The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Off To The Side

Posted on | December 20, 2015 | 8 Comments

— by Wombat-socho

For someone who’s allegedly been spending a lot of his time studying up on stuff for the upcoming tax season, I sure have been doing a lot of non-tax reading…probably because after watching a couple hours of training videos, my brain turns to mud. Anyway, the main topic of this week’s post is going to be some books by C.J. Cherryh, who does aliens and alienation like few other SF authors. She’s mainly known for Downbelow Station, her Hugo-winning novel about the three-way clash between Earth, the almost-renegade Earth Company Fleet, and the rebel stars of Union. This novel is the launching point for her vast Alliance/Union universe, which includes most of Cherryh’s work aside from her fantasy novels and the Foreigner series. The first of these books that I’ve been reading is Forty Thousand in Gehenna, which recounts the tale of a Union colony deliberately abandoned at the tail end of the Company War and its rediscovery by the Alliance. This is a depressing book for the most part; the Union colonists have no clue that they’re being deliberately set adrift, their azi workers are completely unequipped psychologically to survive the breakdown of the colony, and matters only get worse when the native, reptilian (and possibly intelligent) calibans become involved. A very disturbing novel; one is never sure whether the humans on Gehenna have become used to the calibans or whether the calibans are using humans for their own inscrutable ends. Unfortunately out of print except as part of the Alliance Space omnibus, which also includes the short novel Merchanter’s Luck

Also from C.J. Cherryh are the Chanur novels, available in three volumes: The Chanur Saga, which contains The Pride of Chanur, Chanur’s Venture, and The Kif Strike Back, and the remaining books, Chanur’s Homecoming and Chanur’s Legacy which are available separately on Kindle and also as a two-book paperback collection which I can’t seem to find on Amazon. Anyhow, the Chanur novels are especially interesting because they’re told from the alien perspective of Pyanfar Chanur, captain of the hani merchant starship Pride of Chanur, which one day acquires a strange new crewman: a human by the name of Tully, whose very presence on her decks promises to destabilize the entire Compact between hani, mahendosat, stsho, kif, and the methane-breathing tc’a, chi and Knnn, who are difficult to understand at best and impossible at worst. Pyanfar finds herself unwillingly thrust into a position of political prominence among the hani – a Personage, as the mahedosat say – as she desperately copes with the political maneuverings of the mahendosat, the lethal infighting of the kif, the highly unstable and unreliable stsho, and the looming threat of a human incursion. Tully himself is a frustrating character – since the stories are all told from a hani perspective, most of the time you can’t tell what he’s trying to say any better than Pyanfar or Hilfy (Pyanfar’s niece) can. Tremendously tense novels, whose relationship to the rest of the Alliance/Union books remains unclear until close to the end of the original tetralogy.

I also picked up the second novel in Vaughn Heppner’s Lost Starship series, The Lost Command, wherein Captain Maddox has to get his crew back together to rescue the missing Professor Ludendorff, repair the alien, millenia-old starship Victory, and help a beleaguered Star Watch fleet pull out a badly needed victory against the New Men. This is a step up from routine enjoyable brain candy, and I’m looking forward a lot to the next two books.

I cannot, for the life of me, understand why Baen or somebody else hasn’t brought all of the late Joel Rosenberg’s books back into print. Perhaps best known for his two combat SF novels about the Metzada Mercenary Corps, Hero and Not for Glory, Rosenberg also did a couple of other novels in the setting of the Thousand Worlds, Emile and the Dutchman and Ties of Blood and Silver. These are listed as books 2 and 1 of the Metzada series, but they really aren’t; there is a character in Emile and the Dutchman who is a Metzadan, and in Ties of Blood and Silver one of the characters talks about hiring a Metzadan as a swordsmanship teacher, but neither of these books is at all like the other two, and if you go into it thinking these are going to be about Metzada and the MMC, you’re going to be disappointed. (SPOILER – despite Ties of Blood and Silver, being set on Oroga, you don’t find out if Shimon Bar-El took the payoff or not, either.) That having been said, Emile and the Dutchman is a pretty good string of first contact stories strung together with some connective verbiage (letters from the protagonist, mostly) and Ties of Blood and Silver is…different. The cynical protagonist, who makes his living as a thief in the seedier parts of Oroga’s slums, finds himself with an affinity to the alien schtann, and most of the novel revolves around his gradual realization that belonging to the schrift of the precious metal workers is in fact his destiny. It’s a good read.

