I'm losing count of the Lefty pervs by now...

Two-for-one deal today in the Perversion Sweepstakes. First up, ANOTHER asshole from that wretched hive of scum and villainy, The New Republic.

Hamilton Fish V, publisher of The New Republic, has taken a leave of absence as the company investigates sexual harassment allegations by female employees against him, according to a report.
Win McCormack, owner of the left-leaning mag, informed his staff in a memo Sunday that he had asked Fish to "remain on a leave of absence" pending an independent probe about recent complaints, the New York Times reported.

Which only goes to prove what I've always said, Lefties and Feminists do not care one single damn about women. It is ALL politics and money with these people.

The pattern that's emerging shows how this works. The publisher and the editor are both in it, covering for each other. Lots more to come, I expect.

Then there's this one. Here, a guy comes forward with the shit that used to happen to me periodically, getting hit on by older men. It turns the stomach, it does.

Last June, Anthony Rapp settled in at the home of his good friend and fellow actor Camryn Manheim to watch the Tony Awards. The New York natives were both in Toronto working, and Manheim had invited Rapp and his boyfriend over to partake in the beloved theater geek ritual. But for the first time, Rapp — a working actor since he was 9 years old, and most famously part of the original cast of the musical Rent — felt something he'd never experienced before with the Tonys: dread.
And that's because the host that night was Kevin Spacey.
In an interview with BuzzFeed News, Rapp is publicly alleging for the first time that in 1986, Spacey befriended Rapp while they both performed on Broadway shows, invited Rapp over to his apartment for a party, and, at the end of the night, picked Rapp up, placed him on his bed, and climbed on top of him, making a sexual advance. According to public records, Spacey was 26. Rapp was 14.

As I mentioned a couple of days ago, I have seen that show myself. Lucky for me, I was older than 14, I was not cornered alone at a party, and I was capable of defending myself. All the men were strangers, none of them famous. I consider myself extremely fortunate to have gotten off so lightly.

My response was to spend 20 years learning martial arts. That was how fucked up those few encounters were for me. They didn't even do anything, and I decided I needed to get -really- good at fighting, in case they came back. I can't even imagine 14 years old.

Guard your children well, and teach them -all- the dirty fighting stuff. They might need it.

The Phantom

Update: Here's a guy who worked at The New Republic, Dana Milbank, trying to escape from the grinding machine:

How could I have been so stupid?

I was amazed by the #MeToo outpouring by women who have been sexually harassed or assaulted. So many women I know have been victims, and yet, I marveled, I had spent my career in charmed workplaces where such things didn’t happen.

But this week I learned that, earlier in my career, I worked in a place that was the very definition of a hostile work environment — a place that is now one of the most visible examples of the Harvey Weinstein fallout. Worse, one of my dearest friends was a victim — indeed, the one who first went public.

I'll tell you how. You let this guy and others like him get away with being an utter ASSHOLE to people, right in front of you.  You let it happen, and you did not say shit. Because it suited your career to do so. Those women saw you let the asshole go unpunished. They, wisely, did not confide in you.

That's how. Fucker.

Yet another Lefty perv unmasked.

This time a big art magazine guy.

Knight Landesman, a longtime publisher of Artforum magazine and a power broker in the art world, resigned on Wednesday afternoon, hours after a lawsuit was filed in New York accusing him of sexually harassing at least nine women in episodes that stretched back almost a decade.

In a prepared statement, the magazine's three other publishers said that Mr. Landesman had "engaged in unacceptable behavior and caused a hostile work environment."

My favorite part, a quote from his main accuser:

In an interview this week, Ms. Schmitt said that she never wanted to sue, but that she did so not just to protect herself, but also "the countless young men and women starting out in the art world."

"I had no power and no voice then," she said. "I don't feel that way anymore."

Hell yeah.

It makes me think we may finally be seeing the reason that art and movies and music have SUCKED so badly for so long. The creative landscape is being kept barren by assholes like this guy. How many serial molesters does it take to shut down the whole art scene in a city like New York? I imagine not very many. A few dozen like this one, placed in positions of power to cover for each other, could scare off all but the most determined attention whores.

And gee, what do we see in the art world these days? Very determined attention whores making really bad art.

The Phantom

The Black Death is alive and well.

Of all the things it sucks to be right about, The fricking Plague is right up at the top.

Black death warning in NINE countries – including Brit holiday hotspots – amid fears PLAGUE could spread on flights from Madagascar

The deadly plague outbreak has struck Madagascar's major cities sparking fears it has yet to 'peak' and could spread into the surrounding region.

Yep, 120 dead so far in that Madagascar outbreak. Pneumonic plague, kills you in two days or so.

Couldn't happen here, you say? Wrong. Totally could.

Another Lefty found to be a perv.

Lefty literary critic has been caught with his hand up somebody's skirt. Must be Wednesday.

Leon Wieseltier, a prominent editor at The New Republic for three decades who was preparing to unveil a new magazine next week, apologized on Tuesday for "offenses against some of my colleagues in the past" after several women accused him of sexual harassment and inappropriate advances.

