Tag: trainwreck

Science is not a reliable guide

The problem with appealing to science isn’t limited to the problem of deriving “ought” from “is”. It is that the human element corrupts the process to the point that one cannot reasonably expect to rely upon science to accurately relate “is” any longer, barring exogenous real-world confirmation:

If you want to see just how long an academic institution can tolerate a string of slow, festering research scandals, let me invite you to the University of Minnesota, where I teach medical ethics.

Over the past 25 years, our department of psychiatry has been party to the following disgraces: a felony conviction and a Food and Drug Administration research disqualification for a psychiatrist guilty of fraud in a drug study; the F.D.A. disqualification of another psychiatrist, for enrolling illiterate Hmong refugees in a drug study without their consent; the suspended license of yet another psychiatrist, who was charged with “reckless, if not willful, disregard” for dozens of patients; and, in 2004, the discovery, in a halfway house bathroom, of the near-decapitated corpse of Dan Markingson, a seriously mentally ill young man under an involuntary commitment order who committed suicide after enrolling, over the objections of his mother, in an industry-funded antipsychotic study run by members of the department.

And those, unfortunately, are just the highlights.

The problem extends well beyond the department of psychiatry and into the university administration. Rather than dealing forthrightly with these ethical breaches, university officials have seemed more interested in covering up wrongdoing with a variety of underhanded tactics. Reporting in The Star Tribune discovered, for example, that in the felony case, university officials hid an internal investigation of the fraud from federal investigators for nearly four years.

This is why religion and philosophy will always trump science. Due to the human element of scientistry and its obvious susceptibility to corruption, science that has not yet reached the level of reliability and credibility we call “engineering” simply does not merit being taken seriously by anyone who is not a professional scientist.

The Duel

Bateful Higot explains moderates:

Moderate: Okay, gentlemen… take 5 paces, then turn and shoot. SJW has won the coin toss and will shoot first. Understood?
Conservative: Yes.
SJW: Whatever.
Moderate: One…
SJW: turns and points pistol, hand trembling in terror
Moderate: looks at SJW scornfully Two…
SJW: CHECK YOUR PRIVILEGE! shoots in Conservative’s general direction… misses horribly
Conservative: What the deuce? turns around You bastard!
SJW: How dare you turn around! You’re not a gentleman!
Moderate: Conservative! You must take three more paces before you may turn around!
Conservative: That coward shot at me after two!
Moderate: Do not lower yourself to his level! Death before dishonor!
Conservative: That doesn’t mean what you think it does! aims at SJW
SJW: EEK! cowers
Moderate:
How dare you! draws pistol on Conservative If you do not turn around
this instant, I shall shoot you myself, you dishonorable cur!

How can you identify a moderate? He is the man who only shoots at his own side, never the enemy. This isn’t to say that moderates can’t learn. I have known a few who have done so, gradually and over time, mostly by virtue of having their “friends” on the other side repay their steadfast good will with repeated betrayals and regular stabs in the back.

Moderates merit civility, but no respect. And above all, do NOT permit them any input into strategy and tactics. They are worse than useless in that regard.

More immigrants, less water

Waterworld had it exactly backwards:

What are we going to do once all the water is gone?  Thanks to the worst drought in more than 1,000 years, the western third of the country is facing the greatest water crisis that the United States has ever seen.  Lake Mead is now the lowest that it has ever been since the Hoover Dam was finished in the 1930s, mandatory water restrictions have already been implemented in the state of California, and there are already widespread reports of people stealing water in some of the worst hit areas.  But this is just the beginning.

Right now, in a desperate attempt to maintain somewhat “normal” levels of activity, water is being pumped out of the ground in the western half of the nation at an absolutely staggering pace.  Once that irreplaceable groundwater is gone, that is when the real crisis will begin.  If this multi-year drought stretches on and becomes the “megadrought” that a lot of scientists are now warning about, life as we know it in much of the country is going to be fundamentally transformed and millions of Americans may be forced to find somewhere else to live.

Keep in mind that this ran on Zerohedge back in May and the situation in California has continued to get worse. And it has absolutely nothing to do with global warming, it is the direct and obvious consequence of immigration, both internal and external.

Sure, the multi-year drought is the proximate problem. But the fact is that California now has 38,802,500 residents. It had less than 3 million when my grandparents were born there, and less than 7 million when my mother was. There is plenty of water for 10 million Californians. There is nowhere nearly enough for 40 million people who are drinking and flushing and irrigating the liquid equivalent of their seed corn.

