Getting into this box is what's best for both of us. During your time in the box, you will learn so much, and yet experience so little. It's a wild ride, my friend, one well worth the time spent...and let's face it, you don't have much to do these days anyway.
I wonder if I need to unplug from the manosphere for a little while, maybe a day or two - it's starting to invade my dreams. Was taking an afternoon nap earlier today, and dreamt that I was taking some sort of test or exam about environmentalism/climate change, and while I don't recall much there was a header on the top of the exam paper along the lines of: "there are some who believe the great age of our ancestors is about to return, and if you are one of those you can check out right now at Hawaiian (some nonsense word here, full of ls)."
I also remember seriously considering standing up and asking the invigilator if I could just fail the test right there and then, or even just fail the whole damn class and take the "F" grade that would ensue.
Have been reading Vault. Co as well; I think I took a couple of hard smacks to the amygdala while going through the archives; my whole head felt like it was full of cotton wool after each browsing session and the feeling lasted for a good couple of hours. One of the posts was bad enough to make me cry out in anguish, loud enough to wake up my mother and have her chide me for disturbing her sleep.
The Republican-controlled House on Thursday approved an updated
version of the Violence Against Women Act that includes new protections
for gay men and lesbians, part of an effort by GOP leaders to improve
their image among women after last year’s poor election results.
The Senate approved the measure in January and President Obama said he will quickly sign it into law.
I wonder how the US government is going to get all that money in a pinch...oh wait, printing press.
T'was fun while it lasted, folks. Waiting for it to all come crumbling down now.
I don't know which is worse, this or the idiot who was giving away her kid to foster care because she didn't want to be weighed down with the kid while seeking a new beta chump.
Slightly off-topic before we begin: I was walking to the bus stop today when I came across an older man, perhaps in his 50's, looked like quite a respectable guy. He was out walking a small black dog, and because I'm making an effort to be more sociable to and about strangers, I gave him a nod and wave and said, "good day."
He immediately stared at me with a gaze of what could only be described as guarded fear. My smile immediately turned from genuine to frozen, and there was this enormous sense of awkwardness as I passed by him and his dog.
It...this just stuck out in my mind. I didn't dare look back to see if he was still staring at me, that's for sure.
Freedom-oriented people need
to understand that a crisis of care is coming... Not now, but soon
enough. I can rattle off in a flash the names of friends and
aquaintances who have either gotten out of the pipeline (dropping out
during training to get MBAs or to take jobs in consulting.. One friend
is selling real estate in NYC!) or very capable fifty-somethings who
retired or are planning on retiring very soon. In the case of the
retiring docs these are people who really enjoy what they do. These are
very capable surgeons, not easily replaced by a nurse. Think of the
loss to a community of a single 50-something surgeon. That type of
experience takes decades to acquire. This is what liberals fail to
understand because much of the work they do requires no skill per se.
They just assume that someone who knows how to "fix it" will always be
around.
Seriously. We all know the Republican Party sold out whatever
republican principles it had long ago, so they should just stop
pretending and go about nakedly pursuing power in an honest and
straightforward manner.
Excavating Eden, Koanic Soul and Anonymous Conservative - A very interesting and politically incorrect read, which sucked me in for the whole of the afternoon. While I have to fully make up my mind on Eden Theory and Phrenology (I mean, even after staring at my face in the mirror for a good ten minutes and poking at the back of my head, I can't even figure out what I'm supposed to be to compare it with my life experiences. Hah!) and need to do more reading on it, the discussion of R/K-selection theory is quite fascinating and has some theories as to why prior to discovering the Androsphere, I was a complete effeminate schlobb, such as growing up constantly in fear of my alpha thug elder brother.
Understanding oneself and where one stands is essential to moving forward as a person. I can only face my fears if I admit they exist in the first place.
I won't blame gasoline prices on President Obama. I won't do to him what the other side did to President Bush. Nevertheless, I spent $35 to fill my Ford Focus last week and $40 last night. That $ 5 that I won't be able to spend on something else. I do blame President Obama for the health care premiums. He gave us exactly the wrong medicine for our health care crisis. We needed to fine tune the engine rather than replace it with one that no one can afford. Last, but not least, the employment situation is still uncertain, specially for smaller companies who can't make any sense of all of this uncertainty about Obama-Care. Yes, Obama-Care is the law of the land but the rules are still unwritten. This is like changing the speed limit but not posting the new number. Yes, 2013 will be the year of the "3-part perfect economic storm" and there is nothing pretty about it.
"These 2 measures, along with the earlier announced property cooling
measure that limits the size of home loans according to the buyer’s
income, show that the state is increasingly taking an interventionist
stance in managing spending on the big ticket items of housing, cars and
retirement. This is a major change in the PAP’s mindset, because the
PAP had traditionally advoacated a political philosophy of personal
responsibility. Citizens were expected to work hard, spend prudently,
and save up a nest’s egg to take care of their parents and children.
But now it appears the MIW have decided that Singaporeans cannot be
trusted to spend money prudently.
