Desperation is an ugly color

John Scalzi moves the goalposts in trying to hide the decline:

What’s this? It’s the traffic graph for all the parts of Scalzi.com that are not part of the current iteration of Whatever, i.e., archives and other bits and pieces that continue to be linked into from around the Web and Internet. The part of the site you’re reading now (the current iteration of Whatever), has statistics information provided by WordPress and Google Analytics. Everything else has its stat information recorded by the 1&1 Site Analytics. There’s surprisingly little overlap in recording between the two stats packages. Last year the WordPress stats package recorded 7.57 million visits; the 1&1 stats package recorded 6.13 million. The former set of stats are mirrored inexactly by Google Analytics; the latter, not at all.

I note this because occasionally I see someone who is not me purport to speak with authority about how many visits the site gets. However, as the total universe of visits the site gets is not publicly accessible, if someone who is not me is making that claim, they literally do not know what they are talking about. Not because they are obtuse or dishonest (or at least not just), but simply because they don’t have all the information about the traffic coming into the site — the entire site.

(If I am making the claim, mind you, I generally note all sorts of caveats about the numbers. If several years of looking at stats has shown me anything, it’s that the numbers are fairly fungible, shall we say.)

The moral of the story: Beware people who are not me! At least, as far as the stats to this site are concerned.

Let’s see here. Little Johnny bragged about his 8 MILLION VIEWS in 2012.  He wrote: “Just passed the number. Thanks to Hacker News for the assist; someone
there linked to “A Self-Made Man Looks at How He Made It,” sending a
flood of programmers over to read it. You can follow their own
discussion of the article here. I’ll note again that this is just the
views recorded by WordPress’ software; the actual number of views is
higher. I’ll have a full report early in 2013.  But still: 8 million
views. It doesn’t suck.  Thank you.”

Keep in mind that these were the numbers he previously reported for Whatever:

2009: 4,488, 281
2010: 5,131,194
2011: 5,409,015
2012: 8,000,000

Now notice that he’s openly admitting that he had 7.57 million WordPress visits for Whatever in 2013. Where have we seen that number before? Ah, yes, in the chart I posted on January 1, 2014. And notice, too, that I specifically labeled those 7.57 million views as Whatever visits; in Google Analytics terms they were closer to 7.52 million. In any case, Johnny is trying to obscure the fact that the numbers I reported for Whatever were precisely accurate. Instead of calling my account into question, all he’s managed to do is to confirm my veracity. Not only do I know what I am talking about, (which was never anything but Whatever, the Very Important Blog that was supposed to be ever so vastly popular), but my numbers were dead-on accurate.

Now Johnny is belatedly bringing in non-Whatever traffic after five years of ignoring it to attempt to obscure the fact that my blogs have surpassed his blog, and he’s doing so in a characteristically deceptive manner. There may well be “surprisingly little overlap”, but of course, Johnny doesn’t say if that overlap is 10 percent or 40 percent. As usual, he’s hiding information and frantically spinning the information he can’t hide in order to try to make himself look better. It’s all rather desperate.

And it’s pointless anyhow. Even if there were no overlap at all, even if we accept his moving of the goalposts, and even if we ignore the fact that WordPress visits are slightly exaggerated in comparison with Google Analytics pageviews, at 13.7 million for Maximum McRapey to 13.1 million for VP and AG alone in 2013, the fact is that I’ve already passed him up in 2014.  That’s because in January, he was down 30 percent year-on-year from 2013, while my two blogs were up 24 percent. He’s on an annual rate towards 5.3M Whatever / 9.6M Max Total while I’m on an annual rate towards 16.2M VP+AG combined.

Johnny is in observable decline and he knows it; despite trying one new stunt after another, he still hasn’t written anything as good as his Heinlein rip-off published seven years ago. It won’t be long before the ever-ravenous left-wing forces he fanned for years will begin devouring him in envy now that he’s finally received his unmerited Participation Hugo. I don’t care about such things, but those shambling shoggoths sure as hell do!

