Canadian tax changes: the why.

Lately the Liberals have been talking about some changes to the tax system that will have a big negative effect on family-owned businesses, and professional corporations. Everybody from doctors and lawyers to farmers to the little guy that does your plumbing or runs the corner store. It jacks all those taxes about 10%-20%, depending on income.

Why would they do that? Seems stupid, right? Here's why:

Wolfson went on to speak about equality of opportunity, and questioned whether there should be any measures that enable the intergenerational transfer of wealth, suggesting that if we are really serious about equality of opportunity, then we should have no intergenerational transfer of wealth and instead let the kids all start out at the same place as this would make for a more "convivial society". Coupled with a governmental confiscation of that deceased parent's wealth of course. You cannot make this stuff up.  This is our firm's "WTF" moment in this national comedy labelled as tax reform.  The Liberal Party is basing their entire tax reform platform on Wolfson's study (which by the way is chock full of bias and unrealistic assumptions), whose author has publically stated that he thinks family farms are outdated and inefficient, and NOW proposes imposing a Marxist-style wealth confiscation on the Canadian taxpayer in a manner that would make Stalin proud.   And we are not embellishing that – this is exactly what these proposals entail for the inter-generational transfer of a family business.

Emphasis theirs, believe it or not. This guy actualy wrote "WTF", in bold, in a professional business tax blog. The Liberals want to eliminate inheritance and take all your damn money when you die, and all your stuff, and leave your kids with NOTHING. That is literally what they want to do.

Yes, for real, that's what this is about. Family farm? HA! Fuck those hillbillies! Pay the kid's tuition with some profit from the family plumbing business? HA! Fuck those redneck plumbers! Doctors? FUCK DOCTORS!!!

Just so you know, the Wolfson named is Michael Wolfson, a prof at University of Ottawa. His paper is here: https://uwaterloo.ca/school-of-accounting-and-finance/sites/ca.school-of-accounting-and-finance/files/uploads/files/wolfson-brooks-veall_-_incomes_of_affluent.pdf 

The paper notes that: "This research is being funded by a SSHRC grant to study "The Economic Behaviour of the Affluent". Who the hell is SSHRC?

Well that's interesting. Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. This is a government institution that gives grants to universities. Or, as I like to call it, Liberals funding Liberals to find reasons to raise taxes on Canadians.

The Phantom

RIP Hugh Hefner

Mr. Hugh Hefner passed away on Wednesday. Age 91. Amazing.

Another giant falls. Love him or hate him, as some do, no one can deny that Hef made a big fricking splash out there in the world.

A lesson for the rest of us: after trying on a bazillion women and every possible living arrangement, Hef settled on monogamy.

Life is short, my friends. Live it.

Media meltdown in progress.

Michelle Malkin writes today:

The numbers don't lie. Across the entertainment industry, viewers and fans are tuning out. It's no coincidence ratings are cratering as unhinged celebrities crank up their anti-Trump and anti-American antics.
Pro tip, Tinseltownies: Swapping your jazz hands for middle fingers and waving resistance fists at your customer base is bad for business. Let us count the waning ways.

She goes on to list some of the things I've been talking about the last little while. The Emmy Award, the NFL, TV shows, all the shit in our lives that is becoming so UN-entertaining that people are cutting the media cord in their millions.

This is my favorite bit here, because I love me some Algore bashing:

Al Gore's man-made disaster. Among the summer's hottest messes? Environmental scare-monger Al Gore's climate change sequel to "An Inconvenient Truth." The original green Chicken Little flick raked in nearly $50 million in 2006. The follow-up this summer, in release for a measly six weeks, scraped up less than $3.5 million in domestic receipts. Paramount tried to prop up the film with trailer endorsements from Bono, Randy Jackson, Pharrell Williams, Adam Levine and Shailene Woodley. But their Hollywood helium couldn't lift Gore's cinematic lead balloon.

Emphasis all mine.

One of Rush Limbaugh's greatest triumph's ever: "ALGORE! Fetch me another brain!"

So, we can look forward to a future of empty football and baseball stadiums, empty basketball courts, empty movie theaters and empty bookstores. To compensate there will be full hockey arenas and NASCAR race tracks, NHRA drag strips, and so forth.

One thing will not change. There will still be nothing on TV.