Sadly, I believe that some of these new rules are justified.
Singaporeans are not exactly a poor lot. Not when we command one of the
highest smartphone ownership rates in the world. Our ability to splurge
on gadgets signifies that Singaporeans are vulnerable to consumerism
mindsets. There are too many youngsters today who are complaining that
they have no money to start a family, but are instead spending most of
their money on gadgets, holidays and cars. So maybe the PAP is doing the
right thing with these new rules, especially when income levels are
expected to rise with the Wage Credit Scheme."
States, using the 10th amendment, have been dealing crippling blows to
imperial Washington. At last count there were more than seventy
proposed bills that would nullify everything from the TSA and The Drug
War. Let’s keep it up folks.
Seems like our Singaporean feminists are pretty upset that the government gave them the finger in the recent budget. They want to recognise the contributions of dedicated mothers...by giving them free shit so they can put their kids in the hands of the state and get back to slaving in a cubicle. As they say in the old science fiction stories, "does not compute". Then again, the whole of feminism doesn't compute anyways, so why should I be surprised?
Now, today the 25th of Feburary in this foul year of our Lord, is Budget Day for the Singaporean government. On this very wonderful, magical day the Singaporean government reviews its expenses for the previous year, and works on budgeting for the next.
You can check out the Singapore Budget for yourself if you'd like here. I've read the 30-page version, and if you're not so keen on reading lists and lists of numbers you can go and read the 10-page version that's full of colourful pictures for the ah..."low-information voters".
I'm not an economist like Cappy Cap, though, so I won't draw any detailed conclusions but focus more on the facts and what I, in my limited capacity, think of them. All numbers here are in Singapore dollars (SGD), and the current exchange rate is 1 USD to about 1.3 SGD. Do the math yourself.
One of the more disturbing and annoying things I've noticed amongst my fellow Singaporeans is the increased calls amongst the populace for what appears to be a welfare state. Consider these recent comments (less than two days old) that I picked off a number of local forums:
nobody
advocates a welfare state.. what is needed is to strike a balance
between economic efficiency and providing social security and health
care for all who needs it
The problem is that providing "social security" - which I take to mean unemployment and disability benefits, as well as healthcare pretty much DOES amount to a welfare state. Remember the whole "cradle to grave" mentality that sprung up in England directly after World War 2?
"For all who need it" - where do you draw the line between "need" and "want"? There will always be someone who will claim that their problem is a "need" instead of a "want", and that the government should be the one paying for it. Let's say we have an unemployment assistance scheme that pays out for twelve months, and someone will claim there'll always be some genuinely needy household that can't find work within twelve months, so it should be extended to eighteen, and then there'll be a household that can't find steady work after eighteen months, and so on...
Spain has acceded to the demands of the Islamist government in
Morocco by agreeing that Moroccan children adopted by Spanish families
must remain culturally and religiously Muslim.
The agreement obliges the Spanish government to establish a "control
mechanism" that would enable Moroccan religious authorities to monitor
the children until they reach the age of 18 to ensure they have not
converted to Christianity.
[...]
The Western concept of adoption -- by which an adopted child becomes
the true child of the adoptive parents -- has never existed in Morocco
(nor in most other Muslim countries).
Instead, Islamic law governs adoption through a system called "Kafala,"
a legal guardianship which allows a non-Muslim person to assume
responsibility for the protection, education and maintenance of an
abandoned child, but which prohibits a non-Muslim from formally adopting
or assuming custody of that child.
According to Kafala, the "adopted" child must keep the name and
surname of his biological parents. Moreover, the child must remain
Muslim and must maintain the nationality of his or her birth. In effect,
non-Muslim guardians are prohibited from establishing a full parental
relationship with the child, as would be the case with adoption.
[...]
In at least a dozen other cases, Spaniards have converted to Islam in order to obtain custody over "their" children, especially if they are girls.
Seeking to end the "humanitarian drama," Spanish Justice Minister
Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón announced that he would give in to Moroccan
demands and amend Spain's Law Concerning International Adoption, dated December 2007, in order to bring Spanish law into conformity with Islamic law.
The legal changes, which are set to take effect in 2013, would
"constrain" the rights of Spanish adoptive parents by obligating them to
fully comply with the Kafala until the children reach adulthood.
[...]
Back in Spain, Ruiz-Gallardón's decision to make Spanish law comply
with Islamic Sharia law has generated controversy. But it remains to be
seen if any lawsuits emerge to challenge what some are calling the
"Islamization" of Spanish jurisprudence.
Either way, to the extent that European lawmakers are willing to
graft Islamic legal principles onto Europe's secular legal codes,
Islamic Sharia law could easily become a permanent reality in Spain and
across the continent.
Ho hum. I don't think I have much to add to this. So, how long do you think it'll be before official religious police stalk the streets of Madrid?
