Vox Popoli

This would be the time to throw in a few of your suggestions. We probably won’t start for about two months, as I’ve got a number of things going on that may preclude my ability to produce the quizzes reliably, much less get involved in the more detailed discussions. I’m not promising that I’ll pay any attention to any of these suggestions, but perhaps someone will come up with something of particular interest to everyone.

I’ve been thinking about Caesar of late, probably because I’m three-quarters of the way through a mediocre, but entertaining fictionalization of his personal history. But Gaul or Civil Wars? Another possibility would be my forthcoming book, the title of which I will announce here in two weeks. It may be too soon for that, though, considering that we read AGD not all that long ago. And eventually we are going to have to get around to Herodotus, although I’ll have to finish my own re-reading of it first. So, fire away with your opinions, if you have any.

SS writes of her belated realization of feminism’s false promises:

I discovered your blog through your book, “The Irrational Atheist,” which I am reading with great relish. A quick search on your blog using the term “feminism” revealed a treasure-trove of commentary that I am enjoying very much.

You see, I am a woman and a professional, and at the age of 38 after gobs of education and freedom and equal opportunities, am wishing only to remain home and raise children. I have a Ph.D. in a hard science, am a professor and researcher at prestigious institutions, have the respect of my peers and students, and have come to realize that in spite of this I feel utterly empty. None of this success compensates for simple biological urges. I crave tradition, and it is a comfort to realize that there are sound reasons, rooted in reality, for feeling this way. Thank you for expressing, in such a succinct and entertaining way, the utter failure of feminism.

SS is clearly an elite and exceptional example, but she is nevertheless describing the sad reality for far too many women of my generation. They are smart, educated, and successful, and yet, regardless of whether one looks at them from a traditional perspective or a secular evolutionary one, they are failures as women. Now, this is not to say that a woman should not be permitted to choose a path as an evolutionary dead end who primarily contributes to society by creating Powerpoint demonstrations, reading celebrity magazines, and raising felines. We all possess the inherent right to go to Hell – or if you prefer, Oblivion – in our own particular way. But a woman should consciously choose that path, she should not be forced to realize that she had it chosen for her twenty years ago. I note that few of these solitary, childless women ever intentionally chose their path, instead, they discovered themselves insensibly walking it after being subjected to years of subtle pressure from family, friends, and the entertainment media.

It may or may not be too late for SS to realize her heart’s true desires. But it is not too late for her to teach a vital lesson in the importance of resisting both overt and subliminal pressure to the next generation of women.

The False Dawn

Composite Leading Indicators point to broad economic recovery. OECD composite leading indicators (CLIs) for July 2009 show stronger signs of recovery in most of the OECD economies. Clear signals of recovery are now visible in all major seven economies, in particular in France and Italy, as well as in China, India and Russia.

– Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, Sept. 11, 2009

The economists of the OECD are far more serious and credible than the likes of CNBC’s Jim Cramer, who errantly announced the end of the recession in April. And, yet, they are no more likely to be correct about the economic recovery they are now forecasting than they were back in 2007, when they predicted 2008 GDP growth of 2.8 percent in the United States and 5.2 percent for the global economy. This is not to say that their optimism is baseless; there are a number of factors which tend to suggest that the economic situation has reversed and things are on the verge of improving soon.

We’ve got the Purple on, we’re awaiting the debute of the Inglorious Betrayer, and this is the first weekly NFL open post. Feel free to comment away, unless you’re Nate, in which case you can simply fill in the blanks: The Titans are going to be super-awesome and win the Super Bowl this year because Jeff Fisher is the smartest coach in the history of the National Football League, their defense is ferocious, [_____] is going to surprise everyone, and they won’t miss [_____] at all.

Skol Vikings! And beware the Piranha of the Serengeti.

The weight of the State is too much for even a self-confessed British statist to bear:

So there’s a subterranean triple whammy going on. The State’s reach is widening, its cost is mounting, but its grip is loosening. So much of the legislation that has disfigured recent years — the ineffectual ASBOs, the faith-hate and gay-hate laws, legislation to make child poverty “illegal”, the naming and shaming, and the itch to fiddle around with procedure and structure and uniforms and names — has been touted as “sending out a message”. Government by illustration.

I don’t think much of the Tea Parties in the USA in terms of accomplishing anything, but they are certainly an interesting symptom. It’s ludicrous to suggest a tipping point has been reached, as that won’t happen until masses of people start actively disobeying the system of laws, rules, regulations and customs that keep the present regime afloat.

Those walking away from their mortgages are far more revolutionary than the tea partiers because they are stepping outside the system rather than attempting to work within it. If the economic situation improves, social discontent will disappear again. If it worsens, as I expect, social discontent will rise. In general, people won’t risk anything unless they feel they’ve got nothing to lose. That’s why most rapid social change takes place during economic downturns. I find it fascinating that in spite of the clear lessons of history, government bureaucrats can’t seem to grasp that the present is a very bad time to be provoking the public by placing additional burdens on them.

