Category: Uncategorized

Immigration is anti-semitic

There is a useful meme, courtesy of the Central Council of Jews:

The Central Council of Jews in Germany called Monday for a limit to the Syrian migrant influx, citing concerns that the mainly Muslim newcomers bring with them a culture steeped in anti-Semitism.

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government has opened the doors to Syrian migrants, and arrivals from the war-torn country and other  regions in the Middle East are expected to reach one million this year.

“Sooner or later we won’t have a choice but to set an upper limit,” the council’s president Josef Schuster told Die Welt daily.

“Many of the refugees are fleeing the terror of the Islamic State and want to live in peace and freedom, but at the same time they come from cultures where hatred of Jews and intolerance are an integral part.”

“Don’t just think about the Jews, think about the equality between men and women, or dealing with homosexuals,” he added.

Forget the details and focus on the rhetoric. Immigration is anti-semitism. And as a bonus, it will put the cuckservatives into complete brainlock.

Garden, lest ye die

We are happy to announce that David the Good has followed up his #1 bestselling gardening book, Compost Everything, with the second book in the Good Guide series from Castalia House.

Grow or Die: The Good Guide to Survival Gardening is different than most books for preppers and other survivalists, because it’s not concerned with surviving the first few months of a post-apocalypse, but the next few years. It contains a wealth of data on what sort of things you will need to provide food for your family, instructions on how to use them, and a small encyclopedia of vegetables with instructions on how to grow them as well as a summary of their characteristics… although if you’re a fan of zucchini, it appears you will be out of luck should the world go the way of Fallout 4. There will be no zucchini in the post-apocalypse.

The good news is that between this book and the aforementioned game, you will surely be able to put yourself in the “survival mindset” that our military experts informed us is so vital at the Brainstorm event this weekend. The book is written in the same easy, amusing style as its predecessor, and even those who have no interest in gardening and believe Paul Krugman’s assertion that the federal government will be able to avert all ills by further inflating the currency will find it both informative and enjoyable.

The book has apparently struck a nerve of some sort, as even prior to this announcement, it had already hit #1 bestseller in Gardening, marking Castalia House’s third straight #1 category bestseller.

 Grow or Die: The Good Guide to Survival Gardening is 142 pages, DRM-free, and retails for $2.99 at Amazon and at Castalia House.

So, congratulations to David the Good for his second category bestseller; with three of the top 30 books, he practically owns the Gardening & Horticulture Vegetables category. I’d also like to thank Brian Niemeier, who graciously offered his science fiction novel, Nethereal (Soul Cycle Book 1), as a bonus offer to the Castalia New Release subscribers who bought Grow or Die. Have a look at it, particularly if you’re a John C. Wright fan.

As always, we are absolutely fine with whatever retail option you happen to prefer. Whether you buy Castalia books from Amazon, from the CH store, or get them “free” via Kindle Unlimited, we are just happy that you have decided to support Castalia House and we hope you find our books to be good values.

Christmas is Christ’s Mass

Atheists, seculars, and anti-Christian Jews can try to take the Christ out of Christmas, but they will always fail. And since they’re going to try, we should simply stop recognizing their parasitical celebration of the hollowed-out, lifeless “festival of lights” with which they wish to replace it.

Cinemas should ban all Christmas adverts after refusing to screen a commercial featuring the Lord’s Prayer because of its religious content, the Church of England has said.

The Church is threatening to take legal action against Digital Cinema Media (DCM), which handles adverts for cinema giants Odeon, Vue and Cineworld, after it barred an advert featuring the Archbishop of Canterbury encouraging prayer.

DCM told the Church the advert risked “upsetting or offending audiences” and pointed to its policy document barring commercials that advertised “any religion, faith or equivalent systems of belief” or “any part” of any such religion or faith.

Rev Arun Arora, the Church of England’s director of communications, told the Telegraph: “If they want to be consistent on not carrying any ads that have any connection with religious belief, I’d like them to cancel all ads linked to Christmas as a Christian festival.

“If they’d like to apply it consistently, ban every ad that mentions Christmas.” 

What most Christians haven’t realized, much less accepted, yet is that religious multiculturalism doesn’t work any better than the ethnic version. Freedom of religion only works so long as there is a tolerant religion that is sufficiently dominant; it ceases to function as soon as the minority religions become influential enough to challenge its cultural dominance and impose their own, less tolerant perspective.

Since the First Amendment has been dishonestly interpreted in a broadly expansive manner that does little more than attack Christianity, it is now time for Christians to cease respecting the concept of freedom of religion and become every bit as intolerant of other religions and anti-religious philosophies as those religions are of Christianity.

In this regard, perhaps a list should be created of all corporations that refuse to respect the Christian aspect of Christmas, so that Christians can refuse to do business with them during the Christmas season.

Magic Dirt vs Tragic Dirt

Magic Dirt: Political geography possessed of culturally transformative qualities capable of turning the most primitive barbarians of any ethnicity or religion into productive, law-abiding First World citizens whose beliefs, values, traditions, customs, and behavior are indistinguishable from 1950s-era whites of European descent within a single generation.