As those allegations came to light, Laurene Powell Jobs, a leading philanthropist whose for-profit organization, Emerson Collective, was backing Mr. Wieseltier's endeavor, decided to pull the plug on it.

"Upon receiving information related to past inappropriate workplace conduct, Emerson Collective ended its business relationship with Leon Wieseltier, including a journal planned for publication under his editorial direction," the organization said in a statement on Tuesday. "The production and distribution of the journal has been suspended."

Laurene Powell Jobs is Steve Jobs' widow. I suspect she is not amused by Mr. Wieseltier's behavior.

What's interesting is the way guys like this seem to never falter. Following a different harassment investigation at the New Republic in 2014, old Leon left for greener pastures, and greener money.

After Mr. Wieseltier's departure from The New Republic, he landed on his feet, becoming the Isaiah Berlin senior fellow in culture and policy at the Brookings Institution as well as a contributing writer and critic at The Atlantic magazine. His friendship with Ms. Powell Jobs helped lead to Emerson Collective's purchasing a majority stake in The Atlantic this past summer.

The Big Left always lands on its feet. These guys are positively cat-like. Always the bigger job, the new magazine, the new movie, and nobody ever says anything about the women who's asses these Big Boys keep grabbing.

The corruption is wide and deep on the Left. If this guy was a Republican, he'd have been finished thirty years ago.

The Phantom

More Leftist idiots discover self defense.

I swear, sometimes I see stuff like this, and it makes me slap my forehead.

Rochester LGBTQ Gun Group launched: 'We have each others back'

Yeah, because who knows when something bad might happen, right?

But, Allen had a point to prove when he co-founded the "Trigger Warning Queer and Trans Gun Club." The group of approximately 20 people meet at a gun range once a month in Victor to learn how to shoot and safely own a firearm.

The group was also founded just weeks after President Donald Trump was inaugurated.

"One of the biggest things was that I'm fearful of the rise in violence coming from the far right," Allen said.

Allen told 13WHAM that self-defense has never been more important for the LGBTQ community and says one day it could be necessary.

You know my friends, I've been asking anti-gun Liberals this question for a very long time: "What are you going to do if the Church Lady gets elected?"

They're going to buy guns, that's what. Lots and lots of them. But when they run to the gun shop in a panic because the Orange Rodeo Clown got elected, and they're all suuuuper terrified that the Klu Klux Klan is gonna come for them, guess what they find out? There's GUN CONTROL. They can't buy the thing they need to save their delicate little lilac-scented ass, because they voted it out of existence in the 1990's.

What the hell have Conservatives been screaming for the last forty years? Hmm? The world is a dangerous place! Maybe you should have a weapon to protect yourself! Maybe you should practice with it, right? Get really good with it, so that some day when the shit hits the fan, you     can hit the broad side of a barn with it.

Welcome to the party, morons. About time you showed up. Hope you brought your own beer, I'm not sharing mine.

The Phantom

The ultimate futility of gun control: back-alley gunsmiths.

Seen at The Firearm Blog today, the net result of Brazil's gun control laws. Cops busted an off-the-books gun factory.

Coincidentally, the day before TFB published Part 1 of a photo report on DIY weapons seized in Brazil (http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2017/10/17/bunch-diy-weapons-seized-brazil-part/), news broke  that the São Paulo State Civil Police had just busted a small – but very active – illegal weapons factory in the Ferraz de Vasconcellos suburb of São Paulo, the capital city. Although clandestine firearms manufacture is not something unusual in the country, this particular facility called the attention not only due to the fact that its main product, a 9x19mm stockless submachine gun, shows a somewhat decent general finish and apparent (hand-operated by agents) smooth functioning of components, but also that the type has for long (four years, at least) been found in criminal hands in different parts of Brazil.

When -everything- is illegal, criminals will make their own. When they do that, they usually go with full-auto versions. It isn't that difficult. Sheet-metal brake, welder, metal lathe, you're a gun maker.

Gun control does not even inconvenience an organized criminal enterprise, like a drug gang. They make money selling drugs AND selling guns.

As evidence of this truth continues to pile higher and deeper, Liberals continue to cling to their anti-gun religion. One might almost suspect an ulterior motive.

The Phantom

Inertia, and how the magic is ignored.

Reblogged from Small Dead Animals, this is a Very Interesting article about Inertia.

I didn't understand it, nor did my mad interlocutor, and anyone who claims otherwise is not being entirely honest. Despite a gyroscope's utter simplicity—it is, after all, nothing more than a wheel on an axle—it remains the most fascinating and mysterious device ever created. Spin up the wheel, place it on a pedestal, and there it stays, pointed at…?
That is the question. At what, exactly, is the gyroscope pointed? According to the law of inertia, objects tend to continue doing what they've been doing: If at rest, they remain at rest; if moving, they continue moving at the same speed in the same direction. The gyroscope also bends to inertia's will, but in confounding ways. Touch it, and the gyro opposes you by veering in unexpected directions. If it is spinning extremely rapidly, the gyroscope remains rigidly locked in the direction it has been set, its sights fixed on...Kiev—hence the term inertial guidance systems.

