It seems like a decennial occurrence.  Some scholar somewhere discovers some “new” proof that Christianity is all bunk. This decade it was “proof” that Jesus was married. That would prove once in for all that Christianity is a conspiracy by the pale penis people to oppress women, Jews, Blacks etc. As is always the case, the proof turns out to be nonsense. The newly discovered papyrus by Harvard Divinity School professor Karen King is a hoax.

In September 2012, Harvard Divinity School professor Karen King announced the discovery of a Coptic (ancient Egyptian) gospel text on a papyrus fragment that contained the phrase “Jesus said to them, ‘My wife . . .’ ” The world took notice. The possibility that Jesus was married would prompt a radical reconsideration of the New Testament and biblical scholarship.

Yet now it appears almost certain that the Jesus-was-married story line was divorced from reality. On April 24, Christian Askeland—a Coptic specialist at Indiana Wesleyan University and my colleague at the Green Scholars Initiative—revealed that the “Gospel of Jesus’ Wife,” as the fragment is known, was a match for a papyrus fragment that is clearly a forgery.

Almost from the moment Ms. King made her announcement two years ago, critics attacked the Gospel of Jesus’ Wife as a forgery. One line of criticism said that the fragment had been sloppily reworked from a 2002 online PDF of the Coptic Gospel of Thomas and even repeated a typographical error.

But Ms. King had defenders. The Harvard Theological Review recently published a group of articles that attest to the papyrus’s authenticity. Although the scholars involved signed nondisclosure agreements preventing them from sharing the data with the wider scholarly community, the New York Times NYT -1.40% was given access to the studies ahead of publication. The newspaper summarized the findings last month, saying “the ink and papyrus are very likely ancient, and not a modern forgery.” The article prompted a tide of similar pieces, appearing shortly before Easter, asserting that the Gospel of Jesus’ Wife was genuine.

My rule with all science, hard and soft, is secrecy means dishonesty. If you refuse to release your data and methods, you’re up to something. It is why, like most people, I think Michael Mann is a fraud. He refuses to release his data and methods. There can be only one reason for such secrecy. Going to the extraordinary step of forcing the researchers to sign NDA’s was a big red flag.

Then last week the story began to crumble faster than an ancient papyrus exposed in the windy Sudan. Mr. Askeland found, among the online links that Harvard used as part of its publicity push, images of another fragment, of the Gospel of John, that turned out to share many similarities—including the handwriting, ink and writing instrument used—with the “wife” fragment. The Gospel of John text, he discovered, had been directly copied from a 1924 publication.

“Two factors immediately indicated that this was a forgery,” Mr. Askeland tells me. “First, the fragment shared the same line breaks as the 1924 publication. Second, the fragment contained a peculiar dialect of Coptic called Lycopolitan, which fell out of use during or before the sixth century.” Ms. King had done two radiometric tests, he noted, and “concluded that the papyrus plants used for this fragment had been harvested in the seventh to ninth centuries.” In other words, the fragment that came from the same material as the “Jesus’ wife” fragment was written in a dialect that didn’t exist when the papyrus it appears on was made.

Mark Goodacre, a New Testament professor and Coptic expert at Duke University, wrote on his NT Blog on April 25 about the Gospel of John discovery: “It is beyond reasonable doubt that this is a fake, and this conclusion means that the Jesus’ Wife Fragment is a fake too.” Alin Suciu, a research associate at the University of Hamburg and a Coptic manuscript specialist, wrote online on April 26: “Given that the evidence of the forgery is now overwhelming, I consider the polemic surrounding the Gospel of Jesus’ Wife papyrus over.”

I think it was Twain who said a lie is halfway around the world before the truth gets out of bed. It will take decades before the usual suspects stop insisting Jesus was married. Every Christmas and Easter, the same nitwits claim the Christian holidays were ripped off from pagans. It seems the people who know the least about Christianity choose to be its harshest critics. I’m not a religious person, but I know a lot about religion, which is why I’m respectful of Christians and Christianity. I’d rather live in a world run by Christians than one run by Harvard professors.

Having evaluated the evidence, many specialists in ancient manuscripts and Christian origins think Karen King and the Harvard Divinity School were the victims of an elaborate ruse. Scholars had assumed that radiometric tests would return an early date (at least in antiquity), because the Gospel of Jesus’ Wife fragment had been cut from a genuinely ancient piece of material. Likewise, those familiar with papyri had identified the ink used as soot-based—preferred by forgers because the Raman spectroscopy tests used to test for age would be inconclusive.

It is perhaps understandable that Ms. King would have been taken in when an anonymous owner presented her with some papyrus fragments for research. What is harder to understand was the rush by the media and others to embrace the idea that Jesus had a wife and that Christian beliefs have been mistaken for centuries. No evidence for Jesus having been married exists in any of the thousands of orthodox biblical writings dating to antiquity. You would have thought Thomas Aquinas might have mentioned it. But this episode is not totally without merit. It will provide a valuable case study for research classes long after we’re gone and the biblical texts remain.

