Some minor changes

While we are pleased to continue working with Amazon and selling our books there in various formats, the Book of the Week will henceforth point to the Arkhaven store.

Also, we anticipate having very good news for those of you who enjoy Castalia House audiobooks in the coming week. We also plan to have Chuck Dixon's Avalon #1 available in digital format there very soon.

CNN is Fake News

When reality interferes with the narrative, it's reality that must make way:

A Democrat with a racist past? That fact might be too far from the mainstream line for CNN, so they labeled Virginia Governor Ralph Northam a ‘Republican’ when reporting on his apology for a past racist photo.

Northam is under pressure from both Democrats and Republicans to resign after admitting that he is one of two men that appeared in an old photograph, one in blackface and the other dressed in a KKK robe. He apologized for the photo, unearthed from a 1984 school yearbook this week, saying that it did not reflect the person he is today, and promised to work to regain the public’s trust, but did not indicate any intention to leave office.

When the story was covered on Anderson Cooper’s show on CNN Friday night, the governor’s name was labeled with the letter ‘R’ – which stands for ‘Republican’.

This sort of thing is why I don't ever watch ABCNNBCBS Fake News. If they're misrepresenting the most easily verified facts, what else are they lying about?

Metaphor

From Steve Sailer's site:

If you see a forest in Ethiopia, you know there is very likely to be a church in the middle, says Alemayehu Wassie. …

These small but fertile oases — which number around 35,000 and are dotted across the country — are some of the last remaining scraps of the tall, lush natural forests that once covered Ethiopia, and which, along with their biodiversity, have all but disappeared.

Much of the nation’s forestland has been sacrificed to agriculture to feed the country’s mushrooming population — at more than 100 million, it is the world’s 12th largest. Deforestation was particularly encouraged during the country’s period of communism, in 1974–91, when the government nationalized the land, including the large estates of the church, and distributed it to people who converted swathes to farmland. Just 5% of the country is now covered in forest, down from 45% in the early twentieth century.

Serving as an oasis is going to be our job with regards to knowledge, particularly religious and philosophical tradition in the West. Why do you think I prioritized Infogalactic over more potentially lucrative projects? Did you truly think I didn't know there was considerably more money in clones of profitable corporate projects than in one of a non-profit?

What the Infogalactic team and the Burn Unit are doing matters, quite possibly more than anything else we are doing.

They FINALLY got bored of themselves

For the first time in recorded history, a Baby Boomer has expressed a lack of interest in talking about his g-g-generation:

Not-Boomer: I'd like to see another Boomer bashing thread.

Boomer: Nah, all us boomers are used to it. And it's tiresome.

Will wonders never cease? Have the Boomers finally learned? Have they finally realized that history has passed them by, that no one thinks they're cool, and that The Beatles are not, in fact, the pinnacle of music? Have they finally grasped how everyone else was always sick of constantly hearing them talk about themselves?

Lust for life: why sex is better in your 80s. Sexually active older people are considered a curiosity, but a new survey suggests that lovemaking is often more fulfilling for ‘sexual survivors’ than those in middle age.

Sadly, no. Apparently some people are simply incapable of change. Bash away, bash away, bash away all. It is practically a moral duty at this point, as a salutary lesson to the younger generations, because no generation in human history has ever been as collectively obnoxious or narcissistic as the Baby Boomers.

The truth is that Boomers are not at all accustomed to being bashed and it stings them more than any non-Boomer can possibly believe, because none of us have ever had our identity tied up in our generational cohort. Here they were collectively catered to their entire lives, only to finally notice, late in life, that Generation X not only didn't admire them and look up to them, but actively held them in contempt all along.

That's why so many of them still react like angry Pavlovian dogs to even the smallest expression of disdain for them. Most of them will die without ever having relinquished the delusion that all of human history revolved around them.

Indiegogo deplatforms Bitchute

It looks like Indiegogo's legal team still hasn't read their own Terms of Use or Refund Policy:

Many of you will know about the Indiegogo campaign that we ran last year to build an open-source commenting platform named Comment Freely. Well, it was time for Indiegogo to pay us and rather than giving us the money they decided to refund it without even telling us why. We'll be putting up a public blog post about this soon with more details. This is breaking news so we're still considering our options.

Sounds like JAMS is going to have a very good 2019.

When are contributions not eligible for a refund?

Contributions cannot be refunded by Indiegogo, if any of the following are true:

• The contribution funds have already been transferred to the campaign owner
• The campaign has ended
• The perk associated with the contribution has been fulfilled (contribution is marked as fulfilled on Indiegogo by the campaigner)
• Indiegogo determines that there has been an abuse of our Terms of Use, or the refund policy.

Please note, we are unable to cancel your campaign or issue mass refunds for any campaign that has raised funds.

Resign, racist

Kamala Harris makes it clear that the Democratic Party has NO PLACE for white men:

Kamala Harris@KamalaHarris
Leaders are called to a higher standard, and the stain of racism should have no place in the halls of government. The Governor of Virginia should step aside so the public can heal and move forward together.

Clearly Ralphie Northram should resign from the Virginia governorship. Because blackface raciss superbad. As should all the Republican consultants upon whom Ed Gillespie spent $29 million and still couldn't find his opponent's medical school yearbook.

Just say no, Johnny

John Scalzi@scalzi
TFW something designed to antagonize me turns out to be a consistent and profound source of trouble for the person who made it. Karma is apparently real, y'all.

I wonder what this Karma is in response to?