 That is a fascinating point. One which it seems nobody is really paying much attention to. Much later in the article, the author says:

The greater obstacle is one of fashion. Today's cosmologists constantly wade into shallow philosophical waters if they align with tastes of the current scientific Pradas and Versaces. They worry about creating Big Bang models whose input parameters occur "naturally" rather than needing to be "fine-tuned" by hand. They consider the "cosmological constant problem"—why the "dark energy" driving the universe's expansion is some 125 orders of magnitude less than what you'd "expect"—to be the outstanding dilemma of their field. Physics or philosophy? Each year hundreds of papers are published on the string theory landscape and on the universe of universes—the multiverse. Each year dozens of conferences take place on particle physics or string theory. The only conference on Mach's Principle took place in 1993.

 Inertia is unfashionable. Interesting.

As well, the article includes one of the first explanations I've ever seen on "frame dragging" that was understandable. Well worth reading the whole thing.

The Phantom

Liberals done ruining Christmas, moving on to Halloween

Liberalism: the crushing fear that someone, somewhere, may be enjoying themselves.

Throughout October, universities across the nation are warning their students against Halloween costumes some consider offensive.
Gone are the days when college students could dress up without fear of being reported to a bias response team. In recent years, more and more campus leaders have made it their mission to warn students what not to wear.

My advice to the young this year: defy them. Show up wearing every single thing they tell you not to, and dare them to say a single thing about it.

The Phantom

Update from PJ Media:  https://pjmedia.com/lifestyle/2017/10/14/five-triggering-halloween-costumes-2017/

PROBLEMATIC!!!Cultural appropriation!!!!11!

Upperdate, not just university SJWs:  http://boston.cbslocal.com/2017/10/17/walpole-elementary-school-cancels-halloween-parade/

This is a public school in Mass(hole)achussets cancelling the little kid's Halloween costume parade because it is "problematic." That sound you hear is my eyes rolling.

Kathy Shaidle on Weinsteining, and why women should wear proper clothes.

Kathy, as usual, stabs the heart of the matter with a fork.

Yesterday, "Mayim Bialk" was trending on Twitter, so I saw reactions to her NYT op-ed about Weinstein before I read the article.

The majority were, "Shut up bitch!" and "How dare you?" and "Victim-blamer!!!!"

Then lefty feminist Anne Lemott said it was a must-read.

Now, having read it, I see why.

What part were they losing their shit over? You'll love this, my friends. Mayim Bialk:

I am grateful to bring Amy Farrah Fowler to life on the No. 1 sitcom in America. I am honored to depict a feminist who speaks her mind, who loves science and her friends and who sometimes wishes she were the hot girl.

I can relate. I've wished that, too.

And yet I have also experienced the upside of not being a "perfect ten." As a proud feminist with little desire to diet, get plastic surgery or hire a personal trainer, I have almost no personal experience with men asking me to meetings in their hotel rooms. Those of us in Hollywood who don't represent an impossible standard of beauty have the "luxury" of being overlooked and, in many cases, ignored by men in power unless we can make them money.

I still make choices every day as a 41-year-old actress that I think of as self-protecting and wise. I have decided that my sexual self is best reserved for private situations with those I am most intimate with. I dress modestly. I don't act flirtatiously with men as a policy.

Note that this piece in in the New York Times, who I remind one and all had this Weinstein story in 2004 on a plate, and killed it. What is Twitter in an uproar over? Women's self defense.

Kathy makes some points about this in her blog, which are spot on. I'm going to add a couple more, from a man's perspective.

As a Man, Capital "M", I am expected to be The Hero. I am expected, by our culture and our society, to help old people, dogs and children in their time of need. Also women. I am the Knight in Shining Armor that is supposed to save the day. That's what a man is, in Canada, right now. That is who you are expected to be, as a Man, Capital "M." That's the cultural role.

Nobody asked me if that's what I wanted, growing up. Nobody gave me a choice. That's just how it is. I didn't mind though. I ran with it. Knight Protector/Cowboy who saves the ranch, that's a great job. I'm down with it.

When I was seventeen-ish, I discovered a different role that some people had in mind for me: prey. They wanted to "party" with me, lets say, just to keep things PG-13. It started happening fairly often, like once a month. On one particular occasion I recall vividly, two at the same time.

Now, being Knight Protector, there's not too many options available in a situation like that. What I actually -did- was say "No", and reach for my motorcycle helmet. One word was all I said, if I remember right. Lucky for all three of us, they took no for an answer. Probably the crazy look in my eye, I'm a bit weird.

Those experiences, and a few others of a more straightforward bullying nature, led me to seek out the martial arts at an early age and follow that road for a long time. When you live that life, you learn stuff.

Don't wear leather soled shoes. They're slippery.

Don't wear tight pants and shirts. (Can't move well, can't run.)

Don't dress flashy.
Don't show your money.

Have a weapon. Keep it clean and ready. Keep it concealed. Don't use it unless you're going to die.

