One of the many underappreciated aspects of commie blocks: It’s almost like living high up in a forest.
Went out for July 4 to some American expat bars. The ones who are still here are usually Western media-hating vatniks. One of the many underappreciated aspects of the sanctions.
Week’s links.
Science
- Many statistical methods were first developed by psychometricians (via Emil Kirkegaard).
This reminds me of a longstanding principle in statistics, which is that, whatever you do, somebody in psychometrics already did it long before. I’ve noticed this a few times. Once, about ten years ago, I was at a conference where computer scientists were talking about some pretty elaborate statistical models, and I realized these were the same as some things I’d seen Iven Van Mechelen and his colleagues working on in the Psychology Department at Leuven. Then, more recently, I wrote this article with David Park on splitting a predictor into three parts, and it turned out that similar work had been done in 1928! by psychometric researcher T. L. Kelley (and, oddly enough, E. Cureton in 1957).
- Woodley, Michael et al. – 2017 – Holocene selection for variants associated with cognitive ability: Comparing ancient and modern genomes.
Summarized by James Thompson: Are we cleverer than the ancients? Genetic studies are suggesting: Yes. (As expected).
- Kulivets & Ushakov – 2016 – Modeling Relationship between Cognitive Abilities and Economic
We propose that problem solving is the mediator between human competencies and achievements. Creation of goods and services is based on problem solving in design, production and delivery. The quality of problem solving depends on human competencies and, in turn, determines economic achievements. More importantly, the choice of problems to be solved creates or does not create the possibility for application of highly qualified labor and, as a result, for full-fledged realization of human capital. We propose a mathematical model based on these assumptions. The simulation reproduces most important traits of Lynn and Vanhanen’s (2002) findings. The simulation shows a non-linear growth of economic achievements with national IQ growth as well as an increase of between countries variance. Thereby the proposed model can serve as a satisfactory explanation for empirical data on links between national IQs and economic achievements.
- Read through a couple of papers (1, 2) on the persecution of geneticists and eugenicists under Stalin. Sovok bastards. What else can you call them? (I suppose its very unfair to literal bastards).
There is a theory energetically propounded by one particular commenter here that the 1920s Soviet Union was awful, full of crazy leftist ideologues, but the 1930s were a period of transition to a much better conservative society. In reality, researching even these potentially controversial topics was perfectly safe in the 1920s and actually enjoyed the support of elements of the Communist Party (while they did suppress non-leftist currents in philosophy and the arts, they left hard sciences alone). Then a certain Georgian penal colony graduate decided genetics was a “bourgeois perversion” and within a few years a huge proportion of the leading Soviet geneticists were dead or abroad.
Anyhow, all this finally triggered a meltdown on the part of our commenter, so I doubt he’ll be back anytime soon (though the doors are always open).
- Zabaneh, D. et al. – 2017 – A genome-wide association study for extremely high intelligence
We used a case–control genome-wide association (GWA) design with cases consisting of 1238 individuals from the top 0.0003 (~170 mean IQ) of the population distribution of intelligence and 8172 unselected population-based controls. The single-nucleotide polymorphism heritability for the extreme IQ trait was 0.33 (0.02), which is the highest so far for a cognitive phenotype, and significant genome-wide genetic correlations of 0.78 were observed with educational attainment and 0.86 with population IQ. Three variants in locus ADAM12 achieved genome-wide significance, although they did not replicate with published GWA analyses of normal-range IQ or educational attainment. A genome-wide polygenic score constructed from the GWA results accounted for 1.6% of the variance of intelligence in the normal range in an unselected sample of 3414 individuals, which is comparable to the variance explained by GWA studies of intelligence with substantially larger sample sizes. The gene family plexins, members of which are mutated in several monogenic neurodevelopmental disorders, was significantly enriched for associations with high IQ. This study shows the utility of extreme trait selection for genetic study of intelligence and suggests that extremely high intelligence is continuous genetically with normal-range intelligence in the population.