I will admit, I have never been a very good orator. Part of this probably stems from the fact that no one wanted to hear what a fat kid had to say, except from maybe "stop it!", and once a habit's formed, it's pretty hard to break. I remember getting a hand-me-down cell phone from my alpha thug brother when I was sixteen, one of the few displays of kindness he ever showed me.
"What am I supposed to do with this?" I asked.
"Just take it or give it back," he snapped.
I got the message, palmed the phone and kept it duly charged and ready at all times. Over the course of the next two years I had it, no one ever called me on the thing, so I handed it away to one of my cousins a couple of months before I was due to be conscripted and cellphones weren't allowed during basic military training (at least, for me).
"So… this morning on the way to work I asked a guy out for dinner tonight. He declined, pointing at the stump where his right leg would have been, (in Mandarin) 'No, no, ppl will stare at me. It’s too inconvenient.' 'Haiyah, don’t worry! We can stare back at them!' haha. Oh well, I try! :P
"But in the end he said yes! He agreed to meet me outside the MRT in front of McDonald’s at 7pm.
"There wasn’t anything very urgent at work today, so I left a little earlier :) Reached Tiong Bahru MRT at about 6.15pm and there he was! Waiting for me! Ok la, not really waiting for me, but he was there on his wheelchair going about his daily trade, selling tissues.
"'Hello Chia yeh yeh!' 'Mei you’re early! See, I’m wearing a new shirt just for you!' Hehe. Am glad that he was just as excited ;) So off we went to HK Café and I must say, I had a really really good time. Even in my half-baked Mandarin, we managed to talk about his life, my life.
"How contented he is with whatever little he has. He taught me to live each day with a heart of deeper gratitude and greater thanksgiving. And to realise that I have more than I need. Far more than I really need.
[...]
"How far I fell short. How far we all do.
"After dinner I asked if I could pray for him :) Said a simple prayer of blessing and protection over him. (got a friend to translate it earlier..hanyinpinyin rocks!)
"'Thank you, Mei! I had a wonderful time tonight! Next time it’s my turn to buy you dinner ok!'
"Hehe, such genuine appreciation. Gave him a side hug and off he went with his new baju and angpau (yes, you can also give angpau even though you’re not married.)
"Thank you Jesus for the opportunity to be a blessing. My heart is full."
We need more women like Laura Yee. A lot more of them.
...This little minx here. Oh all right, I promise this'll be my last whiny post for now, and I'll get some self-improvement posts up soon. But this is so much fun.
SQ stewardess Vanessa (not her real name) is only 29 but she has over
ten credit cards and is more than $30,000 in debt. Despite her growing
credit card bills, she continues to live in style, driving a European
sports car and owning a wardrobe full of expensive branded bags and
clothing, most with their price tags still on.
Her extravagant behaviour is far from uncommon in the industry she
works in – in fact, she said, most of her colleagues lead the same
lifestyle. Young, beautiful, well-paid and jet-setting, their motto is
to “live in the now” – and spend far more than they earn.
In Vanessa’s case, however, she might have bitten off more than she
can chew: she has accumulated so much debt that she currently only pays
the interest on her credit cards to keep the banks at bay.
“I know I’m in trouble, but I don’t know how to get out of it. Maybe
I’ll sell some of my bags to pay it off. But I can’t sell my car, I’ll
make a big loss,” said the petite, pixie-faced young woman during a
recent three-hour interview with Yahoo! Singapore.
Mm - mm - mm. Let's see what other crazy hijinks she's gotten herself into, eh?
Singapore has about 12,000 abortions a year, due in part to single mothers fearing the social stigma that comes with raising a child in such circumstances.
But had those babies not been aborted because single mothers are more socially accepted here, they would have been able to add to the country's population, argued Professor Chua Beng Huat, a sociologist with the National University of Singapore.
Noting that current legislation places barriers on single mothers, he said yesterday: "Why should they be discriminated against? The rules are stacked against single mothers so badly. Allow them to have all the privileges of a married woman."
I took a sociology module once at my university, for the breadth credits (wow, holistic educations). It was full of the usual tripe, when I look back at it. Even an undergrad student in chemical engineering can spot the gaping holes in this claim. The first being that these babies would have grown up to be productive citizens. But let's see how well that worked out for the West, shall we?
Have a snapshot of our local women, brought to you by The Real Singapore. Let's hear some forty year-old broad tell us like it is, so much that I can't tell if this is a Poe or the real deal:
Me and gay friends decided to do a picnic at Hong Lim Park where some people had organised the 6.9 million protest. It was too crowded, felt like Michael Jackson concert so we had to find a less crowded spot pretty far away from where the whole commotion was, laid our picnic mat like the Pinoys and ate our homemade ham and cheese baguette. While silly Singaporeans had shown support for the 6.9 million protest, I was more interested to check out any good looking people lurking somewhere. You know, this was the time to be seen and I leaped at any opportunity available to market myself. Ehem! Sad to say, there were no cute guys. Most Singaporeans are ugly (thank God I’m not!). And most of the time I wasn’t really listening to what the speakers had said. Actually it was TJ’s (very handsome gay friend) idea of going to Hong Lim Park because he said he wanted to show support. I've never like crowd so it was boring for me. Besides, I don’t care about Singapore politics! I only care about getting married and finding someone to fuck! Arrrggghhh!
