Women in Military

Get raped.   And raped some more.    It doesn't even matter if you're attending one of three prestigious military academies, where supposedly the cadets (minus athletes) have high IQ and strong character, you'll be under consistent threat of sexual assault.

Remind me again why we have women in the military?  What good does this do for anyone?  Is America's military "stronger" because it includes women?  Is there any evidence for this?

Dell

What does Dell even do now?  Their supply chain competitive advantage no longer exists in any significant capacity and their hardware offerings have either been boring or a complete failure, especially in the mobile arena where growth has been most prominent.  The margins in desktops and laptops are now dismally low and prices will continue to fall.   I'm not sure their attempt to move into the services arena by acquiring companies has done them much good.  Their stock price has gone nowhere and I can't see it going anywhere in the near future.

Dell is one of the largest employers in the Austin area and everyone knows someone who works at Dell, has worked at Dell, or is Michael Dell.  Some have quite a lot of money because they joined the company when it was in its infancy.

But what the hell do Dell employees do?  I know a lot of them and as far as I can tell none of them actually create much value at all.  Everyone works in "customer service", "marketing", and "communications" and as far as I can tell Dell stinks in all these areas.  When they invited me to see what they actually did at work, I was flabbergasted because they did...nothing!.  Besides, their offices are so damn drab.  And for some reason, if anyone needs a job, and that anyone knows someone who has a modicum of decision making power, then that anyone is HIRED.  I have seen this many times and it confuses me because from my point of view it amounts to crony make work, which can't be good for the shareholders.  There aren't many engineers creating value at Dell.

Dell can't create value or transfer it effectively.  Is it time to short?

Girls on HBO

You can watch it here.  Thanks to Tyler Cowen over at Marginal Revolution for the tip.

I found the show bizarre yet insightful.  *Spoiler Alert*  The most disgusting part was the weird doggy style between Hannah and carpenter dude.

Here are of couple of assorted thoughts on the first episode.

1. SWPL comes into mind immediately when watching this show.  Pursuing your passion, smart water, English major, Manhattan, writing a book, traveling to Europe, unpaid internships, acting, play writing, Apple products, etc, etc, etc!  And everyone on the show is white, so far, at least.  HBO did a fantastic job with The Wire which was about black people, can they do the same with a series about white people?  
2. Marnie, the hot chick, doesn't like her boyfriend because "he's too nice".  The boyfriend is really nice.  Has Apatow been reading Heartiste?  
3. The backdrop to the doggy style sex scene was a classic.  I think it accurately portrayed the hipster/SWPL lifestyle.  The vintage bike was especially neat.  
4. The girls all hate each other.  This was actually a surprisingly accurate description of the nature of female "friendship".  Pretending to be nice to each other on the surface yet gossiping and hating furiously in private.  

Overall, I think the show did a fine job in terms of social criticism--though criticism may not be the best term to describe it.  It might be something more like "exploring the issues" and refraining from judgement.  But what market does this show appeal to? You have to have some understanding or connection to SWPL culture otherwise the show makes no sense.  And will SWPLs be offended by the show?  

Talking about black people

John Derbyshire did it honestly and everyone hates him.  Here is my analysis of the talk.  1 through 7 just sets it up so I'll ignore these points and focus on the latter few which are far more "inflammatory".

(10) Thus, while always attentive to the particular qualities of individuals, on the many occasions where you have nothing to guide you but knowledge of those mean differences, use statistical common sense.

(10a) Avoid concentrations of blacks not all known to you personally.  [Self-righteous correct thinking people both left and right give me this advice all the time.  I ignore it and purposely seek out concentrations of blacks in order to experience the vibrancy of black culture.  Because I have actually engaged real-life ghetto blacks, I understand that they display both pathological and vibrant patterns of behavior.  But it really isn't that dangerous to go into places that are heavily black as most black men just want to fuck with each other and don't really care about you.  The women could care less.]

(10b) Stay out of heavily black neighborhoods.  [see above!]

(10c) If planning a trip to a beach or amusement park at some date, find out whether it is likely to be swamped with blacks on that date (neglect of that one got me the closest I have ever gotten to death by gunshot).

(10d) Do not attend events likely to draw a lot of blacks.  [See video, though I really think that it would quite an awesome experience to observe the anti-social behavior of blacks in such situations.  I mean, when else would you get to participate in a chaotic environment with black ghetto folk throwing one dollar bills from the second floor?  Attending events that draw lots of black people will give you REAL STREET CRED and you can always tell your stories of the experience to impress women.]

