More Lunacy from the Very Best

Since the Didact decided to post a few glorious videos about guns, booze, and boobs, I decided to return to the very same well for a few more videos:

First, a video we both love on how to be an idiot crossfitter.

Growing up in the Marines, courtesy of my dad's surplus gear, I know a Woobie is far more than just a blanket. Or a girlfriend.

In case the point wasn't clear enough:

And of course, relationships:

Last but not least, I think these guys convinced me to try out a new brand of coffee. Not sure if I want the Silencer Smooth, the Murdered Out, or the Caffeinated as Fuck blend.

Trump Can Do No Right

The guys at the Morning Joe show their asses again.

My only real comment is on the headline: Morning Joe Rips Trump Mex Trip: ‘Flip-Flop, Nonsensical, Sociopath’

We all know SJW's project, but I've run into clinical narcissists, borderlines, and sociopaths: a spectrum of the broken, the emotionally stunted, and non-empathetic. I've also dealt with a lot of smart people who didn't get the fancy college education indoctrination, and don't give off all the higher-caste social cues. Since Trumps speech patterns aren't my current subject, I'll leave aside the snobbery involved, and simply point out this: I don't see the cues I've learned to observe.

Hillary? Aside from the wake of the #coincidentally dead in her wake, watching her scares me.

If the idiots on the Joe do know what "Sociopath", etc. means, they're full of shit.

Hell Yeah, I'd Get One Too...

Mildly NSFW but if it's good enough for our neighborhood preacher and sci-fi/western author, it's good enough for me:

That said, he was a prison preacher, and a soldier before that....

What Happens Nextdoor is Racist! (and White Girl Bleed a Lot)

There are a lot of people who are not, by self-description, "Alt Right", who nevertheless are kindred spirits. They search for truth. And because the truth simply is, there may be disagreements over what exactly it means, but at least they live in the same world, and not one of lies and delusion that we children of the 70's were raised in.

Some are aggressive, others take a more passive approach, staking out their territory and saying "here I stand, this is true." One of the latter well worth paying attention to is Colin Flaherty, author of the books White Girl Bleed a Lot, and Don't Make the Black Kids Angry. The former is also the name of his podcast on iTunes and stitcher, and he has a YouTube channel. 

His most recent episode on Aug 28th with Willie Shield covers a lot of the usual ground, but also delves into the phenomenon of "neighborhood" social networks and crime tracking apps, and how racist they are for making clear the disparity in white and black crime. 

The app/ network in question is "Nextdoor.com" - a geographically based social media app for communities. The people programming the app noticed a "disturbing" pattern - people reporting crimes would often report the skin color of the suspect, and of course, all to very frequently, the color was black. So the creators took it upon themselves to help guide us to a more tolerant future -  by making it more difficult to describe the suspect.

Per an interview, they decided to add a new feature. If you describe the skin color of a suspect when reporting a crime, it will automatically ask you to provide several more pieces of information such as height, clothes, etc. On the one hand, they're not preventing you from completely describing a suspect, but they're also making it more difficult to report it by upping the level of friction.  Not because a more complete descrition is inherently better when available, but because criminals are more than their skin color. 

Diversity

There is a common, belief that "diversity" is a moral good.

That is unalloyed bullshit.

It is at best value neutral.

Would you trust a steel that was "diverse" with random materials tossed in for "diversity"?

If you penned up sheep and wolves together, how "diverse" will your collection of beasties remain? And how many sheep will remain?

Diversity is only good or bad in an antifragile sense - to the degree to which it allows multiple solutions to a problem to be tried, with the ones that do not work, or work much less effectively, weeded out. It's moral value is highly scope dependent.

A hundred people of both main sexes, is needed to perpetuate the species. In the short run, you can have a lot fewer men than women, but in the long run an imbalance either way tends to destabilize societies. In a different scope - say, an office, or on a hunt - childbearing ability may be irrelevant, or even actively get in the way of getting a needed job done.

A hundred people of different ethnic populations will have different strengths and weaknesses (Kenyan runners, IQ differentials, resistance to or prevalence of certain diseases) that may suit them better or worse to different environments, and surviving in different crises. Outside of some cultural factors, being <a skin color> does absolutely nothing to bring different paradigms or solution models to bear on a problem or job at hand. Unless you're racist enough to believe that all Latins inherently make uniformly different, wiser choices, because "Latino/a".

"Diversity" is a red flag that someone doesn't understand the needs of the scope, that they are at best ignorant, and most likely not thinking. Yes, your classic heist story has different people in different roles, but would we really want a stamp collector as the getaway driver if they've never ridden more than a bicycle?