The first protest in Singapore in about three or four decades about an issue (demographics) that is vital to our nation, and all this slut can think about is finding someone to bang. Oh, how shallow and empty-minded one can get. Also, massively overestimated sense of self-worth. Sorry, slut, I wager you're nowhere near hot.
The police move was revealed as a parliamentary hearing was warned
that large numbers of girls aged as young as six are being sent from
London to Africa for genital surgery which leaves them with painful and
life-changing injuries.
It came as the Met disclosed that it is
close to bringing the first British prosecution for female genital
mutilation after receiving nearly 150 reports of cases involving girls
in the capital already “cut” or at risk of surgery.
[...]
Nimco Ali was taken to Somalia for female genital mutilation by her
mother when she was seven. The procedure was performed in a hospital and
to this day the smell of Dettol still gives Ms Ali flashbacks.
The
civil servant, 29, from west London, said: “It’s bizarre because my
mother is a feminist, believes women should be educated and independent.
[...]
Ms Ali, a founder of the Daughters of Eve FGM campaign group, added:
“London is now the capital of Europe where FGM is happening. It’s
happening in people’s houses, clinics, with struck-off doctors.”
One interesting point of note: FGM is usually performed by women on their daughters, much in the same way that MGM was traditionally performed by men on their sons.
I also notice the lack of outraged screams by the UK feminists, even while they try to cover up the fact that men and women have massively disparate sentencing for equal crimes.
But then, we all know that if it can't be used to blugdeon men or doesn't fit the progressive agenda, they will happily let crap happen to women without blinking an eye.
Those who abuse their rights and freedoms will inevitably cause the dissolution of said rights and freedoms, no matter how inviolate and sacrosanct they are perceived to be. Or in other words:
This girl (I don't even think she's an adult) ripped apart one of my
economic presentations dismissing all those pesky and "stupid" data and
charts with "he doesn't know what he's talking about." But my primary
contention or purpose in putting together this post is not to highlight
the incredible ignorance of a young girl (or the incredible hubris of
how a veritable child 1/3rd my age and 1/1,000th my
intelligence/experience would dare to to argue against me in my field
and expertise), it's to once again remind young boys and young men this
is what you're dealing with. That when you go and start dating in high
school or college, this is what you can expect to run into. And if the
girl "doesn't call you back" or "acts irrationally" or "blames you for
things" understand it is NOT YOUR FAULT. You are NOT dealing with
mature adults, you are dealing with narcissists who have mental
problems.
Turchin has identified rising inequality as a destabilizing factor
that could lead to social disruption and a chaotic environment, similar
to the ominous years of the early 20th century when the US was
threatened with violent revolution. I recall watching the film J. Edgar
early last year, and although I was aware of how tense the atmosphere
was in the 1920s, the movie was a good reminder that terrorism and
social strife are nothing new in the US. According to Turchin, we are
facing a repeat of that era if something isn’t done quickly about the
stark economic inequality that has emerged since 1980.
Both TFH’s article and Turchin’s are long reads, but they both
conclude that by 2020 the situation in the US will be profoundly
different from what most of us were familiar with as children.
Personally, I'm hoping for it to be much, much sooner, the whole "junkie needs to hit rock bottom" thing, but hey.
Big government needs cheap voters. Big business needs cheap labor. Big
government wants big business to pick up the tab for their cheap votes
through higher taxes. Big business wants cheap labor without having to
pay for their social welfare benefits. After the obligatory tug of war
wraps up, the tab for all those cheap votes and cheap labor will be
dumped on the middle class which is being forced to fund its own
destruction.
Free Northerner -Acquiring passion. Free Northerner asks how one can gain inspiration for doing the tasks we need to perform.
The question is simple, how do you develop motivation?
There is so much I want to do, so many projects I want to accomplish.
My answer, amongst others, if to put one's nose to the grindstone until it becomes a habit. By that point. One does not force motivation because one should not wait for motivation. If we all only did things because we felt like it, then nothing much would get done, and only by the most productive members of society. Sometimes, we are called upon to do thing we find unsavoury or boring because they need to be done, or it is to our long-term benefit. You don't motivate yourself to go and clean the toilet, do you?
The reason "gender equality" stalled is because it is an economic
impossibility. The reason the average hours worked is so much higher
than in the more "sexist" 1960s is because primarily there are more
women in the workforce. While immigration too plays a role here, the
only significant effect native women have when they enter the labor
force in greater numbers is to depress the price of labor. Unlike
immigrants, they don't bring in new consumption to help mitigate their
wage-depressing effects; the reason real hourly wages peaked in 1973 and
have been falling ever since is because that was the year that the
number of men younger than 20 and older than 65 leaving the labor force
was surpassed by educated, middle-class women entering it.