The simple fact is that mass immigration is one of the most intrinsically destructive forces known to Man. The inevitable dessication and depopulation of California is only one of the many deleterious consequences of the 1965 immigration reform that will ultimately turn out to be one of the primary roots of American collapse.

Mr. Feder fans the flames

Now Tor Books editor Moshe Feder calls Tor’s unhappy customers “idiots”:

As you may have heard, certain scoundrels have declared a boycott of Tor, starting today, to protest the efforts of some Tor employees to defend the Hugo Awards from attack. In response, some of our friends have declared today “Buy A Tor Book Day.”

I wouldn’t have the temerity to ask you to buy a book just because some idiots have declared war on us. But if there _is_ a Tor Book you’ve been meaning to get anyway, buying it today would be a a gesture I’d appreciate.

[As always here on Facebook, I’m speaking for myself and not the company.]

It’s got to be nice for Tor Books to know they’ve got so many imaginary friends defending them. As we have been repeatedly and reliably informed:

Since the Puppy boycott of Tor Books is on I just bought three ebooks from Tor and preordered two more.

And if Mr. Feder is only speaking for himself, who is this “us” to whom he refers? Whose friends are they? But it is nice of him to dial down the rhetoric from “racist neo-nazis” to mere “idiots” and “scoundrels”.

Meanwhile, Peter Grant points out that Feder is lying. Personally, I find Feder’s explanation of the boycott to be fascinating, as apparently Irene Gallo was merely defending the Hugo Awards from attack when she described Tor-published books as “bad-to-reprehensible”, attacked Tor’s customers as “racist” and “misogynistic” and “neo-nazi”. That’s an interesting priority. I was not hitherto aware that “defending the Hugo Awards” was a professional responsibility for employees at Tor Books.

It’s worth pointing out that we are not at war with Tor Books. We are merely asking Macmillan to save Tor Books from the observably self-destructive and unprofessional leadership of three of its senior employees, who have abused Tor’s authors and attacked Tor’s customers.

The Internet never forgets.

All ur SSN are belong to us

It would be amusing if they start thieving government identities now that they have all the data they need to produce them:

Hackers stole personnel data and Social Security numbers for every federal employee, a government worker union said Thursday, saying that the cyber theft of U.S. employee information was more damaging than the Obama administration has acknowledged.

Perhaps the federal government should have abided by the wisdom of the Founders, and respected the Fourth Amendment.

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

No citizen should ever be required to give any information to the government, barring a Warrant. They might as reasonably be required to post it on the front door of their house for anyone passing by.

Sad Puppies stop rape!

I just can’t how what wow just wow:

Sad/Rabid Puppies are ultimately self-defeating. They want long stories about traditional white men raping and killing things in traditional fantasy settings — but every time they do something else to disrupt the Hugos, George RR Martin, the current king of long stories about traditional white men raping and killing things in a traditional fantasy setting, stops writing Winds of Winter and writes a novel-length essay on his LiveJournal about why the Puppies are ruining his favorite awards.

We haven’t been on the field. That’s the only possible answer for how we’ve been losing to these utter lunatics for the last three decades. That’s a comment from the Gawker piece on Tor’s failure to ask Irene Gallo for her resignation… yet.

Meanwhile, John Scalzi is showing his childhood scars on Twitter again.

I know of someone whose biggest life achievement is being a bigoted shithole of a human being. He’s going to be very sad on his deathbed

Actually, I expect I’ll be rather looking forward to seeing what comprises Level 2. One can only laugh at the degree of Gamma required to not only formulate, but make public that sort of lame passive-aggression. You’ll show them once you grow up, Johnny! Your time is coming. You’ll show them one day!

Johnny, I’m not one of those boys who made fun of you when you couldn’t go out and play at recess with everyone else. And I wouldn’t have done so had I been there. So grow the fuck up already and get over it.

Peter Grant issues a second warning

Does Tor really want war to the knife? Peter Grant counsels action:

I’ve been . . . not astonished, really, because I’ve seen it all before, but . . . taken aback, at least, by the depth of ignorance, prejudice and blind, religious-fervor-style ‘group-think’ displayed by many of those arguing in favor of Ms. Irene Gallo’s comments that precipitated the crisis concerning Tor….