I think that’s right. Bias is a funny thing. True believers have stronger biases. Members of the CML are some of our most devout believers. Anything that seems to confirm some liberal myth is accepted without question. Anything that appears to counter their chief competition, usually Christianity, is broadcast unquestioned. The fanatic sees only that which confirms his fanaticism.

The other day on Marginal Revolution, Steve Sailer was holding forth on an IQ topic in the comments section. As is often the case, the comments drifted into the areas of race. Steve responded to someone with this:

One way or another, white America is going to be paying the Slave Trade Tax for, roughly, ever. Therefore, I don’t mind giving racial preferences to the 12% or whatever of the population who are the direct descendants of slaves in America, and I don’t mind the 1% who are American Indians having casinos or whatever.

On the other hand, I’m not at all happy about ethnic preferences for immigrant groups, such as the 17% (and rapidly growing) of the country who are Hispanics. They chose to come here. And I’m not at all happy about the business breaks that Asians get, which are so valuable that in 1982 Indians got the government to move them out of the Caucasian category and in with the Orientals so they could get minority business development breaks on government contracts and low interest SBA loans.

My sense is Charles Murray is right and we will be clawing each others eyes out in the not too distant future as a result of the racial spoils system. It is one thing for the dominant group to buy off the minority group to keep the peace. Once you get into competition between groups for a share of the spoils, the result is predictable. As Steve notes, immigrants are jumping on this system, which will accelerate the problem. The suicidal whites in charge now will be pushed aside one way or another.

A way out of this trap is reparations for slavery. Reparations pops up from time to time, but no one takes it seriously. The reason is the people making the case are ridiculous or simply illiterate. The lunacy is compounded by the difficulty of calculating a fair number. In civil suits, the actual damages have to be proved. Punitive damages are usually done by a formula of some sort. If we were actually settling up with real former slaves, that would be a good starting point. The last slave died in 1971, but most were long gone 100 years ago. One of the unreported facts of Reconstruction is black life expectancy fell dramatically after slavery.

Then there’s another problem. If you were living in sub-Saharan Africa in the 17th or 18th century, life was going to be short and brutal. Slavery sounds awful, but it turns out to have been better than living in Africa. Slaves had value to their owners so they took care of them. In Africa, life, as it is today, was cheap. Today, there is no better place to be black than America. The decedents of slaves are reaping a huge reward for being the decedents of slaves. If we are going to build a case for reparations, you have to factor in that huge benefit, as well.

All that said, what’s the price of a clean conscience? My people came here after the Bolshevik Revolution so I have no guilt about slavery or racism. But, the whites in charge at least pretend to be racked with guilt. Settling up with black people may very well be the best solution to finally close the books on this issue. It may also be the only way to dismantle the racial spoils system before it tears the nation apart. Given the push for open borders, we may have but a few more years before things get very tough.

My proposal is simple. Everyone descended from slaves, over the age of 25 gets $10,000 per year, distributed on their birthday. To get on the payroll, they must do a few things. One is you must provide a genealogical history showing you are directly descended from former slaves on both sides of the family. That means if you’re Barak Obama, you’re not getting reparations, but his wife would be eligible. The kids would not be as their father is not a descendant of slaves.

Another requirement would be DNA testing. We know enough at this point to confirm the basics. Weeding out the hustlers and con-men would be a little easier with DNA evidence. Someone who is 50% Chinese, indicating a Chinese parent, could look like Tiger Woods and thus try to get on the payroll. This would also be a service to people who cannot piece together their genealogical records completely. If you are the relative of someone who has established their line, you can use that information to fill in your family tree.

Finally, the criminals would lose their entitlement. Sending checks to prisoners or their families is asking for trouble. Once the person has paid their debt to society and been crime free for a number of years, then the benefit can resume. Using this programs as a nudge to obey the law is a low cost choice with some obvious benefits.

I think I’d want the data on recipients to be public. That way the public can help supervise the program by spotting and reporting cheaters. It could also have value to scientists researching DNA, evolution and so forth. I’d also want the Civil Rights Act  and the Voting Rights Act repealed as part of the program. The savings on mischief from those programs would off-set the cost of reparations. The books would then be closed on slavery and segregation. Blacks could have a tangible benefit to help even the playing field and whites would be free of the guilt.

One way or another, white America is going to be paying the Slave Trade Tax for, roughly, ever. Therefore, I don’t mind giving racial preferences to the 12% or whatever of the population who are the direct descendants of slaves in America, and I don’t mind the 1% who are American Indians having casinos or whatever.

On the other hand, I’m not at all happy about ethnic preferences for immigrant groups, such as the 17% (and rapidly growing) of the country who are Hispanics. They chose to come here. And I’m not at all happy about the business breaks that Asians get, which are so valuable that in 1982 Indians got the government to move them out of the Caucasian category and in with the Orientals so they could get minority business development breaks on government contracts and low interest SBA loans.