One-third of working class women have always worked. The change brought
by feminism is that now middle class and upper middle class married
women work as well. And the more women that work, the more women have
to work and the less time women who don't work will have with their
husbands who support them, because an INCREASE in the SUPPLY of labor
necessitates a DECREASE in the PRICE of labor, demand remaining
constant.
Masculinity. It drives who you men are, for yourselves. We
women want it. No, we need it . . . . and we will work for it, if you
let us. We need you whether we will admit it or not because in so many
ways, it is your masculinity that makes us feminine. Then we can give
that back to you.
An analysis of the schism growing within the MRM by Eagleeye. He points out quite succinctly some of the root causes of the unease that a a number of us who identify ourselves (to any extent) as MRAs feel about the direction a portion of the movement is taking.
The thing is that this isn't just about traditionalists now - it's about anyone who disagrees with the narrative AVFM has set out. Now, I won't deny that Dr. Elam has done a lot of good; even Aurini, who is highly critical of the movement as a whole, admits that. Part of the reason I came back to the red-pill world was because of AVFM's activism sparking interest in me. But the reason why I'm here to begin with is due to two places: Angry Harry and Stand Your Ground from back in 2004-2005. As far as I can piece things together, AH has been attacked for pointing out the questionable veracity of repressed memories, and Factory has been attacked, too. Reports are also that the banner linking back to AH's site has been taken off AVFM. Remember that AH and Factory have not even mentioned (as far as I know) their positions on so-called "traditionalism", so that's not the reason why they were attacked.
Also remember the three weapons of the Rabbit People, as laid out by Vox Day:
Demanding sensitvity.
Name-calling and labelling.
Exclusion.
It's interesting how certain elements like WBB are behaving - like Eagleeye points out - in exactly the same rabbity manner that the fools over at A+, and indeed, the Left in general, do as their modus operandi. It's also interesting how the alt-right predicted that this sort of thing would happen years ago before the fact - No-Ma'am foresaw the identifiable flagships of the MRM being infiltrated by cultural marxists and either being broken up from within or turned to the state's purposes.
I don't like the taste in my mouth, good sir, no I do not one bit.
Still, I'm not too worried about what happens next, for the following two reasons:
The simple fact that the red-pill consciousness of which the MRM is a part of is a swarm. If you cut a swarm in two, you don't get a dead swarm, you get two swarms which continue to grow in their own right. The strength of a swarm comes not so much from its size (although that is a factor) but from the asymmetrical nature of its attacks.
The collapse will come anyway. The efforts of the red-pill world will help speed it along, but even if we did not exist, it would still be inherently unstable and collapse under its own weight anyway.
So ultimately, what this means for me is that I simply make a revaluation on where I stand on things in light of this new development, and to let others know just what's going on so they can make their own decisions.
The world is facing outbreaks of “totally drug-resistant”
tuberculosis if explosions of the bacteria in South Africa and other
poorer nations are not addressed, according to a new papers published in
Emerging Infectious Diseases. At this point, researchers are working to determine how the bacteria gains its invincibility, and how to isolate it.
Fears are mounting in medical communities worldwide that conventional treatments would be useless against the new disease, The Daily Mail‘s
health site reports. They say doctors are warning “the world is on the
brink of an outbreak of a deadly and ‘virtually untreatable’ strain of
drug resistant tuberculosis unless immediate action is taken.”
[...]
Researchers writing in the U.S. Centers for Disease Control journal
warned in two new studies that the further outbreaks of drug resistant
tuberculosis could devastate populations and economies of developing
nations, particularly in the drug-resistant strain’s ground zero
regions, such as in South Africa. Recent reports from 2012, however,
drive home the importance of isolating drug-resistant TB, since the disease has also been popping up increasingly in wealthier Western cities such as London, where, of course, it can attack rich and poor indiscriminately.
Oh well. People not finishing their courses of antibiotics, people taking antibiotics for the flu, people using antibiotics in agriculture, people demanding antibiotics for the smallest thing, people intentionally going out and taking risky behaviour (ahem), which results in a need for antibiotics...
About one hundred years since the discovery of penicillin, bacteria are catching up, and at a frightening pace. Unfortunately, as the zombie populace proves, most people don't seem to care. I'll restate one of the things I believe in:
Those who abuse their rights or exercise them frivolously are going to lose them. People don't appear to want to use their perks in a responsible manner, so one way or the other, out the window they go.
Still, that's not all in the pestilence department:
LONDON: A third
member of a family has been diagnosed in Britain with a potentially
fatal SARS-like virus, officials said Friday, bringing the number of
confirmed cases worldwide to 12.
Britain's Health Protection
Agency (HPA) said the latest person to contract novel coronavirus was a
relative of two other cases announced earlier this week, who were
admitted to intensive care wards at two British hospitals.
The
first member of the family, who was confirmed on Monday as having the
virus, had recently travelled to the Middle East and Pakistan. Their two
relatives had no recent travel history.
Five people have died of the virus, according to the HPA -- three in Saudi Arabia and two in Jordan.
