#Arkhaven INFOGALACTIC #Castalia House
Spacebunny posted this on Twitter for Throwback Thursday. As you can see, my connection to the USMC is not exactly of the intellectual, mutually respectful sort that Mr. Lind enjoys. As it turned out, this marked the end of my long-haired mohawk days. Of course, neither of us would dare to mess with “the 6-foot-4 ex-Marine badass” that we are reliably informed many people imagine John Scalzi to be. By John Scalzi.
Zerohedge appears to be more than a little suspicious:
Three months ago, the CEO of Total, Christophe de Margerie, dared utter the phrase heard around the petrodollar world, “There is no reason to pay for oil in dollars,” as we noted here. Today, RT reports the dreadful news that he was killed in a business jet crash at Vnukovo Airport in Moscow after the aircraft hit a snow-plough on take-off. The airport issued a statement confirming “a criminal investigation has been opened into the violation of safety regulations,” adding that along with 3 crewmembers on the plane, the snow-plough driver was also killed.
Total, in case you didn’t know, is “the world’s 13th biggest oil producer and Europe’s 2nd largest. It’s a little strange, however, that this accident would have occurred in Russia, as one would presume that de Margerie was there as some sort of business partner or even ally of Putin. There is, after all, a long history of Russo-French alliances contra Germany, England, and now, perhaps, the USA.
Did the defenders of the global dollar target him? Or did Putin make him an offer that he couldn’t refuse, which he neverthless refused? Who knows? We’ll probably never know. Anyhow, it’s not for we minnows to overly concern ourselves with the struggles of the mighty sharks and whales and squids and krakens in the depths. They will sort themselves out in the end.
However, this was not the only fatal accident of late:
American journalist Serena Shim has been killed in a car crash in Turkey just days after Turkish intelligence services had accused her of spying. She was reporting on the siege involving ISIS in Kobani at Syria’s border. Shim was a US citizen though she worked for Iran’s state-owned Press TV as correspondent in Turkey and other regions. She was returning her hotel in the city of Suruç when her car crashed into a ‘heavy vehicle’. The Daily Mail reports the car collided with a cement truck.
I suppose the silver lining is that even if these are targeted hits, those responsible for them still feel the need to disguise their actions. Although I have to say that banker’s “nailgun suicide” still stretches credulity. Frankly, at this point, I’m surprised that any politician is still willing to travel by plane:
The campaign plane of Eduardo Campos, a Brazilian presidential candidate and scion of a resurgent political dynasty, crashed on Wednesday in the port city of Santos, killing him and six others and shaking up an increasingly competitive race in Latin America’s largest democracy.
According to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report for 2012, there were ZERO murders in Newtown, Connecticut in 2012.
That would appear to be the conclusive evidence for which the Sandy Hook skeptics have been searching. Not only are there no murders listed for Newtown, but there is not a single city in Connecticut that reported 26 murders for the entire year. Hartford reported the most, with 23, followed by Bridgeport with 22. Which leads one to wonder how this could be possible considering that 26 people were supposedly shot and killed at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut on December 14, 2012.
Apparently it wasn’t “an offense known to law enforcement”.
The thing is, people who doubt conspiracy theory constantly claim that they do so because it is so hard to hold a story together. And yet, when there is clear evidence that someone was careless and a story is not holding up, they are the first to produce some excuse for ignoring it.
It should be interesting to hear how a widely reported mass murder that was front-page news around the world was not known to law enforcement.
I’ve previously pointed out the way that the Wikipedia editors seek to minimize those they dislike and elevate those they support. But their left-wing bias is getting increasingly out of hand, as evidenced by their rationalizations for not permitting criticism of their favorite token black scientist, Neil deGrasse Tyson:
Keep in mind, these are actual quotes from Wikipedia editors discussing why it’s okay to airbrush history in order to protect their precious prophet.
1. “Telling a funny anecdote with fudgy details to make a joke/point is not a controversy, its what public speakers do.”
2. “It doesn’t matter if we can demonstrate it happened or not, many things happen in many people lives, we don’t write each of them into every persons biography.”
3. “[W]e may have to leave this up for a few days until S Davis drops his ‘censorship’ campaign.”
4.”So, [Tyson]‘s not making a point about Bush, he’s making a point about the lost opportunity of 1.3 billion people not contributing to the advancement of human knowledge.”
5. “This is thus far a relatively insignificant story pushed by a fringe attack blog[.]“
6. “We shouldn’t be asserting that ‘No evidence exists’ based upon the current sourcing.”
7. “There are literally thousands and thousands of articles about this topic […] If this was something important, then you would see a lot more sources covering.”
8. “[I]t is a non-notable commentary that begun in an obscure media site and was picked up with even more obscure sites/blogs.”
9. “[T]his is being kept off because Wikipedia is deeply conservative in the non-political meaning of the word.”
There are a plethora of examples of this Wikileftia bias. If you look at the page, about me you’ll see that a “Feud with John Scalzi” is apparently my primary View, but you won’t see any corresponding “Feud with Vox Day” on the Scalzi page even though a) he is the one who started it back in 2005, and b) he is the one who keeps talking to various media outlets about it, thereby rendering it notable.
