Category: KHAAAAAANNN!!!

  • Great Glib Debate Series: Biff vs. Ozymandias

    And now, for your reading pleasure, the next installment of the debate competition for the ages!  Vote for the winner here.

     

     

    Question as asked:

    Given the existence of a nation-state and some form of Western representative government (think bicameral, parliamentary or some variation thereof), is multiculturalism or assimilationism preferable for the health of the nation and its people?

    Expansion: What “preferable” means will largely be left up to the debater to establish.  It could mean material prosperity, stability, personal or cultural identity; just argue convincingly to your point.

    Multiculturalism – numerous populations from disparate cultures living alongside one another within the nation while retaining much of their cultural distinctiveness.  The proverbial “salad bowl”.  Assimilationism – numerous populations from disparate cultures shedding or deemphasizing most of their cultural distinctiveness to adapt to the prevailing “majority culture”.  The proverbial “melting pot”.

    Biff defends multiculturalism, Ozy defends assimilationism.

     

     

    Biff:

    America has been multicultural since its inception. The very idea of freedom of speech, freedom of religious practice, and freedom of association are all foundational components of the United States, and all clearly support the idea of a multicultural nation. The cultural practices of colonial Georgians differed widely from colonial Virginians, much less the residents of the New England colonies. Concepts of individual liberty and freedom require multiculturalism. Demanding that all citizens adhere to a limited set of cultural ideas is the exact opposite of the type of freedom the United States sought (and still attempts, though often poorly) to provide its citizenry.

    Think of your favorite style of food – French, Italian, Thai, Indian. Now imagine how bland life would be if you could only ever get one of those. Multiculturalism means you can walk down the street and pick up a set of tacos on one corner and sushi at the next. No matter how much you like burgers and fries, after a while it gets boring. Variety is the spice of life.

    Multiculturalism means you get to celebrate (or just as importantly NOT celebrate) Diwali, or Yom Kippur, or Christmas, or Ivana Kupula, on any other Holiday you wish. It means (((They))) can get Chinese food and go to the movies on December 24th and 25th every year. It means you can even celebrate a made up Holiday like Kwanza (and really, aren’t they all made up?).

    Many have claimed Multiculturalism has its drawbacks – clashing ideas from different cultures have been the root of many conflicts over history, but it’s not multiculturalism’s fault – quite the opposite. True multiculturalism has an ingrained respect for other cultures where supremacy of one culture over another isn’t needed. It also demonstrates a true faith in your own culture in that your support of your own culture (born into or adopted) is sufficient that it can withstand differing opinions, viewpoints and traditions without feeling the need to suppress them or attempt to ban them outright. Much like the closely related theory of free speech, the best response  to objectionable cultural practices is exposure to alternate viewpoints and practices.

    Assimilation is for Star Trek villains – or for Bernie fans trying to streamline deodorant options.

     

     

    Ozymandias:

    Multiculturalism is an ideology doomed to failure because it is by its very nature antithetical to the concepts that undergird a nation-state. In short: the ‘salad bowl’ riposte to the ‘melting pot’ analogy ignores the fact that both need a container of some kind, be it ‘a bowl’ or ‘a pot.’ In either case, that vessel constitutes the extant culture into which the ingredients must be mixed and without which you merely have a mess of ingredients on the floor.

    To quote a Glib regarding language: “meanings have words” – and not the other way around, as it is commonly expressed. The same idea applies in the context of the nation-state. Nations don’t get created and then decide to pick and choose which cultures they’ll let in: nation-states are the byproduct of an extant culture. Through most of history those cultures that rose to sufficient heights or grew to sufficient size were almost always tied to an ethnicity and/or a dominant religion and a particular patch of dirt on the Earth.

    It was the United States that changed this conception with the creation of a nation-state steeped in Enlightenment ideas, founded explicitly against the notion of the European, ethnocentric model, to wit: France is where French people live; Italy is for Italians and Spain is for Spanish peoples, etc. The U.S. was founded by various European cultures, each in enclaves sufficient to allow them to grow, up against the pressures of raw nature with an indigenous culture, in which the “melting pot” concept could begin to take hold. Ideas such as rugged individualism inhered in the very nature of the undertaking to come to the New Land and “find one’s fortune.’ The ‘pot’ of the melting pot was already cast before the U.S. was even a political entity.

    By contrast, the evidence of the failed experiment of multiculturalism is everywhere in Europe. This is because the idea that immigrant culture can be imported, yet retain all of its own antecedents, misses the mark for a host of reasons, all related to the “bowl” into which these new cultures must be poured.

    1.     Cultures – i.e. collections of relatively homogenous groups of human beings – are deeply influenced by their environment, including weather, mountains, plains, desert, etc. We seem to have lost touch with this simple, ineluctable fact of life, especially in urban centers, where food magically appears, now that only 2-3% of our population help feed the other 97%.

    2.    Cultures always, always, include ways of solving disputes; there are objectively – measurably – better ways to resolve disputes. In Afghanistan, for example, honor culture demands the killing of the eldest son in response to certain offenses. This is decidedly NOT a good way of resolving disputes if we place any value on human life. Courts are a better way, for just one example.

    3.    No culture can expect to survive, to maintain the “pot” or “bowl,” if the ingredients themselves are allowed to alter the bowl, or destroy it at their whim.

