Divisional round part 2

I hope that the playoff games to date have shut up the foolish advocates of re-seeding the playoff systems. I mean, with three games on the first weekend going right down to the wire, can they honestly pretend that anyone would have benefited from not granting home games to the division champions?

And the ease with which both New England and Seattle dealt with the winners of the wild card round further demonstrates that it doesn’t really matter who is playing on wild card weekend, as the home teams on the divisional round are the better teams anyhow.

I was impressed by both the New England running game and the Seattle defense. I hadn’t seen much of Seattle, and let’s face it, it didn’t take much to shut down Air Frazier this year. But their linebackers and secondary attack the receivers in a way that I haven’t seen since the 2000 Ravens. They can definitely beat the Broncos; the Patriots might actually prove the more difficult challenge.

Some will complain that Russell Wilson didn’t do much, but he did what he had to do when he had to do it. He looked like Fran Tarkenton at times, although to be a true Tarkenton scramble, the ball has to either end up a) a two-yard completion, or b) a touchdown. And while I’m glad that the Vikings got a nice bounty of draft picks in exchange for Percy Harvin, I couldn’t help but feeling bad for the guy. He’s a great player, but he just can’t seem to stay on the field.

Darth Vox

An amusing article on the creepy “Sith Lords of the Dark Enlightenment“:

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Dark Enlightenment. The Empire is striking back. Much as Christianity grew out of the cult-sodden ferment of the Roman-occupied Middle East, the Dark Enlightenment has sprouted from the hyper-anxious anti-liberalism precincts in the darker recesses of the Internet.

So we’ve dug deep into the Web, where the movement lurks. We’ve talked online to its philosopher king, Nick Land, and we’ve conversed with his faceless adherents…. As the term suggests, the Dark Enlightenment is an ideological analysis
of modern democracy that harshly rejects the vision of the 18th century
European Enlightenment—a period punctuated by the development of
empirical science, the rise of humanist values and the first outburst of
revolutionary democratic reform. In contrast, the Dark Enlightenment
advocates an autocratic and neo-monarchical society. Its belief system
is unapologetically reactionary, almost feudal….

In the Dark Enlightenment, we seem to have stumbled across a place where
pseudo-intellectually grounded racism is flourishing in a way it hasn’t
since before World War II.

I have to admit, I’m more than a little bemused to be informed that I am a faceless adherent of some guy whose name I’ve literally never seen before. It’s also a little odd to see myself listed under Christian Traditionalists rather than Economists or even Masculinity; I am certainly a Christian but I’m hardly a Christian Traditionalist in the Chestertonian style. I also enjoyed the term “pseudo-intellectually grounded racism”. This is Left-wing shorthand for the writer’s confession that the position is an intelligent and well-grounded one for which he have no rebuttal, but with which he disagrees anyhow.

One would think that he would at least stop long enough to consider why it is flourishing, but his analysis doesn’t run so deep. Setting aside the author’s fumbling attempts to make sense of what is developing and provide a nonexistent structure to it, this bit particularly amused me:

Could the Dark Enlightenment become a major political movement?

Probably
not. To acquire momentum in the real world, the systems of modern
democratic capitalism would have to suffer a blow far more damaging than
any received so far.  

And, as we all know, that is inconceivable, since we all know that history is nothing but the chronicle of the inexorable progress towards modern democratic capitalism and the unending bourgeois paradise it entails. Perhaps he might like to consider reading The Return of the Great Depression. We are already five years into Great Depression 2.0. The systems of modern democratic capitalism are already flashing red blinking signals and we are now merely awaiting the blow that will cause them to collapse. What it will be, no one claims to know, but it is coming, sooner or later.

And the article wouldn’t have been complete without the mandatory bit of nonsensical finger wagging: “Universal equality and classical democracy are not synonymous with an
all-purpose, lowest-common-denominator leveling of mankind. Rather, they
speak only to an existential fairness in which each of us has the right
to value, direct and make meaning of our own lives.”

First, equality, universal or otherwise, doesn’t exist. This argomentum ad singulicornu is simply an irrelevant nonstarter. As for classical democracy, what does that have to do with the unelected European Commission, the unelected U.S. Supreme Court, the bifactional ruling party and the “first-past-the-post” parliamentary systems, all of which are meant to strictly limit democracy and forcibly prevent people from exercising their right to value, direct, and make meaning of their own lives.

But Mr. Sigl is right about in one thing. People would do well to take me and the other “Sith Lords” seriously. Because, as it happens, we are realistic and generally correct, on average, about the past and present states of Mankind.

