It occurs to me that anyone who says that democracy is inherently more peaceful than empire has never heard of the Pax Romana.
207 years of peace and order, perpetuated by what would now be considered horribly tyrannical despots. That's very nearly as long as the US has been around, period.
Even with most generous definitions of the words "order" and "peace", the peace of empires is merely competitive.
Dock from the US all the years prior to 1865, consider that its demise is a mere decades at best away, and revoke the generous definitions, and it's simply no contest.
EDIT: Did some figuring, and of all the "Paxes" (Pax Romana, Pax Britannica, etc), there were 3,207 region-years of peace generated by empire in the past 2,000+ years. Let's see democracy, already crumbling after a mere 94 years of dominance, top that.
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Trayvon Martin, Trivan Matted, Trivial Meathead
Ahura Mazda, haven't you read enough about Trayvon Martin? You haven't? Fuck you.
OK, first, neighborhood watch leaders don't just whip out guns and start shooting people.
Second, George Zimmerman has been an idiot who's endangered himself and his family.
I am absolutely, positively convinced that Zimmerman shot Martin in self defense... At least within that moment.
I am also convinced that Zimmerman was out looking for trouble. Now, of course, I don't mean that he was out to commit a crime or anything, but rather that shooting Trayvon was exactly what he'd always wanted. When fools take positions of responsibility, they always daydream about that position bringing them glory. "Someday, I'm going to stop that evildoer, and then everyone will love me." "Someday, I'm going to sacrifice myself to save a little girl from being run over by a bus, and then everyone will love me."
I've been there, done that. I've been almost as much of an idiot as George Zimmerman has been.
It does not mean that Trayvon wasn't an evildoer. It does not mean Zimmerman didn't shoot to save his own life. It does not mean anything, except that Zimmerman is an idiot.
Maybe if we lived in a society that was a little less Mad Max-esque, we could patrol our neighborhoods and stop crime where it starts. But pull that shit in this day and age, and you take a very serious risk.
Let some lady's jewelry get robbed. Protect yourself. Don't go looking for trouble where you know it'll find you.
Honestly I don't care. But I've done the math, and the more content my blog has, the more pussy I'll get. So, uh, I guess for that sake, I'll comment on this Trayvon Martin business.
OK, first, neighborhood watch leaders don't just whip out guns and start shooting people.
Second, George Zimmerman has been an idiot who's endangered himself and his family.
I am absolutely, positively convinced that Zimmerman shot Martin in self defense... At least within that moment.
I am also convinced that Zimmerman was out looking for trouble. Now, of course, I don't mean that he was out to commit a crime or anything, but rather that shooting Trayvon was exactly what he'd always wanted. When fools take positions of responsibility, they always daydream about that position bringing them glory. "Someday, I'm going to stop that evildoer, and then everyone will love me." "Someday, I'm going to sacrifice myself to save a little girl from being run over by a bus, and then everyone will love me."
I've been there, done that. I've been almost as much of an idiot as George Zimmerman has been.
It does not mean that Trayvon wasn't an evildoer. It does not mean Zimmerman didn't shoot to save his own life. It does not mean anything, except that Zimmerman is an idiot.
Maybe if we lived in a society that was a little less Mad Max-esque, we could patrol our neighborhoods and stop crime where it starts. But pull that shit in this day and age, and you take a very serious risk.
Let some lady's jewelry get robbed. Protect yourself. Don't go looking for trouble where you know it'll find you.
Conversation with Girlfriend Prime
Me: Honey, let's kill everyone, how about that?
G': Hahah. There are a few people I'd like to spare, but ok.
Me: Did you just agree to commit genocide with me?
G': I try to support my boyfriend, when something's important to him.
If it seems insane, that's because it is.
Almost makes you want to say "why, if I were in charge..."
Monday, March 26, 2012
Children of Wilson
You're not supposed to say it out loud, guys.
But honestly, I sympathize. It's hard to identify with people of a different skin color, ethnicity, or culture. For those people who read in the same way that William Hung sings, it might well be shocking to find out that those pretty blonde girls running around in your head are actually dirty niglets!
Humans are biologically predisposed to discriminate on the basis of race and culture. The ancient ancestors of all people living had to outplay competing cultures. Of course we'd be genetically predisposed to look with a leering eye at those who are different.
What's remarkable about Progressivism isn't that it tries to erase this predisposition, it's that it doesn't. Ruling over a land formed from many cultures, ethnicities, and races, it does absolutely jack squat to try to get them to get along. Instead, increasingly encourages whites to flee from black neighborhoods, enacts policy that self-segregates races, and when a much anticipated film comes out, bitches about how there's too many damn niggers in it. Oh, sure, the rhetoric is full of fluffy declarations of racial equality, but since when has it been a good idea to trust Jonathon?
It's only natural that the Progressive press would attack these underlings of theirs. After all, what's the point of lying if you keep talking about how it's a lie?
Shhhh, you're not supposed to say it out loud!
But honestly, I sympathize. It's hard to identify with people of a different skin color, ethnicity, or culture. For those people who read in the same way that William Hung sings, it might well be shocking to find out that those pretty blonde girls running around in your head are actually dirty niglets!