Have an escape route. Use it if you need it.

Check the back seat of the car -before- you get in.

Look around you and see who's there. Watch what they're doing. If they look funny, leave.

When people invade your personal space, leave.

Sit with your back to the wall, where you can see the door.
Don't get drunk in public.
Don't start shit. Don't be around people who start shit.

Et Cetera.

It's a pretty long list. Basically it assumes the worst about human beings and enables you to prepare accordingly. When you follow it, you life runs nice and smooth. Nobody does bad things to you, or the people you care about. Mostly because they can't. You're not making yourself a target.

Mayim Bialk, obviously a smart woman, knows this list. Don't dress flashy. Don't start shit. Don't get stuck in a hotel room with an asshole who wants to "party" with no weapon and no exit strategy, in a miniskirt, crop top and stiletto heels.

This is not rocket science. But to the moron Third Wave feminists out there, this is Victim Blaming!!!!

Oh well. Guess I'm a victim blamer. Reality is harsh that way.

The Phantom

Where was the Actor's Union all this time?

The Harvey Weinstein shitstorm builds further today, growing to include Alfred Hitchcock.

Veteran film star Tippi Hedren has spoken out about the allegations of sexual assault and harassment against film producer Harvey Weinstein emphasising it has been a problem in Hollywood for decades.

Hedren has previously spoken about her experience of sexual harassment at the hands of filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock with whom she endured a tumultuous working relationship.

"I'm watching all the coverage on Weinstein," the 87-year-old said. "This is nothing new, nor is it limited to the entertainment industry.

"I dealt with sexual harassment all the time, during my modeling and film career. Hitchcock wasn't the first." 

Widespread, common, and depraved sexual abuse of women in the fashion and movie/TV industries. Everybody knows about it, apparently. Have know for a long time.

She continued: "However, I wasn't going to take it anymore, so I simply walked away and didn't look back. Hitch said he would ruin my career and I told him to do what he had to do.

"It has taken 50 years, but it is about time that women started standing up for themselves as the appear to be doing in the Weinstein case. Good for them!"

This particular woman says she was assaulted by Hitchcock in 1964-67 era. She started talking about it publicly in 1973. She released her memoir detailing the abuse in 2015-2016. First I hear of it. Which seems to be the hallmark of this thing, everybody knows and nobody says nuttin'.

So here's my question. Hollywood is one of the most unionized environments on Earth. They invented the thing where the carpenter uses the hammer and the laborer carries the hammer. In Hollywood it literally takes three men to screw in a light bulb, the electrician and two laborers to carry the stuff.

There is an actor's union too. Sexual assault of their workers and generally abusive conditions of employment are something they are supposed to be there to prevent. Where have they been since 1964? If a frigging Writers strike can paralyze the movie and TV industry twice in ten years, where is the actress strike? How is it that the WOMEN did not walk out, en mass, and screw over every TV show and movie in production every time one of their sisters got raped by some fat movie mogul?

That's an open question, ladies. Men have no trouble banding together to do battle against a common enemy. They do it all the time. Hell, they do it for fun! That's what team sports is. So where's the Girls Team in all this? How come there's no Actresses' Common Defense Union blowing Alfred Frigging Hitchcock out of the water in 1964? How is it that Harvey the Hog gets to do literally any damn thing he wants for 30 YEARS and nobody says shit about it?

Where's your union?

The Phantom

Twitter declares war on Twitter

It looks like they want to die, over there at Twitter. They suspended Rose McGowan's account.

Rose McGowan had her Twitter account suspended on Wednesday night. 

The actress, who is at the center of the storm of sexual misconduct allegations against producer Harvey Weinstein, took to her Instagram and Facebook accounts to relay the news of her suspension, writing cryptically that: "TWITTER HAS SUSPENDED ME. THERE ARE POWERFUL FORCES AT WORK. BE MY VOICE. #ROSEARMY."

She added a screenshot from a message from Twitter telling her that she had violated their terms of service and she would be locked out for 12 hours.

I would not be amazed to find out she was suspended by an automated system based on keywords, or a brain-dead drone employee somewhere in the guts of a Twitter cubicle farm..

But then again, I would not be amazed to find out Harvey Weinstein made a phone call.

Either way, its one thing to suspend "literally Hitler" Milo Yiannopoulos after Antifa nearly burns down a building trying to get him. Its another thing to suspend cutesie Rose McGowan in the middle of the Weinstein Incident.

Not a good PR look, Twitter.

The Phantom

PM Trudeau declares war on Masculinity.

I wish I was kidding, but no. For real, he's  gone Full SJW.

I want my sons to escape the pressure to be a particular kind of masculine that is so damaging to men and to the people around them.

Because men are, like, so problematic, y'know? Like, gag me.

In other news, the all important Official Halloween Costume Guidelines have been released. Yes friends, there are now guidlines for what your kid is allowed to dress as for kiddie Halloween at school.