- Hill, William et al. – 2017 – A combined analysis of genetically correlated traits identifies 107 loci associated with intelligence
This allowed us to utilize a novel approach, Multi-Trait Analysis of Genome-wide association studies (MTAG; Turley et al. 2017), to combine two large genome-wide association studies (GWASs) of education and household income to increase power in the largest GWAS on intelligence so far (Sniekers et al. 2017)… We found 107 independent loci associated with intelligence, implicating 233 genes, using both SNP-based and gene-based GWAS. We find evidence that neurogenesis may explain some of the biological differences in intelligence as well as genes expressed in the synapse and those involved in the regulation of the nervous system. We show that the results of our combined analysis demonstrate the same pattern of genetic correlations as a single measure/the simple measure of intelligence, providing support for the meta-analysis of these genetically-related phenotypes. We find that our MTAG meta-analysis of intelligence shows similar genetic correlations to 26 other phenotypes when compared with a GWAS consisting solely of cognitive tests. Finally, using an independent sample of 6 844 individuals we were able to predict 7% of intelligence using SNP data alone.
Russia
* PutletZOG blocks Sputnik i Pogrom. See my two posts on that:
- Alexander Mercouris: The 12 baseless claims that form Russiagate
* Futurist stamps from 1914, envisaging Moscow in the 23rd century
- Moscow Times closing its print edition and relocating to the Netherlands. It has bled cash for years, and with the sanctions, its consumer base – clueless base – has also dried up. The businesspeople who remain in Russia are those for the long-haul, and they don’t tend to be interested in the Very Important Opinions of interns fresh from US colleges.
* The correct English language spelling of Kiev is Kiev, not Kyiv. This is acknowledged even by Ben Aris’ Twitter followers, despite him having campaigned for “Kyiv” for years. It is also gramatically correct to write “the Ukraine,” though I don’t generally do that myself because I’m lazy.
BTW, did anyone else notice that it is generally loser countries who care about how their names are spelt in English?
- Emil Kirkegaard: Negative correlations between % of population with a degree and Putin’s share of the vote.
Those of you who’ve read my posts on Moscow won’t be surprised by this.
Putin’s electorate is Fishtown (Uralvagonzavod in Russia), especially since his conservative-populist tilt for 2012 elections. This is a global trend, and Russia isn’t an exception.
World
- Cool comment by Al on my article on Africa. He has personal experience there and is highly optimistic on Ethiopia.
For a supposedly reality-based community, the HBDosphere has a major blind spot regarding where Africa is today and possible scenarios for its future. Africa has 55 countries; doom and gloom is not applicable to them all. …
Someone expressed doubts about the increasing crop yields. They’re true. Ethiopia has been growing at or over 10% year-on-year since the turn of the millenium. This growth has been obtained by investment on family farms (there are very few large private estates in Ethiopia, since the Communist dictatorship of 1974-1992 had expropriated all land). This means growth has been broad and benefited a large proportion of the population. It also means it is sustainable. Ethiopia is set to be the fastest growing economy in the world this year, despite suffering from a drought (more below).
- Steve Sailer collects his Africa graphs in one post.
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Buried within the GSS, Audacious Epigone finds that 5% of non-US citizens voted in the 2016 US elections – or at least claimed too.
With non-citizen residents in the US comprising around 8% of the population, a 5% turnout rate up against a total turnout rate of 57% for the 2016 election gets us under 1% of all votes cast and so not enough to give the popular vote to Trump, but plausibly enough to flip New Hampshire and possibly even Somali-saturated Minnesota.
Low sample size, but merits vigorous investigation; this is huge if true.
- @akarlin88: Macron proclaims Jupiterian Presidency, glories of monarchy. Faustian man’s yearning for Caesar’s return transcending ideological lines?
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Elite attitudes to immigration (via @whyvert):
- Winston Churchill on National Jews, International Jews, and Terrorist Jews.
Culture War
* Glenn Greenwald: CNN Warns It May Expose an Anonymous Critic if He Ever Again Publishes Bad Content
The /r/The_Donald shitposter’s sin was to notice “something strange” about CNN. Incidentally, is this chart accurate? I mean I realize Jews have huge influence over the media, but to this extent?
- Sarah Palin: Trump Gives Speech to the People of Poland, Says 14 Words That Leave Americans Stunned. Big if true! 🙂
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Happy 20th anniversary Harry Potter! Reminder that Voldemort did nothing wrong.