– See more at: http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2014/05/do-social-problems-cause-economic-problems-or-vice-versa.html#comments

One way or another, white America is going to be paying the Slave Trade Tax for, roughly, ever. Therefore, I don’t mind giving racial preferences to the 12% or whatever of the population who are the direct descendants of slaves in America, and I don’t mind the 1% who are American Indians having casinos or whatever.

On the other hand, I’m not at all happy about ethnic preferences for immigrant groups, such as the 17% (and rapidly growing) of the country who are Hispanics. They chose to come here. And I’m not at all happy about the business breaks that Asians get, which are so valuable that in 1982 Indians got the government to move them out of the Caucasian category and in with the Orientals so they could get minority business development breaks on government contracts and low interest SBA loans.

– See more at: http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2014/05/do-social-problems-cause-economic-problems-or-vice-versa.html#comments

One way or another, white America is going to be paying the Slave Trade Tax for, roughly, ever. Therefore, I don’t mind giving racial preferences to the 12% or whatever of the population who are the direct descendants of slaves in America, and I don’t mind the 1% who are American Indians having casinos or whatever.

On the other hand, I’m not at all happy about ethnic preferences for immigrant groups, such as the 17% (and rapidly growing) of the country who are Hispanics. They chose to come here. And I’m not at all happy about the business breaks that Asians get, which are so valuable that in 1982 Indians got the government to move them out of the Caucasian category and in with the Orientals so they could get minority business development breaks on government contracts and low interest SBA loans.

– See more at: http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2014/05/do-social-problems-cause-economic-problems-or-vice-versa.html#comments

One way or another, white America is going to be paying the Slave Trade Tax for, roughly, ever. Therefore, I don’t mind giving racial preferences to the 12% or whatever of the population who are the direct descendants of slaves in America, and I don’t mind the 1% who are American Indians having casinos or whatever.

On the other hand, I’m not at all happy about ethnic preferences for immigrant groups, such as the 17% (and rapidly growing) of the country who are Hispanics. They chose to come here. And I’m not at all happy about the business breaks that Asians get, which are so valuable that in 1982 Indians got the government to move them out of the Caucasian category and in with the Orientals so they could get minority business development breaks on government contracts and low interest SBA loans.

– See more at: http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2014/05/do-social-problems-cause-economic-problems-or-vice-versa.html#comments

Every once in a while I like to peek into the Cult. I find reading sites like Kos and FireDongLake to be difficult. It is like watching a homeless man soil himself. You’re disgusted, but you can’t help but feel sorry for the wretch. The hard thumping wackos that write for these sites are nutty as fruitcakes, but you can’t help but wish there was a cure for their mental disease. But, there isn’t and it is important to remember that guys like Markos Moulitsas would gladly hustle you off to the gas chambers.

This little bit of crazy got my attention over at Kos.

I had already been planning on cartooning the National Rifle Association’s ridiculous annual meeting when my nephew’s unarmed friend got killed in what is shaping up to be another “Stand Your Ground” case.  The circumstances surrounding this shooting may make things a little more difficult for the shooter, who was basically laying in wait to murder someone.  The shooter’s defense attorney has already said his client is going to use a Castle Doctrine/Stand Your Ground defense.

The Cult has a long list of abracadabra phrases. A popular one these days is “stand your ground.” They have disconnected it from any real meaning as we see here. In no state does someone in their home have a duty to retreat. Therefore, “stand your ground” laws would never apply. Further, castle doctrine laws have been common since human settlement. I’d also assume the Mark Fiore has no family connection to the case. Cultists always try to personalize these things,even if that means telling whoppers.

Regardless of what the circumstances are in this particular case that happened to strike close to my family, it is perfectly clear that the NRA is stoking the fires of paranoia and fear in order to pass legislation, sell more guns and make more money.  All you have to do is listen to the apocalyptic, conspiratorial speech made by the NRA’s Wayne LaPierre to get so scared you probably will rush right out and buy a couple AR-15s.  (Which were conveniently available at the time of the speech in an adjoining gun showroom that covered nine (9) acres.)

The NRA does not sell guns. They certainly have seen a  boom in membership. That’s exclusively due to lunatics like Mark Fiore out banging their pots and pans on the street in favor of gun confiscation. People tend to notice things and they noticed that these crazies keep saying they want to gut the 2nd Amendment. They do the sensible thing and organize a defense.

It is baffling to me that members of Congress speak at the NRA’s annual gun fest, an orgy of military hardware marketed to civilians, while the head of the gun lobby group essentially trumpets the need for armed revolt.  (Join now, buy now!)  As a bonus, the NRA held a “Youth Day” last Sunday, which coincidentally was the day my nephew’s unarmed 17-year-old friend was killed.  Ugh.  While you’re watching the cartoon, see if you can pick out which lines are direct quotes from Wayne LaPierre, and which are my interpretation.