Humans are biologically predisposed to discriminate on the basis of race and culture. The ancient ancestors of all people living had to outplay competing cultures. Of course we'd be genetically predisposed to look with a leering eye at those who are different.
What's remarkable about Progressivism isn't that it tries to erase this predisposition, it's that it doesn't. Ruling over a land formed from many cultures, ethnicities, and races, it does absolutely jack squat to try to get them to get along. Instead, increasingly encourages whites to flee from black neighborhoods, enacts policy that self-segregates races, and when a much anticipated film comes out, bitches about how there's too many damn niggers in it. Oh, sure, the rhetoric is full of fluffy declarations of racial equality, but since when has it been a good idea to trust Jonathon?
It's only natural that the Progressive press would attack these underlings of theirs. After all, what's the point of lying if you keep talking about how it's a lie?
Shhhh, you're not supposed to say it out loud!
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
With Some Irony On Top
It fills me with great, great joy that the Left's new pet treehugging movie, The Lorax has been shamelessly hawked out for corporate tie-ins.
I seriously can't stop laughing.
I seriously can't stop laughing.
Friday, March 9, 2012
Green With Envy
I'm very jealous.
Hey, I will corrupt your children, too! Lookit me, lookit me!
Though, OK, IMF, I don't think that because the SPLC puts you on a shit list once means you're "having an impact." Give up on your dreams of changing things democratically.
I'm still really jealous, though.
Hey, I will corrupt your children, too! Lookit me, lookit me!
Though, OK, IMF, I don't think that because the SPLC puts you on a shit list once means you're "having an impact." Give up on your dreams of changing things democratically.
I'm still really jealous, though.
The Heinlein Corner
Inspired by Brian Caplan jumping the shark and musing about how contorted one's worldview would have to be that they would write such a piece, I realized that I'd never introduced the term "the Heinlein Corner" to the Intertubes.
I've used the term for some time when talking to my real-life Sith friends, but I've never mentioned it on my blog. Well, shit, let's go coin some terminology!
the Heinlein Corner, Reaction
a. having a worldview of a libertarian bent, such that one's opinions have become a tangled knot of abstraction, severely divorced of reality. In his later years, he sat solidly in the Heinlein Corner, mostly writing about how wonderful it would be if everyone just had sex with each other all the time.
b. a hypothetical space where cranky old libertarians talk constantly about group bisex and how great having no government would be. Go back to the Heinlein Corner, hippie.
Obviously named after Robert Anson Heinlein, and especially in reference to his later works, the Heinlein Corner is the place one reaches if they have enough sense to embrace libertarianism, and enough sense to think at length about libertarianism, but who haven't been bitten by the malicious demon-spider of reaction yet. Whether or not someone is in the Heinlein Corner does not depend on how long they have been a libertarian. They may have been one for decades, and not qualify, or they may be relatively young in the fold, having been to a couple Ron Paul rallies, and qualify. What determines their being in the Corner or not is how much they have thought about libertarianism, and followed it to its logical conclusion. Cornerites will often be found talking about how great free love is, how they might be bisexual, but haven't found any guys that they're attracted to yet, or how their anarcho-capitalist utopia will have a vote-shares system whereby your voting power is determined by how much you increased the Collective's GDP that year.
However, merely abstractly pontificating is not enough to earn you a cushion in the Corner. You must also feel that tinge of regret and sadness at the knowledge, locked away in the back of your brain, that you're neither the proud owner of an internally consistent worldview, nor are a part of the most powerful political faction. Cornerites, besides being divorced from reality, must also be somewhat desperate, as they expend the last fumes of logic that libertarian theory has to offer.
Brian Caplan jumping the shark is brought to you by Foseti.
I've used the term for some time when talking to my real-life Sith friends, but I've never mentioned it on my blog. Well, shit, let's go coin some terminology!
the Heinlein Corner, Reaction
a. having a worldview of a libertarian bent, such that one's opinions have become a tangled knot of abstraction, severely divorced of reality. In his later years, he sat solidly in the Heinlein Corner, mostly writing about how wonderful it would be if everyone just had sex with each other all the time.
b. a hypothetical space where cranky old libertarians talk constantly about group bisex and how great having no government would be. Go back to the Heinlein Corner, hippie.
Obviously named after Robert Anson Heinlein, and especially in reference to his later works, the Heinlein Corner is the place one reaches if they have enough sense to embrace libertarianism, and enough sense to think at length about libertarianism, but who haven't been bitten by the malicious demon-spider of reaction yet. Whether or not someone is in the Heinlein Corner does not depend on how long they have been a libertarian. They may have been one for decades, and not qualify, or they may be relatively young in the fold, having been to a couple Ron Paul rallies, and qualify. What determines their being in the Corner or not is how much they have thought about libertarianism, and followed it to its logical conclusion. Cornerites will often be found talking about how great free love is, how they might be bisexual, but haven't found any guys that they're attracted to yet, or how their anarcho-capitalist utopia will have a vote-shares system whereby your voting power is determined by how much you increased the Collective's GDP that year.