Proofs of God’s nonexistence

What is funny about this compilation of atheist arguments of God’s nonexistence is that it is extraordinarily difficult to tell some of the real arguments from the parodies. It reminds me of one of the things I always enjoy about atheist testimonials, and why I think it can be very helpful for young Christians to be exposed to them, is that they reliably reveal how stupid and irrational the average atheist’s rationale for his disbelief happens to be.

A few of my favorites:

ARGUMENT FROM THE SAGAN STANDARD (I)
(1) Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.
(2) The claim that God exists is extraordinary.
(3) Therefore, any evidence supporting it ought to be extraordinary as well.
(4) I’m not sure what I mean by “extraordinary.”
(5) But whatever you come up with, it’s not going to work.
(6) Therefore, God does not exist.

SIGMUND FREUD’S ARGUMENT FROM OEDIPUS
(1) The belief in God arises from the unconscious fear that your father
is going to castrate you when he finds out you have a desire to sleep
with your own mother.
(2) Obviously, only a crazy person would think that.
(3) Therefore, God does not exist.

ARGUMENT FROM INFANTILE INTELLIGENCE (I)
(1) Everyone is born an atheist.
(2) Therefore, we should think like that.
(3) Therefore, God does not exist.

SAM HARRIS’S IMAGINARY ARGUMENT
(1) Bad things happen.
(2) This means God is impotent, evil, or imaginary.
(3) If God is impotent, then He’s not powerful and thus doesn’t exist.
(4) If God is evil, then He’s not good and thus doesn’t exist.
(5) If God is imaginary, then God doesn’t exist.
(6) Now some theists claim God allows bad things to happen to bring about a greater good.
(7) This would mean God might still be omnipotent, omnibenevolent, and real.
(8) I don’t know any rational argument to disprove that.
(9) So, I’ll make this appeal to emotion: it’s callous to tell people that their suffering is meaningful.
(10) Therefore, God does not exist.

ARGUMENT FROM MODAL LOGIC (II)
(1) I am an atheist.
(2) I do not know what modal logic is.
(3) Any proof for God’s existence that uses modal logic is not understood by me.
(4) If I don’t understand something, then I can make fun of it.
(5) Therefore, God does not exist.

PARENTAL ARGUMENT (I)
(1) My daddy told me that God exists.
(2) I hate my daddy.
(3) Therefore, God does not exist.

RICKY GERVAIS’S ARGUMENT FROM HIS ELDER BROTHER
(1) I used to believe in God.
(2) But my older brother didn’t.
(3) My mom told him to be quiet.
(4) Therefore, God does not exist.

I think the philosopher is missing one very important argument, however, an argument so incisive and indisputable that it can be utilized to win any debate on any subject. It is an argument so powerful, so convincing, and so conclusive that frankly, I’m surprised none of the major atheists have considered resorting to it in order to convince the ignorant, bigoted, religious masses of God’s nonexistence.

JOHN SCALZI’S ARGUMENT FROM DEGREE
(1) I am an atheist.
(2) I have a Bachelor’s Degree in Philosophy of Language.
(3) From the University of Chicago!
(4) Therefore, God does not exist.

Divisional round

Everyone is expecting a Seattle-Denver Super Bowl, but both teams have vulnerabilities that could appear at the worst possible time. I think I’d like to see Brady and Belichick get one more ring myself. I’m just glad to see the Packers out of it, and it would be nice to see the 49ers lose this weekend too.

In any event, this is an NFL Open thread.

What happened to “never again”?

The Learned Elders of Wye had better speed up their exit plans if they’re going to continue to perpetrate materially traitorous idiocies such as this:

President Obama plans to nominate three people to the Federal Reserve’s
Board of Governors, including Stanley Fischer, former head of the Bank
of Israel, as the Fed’s next vice chairman, the White House said on
Friday…. Mr. Fischer, 70, would succeed Ms. Yellen in her current role. The
Senate confirmed Ms. Yellen as the Fed’s new chairwoman this week. She
will take over from the current chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, in February.
…

More importantly for Israel, Stanley Fischer won an appointment to the
Reagan administration’s U.S.-Israel Joint Economic Discussion Group that
dealt with Israel’s 1984-1985 economic crisis. … The U.S.-Israel
Joint Economic Discussion Group fundamentally transformed U.S. aid to
Israel forever.  Before the Reagan administration, most U.S. aid to
Israel took the form of loans that had to be repaid with interest.
 After the input of Fischer’s team, subsequent U.S. aid was delivered in
the form of outright grants paid directly from the U.S. Treasury—never
to be repaid or conditioned when Israel took actions the U.S. opposed.

Can you even imagine the widespread outrage if Haruhiko Kuroda of the Bank of Japan was appointed to the Fed and he promptly began sending billions of dollars to Japan? Or if Zhou Xiaochuan of the People’s Bank of China was named vice chairman and he subsequently began repaying US debt to China in gold and advanced weapons technology? Now keep in mind that Stanley Fischer is already guilty of literally giving billions to Israel!