I personally hired a black guy to work with me because of all the people who applied, man, woman (a couple pretty ones), white, hispanic, etc., he was the only one who'd done his own computer assembly out of curiosity, had gone beyond his certification classes to learn more, and had the active problem-solving and research mindset. There were a lot of "diversity" options that I would not have trusted to turn on a computer, and even the "privileged" ones were similarly lacking.

He has a good attitude, and is willing to learn. He also replaced a guy who was great at math, a fantastic musician, understood computers, but never looked deeper, couldn't sit down and focus, or explain things to customers.

Statistically, the people most likely to go "had a minor issue, looked this up, anything else I need to worry about" are "privileged."

The worst two people at one office I had dealt with were also "diverse" in a very stereotypical way. Every single visit they were guaranteed to have an issue. That issue was guaranteed to be user error or inability to read the damn prompt. Often it was a repeat issue. Utterly helpless until they were saved.

Incidentally, the third most annoying was "privileged" - and a perfect example of "only a little knowledge is a dangerous thing". His enthusiasm and unwillingness to simply wait for a fix almost made up for it, but not quite.

So if you ever hear "diversity" be wary. It means something else is more important than the job at hand. It's also why Charles Johnson at gotnews.com has an investment strategy of shorting any company that begins making a big deal about, or big changes towards, pro-SJW and pro-diversity initiatives.

Paradise is Dying

The Didact reviews Fistfights With Muslims in Europe. Along the way he makes a number of observations. Go read it, but something jumped out and made me laugh despite the seriousness of the subject:

It was a response that made absolutely no goddamn sense when you realise that this is the same Scandinavia from which the Danes and the Vikings hailed. The reavers that set sail on their dragon ships from the shores of Iceland, Finland, Denmark, and Sweden were among the most feared warriors of antiquity. Their fighting skills were so highly prized that they were offered enormous sums of money to become part of the royal guard of the Byzantine Emperors. The proud history and legacy of the Varangian Guard is deep within the blood of their descendants.

If the Viking ancestors of modern Scandis could see how badly their offspring have debased themselves, I doubt that even the Allfather himself could stop his einherjar from charging forth across the Rainbow Bridge to give the invaders of their ancestral lands a good taste of Viking steel- and their descendants a proper lesson in good old-fashioned Viking berserker tactics.

There is a stark contrast, by the way, between the meek and submissive natures of the Europeans that Mr. Langness encountered, and the Muslims that he fought with. As he states at length in his writing, he actually found himself greatly admiring those he fought against, because they have a warrior spirit and a strength that has gone very much amiss in the rest of Europe.

I understand entirely where that comes from. Once you know what it means to stand up and hit another man, and desperately try to avoid letting him hit you back, you will know what I mean when I say that fighting is the fastest way I know of to establish bonds of brotherhood between men who might otherwise be mortal enemies.

Even so, one might be pardoned for asking... WHAT THE NIFLHEIM HAPPENED?!?

OK. Nothing funny here per se. That said, anyone who's been to Dragon*Con has seen the fake ads and trailers they put up on the hotel - wide TV system on the "Dragon*Con TV" channel. One of my favorites was the Dalek pest extermination services, but relevant to the above post, one I still cannot find (I'll update it if I find it) was one where a Klingon and a Federation officer are sitting on a couch finishing watching the movie 300. The movie finishes, and bewildered, the Klingon looks at the officer and asks, "Humans used to be like this? WHAT HAPPENED?"

#Coincidentally - another old lady killed....

Colin Flaherty - always worth listening to - posts another example of Black on White violence. Motives of course, are unknown. "Maybe they shouldn't have made that black kid angry"

His podcast and book, "White Girl Bleed a Lot" are worth digging through. So is the followup "Don't Make the Black Kids Angry".

Their Children, or Ours

Posted at Vox Day:

Who's children are more important to us?

Wait, They Invaded Geek Culture?

If it weren't for leftist papers, would England have any? Anyway, we have the latest dreck at the "Independent".

One really has to try, or be profoundly ignorant of ones ignorance, to be so consistently wrong.

We've always been here - and only someone ignorant of the background of computer culture, gaming culture, Sci Fi culture, etc. would think otherwise. The "invasion" they see is a backlash - some articles in the past have even used that term. Hugos? Larry proved his point about it being a clique.

