The Other McCain

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

‘A Reprobate Mind’

Posted on | January 22, 2018 | Comments Off on ‘A Reprobate Mind’

Emperor Nero (left); Aziz Ansari (right).

The Greek word adokimon can be translated as “depraved,” “unacceptable” or “foolish.” It is used exactly once in New Testament, in the first chapter of the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Romans, where the King James Version translates it as “reprobate”:

“And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient . . .”

In other words, those who reject God thereby bring upon themselves a curse of mental depravity which causes them to behave in ways harmful to themselves and others. The King James wording “things which are not convenient” is a translation of a Greek phrase that includes the word kathikonta. This word mean “duties,” and is significant in the Stoic tradition of philosophy:

From this view, man should live in accordance with one’s nature. Kathikonta are the appropriate or fitting actions and duties of our lives, in accordance with our nature, such as being kind to one’s parents, etc. When appropriate action is combined with genuine virtue and logic, such actions are viewed as perfect actions . . . the action of a wise man.

Paul’s use of kathikonta in his letter to the Romans suggests not only his own familiarity with Hellenistic philosophy, but also shows how he appealed to the sensibility of his readership, by employing terms they would understand. Thus, he told the Romans, those who reject God are cursed with a “reprobate” (adokimon) mind, and behave in “inconvenient” ways, i.e., contrary to moral duties (kathikonta).

Who was the Apostle describing here? Paul was not only a missionary evangelist and teacher, but also a prophet, and students of Roman history may find in this famous passage of his letter to the Romans a remarkably accurate description of the Emperor Nero. At the time Paul wrote this letter in about 55 A.D., he was in the Greek city of Corinth and had never been to Rome, so it would have been impossible for him to know anything about the character of Nero, who had become emperor a year earlier, at age 16. Yet when Paul writes of people so wicked that “God gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts” (Romans 1:24) and “God gave them up unto vile affections” (Romans 1:26), this is a near-perfect description of the immoral decadence of Nero’s reign. This famous passage of the Bible came to mind when I was pondering a more recent example of immoral decadence:

“I hate men. . . . He wanted sex.”
Those two brief sentences were texted by a 22-year-old girl during an Uber ride home from a date with 34-year-old TV star Aziz Ansari. Her account of their September 2017 date as “the worst night of my life” went viral last week, generating an enormous amount of commentary. Using the pseudonym “Grace,” she told her story to a website, Babe.net (motto: “for girls who don’t give a f–k”) where it was presented as part of the #MeToo feminist narrative about sexual assault and “rape culture.” Immediately, Grace’s story came under fire because her own behavior was so irresponsible. . . .
The breathless “worst night of my life” emotionalism of the story obscures the objective reality, which is that Ansari’s behavior, while crude and selfish, was neither violent nor criminal. He never forced her to do anything, and the real question is, what did Grace expect when she went to back to his apartment? It is clear from her story that Ansari presumed she wanted to have sex with him, but just as clear that she was offended by his presumption. . . .

Please read the whole thing. It’s more than 4,000 words long, and I spent an entire day writing it, so if you find it in any way useful or entertaining, I hope you’ll throw a few bucks in the tip jar.



 

Category: History, Religion, Sex Trouble

Rule 5 Sunday: Patriots Cheerleaders

Posted on | January 21, 2018 | 3 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Apparently the Eagles took out the Vikings today as well, which means it’s going to be the Pats & Iggles in the Super Bowl. Woo. In more important sports news, it’s 23 days until pitchers & catchers report to spring training! In the meantime, though, let’s enjoy some Patriots cheerleaders.

The Pats’ cheerleaders from December 2016. Quite festive!

Ninety Miles From Tyranny opens the dance with Hot Pick Of The Late Night, The 90 Miles Mystery Box Episode #139, Morning Mistress, and Girls With Guns; Animal Magnetism follows with Rule Five Dynasties Ending Friday and a Saturday Brunettenarok!

EBL brings us the late Dolores O’Riordan, Gene Tierney, Mila Kunis, Freaky Fashion, Riley Keough, Maple Syrup Women, and National Cheese Lovers Day.