OVERDOSE

Complainant: Scalzi, [REDACTED], [ADDRESS], Bradford, OH 45308
Incident Address: [ADDRESS], Bradford, OH 45308

DETAILS: Report of male subject unresponsive

Perhaps Mr. Scalzi should spend less time snarking and snorting things and more time working on his next literary failure. Anyhow, if you'd like to read the book that all the fuss was about yesterday, it's called CORROSION and you can pick up the DRM-free ebook at the Arkhaven store.

A new president for France

Russia Today reports that Marine Le Pen is now the President of France:

Exciting news from France: Marine le Pen is the country’s new president. After the Macron regime plunged the country into political crisis, Mrs Le Pen took the oath of office on Place de la Concorde on Friday before a small crowd of gilets jaunes (yellow vests) specially assembled – with the TV cameras – for the occasion.

Proclaiming that she was acting according to Article 7 of the Constitution of the 5th Republic, Mrs Le Pen announced that Emmanuel Macron is no longer in office. To be sure, the government and civil service, the police and the armed forces all continue to operate normally, and Mr Macron continues to work in the Elysée Palace as usual, while Mrs Le Pen is under investigation for financial irregularities. But as she has received official recognition from both Russia and China, she has now become the legitimate president of France.

Of course, this fictitious scenario is ridiculous. But it is no more ridiculous than the recognition of Juan Guaido as president of Venezuela, voted by the European Parliament on January 31, one week after the recognition of him by US President Donald Trump.

I have to admit, I have absolutely no idea what the God-Emperor is doing when it comes to Venezuala. The whole situation looks entirely inexplicable, and as the Russia Today parody makes clear, it's not even remotely convincing to anyone, least of all the Venezuelans. All I know is that if the European Parliament is for it, it's almost certainly a terrible idea.

Is prescribing puppet leaders to banana republics really optimal foreign policy in 2019? Do any of these people realize that the South American countries are now considerably larger and more powerful than any of the European nations?

Chuck Dixon's Avalon #3

As you can see, the unexpected drama with Amazon did not even cause us to break our stride. Chuck Dixon's Avalon #3 is now available in high-resolution digital format from Arkhaven.

UPDATE: It is now available in Kindle format on Amazon as well. However, it is not available via Kindle Select.

Chuck Dixon’s Avalon #3: The Conscience of the King

While King Ace is in training with Big Simba and the Specials of the UN-SPC, his former partner-in-fighting-crime Fazer languishes in a prison designed especially for people with superhuman powers. Fazer is desperate to escape, but how can he get out when his jailors possess the technology required to block his unique abilities?

But Fazer isn’t the only one feeling trapped, as King Ace quickly comes to learn that his new team isn’t tasked with fighting crime in the city of Avalon, but rather, tracking down other people like him and Fazer. And he also discovers that signing on with the official forces of law and order means accepting restrictions on your ability to do what you think is right.

Chuck Dixon is the most prolific comic book writer in history. Set in the world of Alt★Hero, CHUCK DIXON’S AVALON is the legend’s newest creation. The CBZ file contains high-quality 2048 x 1316 images. 24 pages. DRM-free. $2.99.

The print and Kindle editions will be available soon. We are still working with Ingram on sending out the replacement Issue #2 to those who received the silent editions. As the first two issues of CHUCK DIXON’S AVALON are no longer exclusive to Kindle Select, we will make high-resolution CBZ-format editions available on the Arkhaven store this weekend.

Please note that as of issue #3, we have changed over to standard comics format for the single issues. The omnibus editions will still be 10x7.

UPDATE: If you are an Arkhaven backer, please check your email.

Someone was talking to you

But it wasn't God. I'm not even remotely surprised by Jordan Peterson's account of one of his spiritual experiences. The Fencing Bear shares an interview with the Manufactured Man:

Peterson: I can tell you one of the experiences that I had... When I was.... This would be in 1985 or thereabouts, when I was busily working on the first draft of my book Maps of Meaning, where I was outlining this idea that the path of the Hero who voluntarily confronts uncertainty and stands on the border between Chaos and Order is the appropriate target for human development. It’s an alternative to the chaos of nihilism and the totalitarianism of rigid belief. So, and that’s the bearing of responsibility for Being. I was working all of that out. It’s actually an answer to the postmodern conundrum as far as I can tell as well. But anyways, at the same time I was making this sculpture, which is about a foot thick. It’s made out of layers of what’s called  foam core, which is styrofoam pressed between two pieces of paper that’s about a quarter of an inch thick and so often used for backing on prints and so on if you get them framed. I made this piece that I called “The Meaning of Music,” and it’s a mandala, so it’s a circle inscribed inside of a square, although I tried to make it multidimensional in a complex way that I can’t really describe at the moment. But what I was trying to do—and I broke it into pieces—what I was trying to do was to produce a visual object that flickered and changed when you looked at it because it was too complex to process visually. You know, like a Necker cube? That’s one of those cubes that reverses when you look at it.

Trussell: Yes.