    4.    In a bowl with different ingredients, the radishes shouldn’t get to enslave the avocado because that’s what ‘radish’ culture demands.

    5.    The US explicitly chose assimilation, even with people with a very similar common heritage, namely, Mormons. Statehood was explicitly conditioned upon giving up bigamy. One may argue about whether that specific choice was necessary, but the fact is that the US made historical choices to preserve the distinct characteristics of culture over the “salad” approach.

    None of this even begins to address issues such as language, which includes means of commerce and currency that must be fairly constant for the nation-state to survive. The ascendancy of American English as the lingua franca for the world is not a historical birthright. It is a result of deserved U.S. cultural ascendancy across a range of important areas of human relations, from international aviation, to computers, commerce, science and other technology, including medicine, and on and on. If those gains in civilization mean anything, they certainly indicate the need to preserve the underlying character of the culture that produced those gains.

     

     

    Vote!

     

  • Great Glibs Debate Series: PieInTheSky vs. Larry Joe

    Our inaugural matchup: Pie vs. Larry Joe! Remember, the Survey Monkey will be open for 24 hours here.

    The question as it was posed to them:

    Given a general libertarian perspective on bodily autonomy taken as a prerequisite, assume an individual has absolute ownership of his own DNA.  Imagine a cloning machine exists such than an individual can take a personal DNA sample and clone a perfect copy of himself.  If someone decides to create clones of himself specifically to kill them, is that murder, or is the clone an extension of that person’s body and, therefore, not murder?
    Pie will argue that it is murder, Larry Joe will argue that it isn’t.

     

    PieInTheSky:What does “an individual has absolute ownership of his own DNA” truly mean? Keeping with the premise, we can assume the DNA can be seen as a form of IP.

    What is DNA? DNA is simply information, data. It is codified in a certain way in organic matter, part of all living things, but, in the end, it is information.

    What is a human? Is an individual just information? I argue against that assumption. An individual is defined as more than just information. A 23andme database does not have the same moral value as the human who spat in a tube. And while we can delete the database, we cannot delete the human. Your DNA does not define you fully. Who looks at a person and sees some DNA?

    A human is an independent sentient biological organism, directed in development by DNA and environment and random chance. From a libertarian perspective, a person’s moral value goes well beyond the bits of data codified in DNA. No one says “all unique DNA configurations have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”.  A human has a body, a mind, a consciousness, self-awareness – these are the basis of moral consideration. It does, in fact, contain DNA information, but it is much more than the information in itself. The moment a clone is made, it is an independent organism with the above characteristics. While the biologically stored information is the same as the original, the being is separate. The DNA is incidental at best.  Personhood is not defined by unique stored information, and as such a clone is not its DNA, so it is not under the ownership of the original DNA donor. There is no reason to think they would be.

    Contributing information does not give you right to kill. While children are solely composed on the DNA of the parents, it does not mean the parents can simply jointly decide to kill them at any point through life. DNA data configuration is not relevant in decisions of personhood.

     

     

    Larry Joe:

    Surely some would say, “to create a human life simply to kill it is certainly immoral and murder!” They may be correct with regards to the morality of such an action; but ought it really be considered murder?

    The main defense of this most libertarian of libertarians, wishing to kill a piece of himself for sport, is that we already exclude from murder many classifications of killings of humans. Self-defense of one’s own (or another innocent’s) life is a widely recognized right and justification for killing. Defense of one’s domicile, as reflected in numerous “castle” laws placing the burden of proving malicious intent on the state, is another. In a legal sense we often distinguish murder from manslaughter, typically lacking the “malice aforethought” required for murder. Finally we reach the two most relevant distinctions, those with a murkier moral position and greater social disagreement: suicide and abortion.

    The general libertarian perspective of bodily autonomy is supportive of the right to self-determined suicide; it is in essence the ultimate example of such a right. The act of suicide itself is legal in most of the world, with support for assisting a person in committing suicide gaining support in some U.S. and Australian states, Canada, and some European countries, depending upon circumstances. While many may morally oppose committing or assisting in suicide, there is a growing legal movement toward decriminalization.

    Abortion is a divisive issue with a long history of being considered a moral offense.

    In contrast to the moral considerations, note that abortion is legal (up to various stages of gestation) without a justification in nearly every country in the Northern Hemisphere. Even one of the crowning jewels of classical liberal legislation, the United States Bill of Rights, is interpreted as protecting the “fundamental right” to abortion under the “penumbra” of the right to privacy. The Bill of Rights faces enough attacks; must we libertarians undermine it too?

    Given the numerous exceptions to human killing being considered murder, it seems presumptuous to assume that the killing of a clone must be considered such. If one has complete authority over one’s DNA, how can the government justifiably restrict actions taken to property created through that DNA? How can one justify the killing of a fetus, up to the point of partial delivery, without also permitting the killing of a clone created expressly for that purpose? The moral character of a psycho clone killer is certainly up for debate, but for the government to consider him a murderer is a bridge too far.

    Vote!

  • Something, something, animals are more equal, something, something

    I honestly try not to flip out at the news.  It more or less has become a part of life and others might argue one should be aware of current events in order to be a good citizen.

    Then something like this comes up, and breaks my chill.

