william.scherk

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Blog Entries posted by william.scherk

  2. william.scherk
    I am intrigued by Regi Firehammer's article on Evolution, which is published at USAbig.com. With his permission, I have re-published it at my website with my annotations, suggestions and notes. I will keep this blog entry locked until I have finished the first set of notes. Below is the essay as it stands.

    -- here is my annotated version as published. My work is incomplete now mostly complete, although the frame will 'update' if the work proceeds and I revise the file. Thanks, Regi, for the opportunity to reason. The direct link to the file is http://wsscherk.hostingmyself.com/0SCRN-CPZ/FirehammerOnEvolutionRevised.html
     

  3. william.scherk
    Brant, some areas of biology are more complicated than flip one-liners ... I think you do well understand that there is variation in genitals. I have explained this before at length here. Please review the 'spectrum' of real-world and recurring cases of babies born with indeterminate external genitalia. It is relevant and not all that  complicated in principle: the X and the Y have jobs to do as chromosomes. In a normally developing fetus, their job is done to the norm.  It is the not norm I think we are concerned with. You cannot norm an XXY 'girl' pre-puberty. The chromosomal 'sex' type does not always predict the Dick.  
    You should know this, Brant; it is relevant, and it makes your pithy saying unhelpful -- the saying is just an arbitrary assertion if it cannot be supported, and it can be contradicted by reality.  
    That works for me and you.   But the function of a restroom is not gender-division, it is to take away wastes and allow cosmetics to be applied while checking out the dog-face beside you.  And washing hands after touching yourself down there.
    The function of a child's bathroom can be divved up by gender and it is the world over, but the bathroom has almost nothing to do with sex in the schools we are 'worried' about. Sex, meaning sexual behaviour, sexual activity, sex.  Sex school. 
    We run the risk of distorting reality if we aren't familiar with the ins and outs of actual 'intersex' or otherwise physically/mentally incongruent people, and if we gloss over disconfirming details.  Brant, I might ask you to consider a Lesbian in a Ladies Room.  Or a Gay Man in a Men's room.   Or a couple copulating in an airline restroom. Or a sex crime committed in a locker room or ancilliary single-gender environs.
    The harms are where?  The harms are in the crime. The crimes are in the cover-ups, and abuse of human beings as sexual ends.  Thus Jerry Sandusky and the procession of disgusting Catholic abusers and coverups. Thus the concern about hidden abuse of children in the privacy of their homes, but their caregivers. Thus the horrors of badly-run foster and 'care' systems.  Thus sexual abuse of minors ... sexual abuse of children, sexual abuse of adolescents and pre-pubescents.
    That rings dark and true.  What doesn't sound as darkly is the harm in Jazz taking her shit with where she wants to?   She isn't some hairy Peter Taylor in drag wanting to periscope up widdle gurls skirts or manhandle them. That is on the Hairy Peter. That is his imaginary crime. 
    Brant, if you have ever been the target of Faggot Attack, or been intimate with someone gay or bi who has been beat up, or if you know some 'Trannnnnnnneeee' who has been beaten, beaten to death, contrast that with the Bathroom Crime bullshit being ushered into law in Trailer Park states. The law has penalties. 
    I would like you to go read the text of the laws promulgated to Prevent GayScaryHairyTransRape ... and then give me a one-liner or two. If we are united in anything beyond our interest in reason, it is in our rejection of ignorance.  I can always be less ignorant, I can be ready to take on more information. And so can you.  
    When was the first time you Looked At Another Boy's Penis with lust in your loins, Brant?  I mean, in a bathroom. When do you use a bathroom to stalk victims?
    Oh. Tell me that the law should be that Jazz must go squat in the Boy's Room.  FFS.
     
     
     
     
     
     
  4. william.scherk
    Former President George W Bush doesn't usually make much news, but a speech he gave at his Presidential Center has the usual suspects dragging out portions of his speech for crimes against Trump.  The theme of the conflab at the Bush Center was "The Spirit of Liberty: At Home, In the World."
    Here is the full speech, and below I add in the full text. Some  folks think it was an unfair attack on the current President (or his perfect policies and actions).
    You listen, you read, you decide ...
    The nub of the matter?

    The full remarks ... cued to (one of) the 'attacks.' You can roll up and down to find other shameful examples of Swamp Gas.

    -- the kingdom of reaction, via Memeorandum.com
    -- see also MSK's new OL thread for a candid reaction to the "attack against Trump."
     