In any event, the fact is that there is overlap between the two components of the 13.7 million and Johnny refused to specify how much overlap there is tells you all you need to know about his long-delayed honesty. Either way, his fraud has been exposed, the numbers that I reported are now confirmed to be very accurate, and if you still take the chubby little neurotic seriously, well, you probably aren’t tall enough for this ride.

John Scalzi has never learned that if you simply tell the truth, you never have to worry about anyone finding out that you are a fraud. He could have ended all of this nonsense by simply putting up a public Sitemeter or Google Analytics counter, but then, doing so would have demolished the myth of popularity that he has so carefully constructed over the years.


The wrath of Kong

“Hey, it’s only the National Enquirer,” responded all of John Edwards’s supporters:

Under the headline Obama Divorce Bombshell!, the National Enquirer claims their 21-year marriage has dissolved in a string of ugly fights that were prompted by the Mandela memorial incident and — far more outrageously — Mrs Obama’s discovery that Secret Service bodyguards had been covering up infidelity on her husband’s part…. Mrs Obama, the Enquirer claims, intends to stand by her husband until his presidency is over, at which time he will move back to Hawaii, where he grew up, and she will stay in Washington with their children.

For the moment, they are allegedly sleeping in separate bedrooms after Mr Obama’s attempt to ‘mend fences’ backfired so badly on a recent Christmas getaway to Hawaii that he returned to Washington with their two daughters, leaving his wife behind.

The National Enquirer, it must be said, quoted only anonymous insiders in support of these sensational claims, and is hardly the most reliable source of hard news.

Actually, the only thing that would surprise me here is if it turned up that the infidelity involved a woman. Obama’s body language always struck me as indicative of being even less comfortable around women than Ricky Martin’s did back when he first hit the big time.

As always, the watchdogs of democracy as all over the story, just like they were with JFK’s now-notorious philandering: “Washington’s media has ignored the story. But everyone remembers how the Enquirer famously got it right when it claimed the supposedly squeaky clean Democrat presidential contender John Edwards had fathered a love child by a former campaign worker.”


Hollywood’s favorite monster

Granted, Mia Farrow is more than a bit of a nutcase. But given his confirmed behavior, there isn’t much reason to doubt the allegations that Woody Allen is a child molester are true:

Frank and Mia stayed close, however, even when she was married to the
composer-conductor André Previn, whom she divorced in 1979, after having
three sons and adopting three at-risk Asian daughters. She also
continued to see Sinatra throughout her 13-year relationship with Woody
Allen, which suffered a jolt when she found lurid photographs taken by
Allen of Soon-Yi Previn, one of her adopted daughters, then a sophomore
in college, on the mantel in Allen’s Manhattan apartment. Only a month
earlier, in December 1991, Allen had formally adopted two of Mia’s
children, 15-year-old Moses and 7-year-old Dylan, even though he was in
therapy for inappropriate behavior toward Dylan. In August 1992, after
disappearing with Allen in Mia’s Connecticut country house and
reappearing without underpants, Dylan told her mother that Allen had
stuck his finger up her vagina and kissed her all over in the attic,
charges Allen has always vociferously denied.

Ronan Farrow adds on Twitter: “Missed the Woody Allen tribute – did they put the part where a woman
publicly confirmed he molested her at age 7 before or after Annie Hall?”

Woody Allen isn’t funny. He’s grotesque. He’s ugly. He’s a whiny little sexually obsessed monster. His films are tedious, unimaginative, and narcissistic. And he’s a child molester. The fact that Hollywood sees in him a man worthy of receiving its tribute tells you all you need to know about that depraved Gomorrah.

Every now and then, I’m asked if I’m interested in optioning the film rights to my books, sometimes even by people with actual film credits. My answer is always no. Not merely no, but HELL NO! I want nothing to do with Hollywood. It’s not an accident or coincidence that Hollywood so often takes pure storytelling gold and turns it into filth. They are the anti-Rumplestiltskins. They love rolling in filth.


Pajamaboy!

Little known fact: Pajamaboy served in the IDF. You do NOT want to mess with him. He may look harmless, effete, and completely uninterested in women, but the heart of a true desert warrior beats inside.