A common tick in the lunatic community is insisting ignorance furthers their argument. His bafflement is presented as proof that his opinion is valid. This is absurd. His bafflement actually tells us we should discount his opinion because he obviously fails to grasp some basic elements. I think it is a byproduct of the totalitarian mind. Ideas, opinions and facts outside of those acknowledged by the Cult are not just invalid, they don’t exist. Therefore, placing anything in the set of items that is unknown means they are irrational. It’s a passive-aggressive way of declaring something off-limits.

The puzzling thing to me is how is it western society has produced so many lunatics like Mark Fiore? These people we call Liberals are generally smart and usually educated. American schools are largely run by lunatics, but there are plenty of sane and sensible people in them. I went through school and did not come out as a lunatic. Most people avoid lunacy, despite going through American schools. What is it that has gone wrong with Mark Fiore and his co-religionists? Why would they join a cult hell bent on collective suicide?

It is a mystery, but like the “botched” execution in Oklahoma, it is important keep the important bits in mind. Mark Fiore would happily slam the gas chamber door on you. Unless and until we start treating these people as a mortal threat, the march to the death camp will continue.

American Digest pushes a ton of traffic my way. I have no idea who runs the site, but may peace be upon him and his progeny. I saw this on the site just now.

YOU GUYS ARE RUINING MY BEARD FETISH.  Ever since I was a little girl, I’ve loved a man with a beard. To me, they meant strength, power, MANLINESS. Someone who could protect me. Unfortunately, you guys have turned it into a fashion statement. The beard has turned into the padded bra of masculinity. Sure it looks sexy, but whatcha got under there? There’s a whole generation running around looking like lumberjacks, and most of you can’t change a fucking tire.

Tire changing is becoming a mystery. A few summers ago I had a young hipster in my employ. He asked me once, “If I was on the side of the road with a flat tire, would you pull over to help me?”

At first I thought it was a joke, but his look suggested he was serious. I told him I would not because I would assume a man can change his own tire.  If I were on the side of the road changing a tire and some dude stopped, I’d reach for my gun, assuming he was up to no good. The kid was incredulous. Not about the gun. He could not believe I knew how to change a tire.

Look, I get it. I really do. I understand the motivation behind your beardedness. In fact, I even pity you. Thousands of years of evolution priming you guys to kill stuff, and chase stuff, and fuck stuff….and now what? You’re stuck at a desk all day. No battles to fight. No wars to wage. So you assert your masculinity the only way you know how. You brew beer. You grow some hair on your face. I’ve seen you, hipsters, sitting in downtown eateries, with your rock chick girlfriends, dipping your truffle fries, trying not to get the aioli in your mustache. I’ve seen the quiet desperation in your eyes. I know you’re screaming into the void.

But I still hate you for it. You’re confusing me. It’s now on me to suss out who is the real man and who is the poseur. Sadly, I fear most of you are the latter. Before this explosion of whiskers on trendy men everywhere, if I saw a bearded man it was safe to assume certain things about him. Like, he probably owned a hammer. Or washed his hair with a bar of Irish Spring. His beard was probably scented with motor oil and probably had remnants of last night’s chili in it.

I had to google “rock chick” and “truffle fries” and I still have no idea what these terms mean.

But you vegan nancyboys are a different breed altogether. You have your mountain man scruff, but you maintain it. You groom it. With products. A quick google search of “beard grooming products” turns up literally thousands of articles explaining how to have the most lustrous beard possible. Take this one from Philadelphia Magazine, where they tested TWENTY DIFFERENT VARIETIES of beard oil. The result of this intrepid testing?

I’ve had a beard for a couple of decades. I do “groom” it, but that means chopping off the stuff in the way once a week. My reason for having a beard is I hate shaving. It is not a fashion statement. It is the result of not shaving. Lopping off the stuff that’s sticking out in the wrong places takes a few minutes and that’s it. I’ve never heard of beard oil.

Yes. Yes it does, you GIANT PUSSY. Am I reading “Cosmo”? What the fuck is going on here? Betty White has bigger balls than you. Look, I know I sound harsh, but I’m actually trying to rein myself in. A beard is meant to keep your face warm. Seriously, that’s it. You guys had your warm beards so you could go out and hunt us food, and we had our boobies with warm milk to feed the young’uns. That’s why I love beards. It is a natural, physiological response. I want a man who can keep me safe. How did it all get so twisted?

I don’t want to go back to Cro-Magnon days. I’m glad we have more gender equality and I like not having to worry about being eaten by larger creatures. But I am calling for a moratorium on the hipster beard. I demand that you reach for a razor if any of the following are true:

Your beard is accompanied by a bowtie or horn-rimmed eyeglasses. Why on earth do you want to look like Sigmund Freud? At least he could blame this strange look on his massive cocaine problem. Sometimes a cigar is just a douchebag.

You grew a beard to be “ironic”. But you don’t exactly understand what “ironic” means, or why having a beard would be ironic if you did.