This is probably a good place to mention that my new book, What Did You Do In The Cold War, Dad? is available on Amazon for the Kindle. Reviews are very welcome!

Category: Books

What Went Through The Moderator’s Mind At The #DemDebate

Posted on | December 20, 2015 | 14 Comments

by Smitty

Category: Democrats, Hillary Clinton

The Revolutionary Losers League

Posted on | December 20, 2015 | 17 Comments

Strange news from Tokyo:

Anti-Christmas protesters calling themselves “Losers with Women” marched through Tokyo’s streets Saturday, bashing the upcoming holiday as a capitalist ploy that also discriminates against singletons.
The group of about 20 — part of the Communist-inspired group that routinely protests Western holidays — marched under angry banners that read “Smash Christmas!” in Tokyo’s Shibuya district, where couples and families strolled for holiday shopping.
The scrooges — mostly single men — said they were against capitalism and were opposed to the commercialisation of Christmas.
“In this world, money is extracted from people in love, and happy people support capitalism,” said the head of the organisation, formally called Kakumeiteki Hi-mote Domei, or the Revolutionary Losers’ League.
“Christmas is the most symbolic event for this,” he added.
The man . . . said the rally was also in support of unloved men.
“Unpopular men, who don’t have a girlfriend or are not married, are overly discriminated. We want to break this barrier,” he told AFP amid the shouting protesters.

In America, guys like this call themselves “Democrats.”

(Via Memeorandum.)

 

Category: Japan

You’re Too ‘Empowered,’ Darling

Posted on | December 19, 2015 | 55 Comments

Amanda Leigh is a funny writer, who writes about dating, and is capable of clever sentences like, “If you can’t tell whether he’s gay or straight, he’s gay,” and “Finding a tall employed man with values in Los Angeles is like finding a unicorn.” But her dating life is actually a failure, as is the case of most people who write about dating. What is the object of the game? To find The One. So as long as you’re still dating, you’re a loser.

The only dating advice young people should ever listen to is advice from happily married people. Their advice will likely be “old-fashioned.” Why? Because old-fashioned works. Old-fashioned is good. Amanda Leigh is not old-fashioned:

I can read a man like a book. But I haven’t always been that way. I had to get seriously played to learn the game. . . . In other words, I’ve been hurt, surprised, upset, shocked, duped, and manipulated enough to consider myself a seasoned dater.

This is the modern “empowered” feminist attitude: All of her previous romantic relationships were failures, so listen to Amanda Leigh, because she knows what’s she’s talking about!

Ladies: Do not follow the herd. Do not let yourself be “played.” Do not imagine that you are going to become the first woman ever to survive the hook-up culture without damage. Talk of promiscuity as “empowerment” is nonsense. Speaking of nonsense and failure, Amanda Leigh tried dating via Tinder:

I’ve gone out on over 10 dates and communicated with at least 50 guys since joining. . . .  An accountant told me he was afraid to ask me out again because he felt intimidated by me. Someone needs to grow a set. I had a great date and make out sesh with a hot photographer. He said he wanted to see me again and then disappeared.

You see the problem. Amanda Leigh is a type. The caution accountant, a shrewd just of risk, found her intimidating. The “hot” guy got a make-out session on the first date, but she can’t understand why he “disappeared” after that.

Amanda: You were being tested. Lots of girls want to make out with the “hot” guy. He might have been impressed if you had resisted the opportunity. Be old-fashioned, and especially strive to resist the guys you find irresistible.

But some of your advice, frankly, is just plain crap:

If he refuses to get a pedicure because it’s not manly, he will not go with you to see a therapist to work on your relationship issues. He has too much pride.

