Dumber than the GOP

It’s really remarkable when you can find a modern political party anywhere in the world more tone-deaf than the Republican Party. But there is one in the United Kingdom:

Nick Clegg is to launch an ‘aggressive’ defence of the European Union in a direct challenge to the rise of the UK Independence Party. The Liberal Democrat leader will use his New Year message next week to pitch his party as the only one ‘fully committed’ to Britain remaining in the EU. He will argue that with a tide of Eurosceptism engulfing the Tories and Labour wavering about even promising a referendum, only the Lib Dems will make the case as the ‘party of in’.

The Liberal Democrats have long been a joke. And while Clegg is a confirmed Europhile, this strategy strikes me as so stupid that it must be a purely cynical grab for cash from the European Commission. It won’t win the Lib Dems any votes, but it will guarantee Clegg a handsome payday and a cushy post-political retirement.

It tends to remind one of the squatty demon in Spawn, watching the teenage devil-worshippers and lamenting the way in which their followers tended to be morons.

Suboptimal rhetoric

In which America is less than entirely astonished to learn that Pajama Boy is a self-described gay-loving “liberal f—“ with no morals, a predilection for attacking others, and a superiority complex:

Ethan Krupp, the little man who played “Pajama Boy” in a widely mocked Obamacare ad, once characterized himself as a “liberal f—.”

Krupp, an Organizing for Action (OFA) content writer who became the face of progressive America while wearing a onesie pajama suit, also remarked that gays “are all liberal f—-” and criticized a “conservative gay prick” on his now-deleted WordPress blog, entitled “Not Being Creative.”

“I am a Liberal F—,” Krupp wrote in one post. “A Liberal F— is not a Democrat, but rather someone who combines political data and theory, extreme leftist views and sarcasm to win any argument while make the opponents feel terrible about themselves. I won every argument but one.”

Sure you did, Pajama Boy. Sure you did. Notice that his approach is entirely rhetorical. The reference to sarcasm and feelings make it clear that he’s not even remotely interested in proper dialectic per se. One hallmark of this sort of individual is that he always thinks he wins an argument because his combination of self-delusion and total lack of regard for objective truth means that he can easily self-define the result of ANY argument as a win.

I seem to recall someone else describing a similarly “successful” rhetorical approach to debate:

“The more I argued with them, the better I came to know their dialectic. First they counted on the stupidity of their adversary, and then, when there was no other way out, they themselves simply played stupid. If all this didn’t help, they pretended not to understand, or, if challenged, they changed the subject in a hurry, quoted platitudes which, if you accepted them, they immediately related to entirely different matters, and then, if again attacked, gave ground and pretended not to know exactly what you were talking about. Whenever you tried to attack one of these apostles, your hand closed on a jelly-like slime which divided up and poured through your fingers, but in the next moment collected again. But if you really struck one of these fellows so telling a blow that, observed by the audience, he couldn’t help but agree, and if you believed that this had taken you at least one step forward, your amazement was great the next day. The Jew had not the slightest recollection of the day before, he rattled off his same old nonsense as though nothing at all had happened, and, if indignantly challenged, affected amazement; he couldn’t remember a thing, except that he had proved the correctness of his assertions the previous day.

“Sometimes I stood there thunderstruck.

“I didn’t know what to be more amazed at: the agility of their tongues or their virtuosity at lying.

“Gradually I began to hate them.”

If the consequences of your self-declared victorious approach to intellectual disputation is to make formerly indifferent people hate and despise you, then perhaps it is time to consider an entirely different rhetorical approach.

Mailvox: starting out in SF

CR asks for some advice concerning science fiction:

Hey man… so I’ve never been a fan of science fiction involving elves and dragons and all that so I’ve never given a science fiction book a try. The only scifi movies I’ve watched are the ones that could conceivably be true at some point, such as Oblivion, Europa Report, Moon, etc…

You’re probably one of the most intelligent people I know of and you certainly seem to be a fan of this genre… since I have some free time on my hands over the holidays, can you recommend a starter list of sci fi books? That whole Quantum Mortis series looks interesting… what’s the correct order to read them in?

With regards to Quantum Mortis, I recommend reading A Man Disrupted first, then Gravity Kills. As for elves, dragons, and science fiction, I should first point out that elves and dragons are typically indicative of fantasy, whereas rocket ships, scientist progagonists, space empires, and future technologies are indicative of science fiction.