Peterson: Well, this is like a Necker cube on steroids. Because music, of course, it stays the same across time, but also transforms across time. And it’s full of layered patterns, you know. And the patterns interact harmoniously with one another... And I was fascinated by music because it gives people the direct intimation of meaning. Even if they’re nihilistic punk rockers, they still can’t criticize the experience of meaning that they engage in when they’re listening to their favorite band. It helps them transcend the nihilism of their irrationality.... And you can’t argue with it. It’s like arguing with dance.... It’s beyond argument. And so I was making this sculpture, and I spent like four months on it. I was thinking about it a lot. And I got it mostly assembled, and then I was in my living room in Montreal, and I was listening to Mozart’s Fourth Symphony, the Jupiter Symphony, and I was really listening to it, and it’s one of these complexly, multi-leveled, patterned pieces of auditory sculpture that I believe represents Being. Because what Being is is multiple levels of patterned transformation interacting simultaneously, and music is a representation of that, which is why I think we find it meaningful. Anyways, I was listening intently to this symphony and at the same time I was concentrating on the sculpture that I had made, and all of a sudden—and everything I am about to say is a metaphor because there’s no way of encapsulating it properly in words—it was as if the heavens opened up above me. I mean, I was still in my living room, but the experience is best represented by one of those early Renaissance paintings where you see God or Christ up in the sky with an opening in the sky against the clouds and against the sun so...it was like that, even though I didn’t really see that, it felt like that, and there were some visuals that were associated with it. And then I felt something descend upon me that had a personal nature. You know, something like you were describing as a... higher consciousness that was actually a being of a sort, and it filled me from the inside out. And...it was enrapturing, let’s say. And it was an incredible feeling.... It was a divine feeling, I suppose is the right way of thinking about it. It was certainly a religious experience.... And it transformed me. And it turned me into something far more than I normally was. And maybe you can think about that as an intimation of what you could become if you worked on it for the rest of your life, which is sometimes what I think hallucinogens provide people with—an image of who they could be if they shed all of their dead wood.

Trussell: Right.

Peterson: Anyways, it was as if an offer was being made to me that I could be like that from now on permanently. And I thought, well, I don’t know how to do that. I couldn’t walk down the street in this condition, in this elevated condition. I wouldn’t belong in the world anymore. I wouldn’t know how to function. I don’t know how I could do it... So, this experience, this thing, say, that was communicating with me...accepted that as an answer, although I would say, with some sorrow, and then it receded. And then I went and talked to my wife, and I told her what had happened, and I was shaking, like, a lot.... Like, a tremendous amount. And my pupils were completely dilated.

An offer was almost certainly being made. And Peterson isn't telling the whole truth about it. Whether or not he accepted the offer that was made to him then, he certainly accepted it, or one very much like it, later.

Reinstated

From Amazon:

Thank you for your email concerning the status of your account.

The most recent message we sent to you regarding ASIN B06XFQ24QC was incorrect.

Based on your appeal, we are reinstating your account and you will receive any applicable royalties.

Thank you all for your support. This is not a fight we wanted or sought, and we're pleased to be able to put it behind us. I'll be discussing the matter on the Darkstream. And if you want to know what all the fuss was all about, you can now buy CORROSION: The Corroding Empire, Book One, at Arkhaven. It's actually a good SF novel, a lot better than the book it was originally published to parody.

Galactic society is ruled by algorithms. From interstellar travel and planetary terraforming to artificial intelligence and agriculture, every human endeavor has become completely dependent upon the hypercomplex equations that optimize the activities making life possible across hundreds of inhabited worlds. Throughout the galaxy, Man has become dependent upon the reliable operation of 10 million different automated systems.

And when things begin to go wrong and mysterious accidents begin to occur, no one has any idea what is happening, except for a sentient medical drone and the First Technocrat of Continox. But their ability to even begin to try fixing the unthinkably complicated problem of galaxy-wide algorithmic decay is made considerably more difficult by the fact the former is an outlaw and the latter is facing a death sentence.

Johan Kalsi is Finland’s hottest science fiction author. An accomplished geneticist as well as a 6’3″ ex-Finnish Marine, in Corrosion, Kalsi rips off Asimov even better than Scalzi rips off Heinlein!

Lies, lies, lies

Amazon is telling a LOT of lies today. I received this transcript of a conversation today from a reader.

CUSTOMER: I wanted to buy the kindle version of the book Jordanetics by Vox Day. Yesterday I saw it in your site, today I cannot find it anymore. Can you find out what happened and maybe send me the correct link to buy it.

AMAZON CUSTOMER SERVICE:  I have gone through your query. Let me check on it.

AMAZON CUSTOMER SERVICE: I have checked with my leadership team and the Kindle version is removed due to some missing content. No worries, it will be back with in 4-6 hours. And then you can order it.

CUSTOMER: what missing content, was there a technical fault? I know somebody who has it, and he said he got it a few weeks ago from you. He did not say anything about a problem..

AMAZON CUSTOMER SERVICE: The publisher has removed to update the content.

CUSTOMER: And the publisher told you the update would be finished a few hours from now?

AMAZON CUSTOMER SERVICE: Nope, but the updates are always done with in 4-6 hours. So it will be available soon.

I've been receiving a number of these exchanges today. Be sure to use the customer service chat so you can catch them lying on the record. Go ahead and email them to us, these exchanges could prove useful if Amazon is inclined to get defensive and stonewall instead of simply rectifying the situation.

Just for the record, the publisher did not remove Jordanetics to update the content.

UPDATE: I'm noticing a certain theme here:

CUSTOMER: I wanted to buy the Kindle version of "The Last Closet" by Moira Greyland, but found that it is no longer available on Amazon. Why was it removed and how can I purchase the e-book?

AMAZON CUSTOMER SERVICE: : Hello, my name is Mary. I'm here to help you today.

AMAZON CUSTOMER SERVICE: I'm sorry to read that "The Last Closet" is not longer available on its Kindle Edition.

AMAZON CUSTOMER SERVICE: This is something that we cannot control to be honest with you, it depends on the publisher. We do have an option for you to request the publisher to have this book available for kindle :)

To be honest? Really, Amazon?

How you get Hitler

Or at least people who are totally unmerciful and absolutely unwilling to tolerate even the presence of SJWs:

“The rising Left is bound and determined to crush or at least permanently sideline people it deems heretics — in particular, whites, males, orthodox Christians, and skeptics of the LGBT project. It does not want a pluralistic modus vivendi; it wants total domination. The establishment Left lacks the will to stop them. Its members are terrified of appearing un-woke. . . . The establishment Right lacks the will to stop them either, for fear of being called bigots. And it lacks the will or the imagination to stand in any way against corporate interests. . . . Bottom line: Identity politics will dissolve the traditional bonds that have held Americans together, and re-bind forces of the Left and forces on the Right to each other.”

