Your “Get-Out-of-Racism-Free” has now expired

Ben Carson’s scheduled implosion would appear to have begun:

Ben Carson’s campaign on Friday admitted, in a response to an inquiry from POLITICO, that
a central point in his inspirational personal story was fabricated: his
application and acceptance into the U.S. Military Academy at West
Point.

The academy has occupied a central place in Carson’s tale for years.
According to a story told in Carson’s book, “Gifted Hands,” the then-17
year old was introduced in 1969 to Gen. William Westmoreland, who had
just ended his command of U.S. forces in Vietnam, and the two dined
together. That meeting, according to Carson’s telling, was followed by a
“full scholarship” to the military academy.

West Point, however, has no record of Carson applying, much less being extended admission.

This concludes this electoral campaign’s scheduled “crazy no-hoper black Republican who rides cuckservative fear of being called racist to glory” ride. Please return your electoral support to the prescribed GOP-designated candidate.

I’m looking forward to hearing that Carson isn’t a surgeon at all, but is actually a janitor at Mercy Medical in Baltimore.

Book Review: Danger & Play: Essays on Embracing Masculinity

Mike Cernovich is an interesting man. He combines the energy and up-with-people positivity of a perma-smiling pro seminar presenter with a laid-back personality of a California surfer. He’s both a lawyer and ex-military, but it’s hard to detect even the smallest sign of either aspect of his background. I met him for the first time in Paris this summer, as we co-hosted the GGinParis event with Milo, who at the time was the common link between us. (One thing people often don’t realize about Milo is that he excels at putting people in touch with each other.) Mike and I hit it off right away; it didn’t hurt that his fiance Shauna also happened to hit it off well with Spacebunny. And while I was aware of his health-and-fitness thing – the man is not only big, but he is an inveterate walker as well – I hadn’t actually read his blog. And since I never listen to podcasts, I wasn’t familiar with his popular Danger & Play podcast either.

But after having the chance to hang out with Mike and Shauna again in Spain, then reading Mike’s Gorilla Mindset and discovering the inspirational, if literally bone-chilling magic of the contrast shower, I was looking forward to reading his new book of essays, Danger & Play: Essays on Embracing Masculinity, which are largely taken from his blog posts. They were entirely new to me, and I was, frankly, surprised to discover that it was in many ways more directly relevant to me and my objectives than Gorilla Mindset. This makes sense, actually, since mindset has never been a problem or a challenge for me, whereas a number of the issues that Mike addresses in the new book have been one or the other.

In fact, I found myself repeatedly highlighting various passages in the book as I was reading it in the gym, including the following:

  • If you’re a momentum type, your brashness and boldness creates opportunity but also leads to costly mistakes.


  • Unless I bow down to the SJWs I will always be under attack. I’ll always be a “bad” person. Only the complete and total surrender of your soul will placate the SJWs who went after Matt Taylor. That’s not going to happen.


  • Cast aside any aspirations of mainstream acceptance, unless you’re willing to crawl on your knees before Gawker.


  • Making money ethically is a sure sign that you are delivering value and goodwill to the world.


  • learn how to focus on vision rather than on what you’re afraid of.


  • The little people, the flunkies, the peons: they are the ones that want to cut you down. The big guys, they respect the audacity.


  • Think like no one else thinks by noticing what no one else notices.

Now, one might be tempted to dismiss the book as a collection of cheerleading platitudes, except for the fact that the platitudes are the direct conclusions drawn from the experiences that Mike is recounting. He isn’t blithely quoting someone when he cites “Patton or some Prussian general” in advising audacity; he clearly doesn’t even know where the quote originates! Instead, and more importantly, he is summarizing what he learned from the various experiences recounted and what you can therefore apply to your own life.

(As it happens, the famous aphorism was coined by Georges Danton, the French revolutionary: De l’audace, encore de l’audace, toujours de l’audace. Mike was fortunate to avoid citing him as an example, however, considering that Danton was eventually beheaded by the Jacobins.)