The MQ (magic quotient) has been in dysgenic decline for centuries, at least judging by the feats of Hogwarts’ founders.
Unless magic is a function of cognitive ability, as Eliezer Yudkowsky insists.
In that case, the induction of Muggles might even increase the average MQ of the wizarding world – but only if Hogwarts adopts stringent academic entrance exams. Which are for all intents and purposes the magical world’s equivalent of borders.
- @rishikesh_news: In the past countries were proud of their scientists and writers, now they are proud that their gays can marry.
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@SOBL: Would love your opinion on whether 21stC progressives will take science down Lysenkoistic road or just primitive http://www.socialmatter.net/2017/07/02/progressives-will-make-science-primitive/
Denial will become harder as genomics moves ahead in next 10 years. Neo-Lysenkoism will either collapse or will become more authoritarian.
Hopefully the former, of course, but I can’t exclude the latter. The USSR did have the late Brezhnev.
Not that I’m a fan of any ideological approach to science but Right’s main saving grace is that it’s fixations are likely less harmful.
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Excellent, succinct observation.
Interesting piece, had heard of it before, but never read it. But eh, Churchill’s pompous prose has really aged badly imo (as have his imperialist sentiments obviously). The fake admiration of Christianity is also a bit much given that the man wasn’t a believer himself, but then he was a professional politician after all so a certain amount of hypocrisy is unsurprising.
Some more about Comrade Muller
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Joseph_Muller
and his famous letter to Stalin.
http://mankindquarterly.org/files/sample/muellersletter.pdf
Indeed it looks that God really exists and protects Russia. (I do not think you would like the alternate worldline, where the other side won and todays Russians were short, dark and sporting large moustaches)
LOL, having made or lost some money in Africa doesn’t make someone’s retailing of media, thinktank and official rubbish credible.
Your view of the early USSR and Glossy’s aren’t mutually exclusive. In the 20s there was extensive freedom for anyone who addressed himself to the educated minority only, but attempts to reach out to the masses were not tolerated. Later on the party line was imposed on the whole of society, but in time the line itself changed to better reflect the people. Anticommunists never grasped that Burkean arguments tell in favour of any regime that has survived for generations, including a socialist one.
Did not understand everything in your post, but Lazy Glossophiliac was relatively polite to you compared to the standards of debate among westerners on the internet. I raise a glass to both of you and hope you will remain friends.
That much is surely true, though it only lasted a bit longer than two generations, so it didn’t seem like a very good system. It was very easy to dismantle it, and the ones to do the dismantling were the elites themselves. A system which elicited so little loyalty from among its own elites is not a very good system.
What does it mean, exactly? Media consumers is not the source of income of any media publication. And in the world of politics (and especially in the current environment) it’s not the advertisers either.
It’s used for propaganda. I saw Moscow Times quoted excessively in the Guardian, for example. So it serves a purpose and therefore deserved to be financed.
But then I’m just a Western media-hating vatnik…
I read some very anti-Commie stuff on SiP. I “get” both that position and people’s like Shamir.
but whatever its defects, the USSR was a time of Russia STRONK.
I’m against revisionism. There were plenty of Soviet people, good Russians too, who were certain they were doing the right thing.
Who wants a decommunization, do they want it for the right reasons or just to make room for their stuff and what is that stuff?
“One of the many underappreciated aspects of commie blocks: It’s almost like living high up in a forest”. Yes. A study in the ecology of canopies.
I note that, so far as Moscow is concerned, my residential and social interaction is entirely in the most educated parts, mostly Khamovinki, not what it was now the footballists are getting a grip. My assessment of Aeroport as a working class slum is clearly excessive. I do have friends in Akademiskii which is an outlier (still waiting for their degrees to be awarded?). The inner ring will probably result in an upgrade there.
Nice CNN graphic, Anatoly! They should rename the network JNN.
OT, but I wanted to explore a mental thought on something we talked about before in regards to the universe of Warhammer40k being essentially dominated by a multikult elite.