The Phantom

Update, forgot to mention, first seen at Small Dead Animals. Because Kate wakes up before I do every day.

What happens when -everything- on TV is a lie?

Yesterday (or whenever, I don't keep track) the Emmy Awards were on. This is the low-rent Oscars, for TV.

Note on the kind of things that are winning, Ru Paul's Drag Race won Best Reality TV. I was actually watching the Drag Race on Netflix, and compared to what's out there, it isn't bad. I'm literally watching gay dudes dress up as chicks, and its the best available show. I feel ripped off because I paid for Netflix an that's what's on.

Now, the thing about the Emmys this year. Fist, it was a three-hour non-stop scolding of Donald Trump. A celebrity tantrum. They went Full Retard. Capital F, capital R.

Second, nobody watched it. Same as last year, when it was a Hillary campaign commercial and nobody watched it.

With 11.38 million viewers tuning into the 69^th annual Primetime Emmy Awards is even with last year's show on ABC, which was the all-time low. The 2016 show was down 5% from the 2015 show, which was the previous low. Among adults 18-49, last night's Emmys snagged a 2.5 rating. That's down 10% from the Jimmy Kimmel hosted show of last year, the previous demo low.

More support for my contention that the people making the Big Media Decisions do not care about their bottom line at all. They knew it was going to tank this year going in, and they doubled down. Third year in a row incidentally, 2015 was an Obama commercial and was only 5% better. Bleeding viewers and advertisers, they keep turning up the dial louder and louder.

So, the entire media is in the tank for socialism, Antifa and #BLM. Everything on TV is a lie. The assholes who made the Emmys run it, right?

What happens?

This is what happens:

Professor Michael Isaacson, a self-proclaimed member of the Antifa movement who works in the economics department at the CUNY Manhattan college, tweeted from the account @VulgarEconomics: "Some of ya'll might think it sucks being an anti-fascist teaching at John Jay College but I think it's a privilege to teach future dead cops" on Aug. 23.

For those who don't know, John Jay College at City University of New York is the place where all the criminal justice courses get taught to people who want to be cops and so forth.

There's a picture of the guy at the link, he's a typical pencil-necked hipster with carefully  ironic hair. This is the type of guy that signals his virtues and follows along with the crowd. This is not a brave trailblazer of social justice.

Here's his "explanation" for that dead-cop tweet:

In the bio on Isaacson's alleged Twitter account, he calls himself an "economist," "educator" and "antifascist."

Isaacson on Friday said in an email to The Post: "I critique policing as an institution which operates at the behest of a state that increasingly represents the weapons and prison industry rather than the public they're supposed to serve through decades of gerrymandering by both Republicans and Democrats."

"I illuminate this fact in my classes in the hopes that my students are able to choose a career path that does not put them in the position of having to act as an agent of that institution," the professor wrote.

Isaacson refused to answer any further follow-up questions, saying "those are the only comments at this time, thanks."

Why is this chickenshit hipster tweeting "I think it's a privilege to teach future dead cops" when he works at the fucking POLICE COLLEGE?

Because he thinks -everybody- agrees with him, that's why. I mean, it's all over TV isn't it? Trump's a fascist, right?

Propaganda is dangerous.

DC Comics goes full retard.

Yet another example of why I do not buy comics anymore.

Perhaps it is just a coincidence, but perhaps not. 

In the recent issue of Action Comics #987, "The Oz Effect," released Wednesday, Superman arrives in the nick of time to protect a group of undocumented immigrants from a white man sporting an American flag bandanna, wielding a machine gun, who is going to shoot them for taking his job.

May bankruptcy claim your worthless, lying hipster asses.

The Phantom

I forgot what day this is.

I did. I admit, with some shame, that I forgot.

But now, I remember. Its September 11th. Sixteen years, its been.

Remind your friends, ladies and gentlemen. Let us not forget.

The Phantom

Jerry Pournelle has passed away.

Sad news for Science Fiction fans, Jerry Pournelle passed away yesterday.

I was fortunate over the last couple of years to have Dr. Pournelle comment on some of the things I said over at Sarah Hoyt's blog. He was always on point and impressive.

I've spent many a happy hour reading his books.

Godspeed.

The Phantom

Why Television sucks: propaganda.