This union implosion would be downright amusing if it weren’t for the cost to the short-sighted workers’ families:

Workers at the Stella D’oro cookie factory in the Bronx were still in shock Thursday as the news sunk in that the business had been sold and was moving to Ohio…. The strike ended in July when a National Labor Relations Board judge ruled Brynwood had negotiated in bad faith with Local 50 and ordered it to pay lost wages and benefits. Brynwood then said it would have to sell the firm.

I realize it is hard for children and liberals to understand this, but jobs don’t come from the magic job-creation fairy. Or the government, for that matter. Yes, many businessmen, especially the mercenary executive class, are scum, but not even scum can stay in business when they don’t make a profit.

As a general rule, a business that threatens shutting down or moving in the middle of a depression is probably not bluffing. Especially one located in a high-cost, high-tax area. And speaking of self-destruction, this news doesn’t come as a massive surprise:

One out of four auto buyers using this program [Cash for Clunkers] is having buyer’s remorse as they just signed-up for so many new payments they cannot afford.”

Here’s something to consider. If the average car loan is around $25k and 690,114 new car loans were made via the C4C program, that $17.3 billion is equal to two percent of total consumer loans. Since consumer loans dropped $20 billion from March through June, it will be interesting to see if this gigantic one-time credit injection shows up in the statistics.

The 20 coolest atheist t-shirts according to the Daily Telegraph:

1) Zeus to Reason
Because the Cult of Reason turned out so well the last time.

2) Distrusted minority
When raising consciousness backfires.

3) What would Dawkins do?
If The God Delusion is a reliable indicator, string a few irrelevant anecdotes together and call it science.

4) Atheist wine club
Correction: whine club.

5) Which day did God make all the fossils?
It depends. Are you talking about Eoanthropus dawsoni or Hesperopithecus haroldcookii?

6) No one has been stoned to death by atheists
Because atheists prefer starving people to death, shooting people to death, gassing people to death, and beating people to death with shovels.

7) God works in mysterious ways
This is how Christians know you have not read the Bible.

8) Dawkins&Dennett&Harris&Hitchens
Snippy&Phony&Screwy&Silly. The four intellectual dwarves of atheism.

9) Born OK The First Time
A successful entry does not dictate a successful exit.

10) Atheists do it unsupervised
And unmarried and childless. And not very often.

11) Atheists have morals too
A morality of one is not a functional moral system.

12) Don’t pray in my school, and I won’t think in your church
It’s not your school. And who the Hell are you to tell anyone else what to do or where to do it?

13) Imaginary friend
Now explain the other 93 percent.

14) Sleep with an atheist
Add to your STD collection.

15) Science, Dawkins, Rock&Roll
Social life as sausage fest.

16) iFraud
Because annoying Christians, Jews, and Muslims hasn’t made atheists unpopular enough already.

17) Roman Lions
Arguably not the best way to argue that atheists do not harbor the desire to kill vast quantities of innocent people.

18) Separation of church and state
Amen.

19) Wait, what?
Dinosaur rodeo rocks!

20) Darwin is my homeboy
Charles Darwin is dead. In another 150 years, Darwinism will be too.

This seems to be a rather strange way of talking about the recovery that supposedly began in April, May, and August, depending upon whom you believe:

“Despite some encouraging signs in the global economy, it is difficult to predict the timing and pace of any economic recovery.

I wouldn’t be surprised if GDP turns positive soon in a “better than expected” shock. But, as even Paul Krugman has pointed out, unemployment is the more significant statistic despite it being designated a lagging indicator. What we’re likely seeing is the result of the increased politicization of economic statistics, which has caused the divergence of the metric from the object of measurement.

Pat Buchanan wonders if America is coming apart:

The question invites itself. In what sense are we one nation and one people anymore? For what is a nation if not a people of a common ancestry, faith, culture and language, who worship the same God, revere the same heroes, cherish the same history, celebrate the same holidays and share the same music, poetry, art and literature?

Yet, today, Mexican-Americans celebrate Cinco de Mayo, a skirmish in a French-Mexican war about which most Americans know nothing, which took place the same year as two of the bloodiest battles of our own Civil War: Antietam and Fredericksburg. Christmas and Easter, the great holidays of Christendom, once united Americans in joy. Now we fight over whether they should even be mentioned, let alone celebrated, in our public schools.

America isn’t coming apart, America is dead. Ideally, the remains would be divided in three. There would be two coastal nations where the Left could celebrate diversity, experiment with godlessness and homosexuality, experience the true joys of vibrant multiculturalism, and enjoy the economic advantages of open immigration and socialism. And there would also be a third nation in the middle, a White Christian conservative hellhole that would guarantee the right of immediate and permanent expatriation to the liberal paradises to the east and west for any of its citizens who yearned for the panoply of “rights” on offer. Would-be emigrants attempting to leave paradise for the reactionary hell would be shot on sight, of course. The lessons of Californication and Mexification were already old when Alaric was attempting to settle his Goths in the Eastern Empire.

The right of self-determination is supposedly so sacred to Americans that they have gone to war everywhere from Germany to Afghanistan in order to preserve it. It will be ironic if it is denied to them once it becomes clear that the Union not only is not worth preserving, but cannot possibly be preserved.