The thing is, you don’t get Hitler because of Hitler — there are always potential Hitlers out there. You get Hitler because of Weimar, and you get Weimar because the liberals are too corrupt and incompetent to maintain a liberal polity.

I just roll my eyes when people tell me that I'm too extreme or that I'm too judgmental. Especially by people who wind up in the crocodile's mouth less than 24 hours later because they don't understand that you can't negotiate with or provide any accommodation to SJWs.

SFWA. Twitter. Bleeding Cool. Indiegogo. Amazon. It's always the same attack, the same tactics, over and over and over again.

The funny thing is that conservatives like Rod Dreher are more concerned about young authors who give into the scare tactics and voluntarily unpublish themselves than they are about Amazon taking down dozens of authors in one fell swoop.

I keep talking about how in the West, we are swiftly moving into a culture that resembles communist totalitarianism — this, based on what people who grew up under communism tell me. It’s not about gulags or secret police; it’s about building a post-liberal culture defined by militant progressive ideology, and enforcing it by destroying, personally and professionally, those who dissent. Part of this is inculcating fear and self-loathing within the minds of people living in those cultures. You don’t need the secret police when you have taught people to police themselves according to your totalitarian principles.

Today the New Totalitarianism took a new scalp, in a way that ought to scare the hell out of all of us, on both the left and the right, who value free speech and inquiry. And it happened to someone born in a communist country.

Amazon takes down Castalia House

You may have noticed that you can't find any Castalia House ebooks on Amazon right now. That's because Amazon shut down our KDP account on the basis of a wildly spurious claim of publishing material to which we do not have the necessary rights. We happen to have some VERY bad news for them on that subject....

The book in question? You guessed it. Corrosion: The Collapsing Empire again. This is the second attack on that book this month, as ten days ago, they pulled the book itself down for the sixth or seventh time due to claims that it was "misleading".

From: Amazon.com [kdp-quality-assurance@amazon.com]
Sent: 21 January 2019 21:59
Subject: Notification from Amazon KDP

While reviewing the following books we found the title, cover image, descriptions and/or authors of the following book(s) are misleading to our customers:

Title: Corrosion (The Corroding Empire Book 1)
ASIN: B06XFQ24QC

As a result, the book(s) have been removed from sale from Amazon.

Not only have they shut down the account, but they sent us an email today declaring that they will not pay us any of the unpaid royalties, thereby screwing over each and every author we publish.

As last communicated in the message on January 21, 2019, we have identified the submission of content for which you did not have the necessary rights. Due to this and previous violations, we are terminating your account and your Agreement effective immediately.

As part of the termination process, we will close your KDP account and remove the books you have uploaded through our channels from sale on Amazon. Note that you are no longer eligible to receive unpaid royalties for sales that occurred prior to this termination.

Additionally, as per our Terms and Conditions, you are not permitted to open any new KDP accounts.

Of course, there were no previous violations that internal SJWs did not invent as we've been repeatedly cleared of the "misleading" charge for that book. Needless to say, we will not be taking this latest SJW attack lying down. I won't be surprised if the account is rapidly restored once we contact the manager who has been repeatedly dealing with this issue, especially since we were promised that it would never happen again after the last time.

 Of course, this is precisely why we established the Arkhaven and Catalia Direct stores, because we knew better than to trust Amazon's assurances that it would keep its SJWs under control. If you want to show support for Castalia and its authors, you can either write to Amazon and complain about this unwarranted action or pick up a print, ebook, or audiobook from one of our direct stores.

This is precisely why it is so important to a) build your own platforms and b) support the alternative platforms. This isn't just about Castalia House because the same thing can be done overnight to any author or independent publisher who utilizes KDP. And if you're a Castalia House author, please don't panic, rest assured we are already in the process of taking care of things. But if you want to send an email to Amazon protesting their unwarranted removal of your books, please feel free to do so.


UPDATE: Amazon can't even find the account information. It looks like whoever was responsible actually wiped all the data.

Help end Crohn’s disease

The development of the vaccine that many members of this blog have helped fund is at last entering human trials. If you're in the UK, you're healthy, and you're willing to put your body on the line to help cure Crohn’s disease, please consider volunteering for the trial.

HAV001 Vaccine Trial
What is the purpose of this trial?

The purpose of this study is to assess the new MAP vaccines, ChAdOx2 HAV and MVA HAV, at different doses. The study will enable us to assess the safety of the vaccines and the extent of the immune response in healthy volunteers. We will do this by giving participants one or two vaccines in addition to doing blood tests and collecting information about any symptoms that occur after vaccination. This is the first trial to use these vaccines in humans and we plan to recruit a maximum of 18 participants to be vaccinated.

What’s involved?

Number of visits: 7-12

Trial length: 3-5 months

Location: OX3 7LE

Am I eligible to participate?
You must:

Be aged 18-50 years old
Be in good health
Refrain from blood donation for the duration of the study

One Darkstream listener has already volunteered. This is a big step, as once the vaccine is proven to be harmless to healthy adults, they'll be able to test its ability to eradicate the disease from those suffering from it.

Virginia embraces abomination

The sooner the USA collapses, the better it will be for everyone, especially American children:

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D.) commented Wednesday about a controversial 40-week abortion bill and in so doing said the law allows an abortion to take place after the infant's birth.