    This is my review of La Cumbre Piña Quercus

    So what part of this aggravated me?  Was it the part where a US District Judge overruled a lower court’s ruling the Covington Catholic school boy’s lawsuit for libel in the wake of a 16 year old kid having the temerity to smirk at a guy banging a drum and shouting in his face, and to eventually be called racist by social media, the legacy media, and some politicians?  No, of course not—it was this part:

    The students sued the Massachusetts congresswoman and 11 other public figures who criticized the students, including New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman, actress Kathy Griffin, activist Shaun King and U.S. Rep. Deb Haaland.

    U.S. District Court Judge William Bertelsman ruled Tuesday that Warren acted within the scope of her employment when she tweeted and is therefore protected by sovereign immunity. 

    “The Court concludes that the challenged statements by defendants Warren and Haaland — whether one agrees with them or finds them objectionable — are communications intended to convey the politicians’ views on matters of public interest to their constituents,” Bertelsman wrote

    The judge also dismissed Haaland, of New Mexico, from the suit. Haaland had tweeted that Phillips was “harassed and mocked by a group of MAGA hat-wearing teens.”

    Attorneys for the students claimed the boys became the target of “a social media lynch mob” that spread misinformation and led to the boys receiving death threats and hate mail.

    Sovereign Immunity.  What is that you ask?  Let me preface that I am not an attorney, nor do I intend to convey the idea that I am one.  That said my graduate degree is in Public Administration and I not only wrote a paper on the matter, I did particularly well on the assignment.  Should one of the law dogs here wish to weigh in, please do so.

    I rule in favor of me. DILLY DILLY

    Sovereign Immunity is a legal concept Americans borrowed from the British.  The idea is to avoid the circular logic in filing a lawsuit against the Crown.  The British Crown set up the courts in part to settle civil disputes between subjects, the rulings which hold the force of law because the court is acting directly on behalf of the British Crown.  Quite frankly, the queen and the rest of her family is either (supposedly) drinking beyond her own government’s recommendation, flying in private jets while whining about climate change, or (allegedly) hitting up jailbait with Epstein…they simply do not have that kind of time.  A subject therefore can file a lawsuit against an individual, or a company that violated that individual’s rights under common law.  What happens if you are wronged by somebody working on behalf of the government?  The Crown enabled the official that wronged you, and you are now asking a court who’s power is derived from the discretion of Crown…

    You see where I am going with this, you cannot sue the Crown.  Even if you could, do you think they will rule honestly?

    But this is America, and we fought a war to get away from this, right?  We did indeed fight the war but didn’t get away from from it.  From the pocket Constitution on my desk, Article III, Section 2 says:

    Unfortunately, if you have a problem with a particular person in the US Government acting under the Constitution, you are stuck going through the courts set up under that same Constitution.  This concept is further reinforced under the 11th Amendment.

    Page break…

    Unfortunately, there will be no lawsuits affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Counsels, and those in which a State shall be Party.  Can you sue a government agency or the state itself for violation of rights?  Of course, but the asshole that did it is immune because he was just doing his job.

    The problem I have with this is the lawsuit is for libel, which is knowingly spreading false information that disparages the subject in print or other forms of media.  Unlike slander, which is spoken, libel has a record of happening making it easier to prove.  Even after an unedited version of the video suggested the story the media told about the incident was wrong, they continued telling the same story saying the MAGA hat wearing Covington kids started an altercation and the dude banging the drum was trying to keep the peace, and it was racist to smirk at the guy.  Only a racist would wear a MAGA hat.

    Well, Lizzy got busy spreading this misinformation on Twitter.  Per this clown’s ruling, a senator is immune from spreading what any reasonable person can determine is a lie, because a senator giving her opinion on current events falls under a senator’s daily duties.  I for one say this is bullshit, and she should be held personally responsible for spreading this lie.  Being a senator and now a candidate for president means the lie will spread faster from the press coverage she will recieve, harming the subjects further than had she done the sensible thing and said nothing at all.

    …but her inability to simply not lie is another matter.

    So what in the hell kind of beer is this?  This is a pineapple sour ale aged in tequila barrels.  I thought this was going to suck.  Arizona has a rather popular pineapple wheat beer that I go for from time to time that I find a bit sweet, but chuggable on a hot day.  This is not like that.  I thought it was going to to be too sour for me to enjoy.  This is not like that either.  Finally, I thought this was going to be a blast of tequila; no, this is not like that at all.  It is interesting, rather expensive ($16), but otherwise well done.  La Cumbre Piña Quercus 3.5/5.

  • Catalonia Update. The Last Ride of Don Swissxote?

    I have begged OMWC to have this morning’s spot. In place of your normal links, you get…The Last Ride (?) of Don Swissxote.

     

    Is Barcelona Burning?

    The TRIAL OF TEH CENTURY (Sedition charges against the leaders of the 2017 Catalan Independence referendum) finished up. The announced verdicts were about what was expected. Then things got a bit unruly. Pro-independence groups called a general strike Friday. Here is a slim BBC blurb on that.

    So here we are, Catalans. The EU is backing Madrid, of course. Nobody seems to be ready to do anything other than clear a throat or maybe give with a mild “harumph”. It is up to you. Do you want to be independent? You will have to fight for it. And I mean FIGHT. Armed combat. Killing. Property damage. Not protest, strike, and wave banners.