Then there's this gem:

The movement is a nebulous online community whose values are almost indistinguishable from the far-right racism and sexism of Europe's National Front or America’s Klu Klux Klan. They openly call for ethnic purity, believe in the inferiority of women, and treat all alternative sexualities as aberrant and illegal. The Alt-right hates "Libtards", but it hates "Cuckservatives" more, a play on "cuckold", for what the Alt-right see as their infidelity to true conservative values.

I'll leave aside the strawman mischaracterizations in that paragraph. I've got news for them - not only do they display profound ignorance of everything outside of their little bubble, but in some ways, we're worse.

The opposite of love is not hate, it's apathy. And we. don't. care.

If anything, most alt-righters would gladly take black nationalists up on their desire for an independent state - and leave them to their own devices.

That may be far worse, for them, in the long run.

Swan Knight's Son: The Green Knight's Squire Book One (Moth & Cobweb 1)

Castalia house has a new book out by the inimitable John C Wright, and the beginning of yet another new series.

We are very pleased and proud to announce the beginning of a brand new YA fantasy series from John C. Wright that we anticipate may one day be worthy to be mentioned in the same breath as classic fantasy series such as The Dark is Rising and The Chronicles of Prydain. The book is the first in a new duodecilogy called Moth & Cobweb, and the first book in the series is THE GREEN KNIGHT'S SQUIRE: SWAN KNIGHT'S SON. 

Gilberic Parzival Moth is a strange and lonely boy who has grown up without a father, raised by a single mother who moves from town to town in fear of something she will not name. His only friends are animals, with whom he has always been able to speak. But when he awakens one night at the Thirteenth Hour, and sees for the first time the dark reality of the secret rule of Elf over Man, he begins to learn about his true heritage, the heritage of Twilight

 The praise of John Wright is not exaggeration. He professes he is not worthy of comparison to Gene Wolfe, but if true, he is not far shy of those heights of literary mastery. The Countdown to the Eschaton series is riproaring fun with too many deep concepts assumed and thrown away as one-liners to count. The stories in City Beyond Time: Tales of the Fall of Metachronopolis are a fresh look at the perils of time travel. And Awake in the Nightland? A masterpiece.

Review: Monster Hunter Memoirs: Grunge (or, The Last Paladin of Shadows of MHI)

Before writing this I made the mistake of looking at the existing reviews. Heh. There was a lot of hate for Ringo in the comments. I also get it - Ringo's sense of humor and story complements Larrys, but it's different. I know people who can't stand the Grimnoir books but love MHI. Go figure.

So I'll tackle complaints first:

• "Mary Sue" - my first hint you don't read John Ringo, especially when you claim to like his other stuff. Have you ever met his characters? I don't mean in the books - I mean the real-life people many of his characters are based on. Over the top, exceedingly competent, scary smart, sometimes to the point of I'm not sure they can tie their shoelaces. Except they can, and likely have a black belt. John brought this trend up regarding a review of the first Looking Glass book - "the guy I based him on does all those things, and already knows how to shoot."
• "But - he's too smart." - OK , almost a point here. Yes, Chad learns Aramaic at nine. His dad is 140+ IQ, his mom likely far higher, and so is Chad. Prodigies like this are rare, but believe me, they DO exist. That said, it says something about standards in America when we've fallen from 16 year old professional surveyors in the wilderness, and thirteen year olds commanding prize crews, to not even believing such people can exist, much less taught to function without the magical tome of a teaching degree and a certified acolyte of the teachers union to wield it.
• "But - he's still too smart" - and FWIW - John hangs a lampshade on it. Early in the book, he discovers that he was granted this gift for a purpose, and if he choses the path of duty, that purpose will bring him suffering and pain as well. He's also almost autistically focused on immersing himself on whatever he's learning, something I've seen before in real life, in people who learn quickly.
• For the idiot who compared this to "Name of the Wind" - 

1. If you liked that book, you are never going to be a Ringo fan. One writes men, no matter how over the top, the other writes a whiny perpetual victim, no matter how pretty the prose.
2. "Name of the Wind" is one of the few books in my entire life I've never finished - almost entirely due to the whiny "I'm so special" snowflake protagonist. A list that includes the Wheel of Time series, but not hundreds of SF books, the Anabasis or Kagans book on the Peloponnesian war.