Of course, this ad for Obamacare might look astonishingly asinine, but don’t be fooled. In truth, it is just one more brilliant meisterspiel by the greatest genius in the history of American politics and that is exactly what he wants you to think!


Live by the sword, die by the sword

A fitting end to an inglorious military career:

The man in charge of the Air Force’s sexual-harassment enforcement
was himself indicted on a sexual assault charge in an Arlington court
Monday. Lieutenant-Colonel Jeffrey Krusinki was arrested back in May for allegedly groping a woman in Arlington. She claims he grabbed her breasts and buttocks in a parking lot in Crystal City.

It will be amusing when McRapey and McCreepy find themselves similarly hoist on their own petards, will it not? Even if they don’t do anything to deserve it, it’s just a matter of time before someone finds it in her interest to launch an accusation or two.

It’s inevitable. Why? Voltaire’s Prayer. Consider the following evidence:

Wil Wheaton ‏@wilw
Cat: I love you so much!. Me: Aww. I love you, too. Cat: Feed me. Me: I already fed you. Cat: Feed me again. Me: Um, no. Cat: I hate you.

UPDATE: Well, that was quicker than expected. Remember when I said that Alpha Game would eventually pass up Whatever too?

scalzi.com
47,446 USA Rank

alphagameplan.blogspot.com
46,497 USA Rank

In truth, this is more an indictment of the Alexa ranking system than anything else; the biggest and most importantest science fiction site ever still gets more monthly pageviews than Alpha Game’s 349,623 monthly average. But I find the comparative rankings to be more than a little amusing in light of the rabbits who appealed to these sorts of estimated traffic rankings less than a year ago.


Objective: solidarity

A commenter at Truth Before Dishonor explains what he believes the motivations of the Leftist trolls to be:

There are a couple of substantive things to bear in mind when dealing with the manner in which modern liberals or progressives interact with political opponents.

First of all, as we all realize, their view of “truth” is radically different from the traditional western viewpoint of what constitutes a true statement and what metaphysical meaning the term truth has. This incontestable relativism of theirs has several implications: one of which is that for the progressive, rhetoric becomes the means by which truth is shaped and brought into existence, rather than truth being a propositional description of the world or some portion of it, as it really is, and which is then rhetorically presented.

This relativism then, tends to devalue logical analysis and careful exposition as tools of debate in favor of other kinds of verbal acts intended to influence social relations. Chief among these replacements for truth are the tools of ridicule and disruption. Talk, is conceived of as warfare – not figurative, but literal – by means other than overt physical violence. As such, all of the techniques and deceptions employed in all-out war are considered by leftists and progressives as properly pertaining to political argument.

For the political progressive, silencing you through disruptive or annoying tactics, or discomfiting you emotionally, is just as good if not better than winning an argument on facts: since facts are always conceived as mere data points forensically ready to be deployed in the service of the world as they will dream it.

The goal of the socialist or progressive is after all, not to arrive at the point of truth – which they think is impossible in life and meaningless in an ultimate sense – but, at solidarity, which they think is attainable with the proper methods of social pruning and affect management.

I dropped off of Dana’s site because I was being dragged into interminable squabbles with persons whose hash I had already settled logically or historically time and time again. It was like playing whack-a-mole long after that game has lost its novelty. Their notion of victory, lies in congratulating themselves on summoning the energy to pop up again as a fresh annoyance no matter how humiliating of discrediting their performance would have been for a person of normal sensibilities.

Sound familiar? It should. Because some of the trolls are even the same people. Consider: “New Zealand Socialist book putter backer…. Phoenician in a Time of Romans, banned by multiple Conservative sites
and disdained by multiple other sites, is definitely disdain-worthy….”

That’s from 2011, months before Phony made his first appearance here. And here I thought he was just a particularly freakish PZ/Scalzi fan, but apparently he is something even more political and obsessive. Although wouldn’t it be hilarious if Phony turned out to be Athol exhibiting his dark side? 