Far from being a criticism, though, this is actually an example of the book’s fundamental strength. It is focused on deeds, not words, action, not reflection, practice, not plans. It doesn’t matter in the least who said what when, the point is that the reader needs to learn to be audacious in the way Patton and Rommel and Mike himself succeeded by being audacious. For those who are given to spending all their time planning, wishing, and dreaming instead of doing, this book should act as a direct shot of adrenaline.

Mike’s literary persona is not an intellectual one. It is, rather, that of a big brother, telling his little brother to stop being such a jackass, stop uselessly spinning his wheels, and do what big brother’s experience suggests will work for him instead. If self-help writers were NFL coaches, Mike Cernovich would be Bill Belichick. Do your job. Don’t worry about the other guy. Just focus and do your fucking job!

Which leads me to the one weakness of the book: the language. It’s not a book you would necessarily want to give to a young man under the age of 18. The saltiness and worldliness of the book is not inappropriate, nor is it particularly offensive by modern standards, but it does tend to preclude giving it to teenagers or putting it in your local school library. I didn’t hesitate to have my son read Gorilla Mindset, I would probably wait until he was 18 or 19 to have him read Danger & Play: Essays on Embracing Masculinity.


Nevertheless, I will definitely have him read it when the time comes because the lessons it contains are that important. I firmly believe that if I had read it at 18, I would have avoided several significant mistakes, including the single biggest one of my life, which was not dropping out of college after my third semester there. Because if there is one lesson the reader learns from the book, it is that doing things simply because everyone else does them that way is the most certain path to mediocrity, frustration, and failure.

SJWs stalking STEM figure

It’s not just in Open Source Software that SJWs are actively looking to discredit and disemploy individuals they have targeted. I received this just yesterday.
SJWs are attempting to railroad another STEM figure out
of his job. I can’t divulge how I know this, but I have direct inside
information. One individual in particular is gathering support by digging for
information and asking for legal advice. They are attempting to
circumvent the statute of limitations so
they can deprive this man of his job.

This is
happening, because of the easy success SJWs had ousting Tim Hunt and
Geoff Marcy. One SJW actually said, “Now that we’ve brought
down one of the biggest men in science, who can we go after next?”
They’re LOOKING for people to go after. It’s just as you said. Every
time one of these men apologizes, it just emboldens the SJWs.

Someone needs to get that man a copy of SJWAL, stat! And be sure that you provide anyone you know to be under attack with a link to The SJW Attack Survival Guide (PDF).

Note that apologizing not only make it worse for the target apologizing, but for the subsequent targets as well.

Do not apologize. Never apologize. Don’t even let the merest glimmer of the notion think about crossing your mind. Own your actions, own your words, and stand by them under fire.

A belated collection

I’ve been wanting to get this collection of all the Selenoth short stories along with the first little novel together in ebook form since Marcher Lord published the hardcover, but I never quite managed to get around to it. But things have been going so swimmingly with regards to getting 4GW Handbook out the door – it’s pretty much good to go now, although we’ll spend the weekend going over it to see if we can clean up any more lurking typos – that I was able to spare a few hours over the last two evenings to add the additional six stories to the original Summa Elvetica, “Birth of an Order”, and “Master of Cats”. So if you want all the stories in one place, or if you haven’t read any of them, you can do so now in Summa Elvetica: A Casuistry of the Elvish Controversy & Other Stories. It’s also available via Kindle Unlimited, which makes this the obvious starting point for those thinking about dipping a toe into Selenoth.

Granted, dropping the neophyte reader into Latin pseudo-Aquinas with chapters headings such as IA Q. VII A. I ARG. I is probably not what the marketing experts would recommend, but if that sort of thing doesn’t at least make an epic fantasy reader curious, he should probably stick with Robert Jordan and Terry Brooks anyhow.

One of these days we’ll get it out in hardcover too one of these days. I have to say, of all the books in my library, the hardcover that Marcher Lord put out right before it was bought has the prettiest and most spiking spine of them all. Kirk did a great job of making it match the ARTS OF DARK AND LIGHT covers while also setting it apart.