Tragic Dirt: Political geography possessed by the evil curses of ancient demons that condemn the inhabitants to cultural, moral, civil, and technological backwardness through no fault of their own or their native cultures, traditions, religions, behaviors, philosophies, or DNA. (NB: coined by Steve Sailer.)

NFL Week 11

Vikings (7-2) vs Packers (6-3). Who expected THAT at the beginning of the year, or even after Week 1? This game could settle the NFC North, although the Vikes have a harder schedule going forward. I am dubious that an injured Rodgers behind a weak offensive line can keep the ferocious Vikings pass rush in check for long. Either way, it is the must-see game this week.

Also, perhaps the Packers fans can help me on this one. For years, even decades, I have heard the national media talk about the big Packers rivalry with the Bears. Recent case in point:

While the Packers’ long historic feud with the Chicago Bears commands as much or more attention in Wisconsin’s population centers (Milwaukee, Madison and Green Bay) as the team’s rivalry with the Vikings, there’s no team in Minnesota as reviled as the green and gold.

Now, I lived in Minnesota and so it’s natural that the many Packers fans I met there – including my Packers-owning mother-in-law- consider the Vikings to be their primary rival. But the thing is, I have not met a single Packers fan who considers the Bears to be their primary rival anywhere in my entire life. I’ve met Packer Backers from Florida to Florence, Italy, and the moment they hear you have any connection to Minnesota, it’s on.

And on the online sites like ProFootballTalk, the Packer Backers are always going after the Vikings and the Vikings fans. They never have much to say about the Bears, not even in the comments on an article about an upcoming Packers-Bears game.

So, what is the deal? Is this simply the national media assuming that the two old NFL franchises must be rivals while not paying any attention to the real deal? Are there really many Packers fans who wouldn’t mind losing to the Vikings twice this season so long as they beat the Bears again?

Lessons in Rhetoric: Atheist edition

This atheist – sorry, “gnostic atheist” – decided to insert himself into the conversation following my observation that Richard Dawkins demonstrably does not know what “evidence” is:

Sapien @VernacularSwag
@voxday @RichardDawkins Stop talking. Atheism and agnosticism aren’t mutually exclusive terms. 90% of self-described atheists are agnostic

Vox Day @voxday
There is considerable evidence for God. You like definitions: look up “evidence”.

Sapien @VernacularSwag
LOL. Name one piece of evidence. You now are taking the affirmative

Vox Day @voxday
You’re laughing because you’re stupid. Again, look up “evidence”.

Sapien @VernacularSwag
I’m not the one pointing to invisible arguments for my position.

Vox Day @voxday
Neither am I. You don’t know what evidence is. Your arguments are hopelessly wrong.

Sapien @VernacularSwag
What the actual fuck

Sapien @VernacularSwag
You’re refusing to even have the discussion so how do you even know what my argument is

Sapien @VernacularSwag
You claim there is evidence for god yet refuse to provide an example and I’m the stupid one

Sapien @VernacularSwag
Go look it up for yourself, I’m done arguing against your ignorance

Sapien @VernacularSwag
you said considerable amount so surely it should be easy to provide just one

Vox Day @voxday
It is. But I know the Atheist Dance. You’re too intellectually short for the ride.

Sapien @VernacularSwag
Try me

Vox Day @voxday
No. The train is fine. Stop talking.

Sapien @VernacularSwag
It’s much easier to win argument that never happens isn’t it

Vox Day @voxday
What the actual fuck? Stop talking. The train is still fine.

Sapien @VernacularSwag
What the hell is this train you keep talking about lol

Vox Day @voxday
The train that is fine.

Sapien @VernacularSwag
…are you okay?

Vox Day @voxday
Yes. So is the train.

Sapien @VernacularSwag
Are you just saying random things to derail the convo now or what?

Vox Day @voxday
The train is not derailed. I already told you it is fine. Stop worrying about the train.

Needless to say, he’s doing a wonderful job proving my observation about the high degree of correlation between atheists and what used to be called “Asperger’s Syndrome”. I suppose now we could simply call it “atheism”. Or, if they prefer, “gnostic atheism”.

It’s certainly interesting to see that eight years after the New Atheists burst onto the scene waving the bloody flag of atheism, even Richard Dawkins is now publicly claiming that he is merely an “agnostic” and atheists are insisting that “atheism” merely means “personal disbelief in the existence of God” and certainly not any positive claim that God does not exist.

NB: as an additional discrediting flourish, directly quote their little rhetorical jabs once they’ve used them. If you don’t overdo it, it serves to underline their disinterest in genuine dialectic.