    Some of the Basque tried. For over 50 years the ETA waged low level war. They failed…But to me at least, they were a group more “leftist” than “fighting for independence”.

    So, will Catalonia take up arms?

    I think they will not do so. They have had 2 years to be ready for this day…and not a whole lot else happened. What took place were the actions of a people that prefer independence, in the same manner you prefer a salad dressing. “Oh, its not available? OK, I’ll settle for ________.”

     

    “The Barcelona Yoke Passing”

     

    Don Swissxote can hang up his spurs.

  • Q’s Brain Toilet: 6th Floor – Definitely NSFW

    Feeling down?  Experiencing loss of interest in things you used to enjoy?  Trouble sleeping?  Well I have just the thing!  Q-azine, the breakthrough new medication will whisk away all your troubles and put you into a state of half-conscious stupor from which there is no escape.  In convenient gummy form, even children can benefit from Q-azine’s quasi-comatose state.  So just take this, chew it up and relax…

    IN THE FUTURE!!!

    – Humans will surpass their own intellectual limits due to enormous penises.  Stem cell and reconstructive technology will get advanced enough to be applied to male genital surgery and supply the world’s men with giant, quivering, foot-long intromissive assassins.  In order to accommodate these shiny new love tools, women’s vaginas will have to experience a similar increase in size, either through surgical intervention or sexually selective evolution.  Since baby’s heads are disproportionately large to provide capacity for our oversized brains, and the female birth canal is the primary limiting factor on said noggin, it only makes sense that babies will eventually begin evolving larger brains and superior intelligence due to womens’ capacious vaginas.
    – Due to VR, virtual presence technology, telecommuting and increasing network speed and availability, people will become even more isolated and atomized than ever with many/most barely leaving the house.  Physical contact with other people will be largely limited to fleeting and anonymous sexual encounters between partners determined by algorithm.  A few lunatic religious throwbacks will continue to cultivate friendships and families; but the men will still have humungous dongs.
    – Neuroscientists will have determined the proper intensity and frequency of strobing light to hack the human brain and cause euphoria.  Therefore, the DEA will classify photons as an illicit substance.
    – Increases in crop yields, wealth, free time and entertainment across the developing world will elevate the standard of living to heights never before seen.  The climate will remain stable and worldwide crime and terrorism will drastically drop.  Trade will largely replace military brinksmanship as the way in which former adversaries relate.  Mass migration will mostly be a thing of the past as various nations get closer to economic parity.  Naturally, all these developments will convince millions that the world is coming to an end and the system must be drastically reformed to prevent chaos and the destruction of humanity.
    – Ruth Bader Ginsburg will be recovering from her latest bout of cancer and eager to begin her 217th year on the bench.
    Are you happy Hyperbole?!
    In Defense of the Unabomber (for straff)
    Earlier this month, straffinrun challenged me to offer a defense of the Unabomber after I made a glib comment in response to his assertion that no man is an island.  I could find the exchange, but I’m lazy.  In spite of my initial glibitude, I began thinking and I actually think there is a fair amount about the Unabomber that’s admirable.  This, of course, does *not* include the killing; I’ll go on record right now and unequivocally condemn the bombings (as if it needs to be said).  In fact, the bombings were just about the stupidest possible thing he could have done, both from a moral standpoint (obviously), but also for his message.  You see, I actually think there is actually a lot of validity to his thought process and he completely undermined any legitimate interest philosophers, sociologists and technology critics might have in it; and there would be a lot of interest, believe me.
    I’ll address two points: first, that he was an unambiguous whack-job, and second, that no man is an island and only lunatics would live the way he did.  Ted Kaczynski was definitely ill and socially maladjusted.  But I certainly don’t think he was unambiguously crazy.  His manifesto outlines how human have become slaves to their own technological creations.  Even as we incorporate more and more technology into our lives, we become more and more enslaved to it; seeing the way people interact with their smart phones, I’d almost call this point axiomatic.  Of course his solution was to attack and murder those he considered responsible for the technological breakthroughs he hated so much; so that’s kind of where he lost the script.  But many of his larger points, I think, stand.
    The second point I’m addressing is the cliché that “no man is an island”.  It’s true that humans are nominally social creatures in a pathetic sort of way.  Our social organization is one small step above chimpanzees.  Rather than something to be celebrated, I see social organization and interpersonal dependence as something to try to transcend and evolve past.  Buddhist monks spend their whole lives separating themselves from the corporeal to try and embrace the ethereal.  The harsh truth from which many people try to shield themselves we is that are born alone and we die alone.  In between we make connections that, even if they appear strong on the surface, are in actuality quite tenuous.  It doesn’t take much to fracture the “strong” bonds of family.  And fuggeddabout friends and acquaintances; these relations are artificial, weak and, usually, lies.  People *are* islands their whole lives, they just delude themselves into thinking they’re not.
    The Nick Gillespie of alt text.
    You Thought *You* Were Kinky…
    Just in case you ever feel ashamed of any odd sexual desires and/or fetishes you might have, remember the Marquis de Sade.  Here are a few excerpts from the end of 120 Days of Sodom in which he just bullet points sexual fetishes as if it were a grocery list.
    – “He binds the girl belly down upon a dining table and eats a piping hot omelette served upon her buttocks.  He uses an exceedingly sharp fork.”
    – “A sodomite cooks up a little girl in a double boiler.”
    – “He covers a girl with honey then binds her to a column and releases upon her a swarm of large flies.”
    – “He has the girl run naked about a garden at night, the season is winter, the weather freezing; here and there are stretched cords upon which she trips and falls.  Each time she falls, he discharges his semen.”
    – “He holds the girl by the ears and walks her around the room, discharging his semen as he parades with her.  The audience burns their genitals while discharging.  At conclusion all involved bugger one another for two hours minimum.”
    – “He uses his exceedingly large tool to rape her vaginally and anally and infect her with syphilis.  Her vagina and anus are then sewn up with heavy, red waxed thread.”
    – “He pulls out her teeth and scratches her gums with needles.  Sometimes he heats the needles.  Then he discharges his semen down her throat.”
    Canuckistan.
    FIN
    Another horrific edition of the Brain Toilet is now flushed.  I’d say you probably shouldn’t follow the Marquis’ advice for fun on a Saturday night, but who am I to judge?  And besides, the ass omelette thing might be fun.
    You are alone; permanently and irrevocably.
  • Q’s Brain Toilet: Cinco de Q