You take time off from your entry-level graphic design job only to attend South by Southwest, take your French Bulldog to the vet, or lie on your futon and weep.

You do not know what an Allen wrench is, but can explain, in detail, the difference between a macchiato and an Americano.

There is an existing Instagram photo of you wearing a knit beanie and chewing on astalk of wheat.

Unrelated, I had to drop off something at the UPS store. The clerk had a hipster beard. He was also wearing a crocheted kufi. He was obviously not an African so being a dick I greeted him in Arabic. I figured he was a dimwit and would have no idea what I was saying.

Me: “kayf Haalak?”

Hipster: What?

Me: I saw the kufi so I just assumed you were an Arab.

Hipster: Kufi?

I explained to him that his head gear was a traditional way for Arab homosexuals to identify themselves. That’s not true, but what the hell. I’m guessing the kufi went in the trash soon after.

The various witch hunts going on America at any one time are pathetic and degenerate, but at least we’re not burning the witches or throwing them in jail. Well, not yet anyway. It is coming soon. Here in the colonies were are a little slow to pick up on the new fashions in witch hunting, but not so the Brits, Unencumbered with a 1st Amendment, they will throw people in jail for saying unapproved things.

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

Paul Weston, chairman of the party Liberty GB, made the address on the steps of Winchester Guildhall, in Hampshire on Saturday.

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

The passage from the book, written by the wartime Prime Minister and first published in 1899, focuses on Churchill’s observations about Islam while serving during the Anglo-Egyptian reconquest of the Sudan.

Mr Weston told his audience: ‘Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live.

‘Thousands become the brave and loyal soldiers of the faith: all know how to die but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it.

‘No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith.’

Police officers arrested Mr Weston, mid-speech, for failing to comply with their request to move on under the powers of a dispersal order made against him.

He was further arrested on suspicion of religious or racial harrassment.

Just as the clan of Clinton plots its course for 2016, the Bush clan is plotting to install another member on the thrown. Jeb Bush is the next in line. He has been making sure he stays in the news while his people plant stories like this one in Cult papers.

Jeb Bush’s increasingly serious and public examination of a run for president has shaken the ranks of establishment Republican donors and fund-raisers who had planned to back Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey in 2016, forcing many of them to rethink their allegiance to the embattled governor.

In private conversations that are now seeping into public view, some of them are signaling to Mr. Christie’s camp that, should Mr. Bush enter the race, their first loyalty would be to him, not to Mr. Christie, according to interviews with more than two dozen of them.

Many of those who, because of geography and personal ties, were expected to line up behind Mr. Christie say they now feel torn. And it is clear that Mr. Christie’s recent troubles, especially the George Washington Bridge scandal, are adding to the allure of Mr. Bush, a former Florida governor.

Lawrence E. Bathgate II, a former finance chairman of the Republican National Committee and a major donor in New Jersey, said he dreaded the prospect of having to choose between the two men, calling it “a fraught decision.”

David V. Hedley, a former Wall Street executive and Republican fund-raiser in New Jersey, said he also felt tugged in two directions, conceding that “it’s tough right now for me.”

And Christine Todd Whitman, a former Republican governor of New Jersey, put it this way: “It would be awkward. It would be very awkward.”

Whenever reading a Cult broadsheet, you have to keep in mind that much of what they report is fabricated. Anytime you see unnamed sources, you should assume it is an imaginary source. In this case they have named some people so not all of their sourcing is imaginary. The fact that all are from New Jersey says they either want something from Tubby (shakedown) or they were denied something from Tubby (jilted lover).

Nowhere is the consternation greater than among the hundreds of top donors and so-called bundlers who cut their teeth on Bush family political campaigns. If Mr. Bush runs, they must choose between bucking their ties to the first family of Republican politics or turning their back on Mr. Christie, who does not take well to disloyalty.

“Those of us that have been dedicated to the Bush family for years would obviously have to take a Jeb candidacy into extremely serious consideration,” said Fred S. Zeidman, a Texas businessman and top fund-raiser for George W. Bush’s two presidential campaigns who has helped introduce Mr. Christie to potential supporters in his state.

Donors in Texas favor Jeb over Tubby? Shocking!

Mr. Christie and Mr. Bush have not officially declared their intentions for 2016. Mr. Christie’s advisers say his political focus this year remains on leading the Republican Governors Association, which has broken fund-raising records during Mr. Christie’s tenure as chairman, which began in November.

The presidential chatter is “irrelevant to us,” said William J. Palatucci, Mr. Christie’s top adviser and a former law partner. “You know it’s out there, but it’s just not part of our conversation.”

Mr. Bush’s public flirtation with a White House bid, however, has interrupted Mr. Christie’s carefully honed plan to rebuild the faith of donors shaken by a series of high-profile controversies and resignations within his administration.