We also had a little Kindle Select confusion which temporarily resulted in our removing of both QUANTUM MORTIS A Man Disrupted and QUANTUM MORTIS Gravity Kills from Amazon, but the matter was quickly resolved and both books are now up and available conventionally as well as through Kindle Unlimited.

It’s been so long since we bothered making any use of Smashwords that I simply forgot the books were up there. It’s really remarkable how completely Amazon has steamrolled the opposition. You would think that the Big Five publishers would have teamed up with Barnes & Noble to set up an online alternative by now, but they are too frightened to take the hit to their sales that collectively pulling their books from Amazon would entail. That’s why they will glide gracefully into literary history, in total denial all the while.

We’re under no illusions that it couldn’t happen to smaller independent publishers too, but we’re protected by declining marginal utility. Amazon can take all of the business away any time it wants, but why bother when it can simply take one-third the revenue for none of the effort involved beyond providing the infrastructure?

Brainstorm with Derek Smart

As part of the ongoing efforts to provide this blog community, and the Brainstorm members, with added value, I am hosting an impromptu Brainstorm event featuring Derek Smart, the veteran game developer and Star Citizen skeptic.

We will be discussing what caused him to go from project backer to public critic, his own development history, including the notorious Battlecruiser 3000 AD, and his latest game, Line of Defense Tactics, on Saturday, November 7th, at 7 PM EST. I’ll also be asking him about some of the controversial statements he has recently made concerning Chris Robert’s record-setting development project. You can register for the event here.

In addition to being entertaining and informative, this should also provide those interested in the upcoming DevGame course with some idea of what the guest speaker aspects of the course will entail, as well as the nature of the Q&A sessions.

Mass migration is war

The mainstream media is finally beginning to recognize that perhaps they don’t actually want to live under Sharia or in a third world hellhole after all.

Mass immigration is on the verge of DESTROYING Europe.

SEVERAL millennia were required to build European civilisation but its impending destruction has been the work of just a few years, carried out by a cadre of irresponsible, unpatriotic and deluded politicians led by German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Dressing up their vandalism as
compassion and their cowardice as moral superiority, these leaders have
created an immigration crisis so profound that the very existence of our
European culture and heritage is under mortal threat.

The tragic
paradox of the obsession with free movement and the abolition of
national identities is that Europe in any meaningful sense will probably
cease to exist this century.

As the social revolution
accelerates traditional values of democracy, freedom and solidarity will
be replaced by conflict, sectarianism, oppression and intolerance.

Increasingly
Islamified, barbaric and poverty-stricken, Europe will become
indistinguishable from large swathes of North Africa and the Middle
East.
Even the stupendously high levels of mass immigration over the past
two decades are now dwarfed by the colossal flood of new arrivals that
has occurred since the early summer when Merkel made her woefully
illconceived pledge that ­Germany would welcome anyone claiming to be a
refugee.

She may have thought that the open-door policy would
provide a counter to Germany’s appalling record of aggression since the
1860s but in reality by wrecking Europe’s social fabric she has added to
the long catalogue of Teutonic crimes.

Mass migration is war. And enabling mass migration is anti-civilization, societal treason and a war crime.

The genteel civility of the moderate

Charles C.W. Cooke defends Salon’s pedophile piece on NRO:

I’ve seen a good number of conservatives slamming this confession, often on the presumption that it represents an attempt to “mainstream” pedophilia. Respectfully, I have to disagree with this assessment.

Naturally, I am as disgusted by the urges that are referenced in the piece as the next guy, and, despite the author’s heartfelt plea for “understanding,” I find it difficult not to harbor a real animus toward him.

But I see no evidence whatsoever that Salon is endorsing or excusing child abuse, or that it is making the case that pedophilia is an “ingrained identity” and that its sufferers should therefore be free to act as they wish.

On the contrary: The piece draws attention to the fact that some people live with these abominable proclivities — “a curse of the first order” and “a massive handicap,” the author calls them — and yet manage successfully to suppress them. Whatever one might reasonably think of the man and his afflictions, to draw the opposite lesson from his admission than the one he intended seems to me unjust.