An Ontario school board has sent a checklist to parents before Halloween: Does your child's costume "represent a stereotype," such as "terrorist" or "urban ghetto dweller?" Does it involve changing the colour of their skin? Does it allude to a culture that is not the child's own, such as a kimono, a turban or a feather headdress?

Yes friends, if you little white kid wants to cosplay as Mulan or Miamoto Musashi for Halloween, that is a big no-no.

No word on if Japanese kids are allowed to be King Arthur or Snow White, but based on past performance that's probably going to skate by.

The Phantom

DemocRats never let up.

Hillary Clinton today, classy as always:

Following the heinous attack that resulted in 400 injuries and 50 deaths at a Las Vegas concert venue, Hillary Clinton tweeted that she could not "imagine the deaths" that would have occurred if the gunman had used a "silencer."

Here's the actual tweet:
 

The crowd fled at the sound of gunshots. Imagine the deaths if the shooter had a silencer, which the NRA wants to make easier to get.

Here's the CBS legal beagle who stepped in it:

Although her Facebook page appears to have been removed and her Twitter account is protected, the Daily Caller was the first to report that a "top legal executive at CBS, Hayley Geftman-Gold," used  Facebook to inform her social media followers that she is "not even sympathetic" with the 50-plus murdered and 400-plus hospitalized after a mass shooting in Las Vegas Sunday night.

Screen shots captured by the Daily Caller (see below) show that the "VP, Senior Counsel, Strategic Transactions at CBS" wrote in the wake of the massacre, "If they wouldn't do anything when children were murdered I have no hope that Repugs will ever do the right thing."

Geftman-Gold then reportedly added, "I'm actually not even sympathetic bc [sic] country music fans often are Republican gun toters."

Then there's Richard Dawkins, atheist and all 'round dickhead. He's not an American but I'll throw him in anyway.

"Durn tootin', great shootin'. Cool dude sertin' he's 2nd Mendment rahts. Hell yeah!" Dawkins tweeted, apparently attempting to mock a southern accent — perhaps in a reference to the country music festival at which the shooting took place.

He added: "Every country has its psychopaths. In US they have guns".

As of now, ~24 hours after the attack, we know pretty well nothing beyond the shooter's name. That does not stop the Lefties from raging on about gun control.

To be clear, there is no scenario under which gun control prevents this event. Life does not work like that.

Just remember this the next time a Liberal/Leftist/DemocRat wants something from you.

The Phantom

Comic Book writers hit bottom, dig harder.

Not content with writing nothing but SJW trash, Marvel and DC Comics employees decided to harrass a "conservative" comic book critic.

At the PJ Media link:

Mark Waid, who recently took over the Captain America comic book for Marvel, has stepped into more hot water after appearing to call out a fan and popular YouTube reviewer for targeted harassment at this year's Comic-Con on his Facebook page.

The targeted YouTuber was Richard Meyer, a fairly standard comic book guy who reviews comics using his phone to shoot the video. This no-budget, low effort operation has 40,000 subscribers, which according to the article is more than the Avengers had in August. (As an aside, Marvel and DC between them had four titles in July this year that broke 100,000 copies in sales. They've got titles that failed to break 10K copies. Seriously. That's bad.)

But they've got time to arrange a "secret" Farcebook page apparently dedicated to harassment of Richard Meyer:

To make matters worse and more embarrassing for the SJW crowd of comic book writers, a secret Facebook page was revealed where writers plotted to target Meyer with harassment meant to incite violence.
Taylor Esposito is a letterer for DC Comics and is clearly seen on the not-so-secret Facebook page insinuating that critics of their comics are likely to be violent, calling them "nutjobs." Kelly Thompson of Marvel's Star Wars Phasma and IDW's infamous lady Ghostbusters joined in, claiming fear of the awful critics as the major reason she's never been to a con as a professional. B. Clay Moore, who seems to have written something a long time ago, actually suggests harassing Meyer to the point of violence.

No word if Farcebook took this page down for promoting violence, as they've been doing to lots of conservative commentators lately.

Richard Meyer had this to say about the whole thing:

PJ Media reached out to Richard Meyer, who was happy to talk about being targeted by SJWs. "It's a neo-McCarthyism situation; the industry is being destroyed," he said. "They are killing it. They've turned an industry into a community which doesn't have to have sales or success. It's a vicious pogrom and excommunication of anyone right of the extreme far left."Meyer has been accused of transphobia for calling out the questionable elevation of a transgendered comic author, Magdalene Visaggio, who seemed to come out of nowhere with no history or accomplishments in the industry.

<snippage>

Meyer believes he is being targeted for, among other things, daring to criticize Visaggio. "You can't say anything about the diversity hires because they're magical," he explained. "One of the successes of my channel is that I say what other people are thinking. There's about 100,000 fans out there waiting to come back. America only has a few unique institutions and one of them, comic books, is literally being murdered. Normal comic pros have been chased away and it is now a weird club for people with personality disorders."

I would guess there's a lot more than 100,000 waiting to come back. I'm one myself. If comics stopped sucking, I'd buy Marvel's full output every month. I used to do that, back when I was young and poor in the 80's.

