WITHOUT CALLING HIM A FASCIST, GEORGE R.R. MARTIN REMEMBERS JERRY POURNELLE “Pournelle was fond of talking about all the help Robert A. Heinlein (whom he always called ‘Mr. Heinlein,’ at least in my hearing) gave him when he was starting out, and he was a passionate advocate of RAH’s ‘pay it forward’ philosophy, and did much to help the generations of writers who came after him. He served a term in the thankless job of SFWA President, and remained an active part of SFWA ever after, as part of the advisory board of Past Presidents and (even more crucially) on GriefCom, the Grievance Committee. Jerry could be loud and acrimonious, yes, and when you were on the opposite side of a fight from him that was not pleasant… ahh, but when you were on the SAME side, there was no one better to have in your foxhole. . . . His politics were not my politics. He was a rock-ribbed conservative/ libertarian, and I’m your classic bleeding-heart liberal… but we were both fans, and professional writers, and ardent members of SFWA, and we loved SF and fantasy and fandom, and that was enough. You don’t need to agree with someone on everything to be able to respect them.”
Archive for 2017
September 22, 2017
DIVERSITY IS OUR STRENGTH: Little girls are being ‘cut on kitchen tables’ in Manhattan as FGM grows at alarming rate.
ANDREW KLAVAN ON JIMMY KIMMEL: THE LEFT IN A NUTSHELL. “Kimmel Step Number Two. You’re racist. You’re sexist. You’re a climate denier. And when that doesn’t work? Step Three. Violence and violent rhetoric in response to speech.”
Read the whole thing.
21ST CENTURY NEWS: Not All Parents Are Moms.
AT AMAZON, save big on Wheels and Tires.
HE’S NOT WRONG: “Mel Brooks, one of Hollywood’s funniest film-makers, has told the BBC political correctness is ‘the death of comedy.’”
It’s kind of interesting though, reading an anti-PC article at the BBC, with no references as to how the BBC spread PC so virally in England. But then, BBC Labour Party activists with bylines no doubt have to protect their phony-baloney jobs…
TEACH WOMEN NOT TO RAPE! (CONT’D): Arkansas teacher had sex with 4 students — 2 in same day, court document says. “Goline, 25, was arrested Wednesday on charges of first-degree sexual assault, Arkansas State Police said. . . . On one of the occasions between January and April 2016, Goline drove a student to her apartment, where they had sex before going back to school. Later that day, Goline brought another student to her apartment, where they had sex, Arkansas Online reported.”
21st CENTURY (NON-)RELATIONSHIPS: Why Can’t My Famous Gender Nonconforming Friends Get Laid?
To ask the question is to answer it.
NEWS YOU CAN USE: Another Good Reason Not To Pee In The Pool.
HOLY JOURNOLIST, BATMAN! Secret Facebook Page Reveals Marvel, DC Comics Writers Conspiring to Harass Comic-Con Conservatives.
BLUE FALCON: McCain blows up health care reform again, says he can’t support Graham-Cassidy “in good conscience.”
And as a result: John McCain wins over BIG fans in Cher, Rosie O, Cecile Richards, Jimmy Kimmel & MANY others.
Headline via Kurt Schlichter, who links to a 2016 campaign video promising that McCain “is leading the fight to repeal Obamacare.”
UPDATE: Matt Welch of Reason tweets,”MoveOn.org to hold rally praising [McCain], because 2017.”
HONEY, I SHRUNK THE PARTY! Collapse: Time Magazine’s Brutal Deep Dive Into The Ever Shrinking And Regional Democratic Party.
The Democratic Party is in shambles. Say what you will about the Republicans—they have problems too—but at least they’re a national party. For all his faults, Trump was able to virtually get the entire GOP base to vote for him in 2016. The GOP controls Congress, the presidency, two-thirds of the governorships, and 69/99 state legislatures. They’re at the apex of their power. As the GOP licked their wounds and learned from their 2008 and 2012 defeats, the Democrats, smug, content, and insufferable, felt they had advantage for the next generation. They would run the table on national elections due to demographic shifts. Then, Hillary Clinton torpedoed that whole narrative. Time magazine delved into the state of the party, its hit to the mouth after Trump’s win, and noted that things look grim for this regional, shrinking party. As many other, including here, have noted—the Democrats have no leader, no message, dismal fundraising, and seem to be on the brink of civil war over issues on what actually makes one a Democrat.
Time magazine featured Obama on 22 covers. I’m sure if it had been 23 covers, they wouldn’t have had to run this cover:
On the other hand, as Glenn would say, don’t get cocky, GOP — the media loves to write “Death of ____” stories and project a current crisis out to infinity. Business Week’s infamous “Death of Equities” cover story in 1979 is a classic example in hindsight, coming just before President Reagan and Paul Volcker jumpstarted the economy by cutting taxes and significantly reducing the Carter-era inflation that made stocks such a bad bet in the 1970s. And there have been past reports of the demise of parties and political worldviews — I collated several of them in a 2010 post titled, Whatever Your Ideology, Your Opponents’ Worldview Is Officially Dead.