Those tactics are not going to work in this case.  I’ve had enough.  So have many other people. Ms. Gallo’s words were the last straw for us, as I explained in my earlier posts.  They’re merely the latest example of a long-standing pattern of behavior by senior employees at Tor.  I’m not joking about my response, either.  I’m willing to give Tor a few days – a week at most – to rectify the situation and deal with all those involved, not just Ms. Gallo.  If the company fails to do so, I will call for a boycott of its products and publications . . . and I won’t do so alone.  I’ve consulted with a large number of fellow authors and other individuals about this over the past few days.  There are some influential figures involved, as Tor may soon find out to its cost.

If that happens, some readers may be surprised to learn how widespread is the anger and bitterness that has built up during the past few months and years concerning the individuals I’ve identified at Tor.  Their conduct and attitudes have become inseparably intertwined in the minds of many – including myself – with the conduct and attitudes of their employer.  We don’t believe they can be separated.  It’s for Tor to prove us wrong . . . but I suspect that’s not about to happen, because to my mind – our minds – Tor really is standing behind them, despite Mr. Doherty’s attempts to distinguish between the company and its senior staff.

I truly hope it doesn’t come to a boycott . . . but if it does, so be it.  We no longer have anything to lose by acting.  Tor, on the other hand, risks losing everything by not acting.  I say that as a former director of companies, with post-graduate business education and a good understanding of the financial pressures on Tor and companies like it.  (Yes, individuals at ‘some companies’ do talk about such things to outsiders, particularly when they’re also angry over what’s happening internally.  The numbers are . . . interesting.)

Your move, Tor . . . for a short time.  I truly hope you make the right one before it’s too late.

The Evil Legion of Evil has not yet called for a boycott by the many Tor customers attacked by Ms Gallo. It has, after all, only been two days since the management at Tor Books learned about her attack on them. But the one thing they must understand is that an apology is not enough. We expect a resignation.

Sooner or later, Ms Gallo will resign. It’s only a question of how much damage Tor Books, and perhaps more importantly, Macmillan, are willing to take first.

Meanwhile, John C. Wright clarifies a previous statement:

A reader asked what I meant when I said, that as a matter of formality, Irene Gallo’s pro forma and possibly insincere apology for her pro-forma and possibly insincerely insult satisfied my sense of honor.

It is difficult for me to explain something that is second nature to me, which is alien to the modern world at every point. In the military, the soldier is obligated to salute the uniform wore by officers of higher rank, not the man wearing it, and the man wearing it is obligated to behave as the uniform requires. The salute satisfies the formality.

An apology satisfies the demand for apology; if the person proffer it did so with deceptive intent, God Almighty, who sees and knows the hearts of the sinners, will punish the falsehood with penalties nightmarish, vehement, absolute, and infinite, that my heart quails to contemplate them. I cannot burn a disembodied soul in hell forever, and neither can I read minds and hearts. Hence, I am not in a position judge the sincerity of an apology, nor do I have the least desire to do so.

Honor is an external thing, a matter of form. If the form is satisfied, honor is satisfied. Refusing an apology on the grounds of it insincerity is a privilege reserved to women.

In the case of Irene Gallo, I do not need any further words from her, nor does she owe me anything more. I look forward to working with whomever Mr Doherty hires to replace her.

Two schools of customer care

Now, I have no standing to tell Tor Books how it should run its business or interact with its customers. But I do find the difference between the two rival schools of thought on the matter to be pretty astonishing when you compare and contrast them. One of our customers recently sent us this note

An unsolicited endorsement….

Recently I took advantage of a “buy vol 1 and get vol 2 free” offer from Castalia House on a Friday. Saturday I opened my email to see two links to the books.

I clicked vol 1 and it downloaded, I clicked vol 2 and got the message “you have reached your download limit”..

I sent an email asking for the link to be reset, I expected to hear a reply on Monday.

But instead (on a Saturday), I received an email apologizing and asking me about the format I needed. I replied and within a few minutes received an email with vol 2 attached. (on a Saturday!)

That is the definition of good customer service.

I fear, however, that we completely failed to call him a neo-nazi or an unrepentant racist homophobe at any point in the process. Now, every company has different ideas about how to best interact with their customers, and I expect there is probably something to be said for hurling vituperative insults at people you would like to buy things from you. Precisely what that might be, I have no idea, but then, we’re relatively new to the publishing game. I know we have a lot to learn.

I guess I’m just a techno-caveman. I don’t understand these newfangled means of “marketing”, all this flashy “social media”, all these “tweets” and “follows” and “likes”.

Is it a sort of Soup Nazi spin? You know, “no books for you!” Does anyone know of any market research indicating precisely what insults tend to be most effective in improving brand loyalty?

And would “buy our bad-to-reprehensible books, racist neo-nazi homophobes!” be a good place to start?