The Imperium certainly seems xenophobic but in many ways, it is only insofar as it continues to enforce the main power elite rather than, persay, the stakeholders and this can be evidenced in the malleability of its ideology.
Imagine a thought experiment where a planet managed by a local lord effectively manages to wide out the psyker gene, perhaps through enormous pogroms that kill or sterilize all family members related to psykers; this could effectively cull chaos, reduce daemonic incidents and overall serve the larger portion of population. This would seem consistent too, with the notion that psykers are witches and mutations that should be purged from the perfect design that humanity. It could been as socially, theologically, and biologically sound.
Yet imagine how long it’ll last before the Black Ships come up empty for sacrifices to the Golden Throne, or otherwise can’t fulfill their quota for psykers? The Imperial Cult would quickly come to intervene, declaring the error in the local theology, perhaps with some variation of the “bless those pure of the soul, though corrupted of body” of psykers as was used for mutants. If the local planetary government persisted, they would be simply declared as having heretical views, suppressed, and if necessary, invaded and utterly crushed.
In the end, the Imperium serves the Lords of Terra and the Emperor. There is no contradiction in this if the Emperor is still as the beacon of humanity and all efforts are to be sacrificed for His Glory, and by extension, that of His ministers. The lives, comfort and growth of trillions mean nothing in comparison to Him.
However, if the dignity of humanity is to be defined in any other way, then yes, even the grimdark universe is not vastly and unrelentingly kind to any kind of localism* either, and even its xenophobic attitudes are allowed insofar as they are the appropriate kind of xenophobia.
Either I heavily misunderstood Thompson’s article and your comments on it, or it’s a typo. The ancients were, on average, and including the whole of Europe’s population, duller than we are.
AK: You’re right, fixed. (Especially weird mistake since I myself argued for ancients being duller in his thread).
Would Russia be willing to accept Assad getting back all of Syria, Western recognition of Crimea as part of Russia, a corridor connecting Russia proper and the the Crimea, a commitment that the Ukraine will never be allowed to join NATO or the EU or form any military partnership with the West and dropping of the sanctions in exchange for Russia ending its support for the separatists in the Ukraine?
Spent a couple weeks in Taiwan and Hong Kong. Taiwan has very few non-Asians, but is full of tattoos, Muslims (are they Malays and Indonesians?) including a Muslim prayer room at the airport, and lots of goodwhite ideas like priority seats for pregnant women on the metro. And driving skills seem normal, though I didn’t pay much attention. The residential highrise buildings often have a third world feeling, perhaps they were built a few decades ago when it really was third world. Lots of free wifi, but almost nobody speaks English, and most people don’t even try. I learned to read the characters for Taipei.
Why are you asking that? It’s not like that’s a remotely realistic scenario.
There are often no sidewalks, but the drivers were polite (and even smaller junctions often had lots of cameras), so no big deal. Sometimes a passerby lane was painted on the street, where cars were not allowed. The only annoying habit of drivers was that they often parked their cars on zebras, blocking passerby traffic. I never visited small towns except Hualien, and it still has a hundred thousand or so inhabitants, I think.
Altogether it felt like a goodwhite country, like maybe something in Scandinavia, just less vibrant (but more vibrant than expected with all the hijabs).
Are there hijabs in Japan? Is Mainland China the last major country with no hijabs? I want no hijabs. Why can’t we have just a few countries without them?
Why is it not realistic?
US/Germany can force Kiev to accept whatever they want. Ukraine gets no say in this.
Are you sure they don’t have them there? After all they’ve got a lot of Muslims in China as well, and while they seem to be cracking down hard on Uighurs, I’m not sure whether there’s a total hijab ban.
Anyway, I don’t quite see the connection with Warhammer40K which Daniel Chieh was writing about. Warhammer40k seems really dubious to me as well tbh. An old acquaintance of mine recently dragged me to some gaming shop where nerds were busy playing their tabletop games. And man, are those figures for those games expensive…those nerds must have lots of money. And then they’re spending it on those overpriced little figures of space Orcs. Really strange.
Dropping of sanctions, NATO membership of Ukraine ruled out forever, de facto recognition of Crimea annexation (though not official probably) – maybe that could eventually happen, even if it seems very unlikely now. But Western countries forcing Ukraine to hand over a land corridor to Crimea??? Can’t imagine something like this, and I wouldn’t be in favour of it.