A View From The Beach has Rule 5 Saturday – Marzaan Kalis, Snowmobiling Into Frosty Friday, Emergency Morning Post, Morning Music – “Solid Potato Salad”, But To Be Fair, Writing Is Hard, Dolores O’Riordan, Cranberry Singer Dies At 46, #HerToo: Eliza Dushku’s Hollywood Horror Story, SJWs Rag On Emrat Over Hair Care Comment and Hawkish Fire Starters?

Proof Positive’s Friday Night Babe is Darby Stanchfield, his Vintage Babe is Joan Vohs, and Sex in Advertising is covered by Victoria’s Secret. At Dustbury, it’s Florrie and Karishma Kotak.

Thanks to everyone for the luscious linkagery!

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Category: Rule 5

A Jihad in Minnesota

Posted on | January 21, 2018 | Comments Off on A Jihad in Minnesota

Tnuza Jamal Hassan is charged with first-degree arson.

An Islamic terrorist has attacked a university in St. Paul:

A former St. Catherine University student charged with setting fires on the college’s St. Paul campus told police she did it because she’d “been reading about the U.S. military destroying schools in Iraq or Afghanistan and she felt that she should do exactly the same thing,” according to a criminal complaint filed Friday.
“You guys are lucky that l don’t know how to build a bomb because l would have done that,” Tnuza Jamal Hassan, 19, of Minneapolis allegedly told investigators after being arrested Wednesday afternoon in a campus dorm lounge.
Hassan was charged in Ramsey County District Court with a single count of first-degree arson. No injuries or major damage were reported in the fires, all of which occurred in the middle of the day Wednesday.
Ramsey County prosecutor Margaret Galvin said in court Friday that Hassan had “substantial ties” to the local community and added that authorities were investigating whether she had any international ties as well.
A spokesman for the FBI’s Minneapolis office said he could not comment on whether federal authorities also were investigating the incident. A call to the United States District Attorney’s Minnesota Office to inquire about whether Hassan might face federal charges was not returned. . . .
Hassan, appearing in court in a black and white hijab, gave only brief, one-word answers to questions from the judge.
According to the complaint, she told investigators she set six fires on the private Catholic university’s campus, though university and fire officials said there were eight.
The most serious fire started in Saint Mary Hall, a residential dormitory that also houses a day care. Police said there were 33 children and eight adults in the building when a chair was set ablaze — triggering the building’s sprinkler system, which prevented it from spreading. . . .
Hassan told investigators she was a student at St. Catherine but dropped out last fall because she and her family were planning a vacation to Ethiopia.
She told them, according to the complaint, that “her fire-starting was not as successful as she had wanted,” and “she wanted the school to burn to the ground and that her intent was to hurt people.
“Hassan said this was the same thing that happened in ‘Muslim land’ and nobody cares if they get hurt, so why not do this?” the complaint added.
Hassan told investigators she wrote a letter to her roommates about “bringing back the Caliphate,” an Islamic state. The letter scared Hassan’s roommates, who turned it over to campus security, the complaint stated.

This is radical Islamic terrorism. We ought to ask why St. Catherine University, an allegedly Catholic school, has failed at its institutional mission. Robert Spencer at Jihad Watch asks other questions:

Where did Tnuza Hassan learn Islam? Where does she attend mosque? What does that mosque teach about violence against unbelievers? Is that mosque being investigated? Why not? Is it being assumed that Tnuza J. Hassan was “radicalized on the Internet”? If so, why was the supposedly twisted, hijacked, violent version of Islam she supposedly learned on the Internet so easily able to overcome the supposedly peaceful, benign, tolerant version that everyone assumes that she learned at home and at her local mosque?

(Via Memeorandum, with more at the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Powerline and Gateway Pundit.)



 

Category: Education, Islam, Minnesota, Terrorism

FMJRA 2.0: Walk Away

Posted on | January 21, 2018 | 2 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho

No, not the James Gang song, though that’s pretty awesome too.

