All The Witch Hunts…

It’s seems that whole clumps of bitter techbros are fleeing to the MGTOW life (that’s Men Going Their Own Way, if you didn’t know), and advocating a life of male separatism. Just a thought, but if you avoid women at all costs, it might not be a surprise that your viewpoints are more suited to a cave than a nice high tech office somewhere. Naturally, this is an evil witch hunt, with the intent to subjugate men (and make them do what? Scrub out the toilet?) and other nefarious things. As always, the irony of men screeching “witch hunt!” escapes them entirely.

One of those who said there had been a change is James Altizer, an engineer at the chip maker Nvidia. Mr. Altizer, 52, said he had realized a few years ago that feminists in Silicon Valley had formed a cabal whose goal was to subjugate men. At the time, he said, he was one of the few with that view.
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Now Mr. Altizer said he was less alone. “There’s quite a few people going through that in Silicon Valley right now,” he said. “It’s exploding. It’s mostly young men, younger than me.”

Mr. Altizer said that a gathering he hosts in person and online to discuss men’s issues had grown by a few dozen members this year to more than 200, that the private Facebook pages he frequents on men’s rights were gaining new members and that a radical subculture calling for total male separatism was emerging.

“It’s a witch hunt,” he said in a phone interview, contending men are being fired by “dangerous” human resources departments. “I’m sitting in a soundproof booth right now because I’m afraid someone will hear me. When you’re discussing gender issues, it’s almost religious, the response. It’s almost zealotry.”

Unsurprisingly, Mr. Altizer, when you decide to pontificate about how women should not be in a workplace, and they should be quiet about slaps on the ass, if they don’t want to deal, they should stay home and do what they were ‘made’ for and all that, it will elicit a response. Women have been responding to misogynistic attitudes for thousands of years now. If we, from time to time, snap or yell, well, I’m sure you’ll understand the frustration of having one generation after another having to repeat themselves.

I do love the touch of the soundproof booth, though. For unknown reasons, the NYT has decided to give these sad separatists a full work up, because life is so gosh darn hard for men, especially those of the white variety. I’ll wish them fun in their cones of silence, and continue to pay attention to those men who have happily figured out that yes, women are human beings too.

Full story here.

Sorta Doomsday, Right Around the Corner.

Well, the crank who predicted we’d all die a horrible and fiery death on the 23rd this month has re-evaluated. Doomsday is just around the corner, starting on October 15th, but it won’t be a horrible and fiery death, no. The rapture will happen, natch, but then it’s just going to herald in the tribulation, so really, nothing will change. We won’t even be able to say bye to all the christians.

Writing on his website, Meade clarified his belief that the 23rd is the date of a “historical event” in the skies that would signal the oncoming rapture. Doomsday itself, he says, will begin on October 15.

That date marks the beginning of a seven-year period of tribulation. “That’s when the action starts. Hold on and watch—wait until the middle of October and I don’t believe you’ll be disappointed,” he writes.

Some things to watch out for are the loss of electrical power across the world, leading to war, famine and other perilous events.

Hmmm, lots of places in the world are dealing with loss of electrical power because hurricanes. Nowadays, wars are a bit difficult to conduct without power. Anyroad, we’re awash in wars, power losses, famines, and other perilous events, read a fucking newspaper, Mr. Meade. Historically speaking, these things have been going on forever.

To be clear, Meade says, “Nothing is expected to happen in September.”

Oh, there’s a whole lot happening. Just not what you want, right?

Meade points to the total eclipse on August 21 as a significant event which he believes acts as a precursor to the beginning of the rapture. He says the date marks a 40-day countdown to the beginning of October. “October is the month to watch.”

Mmm. The rapture is not going to happen. It’s never going to happen. Get the fuck over it, please.

Meade subscribes to the conspiracy that a 10th planet, Planet X or Nibiru, will either cross or collide with Earth, leading to a seven-year period of tribulation, or rapture. This will be followed by a millennium of peace.

The rapture and the tribulation are two distinct events, dude. If you’re going to twist the mess of christian theology around, get it right. So, seven years of awful stuff, then the legendary thousand years of peace. Right. We’ve managed thousands upon thousands of years of tribulation. We haven’t managed peace yet. I won’t be holding my breath for your magical planet or your magical god to set things right.

So, doomsday, business as usual.

Via Raw Story.

A Medieval Porpoise.

Here is the video of an interesting archaeological discovery on the island of Chapelle Dom Hue near Guernsey. Earlier this week Phil de Jersey, working for Guernsey Archaeology, posted news of finding the skull of a juvenile porpoise in the graveyard of a small monastic site.

The porpoise is believed to date from the fourteenth-century, and de Jersey adds that it looks to have been buried deliberately, based on the way the grave was cut.

He tells the Guernsey Press, “That is what puzzles me. If they had eaten it or killed it for the blubber, why take the trouble to bury it?”

In another interview with The Guardian, he suggests one possibility deals with religious observation: “The dolphin has a strong significance in Christianity but I’ve not come across anything like this before. It’s the slightly wacky kind of thing that you might get in the iron age but not in medieval times.”

Via Medievalists.

Painting Workshop.

From Kestrel, who notes: J. Chris Morel (website: http://morelart.com/ ) is a local landscape artist who does a fall workshop every year, just as the leaves are starting to turn. By great good fortune, I got to attend the workshop this year.  The workshop lasts for 3 days, and each day we traveled to two different magnificent locations to paint. Chris would paint a demo for us, explaining how he handles that particular subject and giving excellent and detailed instruction in learning how to “see” a landscape, how the color of the shadows work and many other things. On day two, the morning location was where the chamisa was in its full glory.

Chris Morel does a demo teaching us how to approach painting chamisa.

My set up, trying my hand at painting chamisa.

Another of our locations, where we set up and painted. The workshop was extremely informative and it was a great honor to be able to attend. Chris was a terrific instructor. I hope I can do it again next year!

© Kestrel, all rights reserved.

Sunday Facepalm.

Civil rights icon Colin Kaepernick and President Donald Trump, composite image.

It’s another Trump Tantrum™. Apparently, the Tiny Tyrant thinks he’s still in reality teevee land…

“If a player wants the privilege of making millions of dollars in the NFL, or other leagues, he or she should not be allowed to disrespect…our Great American Flag (or Country) and should stand for the National Anthem,” President Trump tweeted.

“If not, YOU’RE FIRED. Find something else to do!” the President of the United States insisted.

This is not an episode of ‘The President’, dumbshit Donny. You can’t pretend fire anyone. You can’t fire them for real, either. The twit’s tweets can be seen here. Naturally, the Tiny Tyrant couldn’t leave things be with that level of blunder, oh no…

“‘Wouldn’t you like to see one of our NFL owners, when somebody disrespects the flag, say, ‘Get that son of a bitch off the field,’” Trump reportedly said at the rally. Kaepernick is not currently employed by any NFL football teams, as he was not drafted after his controversial bended-knee protests during the National Anthem last year.

You can read the full story and reactions here.

In the meantime, the NFL Players Union is standing firm:

Takeo Spikes, M.B.A: “How about all of us get together & say, “get that “son of a btch” out of the White House.” #FukingDotard.

And Colin Kaepernick’s mom had something to say too…

Teresa Kaepernick: “Guess that makes me a proud bitch!”

You can read all about that here.

Naturally, the Tiny Tyrant just can’t let it rest:

The Fucking Idiot: “Roger Goodell of NFL just put out a statement trying to justify the total disrespect certain players show to our country. Tell them to stand!” More on that one here.

I have a suggestion for you, Donny. Go fuck yourself.