I love the choice of language. The Cult always describes Republicans as if they are a Bond villain. I’m surprised he is not described as being in a secret lair. Then you have their bizarre obsession with traffic, which no one outside of the Cult thinks is important. The NYTimes has spent more time on a traffic jam than Obama’s abuse of the IRS or Obama’s decision to let Americans die in a terror attack. That’s the nature of cults.

For decades now, the GOP has been trying to turn itself into the Democratic party circa 1985. They are convinced that will win back the old WASPy areas around coastal cities. So far, it has only angered the Cult, which sees that as a threat. It turns off Americans who increasing see both parties as a collection of snobs. But, the rich people run both parties and they like being seen as elitist snobs so here we are with potentially two old re-runs from a bygone era running for President.

I’m skeptical about Cankles winning on the Democrat side. She angered the hard core fanatics back in the 1990’s and never went through the proper self-criticism sessions as part of their rehabilitation ritual. It’s what gave Obama the opening. The Democrats have nominated some hilarious losers, but a maladroit clodhopper like Obama normally would have been just a sideshow. Hatred of Hillary gave Obama a stage. Things have not changed much and I can see a similar dynamic unfolding with Fake Indian.

That said, the GOP is a party without a purpose. The old Reagan coalition is in tatters. The institutions that are supposed to provide the ideas for the party are husks of their former selves. They have not produced a single new policy in decades. Instead it is a broken record of tax schemes and bellicose pronouncements about the fringes of the empire. The only reason they remain in business is the Democrats look like the day room at the local asylum.

Shrub versus Cankles in 2016!

Vocativ appears to be another fake nerd website. According to their site:

Coupling the power of cutting-edge technology with a take-no-prisoners attitude toward newsgathering and storytelling, Vocativ is out to push the limits, cut through the spin and engage with the digital generation.

There is an untapped world of raw, vital information hidden in the digital space. Until now, no news organization has had the ability to reach it, let alone understand it. Vocativ’s proprietary technology navigates the deep web, homing in on the part of the Internet that search engines can’t reach, to discover the stories other news organizations cannot.

That means they are a bunch of liberal arts majors from second and third tier private schools. They have high average IQ, but are convinced they are Mensa members. The closest thing they have to a STEM guy on their staff is an economics major.

Anyway, this piece is something we can expect much more of now that resistance to the homosexialization of the culture has collapsed. Fanatics never pack up and go home once they won. Instead they find new ways to be an irritant. That means all of the homosexual marriage fanatics are foraging for a new way to bang the drum queerly.

‘‘I love a quick cuddle. Just so you remember your friends are around and are there for you.” This is John, a self-identified straight guy who took part in a study investigating attitudes toward same-sex cuddling at a university in the U.K. Researchers found that 97.5% of heterosexual, male college athletes have shared a bed with another guy and 93.5% have indulged in spooning. “We very often have hangover cuddles and naps together,” reported another participant named Max.

The findings were published in the latest issue of the journal Men and Masculinities. In it, researchers Eric Anderson and Mark McCormack describe how changing attitudes toward homosexuality have lessened stigma around nonsexual contact, and that the majority of young men now have no problem being affectionate with their friends—a particularly common trend among those on sports teams.

Like all pseudo-science, this nonsense relies on dimwitted reporters to get no further than the executive summary.

“As part of my ethnographic work on sports teams, as well as interview research on athletes and nonathletes, I find that cuddling in bed is a normal and acceptable part of heterosexual male youth culture in England,” Anderson tells Vocativ, adding that it’s becoming increasingly common across the pond. “Friends are tactile with each other in other locales as well,” he says. “I show that it occurs among high school runners in California.”

The sociologists deliberately focused on athletes to gauge the changing beliefs of a group traditionally thought to harbor negative opinions about same-sex contact. Conducting qualitative interviews with a small sample size of 40, Anderson says their responses were consistent with his earlier research. A total of 39 out of 40 said they have shared beds, usually after a night out, and 37 said they often fall asleep spooning.

There we go. Asking 40 British school boys if they shared a bed with another male is the basis of the “study.”

The reason for this, researchers believe, is that homophobia is on the decline, and intimate contact is no longer seen as a breach of masculinity. A recent national survey found that 29% of British adults think same-sex relationships are wrong, a sharp drop from 46% in 2000. It’s backed up by data from the Pew Research Center, which found that 74% of Americans born after 1980 believe that homosexuality should be accepted by society.

Now the picture is complete. The Cult wants to believe they have changed 50,000 of human evolution, which they reject out of hand. Anyone promising “proof” of the result can make some money. Social science is a lot like the low end of the drug market. When demand is high, guys selling home made meth and heroin cut with brick dust get top dollar. The Cult is buying anything that supports their claims about homosexuals so the market is strong for junk science like this.