It’s fascinating to see how NRO is always willing to bend over backwards to view all statements from the other side in the best possible light, while being the first to heap anathema on any right-wing figure who dares to cross what they consider to be a line.

Derbyshire’s frank talk about blacks merited permanent banishment into utter darkness. Providing a sympathetic platform to a pedophile, well, that’s just good Christian behavior, at least according to this particular non-Christian.

(Seriously, what is with non-Christians who keep trying to lecture Christians about Christian theology. Don’t even go there; you wouldn’t tell Jews how to keep kosher, would you?)

The truth is that neither National Review nor NRO are on our side. They’re moderates and they’re down with Salon, the SJWs, the cucks, and the pedophiles.

The sound of SJW silence

Breitbart Tech observably notes the mysterious silence in the technology media concerning the explosive claims of feminists “taking runs” at OSS project leaders and Linus Torvalds being targeted for disqualification by the Ada Initiative:

Discontent at the behaviour of feminists in tech has already been spreading in the open source community thanks to the feminist-led introduction of controversial codes of conduct for developers on some open source projects. But these new claims elevate feminists in tech from the controversial to the potentially criminal.

The claims of Raymond’s source could also provide an explanation for why so many tech diversity activists, such as the innovation expert Vivek Wadhwa, and the Puerto Rican software developer Roberto Rosario, have been mercilessly set upon by tech feminists.

If feminists are trying to frame software developers for sexual assault, it would be important for them to occupy the chief positions in the “diversity movement” to ensure the incidents were followed by sufficient outrage across the movement. Prominent diversity activists who are not subscribed so such nefarious methods could therefore present a problem.

Despite widespread discussion in the industry of the explosive claims on Raymond’s blog, and the stature of Raymond within software development, other tech news outlets – normally champing at the bit to report on diversity issues – have so far been curiously silent on this story. Breitbart Tech is, thus far, the exception.

What’s happening should not be surprising, as the attempts of SJWs to destroy technology through social justice convergence is the entire objective of the “diversity in tech” movement. It’s not about improving technology at all, it is about forcing a white male stronghold into the same sort of submission to which other industries have been subjected.

This is exactly what action to seize the cultural high ground looks like. We just haven’t seen it before up close and personal because it happened elsewhere.

Reject “diversity in tech”. Reject “girls who code”. Reject every single initiative being put forth by the SJWs, no matter how innocuous they sound, because every single one of them has an insidious and destructive purpose.

Ranger School coverup

The Army is attempting to bury the evidence that it relaxed standards in order to permit women to graduate from Ranger School:

Congressman Russell contacted the Secretary of the Army on September 15, 2015, and requested the Ranger School records for Captain Kristen Griest and First Lieutenant Shaye Haver.

The Secretary of the Army stalled Russell for nine days and then asked for an extension to obtain documents readily available.

The Army waited another two weeks to tell Russell the documents had been shredded.

The Army refuses to tell anyone what the school’s policy is for the storage and destruction of Ranger School records.

The Army refuses to tell the media why they shredded Griest’s and Haver’s records.

The Army refuses to tell the media what they are doing with the third female graduate, Major Lisa Jaster’s records.

The Army wants us to doubt that journalist Susan Keating’s Ranger School sources are real because they are anonymous.

The Army wants us to believe that if Susan Keating’s sources were real they would come forward, when in fact, they are frightened of retribution. Considering the Obama administration’s treatment of whistleblowers, these fears are more than justified.

I very much doubt anyone is even remotely surprised by this. But consider the silver lining: given the way in which recent administrations appear to regard American citizens as the enemy, there are worse things than social justice convergence debilitating the U.S. military.

Destroying the evidence won’t do the Army any good. Everyone knows that the standards were dumbed-down and that the women who “passed” the course are frauds and an insult to all real Rangers, past and present. Want to argue otherwise? Fine, show the records.