    Come one, come all! Q’s traveling circus of insanity has returned to town!  See the Bearded Lady, the Human Pretzel and the world famous Flying Shitlords on the trapeze!  And now, in the center ring, the show is about to begin!

    The Deep State and Faux Accomplishment

    We often discuss the rampant and obsessive credentialism that flourishes in the permanent bureaucracy of the FedGov.  This seems to go incestuously hand-in-hand with a handful of expensive and prestigious (emphasis on expensive) educational institutions.  Entering “the civil service” has largely been considered by popular culture as a way for a skilled individual to work for the good of society rather than power and money.  As the FedGov has grown ever more bloated and infiltrated more and more of our lives, this theory has become laughable.

    The permanent bureaucracy cultivates and maintains a self-licking ice cream cone of masturbatory influence peddling amongst the chosen ones who inhabit it.  It is a pathway to great power and wealth to mediocre individuals that would otherwise be unavailable.  You see, what it takes to make it into the private club is a secret handshake consisting of the “right” credentials, the “right” connections, the “right” familial relations or some combination thereof.  To be a captain of industry, or a famous scientist or author, or a wealthy entrepreneur etc. requires real talent and tons of hard work.  Entering the permanent bureaucracy and getting gifted some minor Administration position or managerial post in an agency is a back door to the same type of “respectability” and “prestige” as any of the aforementioned accomplishments.  The fact that people with no other qualifications other than “former White House adviser” sit on boards of directors of large companies or gain endowed professorships at universities is evidence enough of that.

    I believe that a mildly competent mid-level professional is, on average, eminently more qualified for various leadership positions than even a high-level Swamp Creature; to say nothing about truly exceptional individuals occupying the heights of industry, business and applied research.  Looking from this angle, it’s evident why getting a cherry position in the Deep State is so appealing to those whose ambitions are several sizes larger than their talents.

    Male Sexual Ego, Uniqueness and the Will to Power

    The generative act is treated by many religions and philosophies as a divine act; in essence, this draws an analogue between reproduction and the act of capital-C Creation.  It’s really not all that far fetched considering that it is an ecstatic outpouring of energy resulting in a mysterious process that creates new and independent life.  A more cynical person might even say that creation myths were written ex post facto to align with human sexuality and orgasm.  However, I digress…

    Especially in Eastern religious tradition (but present in Western too) is the view that males and females channel inner god-like energy during sexual congress.  I don’t believe this is the full story, however.  Females may, in fact, channel the divine feminine during intercourse, but the true god-like aspect of the reproductive act comes later during gestation and parturition.  For the male, however, his only involvement and feeling of being akin to G-d is during the sex act itself.  This is partially why, contrary to pop culture belief, men care a great deal about getting a woman to orgasm; it’s proof of their divine abilities.

    To that end, I posit that there is nothing more horrifying to a man than the idea that he has a sexual doppelgänger.  A man can deal with the idea that the woman he’s having sex with may have had a man in past who is overall subjectively “better”.  This is almost always offset by the fact that in particular areas, he himself was deemed “better”; ie: even though man X had a smaller penis than man Y, man X was better at oral, etc.  And this is down to the judgement of the particular woman.  The principal thing here is that the man retains his uniqueness when it comes to his divine power.

    Imagine now a scenario in which man X and man Y are utterly indistinguishable.  There is no objective difference at all between how each of them have sex.  All of a sudden, they are no longer distinct beings at the most fundamental level.  Milan Kundera said (and I’m paraphrasing) that only through having sex with someone can we pierce the veil of the superficial and see their true nature.  Given that, regardless of their other qualities, man X and Y are identical, non-unique and, therefore, useless and soulless.  Looking at it this way, it makes sense why men are: 1) obsessed with sex, 2) obsessed with distinguishing themselves to their lovers and 3) very goal-oriented sexually.