As a follow-up to my diversity post, this has been making the rounds. One of the things no one ever discusses is how non-whites feud with one another. Here on Diversity Street I see it all the time. Indians and Koreans own the cash businesses. We also have some Nepalese in there, but most people assume they are Indians. The Koreans have their own off-the-books financing system to help new comers get a start. According to the National Bureau of Economic Research, 28 percent of Korean-American men and 20 percent of Korean-American women own their own business—the highest rate of entrepreneurship in the country. Indians have something similar, but it is more kin-based.

The result is Koreans and Indians own a lot of small retail business in and around the ghetto. These are businesses that are not high margin, but are high risk. It takes balls of stone to own a liquor store in the ghetto. Running a gas station near the ghetto is almost a death wish. That’s why they can be had for cheap and that’s why immigrants take these businesses.

I used to know a Palestinian guy who owned a C-store near the ghetto. He was missing an arm, having had it blown off back in the territories. Compared to dodging terrorists and gangsters in a refuge camp, selling smokes and skittles in the ghetto was a good deal. He said you get used to dealing with the world through bullet-proof glass. You really can’t question the logic. It is why I am not a closed border absolutist.

Anyway, I suspect that’s why blacks hate foreigners so much. From what I’m told, they used to hate the Jews for the same reason. The Jews moved out of the cities and out of the retail businesses, but that used to be their domain not so long ago. Now, it is the Koreans and Indians serving this “community” and getting nothing but grief for their trouble.

We’re going to see a lot more of this as the nation becomes majority-minority. When one ethnic group can dominate the rest, the minorities tend to band together. For most of American history, WASP culture dominated American culture and everyone else fell in line. The “everyone else” was mostly Catholics and blacks. When no one group dominates, then it becomes a free-for-all. Everyone has a reason to distrust everyone else. Balkanization soon follows. Charles Murray predicts a rabid re-segregation at some point.

The interesting thing to me is that whites would never charge this woman for the water. Indians and Koreans are baffled by the weird racial politics of America. It is hard to tell the ethnicity of the store owners in the video, but they clearly share the same bafflement. Oddly, they don’t see the woman as black. She’s just another customer. That’s where the trouble starts. The woman is used to being given a wide berth for the many trifling impositions she makes on the rest of us. When she runs into someone unwilling to give way, she naturally assumes it is racism.

Suspicion of those outside the group is a behavioral trait that most likely pre-dates all others. Our own history of race tells us this is not a behavior that is easily modified. President Obama, who is multi-racial, wears his racial suspicion like a medallion. His attorney general, from Barbados, is proudly hostile to whites. If reaching the peak of society is not tempering these traits, it’s not happening at the other end of society either. Throw in a bunch of of new groups with their own grievances and the result will be a lot of public shouting.

This is the future. America will be a country where everyone gets frustrated with everyone outside their group. The public space, where groups intersect, will be a 24×7 shouting match about who owes what to whom. History provides no examples of a country dominated by a grievance culture. Up until now, people have been smart enough to keep their distance from one another whenever possible. Maybe everything will work out just fine. Or, maybe not. Time will tell.

[subscribe2]In Pennsylvania, the police can now search your vehicle whenever the spirit move them.

Pennsylvania police officers no longer need a warrant to search a citizen’s vehicle, according to a recent state Supreme Court opinion.

The high court’s opinion, released Tuesday, is being called a drastic change in citizens’ rights and police powers.

Previously, citizens could refuse an officer’s request to search a vehicle. In most cases, the officer would then need a warrant — signed by a judge — to conduct the search.

That’s no longer the case, according to the opinion written by Supreme Court Justice Seamus McCaffery.

The ruling, passed on a 4-2 vote, was made in regard to an appeal from a 2010 vehicle stop in Philadelphia.

Local police and legal professionals are calling the opinion “big news.”

“This is a significant change in long-standing Pennsylvania criminal law, and it is a good one,” Lancaster County District Attorney Craig Stedman said Wednesday afternoon.

Under prior law, an officer who smells marijuana inside a car, for example, could only search the car with the driver’s consent — or if illegal substances were in plain view.

At the risk of sounding insensitive, this is all about stopping drug mules on the interstate. Those drug mules are almost exclusively black and hispanic. The cops don’t advertize it, but they are trained to look for young NAM males driving rented cars. This is almost always a drug courier. The drug gangs want to eliminate one reason to stop the vehicle. Using a rental means all the lights work and license is in order. They also figured out that local cops tend not to pull over out of state drivers. Cops figured this out and started looking for young NAM males driving white-bread sedans.

The problem with that is they need a reason to pull T’Q’uan over and search the car. These people are idiots so the mule is often smoking weed while driving or otherwise doing something the cops can use as an excuse. But, it will be a lot easier to run a wide-scale version of stop and frisk on the nations highway system if they no longer need a warrant. They would also like to search mobile phones without a warrant as well. That way they can get a jump on the rest of the crew once they pull T’Q’uan or Julio over in I-95. Make the stop, find the weed, search the cell, call it in and round up the rest before T’Q’uan or Julio can make their one phone call.