The new rules of engagement

This is why it is necessary to punch back twice as hard. This is why
you cannot let the poisonous ones into your social circle. This is why
you cannot employ them. This is why you cannot indulge in conspicuous
tolerance. As Athol Kay has learned, those to whom the personal is the
political and the political is the personal have no decency and know no limits:

Back
in May 2011 Jennifer and I were taken to Human Resources and had a
rather odd conversation in the aftermath of being on Inside Edition.
Apparently we’re dangerously monogamous and offensively heterosexual
enough to have resulted in no less than six calls of complaint to our
employer. Like I said, I always figured I’d be taken to HR, but I really
didn’t expect Jennifer to be dragged into it too. Jennifer does have a
minor PR role for her company, so we do see their point, but even then,
it’s no one’s business but ours.

Thus at the time: Yes sir, no sir, three bags full sir.

There’s
really not too much they can do to us directly, it’s not like you can
be fired for kissing your spouse on TV. But after that point, I start
feeling like the cross-hairs are firmly drawn on my back and I start
getting disciplined at work for things that frankly I don’t think I
would have been spanked for before that point. I.e. I see which way the
wind is blowing, work my ass off and in June 2012 I jump to MMSL
full-time.

Which brings us to now, or more correctly a couple months back.

Jennifer
gets a message on a Friday, she’s summoned to HR on Monday. Not told
what about. I’m unsure if the intent was to ruin our weekend, but it
seemed to achieve that goal. Considering Jennifer is the quintessential
good employee, it can only be MMSL related and I feel both shitty and
angry. We’re just on the very fine edge of me being able to carry the
two of us on MMSL income alone, so I Captain up and green light her
quitting her job at any point during that meeting.

It
turns out someone from a state agency funding Jennifer’s employer, has
been printing off a collection of blog posts and anonymously mailing
them to the CEO of her company. So anonymous letter, coming inside a
state agency envelope. HR really has nothing to say to her but, “Ahhh…
this is awkward, but you need to know what’s happening.” It’s also kinda
silly being outed to your employer 2.5 years after you were on national
television. The surprise factor lacks a little.

Anyway…
what it boils down to, is that someone reads this blog, actively
hunting for ways to fuck my wife over… and they are willing to play
dirty.

Notice that this was directed at the wife of a man who is an atheist from New Zealand and is not exactly a paragon of religious conservative middle America.

It is what the activist Left now does and it is one reason why I will not tolerate their trolls any longer. So let this be a
warning to every troll who comments here: do not say
anything
here you do not wish to become public knowledge with your
personal information attached to it here for everyone to see. For the last two years, even the comments that were spammed and deleted have been saved; there are presently 181,807 comments in the database. I’ve tracked down two trolls in the past, and as it happens, both elected to stop
trolling here after discovering that I knew their real identities.

I didn’t publish their personal information here or send the long
compendium of insults, vulgarities, and obscenities they had spewed to
their friends, families, publishers, and employers. But I could have
easily done so. And now that it is clear that this is how the game is being played, well, those of us who are already accustomed to the public view can certainly ensure that everyone else’s actions are too.


Setting the record straight

CJ Grisham has been rightly concerned that people, even some commenters here, have been misled concerning his ongoing dispute with Michael Yon.

I’m making this post public because it’s high time Michael Yon ate his words. I don’t share this to pump myself up but to warn – again – that if Michael Yon ever steps foot back in the United States I will slap a defamation and libel suit on his ass faster than a Thai take-out place can read back his order. Yon has not merely suggested that I am a case of Stolen Valor or stated he “thinks” I’m a case of Stolen Valor. He also states as fact that I lied about helping with the capture of 8 of the top 55 Iraqi leaders in 2003. He also claims I never saw combat. He has reported it as fact both on his public Facebook page and his personal blog. I have screenshots galore, so even if he goes back and deletes these references, I have them. So, I offer this up to again discredit a man that has little or no credibility left.

This is the NCOER I received in July while in Fallujah, Iraq. Feel free to share this far and wide. I’m not afraid.

