Decadence Data: Or, A Doomed Demos Dances

All of these indicators of our quickening hoot-hollering yeah-baby! slide into the muck made the news on the same day. We dare not cast our net wider for fear of our sanity.

Paper: The New New Thing

Wired is amazed that paper books are in many ways superior to e-books. Some authors have been saying this for years. But commonsense observation and plain judgment are no longer considered evidence in the West. What’s needed is Science.

“Reading is human-technology interaction,” says literacy professor Anne Mangen of Norway’s University of Stavenger. “Perhaps the tactility and physical permanence of paper yields a different cognitive and emotional experience.” This is especially true, she says, for “reading that can’t be done in snippets, scanning here and there, but requires sustained attention.”

Mangen is among a small group of researchers who study how people read on different media. It’s a field that goes back several decades, but yields no easy conclusions…

What’s needed is more research!

Hooking Up

The staid CBS news in San Francisco lovingly profiled a new business-slash-“art installation”. The Hook-up truck.

The Hook-Up truck—a conceptual “art” installation consisting of a box truck converted to a sex suite on wheels, including temperature controls, birth control, safe sex accouterments, and a camera option, in case you and yours decide to make the escapade a YouTube sensation, is finally open for service the weekend of May 2nd and 3rd…

“This is a game for adults who want to play with sex,” says Emerson. “You have to be nice, and cool,” she said, adding “No Drunks!, but everyone is welcome to join us. There will be a party going on all the time!”

The best part is that “The truck also can be reserved through mobile dating apps ‘for immediate dispatch.’ It can also be pre-booked for festivals, weddings, or holiday parties.”

If you can’t see anything wrong in this, I will arrange to have the truck parked outside your residence regularly.

Gender “Theory”

Now what would you get if you crossed the scientism of the first entry with the sin of unbridled lust of the second? Maybe this? Australian gender theorist: Transgenderism is ‘hugely harmful’…because it’s not radical enough.

“Jeffreys finds this concept [of gender] offensive.” And if a non-Christian is offended, isn’t this enough? If you’re mind is not too far gone, perhaps you’ll be able to recognize what’s wrong with this:

“One of the central problems with transgenderism is that it’s based on the outdated notion of gender,” namely there are only two, male and female, Jeffreys told MedicalXpress. “Without gender, transgenderism could not exist. As such, when transgender rights are inscribed into law and adopted by institutions, they promote ideas harmful to women’s equality.”

Our only question to Dr Jeffreys is: What’s a woman?

British Politician Arrested For Quoting Churchill

The Daily Mail’s headline is sufficient. “Arrested for quoting Winston Churchill: European election candidate accused of religious and racial harassment after he repeats wartime prime minister’s words on Islam during campaign speech.”

A candidate in the European elections was arrested on suspicion of racial harassment after quoting a passage about Islam, written by Winston Churchill, during a campaign speech…

A member of the public took offence at the quote, taken from Churchill’s The River War and called police.

Paul Weston’s quote about Islam was, “No stronger retrograde force exists in the world.”

Thoughtcrime On The Increase

It’s not just Brandon Eich and Donald Sterling who are thoughtcriminals. Eich was bad enough, but surely there is no worse crime imaginable than not liking somebody because of their skin color? Why, Kermit Gosnell’s misdeeds, such as slicing the heads of live babies, does not warrant even a fraction of the attention, not when we’re dealing with the calumnies of Don Sterling, perhaps the most evil man of all time.

This is why it was right to sack Josh Olin, a programmer who had the temerity to tweet, “When you were raised in an era where segregation was perceived as ‘right’, that will stick with some people. Doesn’t make him a monster.”

The perpetually “outraged” saw that and complained to Olin’s employer, a game developer, who then bravely fired Olin.

Salon Jumps Shark

I don’t think I’ve seen a more ignorant, spittle-flecked screed than this, from Jeffery Tayler. The only thing he got right is that he spelled the Popes’ names correctly. But what’s interesting is Salon would publish an article with such open hatred and hostility to the very formation and foundation of our Western culture. Worse is coming.

Dystopia

It’s right to conclude with this link, which asks “Which dystopian film does 2014 USA most resemble?” That author goes for Brave New World, a reasonable choice. But clearly, and by two lengths, Logan’s Run takes the prize.