• "My Misogyny" - yep - Chad sleeps around. Get over it. I know SJW types and liberals have a problem with this concept, but there are multiple tiers of good and bad, and multiple value axes. Guys who constantly have women hanging over them exist, and they're not forcing the women into anything. Get over it. Sure, some are jerks (women have a hard time differentiating between "asshole" and "guy who says no because he has priorities and self respect"), but most aren't. Chad's excuse may be paper-thin, but his life will cause pain to those he loves one way or the other. It may not be as good in the long run for civilization as family, but he's fighting for it in other ways. Also, if Chad got their panties in a wad, they should look up "Oh John Ringo No" on his Paladin of Shadows books. Their heads will truly explode. And given the anti-heroes I've seen praised, I'd rather have Chad at my side than John Wayne Cleaver of the excellent, but disturbing, "I Am Not A Serial Killer" by Dan Wells. (Also - another sign they never read Ringo.....)
• "Liberal bashing." Yes, John has politics. They are, more or less, in your face. Despite that, he is also a fantastic weaver of stories and characters. I've known an ardent feminist to cry at the death of Sergeant Ellsworthy, a minor character in A Hymn Before Battle, after earlier bitching how she was sexualized at the beginning. That said, in this book, they are much more in your face. This is a memoir - I take it most of the snowflakes with this complaint have never listened to soldiers, or most conservatives discuss politics. Chad is hardly the most blunt I've heard, and one would be hard pressed to contradict the facts behind a position Ringo takes, even if you could argue how they should be interpreted. Please step outside of your bubble - part of the purpose of stories is to discover something new.
• "Two dimensional characters" - do you need it laid out with cheat codes, or in some other equally obvious way? John doesn't write for stupid people. He is an expert at sketching out a character in a few brush strokes, such that you feel for them, and when they die (hey, it's John), you feel the loss. If you think his characters are cardboard cutouts, you're not paying attention. His descriptions of Japanese culture as demonstrated by the behavior of various chracters, for example, were spot on.
• "Show Don't Tell" - It's a fucking memoir with a number of technical discussions to help future monster hunters - or did you miss the opening segment? With this comment you tell me that you're either too ignorant the implications of the term "memoir" or you didn't read the book. Or both.
• "Oppositional" - you actually have a point here. Given the abusive upbringing Chad was subject to, his nearly reflexive oppositional defiance was understandable, but I think overplayed. 

This book is the first of several memoirs written by a presumed - dead hunter that, between hints in the first couple chapters and a knowledge of the background of the core MHI books, likely died in the "Christmas Party" well before the core series starts up.

Chad was raised by abusive academics, with most of the faults they are subject to, and a few more because of a surplus in IQ, and a surfeit of compassion or real world experience. This has resulted in an over-the-top rebellious streak ("Do you know how hard it is to get perfect 'C's'"), and an understandable desire to be the opposite of what his parents wanted.

So he joins the Marines.

He enjoys his career up to the point that a minor miracle saves him from the Beirut barracks bombing, and he gets a one-on-one conversation with St peter, discovering that his gifts, especially his intelligence, are there for a purpose. And he's given a choice: go to heaven, or return, alive, to a life of duty in the service of God, a path that was almost guaranteed to include much personal suffering. And a sign to look for. 57. Not Heinz.

Yes, Chad is on a mission from God. And so, after going through intensely painful rehab and rebuilding, he is discharged, and sets off to find out why he should be on the lookout for "57". This being the MHI-verse, it's little surprise zombies are involved in the answer.

And then things really get started.

If I had to give a one - line description, it's that a (only) slightly nicer Mike Harmon from the Kildar books narrates a memoir similar in tone to the Last Centurion, about hunting zombies, Werewolves, and worse within Larry's MHI universe. 

In structure - the book is a memoir. As such, while there is still a narrative thread and a climax, with one vignette mercilessly setting the foundation for the next, it's more of a series of vignettes, important moments in his background and career, and tips for fellow hunters. So yes, like Centurion, a lot of "tell don't show", asides,  and personal rants.

Since I know people who are otherwise Ringo fans who hate the Kildar and Centurion books, I'm not going to say "If you like MHI", or even "if you like Ringo and MHI", then buy the book. On the other hand, if my one - line elevator pitch already has you twitchily reaching for your wallet, even if you've never read Larry's books (what's wrong with you?), go ahead and spend that money.

P.S. - Oliver Wyman is the narrator on this, much like Larry's other MHI books. Fantastic narration job.

Pure Awesomeness Now Available in Paperback

Larry Correia, aka the Mountain Who Writes, has a new-ish epic fantasy series out, and has announced that the first book, Son of the Black Sword, is now out in paperback.

If you have yet to read this book, put it at the top, or near the top, of your reading pile. It goes in a lot of unexpected but utterly reasonable directions, in a fantasy milieux quite unlike most others - and one that would be far more familiar to students of Jeffro Johnson's "Appendix N" overview.