"If a mother is in labor, I can tell you exactly what would happen. The infant would be delivered. The infant would be kept comfortable. The infant would be resuscitated if that’s what the mother and the family desired, and then a discussion would ensue between the physicians and the mother," Northam said, alluding to the physician and mother discussing whether the born infant should live or die.

A Democratic lawmaker in the Virginia House of Delegates proposed a bill Tuesday that would allow abortions through the end of the third trimester of pregnancy. The video of Delegate Kathy Tran presenting her bill led to an exchange where she admitted that her bill would allow for a mother to abort her child minutes before giving birth.

If post-birth abortion becomes legal in Virginia, I expect events are going to play out a little differently there than the abortion advocates envision.

They're worried

If this gentleman's perspective is at all indicative of the sort of logic we're going to see in the debate, it's going to be more than a little amusing for at least half the audience:

George Doehner
You should back out. You're dumb and it is clear you don't understand the material. That and your excessive reliance on logical fallacies reveals things about you that you should try to hide.

First, if I was actually dumb and did not understand the material, they would welcome this debate with great enthusiasm. The reason some of them would like me to back out is because they are correctly worried that I will present JFG with an effective argument that neither he nor they have ever seen before.

Second, their rhetoric about my "logical fallacies" is just inept midwit rhetoric. Someone who actually knows what logical fallacies are usually identifies the specific logical fallacy committed, which they cannot do because I have not committed any of them. And, of course, as most who prefer video are wont to do, they assume that I am presenting my strongest arguments in my videos. Which is understandable, I suppose, but incorrect.


UPDATE: JF and I have worked out a schedule.

• Monday February 4th, 7 PM ET: Discussion of The Revolutionary Phenotype on the Darkstream.
• Wednesday February 6th, 7 PM ET: Debate: The Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection is a valid scientific theory that is necessary to our understanding of biology on The Public Space

Build the Wall or you're fired

The God-Emperor's most loyal supporters have made it perfectly clear that if he will not do the job he was sent to Washington to do, they will fire him:

President Trump’s base of supporters remains on his side and even supportive of his temporary deal with Democrats to end the partial government shutdown, but are warning the White House that they will mutiny if the border wall isn’t built.

In a new poll of 2,700 Trump voters, nearly half would abandon him if “he fails to secure border security funds,” said a new survey by Ear to the Ground, a project by The Frontier Lab.

“The grassroots activists represented in this survey were fundamental to the president’s election. While they are still with him today, it appears the president better build the wall or his support will significantly suffer,” said Mark Meckler, president of Citizens for Self-Governance.

“Politicians have a habit of not listening. Hopefully the president will keep his ear to the ground,” added Meckler.

I have confidence in the man myself. Remember, he is first and foremost a showman.

Genetics and cognitive capability

The science, she is about as settled as science can get. No hockey sticks, just a clear picture of what a 1 SD delta looks like. Steve Sailer has more.

The Vox delusion?

My future debate opponent on the topic of evolution, JF Gariepy, addressed one of my recent Darkstreams on evolution last night:

I haven't watched it, nor will I prior to our debate, because I am presently reading his book, The Revolutionary Phenotype, and I'm much more interested in getting to the core of his assumptions than I am in learning whatever rhetoric is being utilized to analyze what was a very limited and superficial explication of my criticism of TENS.

The book is definitely interesting, but it has given me enough insight into his style of argument that I'm confident I will at least be able to present a case that he will find non-trivial even though we are engaging on intellectual ground that is considerably favorable to him given his academic background and interests.

Another fake story out of Hollywood

I'm not even remotely surprised to hear that the latest feel-good movie about how we're all the same under the skin is a complete fiction:

Green Book is a 'culturally tone deaf' portrayal of a friendship that never was.

It is a 'shameful travesty', inaccurate to the point of fiction that diminishes an exquisitely talented man and casts him as supporting actor in the story of his own life.

And for the movie to win an Oscar would be 'a slap in the face for communities of color.'

This is the view of Dr Donald Shirley's family, speaking out in the week that the movie, billed as a heartwarming tale of the unlikely friendship between the black pianist and an Italian American who was briefly his driver, is nominated for five Oscars including Best Picture and Best Actor and Supporting Actor.

The movie focuses on a tour of the segregated south undertaken by Shirley at the height of the Jim Crow era in 1962.

Written by Nick Vallelonga, it charts the supposed friendship that grew between Shirley and the screenwriter's father Tony 'Lip' Vallelonga.

But today, in an exclusive interview with DailyMailTV, Shirley's last surviving brother, Maurice, 82, has slammed the movie, for which no family members were consulted, as 'a symphony of lies.'

These movies are designed to make white people feel good about themselves. Which, of course, is why so many black people rightly despise them.

Mailvox: the influence of Jordan Peterson

You don't have to be completely ignorant to be a Jordan Peterson fan. But it obviously helps. A lot. A discussion of the importance of evil and how the recognition of evil tends to lead the rational man in the direction of good and God.

The recognition of evil thing is all over Christian works

Nope. This is a very specific argument, it's nuance, it's direction and flow, was not at all common, or all-over, before Peterson's rise to prominence. Its entire nuance is directed at modern materialist atheists, moral relativists, and nihilsm. The flow generally describes how the acceptance of true evil requires "something more" "beyond rationality". It describes how the recognition of evil can help get someone closer to accepting metaphysical moral framework. Then ultimately intimates how you might be able to logically go from an acceptance of metaphysical Evil to metaphysical Good to metaphysical God.

I highly doubt you will find that on copies of that detailed argument on the cover of the watchtower. There's likely somewhat similar arguments have been made somewhere at some time, but that is beside the point. Peterson made this largely unique and detailed argument and it was not common or mainstream before that. Vox's whole flow and direction of the argument is directly analogous to Peterson's... Further, Peterson isn't the one claiming its "his" argument. Vox and Owen are.