  5. william.scherk
    David Seaman has had a fair bit of promotion on Objectivist Living, not that there's anything wrong with that. Here is his latest, from which you can glean a coherent narrative of his work.
    Seaman had a recent appearance with the dean of American 'truther' media, Alex Jones, in a short and sweet update on the dread communication platform Twitter.
    Truth, Truther, Truthest!
     
  6. william.scherk
    There is at least one American territory where the stand-up-when-the-President-tells-you-to brouhaha is not pertinent, the island of Puerto Rico. 
    Apparently, some storm lashed the island and left a bit of a mess. The President is probably demanding flag-obedience before unleashing any aid. 
    Speaking of aid, here is a mental aid in the form of visual imagery.
    Back to your regular programming, where dissent is cancer.
  7. william.scherk
    The world of video hoaxing has a relatively new tool. Technology is used to insert facial expression into a video of a person speaking, re-rendering the video to reflect a ''real time" actor's expressions ... ka-reepy implications.
    See also an alarmist Business Insider article, "AI and CGI will transform information warfare, boost hoaxes, and escalate revenge porn."
     
  8. william.scherk
    An interesting story from August 1 at the BBC: How Canada became an education superpower
    -- for those who followed today's Presidential unveiling of an immigration reform, the story has a few explanations of how Canada can place high on international education ranking -- while dealing with large amounts of immigrants. Without getting into the weeds, Canada's immigration policies are more like the reforms suggested for the USA -- a "points-based" system -- except for the family-class newcomers.
    At roughly ten percent of the American population, Canada inducts a greater relative proportion of immigrants than America does. This year we are likely to admit 300,000 or so ... not including 60,000 refugees.
    Anyway, some readers may find this intriguing -- how Canada has maintained high in-migration levels and still raised its education rankings to the top tier. I have added some bolding for skimmers ...
    What say you to the reforms in the pipe for the USA?  With the exception of reducing 'family-class' criteria, it is possible a new immigration framework could pay off in terms of the rankings cited in the BBC story, given time.
    On the other hand, the equivalent of Canada's yearly target/quotas would be 3,500,000 newcomers every year.
    Yikes!
    ____________
    From a Business Insider story last Xmas:

  9. william.scherk
    I can't make complete sense of the deal/no-deal, amnesty/no amnesty hoopla engorging the members of the media today.  I think that the President wants to allow work permits continuing to be given to DACA folk, on the same two-year re-application schedule. 

    But the hoopla machinery is at full screaming intensity today. From Memeorandum this moment:
    Whew!  
  11. william.scherk

    Shock Therapy

    By william.scherk,

    Could be interpreted as meaning the US is 'considering' stopping all trade with Russia, China, Iran, Sudan, Syria, Venezuela, and a list of other countries of lesser note.  If you interpret it as a threat of consequence, it could  have been designed to merely send a message to the biggest two-way trade partner, the People's Republic: Uncle Sam envisions extreme measures short of war, targeted at enabler nations.
    From another angle, the "all trade" is blufftrump, while the biggest offender still remains, yes, China. Surely China can be encouraged to economically cripple the demented state next-door ... (and here's looking at you, Vladimir)
    China & Russia did surprisingly support that last round of sanctions at the UN, and have enforced them, yet they reportedly see the nuclear issue in a slightly different strategic framework:  DPRK is arming itself with the ultimate weapon as a deterrent to the USA's war powers. The leadership do not so far seem inclined to radically punish the North.  
    That sounds wrong and stupid and counterfactual, as DPRK seems to threaten -- if not annihilation -- nuclear death in the Homeland. But that's the strategic thinking, along with Russia, in simple terms. These two DPRK neighbours see missiles pointed at the ''adversary nations," not at themselves. Sort of corrupt great power thinking, maybe.  Perhaps a ruined, starving, cold and miserable North Korea would result in the kind of social breakdown seen in collapsed nations elsewhere, but the question for me is what would result. Could the North Koreans be dissuaded from perfecting their 'deterrence' if their neighbours starved them?  
    Blufftrumping that "all trade" will be extinguished with the unnamed offenders still should and will still send a shiver of alarm through the unnamed, in one of my fantasies. Using trade relationships to punish egregious behaviour of a state actor. 
    Kind of august as a pronouncement-in-tweet, compelling, demanding, ready to unleash The Power from the apex of decision.  
    As the President might say, "We'll see what happens."

    **********************************************************************************
    For a walk down another street, here is a neat match-up of fellows in the vector-space of OL  tastes ...