The distinction is an important one, even if all the major science fiction organizations and awards refuse to recognize it. The fact is that Fifty Shades of Grey is every bit as legitimately science fiction as A Game of Thrones; it is certainly pure fantasy.

In answer to the question, this would be my SF starter list, listed in order of recommended reading.

  1. Nightfall (short story) by Isaac Asimov
  2. Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
  3. Tunnel in the Sky by Robert Heinlein
  4. Flowers for Algernon (short story) by Daniel Keys
  5. Foundation by Isaac Asimov
  6. Inherit the Stars by James P. Hogan
  7. Neuromancer by William Gibson
  8. Dune by Frank Herbert
  9. A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller
  10. Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny

If you can read through the first five books on the list and find yourself to be largely indifferent, then science fiction is simply not for you. Upon re-reading three of the best-regarded SF series, however, I have to conclude that it may actually be the underrated Giants trilogy by James P. Hogan that is the height of science fiction achievement to date, combining as it does physics, evolution, creation mythology, and the great secular dream of a united Man take his first steps out into the wider universe.

It was fascinating to discover how much better I liked Dune Messiah and Children of Dune as an adult. They’re not epic like Dune was; Herbert literally turns the usual “show, don’t tell” mantra on its head by refusing to show anything at all of Muad’Dib’s jihad. But I think some of the two books’ subtleties are lost on a teenager, as well as the full scope of Herbert’s incisive commentary on failure and human tragedy.

Rights roundup

No More Backing Down

Have you noticed something has changed recently in the way the
political Right now responds to public criticism and personal attacks?
It used to be that when faced with charges of racism, bigotry, or even
being insufficiently polite to the Left, right wingers who found
themselves in the media cross hairs fell all over themselves
apologizing, denying their previous statements, and rejecting their
previously held beliefs.

Not that this cowardly behavior often saved their jobs or their
reputations, and yet one public figure after another persisted in
responding to criticism by cringing and assuming the fetal position.

Not anymore.

Shots in the Culture War

There could hardly be two men more different in appearance than Phil
Robertson and Ethan Krupp. Phil is a bearded Louisiana backwoodsman, a
self-made millionaire, a former collegiate quarterback talented enough
to keep Terry Bradshaw on the bench, and an outspoken Christian. Ethan
Krupp is a bespectacled Jewish man-boy, an Organizing For Action
political activist who stars as the effete, onesie-wearing, hot
chocolate-sipping douche in the latest Obama ad debacle.

This time it isn’t different

The astonishing story of a thrice-failed Spanish bank:

Consider the story of Bankia.

Bankia was formed by merging seven bankrupt regional Spanish banks in 2010. The new bank was funded by Spain’s Government rescue fund… which received “preference shares” in return for over €4 billion (from taxpayers). These preference shares were shares that a) yielded 7.75% and b) would get paid before ordinary investors if Bankia failed again.

So right away, the Spanish Government was taking taxpayer money to give itself preferential treatment over ordinary investors. Indeed, those investors who owned shares in the seven banks that merged to form Bankia lost their shirts. They were wiped out and lost everything.

Bankia was then taken public in 2011. Spanish investment bankers convinced the Spanish public that the bank was a fantastic investment. Over 98% of the shares were sold to Spanish investors.

One year later, Bankia was bankrupt again, and required the single largest bailout in Spain’s history: €19 billion. Spain took over the bank and Bankia shares were frozen on the market (meaning you couldn’t sell them if you wanted to). When the bailout took place, Bankia shareholders were all but wiped out, forced to take huge losses as part of the deal. The vast majority of them were individual investors (the bank currently faces a lawsuit for over 140,000 claims of mis-selling shares).

So that’s two wipeouts in as many years.

The bank was taken public a year a second time later in May 2013. Once again Bankia shares promptly collapsed, losing 80% of their value in a matter of days. And once again, it was ordinary investors who got destroyed. Indeed, things were so awful that a police officer stabbed a Bankia banker who sold him over €300,000 worth of shares (the banker had convinced him it was a great investment).

Which brings us to today.