But I'm -exactly- the type of comic reader that Marvel and DC are determined to drive away. Male nerds. They're systematically doing everything they can to alienate the exact customer base that keeps them in business.

More evidence to support the notion that comics are no longer even trying to make a profit, or even stay in business. Pure propaganda, preaching to the already converted.

That's okay with me. One more thing I don't need to spend money on.

The Phantom

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.

Shoes are what's important to the media.

The New York Times continues to wonder why we mock them.

When is a shoe not just a shoe?

When it is a pair of very high, needle-thin heels worn by the first lady of the United States on her way to the site of a natural disaster. Then it becomes a symbol for what many see as the disconnect between the Trump administration and reality; another example of the way in which this president and his family continue to define "appropriate" their own way; and an excuse for partisan name-calling.

Or so became apparent Tuesday morning when President Trump and his wife left the White House to fly to Texas for a briefing on the devastation caused by Hurricane Harvey, and Mrs. Trump appeared on the lawn in black pegged trousers, black shades, an olive green bomber jacket — and her stilettos, now a trademark. Very much the same kind of shoes, in other words, she has been wearing since long before she joined her husband on the campaign trail.

They are complaining about what the First Lady is wearing when she's getting on Air Force One in Washington.

Did Melania, who was most certainly not going to be bucking sandbags or ladling soup, wear the offensive heels at the disaster?

Though by the time the plane had landed Mrs. Trump looked altogether more grounded, in white sneakers and crisp white shirt, with a ponytail pulled through a black baseball cap emblazoned with the word "FLOTUS," during her time in the air the original shoes went from being mere footwear to objects of vilification thanks to social media's specific kind of alchemy.

So that's a no, then. Why even bother writing the article?

It is precisely the superficial nature of clothing, the fact that garments are immediately accessible to all, that makes them the go-to stand-in for more nuanced, complicated emotions and issues.

Translation: they hate Trump and they'll use any excuse, no matter how flimsy, to take a shot at him.

Dear Media, this is why your circulation numbers continue to circle the bowl. There's a Biblical flood wrecking a major city, and you worthless assholes are wasting everyone's time with bitchy high school girl gossip.

The Phantom

Update: Kate McMillan's comment on this farce is way better than mine.

Denmark to cut taxes.

This is a fairly big deal in Western governance. Denmark, the highest taxed country in Europe, is cutting taxes.

Denmark's government proposed a broad range of tax cuts that will hit all income groups, make it cheaper to save toward retirement and reduce levies on cars.

The center-right coalition of Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen wants to shrink the country's tax burden by 23 billion kroner ($3.7 billion), with the proposed measures to be phased in through 2025, according to a statement published on Tuesday. The administration also said it will "monitor" the corporate tax rate to ensure Denmark stays competitive with its trade partners.

"With this proposal, we're tackling a number of concrete challenges," Finance Minister Kristian Jensen said in the statement. "We're increasing the gains associated with working, we're making it more attractive to work more and we're ensuring that it's more worthwhile to save up toward retirement."

A fast-growing economy has pushed down the jobless rate to just 3.5 percent, prompting concern about potential labor shortages. An aging population is also weighing on the state's coffers.

Translation: They can't sustain the welfare state they have, because nobody is paying more in than they are taking out. They can't take in a bunch of Mooselimb immigrants, because the Danish people aren't having it. Finally there is a large swell of Baby Boomers retiring, and there's not enough money to keep paying their retirement plus everything else the Danish government currently pays for.

Solution, economic growth! Shazam! To do that, they have to cut taxes.

Everybody knows the solution to a crappy economy is tax cuts, even socialist freak jobs. They just find tax cuts inconvenient, because there's less money for them to steal and the voters complain about not getting their "free" stuff anymore.

The Phantom

My review of Monster Hunter Siege.

Lela Buis was kind enough to post my reviw of Monster Hunter Siege by Larry Correia on her blog.

https://lelaebuis.wordpress.com/2017/08/28/guest-review-of-monster-hunter-siege-by-larry-corriea/

Spoiler, I liked it. ~:D

The Phantom

Christian bookstores vanishing rapidly.

More book retailers on the chopping block.

Over the last decade, Christian bookstores across the nation have been shuttering. In some cases, consumers are just less interested in the stores' God-blessed inventory. But plenty of others are just opting to purchase religious items from online retailers, with Christian bookstores humbled before the same digital market forces that felled secular mom-and-pop bookstores.

The flailing Christian bookstore industry reached code red status earlier this year when Family Christian Stores, touted as "the world's largest retailer of Christian-themed merchandise," declared it would shutter all of its 240 stores across America and lay off 3,000 employees. The 85-year-old chain said that "changing consumer behavior and declining sales" left it no choice.

What happened?

The rise of online retailers created stiff competition for brick-and-mortar stores. The absence of rent, real estate, and large staffs allowed these emerging distributors to offer deep discounts that traditional booksellers simply could not match. The internet also created options for authors to affordably self-publish their work and distribute it straight to consumers. This, combined with a sharp decline in book sales generally and the rise of reduced price e-books, ate into publishers' profits.