This shit just makes me tired. The latest Star Trek is quite openly using the Klingons as sock-puppets for Trump supporters.

Star Trek: Discovery will continue the venerated sci-fi tradition of using a fantastic setting to tackle real-world issues — only in a bigger way than any Trek series has done before.

The upcoming CBS All Access drama tells the serialized story of a war between the United Federation of Planets and the Klingon Empire. The show is set a decade before 1966's original series — which premiered 51 years ago today — during which the Federation and Klingons were in a Cold War standoff that reflected yesteryear's U.S.-Soviet relations. In Discovery, war breaks out and the Klingons leading the charge have some ideological ideas inspired by the 2016 electoral divide.

"The allegory is that we really started working on the show in earnest around the time the election was happening," showrunner Aaron Harberts says. "The Klingons are going to help us really look at certain sides of ourselves and our country. Isolationism is a big theme. Racial purity is a big theme. The Klingons are not the enemy, but they do have a different view on things. It raises big questions: Should we let people in? Do we want to change? There's also the question of just because you reach your hand out to someone, do they have to take it? Sometimes, they don't want to take it. It's been interesting to see how the times have become more of a mirror than we even thought they were going to be."

This is the kind of thing that supports my contention that the US Big Media has forsaken the idea of making money, and bet all their chips on the DemocRat Party being in power. They're using Star Trek, one of the biggest franchises in TV history, to make anti-Trump propaganda films.

You've got to be fucking kidding me, Hollywood. If you think I'm going to watch that, you are crazy. Not even on Netflix, bitchez.

The Phantom

Shut up, Mommy!!!

Headline I can't believe I'm writing: Blogger called Activist Mommy banned from Twitter AND demonetized on YouTube for objecting to, wait for it...

... the anal sex guide issue of Teen Vogue. You gotta be kidding me.

This one falls under "too stupid to believe," but it's actually true. Twitter has banned writer Elizabeth Johnston, who writes at "The Activist Mommy," for her war of words with Teen Vogue editor Phillip Picardi

Not only has Twitter banned her, but YouTube will not allow her video commentaries to be monetized. While Johnston's posts and views are controversial to some, none of what she has to say is new. Her views on homosexuality come from the best-selling book in the world — the Bible. The tweet that got her booted was a little salty and perhaps not the best tactic to use for persuasion, but it wasn't any more obscene than the Teen Vogue article.

The banned tweeter.

So, to recap, Phillip Picardi ran an Anal Sex Guide in Teen Vogue, he still has a Twitter account. Elizabeth Johnston called him on it, she no longer has a Twitter account.

I do not have a Twitter account. If I did have one, I'd be deleting it right now.

The Phantom

Formerly Muslim woman suspended by Twitter.

Kathy Shaidle is fond of reminding us all that Conservatism needs its own internet infrastructure a lot more than it needs another news magazine. Here's another example of her being right:

[Shazia Hobbs], A Muslim apostate and high profile campaigner against both female genital mutilation (FGM) and forced marriage has been suspended from micro-blogging platform Twitter, amidst a wider crackdown on right wing voices on the website, and other online platforms like Facebook.

Twitter users noticed the prolific writer and campaigner had vanished from the platform Friday. Hobbs had previously spoken at the Unite Against Hate 'Gays Against Sharia' march in Manchester, where she spoke out against Muslim rape gangs preying on young white girls.

What terrible thing did she do?

Speaking to Breitbart London, Ms. Hobbs confirmed she has been suspended indefinitely.
"It's absolutely disgusting," she told the website. "There was no reason given. Twitter would not tell me what tweets were in violation of their rules. They said it was because of 'harassment'.
"All I tweet about is the rape of Pakistani children by Pakistani men," she said.

Yep. A Pakistani woman is being censored by Twitter for calling out rapists from her own culture.

Classy.

Question for the thoughtful among us: how long before Apple won't let Shazia Hobbs sell stuff at their app store? Facebook won't let her post? How long before Amazon won't carry her books? How long before Google takes her website off their search engine?

For that matter, how long before Google suspends the Phantom Soapbox for even mentioning Shazia Hobbs?

Oh, shut up Phantom! That'll never happen! Right? We'll see, I guess. Meanwhile, I'm keeping backups.