Also psykers account for a significant percentage of the Imperium’s military strength – Chaos will be much weakened with a psyker holocaust, but then the Ork and Tyranid threats will loom all the larger.
Some people in NRx argue that monarchy is innately more favorable for economic liberty than democracy (Michael Anissimov made that argument in Against Democracy). The rather more banal reality is of course that even absolute monarchies of yore couldn’t raise more than a few percentage points of GDP as taxes due to the social structure, poor communications systems, and most people being near subsistence limits. I doubt the Sun King would have had many qualms turning France into a DPRK if he had the technologies to do so.
I think we see the same thing in the Imperium. If things really are approximately as they are portrayed – that is, humanity in a desperate war of survival – then I am sure that the Inquisitors who for all intents and purposes rule the Imperium would love to impose much greater central control. It would certainly make it much more formidable as a military machine. But they can’t, because Warp travel is dangerous, humanity has become too dispersed, and too much technology has dissipated (in effect, the rogue AIs left over from the war against the Iron Men has imposed a sort of ceiling on technological development in general).
@Greasy William: Why exactly should Russia have veto power over Ukrainian E.U. membership? After all, if Crimea should have the right to join Russia, shouldn’t the rest of Ukraine have the right to join the E.U.?
@Anatoly Karlin: It’s honestly a shame that the left appears to be anti-science when it comes to things such as IQ. Indeed, if individual differences in IQ can be partially attributed to genetics, why exactly can’t it be possible that group differences in IQ can likewise be partially attributed to genetics?
WH40K is big, and this means very big, in Russia, so it its on topic there. You may see it as another proof of Russian superior toughness, or as evidence of Western degeneracy spreading worldwide.
40 thousands way to die, unofficial anthem of Russian WH40 fans.
Very funny, translated lyrics are in the comments.
No stranger than spending your money on oversized houses and cars, or any other hobbies and collector items ( like the “survivalists” with houses full of guns, ammo and military gear they would never be able to use).
This argument can be justified only by absolute ignorance of actually existing T&A (throne&altar) monarchies. Ignorance of similar magnitude that saw Stalin’s USSR as land of the workers.
The Imperator got the throne by himself, not by inheritance and “divine right” .Imperium is Napoleon style dictatorship, something as abhorrent to T&A fans as republic.
When Games Workshop makes a sequel set in 80th millenium, when Imperium will prosper under the rule of Imperator’s inbred and retarded x-generation descentants, NRx fans could claim it.
@German_reader: I am unsure that the West would be unwilling to forever rule out NATO membership for Ukraine. I mean, I don’t think that NATO is eager to accept Ukraine as a member anytime soon, but it doesn’t seem that NATO would categorically want to eliminate its options like that either.
NATO can go to Hell. They will do what Trump tells them.
Anyway, the reason I was asking was not to see if Western Europe would accept the terms, but if Russia would. If Russia sees Ukraine as an inseparable part of Russia, then they might not be willing to accept even the most generous offer Trump could conceivably give them.
NATO membership for Ukraine is a totally idiotic idea, should be buried forever (just the same with Georgia). I’m not the most Russophile person regarding NATO expansion, I think admitting Poland and other former Eastern Bloc countries, including the Baltic states, was justified. But talk of admitting Ukraine and Georgia, that was just totally unnecessary provocation of Russia that no self-respecting Russian government would ever accept. And it brings no benefit whatsoever to the alliance (which arguably should be dissolved anyway). Not worth it.
It also opened the door to a truly dangerous situation and started a massive geopolitical realignment some results of which we observe today. But, in the end, Europe will have Poland to take care of. As I stated before, no normal same Russian sees him(her)self in Europe anymore and that is a good healthy thing. But don’t relax yet, Poland may yet start the world war, in fact–I can see at least three contingencies when this nightmarish scenario can come true with huge help from Warsaw. The military value of Baltic States, other than a bridgehead for launching large combined arms operations against Russia, is zero. Liability? Huge.
Poland can’t start a world war (nor can the Baltic states), the real problem is attitudes among US elites.