Bankia remains completely bankrupt. But its executives and the Spanish Government continue to claim that things are improving and that the bank is on the up and up. Indeed, just a few weeks ago, the Wall Street Journal wrote an article titled “Investors Show Interest in Bankia.” The story featured a quote from Spain’s Finance Minister that, “… it is logical. The perception of Spain has improved and Banki has improved a lot.”

Bear in mind, this is a bank that has wiped out investors THREE times in the last THREE YEARS. So that’s three different rounds of individual investors being told that Bankia was a great investment and losing everything. Every single one of these wipeouts was preceded by both bankers and Spanish Government officials claiming that “everything had been fixed” and that Bankia was a success story.

And now the Spanish Government is trying to convince them to line up for a fourth round.

Keep this in mind when you read the reassurances that this time, the green shoots really have been spotted, that the economy is growing at more than 4 percent per quarter, and stocks are cheap at their all-time highs if you only look at them in just the right way.

The economics of Christmas

It’s not often that someone else writes a post I genuinely envy. But John Carney has put together a brilliant economic satire of various writers and their competing perspectives through the lens of Christmas: 

The Christmas equivalence theorem

By Robert Barro, Wall Street Journal
While
it’s understandable that young people across America hope that their
lives will be enriched by a sudden influx of toys and sugarplums on
December 25, it is incumbent on grown-ups to realize the truth about
this Keynesian scheme. It
has been demonstrated time and again that Christmas cannot add to the
store of toys of the nation or even a single household. Households
experiencing a surge in gifts on Christmas day compensate by withholding
gifts in the future. That is, gifts that are “spent” on Christmas are
saved during the remainder of the year. So each Christmas gift isn’t
really so much given as borrowed from the future. Sorry kids, Santa isn’t so much bringing you presents as stealing presents you would have received in the future.

Rudolph’s Ruddy Nose (Wonkish)

By Paul Krugman, New York Times
Joe
Weisenthal has a terrific take on the growth of unemployment in the
North Pole. As is well known, reindeer unemployment has surged. Yet the
Very Serious Elves who promised that sleigh austerity would rapidly
bring growth back to the Pole have learned nothing.

But
it’s not just the elves. Even economists, who should know better, go on
insisting that we need to shrink Santa’s route now despite high
reindeer unemployment. Some continue to insist that there just is a
skill mismatch in the Pole economy, so that we have no choice but to
allow the diminutive Rudolph resources go unemployed. This truly is the
dark age of North Pole economics. Imagine
for a moment that the pole suffered from an immense foggy night.
Everyone would agree in that case that we could put Rudolph’s red nose
to good use. I know it drives people crazy when I mention that a crisis
can be good for aggregate demand—but everyone who disagrees with me is
already crazy, so who cares?

The dirty secret of North Pole’s success

By Steve Sailer, isteve.blogspot.com
There
appears to be a silent rule among pundits—all of whom secretly read
me—that we not mention immigration and the North Pole in the same
sentence. The truth is that the success of Santa’s operation up there
demonstrates that the accepted orthodoxy on immigration is 100 percent
wrong. For as long as anyone can remember, there’s been zero immigration
to the North Pole—yet the economy thrives, the elves have a thriving
culture and there is very little social strife. All that is supposed to
be impossible in a monoculture.

But, of course, you’re not supposed to notice these hate-facts.

Open Borders: Why should they stop at Christmas?

By Tyler Cowen, Marginal Revolution
Every
year the American government briefly relaxes its stranglehold on our
borders to permit the entrance of Santa Claus and his team of reindeer.
If this is a good thing on Christmas, imagine how much better it would
be if we made this our year round policy? Have you ever eaten in an
Elven restaurant? The candy canes are sublime.

While
there are some who think that competition with elf workers would
impoverish American workers, there is not a lot of evidence to support
this. In fact, the toy making of the elves would likely be complimentary
to native production. What’s more, the wealth generated by elven labor
would add to economic growth.

Now that is really funny and very well done. It’s a pity he didn’t include McRapey, although I suppose it’s hard to satirize self-satire.

Santa’s Straight, White, Cis-Male Privilege
By John Scalzi, Whatever 
“I’m a jolly old elf. I’m one of those elves who likes to force myself into houses without their owner’s consent or desire. The
details of how I do this are not particularly important at the moment —
although I love when you try to make distinctions about “forced entry”
or “legitimate intrusion” because that gives me all sorts of wiggle room —
but I will tell you one of the details about why I do it: I like to eat pie.