What makes SARS and the associated viruses so important is that they're related to viruses that cause colds and flus - and we all know how easily those can spread. This one doesn't seem too virulent at the moment, but it has them health folks on the edges of their toes.
Meh, it'll be interesting to see how this plays out. Remember that STD I posted a little while back that was impervious to all oral antibiotics? One can only wonder if mass pestilence is in our future. All the more reason to keep healthy, then.
One of the things I like about living in Singapore is that even in the heart of the city-state, in the midst of the Central Business District, the air is reasonably fresh. I've been to capital cities like Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur and Beijing before, and while I suppose it's partly because I'm used to good, clean air, I was pretty much choking most of the time in the city center, and the fringes were only marginally better. Maybe I'm also extra-sensitive to smoke - something as simple as cigarette smoke sets me off into conniptions, so it's a good thing I was born into this country, eh?
Another thing I like about living in Singapore is that there's plenty of greenery around - another the Singaporean government got right when they were doing the whole "town planning" thing. No concrete jungle for us, with only a couple parks here and there interspersed amongst the grey - the National Parks Board has made it a personal mission to plant trees along practically every single roadside in the nation, and I'll say the country is better for having some greenery around every corner. The trees cool down the urban jungle, are nice to rest one's eyes on, and freshen up the air. There's a reason this country touts itself as the "garden city", after all.
During my day, when the above question was asked of a Singaporean child, the only "acceptable" answers were the following: doctor, lawyer and engineer. Of course, the times, they have a-changed, but I doubt that even with the bread and circuses phenomemon spreading throughout the Singaporean populace today, "rock star" is going to be amongst the answers given.
Maybe "astronaut", despite the fact that Singapore does not, and will never be able to accommodate a space program. A small indulgence to be given, perhaps, before the kid in question gets some sense knocked into their brain and picks (or eventually, drifts) into a profession that is more on the realistic side of things. To be completely honest, my impression was that most kids don't really care that much about their futures, let alone have a plan for theirs, and are only spouting off the approved lines to get their teacher off their backs.
EGA's ability to admit that he was wrong is the first step forward in
the journey upon which he is about to engage, in consciously developing
his self-respect and improving his status as a social creature in a
social hierarchy.
How does one learn to lose well? One puts oneself in competitive
situations where one is going to lose, regularly and frequently, until
the sting of defeat disappears and the fear of failure is gone. That is
the point at which progress towards becoming a true competitor begins.
It is also why non-athletes are disproportionately represented among
the gamma population; few athletes reach 10 years of age without
experiencing a considerable amount of defeat.
Last post, I posted a couple more examples of the Singaporean government's staple of social engineering: the social campaign poster. Now don't get me wrong - the reason why these posters are so ubiquitous is that they work. I've pointed out examples before on how successful this has been on influencing the older generation, and it's quite an interesting phenomenon as in the whys and hows of its startling efficiacy.
Three days ago, the Singaporean government passed the 2013 white paper on population. It's a bit of a doozy, but essentially the Singaporean government is aiming for a 6.9 million population by 2030. How? Mass immigration, of course.
"Although the
Amended Motion captures some of the Workers' Party concerns about the
White Paper, fundamentally the White Paper still forms the basis of the
roadmap forward to 2030, which the House was asked to endorse," said WP
chairman Sylvia Lim in a statement.
Explaining the party's reason
for voting against the amended motion, she said the party "believes
that the path proposed by the White Paper will further dilute the
Singaporean core and weaken our national identity" and lead the Republic
to "require unsustainable population injections in the future".
Youtube - Cappy Cap and Aurini both weigh in on the decline. Take an hour out of your schedule to do some listening, if you're interested at all on the subject - it's a must-listen.
The proliferation of bad faith experts, experts for hire and amateur
experts means that there is more bad science than there is good science,
more wrong ideas than right ideas, and no interest in turning the leaky
boat around and finding some safe harbor on the shore.
The advancement of civilization depended on developing methods of
sorting ideas based on objective standards while the program of the left
has been the politicization of objectivity. Without standards there is
no way to agree on anything without resorting to force. This force does
not necessarily have to be physical, it can simply mean seizing control
of enough institutions to distribute a manufactured consensus to
everyone under the control of those institutions.
“Combat” nowadays may be very different than what we were training for
thirteen years ago, but I still can’t get my head around why they think
women belong anywhere near it. It’s not just a Boy’s Club, it’s a place
where everything bad that can happen usually will. Sending women home
with gunshot wounds and missing limbs and severe PTSD won’t prove
anything. It’s setting fire to the houses on either side of the one
that’s already burning, just to maintain a uniform appearance. It’s a
completely pointless endeavor.
Ever hear all of these women pour forth a river of tears , shrieking in agony and cursing to the heavens about how they did everything to keep the relationship going, how awful these horrible men were for not pouring in the same amount of effort, how he’s a creep, a loser, immature, peter pan, man boy child, not ready for a serious relationship and how he wouldn’t man up to take the relationship to the “next level“?