Late Night With Rule 5 Sunday: Stacey Dash
Animal Magnetism
EBL
A View From The Beach
Proof Positive
Ninety Miles From Tyranny

Anarchy in the @UKLabour: Party Will Put Trannies on ‘All Women Shortlist’
The Political Hat

FMJRA 2.0: Let The Good Times Roll
The Pirate’s Cove
EBL
A View From The Beach

Feminists Hate All Men, So Why Expect Them to Love ‘Male Feminists’?
Welcome To My Playpen

Illegal Alien Causes Mayhem by Threatening to Shoot Bus Passengers
A View From The Beach

Violence Against Women: Video Shows Confession in MS-13 Gang Murder
A View From The Beach

In The Mailbox: 01.15.18
EBL
Proof Positive

In The Mailbox: 01.16.18
EBL
Proof Positive

The Tyranny of Bright Normal
Rotten Chestnuts
EBL

In The Mailbox: 01.17.18
EBL
Proof Positive

In The Mailbox: 01.18.18
EBL
Proof Positive

Friday Fiction: 100 Word Challenge
EBL

In The Mailbox: 01.19.18
EBL
A View From The Beach
Proof Positive

Top linkers this week:

  1. EBL (9)
  2. Proof Positive (6)
  3. A View From The Beach (5)

Thanks to everyone for their linkagery!


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Category: FMJRA Award

Replying To ESR’s Response

Posted on | January 20, 2018 | 1 Comment

by Smitty

First, thank you for a thoughtful and challenging reply to my objections. In re-reading your post, my reaction and “Three kinds of teleology“, it seems that I may have misinterpreted your “Sorry, Ansari” post somewhat. Specifically, on the point of whether you were
a) attempting to characterize the societal state, “as-is” or
b) attempting to offer a personal opinion on a “should-be” societal state.
I assumed b), and set about what may have been straw-manning you for what I thought were violations of a libertarian viewpoint. I am sorry, and thankful that you either didn’t notice or didn’t engage on that.

You responded to my point 1, Does “Grace” have free will, or is it the case that “she doesn’t have a realistic option”? by claiming that this is a false dichotomy. I think your school of fish analogy has some impact here, but I remain skeptical. While you offer a purely natural, aquatic example, it seems that your point may be more or less the same thing as GroupThink.  That is, you seem to say that if “everyone else is doing it”, then my liberty to dissent is diminished. Unless I missed something. I, of course, never fall prey to GroupThink. More than a couple hundred times a day.

On point 2, I then asked if the individual the unit of analysis, or is “Grace” a component of “women who do that”? and you (quite rightly) pointed out that “Grace” remains an individual (affirming my point) but that “she wants the reader to do this [judging whether she is bound by women who do that]”–I guess I was too busy being unpersuaded by the immaturity of the behavior in question on both sides to pick up the shift in emphasis.

Things got interesting at point 3:

“The lightning” would be sex having deep emotional/romantic consequences for both parties. This does happen of course, and you are greatly to be pitied if you have never experienced it yourself.
Your concept of “soul” isn’t even wrong, it’s meaningless – and will remain so until you give it meaning by providing an observable consequence of having a soul.
Your next paragraph suggests that you want “having a soul” to imply having a long ethical time horizon – not doing things for short-term gratification that are self- and other-destructive in the longer term. This is an important quality, of course, but there is no need to use a word as freighted with mystical spookery as “soul” to label it. I think you just confuse yourself when you do that.

If I’m understanding this correctly, I’m to be pro “romantic consequences”, and “pitied if [I] have never experienced it” (happily married father of two, thanks), but there is no need to “use a word as freighted with mystical spookery as “soul””.

A possible strawman argument would be: I may as well offload all that oogedy-boogedy “soul stuff” and go Full Charlie Sheen. Just maximize my hormonal utilization of whatever objects cause “lightning strikes”, irrespective of gender, age, species, status as “living” (how about them sex bots?). It’s all about the hormones, no? No larger “mystical” context to fret, unless I’m one of “them religious weirdos”.