Federal interference: international edition

The unanticipated consequences of the NSA’s insane global spying are beginning to bite US corporations in the backside:

Some companies are apparently so concerned about the NSA snooping on their data that they’re requiring – in writing – that their technology suppliers store their data outside the U.S.

In Canada, a pharmaceutical company and government agency have now both added language to that effect to their contracts with suppliers, as did a grocery chain in the U.K., according to J.J. Thompson, chief executive officer of Rook Consulting, an Indianapolis, Indiana-based security-consulting firm. He declined to name the companies, which are using Rook to manage the segmentation and keep the data out of the U.S.

Thompson said the language began appearing in contracts over the past couple weeks, and could be an early indicator of things to come as businesses adapt to a landscape altered by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden’s leaks. Documents leaked by Snowden indicate that the NSA has tapped fiber-optic cables abroad, circumvented or cracked encryption and is massively collecting telephone records and Internet traffic. Facebook, Google, Apple and Yahoo were among 15 technology companies that asked President Barack Obama Dec. 17 to restrain the spy programs. Cisco said Nov. 13 that NSA spying has caused delays to networking equipment orders.

U.S.-based technology companies face a serious threat. The NSA disclosures may reduce U.S. technology sales overseas by as much as $180 billion, or 25 percent of information technology services, by 2016, according to Forrester Research Inc., a group in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

This isn’t a hypothetical threat. Already funds are indicating that they disdain US owners and startups are building their business models around the assumption that no one outside the USA will want to use software services beholden to the US government. The USA is in the ironic state of professing free trade in goods while laboring hard to ensure that no one wants to utilize its services.

The extent of the effects will take some time to become apparent, but the problem is that once they become clear, there will be no returning from them. I suspect the revelation of the NSA spying, and not the Iraq or Afghanistan invations will one day be seen as the Peak Empire point for the USA.

Drunk with authority

The way the authority-drunk New Model Police are behaving these days is making even veteran military policemen nervous:

For the past fifteen years, I have worked every day on the same very small military installation as a contractor. This morning, as I was approaching the main gate, when I started off after the stoplight, I didn’t shift upshift. So, the Goat was just wailing that sweet V8 growl as I approached the gate. About fifty yards from the gate, I slowed down, rolled down my window, and had my ID outside the car as I approached. Usually, there are civilian DoD police at the gate, but this morning, it was manned by a reservist, a 2nd Class Master at Arms—the Navy’s equivalent to Military Police. We had a brief conversation that went, as nearly as I can remember it like this:

PO2: (Snippy) Are you running late this morning?

Me: No.

(At this point, I could instantly see that my answer displeased him.)

PO2: (Scowling) You need to keep your speed down.

Me: I always observe the speed limits when I’m on the installation.

PO2: (Waving me through) You need to keep your speed down off-base, too.

Me: (Starting to drive away) What happens off-base isn’t your jurisdiction.

I got to my office, turned on my computer, and went into the break area to warm up a couple of delicious whole-wheat Eggos. While I was standing in the kitchen, a uniformed DoD police officer walked in and asked me if I owned the Red GTO. When I said I did, he then asked for my driver’s license. I asked, since I wasn’t operating a motor vehicle, if I was required to show it to him. (In CA, you are not required to do so when not operating a vehicle, nor are you required to show an ID otherwise. It’s different on military bases, of course, in that you are required to show an ID).

When I gave it to him, he then began to tell me how bad my attitude was, and how I should be more respectful of the police, what with them having such a hard job and all. I said that, when it came to respect, maybe the gate guard should’ve been a little less snippy. He said they didn’t need me making smart remarks about their jurisdiction, because they have a close relationship with civilian law enforcement, and he himself, had worked for Atlanta PD for fifteen years. I denied driving at an excessive speed when I approached the gate, said that my comment about jurisdiction was completely valid and that did not have the authority to issue traffic citations off-base, and that if they felt they needed to call CHP to give me a citation, they should do so. Otherwise, he should present me with a citation or arrest me for a military-related offense. Failing that, I was uninterested in further conversation. He seemed a bit upset when he left.

About twenty minutes later, two more DoD policemen came into my office….