These converging trends decimated the print publishing industry. And retailers, which form the industry's front line, bore the brunt of it. Many prominent chains, such as Borders, B. Dalton, and Waldenbooks, floundered and eventually folded. Others, including industry giant Barnes & Noble, teetered on the brink of bankruptcy.

So, the usual. Just more of it.

It won't be long before retail space starts getting really freaking cheap, my friends.

The Phantom

Victim update: Nazi victim guy stabbed himself!

Wow, the news just keeps getting stupider.

Sheridan police arrested a man after he admitted cutting himself and making up a story about being stabbed by someone who asked if he was a "neo-Nazi."

Joshua Witt, 26, told police on Aug. 16 that he was stabbed in the hand by a man who approached him outside the Steak 'n Shake restaurant at 3502 River Point Parkway.

Witt told police the man asked if he was a neo-Nazi and then tried to stab him. Witt claimed his hand was injured as he tried to protect himself. Witt, a U.S. Navy boatswain's mate who lives in San Diego, posted photos of his injured hand on his Facebook page and shared the fake story about being stabbed.

Previously mentioned here in the Phantom Soapbox. Just goes to show the level of bullshit this year is getting deeper and deeper.

The Updated Phantom

Book shenanigans!

Well well. It seems that a company decided they wanted to be Number One!!! on the New York Times bestseller list.

NEW YORK (AP) -- A novel called "Handbook for Mortals" had a very brief reign at the top of a New York Times best-seller list.

The paper confirmed Friday that it had pulled Lani Sarem's book from its young adult hardcover list for Sept. 3 because of "inconsistencies" in the reporting of sales. The announcement came after online complaints that "Handbook for Mortals" had benefitted from so-called "bulk sales," when hundreds or thousands of copies are ordered by a single buyer. On Twitter, young adult author Phil Stamper and others had questioned how a book they knew little about could reach No. 1 on the Times list.

"After investigating the inconsistencies in the most recent reporting cycle, we decided that the sales for 'Handbook for Mortals' did not meet our criteria for inclusion," the Times said in a statement issued through communications director Jordan Cohen. "We've issued an updated 'Young Adult Hardcover' list for September 3, 2017, which does not include that title.

Of note in this story are two things. First, that getting on the NY Times best seller list -can- be finagled like this. The books have not even shipped, all that has happened is that electronic orders have gone through. Check out this very last part waaaaay down at the bottom:

Placement on a Times best-seller list is highly valued by authors and publishers, and efforts to manipulate sales through "bulk" purchases have occurred over the years. An "About the Bestsellers" note on the paper's web site reads that "Institutional, special interest, group or bulk purchases, if and when they are included, are at the discretion of The New York Times Best-Seller List Desk editors."

This little get-out-of-jail-free clause is so that people like Hillary and Barack can write a coffee table book that NO ONE BUYS, and still be on the best seller list. Incidentally you can tell that no one bought it when it shows up at Barnes and Noble on a pallet in the middle of the store for five bucks. That's called "remainder" where they blow out the whole print run below cost so they don't have to store it.

The difference between some US Senator's book and this "Handbook for Mortals" is that author Lani Sarem doesn't have a "friend" on the New York Times Best-Seller List Desk. The Goodreads review page is on fire with one-star reviews.

Second is how few copies a book has to sell to get on the best seller list. This is pretty interesting for aspiring authors. It seems 5000 sales will get you on the list. I'd take that number with a large grain of salt, because the Pajiba site its on has a "Resist/Persist" t-shirt for sale, we're talking the Full SJW here. But, it does put the on-going bunfight over Science Fiction awards in a certain perspective. These are very small numbers of sales. People really are not reading this stuff.

The Phantom

Update!: According to the Mad Geniuses, and verified by the International Lord of Hate, Larry Correia, the measurement is 5000 sales, in a week, from the special super-secret stores that send their sales data to the New York Times.

Canadians will be chagrined to learn the true size of our market,  according to Super Fabulous Canadian Author via private e-mail, 5000 sales in Canada makes you a Best Seller. Holy crap.

So, if you write a fairly decent book and release it into the Canadian market, you can reasonably expect -dozens- of sales. Yay.

John A. Mcdonald, NAZI!!!!11!

You just knew this was coming.

As U.S. legislators mull the removal of statues seen by many as painful reminders of the darker moments in American history, a similar debate is playing out in Ontario over whether public schools should bear the names of Canadian figures associated with this country's legacy around the treatment of Indigenous communities.

That debate hit the floor of a meeting by the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario days ago, ending with a resolution to urge school boards across the province to consider removing the name of Canada's first prime minister — Sir John A. Macdonald — from public schools.

What did Sir John A. ever do to deserve this?

Widely lauded as the father of Confederation, Macdonald is credited with having joined the eastern and western parts of Canada together through the creation of a transcontinental railway.