The worst offenders may be the champions of Sam Harris. In the criticism section, they actually offer defenses of the very criticisms made, and the most substantive critiques, such as my complete demolition of his Red State argument, which was so successful that he dropped it entirely, are not there.
Wikipedia isn’t entirely useless. But for any public figure of any political controversy at all, it is entirely misleading.
A conspiracy of “Game Journalism Professionals” akin to the infamous JournoList is exposed by Sargon of Akkad:
And The Escapist publishes its Blacklist of game-related publications that are to best avoided as a result of their documented SJW-corruption and lack of journalistic integrity. It pains me to see both Gamasutra and Game Informer on that list; I grew up with the late Paul Anderson and I’ve known Andy McNamara since Game Informer was little more than a few pages of tissue-thin game advertisements.
Blacklist:
Ars Technica: 50.31.151.33
Destructoid: 23.29.115.146
Eurogamer: 94.198.83.18
Gamasutra: 192.155.49.228
Game Informer: 72.52.14.115
Gameranx: 65.75.153.171
Games On Net: 203.16.214.132
Gamespot: 64.30.228.81
IGN: 54.209.144.209
Kotaku: 23.235.43.192
N4G: 67.228.244.148
PC Gamer: 89.167.143.59
Polygon: 216.146.46.10
Rock Paper Shotgun: 80.87.130.179
VG247: 94.198.83.26
Milo Yiannopoulis has more at Breitbart:
High-profile editors, reporters, and reviewers from heavyweight gaming news sites such as Polygon, Ars Technica, and Kotaku use the private Google Groups mailing list, which is called Gaming Journalism Professionals or GameJournoPros, to shape industry-wide attitudes to events, such as the revelation that developer Zoe Quinn had a sexual relationship with at least one prominent games journalist — a journalist who had mentioned her and her products in his reporting….
The GameJournoPros emails appear to confirm widely-held suspicions that
video game journalists operate with one voice and collude on major
issues to distort coverage of ethics violations and to support figures
to whom they are politically sympathetic.
The evil, homophobic Jeff Fisher, who probably belongs to the KKK, and the evil, homophobic St. Louis Rams cut the greatest lineman ever to be drafted by the NFL, no doubt because they hate progress:
The St. Louis Rams released defensive end Michael Sam on Saturday, the team announced. Sam’s efforts to become the first openly gay player in NFL history came up just short in a competition against undrafted rookie Ethan Westbrooks.
Also, VPFL managers, please post your keepers here in the comments. Don’t forget that the draft is tomorrow.
It’s looking as if the vaccine conspiracy theorists were correct after all. Dr. Hooker’s use of an incorrect method to tease out the data appears to have been irrelevant as it looks like he knew exactly what the CDC was hiding from the start thanks to his recorded conversations with Dr. Thompson of the CDC:
STATEMENT OF WILLIAM W. THOMPSON, Ph.D., REGARDING THE 2004 ARTICLE EXAMINING THE POSSIBILITY OF A RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MMR VACCINE AND AUTISM
My name is William Thompson. I am a Senior Scientist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, where I have worked since 1998.
I regret that my coauthors and I omitted statistically significant information in our 2004 article published in the journal Pediatrics. The omitted data suggested that African American males who received the MMR vaccine before age 36 months were at increased risk for autism. Decisions were made regarding which findings to report after the data were collected, and I believe that the final study protocol was not followed.
I want to be absolutely clear that I believe vaccines have saved and continue to save countless lives. I would never suggest that any parent avoid vaccinating children of any race. Vaccines prevent serious diseases, and the risks associated with their administration are vastly outweighed by their individual and societal benefits.
My concern has been the decision to omit relevant findings in a particular study for a particular sub group for a particular vaccine. There have always been recognized risks for vaccination and I believe it is the responsibility of the CDC to properly convey the risks associated with receipt of those vaccines.
I have had many discussions with Dr. Brian Hooker over the last 10 months regarding studies the CDC has carried out regarding vaccines and neurodevelopmental outcomes including autism spectrum disorders. I share his belief that CDC decision-making and analyses should be transparent. I was not, however, aware that he was recording any of our conversations, nor was I given any choice regarding whether my name would be made public or my voice would be put on the Internet.
That’s an open admission, from a senior scientist, that the CDC actively engages in statistical fraud and therefore cannot be trusted with regards to ANYTHING it says related to vaccines. This doesn’t mean that all vaccines are necessarily useless or do more harm than good, but it does prove, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that any arguments that rely upon CDC data have to be junked.
Dr. Thompson admits that “there have always been recognized risks for vaccination”, but strongly implies that “the risks associated with receipt of those vaccines” has not been properly conveyed. Those who are upset with the damage this revelation will likely cause to vaccine rates have no one to blame but the pro-vaccine scientists; the idea that deceiving parents in order to get them to vaccinate their children was a viable long-term strategy is, to put it mildly, incorrect. Once trust is broken, it is gone; this calls into question far more than the safety of the MMR vaccine for male Africans.