Having been the subject of similar calumnies and repeated attacks by a dishonest, media-friendly psychological wreck myself, I’m quite happy to help Mr. Grisham set the record straight by posting the documentary evidence that shows Mr. Yon’s assertions about him to be false. Relentlessly self-promoting narcissists like Michael Yon, McRapey, and Hugo Danger always go off the deep end sooner or later, and the one thing they absolutely cannot bear are those who not only see through their deceptions, but aren’t afraid to call them out on their lies and misrepresentations.

And just to be clear, here are Mr. Yon’s direct assertions concerning Mr. Grisham, made last year on Facebook:

Michael Yon · 62,269 like this
October 21, 2012 at 9:35pm ·

Stolen Valor? 

I have here in front of my eyes CJ Grisham’s military records. He says he got a Bronze Star with V — this is not reflected on his records. What I see in these records is a boring, slow career. Others do more in two years.

Barbara — I have a dispatch going up today but will publish Grisham’s records probably on Tuesday. Even a rat such as Grisham should have the opportunity to defend himself. He says he got a Bronze Star with V. That medal is not on his records. Maybe his records are wrong. He can always publish the citation. Without that, it does not exist.
October 21, 2012 at 10:14pm 

The records cover the date that he claims to have BSV. Am not saying he does not have BSV, but that it is not reflected on records. The BSV is just not there. Either he is lying, or his records are wrong. No two ways about that.
October 22, 2012 at 7:33pm 


To wereseals and beyond

I give you the obvious frontrunner for the 2014 Hugo Award!

Dinosaur erotica looks set to be the latest niche craze in the world of sexy fiction as a trio of books on the topic is released to buy for the Kindle. The naughty novels, with titles such as Running From The Raptor and Taken by the T-Rex focus on the fantasy of helpless young women being attacked and seduced by dinosaurs.

The dinosaur porn imagines a world where humans and dinosaurs existed together. For the tale of In the Velociraptor’s Nest the protagonist Azog is a cavewoman, under appreciated in her tribe.

The synopsis says: ‘The cavemen treat her like a piece a meat. Azog cannot resist unless she proves herself as a hunter. When she goes out in search of fresh meat, she discovers a clutch of baby velociraptors and decides to kill them and triumphantly bring them back to her tribe. That is, until their father shows up and blocks Azog’s way out of the cave. Azog must use all of her womanly wiles to get out of the cave, which includes doing things she had never dreamed of.’

You might think Taken by the T-Rex is unlikely to catch on, let alone win awards. And then, it occurs to you that these are the sort of people who gave an award to McRapey for Redshirts.

Equality is the reason you can’t have good books.


Beyond Beezle

We’ve seen some differently sane anklebiters with a reasonably broad IQ spectrum throughout the years. Hunt, Pawn Takes Queen, Modernguy, Bearded Spock, G. Tingey, Tad the Syphilis-Addled Homosexual, The Greatest Pensman in All Carantanilla, Phoenician, and now Poxy.  But I doubt anyone is ever going to be able to claim the lunatic crown of John Galt, who after posting his long series of boasts, curses, and nonsensical challenges here was discovered to have also produced this masterpiece on Facebook.

I have something I probably should tell everybody. Most of my friends from before I started school already know this and I’ve been putting off discussing it for a long time to see if I could be comfortable without it, so I haven’t really made a point of telling anyone. So…I’m supposed to be a girl and I’m probably going to start dressing like a girl and taking hormones at some point in the future. I was already planning on doing this when I was younger (I actually used to go to work dressed as a girl), but I needed to see if I could be comfortable as a guy. But going back to school and being around people again has made it abundantly clear that I am most certainly not comfortable trying to be a guy. So hopefully that explains my personality a little better.

Actually, it tends to explain a lot. I’m not sure why this blog tends to attract crazy, emotionally incontinent, left-wing trolls; my operating theory is that they are the only leftists without sufficient sense or self-awareness to realize that they don’t have much chance of walking out of here with any shreds of intellectual dignity to cloak their exposed arguments.

As for this Gallus, perhaps he’ll feel begin to feel more comfortable with himself after spending the next Day of Blood in auto-flagellation.