STACY McCAIN ON SOCIALISM IN ONE LESSON. HOW FAR IS IT FROM PARADISE TO HELL? ABOUT A HALF-HOUR, BY AIR:
If heaven were a place on Earth, it might look like Curaçao. An island in the Lesser Antilles near the South American coast, Curaçao is about 170 square miles of palm trees, white sand beaches and warm tropical breezes, the temperature ranging from 88 °F in the day to 78 °F at night. Curaçao has prospered under Dutch colonial rule, and its 160,000 residents enjoy a high standard of living. Tourism is big business in Curaçao, with more than 600,000 visitors from cruise ships each year and 1.7 million arriving by air. The coastline boasts highly rated resort hotels, including the Royal Sea Aquarium Resort, the Renaissance Curaçao Resort & Casino, the Santa Barbara Beach & Golf Resort and the Hilton Curaçao.
The beautiful dream of Curaçao, however, is just 40 miles away from one of the worst nightmares of the 21st century — Venezuela, where a corrupt socialist regime has wrecked the economy, plunging the nation into hunger and poverty. “Venezuela has the world’s largest proven oil reserves, and it was once Latin America’s richest country,” as Nick Gillespie and Todd Krainin of Reason magazine explained. “Today, most grocery store shelves are empty, and Venezuelans are so hungry that they’re killing zoo animals for sustenance. Toilet paper, diapers, and toothpaste are luxury goods. Venezuelan hospitals have disintegrated, children are dying because they can’t get antibiotics, and the infant mortality rate is higher than Syria. The capital city of Caracas is the murder capital of the world . . . The real cause is the socialist economy. The government sets the price of staples such as rice, pasta, and flour, resulting in chronic shortages. Former President Hugo Chavez nationalized industries, confiscated property, and kicked out foreign companies. The government is trying to print its way out of the crisis, resulting in a 700 percent annual inflation rate. After a sham election, President Nicolas Maduro, the handpicked successor of Hugo Chavez, is rounding up his opponents and putting them in jail.”
That’s a lot of bad luck.
CIVIL RIGHTS UPDATE: Education Department rescinds the 2011 “Dear Colleague” letter that gutted due process on campus.
It’s a great day for due process on campus – but there is more work to be done. Rescinding this letter is a necessary, but not sufficient, step towards ending these abuses of Title IX on our nation’s campuses.
21ST CENTURY HEADLINES: Drone sets new record for transporting blood samples.
21ST CENTURY DATING: I’m a Marxist-Feminist Slut—How Do I Find an Open Relationship?
K-12 IMPLOSION UPDATE: Fla. Teacher Tells 11-Year-Olds to Call ‘Them’ the Gender-Neutral Pronoun ‘Mx.’
These are Heinlein’s Crazy Years — we just live in them.
AT AMAZON, deals on Blu-Ray.
JIM GERAGHTY: The Unlearned Lessons of 2016.
Representative Maxine Waters calls the president and his allies “scumbags,” while DNC chair Tom Perez declares, “Republicans don’t give a s*** about people.” The outgoing California Democratic-party chairman leads a chant of “F*** Donald Trump!” Little-known Democratic lawmakers create national headlines by calling Trump the p-word, “ “fascist, loofa-faced, s***-gibbon,” and wishing for his assassination.
Russ Feingold, who came within 4 percent of winning back his old Senate seat in 2016, declared, “Let us finally, finally rip off the veneer that Trump’s affinity for white supremacy is distinct from the Republican agenda of voter suppression, renewed mass incarceration, and the expulsion of immigrants.” Enraged by the White House proposal to end DACA, Illinois Democratic representative Luis Gutierrez declared that White House chief of staff John Kelly is “a disgrace to the uniform he used to wear” who “should be drummed out of the White House along with the white supremacists.” DNC vice chairman Keith Ellison recently compared the Dreamers, those who came to the United States illegally while children, to Jews in Nazi Germany — which make ICE comparable to the Gestapo.
It is as if Democrats concluded that the reason they lost in 2016 was that they just didn’t denounce Trump angrily enough.
Related: Divided Democratic Party Debates Its Future as 2020 Looms.
Like virtually all Democrats, Tim Ryan is no fan of Donald Trump. But as he speeds through his northeastern Ohio district in a silver Chevy Suburban, the eight-term Congressman sounds almost as frustrated with his own party. Popping fistfuls of almonds in the backseat, Ryan gripes about its fixation on divisive issues and its “demonization” of business owners. Ryan, 44, was briefly considered for the role of Hillary Clinton’s running mate last year. Now he sounds ready to brawl with his political kin. “We’re going to have a fight,” Ryan says. “There’s no question about it.”
Indeed. But so long as the Democratic Party remains all-in on “no enemies to the left,” then Democrats like Ryan will remain marginalized — and the Waters and Feingolds and Ellison’s will be empowered.
Nancy Pelosi has seen which way the wind is blowing, but even she is powerless to stop the party’s descent into madness, in no small part because she spent so many years helping to push it over the cliff.
RISE OF THE MACHINES: Smartphone Heart Monitor Beats Doctors at Diagnosing Atrial Fibrillation.
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Adriana Cohen: Diversity, inclusiveness fraud in academia.