WHAT FRESH HELL IS THIS? A guy has to get a pedicure in order to prove he’s willing to “see a therapist to work on your relationship issues”? This is a flashing red-light warning, guys. She’s thinking so far ahead, she’s got your first therapy session planned, because you have “too much pride.” The accountant’s caution was so wise, in retrospect.

Therapy causes divorce. There, I’ve said. The belief that your “relationship issues” require intervention by “experts” is a surrender flag, a confession of incompetence. As a matter of fact, I would advise against dating anyone who uses a phrase like “relationship issues.” That kind of therapeutic jargon indicates either she’s got “issues” of her own — which probably explains why she doesn’t already have a boyfriend –or else she’s the type who sits around reading self-help psychology books about “relationships.” She’s a compulsive over-thinker, in other words.

Confident people aren’t always second-guessing their decisions. They don’t sit around critiquing their partners or relationships. Confident people are decisive. They take action, and accept responsibility for the consequences.

So much feminist talk about “empowerment” is a counterfeit substitute for real confidence. “Empowerment” is whistling past the graveyard, pretending you know what you’re doing, no matter how badly you’re doing it. By contrast, real confidence is based on success. You are confident because you are competent, and you don’t need a therapist to tell you how to cope with your problems.

Why do we get such horror stories from the dating scene? Because all the good people are already in relationships, that’s why. The good people found each other and are living happy lives together, which leaves the dating scene full of bad people. It may be tempting for an attractive young person to develop a perfectionist attitude, to keep chasing around in search of romantic adventure, but it’s like a game of musical chairs. The world seems full of exciting possibilities when you’re 18 or 21, but if you stay in the game too long, you begin to get the sense that you’re picking through a pile of castoffs and discards — dating people who weren’t good enough for somebody else. They’ve been dumped and rejected, and are carrying around the emotional damage they suffered as a result of those broken promises and broken hearts.

If you find somebody good, close the deal. Get married and stay married, and make a point of being happy about it. Do not for a moment envy those single friends of yours or think about whether the grass is greener on the other side of the fence. Be old-fashioned and enjoy grazing in your own pasture. Consider the story Amanda Leigh tells about how she thought she’d found the perfect guy, only to get dumped once again:

Men consistently say they don’t want to hurt a woman’s feelings but they do it in ways that seem so ridiculous, uncaring, and avoidable. Many men project that having a relationship is a bad thing — that all women are a hassle or take up too much time because they have been in relationships with unhealthy women in the past. It’s not fair to those of us who are healthy, self-sufficient, independent, creative, and understanding. I’m not your ex-girlfriend or your ex-wife. My intention in partnership is to both thrive and be more successful together than we are apart. Not to weigh anyone down. Myself included.
How does someone go from full speed ahead to a screeching halt like that? If he had told me in the beginning that he isn’t looking for a relationship I would not have gone out with him.

Amanda: You are too “empowered,” darling. If you want to domesticate a male, be domestic. Cultivate your inner June Cleaver. Strive to convey that you are not part of the dating herd. You are old-fashioned — the marrying type — and you are not looking for a mere “relationship,” but a ring and a wedding, a picket-fence suburban home and three kids to drive to soccer practice. If you are confident in your own value, why sell yourself short?

Be old-fashioned. Old-fashioned works. Old-fashioned is good.

 

Category: Sex Trouble

FMJRA 2.0: Achtung Baby

Posted on | December 19, 2015 | 2 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Rule 5 Sunday: Farewell To The Slave Princess
Regular Right Guy
Animal Magnetism
Ninety Miles from Tyranny
A View from the Beach
Batshit Crazy News
Proof Positive

FMJRA 2.0: Flowtation
Regular Right Guy
The Pirate’s Cove
A View from the Beach
Batshit Crazy News

The ‘Diversity’ Hustle
Batshit Crazy News

Further Thoughts on ‘Diversity’ and the Ritual Suicide of American Culture
Batshit Crazy News