Poland CAN easily start a provocation which will lead to a global war. The probability of this provocation will grow exponentially with:
Considering a rather not adequate mental state of Polish elites (including their utter incompetence in geopolitics) , not only it becomes possible but probable that all kinds of provocations will be used by Poland in a (futile) attempts to sell herself as a frontier state next to bad Russkies. Hell, that is exactly what she does already.
How would Poland start a provocation? Apart from the Kaliningrad area it doesn’t even have a common border with Russian territory nowadays.
Now Poland’s political elites may not always have the best judgment, but I really doubt they want war with Russia.
Oh goody! This may take several days to even set the framework, but I think even a very active role of Polish intelligence services and military instructors (not to speak of “volunteers”) in Ukraine coup is a good indication of what could be done. From shooting down a civilian airplane to any other false flag operation–the menu is huge, just pick.
Kaliningrad District (Oblast) is an administrative subject and a territory of Russian Federation, that makes Poland a frontier state which can change postures as it (or its handlers) wishes. E.g. recent (3-4 days ago) behavior of Polish F-16s near Russia’s Defense Minister’s plane was, certainly not friendly–it took SU-27 escort to squeeze them out. Poland will get Patriot AD Systems, plus some more…
But that is what really matters–mental adequacy. And then again, for two decades Polish (mostly service) economy and relatively decent standard of living was provided for through easily available (and cheap) credit plus other benefits obtained through, as an example, extremely influential and large Polish diaspora in the US. Well, the free ride is coming to an end (it is coming for Europe in general) and Poland is not a productive state–it is second or third tier at best. Guess what political parties in nations such as Poland (literally obsessed with Russia) do to stay in power when going gets tough (and it will, if not already)–they provoke neighbors, such as it is being done right this very moment by Poroshenko’s admin. Will Polish elites go for it? You can bet your life on that. A sense of measure, of scale, of proportion were never a feature of Polish (and not just Polish, wink-wink) elites. Add here follie de grandeur and the explosive mix becomes unstable.
Well, the Russian-backed separatists in Ukraine did shoot down a civilian airplane (probably out of stupidity; and yes I know, you think it was a false flag operation, I disagree and won’t get into a discussion about it) – and it really didn’t change the situation at all, has pretty much been forgotten already tbh. I have difficulty imagining how Poland could create a plausible “provocation”, even if it wanted to (which I really doubt, but then admittedly I don’t read Polish media and have only limited insight into Polish politics).
I guess we’ll just have to see.
I hope I am very very wrong. I mean it.
China has cities and universities with bans hijabs but its not universal. Hui(a Muslim “minority” of 95-98% Han with some Persian admixture) wear headscarves which are for all practical purposes hijabs, and from what I understand, they are increasingly doing so despite being historically not having done so.
Islam does seem to be gaining confidence, or something.
It is nice to have a city to have the confidence to do so, though. I do think that a patchwork localism would make the world both more meaningfully diverse both culturally and genetically, and generally a better place to live in. To have the freedom to associate – or not to associate – with any group of people would seem like a blessing.
Its fun to nerd out about masculine fantasy in SPAAAACCE every now and then.
Never pimped a Youtube video before, but seems appropriate to share my favorite War40k related tribute here. To the Imperial Guard, the foundation of blood and sinew and bodies upon which the Imperium builds upon.
Weigh it down, throw more men at them – they can’t kill all of us. Glory to the first man to die!
To each of us falls a task. All the Emperor asks of us Guardsmen is to stand the line and die fighting. Its what we do best: die standing.
https://youtu.be/HSR9W8g6ak8
@German_reader: For the record, I would probably agree with you that it would be unwise for NATO to expand to include Georgia and Ukraine at this point in time. However, I don’t want to permanently take any options off the table in regards to this. I mean, I certainly don’t want a war with Russia; however, I also don’t think that NATO should just kowtow to Russia.
Also, in regards to NATO’s (and the E.U.’s) expansion into Eastern Europe, I would like to point out that those countries themselves requested to become NATO (and E.U.) members; indeed, no one forced them to join NATO. Heck, countries such as Finland and Sweden were certainly allowed to keep their neutrality and not to join NATO.