The uselessness of the EU

The hollow nature and intrinsic inutility of the EU has been exposed:

Now, the outrage over what the open borders principle made possible – the untrammelled movement of organised murderers into and out EU countries – is being appeased with emollient talk about how Schengen might be limited to a smaller number of states or be modified to allow random checks of individuals. But the talking shops of EU ministers can churn out as many of these mock solutions as they like: governments are still (mercifully) accountable to their electorates. They will do whatever their people believe to be necessary for their own security, and they will be justified in doing that.

But it is not only the free movement of peoples and goods (which turned out to include Kalashnikovs) which has come into question. Along with the right to “tighten” France’s borders, whatever that turns out to mean in practice, François Hollande also demanded – and got – permission to ignore EU budget limits so that he could increase government spending on security and defence.

So, to return to my original question: what’s left? If national borders may be reinstated by individual governments either with hasty barbed wire or officially reconstituted checkpoints, and EU budget rules can be thrown out whenever circumstances require, what does the authority of the EU Commission and Council and Parliament amount to? Possible answer: a largely useless, self-perpetuating, massively overpaid bureaucracy presiding over Potemkin institutions whose deliberations count for nothing when the lives of real people living under real governments are at stake.

Being newer and less stable, the EU will be the first multi-national “empire” to break up. It hasn’t delivered on ANY of its promises; it was never anything more than the usual credit bubble surfing and elite resource extrication. However, it should be noted that it won’t be too much longer before the USA begins to follow suit. The United States is no more a nation than the EU is, the only significant difference is that it has rival ethnicities and cultures rather than national fault lines.

Bob Prechter predicted both failures long ago. And while he hasn’t been right about everything, I see absolutely no sign whatsoever that he hasn’t gotten both of those calls right.

Brainstorm: Urban tactics survival

It was a very interesting session tonight, although it ended rather abruptly when my computer locked up for some reason. It ended up going into more detail on martial arts and the law than I would have thought beforehand, but then, both experts agreed that the single most important aspect of surviving a terror attack is mindset.

Even if THEY are attacking, YOU are the predator. Move. React. Escape if you can, attack if you can’t, but whatever you do, do not lie there motionless leaving all the initiative up to them!

The other thing I took away from it is that 12 feet is the line of delineation. If they’re more than 12 feet away, don’t assume they can hit a moving target. That’s just two body-lengths. It is a LOT harder than it looks, even with a fully-automatic weapon. 12 feet or more, exit laterally at speed. Less than 12 feet, attack forward.

The book is sophomoric. The author is inept.

The sad thing is, Richard Dawkins doesn’t know it because he resolutely runs from all substantive criticism in favor of hiding in his hug box:

Richard Dawkins @RichardDawkins
The God Delusion accused of being a “sophomoric” book. Well, is there any evidence for God that an intelligent sophomore couldn’t refute?

Vox Day @voxday
Considerable. Your arguments are so inept, some don’t even qualify as arguments.You don’t even know what “evidence” is.

Vox Day @voxday
I blew away your “religion causes war” argument once and for all because you simply don’t know history. 6.98%, not 100%.

Vox Day ‏@voxday
Your worst “argument” was the appeal to Alfred Hitchcock. That’s a logical fallacy that doesn’t even have a name.

Vox Day @voxday
Look, atheists, you’re going to need much better champions than inept rhetoricians in over their heads like @RichardDawkins and @SamHarris.

Apple design fail

Former Apple designers think the post-Jobs Apple has lost the plot:

Once upon a time, Apple was known for designing easy-to-use, easy-to-understand products. It was a champion of the graphical user interface, where it is always possible to discover what actions are possible, clearly see how to select that action, receive unambiguous feedback as to the results of that action, and have the power to reverse that action—to undo it—if the result is not what was intended.

No more. Now, although the products are indeed even more beautiful than before, that beauty has come at a great price. Gone are the fundamental principles of good design: discoverability, feedback, recovery, and so on. Instead, Apple has, in striving for beauty, created fonts that are so small or thin, coupled with low contrast, that they are difficult or impossible for many people with normal vision to read. We have obscure gestures that are beyond even the developer’s ability to remember. We have great features that most people don’t realize exist.

The products, especially those built on iOS, Apple’s operating system for mobile devices, no longer follow the well-known, well-established principles of design that Apple developed several decades ago. These principles, based on experimental science as well as common sense, opened up the power of computing to several generations, establishing Apple’s well-deserved reputation for understandability and ease of use. Alas, Apple has abandoned many of these principles. True, Apple’s design guidelines for developers for both iOS and the Mac OS X still pay token homage to the principles, but, inside Apple, many of the principles are no longer practiced at all. Apple has lost its way, driven by concern for style and appearance at the expense of understandability and usage.

I find the Apple UI almost unusable. But I’m not really equipped to judge, since I have staunchly refused to use Apple products since my last experience with one. After spending two hours trying to figure out how to do something very simple on SB’s Powerbook or whatever it was, I called up a technical friend who had switched to Macintosh.

“Oh, you just can’t do that,” he explained. “It’s not possible.”

And that was before the screen failed and the battery developed a massive tumor that prevented the computer from lying flat.