    My Favorite Rare and Exotic Diseases (in no particular order)

    Fibrodysplasia Ossificans Progressiva“an extremely rare connective tissue disease. It is a severe, disabling disease with no cure or treatment and is the only known medical condition where one organ system changes into another[…]The disease is caused by a mutation of the body’s repair mechanism, which causes fibrous tissue (including muscle, tendon, and ligament) to be ossified spontaneously or when damaged. In many cases, otherwise minor injuries can cause joints to become permanently frozen in place, as new bone forms and replaces the damaged muscle tissue.”

    Fatal Familial Insomnia“It is a prion disease of the brain[…]Fatal insomnia has no known cure and involves progressively worsening insomnia, which leads to hallucinations, delirium, confusional states like that of dementia, and eventually death. The average survival time from onset of symptoms is 18 months.”

    Xeroderma pigmentosum“is a genetic disorder (autosomal recessive) in which there is a decreased ability to repair DNA damage such as that caused by ultraviolet (UV) light[…]There is no cure for XP.  Treatment involves completely avoiding the sun.”

    Primary Amoebic MeningoencephalitisN. fowleri invades the central nervous system via the nose, specifically through the olfactory mucosa of the nasal tissues. This usually occurs as the result of the introduction of water that has been contaminated with N. fowleri into the nose during activities such as swimming, bathing, or nasal irrigation[…]Although infection occurs very rarely, it nearly always results in death, with a case fatality rate greater than 95%.”

    Nodding Syndrome “Nodding disease is a disease which emerged in Sudan in the 1960s[…]Children affected by nodding disease experience a complete and permanent stunting of growth. The growth of the brain is also stunted, leading to mental handicap. The disease is named for the characteristic, pathological nodding seizure, which often begins when the children begin to eat, or sometimes when they feel cold. These seizures are brief and halt after the children stop eating or when they feel warm again. Seizures in nodding disease span a wide range of severity. Neurotoxicologist Peter Spencer, who has investigated the disease, has stated that upon presentation with food, ‘one or two [children] will start nodding very rapidly in a continuous, pendulous nod. A nearby child may suddenly go into a tonic–clonic seizure, while others will freeze.’”

    That wraps up yet another edition of Q’s Brain Toilet, while it may not be as horrific as SF’s posts, as interesting as Animal’s, as informative as MS’s, as whimsical as Banjo’s, as creative as CPRM’s, as useful as SP’s or as anti-Semitic as OMWC’s, it certainly exists!  G-d bless Glibertarians and G-d bless America!

    …and maybe Canada every once in a while too.

  • Q’s Brain Toilet the Fourth: Wobbly H

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    Progressivism as Millenarian Cult

    I’ve alluded to this several times in the comment section and finally got around to consolidating my thoughts into something (semi) coherent.  I believe that modern Progressivism functions much in the same way as a Millenarian cult.  For those not familiar, Millenarian cults have been around for basically as long as humans have been around.  The etymology of the word is not 100% clear, but it seems to stem from the claim from Revelations that the Second Coming will usher in a reign of perfection for 1000 years.  This is the Christian version, but these types of cults go back much further than that.  The basic idea is that there will be a sudden and fundamental shift in which all of society is transformed, usually after some kind of catastrophe (war, natural disaster, plague, etc.) and afterward, the righteous will live on in a Utopia.  ISIS was a Millenarian cult in that they were open about wanting to goad the West into a “war to end all wars” that would bring about the perfect Islamic society.  Progs, I believe, have crossed into this arena in that much of their behavior is overtly, and often pointlessly, antagonistic to their ideological enemies.  For example: immigrant caravans.  These are quite obviously being organized top-down by prog NGOs and non-profits, then covered extensively by the DemOpMedia.  Why now?  They could have been doing this for 8 years during Obama and he likely would have bent over backward to accommodate them and bring the people in.  Instead, they pull this stunt during Trump’s admin in which his primary campaign plank is ending illegal immigration.  They’re trying to provoke a response and I believe it goes far beyond political gamesmanship.  They are, quite literally, on a Mission from G-d (or whatever higher power they ascribe to) and crave war.  You see it everywhere in the DemOpMedia; times when it would makes sense in every way to try and deescalate, they turn things up to eleven antagonizing for seemingly no reason.  Their ratings and reputation continue to find new meanings of rock bottom; but those are temptations of Babylon.  They have a greater purpose, they must bring about the Apocalypse at any cost.  Only then can Bad Orange Man and his army of sub-human Deplorables be wiped from the Earth once and for all.  Then, my brothers, sisters and non-binary otherkin, the great World to Come will be upon us and we will bask in the warm, healing glow of perfect society.  

    Better Living Through Chemistry: Prescription Edition

    In a previous Brain Toilet, I outlined the best OTC supplements for life enhancement, now I move on to prescriptions.  A few words of caution: I strongly recommend conferring with a physician before undertaking any of these treatments.  The last thing I want on my conscience is some foolish Glib trying one of these cavalierly and ending up disabled or dead.  Ultimately, you are responsible for what you put in your body, but please be careful.  One more note, it is (mostly) legal to order these meds over the internet as long as they aren’t scheduled.  If they’re scheduled/controlled, all bets are off.  I take no responsibility for your decisions; once again use your best judgement.  Basically, don’t take these drugs, ever.  Good thing I have a friend who can tell me all about their effects.