In The Mailbox, 12.14.15
A View from the Beach
Proof Positive

In The Mailbox, 12.15.15
A View from the Beach
Proof Positive

Fear and Loathing: An Oberlin Feminist on Men, Republicans and Heterosexuality
Regular Right Guy

In The Mailbox: 12.16.15
Regular Right Guy
Batshit Crazy News
Proof Positive

In The Mailbox: 12.17.15
A View from the Beach
Batshit Crazy News
Proof Positive

Quota-Mongers, Gender Nihilism and the Insane Logic of Radical Feminist Theory
Regular Right Guy
Batshit Crazy News

In The Mailbox: 12.18.15
Batshit Crazy News
Proof Positive

Friday Fiction: 100 Word Challenge
Batshit Crazy News

Top linkers this week:

  1.  Batshit Crazy News (9)
  2.  (tied) A View from the Beach, Proof Positive, and Regular Right Guy (5)

Thanks to everyone for their linkagery! Keep an eye out Monday morning for Return of the Son of the Bride ofLive At FiveConquers The Martians!


Achtung Baby (Deluxe Edition)

Category: Live at Five

I Hope Lorne Michaels Feels A Twist Of Anguish Over The @TedCruz SNL Ad

Posted on | December 19, 2015 | 3 Comments

by Smitty

I hope that enough conservatives tune in to watch this on SNL tonight that Lorne the Liberal Tool has an inkling of just how much viewership he’s leaving on the table in the name of being an Obama/Clinton sycophant.

Tina Fey and Amy Poehler are co-hosting. Could be funny. Musical guest is Bruce Springsteen. I think I remember a time when Bruce kinda rocked.

via Instapundit

Category: NBC, Ted Cruz, Video

Bernie Sanders Sues Democrat Party

Posted on | December 19, 2015 | 15 Comments

 

Allegations of favoritism:

Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-Vt.) campaign sued the Democratic National Committee in federal court Friday evening following the suspension of his campaign from the DNC’s voter database after a security breach.
The suit claims that the campaign is losing $600,000 in donations each day that it does not have access to the data, and adds that the “damage to the campaign’s political viability as a result of being unable to communicate with constituents and voters, is far more severe, and incapable of measurement.”
The DNC barred Sanders from accessing the party’s voter file, which includes much of his campaign’s voter data, after a campaign staffer improperly accessed private data belonging to front-runner Hillary Clinton’s campaign. The vendor hired by the party to maintain the data accidentally created the security vulnerability during an update, the DNC says.
The Sanders campaign fired a supervisory staffer involved in the incident and has gone on the warpath Friday claiming that the DNC overreacted and is trying to aid Clinton’s campaign.

The question occurs: Why are rival Democrat campaigns both sharing the same database? But the finger-point goes both ways:

Brian Fallon, a Clinton campaign spokesman, called into CNN tonight, very angry about the reported 24 separate intrusions by the Sanders campaign. He said this was a clear “act of theft, stealing data from the Clinton campaign,” and Sanders isn’t living up to that “different kind of campaign” he promised.
“They were very productive,” Fallon told Wolf Blitzer. “They were like kids in a candy store, Wolf. They had about 40 minutes where they ran wild.”

The Democrat Party is a gang of thieves, organized to screw over taxpayers, but always willing to screw over each other, too. Somebody should write a book . . . Oh, wait . . .

 

Category: Democrats

Friday Fiction: 100 Word Challenge

Posted on | December 18, 2015 | 2 Comments

by Smitty

“I get it; the interplay between the geometric precision of the arches in the vaulted roof, the straightness of the pillars and the squares of the floor, against the snapshot of chaos, as the simulated tsunami crashes through the windows, with the unevenness of the edge on the floor pointing out how the random nature of reality mocks all of our mortal vanity. What do you call the piece?”
“Climate Change.”
“Really? The commission?”
“Six figures from the National Endowment for the Arts.”
“My tax dollars bought this?”
“Yes.”
“I’ll offer a Mel Brooks reference,” reaching for his zipper.

via Darleen, with apologies, as hers was better.

Category: Friday Fiction
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