Now, if Ukraine and/or Georgia want to join NATO, I think that it would be best to reject them for now but not to eliminate any options in regards to the future. As for the E.U., though, I certainly think that Ukraine and Georgia should be allowed to join the E.U. if that is what they wish (and assuming that, in Ukraine’s case, it is able to successfully deal with its corruption problem).
@Greasy_William: Putin might very well accept such a deal. After all, as Anatoly Karlin says, Putin has been “rather weak” in his handling of the Donbass War.
Because anyone can get around this. Or are people going to start banning these as well?
https://www.google.com/search?q=motorcycle+helmets&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjV6tvCtPvUAhWDKiYKHVA3CIAQ_AUICygC&biw=1536&bih=760
https://www.google.com/search?q=motorcycle+helmets&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjV6tvCtPvUAhWDKiYKHVA3CIAQ_AUICygC&biw=1536&bih=760#tbm=isch&q=banana++suit
Peace.
Hey Daniel Chieh,
Yeah – there seems to be a global revival even in places where it was thought dead. Some of the old communist areas that had less than 100 mosques are now seeing hundreds if not thousands. I thought Tunisia was a lost cause (abortion rates used to rival Europe), but it’s been coming back.
As we discussed before, according to Toynbee; “human nature abhors a spiritual vacuum.” Post-modernism sucks in providing any meaning or purpose.
The big question is, which way will the revival go; traditional or neo-Kharijite?
Peace.
Note: I purchased this book last weekend:
https://www.amazon.com/Signs-Horizons-Meetings-Knowledge-Illumination/dp/0989364011
Very enlightening read. Religion is not in books – never has been, never will be – as long as the men (and women) who are walking examples of the faith survive, it will survive even under the harshest conditions. It’s like a candle wick that is barely there – as long as it’s not completely out there will be a time when it will be able to expand and light other candles. If you lose the men, you lose the faith.
Hey G_R,
If you live by yourself and have no wife or kids to spend on (assuming that’s the case with these guys) – a moderate income can go a looooong way.
Peace.
There are exceptions to the rule. If an infinite number of Spiderman reboots/retconns fill that ache in your soul – Post-modernism full-speed ahead!!!
The “rest of Ukraine” is not a unit. All will continue to be reminded of that fact.
As I wrote elsewhere, I’m mostly against immigration (and having huge immigrant communities) of people from Muslim countries, but I think a hijab ban would be stupid and counterproductive for a number of reasons. I’m certainly not in favor of it.
As far as I know he is from the community of Mainland Chinese who fled with the nationalist government to Taiwan.
Are the ones in Taiwan predominantly Malay immigrants, local Muslims, or tourists? I guess the first, but I’m not totally sure, there seemed to be a large number of non-Muslim tourists from nearby countries, so perhaps the hijabis might’ve been tourists, too.
“no hijabs” – how to quantify? In Russia the hijab are very very rare (probably one for a thousand women, except the North Caucasus ).
Here are the graduation parties in schools of Tatarstan(where the majority of Muslims) http://m.tatar-inform.ru/upload/image/gallery/2011/06/12/P1030888.JPG ,
http://tat.e-nkama.ru/upload/iblock/fc6/DSC_5525_preview.jpg,
http://www.chelny-izvest.ru/content/images/53abd1cedd1141403769294535_tn.jpg , http://prokazan.ru/userfiles/old/newsmainpic/vypusknoy.jpg.crop_display_1.jpg.
Online – photographs of thousands of Tatars girls in sexy dresses. But there is no hijab absolutely
On the other hand in China there are regions with a Muslim majority.
I am still doubtful of the practicality of the whole “reorientation to Asia”. Not that I am saying it is a bad thing, on the contrary, I think it makes total sense in the light of an increasingly hostile West. However, most major economic activities in Russia ( except Energy extraction) happens near to the EU. How can you reorient to Asia when you are so far away ( eastern cities like Vladivostok don’t seem to have any noticeable economic momentum).
Honestly even without the sanctions, moving closer to Asia makes sense since it is an increasingly important economic region.