However, merely abstractly pontificating is not enough to earn you a cushion in the Corner. You must also feel that tinge of regret and sadness at the knowledge, locked away in the back of your brain, that you're neither the proud owner of an internally consistent worldview, nor are a part of the most powerful political faction. Cornerites, besides being divorced from reality, must also be somewhat desperate, as they expend the last fumes of logic that libertarian theory has to offer.
Brian Caplan jumping the shark is brought to you by Foseti.
March of the Progressive Strawmen
Oh, xkcd, I love you to death, but...
If you tried that shit on Roissy, you'd wake up in the morning with the hotel bill, wondering what happened. Or maybe not, since there are probably easier and hotter fish in the sea.
I like the sassy, totally unrealistic characters of xkcd, especially Black Hat Man and Havoc Girl, who are completely unrestrained by law or physical consequence in their epic quest to stay amused, which is why it chafes a bit to see them used so poorly as a sociopolitical mouthpiece for Randall.
I mean, yeah, they're your characters, sheesh, but does it seriously make any sense for Black Hat Man's girlfriend to be sticking up for the NORPs?
ED (2/23/2013): It's been a while since I've posted this, but it occurs to me that perhaps what Randall objects to is the notion of that sort of game working on American women. Reading Maverick, it sounds like a lot of the more advanced game techniques are specialty tools, used to crack open the extra-tough hides of American women and get to the meat inside. If you only date American women (perhaps because you are a masochist, or have had the poor fortune to be born in America), then negs and the like are just standard tools, and perhaps it never occurred to you that you shouldn't need a welding torch to get through the front door. So Randall might not be actually be sticking up for the feminists here, but a student of game as taught 30 years ago.
If you tried that shit on Roissy, you'd wake up in the morning with the hotel bill, wondering what happened. Or maybe not, since there are probably easier and hotter fish in the sea.
I like the sassy, totally unrealistic characters of xkcd, especially Black Hat Man and Havoc Girl, who are completely unrestrained by law or physical consequence in their epic quest to stay amused, which is why it chafes a bit to see them used so poorly as a sociopolitical mouthpiece for Randall.
I mean, yeah, they're your characters, sheesh, but does it seriously make any sense for Black Hat Man's girlfriend to be sticking up for the NORPs?
ED (2/23/2013): It's been a while since I've posted this, but it occurs to me that perhaps what Randall objects to is the notion of that sort of game working on American women. Reading Maverick, it sounds like a lot of the more advanced game techniques are specialty tools, used to crack open the extra-tough hides of American women and get to the meat inside. If you only date American women (perhaps because you are a masochist, or have had the poor fortune to be born in America), then negs and the like are just standard tools, and perhaps it never occurred to you that you shouldn't need a welding torch to get through the front door. So Randall might not be actually be sticking up for the feminists here, but a student of game as taught 30 years ago.
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Thought of the day
The Progressive utopia is full of horrible, shallow, vicious people.
Perhaps the most common example of just how horrible they are is the recent phenomenon called, euphemistically, "raising awareness."
Tell me, what is raising awareness, but attention whoring? The awareness raisers will claim that all of the wristbands and t-shirts and general schwag that they sell (curious that they don't just give it away for free, considering their stated motives) are merely a tool in the service of a higher goal, that being some damned cause or another. They will say things like "well, if it saves only one child's life, it will all have been worth it."
Will it, now?
No, they're actually in the business of selling street cred, the streets being the acoustic guitar parties of SWPLs everywhere. After all, at certain times of the month, the ladies just can't help but fall for a guy who's sensitive enough to give $25 to save some poor African slave-child. The fact that this cred relies on ostensibly charitable actions to work is entirely incidental.
This gives me a very evil idea. Clearly, what I have to do is create one of these charities that relies on "raising awareness" and ostensibly saves little African children or whatever, but actually uses the money (in such a way that it looks entirely clean on the books) to kill/enslave as many helpless little African children as possible.
Invisible Children may have beaten me to the punch, though.
Perhaps the most common example of just how horrible they are is the recent phenomenon called, euphemistically, "raising awareness."
Tell me, what is raising awareness, but attention whoring? The awareness raisers will claim that all of the wristbands and t-shirts and general schwag that they sell (curious that they don't just give it away for free, considering their stated motives) are merely a tool in the service of a higher goal, that being some damned cause or another. They will say things like "well, if it saves only one child's life, it will all have been worth it."
Will it, now?
No, they're actually in the business of selling street cred, the streets being the acoustic guitar parties of SWPLs everywhere. After all, at certain times of the month, the ladies just can't help but fall for a guy who's sensitive enough to give $25 to save some poor African slave-child. The fact that this cred relies on ostensibly charitable actions to work is entirely incidental.
This gives me a very evil idea. Clearly, what I have to do is create one of these charities that relies on "raising awareness" and ostensibly saves little African children or whatever, but actually uses the money (in such a way that it looks entirely clean on the books) to kill/enslave as many helpless little African children as possible.
Invisible Children may have beaten me to the punch, though.