Larry gets better with each book.

#Coincidentally #Pravda Two stabbed at music festival

A "man" stabs two people at a music festival in Germany:

A couple was stabbed at a German musical festival by a man who attacked them while shouting "Allahu Akbar."

The male victim, aged 57 was seriously injured, his 66-year-old wife is said to be fighting for her life. Despite his injuries, the man was able to overpower the attacker who was arrested by police.

The couple was enjoying a picnic when they were attacked.

Police say the attacker was "apparently under the influence of narcotics". The suspect was also described as a 26-year-old homeless man from Duisberg, Germany.

The weapon was recovered from the scene.  Officer are still looking for a motive.

Police spokesman Andreas Wilming-Weber said there is "no indication of any political motive."

A judge ordered the man be put in a psychiatric facility.

"A man" - nondescript. "Homeless". I'm hardly the only one who's noticed that when they go out of their way to obscure how the criminal looks, he's almost certainly not "White cis". Especially how when no-one really knows who the perp is, they speculate endlessly about right-wing haters.

It hardly surprised me to discover that he shouted "Allahu Akbar". #Coincidentally.

Nor does it surprise me that the police report "no political motive".

Well - I doubt you'll ever find a conspiracy organized for this, but if you look at the structure of the political ideology known as the islamic faith, it's a prospiracy - like minded individuals making very similar decisions with a common goal and path. So in one sense, there is no political motive, he wasn't an activist or part of cells. But Islam is political, and the ultimate example of making the personal political as it is also a totalitarian system of governance.

To put it into fancy lib-speak, they've been memetically programmed to go off and slaughter people shouting "god is greater" when they finally get pissed off enough over some perceived wrong.

Review: Agent of the Imperium: A Story of the Traveller Universe

A long time ago, in a suburb far away, a middle schooler went into the local hobby shop. Most of this shop was dedicated to trains, miniatures, modeling, and such, but it also had an aisle with role playing games and classic wargames by companies like TSR, Steve Jackson Games and Avalon Hill.

His eyes fell upon a large, 8.5 x 11 hardcover book. The cover had two people with futuristic weapons, in clothes that would easily fit in on the Millennium Falcon, or Serenity. They were leaving their ship via a transparent, enclosed gangway, ready for trouble.

The name on the cover, oddly, used two "L's. Traveller.

He opened the rules, looked at the line art, and immediately bought it.

---

Traveller was unique, and in many ways still is. I'd already been exposed to two editions of D&D - Moldvay basic with Keep on the Borderlands, and AD&D - and wargames like Starship Troopers, Afrika Korps, and Panzerblitz. Sure enough, there were rules for combat, weapons, and armor, as well as rules for creating alien creatures to populate planets with. It predictably had a list of common starships, and a pretty coherent system for building your own. Because it involved traveling It also had a set of clear rules for generating a sector to move about in, generate planets. A lot of time was spent debating if having such a skeleton available was better or worse than making up D&D maps from nothing but graph paper. I still say "yes" - nothing stopped you from fudging things to add a needed feature, and sometimes the odd interrelationships opened new possibilities.

The first true shock was discovering that the character creation system not only gave a background, but could also kill your characters before you ever got a chance to play them.

All in all, it's a set of rules that, despite having played a number of other systems over the decades - including a number of editions of Traveller -  I would still gladly play. Simple enough. Complex enough. Loose enough. It has aged well.

The other thing I loved was the setting. The rules alone, as published in the original little black books, could easily be used to adventure in settings like the Polysotechnic League, Drakes Slammers, or Pournelle's CoDominium or universes. But later books, incorporated into the hardcover I bought, included the beginnings of the Imperium setting, information on and maps of the Regina  sector, and background. Grand in scope, feudal, with a lot of room for adventurers to get in trouble, it took on a life of its own.

Agent of the Imperium is a book set in that universe. Written by a man who obviously loves the sweep of history, and knows and loves the universe he created.

We have a problem - the empire needs trusted troubleshooters on call, in a moments notice, with full authority short only of the Emperor, to deal with threats that could grow to destroy the empire. That troubleshooter needs to be anywhere, at any time. Given the size of the empire, where trips across it can take months, even years, one man's lifetime is simply not enough. A troubleshooter, a cleaner, or as the book calls Jonathan Bland - a Decider - needs to somehow be everywhere at once.

We also have "skill wafers" - that can temporarily, with some risk, impart skills.