It’s long past time for the USA to take two immediate measures. First, shut down all financial aid to Israel. The USA is bankrupt. So is the Federal Reserve, if its newly expanded balance sheet was marked properly to market. If Israeli citizens are convinced that inflation is good for the economy and they want to print money, well and good, but let them print shekels, not U.S. dollars.

Second, ban all dual citizenships. There is no such thing as a “dual loyalty”. It’s very clear that Stanley Fischer has no loyalty to the USA. His loyalty is to Israel. That’s perfectly clear. It’s even admirable. Would that his American counterparts felt so strongly about serving their own country. But it also means that he has no more place in a decision-making capacity for the US monetary system than Christine Lagard or Mario Draghi.

Now, let’s preemptively deal with the usual reaction. Are you tempted to call my position antisemitic? That’s not merely incorrect, that’s totally insane. Do you truly not see where this is leading? For the love of the God of Old Testament and New, the reason I’m speaking out against this is precisely because I don’t wish to see an American holocaust. I don’t want the children of my Jewish friends being made the scapegoat in reaction to the dreadful behavior of an insatiable, unconscionable elite. What is sickening, what is ominous, what is materially antisemitic is what the federal government has done by permitting Greenspan, Bernanke, Yellen, and Fischer to financially rape the American people.

This is all astonishingly short-sighted on the part of the Elders of Wye. Setting aside whether they can reasonably hope to successfully transfer their traveling game of three-card monte to China or India, even a bankrupt, post-collapse America will be filled with hundreds of millions of the same people who conquered the world in the 20th century, more or less without trying. And they are going to be very, very angry. They are going to be even more full of hate than the 20th century Germans were, because they are going to feel deeply betrayed. If an unfair post-war peace settlement created a sense of national fury, how much more anger will the bankruptcy and collapse of the union provoke?

In fact, having grown up in an End Times-conscious church, I can recall the eschatological enthusiasts discussing whether the King of the North was the Soviet Union or a united Europe. They often cited this passage from Jeremiah:

Behold, a people shall come from the north,
And a great nation and many kings
Shall be raised up from the ends of the earth.
They shall hold the bow and the lance;
They are cruel and shall not show mercy.
Their voice shall roar like the sea;
They shall ride on horses,
Set in array, like a man for the battle,
Against you, O daughter of Babylon.
The king of Babylon has heard the report about them,
And his hands grow feeble;
Anguish has taken hold of him,
Pangs as of a woman in childbirth…”(Jeremiah 50:41-43)

And yet, when I look at the events of recent years, it increasingly looks as if the most powerful nation that is the most likely to bear a tremendous populist grudge against Israel in the 21st century will be the United States of America.

Desperately seeking debt

It’s bad enough that the younger generation of Americans is being saddled with massive amounts of useless, permanent student loan debt. But this new concept of a multi-generational home mortage being broached in the UK is truly evil:

Forty-year mortgages that may take two generations to pay off could become the norm, ministers believe. Rising house prices will prompt more homebuyers to abandon traditional 25-year loans and opt for ever longer repayment terms, they say. Cabinet ministers who discussed claims of a new property ‘bubble’ this week believe a cultural shift is under way which means people are increasingly comfortable with extended loans.

They believe that in future householders may choose to pass on a house
with an outstanding mortgage to their children, who will pay off the
rest. ‘In Japan, the 40-year mortgage is the norm,’ said one Government
source. ‘Paying it off is a two-generation job for many families. If
house prices remain high, longer-term mortgages like those will become
more acceptable to people here.’

Imitating Japan, which has been stuck in economic stagnation and the highest proportion of debt-to-GDP, strikes me as an appallingly bad idea. And make no mistake, this is a short-term solution to a problem that is the result of the large-scale immigration into the UK as well as Russians driving up the London property market.

First it took one income to buy a house. Now it takes two incomes. Soon it will take two generations, assuming the system doesn’t collapse first. That which can’t continue indefinitely won’t.

Massive debt and native dispossession is one of the costs of free trade. But at least the indebted masses have the consolation of being able to buy cheap Korean flatscreens and poorly constructed clothes from China.

The Galileo List

Won’t the SFWA be proud to have made the list of organizations purging the politically correct? Their purge of me is number 75 on it, which is a nice synchronicity, since when my books were still being published by Hinterlands there, Amazon listed me as the #76 most popular science fiction writer.