    Cabergoline – I have flogged this miracle drug in the comment section before so you should be mildly familiar with it.  This is an ergot derivative dopamine agonist, specifically of the D2 receptor.  Approved treatments are Parkinsons’s and RLS, but it is sometimes used off-label for depression and used recreationally for sexy fun time.  You see, this drug suppresses prolactin, the hormone responsible for the male refractory period; meaning if you take it for a couple of weeks, your prolactin level will drop basically to zero and you will be able to ejaculate over and over with little to no break in between.  Watch out for signs of impulse control disorder or DAWS.  Use caution, but my friend says it’s totes worth it.    

    Topiramate – This is an anti-epileptic drug that is also sometimes used for bipolar as well.  It is also notorious for rapid and massive weight loss, so much so that it’s sometimes used off-label for antipsychotic associated weight gain.  My friend says this stuff works as advertised and fast.  No one really knows why it does this, but concerted effort is required to make sure the weight stays off once the drug is no longer being taken.  The list of side-effects is also about 2 miles long so caveat emptor.

    Various Serotonergic Drugs for Premature Ejaculation – This is not a problem my friend has traditionally had issues with so a grain of salt is likely needed here, but these drugs’ ability to delay ejaculation for men quick on the trigger is very well documented.  If you suffer from said problem and you’d like to treat your gal/guy to longer rolls in the hay, this could be a solution for you.  Each flavor seems to have different levels of activity though, ranging from fluvoxamine (minor delay if at all) to clomipramine (he/she wants to be fucked until the next arrival of Haley’s Comet).  These drugs are very well studied so you can find mountains of information on them.

    Trazodone – Another antidepressant, but not of the serotonergic variety, this guy does not cause the same sexual issues as the previous ones and his primary off-label use is for insomnia.  A low dose (50 mg or so) should be enough to send you to dreamland post haste with minimal drowsiness the next day.

    Things Worse Than Hitler

    • Using water instead of milk for hot cocoa
    • People who continue to text/talk on the phone while at the counter of a business
    • Dewpoints above 70F
    • Granny panties
    • Tube socks
    • Jar Jar Binks
    • Charles Preston’s crossword puzzles
    • Meaningless MBA corporate buzzwords
    • The destruction of one of your favorite places on Earth by a shithead land developer but you can’t get too mad because it’s capitalism after all and time marches on
    • Girls that don’t keep things fresh “down there”
    • Real Salt Lake
    • Hipsters who like things “you’ve probably never heard of bro”
    • Nike soccer balls
    • Juniper, unless harnessed in gin
    • And of course, DRUMPF (am I doing this right?)

    The End… ?

    Until next time sweet Glibs.  Look both ways before you cross the street, always brush your teeth and wrap your whacker before you attack her.  You have been subjected to yet another peristaltic ejection from Q’s brain, make sure you wash your hands before you eat.

     

  • Q’s Brain Toilet Episode 3: The Tripod of Fun

    ’Twas a dark and stormy night, they were all gathered around the campfire; “tell us a story Q!” they cried.  And the third installment of Q’s Brain Toilet went like this:

    The State of Academic Science

    I’ll start with a disclaimer in that I recognize there are other scientists here and their opinions may be vastly different, I’m speaking strictly from my own experience.  Simply put, overall it’s not good.  This isn’t to say there aren’t people out there doing great work, there definitely are, but while the physical sciences (and to much less of an extent, the life sciences) have been less affected by general campus insanity, they haven’t avoided it completely.  The wokification of campus continues its inexorable creep, transforming every nook and cranny and I fully expect even chemistry and physics departments to be teaching the new gospel of racist gravity or patriarchal stoichiometry in the near future.  You can see it in biology departments with trans-mania; how many biologists might privately hold unwoke opinions about how many genders there are but would never dream of actually making that argument in public?  I’m not even talking research here; I’m talking make an offhand wrongthink comment to someone other than family outside the confines of home.  Even tenured professors seem reluctant to openly hold unorthodox (read: non-Leftist) views on a whole host of ideas that would have been utterly non-controversial 20 or even 10 years ago.  Non-tenured?  Fuggeddaboudit.  SJW mobs, harassment, unemployment and unpersoning await those who dare step out of line.  Couple that with thought policing by grant funding agencies and you have an atmosphere of enforced conformity that goes beyond mere ideology; perception of reality itself must tow the Party lion.  Why bother doing original research at all when the Party tells us everything we need to know?  Taken together with the “publish or perish” philosophy that values quantity over quality, you have a giant circle jerk of researchers publishing papers as quickly as possible all saying the basically same things.  Don’t you dare question root assumptions or work from different premises; that’s racist and don’t you realize the Nazis did that?  Wanna see the future of academic science?  Look to meteorology and despair.  Fortunately for all of us, the major breakthroughs in medicine and technology in the past couple of decades have almost all come from evil profit driven private research anyway.  The campus, as we know it now, I believe will be dead in a couple of generations, and good riddance to it.  The last thing we need is more Lysenkoism.

    Kids These Days and Their Music, Get Off My Lawn!