Which brings us to your “Three kinds of teleology” link. As an intellectual matter, I am simply not bothered with there being any global telological point to reality. Within the scope of the body/mind dimensions of the “Grace”/Ansari exchange (or our communication on the behavior) the chief interest is the individual. Is the personal telelogical aim served by the behavior? From the praxeological perspective, the commentariat has had its pound of flesh, no?

It’s tempting for one to think that one has grokked the teleolgical point of life. Perhaps you did, in your Three Kinds essay. I don’t “know” in any final sense that I can explain in the body/mind plane of the three dimensional existential model I offered. You might object that I’m being coy, but I’m just not wasting time offering you goods in which you seem disinterested.

If anything, I’m unsure a mortal answer is possible. That is: were a closed-form, unambiguous, mathematical-style existential “proof” attainable by human striving.  Such an answer would need to be so objectively clear as to halt the vast spectrum of hand-wringing that has been going on these thousands of years across continents and peoples and languages. Don’t you think it should have already occurred?

Instead, we have the continuous parallel scientific and philosophical efforts to reverse-engineer reality. And we’ll continue. And it’s a Good Thing. But I lack what I perceive as your implicit faith that these strivings will do more than come up with more awesome models of reality, at micro- and macro levels. Because, for all the greatness of the human mind, it’s still a finite instrument. But I could be wrong.

Given that gloomy (within the body/mind bounds) view of reality, maybe “Grace” has the right of it. Satisfy the flesh. “Grace”, though, could invest in her soul, if she ever wishes to have an useful answers to those “why?” questions of life. “Because all the other bimbos you’re emulating are akin to a school of fish. Nice gills, Grace” seems as inadequate an answer as it is a wretched caricature of your example.

At any rate, thanks for the stimulating discussion.

Category: Uncategorized

In The Mailbox: 01.19.18

Posted on | January 20, 2018 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 01.19.18

— compiled by Wombat-socho


OVER THE TRANSOM
EBL: Will Democrats Shut Down The Government?
Twitchy: MAMA BEAR – Jenna Jameson Posts #MarchForLife Pic, Takes On Hordes Of Frothing, Nasty Pro-Aborts
Louder With Crowder: CA Dems – Trump Cut Business Taxes? We’ll Raise Them!
According To Hoyt: Shiny! Let’s Be Bad!
Monster Hunter Nation: Gritty Cop Show Test Game Recap #1
Vox Popoli: Disabled Veteran Fired By SJWs
City Journal: California, Poverty Capital (h/t NeoWayland)


RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
Adam Piggott: Three New Sites On The Old Blogroll
American Power: LA Times Publisher Levinsohn Accused Of Sexual Improprieties
American Thinker: Facebook’s Expanding Insanity
Animal Magnetism: Rule Five Dynasties Ending Friday
BattleSwarm: LinkSwarm For January 19
Bring The HEAT: Primitive Technology Guy Builds A Hut
CDR Salamander: Fullbore Friday
Da Tech Guy: The News And The Dregs, also, A GOP Strategy To Win The Shutdown So Simple Only A “Stupid Party” Could Blow It
Don Surber: Trump’s Got Them By The Tweets
Dustbury: The Right To Be An Asshat
The Geller Report: State Department Withholds Another $45 Million From UNRWA, also, Dresden Burka Workshop Goes Forward With Support From City Authorities
Hogewash: Blogsmoke, also, Team Kimberlin Post of The Day
Joe For America: Democrats On Intel Committee Vote Against Transparency For Fusion GPS Documents
JustOneMinute: Showdown Drama!
Legal Insurrection: Republicans Demand Declassification Of Report On Obama/Russian/Deep State Collusion, also, #SchumerShutdown/#DACAShutdown
Power Line: A Primer On The “Government Shutdown”, also, Schumer Flees From Tom Cotton
Shark Tank: Trump Asks Americans To Crown The “King Of Fake News” For 2017
Shot In The Dark: This Is Your New Senator
STUMP: Friday Foolery – Centsless In Seattle & Cook County Regrets
The Jawa Report: Deso Dogg Finally Really Dead Jim!
The Political Hat: An Absolute Nonsense
This Ain’t Hell: Deso Dogg Dead, also, SSG Joshua Stokes Alters Active Duty Records
Weasel Zippers: Senate Cloture Vote Fails, #SchumerShutdown Likely, also, Facebook To Have Users Grade News Sources To Decide Which Are “Broadly Trusted”
Megan McArdle: Why Hospitals Aren’t In The Drug Business
Mark Steyn: God’s Apology, also, Weaponizing The Shutdown