I'll eat crow if you can find Vox making this argument before Peterson blew up with Bill C-16.

First, Jordan Peterson is totally incapable of producing any ideas that are both a) new and b) coherent. I grant that he is observably able to produce hitherto unknown incoherencies that have never been bafflegarbled before.

Second, I recommend that the gentleman try Tapatío on his crow.

• Letter to Common Sense Atheism I 
• Letter to Commen Sense Atheism II

They are hardly the only references to my Argument from Evil that can be found on this blog or in my books, but they should suffice to demonstrate that Jordan Peterson is not, has never been, and will never be, any sort of intellectual influence on me.

The consequences of Russiagate

The most important consequences are not likely to be the outcome of the Mueller investigation or even the re-election of the God-Emperor, but the way in which it has further destroyed faith in the liberal democratic system pushed by the neo-liberal world order everywhere from Moscow to Tokyo. This Russian perspective is very much not limited to the Russian people:

What should interest us is how Russiagate allegations have tarnished America’s democratic reputation in Russia and thereby undermined the pro-American arguments of Russia’s liberal democrats, who were never a very potent political or electoral force and whose fortunes have already declined in recent years. Consider the following:

 - Russian democrats argue that their country’s elections are manipulated and unfair, including, but not only, those that put and kept Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin. “Patriotic nationalists” now reply that Russiagate rests on the allegation, widely reported and believed in the United States, that an American presidential election was successfully manipulated on behalf of the desired candidate and that the entire US electoral system may be vulnerable to manipulation.

- Russian democrats protest that oligarchic and other money has corrupted Russian politics. Their opponents argue that special counsel Robert Mueller’s convictions and other indictments - in the cases of Paul Manafort and Michael Cohen, for example -prove that American political life is no less corrupt financially.

- Going back to Soviet times and continuing today, a major complaint of Russian democrats has been the shadowy, malevolent role played by intelligence agencies, particularly the KGB and its successor organization. Patriotic nationalists point to disclosures that their US institutional counterparts, the CIA and FBI, played a secretive and major role in the origins of Russiagate allegations against Trump as a presidential candidate and since his inauguration.

- Russian democratic dissidents have long protested, and been stifled by, varying degrees of official censorship. Their Russian opponents argue that campaigns now underway in the United States against “Russian disinformation” in the media are a form of American censorship.

- Many Russians distrust their media, particularly “mainstream” state media. Their opponents retort that American mainstream media is no better, having undertaken a kind of “war” against President Trump and along the way having had to retract dozens of widely circulated stories. In this connection, we may wonder what Russian skeptics made of an astonishingly revealing statement by the media critic of The New York Times - an authoritative newspaper in Russia as well - on January 21 that the “ultimate prize” for leading American journalists is having “helped bring down a president.” By now, Americans may not be shocked by such a repudiation by the Times of its own professed mission and standards, but for Russian journalists, who have long looked to the paper as a model, the reaction was likely profound disillusionment.

The Neo-Western model has long been viewed askance by the global East and South. But not until very recently has it actually looked inferior to the alternative post-Communist systems that are now on the rise and competing effectively in Africa and Asia.

There will be debate

JF Gariepy of The Public Space and author of The Revolutionary Phenotype mentioned in a recent stream that he would like to debate me on the topic of the theory of evolution by natural selection. I have told him that I am willing to do so after I read his book, and he graciously sent me a copy.

I understand that his interest was piqued by two of my recent Darkstreams:

• The descent of the theory of evolution by natural selection
• The education of the evolutionist

This isn't going to happen immediately, since I have to read the book first and I'm not exactly lacking for occupation at the moment. But it will happen, sooner or later, and it should be an interesting opportunity for people on both sides of the question to be exposed to some new ideas and perspectives. Perhaps, as with the free trade debate, we'll even get a new book out of it.

Con tutto rispetto

If you want to know how to not pique someone's interest, this may serve as a useful primer.

hassel buske
"I have proven my ability to dismantle theories that are wildly accepted." Well, do flat earth next then.


Darkstream
No. I don't care if the Sun revolves around the Earth or vice-versa.


Marty Leeds Live
You don't care about true cosmology? You don't care about the world being awash in lies about the nature of the creation? You don't care about the notion that, through the manipulation of our cosmology, those in power have replaced creation with accident? Of course you care. You are too smart NOT to care.

I say this out of respect, but it us one of the most absurd things to say that essentially, "our cosmology doesn't matter."

I am writing this here as a fairly big voice in the FE discussion. If you or your audience ever want to have a reasonable conversation about this, feel free to give me a shout. Blessings.


Darkstream
What part of "I don't care" was hard to understand? Not everyone shares my interests, and obviously, I don't share yours.


Marty Leeds Live
That was incredibly fucking condescending, Vox. I said my reply was "out of respect."

For your information, I'm no fucking dummy. I'm not just another blowhard on the internet commenting randomly. I teach, lecture, host a podcast and have written 5 books about a litany of very dense subjects such as linguistics, symbolism, mathematics and comparative mythology so spare me the slanderous insinuations about my lack of intelligence, i.e

 "What didn't you understand?" I can understand your English just fine Mr. Day. OBVIOUSLY I am simply challenging your conviction and opinion with my response. If you honestly don't care about the model or cosmology that we live in, if you honestly don't care about the entirety of humanity possibly being lied to about our home, if you don't care about billions of dollars going to space organizations who can be proven  to be 100% fraudulent, then you are a complete fool, feigning like you are some profound thinker.

P.S. Hey Vox...your arrogance, ignorance and ego is showing. It's not a good look on you.

Whatever shall we do?