(10e) If you are at some public event at which the number of blacks suddenly swells, leave as quickly as possible.  [I would stay just to laugh at the stupidity of black people]

(10f) Do not settle in a district or municipality run by black politicians.  [I agree.  Sometimes black politicians can't read and write.  I am planning on leaving America anyways, since it is run by a "black" politician named Barack Obama.]  

(10g) Before voting for a black politician, scrutinize his/her character much more carefully than you would a white.  [I hate democracy so this is pointless advice]

(10h) Do not act the Good Samaritan to blacks in apparent distress, e.g., on the highway.  [This I don't really get.  He links one isolated incident.  In any case, I would never help people in apparent distress be they black, white, or green.  I play the part of innocent bystander.  

(10i) If accosted by a strange black in the street, smile and say something polite but keep moving.  [OK, what does this have to do with race.  If accosted by strange people, I would just keep moving, regardless of race...]

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^^^^^Sorry, I am a Chinaman.  I don't believe in intellectual property.^^^^^^^

(13) In that pool of forty million, there are nonetheless many intelligent and well-socialized blacks. (I’ll use IWSB as an ad hoc abbreviation.) You should consciously seek opportunities to make friends with IWSBs. In addition to the ordinary pleasures of friendship, you will gain an amulet against potentially career-destroying accusations of prejudice.

(14) Be aware, however, that there is an issue of supply and demand here. Demand comes from organizations and businesses keen to display racial propriety by employing IWSBs, especially in positions at the interface with the general public—corporate sales reps, TV news presenters, press officers for government agencies, etc.—with corresponding depletion in less visible positions. There is also strong private demand from middle- and upper-class whites for personal bonds with IWSBs, for reasons given in the previous paragraph and also (next paragraph) as status markers.

(15) Unfortunately the demand is greater than the supply, so IWSBs are something of a luxury good, like antique furniture or corporate jets: boasted of by upper-class whites and wealthy organizations, coveted by the less prosperous. To be an IWSB in present-day US society is a height of felicity rarely before attained by any group of human beings in history. Try to curb your envy: it will be taken as prejudice (see paragraph 13).

[This part is fucking hilarious as it is obviously a twist on SWPL.  It is quite clear to me that these statements were made in jest.  But I think 99% of people actually take the advice seriously.  Chuck Rudd certainly thinks Derbyshire is being serious, which is weird, as he is usually quite perceptive.]

CONCLUSION:  I think this is good advice in general about how to be racist against black people.  But the real purpose of this advice is not "safety", rather, it is protecting people from the shocking horrors of reality.  Not taking this advice would be the equivalent of involuntarily taking the red pill and that may be the greater consequence.  Not following the advice might put one in a position where one might become a RACIST, which is the worse thing in the world.  Getting punched by a black ghetto thug is not so bad when compared to becoming a RACIST.  So Derbyshire's advice actually PREVENTS RACISM and allows liberals/conservatives/people with correct thinking to continue being non-racist.  

Oikos University and Loser Shooter

First it was SHC at VT, now it's another yet to identified AM (more specifically, Korean) shooting up colleges.

There must be some strange Korean gene that causes this kind of tragic behavior.

According to multiple news sources, the shooter was a large 40 year old former nursing student.   I had never heard of Oikos University before until today and was intrigued because it was a Christian school that offered a program in...Oriental Medicine.  I had to know more!  The wikipedia page was disappointingly sparse, so I had to go elsewhere.   Huffington Post has the details on "Oikos University".    In short, Oikos was founded by Korean Church People (KCP) around 10 years ago,and it is a Christian fundamentalist Korean-American school.  I didn't even know these kinds of schools existed until today.  I'm thinking it is like a Bob Jones U for Koreans, but with a eastern orientation, white Christians think Oriental Medicine is THE DEVIL. It is definitely not a school where successful Korean people go (they go to school further north, at Berkeley), but most likely a place where Korean failures and losers congregate.  Unfortunately, there are some people who live in bubbles where all Asian-Americans are doing well, but please be remember that there are dumb Asians too who do stupid things.

So our shooter was most likely a loser.  40 years old is old for a college student.  Males studying nursing are very uncommon.  These two things, plus the bogus status of the University, makes me very sure that our shooter was a loser.  Someone who did not fit into society and acted out in rage.  It's a tragedy.

No word yet on the religious background of our shooter, but recall that SHC was also raised in a Christian environment.  Is there something toxic about Korean Christianity?