Two courses, two prices

My partners are about ready to take over the responsibility for the Game Dev course; the animated ad is done, and they’re getting their web site and order processing updated, so if you want to take advantage of the $150 price for the 20-hour course, this is your final opportunity. The price will go up to $199 next week.

However, even if you’re interested, you may want to hear about an even better offer, especially if you’re interested in entrepreneurship. My partners, as it happens, are going to be offering a Business Startup course of their own; one of them ran Red Herring in Europe and Asia for years before striking out on his own and he is one of the best-connected people in the fields of technology and technology-funding walking the planet. From Skype to Google, you name it, he knows the people who started them and first funded them.

I’ve learned a tremendous amount from him over the years, and managed to convince him that there are many people who would benefit from tapping into the knowledge and experience he has picked up over the years. His course will probably run 90 minutes per session rather than two hours, but it will be in the same basic format and will feature even bigger names than my course will. It will also be priced at $199 per seat and will begin sometime in Q1 2016.

Anyhow, I’ve already made reserved seats in the Game Dev course available for free to the Brainstorm Annual members. After our last closed event, a number of the Brainstormers indicated that they would like to attend the Business Startup course, so I spoke with my partner and he agreed that all Annual Brainstorm members will be permitted to attend his course for free as well. The one difference is that while Annual seats can be given to friends and family for the Game Dev course, only the actual Annual member will be permitted to attend the Business Startup course.

So, if you were giving any thought to signing up for Brainstorm and you’re interested in entrepreneurship, this is one more reason to give it a shot. In addition to the two courses worth a combined $400, you’ll also be able to attend the closed Brainstorm events, such as the upcoming one on November 14th with Mike Cernovich, where we’ll be discussing the current state of the publishing industry and how one can best take advantage of its vicissitudes.

And, of course, I will be looking to continue to add value to a Brainstorm membership as time goes on. Stickwick has gone a little overboard in her proposed presentation on dark matter, as it has transmogrified into a book that Castalia will be publishing next year, so that planned event will be delayed until the spring. On the plus side, however, we will be providing the book to all the members in order to facilitate both a meaningful discussion and informed questions.

In largely unrelated news, Castalia has launched Wargame Wednesdays today, kicking off with a review of a set of military history books by Donald Featherstone  that I desperately need to get my hands on:

Even though the scope of the series precludes in-depth historical background as a young student I found the series useful as a beginning reference for various papers and as a gamer I appreciated the emphasis on playing an army using the tactics and dealing with the limitations faced by the historical commanders or in Donald Featherstone’s own words from the first volume’s introduction: “Each section details the technique and styles of fighting of the various nations and armies and offers suggestions how this can best be simulated on a table-top battlefield.” He goes on to explain that war gamers take great care in researching their armies, paint them as accurately as possible to create the most reasonable simulation then it “…all falls down at one critical point – unable to move under their own volition, the small model soldiers are strategically and tactically directed by the war gamer himself, who maneuvers his armies with a military hindsight denied to their real-life commanders of long ago.” The figures on the table top may be dressed as Romans and Greeks but they are played using tactics “that would have done credit to Wellington in the Peninsula, Jackson in the Shenandoah Valley or Montgomery in Libya”. Featherstone then gives the example of a gamer choosing to collect and fight a Roman army against Britons or Gauls and after reading the relevant sections would “…know that they will advance in a certain formation, that they will hurl their pila and then come to close quarters with the gladius. After a simulated 15 minutes of fighting, they will be withdrawn and a fresh century or cohort thrown in to take their place.” On the other hand their enemies “…will fight in a desperate and ferocious fashion rather resembling the headlong charges of the Dervishes in the Sudan towards the end of the 19th century”.

Each volume is slightly different in its methodology ways, whereas the first volume covers each army separately the second volume groups the subject matter into wars, while the third volume is organized by campaigns from the French Revolution to Waterloo, though the final chapters cover the War with America, 1812-1815, the U.S. – Mexican War of 1846-1848, the Crimean War and ends with the War of Austria with France and Piedmont in 1859.