The vitriol that bursts forth from their lips when cold, harsh reality sinks in as her mind awakens to the fact that all her efforts were for naught, all the while receiving cold comfort and validation from a security blanket of female friends, a gaggle of hens who curse the stupid awful mean man who simply refused to appreciate her epic awesomeness to perform his duty to the imperative and commit to her.
We see it all the time but never call it out for what it is because we live in a world that gives primacy and validation for the female preferred method of both promiscuity and attaining commitment.
Take a close look at the M-14 rifles the Marines whre carrying at
Obama’s second inauguration. The bolts have been removed from the rifles
rendering them unable to fire a round.
Apparently Obama’s Secret Service doesn’t trust the USMC. Simply
searching each guy to make sure he didn’t have a live round hidden on
him wasn’t enough, they had to make sure the guns were inoperable.
Remember all those times George Bush (miss him yet?) traveled to Iraq
to meet the troops? Troops who had working rifles slung on their
shoulders, with loaded magazines in pouches on their belt. I can’t
recall ever seeing the troops with weapons in hand when Obama
paid them a visit and after seeing this, if anyone can find such a
photo, I’d have to bet that the bolt carriers had been removed prior to
Obama’s arrival.
It’s painfully obvious how much contempt Obama has toward the
military and the feeling is mutual…and the Secret Service knows it too.
From a purely symbolic perspective, this strikes me as a very last days
of Rome motif. What sort of Commander-in-Chief doesn't trust the men he
is commanding? And why doesn't he trust them?
Now, I honestly think it’s unlikely that Amanda Marcotte is going to
be voting for Gary Johnson next election. I highly doubt she has
carefully examined her views and decided that individual freedom was the
goal of politics. Rather this is probably just a case Amanda replaces
thought with wish.
She probably just saw someone pointing out one of the logical
outcomes of one of her life choices and reflexively threw out whatever
she came to her so she could avoid having to acknowledge that actions
(or nonactions in this particular case) have consequences.
It probably never even occurred to her that SS and Medicare depend on
an ever-growing population to remain sustainable. It probably never
even occurred to her that her desire for “free” stuff (like child care
and contraception) from the government forces other people to serve
society.
It is almost sad that non-thought like this can be published by a somewhat “respectable” operation.
[...]
Marcotte never thinks before she speaks (or writes). She simply sees the
need for more babies as another burden for women that will limit their
choices and options and she stands against anything she perceives as bad
for women. What she really means by “reworking” the system is taxing
men at a much higher rate so that women’s choices can be fullfilled.
The Samsui women of Singapore, the silent heroines who built Singapore
over five decades. The immigrant construction workers from China, the
synonymous red headgear workers (all female) with tough, resilient,
hardworking and weather-beaten characters who are the vanishing workers
of Singapore.
Samsui women came to Singapore in large numbers. As many as 200,000 are
thought to have arrived between 1934 and 1938 alone. From the Sanshui
District (三水區) of Guangdong, they took a vow to never marry before
leaving China, and wore large red headdresses as a symbol and reminder of
their vow, although exceptions have been known (with regards to the marriage thing). Most found menial employment in construction or as domestic
servants and were known and respected for refusing to work as
prostitutes or opium peddlers. They lived in cramped
conditions with other Samsui women, helping out each other and forming
tightly united cliques.
Samsui women also remained in touch with their relatives back home in
China, communicating with them frequently through letters.
Occasionally, they would send money to them.
For all us ethnic Chinese who still somewhat stick to the old ways, today marks the eve of the lunar new year. On this day, it's expected of all family members to gather for a reunion dinner; the size and degree of gathering varies from one's immediate family to events that require the bookings of banquet halls, assuming one has a large enough extended family living locally and the money to burn. Members who are unable to be physically present, for example, due to not being in the country, are expected to at least write or call back to be present in spirit if not body.
Amongst the various subjects my grandmother would pontificate to me (amongst pig farming and the fact that she had to starch my grandfather's pants to the point they could stand up on their own) were the reunion dinners that she used to have when my mother, aunts and uncles were still children. It was, to hear her describe it, quite an event at my great-grandfathers' (my maternal grandfather's father); the rule of thumb was that everyone was to convene at the home of the eldest surviving patriarch of the line, who happened to be my great-grandfather.
This meant that my grandfather, granduncles, as well as their families, all squeezed in and around the confines of the one-storey house; it was large compared to the rest of the village's buildings (remember that my grandfather's family was considered well-to-do), but still limited by today's standards. To hear my grandmother tell it, the whole thing was a bit of an event, with people having to bring in extra furniture to seat the sheer number of people in the small gravel courtyard, and food because the kitchen at my great-grandfather's place wasn't going to be cooking enough for somewhere in the region of twenty to thirty people. Ah, I'll remember my grandmother's...I supposed amused frustration would be the best way to put it, as she reminisced over having to butcher and roast a suckling pig, and how my great-grandmother would yell at her for not getting it done just right.