Logic 1, Science 0. Or rather, “Science”. Because, as I’ve been repeatedly pointing out, statistical analysis is not science.
Left-wing activists plotting together. Again:
A low-profile Google Group used by over 1,000 state and national leftwing leaders and activists has been discovered thanks to Wisconsin’s open records law. A Media Trackers inquiry into the actions of a University of Wisconsin professor turned up records and communications from “Gamechanger Salon,” an online community that provides a forum for leftwing activists and leaders to share tactics, strategies and opinions….
The group has the self-described goal of creating a “more coordinated” movement for liberals across the country. Among those included on the membership list are:
Damon Silver, Policy Director for the AFL-CIO
Benjamin Joffe-Walk, Chief of Staff at Change.org
Medea Benjamin, co-founder of CODEPINK
Elizabeth Rose, Director of Communications at the Economic Policy Institute
Philip Radford, Executive Director of Greenpeace until earlier this year
Ilyse Hogue, President of NARAL
Raven Brooks, Executive Director of Netroots Nation
Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee
Deirdre Schifeling, National Director Organizing & Electoral Campaigns for Planned ParenthoodThe group’s policy manual directs members to abstain from forwarding emails to recipients outside the group. It does warn, however, that with 1,000-plus members, anyone emailing the group should not say anything “you wouldn’t want to be subpoenaed by a Grand Jury or broadcast on Fox News.”
Here is the complete membership list in PDF format. I didn’t recognize any names. There are also more groups than you have ever heard of. It is appalling to think about the massive amount of totally unproductive capital that is being misdirected toward these societally destructive wastes of space so they can further interfere with Western civilization.
Outlaw X and others have noticed Hollywood’s pre-9/11 references to the date:
While watching the 1998 film, “Enemy of the State,” I noticed a curious reference to 9/11. A few others online have noticed this as well. As we showed recently, pre-9/11 film references are common, and show more than mere coincidence, especially in the cases of the references in the Simpsons, The Lone Gunmen and the Iron Man cartoon. This one is peculiar, in that it picks out John Voight’s character, “Reynolds” in the film, who is the head of the NSA and is involved in numerous illegal activities such as wiretapping, spying and tracking. The film has Will Smith and Gene Hackman on the run from big brother, and is replete with references to the control grid, 1984 and Brave New World. It also thows in a little hint at 9/11 for good measure.
This is not necessarily of any significance beyond mere chance. Richard Feynman once explained how confirmation bias often causes us to see patterns that are not there, because we assign significance to some outcomes and pay no attention to others. However, these 9/11 references also cannot be automatically dismissed as confirmation bias, especially since we know that the CIA and other government agencies have long been directly involved with using Hollywood for propaganda purposes.
It is not difficult, merely tedious, to determine whether confirmation bias is at work here or not. An examination of every film release from 1992 through 2001 and a compilation of every date graphically displayed in the films will soon show which dates are statistical outliers. If the 11th of September happens to be one of the dates that is disproportionately displayed, that would be a strong indication, albeit not absolute proof, that there was beforehand knowledge of its future significance.
I have no interest in watching a decade’s worth of movies, nor do I think it is necessary to do so in order to doubt the Official Story of 9/11 (regulars know that I am cynical enough to assert the mere fact that a particular version of events has been deemed Official by the government is sufficient reason to be dubious about it) but if those who are conspiracy-minded are interested in providing evidence that goes beyond mere happenstance, that would be one way to go about it.
I fail to see why anyone is even remotely surprised that the US intelligence apparatus missed the biggest international developments of the year:
United States intelligence agencies were caught by surprise when fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) seized two major Iraqi cities this week and sent Iraqi defense forces fleeing, current and former U.S. officials said Thursday. With U.S. troops long gone from the country, Washington didn’t have the spies on the ground or the surveillance gear in the skies necessary to predict when and where the jihadist group would strike.
The speed and ease with which well-armed and highly trained ISIS fighters took over Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, and Tikrit, the birthplace of former Iraqi ruler Saddam Hussein, have raised significant doubts about the ability of American intelligence agencies to know when ISIS might strike next, a troubling sign as the Islamist group advances steadily closer to Baghdad. And it harkened back to another recent intelligence miscue, in February, when U.S. spy agencies failed to predict the Russian invasion of Crimea. Both events are likely to raise questions about whether the tens of billions of dollars spent every year on monitoring the world’s hot spots is paying off — and what else the spies might be missing.
U.S. intelligence isn’t focused on external events or the activities of foreigners, it is focused on American citizens. They’re much more concerned about what people like you and me are writing on this blog than they are with whatever the jihadists and Russians are doing. Given that the well-armed and highly trained ISIS fighters were probably armed and trained by the U.S. military, the fact that U.S. intelligence had no idea what they were doing can only indicate a complete lack of interest.
After all, there are millions of Christians and gun owners and military veterans who need to be spied upon and federal intelligence resources are not unlimited. And it’s not like U.S. intelligence saw the fall of the Soviet Union coming either.