It is more correct to say that Moscow re-oriented from Greater Europe to Greater Eurasia which means greater focus on Asia without abandoning Europe.
A good example of that is the Eurasian Land Bridge which connects the most important economies of Greater Eurasia via Russia.
By the way, the reason Finland and Sweden did not join NATO in the 1990s when they were trying to get us in was that the Americans approached us with their design for a new Europe where Finland and Sweden would be given the responsibility of defending the Baltic states.
This was at the Clinton-Yeltsin meeting in Helsinki in 1997. Yeltsin was actually trying to push a deal where Finland and Sweden would be allowed to join NATO but the Baltic states and other ex-Soviet Republics would not. Clinton announced that in the new world Great Powers no longer hold conferences where they divide the map into spheres of influence which at the time made a great impression on me but as I’ve gotten older I’ve realized that what he really meant was that the whole world will be America’s one sphere of influence…
Well, it would be better though if those nerds I saw were masculine in real life as well.
No thanks, as a German I have no wish to have to pay for the basket case that is Ukraine. And I certainly don’t want Georgia which sends us organized gangs of burglars terrorizing Germany (and Georgians apparently now have visa free travel to the Schengen area, so their looting expeditions are even easier than before when they pretended to be asylum seekers…thanks EU!).
You mean NATO should just not not disregard Russia’s interests.
Which does not say anything about how he handled Kiev’s NATO ambition which remain unfulfilled.
Note that the Russian military is creating near bases near the Ukraine.
Any new intervention would be less improvised.
This is paranoid thinking. On a per capita basis Poland
suffered greater losses than the Soviet Union during WW II,
and is still partly traumatized, and in no mood to start any wars.
A reminder: it was Russia that conquered Warsaw and held it
for over 100 years against the will of the Polish people and then
again for 44 years after WW II. Poland didn’t conquer
Moscow in the 19th century and held it for over 100 years
against the will of the Russian people. So who was the aggressor
here?
What Russia are you talking about?
The one that was even more subjected by Soviets than Poland?
It did so in the 17th century.
Poland is less of a victim than a failed great power.
Poland is less of a victim than a failed great power.
All ‘victims’ are just that.
It’s like a ‘prey’ is a predator that got eaten.
“The next morning (September 15, 1812) Polish lancers were assured that the city ( Moscow) surrendered to the looting. This news was soon confirmed by soldiers who were sent for provisions and returned with a huge inventory of tea, rum, sugar, wine and all kinds of valuable items. Now there was no way to keep the soldiers from looting …. If all the soldiers (of Napoleon’s Army) were attracted by the opportunity of plunder, the poles sought revenge for past grievances. I saw a Ulan with a whip drove a Russian who was carrying what Ulan robbed. When I began to reproach him for his rudeness, he angrily answered me: “do you know that my family was killed during the storming of Warsaw?”
“Memoirs” By A. G. Brandt
But the “revenge for past grievances” failed – for the poles who plunder Moscow in 1812, 1812 was the last year of life.
Well, I really don’t see why Muslims couldn’t wear something approximating to the national headgear, which exists in most places because both sun and cold are pretty uncomfortable if you don’t have a hat. I agree, in general a hijab ban would be silly, though counterproductive would depend on both the goal and the circumstances.
Apparently Macron made some remarks at the G20 summit that African birthrates are a problem, with 7 or 8 children per women destroying all progress…wow. Still dislike the guy, but at least he seems to be not entirely blind to reality.
“Antiracists” and American Catholic Cretins like Ross Douthat and Michael Brendan Dougherty are freaking out about it on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/DouthatNYT/status/884474672859029505
These people are so bloody retarded.
Say what you want about Europe, but the European right doesn’t have the pro birth retardation of the American right. We have all these religious idiots who are holding us back.
This stuff really pisses me off. People like Douthat should be exterminated.
Brain size (& eye socket size) has diminished, with intermediate pauses, over time.
Nenaderthal > Cro Magnon > Agriculturists
It doesn’t necessarily mean that we got duller than Neanderthals, but even if we did, here the “ancients” mean people in antiquity (2-4kya). We could easily get smarter than the ancients even if the ancients themselves were duller than Neanderthals