What if you had a souped-up version that could store an entire personality, and reactivate it once plugged into a person carrying a wafer implant, for 30 days? So that not only the skills, but the trusted personality occupies the mind and body of the host.

The Decider has a terrible role - he must do just that - Decide. He not only effectively has the full authority of the emperor, he also has to accept the responsibility for the choices made, rather than some junior commander on the scene.

The story jumps episodically, but the pieces start coming together. A planet sterilized by orbital bombardment due to a parasite breakout that could threaten the imperium. And other incidents. Each time the agent awakes, in a new body, reorients. Works the problem. He decides.

But the recordings in turn are updated with experience, and synced. And in time Bland realizes that there are less obvious threats to the empire than the ones he is awakened for, far more dangerous ones. And so he begins to make long term plans....

And so the story explores what happens from there, with the strange distributed loosely synchronized memory, and quasi-immortality of our Decider.

This books is a great example of taking something familiar, and cliched, what at first looks like a standard space opera setting, and breathing life into it. It also uses that familiarity to ground you while it then proceeds to explore the ramifications of change.

It is a thoughtful page turner. Highly recommended.

Never Donate to the Red Cross

As Vox Day notes:

Don't ever donate to, or volunteer with, the Red Cross. They are fully SJW-converged and they have been for years. This is also why one should NEVER set up a non-profit. They are always quickly converged by the very people who have lots of time and are oh-so-eager to help.

This was in response to an article by Lew Rockwell documenting the refusal and total waste of goods and services. Read it as well.

While my experience of non-profits isn't as outright bad as his, or Lew Rockwell's, they have not endeared me to the concept. Especially the arrogant luddite in charge of one environmental conservation group I knew.

When All Solutions are Bad...

Peter Grant, science fiction author, former soldier, now preacher, discusses possible solutions to ongoing black poverty and alienation in response to Fred Reeds article on Milwaukee.

Go read them both.

Peter offers several things we can try to do, but the biggest and most immediate one is this:

I can offer one response to Fred's "What now?" It's based on cold, hard reality, learned in Africa over many years of traveling that continent and seeing what works and what doesn't. It's not politically correct, it's not merciful, and it's not very helpful . . . but it's practical.

Simply put, it's like this: YOU PAY FOR WHAT YOU GET.

Right now, the US government and US society are subsidizing the current mess in our inner-city communities. We're paying through the nose for it, directly and indirectly; and we're getting what we pay for. 

Solution? STOP PAYING FOR IT. 

Cut off the funding. Now. Completely. Not a dime more for failing schools, subsidized programs producing more failures, 'Blackness' orientation/education/promotion/whatever. Shut them all down. 

I can already hear the screams, "But you can't do that! You'd leave a vacuum!" 

So? 

What we have now has always failed, is continuing to fail, and will continue to fail. We aren't doing those trapped in its coils any favors by going on paying for them to fail. We may have nothing worthwhile to replace the programs we're cutting, but at least we'll stop wasting money hand over fist.

One factor to consider is what lifeguards are taught - that many drownings involve two victims. The man who was drowning, and the one who went out there unprepared, and was dragged down, overcome,  by the first victim in a panic. Also - airlines tell you to put your own mask first, before your kids for a similar reason.

You also do alcoholics and addicts no favors by continuing to enable them, sometimes you HAVE to cut them off.

I'm not sure we can rule out "cut them off" - but if all we have is multiple modes of failure, then the one that results in fewer victims MAY be our best course. It at least holds out a hope that in cutting them off from the crutches of dependency, they may get their lives in order if only because they are left no other choice.

Read both articles.

Pacific Rim Soundtrack - Main Theme

Until I get around to reviewing it, suffice it to say I absolutely love this movie. Yes, it's corny. Yes, physics and engineering are violated so many ways that they went home and cried. But I still love it. The robots, the directing, the characters. And it believes in people, with only the aliens viewing humanity as a plague to be wiped out.

And the soundtrack is awesome. No, it's not perfect, but it fits this giant cornball movie to a tee, taking itself just seriously enough, and turning the "epic" up to 11.

 

I want to highlight the main theme here today. This piece matches the tone of the whole film - epic, heroic, and yes, power chords utterly appropriate to  building-sized robots moving through cityscapes and knocking down buildings. It perfectly captures the courage and determination of the "cancelling the apocalypse" speech, the mass and might of the Jagers, and their floating, ponderous grace. 

 

Elements from this theme show up in the rest of the tracks, playing to different emotional cues, as well.

 

Enjoy.