Hearing these tales of the past, it's very stark how atomised people have become over the course of one or two generations. It bears thinking, doesn't it?
I've just realised: I'm 25. A little more than a quarter of my life has been spent. Not all in ways that I regret, so this isn't going to be a pity post, but rather a quick stock-taking and planning out a road ahead for self-improvement.
WASHINGTON, June 27 - The Supreme Court ruled on Monday that the police did not have a constitutional duty to protect a person from harm, even a woman who had obtained a court-issued protective order against a violent husband making an arrest mandatory for a violation
The decision, with an opinion by Justice Antonin Scalia and dissents from Justices John Paul Stevens and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, overturned a ruling by a federal appeals court in Colorado. The appeals court had permitted a lawsuit to proceed against a Colorado town, Castle Rock, for the failure of the police to respond to a woman's pleas for help after her estranged husband violated a protective order by kidnapping their three young daughters, whom he eventually killed.
The cops are not looking out for you, my friend. They're here to control you. And the more short-sighted idiots there are who brainlessly give them more of a monopoly on power, the more they will abuse that power.
Pimp Daddy G has decided that now he's gotten enough of a hold over his whores with promises of protection and provision from those nasty Johns, and he's starting to get a little slap-happy.
Yet unknown to the general public a very great danger is looming, the
like of which has not threatened the world since the collapse of the
Western half of the Roman Empire more than fifteen hundred years ago.
This danger, should it materialize, would mark the end of our
civilization and the beginning of a new Dark Age. I am talking about a
threat of the sudden and complete collapse of world trade. It would be
heralded by permanent gold backwardation, something that allegedly could
never happen. Hard on its heels would follow the collapse of the dollar
payments system. Barter, of course, would take place between
neighboring countries, but world trade as we know it would disappear
altogether.
As well as suggesting why Germany is demanding its gold back from the Fed:
This brings me back to the German gold reserve. As sporadic
backwardation in gold becomes ever more frequent, the gentlemen in
charge of running the world’s fiat money system get alarmed. The only
way to pacify the market is to release more and more central bank gold.
Physical gold. The beast must be fed. Paper gold will not do (although,
of course, these gentlemen will keep trying to flood the market with
it).
Releasing American gold to the futures market directly from
the Fed is out of the question. It would confirm the suspicion, already
rampant, that the dollar is a colossus of clay feet standing in
knee-deep water. So let the client states of America do the releasing.
The Germans have a reputation of favoring hard currency. They are
reluctant to join the currencies’ ‘race to the bottom’. Germany is the
natural choice to feed the gold futures markets in an effort to protect
the dollar against the last assault that is shaping up.
Hmm...
This, if true, does not bode well for Singapore. This country was founded for trade, grew and prospered by trade, developed its manufacturing for trade, pretty much is trade. Without trade, Singapore probably couldn't support more than maybe a couple of villages. This country is only 650-odd square kilometres in size, and that's including all the exterior islands.
Did I forget to mention we import practically all our food?
I may have pulled something in my shoulders while doing my lat-pull downs. Most of the shoulder/back aching from the change from slouching to standing's gone now, but there's this twinge in my right shoulder that doesn't seem to want to go away - in fact, it's gotten worse.
Oh well, time to take it in stride, I guess. I sort of take pride in the fact that in all of eleven years of working out, I've never had a major injury. For now, I've cut out lat pull-downs from my regimen and plan to eat and rest well for the next few days over the Chinese lunar new year. Hopefully it'll get better by then.
Hundreds of people were fighting each other on the streets of Athens during a food giveaway, prompting an outcry over the growing desperation created by economic crisis. Farmers protesting against government cuts gave away 50 tonnes of free vegetables and fruit in the Greek capital earlier today, causing chaos in the streets as impoverished and hungry people elbowed their way to the stalls. Startling images of Greeks struggling to seize bags of tomatoes and leeks thrown from a truck outside the Agriculture Ministry have sparked further debate about poverty in the debt-ridden nation.
"Apparently the French and German governments have concluded that their female citizens are too helplessly slutty to face the mere possibility that they may be having children with men who are not their husbands:
If those samples were found in the post by officials on their way to foreign laboratories, the French men who sent them could theoretically face a year in prison and a 15,000 Euro fine. This year the ban was challenged but the French Government decided to uphold and maintain the anti-paternity testing law.
The reasons for which the Government said the ban should remain were related to the preservation of peace within French families. According to some online articles, Germany, has also banned (or plans to ban) paternity testing for similar reasons.
The argument against allowing paternity testing in France is directly opposed to the argument for allowing it almost everywhere else. While French Authorities believe that paternity testing can cause friction within families, some fathers find that getting rid of any doubt relating to their relationship with their child can help strengthen the bond they have with them, instead. As one woman mentioned on Twitter, the French argument completely misses
the point. If the child doesn't belong to the father, there is no
family in the first place! Notice the pattern: evil is always opposed
to the truth and inevitably seeks to hide its actions from everyone."