    Joe Rogan Experience #1006 - Jordan Peterson & Bret Weinstein - YouTube
     
    Peterson is emerging as a star of the culture wars ... has a wide-ranging Youtube channel, and gets into the wars via his Twitter account. He had one intriguing tweet yesterday outraged that the above video was placed under a Youtube 'restricted' status. I asked for details, he deleted his claim.
    Fey, very very fey canoes ...
  12. william.scherk
    The folks at the Voter Study Group have an article from June, in which some 'types' of Trump voters have been discerned. The title and subtitle -- The Five Types of Trump Voters: Who They Are and What They Believe. It is worth a read, if only to explore the path of belief ...
    The five 'types' are said to be:
    Staunch Conservatives
    Free Marketeers
    American Preservationists
    Anti-Elites
    The Disengaged

  13. william.scherk
    The topic of emotion in Randland has always interested me. My very first point of contact with Objectivish things online was the place of emotion in cognition. It is interesting to find myself in rough agreement with Michael all these years later. 
    In the midst of a very intriguing conversation with my favourite South African Randian, this by MSK:
    It's not really fair to truncquote this bit, but readers can plunge back into the front porch thread to gain the flow of discussion, and the hinge-point of disagreement. But besides that, I think I can add a clarifying point in response to this (highlights added):
    This describes a similar-but-not-identical syndrome that I became aware of by reading the work of Antonio Damasio (whom I have mentioned a few too many times ...). Damasio worked with a neurological patient given the code-name "Elliot."  I mentioned 'Damasio,' 'emotion,' and 'Elliot' in one post five years ago:
    The gist was this: "Here is a teaser from a popular article in the Sydney Morning Herald, Feeling our way to decision" -- which I excerpted in the 2012 post ...
    Back to Michael's post today ...
    I'd like to find the famous example ... perhaps Michael can introspect hard and come up with the details. 
    -- this is roughly what I began to think when I learned of the case of "Elliot." I won't belabour the point here, since my "too many times" link above shows the same kind of discussion points I would make this time.  Without emotion, one's thinking is crippled.
    An additional knowledge point would be what "emotional intelligence" is missing in psychopaths (and here I plug the brilliant synthesis of research given in Ken Kiehl's book, The Psychopath Whisperer). Here is a brief extract from the 2010 Scientific American Mind article "Inside the Mind of a Psychopath."

    -- imagine waking up to a world in which none of these bodily feelings were present in mind,  but were mostly inaccessible ... and try to figure out which emotional circuits are blunted to the point of disappearance in the "rational" mind of a psychopath.

  14. william.scherk
    A few perspectives on the white nationalist "road rage" incident in Charlottesville, Virginia. 

    US Attorney-General Jeff Sessions called the vehicular homicide a clear case of "domestic terrorism."
    Youtube sensation Mike Cernovich: "Civil War is here! #Charlottesville."
    Townhall columnist takes a swing at Presidential equivocation: "The Charlottesville Dystopia: Dark Souls, Tested Principles, and Presidential Weakness."
    Cernovich again: "President Trump Delivers a Statement."
    A thread introduced by OL's foremost  thought leader MSK, who did not (yet) mention the murder/road rage victim** (kind of a 'sanitizing' operation?):

    [editing between laptop and tablet. Will unlock the thread when I finish adding some 'brawling' videos ...]
    Here is a tweet with embedded video. Keep your eye on the stout fellow with long grey hair. He appears to direct a charge into a crowd of 'counter-protesters.'
    The same fellow, tentatively identified as Michael Tubbs, appears to lead the beating of a defenseless man:
    Tubbs has a history of violence. 
    ____________
    ** still no mention of the murdered woman, nor the injured, not a word, because ... George Soros.
    It took the US President two days to denounce the KKK and neo-Nazis. I won't hold my breath waiting for our forum leader to write a few words about James Alex Fields, the alleged terrorist.

    "The white power dudes are stupid and talk tough, and you will find a deranged individual or so among them, but they are not destructive in the sense the race riot people under President Obama were."
    Domestic terrorism, said AG Sessions. "Not destructive," says our forum leader ...

    "Tracking 101." Yeesh.
    ++++++++++++++++++++
    Interesting perspective from the III% (aka the Three Percenters) who supplied some faux-military protection during part of the events in Charlottesville.
     
  15. william.scherk
    Some folks have penned breathless stories about President Trump's new Chief of Staff General Kelly -- suggesting that he will try to intercede between the president and the Twitter 'send' button.  Eg, 
    Yeah, well, if Kelly is with the President in New Bedford during the away-days from West Wing renovations, it looks like the ''reining in" is not actually what some folks hoped for:
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    So ... what are those "phony Fake News polling" items the President may have in mind?  More importantly, how could we know which polling is worse, worst, worstest?  I don't know, going in -- but there is one outfit that President Trump has touted ... 