Pareja says he acknowledges Macdonald's foundational role in the country's Confederation, but that having public schools bearing his name leaves out his role in the starvation of Indigenous people along the railway to facilitate its construction — along with Macdonald's "central role as the architect of, really, what was genocide of Indigenous peoples on Turtle Island."

Funny how there are still Indians all over Canada, given the genocide and all.

Sir John A. is guilty of being dead, white and there's statues of him, pretty much.

Home schooling is the future, my friends. Save your children's minds, keep them away from these loons until they're old enough to fight back.

The Phantom

My only comment on the Charlotte riot.

This will be my one comment on the Left vs. Right rioting in Charlotte NC, Boston, and any other frigging place these assholes show up:

Man stabbed after haircut gets him mistaken for a neo-Nazi

Witt says he'd just pulled in to the parking lot of the Steak 'n Shake in Sheridan, Colo., and was opening his car door.
"All I hear is, 'Are you one of them neo-Nazis?' as this dude is swinging a knife up over my car door at me," he said.
"I threw my hands up and once the knife kind of hit, I dived back into my car and shut the door and watched him run off west, behind my car.

That's what's going on out there. Plan accordingly.

The Phantom

Update: It is dumber than we thought. This guy stabbed himself.

Bubonic Plague fleas found in Arizona.

I know that as a Straight White Male I'm not allowed to talk about illegal immigration. Tough shit, I'm going to anyway.

One of the most important reasons for having borders and immigration controls in place is to prevent the spread of contagious disease. Back in the old days, if you caught tuberculosis or something like bubonic plague, you died. So countries like Canada and the USA made a very large and very expensive effort to keep people with those diseases out of the country by screening all prospective immigrants.

When you have people sneaking into the country, those screens are obviously not done. Diseases spread, and people die.

Enter the humble flea. One of the things fleas do is jump from rodents to people. Another thing they do is carry the Bubonic Plague bacteria. They can live for a long time after being infected, and their bite transmits the disease.

One of the things that happens to people when they sleep outside is they can get fleas. You lie down a few feet from a hidden mouse nest or prairie dog hole, you get fleas on you.

In a situation where hundreds or even thousands of people are moving through the desert from Mexico, some of them are going to get flea bites.

So what? So fleas carrying the Bubonic Plague have been found in Arizona.

Health officials are urging people to take precautions after a second Arizona county in two weeks confirmed that fleas in the area have tested positive for plague.

The announcement by Navajo County Public Health officials on Friday comes one week after Coconino County officials found prairie dogs in the area to be carrying fleas with the plague -- the infectious disease infamous for killing millions of Europeans in the Middle Ages.

The fleas in Navajo County were found near the town of Taylor.

Health officials have notified the residents whose property will be treated. The area will be closely monitored to determine if further action is required.

People are advised to take certain measures to reduce the risk of exposure to this serious disease, which can be present in fleas, rodents, rabbits and predators that feed on these animals.

The disease can be transmitted to humans and other animals by the bite of an infected flea or by direct contact with an infected animal.

It is not unlikely that a migrant or two may end up catching the plague, if the fleas are having a good year and spreading widely. Bugs do that. Some years their numbers increase.

Why do we care? Because this is the Plague we're talking about here. This shit is fatal if untreated and as contagious as the common cold. Picture if you will an overcrowded holding facility full of men, women and little kids, all happily swapping germs in the not-very-sanitary government facility, then being put on trains and buses and airplanes for delivery to small towns all over America.

If you wanted to kill a whole lot of people by disease, that would be the best possible way to do it. That's the current US Immigration system. The one that Trump is a Nazi for trying to change.

The Phantom

Why do women bully each other at work?

The Atlantic, oddly, has an interesting article about workplace bullying. By women, to women. It begins thus:

The bitches, as Shannon saw it, came in three varieties. She categorized them on her personal blog, in a post titled "Beware the Female BigLaw Partner."

First was the "aggressive bitch"—a certain kind of high-ranking woman at the firm where she worked who didn't think twice about "verbally assaulting anyone." When one such partner's name appeared on caller ID, Shannon told me, "we would just freak out."

Next was the two-faced "passive-aggressive bitch," whose "subtle, semi-rude emails" hinted that "you really shouldn't leave before 6:30." She was arguably worse than the aggressive bitch, because you might never know where you stand.

Last but not least, the "tuned-out, indifferent bitch," Shannon wrote, "is so busy, both with work and family, that they don't have time for anything … This partner is not trying to be mean, but hey, they got assignments at midnight when they were associates. So you will too.

Its a fairly long article. The take-home is:

A) Don't work for a woman if you can avoid it, and

B) When women are horrible, and they are, it is MEN who are at fault.

Of course, right? It's The Atlantic. The author had to stick it to the men, otherwise her piece wouldn't have been published.

Spectacularly absent is any mention of the quaint notion that people, including WOMEN, are responsible for their own behavior. When a man is horrible, it is his fault. When a woman is horrible, isn't it her fault?

Nope. Its some man somewhere, pulling her strings. She's a victim of the Patriarchy. Can't be expected to stand or fall on her own merits, the poor thing.

Only men can do stuff like that. So unfair!