That sounds great until you think about the abuses that will surely follow. Cops are mostly decent people, but it is a close call. A lot of cops are sociopaths, attracted to the position because they can push people around with impunity. Many are just crooks with enough on the ball to know it is  better to be a crook with a badge than a crook without a badge. The crime rate amongst cops is not encouraging if you are looking to trust your liberty to these people.

There are a couple of things to consider in that graphic. One is cops are much whiter than the general population. Adjusted for race, the crime rate of cops will be much higher than the general population. Second, the number of robberies is most certainly an outlier. Bad data is my guess. Cops steal like mad. Everyone knows it, but it is rarely reported or prosecuted. Violent crimes are too difficult to hide so they get investigated. The old saying is a body with holes in it is hard to ignore. A perp beaten to a pulp is hard to ignore as well. Property stolen from a drug dealer on the other  hand is easy to hide.

Crime in America is mostly a NAM issue. The drug game, outside of crystal meth, is a black and hispanic activity. Plenty of whites take drugs, but the drug game is run by blacks and hipanics. Legalization of weed will further this trend. Murder is not entirely drug related, but a big part of the yearly homicides committed by young NAM males in the drug game, mostly at the street level. Controlling this population has been the focus of policing, prisons and social policy for 50+ years. The one thing the libertarians have right is that the drug war has reduced liberty greatly in the United States. What they get wrong is the cause.

The fact is, you can have diversity or liberty, but not both. Otherwise, you get a violent free-for-all of tribal warfare. The reason Continental Europe is naturally authoritarian is it is how you survive when surrounded by a bunch of people not like you. For the Dutch to have remained Dutch for 2,000 years meant defending their turf against all comers. This required a high degree of discipline. The same is true of every other group in Europe. The French were not able to expel the English until they had a strong central government that imposed discipline on the population. In a majority-minority America, the only way to keep the peace will be with lots of cops with lots of power over the lives of citizens.

I’m sure that will work out just fine.

When I was a kid, a former Nazi was caught with some regularity. Most were small timers like camp officers or regional functionaries. I recall the hunt for the Josef Mengele being a big deal. Without looking it up I did not remember that he was never caught. He drowned and was later positively identified. I was conflating the facts with the movie, The Boys from Brazil, which was a very big deal when I was a kid. Even today, when the few remaining Nazis are octogenarians, they still hunt for them and cheer when they find one somewhere. For some, the past is a nightmare from which they never awake.

I’ve always had mixed feeling about these things. Human nature pushed us to annihilate our enemies. We know that from archaeological evidence as well as genetic evidence now.  Way back when we were hunter-gatherers, bands of humans would attack other groups and try to kill every single one. It was take no prisoners war. Humans had figured out that the best way to avoid retribution was to kill anyone who could hold a grudge. That’s probably what drives the hunt for 90-year old Nazis. Until the Nazi hunters are sure the last one of them is dead, they cannot rest.

Anyway, the same thing is playing out with the Irish. The Troubles are long over, but there are still scores to settle. Police in Northern Ireland have arrested Gerry Adams for the murder of a Belfast widow 40+ years ago.

Police in Northern Ireland arrested Sinn Fein party leader Gerry Adams on Wednesday on suspicion of involvement in the Irish Republican Army’s 1972 abduction, killing and secret burial of a Belfast widow.

Adams, 65, confirmed his own arrest in a prepared statement and described it as a voluntary, prearranged interview.

Police long had been expected to question Adams about the 1972 killing of Jean McConville, a 38-year-old mother of 10 whom the IRA executed as an alleged spy. According to all authoritative histories of the Sinn Fein-IRA movement, Adams served as an IRA commander for decades, but he has always denied holding any position in the outlawed group.

‘‘I believe that the killing of Jean McConville and the secret burial of her body was wrong and a grievous injustice to her and her family,’’ Adams said. ‘‘Well publicized, malicious allegations have been made against me. I reject these. While I have never disassociated myself from the IRA and I never will, I am innocent of any part in the abduction, killing or burial of Mrs. McConville.’’

Reflecting the embarrassment associated with killing a single mother, the IRA did not admit the killing until 1999, and her unmarked grave was discovered only by accident near a Republic of Ireland beach in 2003.

Adams was implicated in the killing by two IRA veterans who gave taped interviews to researchers for a Boston College history archive on the four-decade Northern Ireland conflict. Belfast police took legal steps to acquire the interviews, parts of which already were published after the 2008 death of one IRA interviewee, Brendan Hughes. The researchers fought unsuccessfully to avoid handover of the tapes of the second IRA interviewee, Dolours Price, who died last year.

In his interview, Hughes, a reputed longtime deputy to Adams within the Belfast IRA, said McConville was killed on Adams’ orders. Hughes said Adams oversaw a special IRA unit committed to identifying, killing and secretly burying Belfast Catholic civilians suspected of spying on behalf of the police or British army. An independent investigation by Northern Ireland’s police complaints watchdog in 2006 found no evidence that McConville had been a spy.