Churchianity is not Christianity

Some people are offended by Mike Cernovich's recent observations:

Christianity has given us a country where 11 year olds dance for adult men who throw dollars on the stage.

Christianity gave us a church that molested children and sold out their flock (Covington) to the left.

A moderated form of Islam is probably the West’s only hope.

Keep in mind this is the master troll who so befuddled Seth Rogan's wife that she claimed she cheated on Rogan with him. Cernovich isn't condemning Christianity per se, he is correctly condemning the near-total failure of Christians to defend their churches and their nation.

And we deserve that condemnation. We Christians let this happen, all because we were too afraid that someone would call us "racist" or "judgemental" or "anti-semitic". We failed to hate the wicked. We failed to reject the sons of the Devil and the people of the Lie. We sought the approval of the world, and in doing so, reaped the inevitable whirlwind.

HOAXED is out

HOAXED, the new documentary produced by Mike Cernovich, is now out and available on demand. We're all working on upping our video game, but Cerno is really taking it to an entirely new level. Director Scooter Downey did an excellent job of putting together an entirely professional film production.

Laying down the audio law

I fully expect these two books by Lawdog to rapidly become our bestselling audiobooks because there is literally NOTHING better to listen to on a long car drive with the family. The vehicle was literally shaking with laughter for hours, and quotes from the two books were being  regularly dropped into conversation over the entire course of the conversation. We literally couldn't sit down to eat without someone intoning in a high-pitched voice: “As God is my witness, I’ll never go hungry again!” Which was inevitably followed by shrieks of laughter.

Do you know how people often tell you something is funny, but when you actually watch it, or read it, or listen to it, you don't see what the fuss was all about? Yeah, that's not the case here. Both Lawdog books are reliably much funnier and more insightful than you're expecting it can possibly be.

Both The Lawdog Files and The Lawdog Files: African Adventures are now available as high-quality DRM-free audiobooks at Arkhaven.

THE LAWDOG FILES

LawDog had the honor of representing law and order in the Texas town of Bugscuffle as a sheriff's deputy, where he became notorious for, among other things, the famous Case of the Pink Gorilla Suit. In The LawDog Files, he chronicles his official encounters with everything from naked bikers, combative eco-warriors, suicidal drunks, respectful methheads, prison tattoo artists, and creepy children to six-foot chickens and lethal chihuahuas.

The LawDog Files range from the bittersweet to the explosively hilarious, as LawDog relates his unforgettable experiences in a laconic, self-deprecating manner that is funny in its own right. The audiobook is more than mere entertainment, it is an education in two English dialects, Police and Texas Country. And underlying the humor is an unmistakable sympathy for society's less fortunate - and in most cases, significantly less intelligent - whose encounters with the law are an all-too-frequent affair. 4 hours, 29 minutes. $9.99


THE LAWDOG FILES: AFRICAN ADVENTURES

LawDog had the honor of representing law and order in the Texas town of Bugscuffle as a sheriff's deputy, where he became notorious for, among other things, the famous Case of the Pink Gorilla Suit. But long before he first put on the deputy's star, he grew up in Nigeria, where his experiences were equally unforgettable.

In The Lawdog Files: African Adventures, LawDog chronicles his encounters with everything from bush pilots, 15-foot pythons, pygmy mongooses, brigadier-captains, and Peace Corp hippies to the Nigerian space program. The Lawdog Files: African Adventures is every bit as hilarious as the previous volume, as LawDog relates his unforgettable experiences in a laconic, self-deprecating manner that is funny in its own right. Africa wins again, and again, and again, but so too does the reader in this sobering but hilarious collection of true tales from the Dark Continent. 4 hours, 11 minutes. $9.99.

Always hit back

The First Lady demonstrates to the defamed and the deplatformed the correct way to respond to a media attack:

Following last Saturday’s (Jan 19) Telegraph magazine cover story “The mystery of Melania”, we have been asked to make clear that the article contained a number of false statements which we accept should not have been published. Mrs Trump’s father was not a fearsome presence and did not control the family.  Mrs Trump did not leave her Design and Architecture course at University relating to the completion of an exam, as alleged in the article, but rather because she wanted to pursue a successful career as a professional model. Mrs Trump was not struggling in her modelling career before she met Mr Trump, and she did not advance in her career due to the assistance of Mr Trump.

We accept that Mrs Trump was a successful professional model in her own right before she met her husband and obtained her own modelling work without his assistance. Mrs Trump met Mr Trump in 1998, not in 1996 as stated in the article. The article also wrongly claimed that Mrs Trump’s mother, father and sister relocated to New York in 2005 to live in buildings owned by Mr Trump.  They did not. The claim that Mrs Trump cried on election night is also false.

We apologise unreservedly to The First Lady and her family for any embarrassment caused by our publication of these allegations.  As a mark of our regret we have agreed to pay Mrs Trump substantial damages as well as her legal costs.

Do your homework, review the law, and then hit them back hard. Neither the media companies nor the social media companies are protected by the law, and the fact that they are accustomed to getting away with making provably false claims and committing illegal acts does not mean that one has to permit them to do so.

Remember, the law is different in different jurisdictions, and the reach of the Internet will often allow you to take action in a jurisdiction that is considerably less favorable to the libelists and slanderers than the various US states.

A Christian stoic

I rather admire the philosophy expressed by Ben Watson, the New Orleans tight end, at the end of his career:

“I am not a great football player. I am not a Hall of Famer. But I learned that’s okay. I’m steady. I’m reliable. And I have other interests. I am a strong Christian. I am interested in lots of other issues in life. Then, I got to be known for some of the things I wrote, some of the things I said. God was working at that time. He can lift your name up and make you known. Or you’ve got a different role. It sucks sometimes. I would have loved to be running those slant-and-go’s for big yards, but it wasn’t my time. On the other hand, I was speaking on the things happening in the country. It opened doors for me in terms of helping people. I learned this from God: ‘Be faithful when your name is in lights. Be faithful when your name is not in lights.’