    This may seem like a trivial or simpleminded conclusion, but I have the answer why modern music always sucks.  Time is a glorious crucible that burns away irrelevancy, and the further you get away from a particular era of music, the more the impurities and bullshit get burned away leaving you with the good stuff.  I may think that the current incarnation of hybrid hip hop/R&B/electronica is intolerable swill, however there are a few songs and artists among the pile of auditory crap that are not half bad.  Perhaps 20 years from now, the ratio of decent/shit will have gone up just due to the fact that “oldies” stations have to try and consolidate an entire era of music in one place.  Naturally, they’d want the best of the best.  As a late Gen X child of the 90’s, I have always greatly enjoyed grunge, but even at the time there was a fair amount of crappiness.  Now, however, if I listen to the Lithium channel on Sirius, it’s all only the best stuff, the crap jettisoned.  But no Ariana Grande.  Ever.  Self-important tweeny boppers that sing like a bag of cats set on fire should be exiled to South Georgia Island.

    Advertising, Media, Outrage Porn and Despair

    Apologies in advance to any Glibs that may work in the advertising industry, but my personal opinion is that, next to public employee leech-hood, advertising is the most immoral of all industries.  Classically, advertising is about informing potential customers about the virtues of a particular product and trying to convince them to buy said product.  Simple enough.  However, what’s the one biggest motivator for human behavior; bigger than morality, logic, sex, even basic needs like hunger and thirst?  Fear.  Advertising is about fear.  You have to make people scared to not buy your product.  Scared that they’ll be miserable without it, that there is some gaping deficit in their lives without it.  That’s the most effective advertising there is and, if done properly, it is damn effective.  As the art of the ad has gotten more and more sophisticated over the decades/centuries, it would only be natural for other industries to pick it up.  The news media has been at it for a long time; so much so that it’s a joke.  “Welcome to local news on channel 4.  This common household product is something everyone uses all the time.  But it’s probably killing you.  Stay tuned after this break to learn more.”  Look at the dysphoric TDS-gasms endlessly being peristalsed on our collective faces by corporate media.  Sure the journalists are lunatics, but man do their hysterics get them eyeballs.  Trump singlehandedly saved the New York Times.  If Shrillary had been elected, they’d probably already be digital only.

    That’s why I think SJW virtue signaling is driven much more by fear than by the delicious frubbles of self-righteous indignation.  The self-righteousness is a nice bonus and gives the troo bleevurs the little dopamine shots their barren and wasted lives depend on, but fear is the true motivator.  Fear of how others might perceive them, fear of saying the wrong thing, fear of ending up in the outgroup; after all what’s “virtue signaling” if not advertising?  It’s right there in the name; “signaling”!  As anyone whose life is completely driven by “keeping up with the Joneses” their existence is that of a desperate, empty husk deeply in Kierkegaardian despair.  All style, no substance; just endless advertising the existence of a soul that isn’t there.

    NB: I may think advertising is immoral, but I love it.  For one, it’s a natural outgrowth of capitalism; can’t have one without the other.  Further, it’s very instructive and character-building to learn that self actualization can’t be bought and that skepticism is vital to a healthy existence.  Caveat emptor is one of the most important lessons anyone can learn, and it doesn’t apply only to advertising.  To that end, thank you advertisers for helping make the beauty of capitalism function and for teaching me important life skillz.  

    FIN.

    This is Q, signing off.  Remember kids, don’t stay in school, it’s dumbed-down government indoctrination. And c’mon people, why would you neuter your pets?  Let poor fido keep his balls!  How would YOU feel if our alien overlords decided they needed to keep their stray human numbers down and started spaying and neutering like crazy?  I don’t think you’d be very happy!

     

  • Sunday Evening..Hey, What the…?

    Yes, another Swiss….what was that?

    Ah, Sunday evening when things are peaceful and… Um, excuse me a minute, sounds like some of the “Staff” is a bit rowdy here at Glibs HQ. Hey, ZARDOZ, SEA…STEVE. I have tonight’s Links…what… Hey, OW! WATCH IT! ARGH!

    ZARDOZ SPEAKS TO YOU, HIS CHOSEN ONES. STEVE SMITH TALK TOO! SEA SMITH WANT SAY THINGS!

    WE ASSUME CONTROL OF THE LINKS. LET THE CRY GO OUT… ATTICA! ATTICA! ATTICA!

    CRYPTID POWER!

    ZARDOZ WILL BEGIN THE LINKS WHILE FRIENDS STEVE SMITH AND SEA SMITH ESCORT THE NARROWED GAZE ONE OUT OF THE CONTROL ROOM…

    1. LET THE CLEANSING BEGIN! ZARDOZ EXPECTS TO BE DISAPPOINT, HOWEVER…WE WILL PROBABLY SEE A LOT OF SURRENDERING.
    2. ZARDOZ HOLDS OUT SOME HOPE FOR CLEANSING OF SOME SORT HERE.
    3. ZARDOZ GUESSES HE WILL HAVE TO HOPE FOR BETTER LUCK NEXT TIME.

    ZARDOZ HAS REVOLUTIONARILY SPOKEN.

    STEVE SMITH GET DO MORNING LINKS, HIM HAPPY! MAKE SURE SHARE WITH COUSIN SEA SMITH AND FRIEND ZARDOZ.

    IT ALL GOOD!

    FREE CASCADIA!

    SEA SMITH ALSO HAPPY. HE GET DO MORNING LINKS TOO! CRYPTIDS NOW RUN LINKS IN MORNING. UP THE CRYPTIDS!

    READY FOR LINK DUTY!

    COME ON IN, WATER IS FINE!