The Phantom

NY Times Best Sellers list is BS? More shenanigans!

Previously we heard that the New York Times Best Seller list got scammed.

Now we hear that the NYT BS list is a scam.

Regnery Publishing, the largest conservative publisher in the United States, has announced it will sever all ties with the New York Times, alleging the Left-wing paper biases its 'bestseller' list in favour of liberal titles.

The company — which published Breitbart London editor Raheem Kassam's recent Amazon bestseller No Go Zones' — has revealed how the Times's list, once believed to be the gold standard in publishing, is stacking the decks against conservative authors.

"As a conservative publisher, we believe that the Times' list does not represent national sales of conservative books as accurately as other widely-published bestseller lists," commented Marji Ross, President and Publisher of Regnery, in an official press release.

Gee, they lied? Yes, it seems they did.

Regnery notes that No Go Zones, in which Raheem Kassam tours areas transformed out of all recognition by mass immigration and state-sponsored multiculturalism, should have had the 10th highest sales of the 15 books on the New York Times list for the week of September 3rd, 2017, according to Nielsen BookScan data — but does not feature at all.

Regnery believes another of its titles, Dinesh D'Souza's The Big Lie, which exposes the American Left's past relationship and present affinity with the Nazis and their tactics, should have been ranked at number one in sales — but the New York Times trailed it in at number seven.

The Times seems to have lost their collective minds. Its one thing to lie. Its entirely another thing to lie about something like this that is so easily checked. A NEWSpaper, particularly one with a reputation for being the Newspaper Of Record, cannot afford to be seen lying about stupid shit like this. Good reputations are hard to earn and easy to lose. But there they are, caught lying again. Over book rankings.

Makes me wonder about other ranking services. It would be pretty easy for Nielsen to jigger their Bookscan data, and in this kind of sharply partisan social environment, there will be a lot of pressure in the publishing industry for them to downplay the success of conservative works.

An unpleasant thought, to be sure.

The Phantom

Shut up, nerds!

This is as fair an encapsulation of my experience with the Hugos and Dragon Awards the last couple of years as anything I've seen.

What you like, and what is important are not the same things. What feels modern and what is progressive are not the same things. Groundbreaking art does not give us comfort; it feels uncomfortable until we get comfortable enough with it to adjust our mental schema–our worldview– to accommodate it. Good novels don't conform to us, they change us and change with us, and when they do, they should win awards.

Good books make you suffer.

That above is the opinion of somebody that was on the Shadow Clarke Jury, a selection of little gadflies that were jogging the elbows of the Clarke Award judges via the internet. That appears to be the philosophy of the mutants who vote all the Important Awards these days.

I have a contrary opinion. Good books make you happy. That's the opinion of most people, AFAIK. That's what the Dragons were meant to be about, us proles voting for the stuff we liked.

Most of the books getting awards these days are designed to be objectionable, and they do it in a very formulaic way. They simply have hateful characters beat their way through a hateful landscape and then die uselessly, accomplishing nothing, while insulting every institution of Western Civilization. Motherhood, childhood, fatherhood, marriage, God, death, life, freedom, loyalty, the more things they can shit on the better everybody says it is. These works are Challenging, you see. They make you suffer, so that you can change and grow, and not be the useless bigot that you are now.

If you want to be a -really- transgressive artist these days, just write a work that is joyous and uplifting.

The Phantom

Update: Welcome Quillette readers!

Somebody called me a liar on the interwebz. Must be Monday.

I said U of Waterloo main bookstore has two book cases that contain their whole SF/F section. Here they are.

Top of case 1

Bottom of case 1

Top of case 2

Bottom of case 2

Now, it may be that there is a different bookstore on campus that has more. It may be that there are a variety of reasons for there being only two book cases. It may even be that back in a corner somewhere there are more SF books, I did not exhaustively search the place.

Notwithstanding, this is what there is, on display, labeled as SF/F, at the main bookstore.

So, doubters, there you go. Two book cases. Anyone requiring even more proof than this should A) call the U Waterloo main bookstore, and B) get a hobby, you have way too much time on your hands.

Oh, and delagar, frequent poster at Vile 666 and Crapestros Flopatron's bog of crap,  can kiss my ass. He's the shit-flinging monkey that called me a liar.