Refugee blowback

These new concerns about internal attacks by pro-Syrian “Americans” is an object lesson in the foolishness of foreign intervention and granting residence to foreign allies from the losing side:

Islamic extremist groups in Syria with ties to Al Qaeda are trying to identify, recruit and train Americans and other Westerners who have traveled there to get them to carry out attacks when they return home, according to senior American intelligence and counterterrorism officials.

These efforts, which the officials say are in the early stages, are the latest challenge that the conflict in Syria has created, not just for Europe but for the United States, as the civil war has become a magnet for Westerners seeking to fight with the rebels against the government of President Bashar al-Assad. At least 70 Americans have either traveled to Syria, or tried to, since the civil war started three years ago, according to the intelligence and counterterrorism officials — a figure that has not previously been disclosed.

The director of the F.B.I., James B. Comey, said Thursday that tracking Americans who have returned from Syria had become one of the bureau’s highest counterterrorism priorities.

From WWII to the Syrian civil war, refugees have created massive problems for America. It’s one thing to grant humanitarian assistance and to help resettle people who are in danger. But semi-civilized peoples shouldn’t ever be resettled in civilized first world nations.

Diversity encompasses the civilized and the savage alike. And it is always a mistake to allow barbarians to enter the gates.

Puhutko suomea?

Thanks to the two translators and JartStar, the first two translated ebooks are now finished and will be released once the process of republishing my Selenoth and Quantum Mortis books is complete. The Finnish and Bahasa Indonesian versions of A Magic Broken will be released then, and I’m told there is a chance that the French version may be ready by then as well, depending upon how long it the process actually takes. Some of the books should enjoy broader distribution than they did as Hinterlands books, as we will be putting them into the Apple Store and other distribution outlets that hitherto went unaddressed.

Those who speak English and have no interest in the translations may, however, be interested to know that there will be a new English ebook released as well. (No, it isn’t TAODAL 2. That will be December with some luck and a strong tailwind.) I won’t say anything more about the new book for the time being, but if everything goes as planned, we should have the previous QM and Selenoth books, as well as the four new additions, all out and available by the end of the month. The seven other translations in the works will be published as they are completed; I am myself particularly fired up about the Wallisertiitsch translation of Quantum Mortis:Gravity Kills.

In the meantime, if you happen to speak either Finnish or Indonesian and you are willing to proofread the relevant ebook, please shoot me an email and let me know. I’m still looking for more translators too, so if your mother tongue is something other than English and you have been considering a new challenge in the new year, this might be an interesting one to tackle. It has certainly been fascinating for me to learn which  English idioms don’t translate well, and frankly, I am just a little shocked to have been informed of some of the Finnish quasi-equivalents. They are a naughty people.

UPDATE: Okay, I didn’t anticipate any problem finding a Finnish proofreader. But I was a little surprised to learn that there is more than one regular reader who is a native speaker of Bahasa Indonesia.

More highly evolved

It should be interesting to see how those who are true believers in both a) the religion of TENS and b) the myth of human equality react to this scientific claim from Penn State that Africans are less evolved than Europeans:

Light skin in Europeans stems from a gene mutation from a single person who lived 10,000 years ago. This is according to a new U.S. study that claims the colour is due to an ancient ancestor who lived somewhere between the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent. Scientists made the discovery after identifying a key gene that contributes to lighter skin colour in Europeans.

In earlier research, Keith Cheng from Penn State College of Medicine reported that one amino acid difference in the gene SLC24A5 is a key contributor to the skin colour difference between Europeans and West Africans. ‘The mutation in SLC24A5 changes just one building block in the protein, and contributes about a third of the visually striking differences in skin tone between peoples of African and European ancestry,’ he said.

We already know that the three major continental groups are not even equally human on the genetic level, with Africans being the only pure homo sapiens sapiens. This new claim indicates that Africans are lower in the evolutionary order, not that the skin color gene can be described as a speciation event. Regardless, one wonders why those who stubbornly, and ignorantly, continue to insist on human equality despite these undeniable genetic differences which are much more than skin deep are not yet tarred by the label “science denier”.

What I find amusing is that the scientists have already leaped in with some strained explanations to cram natural selection into the process when it is very clear from modern human behavior that the rapidity of the growth of the mutation would much more likely have stemmed from sexual selection. There need not be any environmental advantage to lighter skin for it to be preferred. Of course, that would also be a hate fact, as it would be scientific evidence that whites are more attractive than blacks. That being said, a fact is a fact.

However, that’s not the intriguing stuff. Here’s a much more interesting thought. The 10,000 year time frame is not all that far off from Bishop Usher’s famous 6,000 year estimation for the Age of the Earth. But most forget that the bishop’s estimate was based on Adam, not the Earth. So, what if it can eventually be determined that the single genetic mutation was actually an artificial one? That would certainly set the cat among the equality pigeons.