This guy made two mistakes. Police are like children; they absolutely hate to hear the word no, especially from someone they consider an inferior. If the guy had simply smiled and said “I hope not”, he would have been fine. Then he compounded his error by twice contradicting the gate guard.

Lesson: don’t ever talk back to police or contradict them. Don’t say any more than you absolutely have to. If they start asking you questions, don’t answer except to apologetically tell them you are invoking your right to remain silent as well as your right to record their interactions with the public. You don’t have to actually be recording anything for that to force them to start behaving; it’s actually better if they have no idea where your putative recording device is.

It’s probably not a bad idea to have a copy of the relevant recording law or statement by local public officials about the legality of such laws in your jurisdiction laminated in your wallet which you can hand them along with your ID.  Below are the laws that govern 20 different states. If anyone wishes to provide information on the rest, I will put them all together in a summary post, complete with the relevant legal citations for printing out and carrying.

The U.S. Courts of Appeals have recognized the
First Amendment right to record the police and/or other public
officials:

MA, ME, NH, RI

  • First Circuit Glik v. Cunniffe,
    655 F.3d 78, 85 (1st Cir. 2011) (“[A] citizen’s right to film
    government officials, including law enforcement officers, in the
    discharge of their duties in a public space is a basic, vital, and
    well-established liberty safeguarded by the First Amendment.”); Iacobucci v. Boulter,
    193 F.3d 14 (1st Cir. 1999) (police lacked authority to prohibit
    citizen from recording commissioners in town hall “because [the
    citizen’s] activities were peaceful, not performed in derogation of any
    law, and done in the exercise of his First Amendment rights[.]”).

IL, IN, WI

  • Seventh Circuit ACLU v. Alvarez,
    679 F.3d 583, 595 (7th Cir. 2012) (“The act of making an audio or
    audiovisual recording is necessarily included within the First
    Amendment’s guarantee of speech and press rights as a corollary of the
    right to disseminate the resulting recording.”).

AK, AR, CA, HI, ID, MO, OR, WA

  • Ninth Circuit Fordyce v. City of Seattle, 55 F.3d 436, 438 (9th Cir. 1995) (assuming a First Amendment right to record the police); see also Adkins v. Limtiaco,  _ Fed. App’x _, No. 11-17543, 2013 WL 4046720 (9th Cir. Aug. 12, 2013) (recognizing First Amendment right to photograph police, citing Fordyce).

AL, FL, GA 

  • Eleventh Circuit Smith v. City of Cumming,
    212 F.3d 1332, 1333 (11th Cir. 2000) (“The First Amendment protects the
    right to gather information about what public officials do on public
    property, and specifically, a right to record matters of public
    interest.”).

ILLEGAL TO RECORD POLICE

MN Ramsey County
TX Senate Bill 897 introduced, but not passed.

Merry Christmas

Treats will be given. Tails will be wagged. A gift day. A holiday… and a new bed in front of the radiator!
– Christmas from the perspective of a viszla

A Very Merry Christmas to you all. I encourage you to embrace the joy and to permit yourself see it again through the eyes of your childhood.

UPDATE: Spacebunny won Christmas this year. She gave me a PAL Intellivision with 12 games, the third volume in the Cambridge Ancient History series, and as the coup de grâce, a newly published book by Umberto Eco that I hadn’t even heard about, The Book of Legendary Lands, as well as the latest collection of his essays.

A less material Christmas

It appears Americans are cutting back on their Christmas spending this year:

That it has been one of the most lacklustre shopping seasons in recent years has already been repeatedly covered, with average holiday spending expected to decline for the first time since the Great Financial Crisis of 2008, all this despite record promotions and an ever earlier start to Black Friday. However, while the early start to shopping season has missed expectations, driven primarily by an unprecedented weakness in traditional bricks and mortar outlets, there was some hope that the last stretch into Christmas and the New Year would provide a much needed, last minute bump. Those hopes were dashed last night when Shoppertrack reported that retail traffic plummeted by an unprecedented 21% last week, and in-store sales decreased 3.1% from the year before, dashing retailers’ hopes that the final stretch before Christmas would offset soft sales numbers earlier in the holiday shopping season.

Now, I wonder why that might be? I know we’re celebrating in a more modest fashion than in previous years. And I’m not at all surprised that we’re not the only ones.