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Category: Linkagery

Hogwash, ESR

Posted on | January 20, 2018 | 1 Comment

by Smitty

Eric S. Raymond’s feedback on the Aziz Ansari comedy of manners-in-the-buff has one of my favorite hobby horses requiring a ride. ESR is far smarter than I, and an avowed libertarian. Hence my amusement at this:

“Grace” behaved as she did because she doesn’t have a realistic option to hold out for romance before sex; women who do that put themselves at high risk of not getting second dates, there are too many others willing to play by the new rules. So she has to do sex instead and hope lightning strikes.

Questions for ESR and “the world” in general:

  • Does “Grace” have free will, or is it the case that “she doesn’t have a realistic option”?
  • Is the individual the unit of analysis, or is Grace just a component of “women who do that”, who war endlessly with “too many others”?
  • What does “do sex instead and hope lightning strikes” even mean beyond the scope of a certain hormonal instant?

Let me offer an explanatory model. Think of people in three dimensions: body, mind, and soul. Nobody argues against the body, few against the mind, and only fools against the soul. These are orthogonal, and in tension. The discussion at hand is body verses mind.

“Grace” let the body drive. Pure materialism. Maybe she wanted the release of the moment, and maybe she hoped to leverage that moment in a “lightning strike” to form a relationship with Ansari. The body always lives in the moment. Quite often, if not usually, to its detriment.

The mind (for the mature) tends to have a longer planning horizon than the body. Mature people can recognize the temptations of the body, but live past the moment and gauge whether it makes sense to get naked with someone you’ve just met. Or, figuring that most people are roughly the trash one knows oneself to be at heart, maybe one holds back.

The soul, if one subscribes to the notion, grasps that there is this Destiny thing in play. If the body and mind are subordinated to the soul, then concerns about “[people] who do that” are just the body using fear to trick the mind into rationalize giving the body free reign.

Be liberated from that fear of “[people] who do that”; from the lusts of the body; from the “Sorry (Not) Ansari” cycle of flesh devouring flesh. People who play that game are the ones writing open letters, kicking up social controversies, gripped by fear of being buried alive in a box, seeing therapists, and dying in opioid epidemics.

Which gets us back to my amusement with the intellectual libertarian set. If we’re free, why make collectivist arguments like

The old ways had features we now find ugly and unacceptable, but maybe that was the best adaptation they could manage to a hard problem! It is unlikely we can go back…”How ya gonna keep ’em down on the farm”, and all that. But what do we do to go forward?

There is no “hard problem” to manage in any collective way. There are only individuals working out their respective Destinies.

Aside for Ansari: be a man, and quit treating your manhood like the joystick of some video game. The boyish act of indulging in bimbos prepared for acts of hooverism at first blush is Russian roulette: you’ll end up with something incurable. Never go Full Charlie Sheen.

Category: Uncategorized

Friday Fiction: 100 Word Challenge

Posted on | January 19, 2018 | Comments Off on Friday Fiction: 100 Word Challenge

by Smitty

The girl (later known as Mindy) blowing by, is the penultimate humiliation. Not the first. That’d been the blind runner, seeming to putz along with his guide, casually passing my struggling flesh. No, the final thing was the arch cramp, reducing me to a limping skip for the final miles. But by the power of God, Gu, and ibuprofin, I complete the act of self-torture.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
She’s the job interviewer a week later. The marathon hasn’t come up. Thank heaven. I still ache, everywhere, as the yoga pants turn to leave the room.
Over her shoulder, smiling: “What was your time?”

—
Thanks, Darleen!

Category: Friday Fiction
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