An unapology, unaccepted

Tom Doherty, Publisher of Tor Books, disavows Irene Gallo’s views, but does absolutely nothing to resolve the situation.

Last month, Irene Gallo, a member of Tor’s staff, posted comments about
two groups of science fiction writers, Sad Puppies and Rabid Puppies,
and about the quality of some of the 2015 Hugo Award nominees, on her
personal Facebook page. Ms. Gallo is identified on her page as working
for Tor. She did not make it clear that her comments were hers alone.
They do not reflect Tor’s views or mine. She has since clarified that
her personal views are just that and apologized to anyone her comments
may have hurt or offended….

Tor employees, including Ms. Gallo, have been reminded that they are
required to clarify when they are speaking for Tor and when they are
speaking for themselves. We apologize for any confusion Ms. Gallo’s
comments may have caused. Let me reiterate: the views expressed by Ms.
Gallo are not those of Tor as an organization and are not my own views. 
Rest assured, Tor remains committed to bringing readers the finest in
science fiction – on a broad range of topics, from a broad range of
authors.

D. Jason Fleming points out that Irene Gallo, Associate Publisher of Tor.com and Creative Director of Tor Books, didn’t actually apologize and is clearly of the same mind still.

She does
not apologize for impugning the characters of a very large number of
people. She does not apologize for impugning authors who work for her
employer, in particular. She does not apologize for her immaturity in
prancing about demonstrating that she’s not part of a tribe she hates.
She does not apologize for her bigotry in any way, shape, or form.

She only apologizes for the feelings of people who might have been hurt by what she said.

What she said, then, must still stand.

 So what did she actually say?

I don’t know about the rest of the Sad Puppies and Rabid Puppies she called right-wing extremists and neo-nazis, or the authors she described as writing “bad-to-reprehensible works”, or everyone she called “unrepentantly racist, misogynist, and homophobic”, but as for me, I’m not hurt. So why is she apologizing for nonexistent events she hypothesizes rather than her rank unprofessionalism, her shameless bigotry, and her unprovoked attack on the right two-thirds of SF/Fdom? Especially when she still hasn’t informed us whose works are bad and whose are reprehensible.

I don’t want an apology. I don’t expect an apology.

I expect a resignation.

This is no way to cure a gay man

You have to admire Milo’s dedication to investigative journalism. Talk about suffering for your job! He reviews Mattress Girl’s latest attempt to extend her 15 minutes of fame so we don’t have to see what cannot be unseen:

In preparing for this review, my researcher had to watch Emma Sulkowicz, a.k.a. “Mattress Girl,” perform fellatio on an overweight man eleven times. He tells me that he is now seriously considering homosexuality….  Naturally, Sulkowicz has become a feminist icon. But the activists and bloggers who supported her will be feeling a little uneasier this week, after she peeled back a few more layers on her own deep psychological dysfunction and apparently limitless ego by resorting to that age-old remedy for waning stardom: the sex tape. . . .

It’s telling, I think, that in Sulkowicz’s purported college dorm room there are no books. She has the same lack of interest in aesthetics as she does in intellectual enrichment: both in her choice of sexual partner (apparently satisfactory member notwithstanding) and the grim, bare walls with which she surrounds herself. Though I expect the austerity of her room reflects her barren emotional interior really rather well. You can tell “dad bods” are in fashion because both of the people in this video have one. But you do at least have to give an actress credit for doing nude scenes with a man who has larger breasts than she does. Sulkowicz’s size queendom apparently extends to love handles and leave the viewer sympathetic to the travails of her infamous mattress.

It’s revealing of her vanity that she insists on being filmed from four angles. Every crevasse of her unappealing naked body must be considered. Her congressional interlocutor is a gruesome sight in three dimensions, chosen, probably, to make young Emma look thinner. Which doesn’t work, I’m sorry to say.

All in all, it’s a tawdry, miserable encounter that tells us nothing about sexual assault or sex itself but quite a bit about the quasi-demonic inner workings of one Emma Sulkowicz.

My chief takeaway from all this? DO NOT ACCEPT AN INTERNSHIP AT BREITBART. You might end up working for Milo and who knows what depths of degradation and horror that may involve plumbing.

Also, Mattress Girl may singlehandedly have accomplished what legions of church leaders, upstanding citizens, priests, and moral scolds could not do, and killed Internet pornography. I hear Mercedes Carrera was so scarred by watching the tape that she has retreated to a nunnery and is seriously considering vows.