Overnight Open Thread (8-22-2014)–Overtime Pay Edition

Because I'm not about to let the streak of 1400+ straight nights of the ONT get broken by an unhappy third-tier organ.

The Tueller Drill: Why Police Use Lethal Force at 21 Feet

Because if suspects get any closer than that they can get to the officer before he can even draw and fire his gun.

The Mythical Swing Voter

Despite Romney's jump in polls how many voters actually switched their preference from Obama to Romney after the first debate? Just a mere 0.5%.

John C. Wright: The Logic of Illogic

Or why modern establishment science fiction (as determined by the SWFA) is so bad and not even really SF. Case in point: the short story 'If You Were a Dinosaur'.

Why is modern Science Fiction so bad? Why are modern comic books so bad?

Why is modern art so very, very, very bad? One would almost think these things are being made bad on purpose.

And one would be right!

But the answer to the simple question of why SF sucks is a complex answer, leading all the way from the zenith of the universe to the nadir, all the long road from heaven to hell.

...Establishment SF is Politically Correct SF, in that it pays slavish homage to all the tired tropes and foolish dogmas of Political Correctness. With its emphasis on collective rights, victimology, and radical egalitarianism, there is no place in the PC SF universe for things like heroes, adventures, inventors, exotic locations, space princesses, or technology portrayed as beneficial.

Politically Correct SF is astonishingly parochial, because it is always assumed that the society of the future will be caught in the grip of the selfsame political controversies as the Victorian Age, which is the age when this worldview was first formulated by Marx. Hence, for all other SF stories, the future differs from the present. For PC SF, the future is just like the past, and nothing changes.

In other words, the stories of PC SF promote the opposite of SF.

SF is about a sense of wonder. PC is about a sense of despair. The two are opposite. Hence, PC SF is a contradiction in terms. What it produces is simply not science fiction.

Toast Police, Toilet Reviews and Enforced Abstinence: Life Living With Mom at 40

And Mom's Perspective on Living with Her Middle-aged 'Slovenly Ape-Child' Pete

Britain vs Alabama

Advantage: Alabama

But as someone born in Liverpool and living in Alabama, I was struck more by the statistics he quotes showing that if Britain were a state in the U.S., it would be the second poorest state in the union. And America's poor are richer than Britain's in every category except the lowest 5 percent in both countries.

Ferguson and the Modern Debtor's Prison

Ferguson is a city located in northern St. Louis County with 21,203 residents living in 8,192 households. The majority (67%) of residents are African-American.22% of residents live below the poverty level.

...Despite Ferguson's relative poverty, fines and court fees comprise the second largest source of revenue for the city, a total of $2,635,400. In 2013, the Ferguson Municipal Court disposed of 24,532 warrants and 12,018 cases, or about 3 warrants and 1.5 cases per household.

That's $321 in fines per year per household.

Airplane Passengers as Explained By Their Pants

The HumanaLight - A Flashlight That Runs Off of "Dead" AA Batteries

Minority Report - the TV Series

The Unbearable Sadness of Climate Activists

Several experts suggest that the overall intersection of mental health and climate change is one we ignore at our peril.

Well there's a whole lot of overlap in that intersection and probably not in the way the experts meant.

Crack Kills

Mysterious New Oasis in Desert Could Be a Death Trap

The 25 Most Dangerous Cities In The World

Detroit is practically a Mayberry at a mere 54.63 homicides per 100,000 residents.

I suspect parts of Africa are even worse than any city on this list but are so chaotic no one evens keeps stats on the murders.

8 Utterly Horrible Movie Songs From the 1970s And 1980s

Well sure drugs can explain a lot - but not all - of this shite

The Yahoo clique. Are you worthy?

Teh Twitter - can you deal?

Tonight's post brought to you by my weekend plans:

Notice: Posted by someone with a working appendix. Also all other organs work too. And no you can't have them..

posted by Maetenloch at 10:33 PM

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