You have played too many video games

When your first reaction to this post is: “When did Sega open a restaurant chain and why would they do that?”

As for the post, I think it’s debatable that idiocracy is coming. Based on my recent experiences in Paris and with the girl Vespakazi, I’d say it’s well upon us.

Posted by Vox Day.

Death machines

I once had a Suzuki 750; it was my first bike and it was not the wisest purchase I’ve ever made. A 750 is a lot of bike for a first-timer and while I did eventually figure out how to ride it, I never got all that comfortable riding it in traffic. I sold it to a friend after a gym acquaintance managed to get himself erased by an old woman pulling out of the shopping mall in a 25-MPH zone. I figured that anything that left me vulnerable enough to get killed by elderly women was not my cup of tea.

I had, however, been contemplating getting a Vespa or something to ride to the club, what with gas prices climbing through the roof and all. It’s not that it’s far away, it’s actually what some might consider jogging distance, although the terrain renders that somewhat impractical. Anyhow, I was in the left lane on a one way street and was just beginning to turn left when an idiot girl – she looked around 16 – shot past me going about 45 MPH on the freaking left. If she’d been going even a little slower, she would have likely t-boned the car and launched herself into the brick building on the corner. Now, I’m certainly delighted to not have a massive repair bill and a dead teenage girl on my hands, I do find myself wondering what parent allows their idiot teenager to drive those things. I’ve seen the results of several scooter accidents over the last few years and even had to phone one in once when I came across a kid with a broken leg lying in the road, and in none of those cases was the kid over the age of 20.

Posted by Vox Day.

Mailvox: on the surge

EN approves of today’s column on “The Surge”:

In early April I talked with a major whose work involved negotiating and complying with agreements. In other words he did logistics work for the Sheiks after his higher agreed on the bribe. Tactically we’re working with the existing structure of tribal leaders (sheiks) and ethnic minorities. The strategic goal is gradually returning power to the Iraqis as it was in the time of Saddam and a millennium before that… There is no grand strategic goal beyond our leaving.

We work with three Sheiks in a similar geographic area. All Sheiks work together but are enemies at different times. Turf wars have always been common. Any Sheik who works against the US can expect the US Army and Marines, plus the other two well bribed Sheiks (who are usually traditional enemies with each other) to attack the uncooperative. This is the same long term tactic the Brits used in the area and wouldn’t be surprised if the Brits helped us with it. It’s working but it’s only a short term solution.

BTW, when Col. Douglas MacGregor worked on the original invasion plans we were supposed to begin the Carrot-Stick immediately. Rumsfeld and the other neocons decided they had their moment and that Iraq was prostrate before our invading army. It became an occupation with families having their doors kicked in at will and the local power structure ignored, and worse, most of the Sheiks were arrested. We created the power vacuum that AQ stepped into. It’s not surprising that AQ would be losing with our current tactics. No Sheik wants a neighborhood full of foreigners/freeloaders that he has to feed and then deal with ever heavy hand of the US army when the AQ insurgents did something outrageous.

This underlines one point that I failed to highlight in today’s column. Defeating al-Qaida in Iraq is not tantamount to victory in Iraq, as it is only one of the elements active there and it is not even one of the four most important elements to be taken into account. In Iraqi terms, Al-Qaida has been little more than a weapon to be wielded against the USA or rival domestic powers, depending upon the current state of the dynamic balance of power.

Posted by Vox Day.

A pattern is clarified

You’ll note that since the banning of the men’s clubs, there aren’t a lot of men-and-women’s clubs left. If this dynamic holds true in the synagogue and the church, then we should expect the non-Orthodox forms of Judaism and the mainstream denominations to follow the example of the men’s clubs and significantly decline over the next twenty years.

“Men need to be encouraged to come back into the synagogue,” said Stuart M. Matlins, editor in chief of Jewish Lights Publishing. The Vermont-based publisher has a long list of women’s studies books, but this fall is publishing a guide for Jewish men, and next spring is publishing a modern men’s Torah commentary. “The welcoming of women into leadership positions is something I have worked very hard on, but we don’t want to lose the men.”

The phenomenon is most pronounced in the Reform movement, which is the largest branch of Judaism in the United States, but is also being observed, to a lesser extent, in conservative Judaism. In Orthodox Judaism, where traditional gender roles are maintained, a more familiar struggle is underway, as orthodox feminists agitate for greater roles in worship and possible ordination as rabbis. There is no consensus about why women are now disproportionately represented in non-Orthodox settings, although scholars and Jewish leaders note that the pattern, although a departure from traditional Judaism, mirrors the pattern seen in mainline Protestantism.

It’s not just religious organizations where this pattern is apparent. If television, the SF/F publishing industry and the defunct social clubs of yore are any guide, then Mr. Matlins’s hopes are unlikely to be realized. The men aren’t coming back. This has some interesting implications worth considering for the games industry, which for 15 years has been preaching a mantra of seeking more appeal to women. However, a few ill-conceived and much-covered exceptions aside, the games industry has taken what is in practice a separate-but-equal approach, wherein games are designed directly for their distinct markets rather than attempting to shoehorn everything into the one-size-fits-all approach pursued by the television industry. There are women who play GTA IV and there are men who play Diner Dash and Pet Shop Hop, but the various designs are seldom modified in order to take the statistical outliers into effect.

MMO’s offer an interesting situation in this regard, since they appeal to both men and women at the moment. However, since the social history of forcibly merging the divergent sexual dynamics into a single equalitarian dynamic is so reliably negative, it will probably be very important to maintain the distinct areas of appeal to men and women if one is to keep both groups interested in playing.

Posted by Vox Day.

Polls and the value thereof

Some people have gotten very excited about the fact that Newsweek is reporting that the Magic Negro has a 15-point lead over John McInsane, but they would do well to keep in mind the near-complete unreliability of believing people’s actions are accurately predicted by what they say they’ll do:

According to research conducted by the US Department of Energy and General Motors, nearly nine out of 10 women (88 per cent) say they’d rather chat up someone who owns the latest fuel-efficient car versus the latest sports car. It gets worse. Eighty per cent of American car buyers would find someone with the latest fuel-efficient car more interesting to talk to at a party than someone with the latest sports car. And, more than 4 out of 10 (45 per cent) 18- to 43-year-olds say it’s a fashion faux pas nowadays to have a car that’s not green or environmentally friendly.

Speaking as a man who has owned several sports cars and is good friends with the CEO of the local Porsche/Audi/VW operation, either I have lived the most statistically anomalous life in the history of statistics or women are lying through their whitened little teeth about their preferences. I’m not saying there isn’t a single woman on the planet who would rather date a man with a Prius than a Porsche or an Aston, only that the number is probably right around one percent. Maybe two percent in Oregon.

So, perhaps there’s hope for Australia. But probably not.

Posted by Vox Day.