    -- senior White House counsel Kellyanne Conway (who was a pollster by trade) is noticing a possible difference between expectations and reality: 
    Kellyanne Conway admits Trump’s approval rating is down
  20. william.scherk

    Mann v Ball

    By william.scherk,

    "Have been knows" uses the passive voice and has no subject. Be that as it may, I think the lawsuit's progress is poorly reported by John O'Sullivan. There are a lot of claims made in his article at Principia (which Merlin noted was reproduced elsewhere, though not in mainstream news media). There are a lot of claims made, but some or all may prove not be true. An Objectivist approach ...?  Maybe examine the 'sides' ... and maybe examine the herald.
    It should be remembered that O'Sullivan is the key-holder to Principia, that he is lead author of the book "Slaying the Sky Dragon - Death of the Greenhouse Gas Theory" ... and that he shares with Sky Dragon co-author Tim Ball (whom Mann is suing) a firm belief that there is no Tydall-gas effect (or "Greenhouse Gas Effect"). In other words, CO2 does not contribute to warming.  In other words, the GHE is fake, false.
    Yeah, that is the tribune, John O'Sullivan.
    As for O'Sullivan's ability to 'read' the progress of the lawsuit, I am skeptical. He has been wrong before. 
    I wonder why O'Sullivan does not quote from any actual action in BC Supreme Court ... as someone noted in the comments below  O'Sullivan's July 4 article: 
    On his Facebook page, Mann has posted a retort from his lawyer categorically denying any duty to produce model data for discovery. Can you substantiate the main premise of this article? Do you have the order from the judge demanding the production of the data from Mann?
    Interested readers can integrate Mann's lawyer's response to O'Sullivan's earlier storytelling (from February, available at Principia here) with some fresh storytelling from O'Sullivan published two days ago  -- alongside Mann's lawyer's most recent response.
    I also note that Tim Ball is being sued for defamation by another person ... Andrew Weaver, whose Green party holds the balance of power in our provincial legislature ...
    ******************************
    Not on the same topic, but my province is now under a state of emergency due to a spectacular genesis of new wildfires. My second sister and my step-dad sold their property before joining us in our new home in Chilliwack in April. Their former property is in one of the rural evacuation zones and may be destroyed. No deaths reported, but much dislocation and fears of destruction.
     
    -- for Peter, who is annoyed by weather porn:

  23. william.scherk
    ... Russia, according to a set of figures taken from the International Monetary Fund's World Economic Output stats:
    Country/Economy GDP Nominal (billions of $) GDP PPP (billions of Int. $) PPP/Nom 2016 share Rank 2020 Rank 2016 share Rank 2020 Rank United States 18,561.934 24.7 1 21,927 1 18,561.934 15.6 2 21,927 2 1.000 China 11,391.619 15.1 2 16,458 2 21,269.017 17.9 1 29,348 1 1.867 Japan 4,730.300 6.29 3 5,506 3 4,931.877 4.14 4 5,483 4 1.043 Germany 3,494.898 4.65 4 4,008 4 3,979.083 3.34 5 4,583 5 1.139 United Kingdom 2,649.893 3.52 5 2,928 6 2,787.741 2.34 9 3,244 9 1.052 France 2,488.284 3.31 6 2,851 7 2,736.717 2.30 10 3,185 10 1.100 India 2,250.987 2.99 7 3,297 5 8,720.514 7.32 3 12,842 3 3.874 Italy 1,852.499 2.46 8 2,046 9 2,220.580 1.86 12 2,518 12 1.199 Brazil 1,769.601 2.35 9 2,214 8 3,134.892 2.63 7 3,631 8 1.772 Canada 1,532.343 2.04 10 1,856 10 1,674.313 1.41 16 1,973 17 1.093 Korea 1,404.383 1.87 11 1,747 11 1,928.621 1.62 13 2,373 13 1.373 Russia 1,267.754 1.69 12 1,698 12 3,745.084 3.14 6 4,309 6 2.954 Australia 1,256.640 1.67 13 1,574 13 1,188.764 0.998 19 1,454 20 0.946  
  25. william.scherk
    I first saw the headline from a New York magazine story and imagined a cutting-edge Finnish  'Backcountry Rescue Drone' ... but it is more of a showy stunt and a Samsung commercial and elaboration of concept.  Oversized drone capable of hauling a snowboarder. Ho hum.