and it stops here!

      Let’s face it, there are just three words to describe the only event that might happen in 2016 that I
      can imagine would be more spectacularly awesome than “Space Raptor Butt
      Invasion” winning a Hugo Award this year, and those three words are “President-elect Donald Trump”.

      Other 2016 Hugo categories