His ability to calmly reflect on his own limitations is especially impressive considering the level of disappointment he must still be feeling after being robbed of the chance to finish his career on the game's ultimate stage.

The Greeks, the Romans, the English, and the old Americans all understood that sports played an important role in the formation of a man.

Must be that 115 IQ

Remember, Harvard law professor Laurence Tribe is only successful because he is so much more intelligent than you are. Although I have to admit, I do fight it a little remarkable that Mr. Tribe, who is just as American as any Son or Daughter of the American Revolution, somehow managed to become famous for being a "constitutional law scholar" despite obviously not knowing that the SENATE Majority Leader does not appoint members of the House of Representatives to House committees.

NO CONSPIRACY! Remember that. NO CONSPIRACY!

Go West on audio

Both books of Peter Grant's very well-regarded Western series, The Ames Archives, are now available in high-quality, DRM-free MP4 format on the Arkhaven store.

BRINGS THE LIGHTNING

When the Civil War ends, where can a former Confederate soldier go to escape the long memories of neighbors who supported the winning side? Where can Johnny Reb go when he can’t go home?

He can go out west, where the land is hard, where there is danger on every side, and where no one cares for whom you fought – only how well you can do it. Walt Ames, a former cavalryman with the First Virginia, is headed west with little more than a rifle, a revolver, and a pocket full of looted Yankee gold. But in his way stand bushwhackers, bluecoats, con men, and the ever-restless Indians. 7 hours, 57 minutes. $11.99.

ROCKY MOUNTAIN RETRIBUTION

Ambushed on their way south, Walt and his men uncover a web of corruption and crime to rival anything in the big city. And rough justice, Western-style, sparks a private war between Walt and some of the most dangerous killers he’s ever encountered, a deadly war in which neither friends nor family are spared.

Across the mountains and valleys of the southern Rocky Mountains, Walt and his men hunt for the ruthless man at the center of the web. Retribution won’t be long delayed…and it cannot be denied. 8 hours, 40 minutes. $11.99.

Predicting the past

This is a useful exchange about linguistics that many TENS defenders really need to read and take to heart:

Q: When the weatherman makes a prediction, we call it a forecast. If a scientist makes an estimate about something in the past (ex. the cost of a candy bar in 1850), what do we call it?

A: A forecast is an extrapolation; it uses past and present observations to predict the future. To take a simple example, if I give you the series of data from successive years as 2,4,6,8 ... you may reasonably extrapolate forwards to forecast that the next year's number is 10. A hindcast (this is the term you are looking for) is also an extrapolation from a set of past observations to a time previous to those observations. For example, if I give you 15, 12, 9 for three years, you may reasonably extrapolate backwards to hindcast that in the previous two years the numbers were 21 and 18.

I would prefer the term "postdiction" to refer to what evolutionists commonly do when they are backtesting claims based on their TENS-flavored theories. This is, of course, in response to a gentleman who was insisting that the past can be predicted:

Vox, you can make predictions about history and past events that are not yet known but your theory predicts and such predictions have been made and found in the field of evolution. Ah I understand your confusion.  You are linking evolution to financial modeling.  The problem with that is that once you have a financial model and use it; the market adapts to that model such that it is no longer predictive because other people will copy the model so you cannot beat them. Genetecists not agreeing and being wrong about the gene mutation rate is not

To which I replied:

A prediction of a past event is not a prediction. Predictions do not concern the predictor's present knowledge, they concern actual events taking place in the future. If I "predict" that the New York Yankees won a World Series game prior to 1950 - and I honestly don't know since I don't follow baseball - that does not make my statement a correct prediction if it turns out to be correct. Your core conception of "prediction" is false. Prediction is not based on knowledge of events, it is based on the timing of events. Look at the etymology of the word. "to say BEFORE". That means before it HAPPENS, not before you happen to learn about it. What you are describing would be better described as postdiction.

Of course, TENS has proven to be a near-complete failure even as a postdictive model. The interesting thing is that outside the topic of evolution, atheists and other skeptics tend to abhor postdiction and regard it as being indicative of intellectual sleight-of-hand.

Remain embraces Leave

If the British Members of Parliament are foolish enough to force a second referendum on leaving the European Union on the British people, they're going to be shocked by how many more people vote for Leave. As a result of their devious, anti-democratic machinations, even die-hard Remainers are publicly endorsing No Deal Brexit.

It's time to end this one way or another. I've written about the dangers of a No Deal Brexit. I believe they are real, not some Project Fear construct. But we cannot continue with this paralysis.

There is nothing MPs will learn about Brexit in nine months, or nine weeks, or nine days that they do not know today. The time for more excuses, extensions and procedural sophistry is at an end.

Many MPs think that, by blocking all other avenues, voters will opt to stay, rather than risk No Deal. But they are dangerously deluded. If forced to choose between No Brexit or No Deal, most people will opt for No Deal. And I know this because I'm one of them.

MPs have had their chance. They've had their opportunity to set aside their petty differences and allegiances and vanities. And they have failed.

I was a committed Remainer. But this morning I'm now a hard-Brexiteer. I finally understand where the anger comes from.

I don't think the treasonous MPs will be successful, in part because it is becoming obvious that the public is going to turn on them with a vengeance, in part because the Queen has made her position on the matter clear in her own subtle way. This is probably all political thud and blunder of no consequence whatsoever. But, until the act is successfully accomplished, it cannot be considered done and dusted.