Why Does the Left Have a Close Relationship With Islam?

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It’s long been a difficult thing for those outside of leftism to understand: the political left of the western world has a close relationship with Islam. On the surface, it doesn’t appear to make any sense, as the left prides itself as being tolerant and free of mysticism, while at the same time championing what is easily the most mystical religion, and the religion that plays the least nicely with any of the other religions.

What explanation is there for the left’s close relationship with Islam?

Nearly any political ideology that exists today has an image to maintain. The political right is embodied by conservative principles and believes in limited government, among other things, and is usually represented by the Republican party. The Green party is characterized largely by environmental responsibility and various socialist principles. We’d be dealing in some pretty broad generalities in describing these political ideologies with such few words, but these descriptions are pretty accurate.

So then, what does the political left and liberalism in general have a reputation for? Helping the little guy. The left’s positive image hinges largely in helping the disadvantaged and downtrodden, which includes religious and racial minorities. Because Islam is a religious minority in the western world, they’re a natural choice for those looking for groups to stand up for to maintain a helping-the-little-guy image. What’s more, the left’s traditional political adversaries have a history of being critical of the actions of Muslims, the adherents of Islam. Because of this, it would be easier for the left to cast themselves as coming to the little guy’s defense.

Let’s be honest here: Anywhere that Islam is in establishment control, they are not about helping religious minorities. Under Sharia law, the law of the Islamic world, Christians and Jews are treated as second-class citizens or worse, other religious groups are treated poorly and sometimes singled out for death, atheists are nearly always singled out for death, and so are homosexuals, in spite of the fact that they are another group that the left champions.

This being the case, it would seem to make even less sense for the left to come to Islam’s defense. For the left to continue to defend Islam in spite of its abuse of non-Muslims, they would have to overlook not only these abuses, but also the fundamental tenets of Islam that call for these abuses.

That’s exactly what happens.

But why? Why did the left get behind Islam to begin with if what Islam is about is diametrically opposed to the principles of western civilization?

Simply put, it’s because back when the left started to get behind Islam, the abuses of Sharia law were pretty much unknown to the western world, and as religious minorities, there was more incentive for Muslims to live in relative non-belligerence with the community around them as an alternative religion. As it appeared in the public eye, the Islamic religion was just another religious identity that was capable of living at peace with the people around them. Thus, they were “little guys”, and it would have been very easy to cast anyone who objected to them as religiously-intolerant oppressors.

But, that was then, this is now. Islam currently has a reputation for being a volatile ideology that doesn’t play well with the other religions, especially anywhere that they exist in sizable numbers. In fact, it would appear as though their belligerence is directly proportional with their representation in a population.

One would think that making the choice to prop up a violent ideology as an underdog was a mistake. This being the case, it would seem productive for the left to go back on it’s choice to do so. So, why aren’t they doing this? Why does the western political left so insist on continuing to defend the Islamic ideology?

The thing is, mistakes are not easy to admit having made. This especially holds true for political ideologies, which must maintain the image that they stand for, but also must maintain that they won’t make terrible mistakes against their own values, and in so doing, betray the trust of the people who view them as leaders. To this end, the left continues to insist that treating Islam as an underdog wasn’t a mistake.

Another aspect of this matter is that the left would otherwise be wanting for a religion associated with their image. This is very important, as most people in the western world are religious, and have historically been leery of those who do not identify as having a religious identity. This holds especially true in the United States, which is sometimes referred to as the most religious country in the world. Religious affiliation is so important to the electorate that, to this very day, there has not been a US president that has not professed Christianity.

Generally speaking, the western right has historically professed Christian values, a fact that makes Christians have a very easy time identifying with the right, and those on the right usually identify as being Christian. While those on the left do identify as being Christian, it’s hard to reconcile many of the values of Christianity with the liberalism that the left embraces. When the left expresses a religious identity, while it may be in many cases sincere, it’s often a nominal profession.

The left’s relationship with Islam is in large part due to the fact that, without an expressed acceptance for the practice of a religious ideology, they’d appear non-religious, which would alienate a population that is mostly religious.

So then, why Islam? When there are so many other religious identities out there, why does the left continue to defend what would be, if left to its own devices, the bully of the playground?

In a sense, it was the right that provoked it. While the right has good reason to be critical of the Islamic ideology, that criticism provokes a response from those who traditionally serve as their check. Because the left has an image of being the defender of the little guy, it’s easy to come to the defense of a minority group that appears misunderstood, especially when it’s one’s political opponents that are supplying the criticism.

But there’s more to it. The left doesn’t just defend Islam, it respects it. It respects it like it respects no other religion out there. The left could get behind Jews, and historically, they tried. But the right has a great deal of sympathy for the Jews by nature of their own Christian background and the theology that the two share. In the American south, Jewish job applicants have been trusted more than any other religious group. As for other religious groups such as Sikhs, Buddhists, and Hindus, they’re still relatively obscure in the western religious landscape, and the right doesn’t as largely criticize these groups in the same manner as they do Islam.

What is behind the left’s respect for Muslims and the Islamic religion?

Simple psychology tells us that people have more respect for other people when there is a connotation of consequence with upsetting them. Most religions teach principles like patience and forgiveness. This is especially true of Christianity. There isn’t much expectation of an immediate backlash for disappointing a person whose religion emphasizes mercy, patience and forgiveness. When one understands this, they have a pretty sound explanation for why Christians are singled out for mistreatment in many places where they’re a minority.

When it comes to Muslims, the expectation is far different. If someone is going to come at you in an angry fit because you put bacon in their chicken sandwich, you’d be more likely to keep the bacon far from their chicken sandwich. If someone wants you to keep alcohol away from your gathering because their religion forbids it, most would respect his request if his religion says it’s incumbent on believers to fight non-believers. If someone complains about your music and dancing because their religion forbids both, you’d wonder what’s wrong with their religion. But if that person can make you sorry that you decided to smart-mouth them, you’d be considerably less daring.

Again, people tend to have more respect for those with whom there is a connotation of consequence with upsetting them. This being the case, it’s easy to see why people are more reluctant to step on a Muslim’s toes than those of a Christian.

Considering all this, it’s much easier to understand why the western political left is sympathetic to Muslims in spite of the fact that, if Muslims were to call the shots, their policies would stand in opposition to many, if not most, of the values of liberalism, and of western civilization.

Leftists are enabling a great danger to western civilization and the world at large. The sooner they understand this and take the necessary corrective actions, the better.

The Right Way to Play Pokemon Black and White

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pokemon black and white soundtrackThat’s right, it has a soundtrack.

If you’ve made the choice to play Pokemon Black or White, you’ve already made a great choice. It has aged well as a true gem in the Nintendo DS lineup. You may be playing it, but are you playing it right?

To play a game of Pokemon right involves choosing the right team for a playthrough. After all, what says that you’re great at a game quite like beating it quick? Not only that, you’ll be quicker to open up the postgame and get right down to the finer aspects of competitive play.

A lot went into making this guide. Most in-game teambuilding guides for Pokemon games seem to focus on meeting an arbitrary requirement for filling out all six team spaces. There are a few problems with this, most notably, that late-game experience doesn’t spread as well among a team of more members. For the most part, you’ll be better off having a team of a few slightly over-leveled battlers than a full team that doesn’t quite measure up. Not only that, but many teams don’t seem to consider dedicated HM users, which can increase the player’s mobility. Without HM users considered when teambuilding, players might have to place team members in boxes to seek out ways around progress-hindering obstacles.

Pokemon Black and White does shake things up, however. For one thing, the way EXP works in this generation is changed so that the EXP a pokemon gains is multiplied using a formula that involves their level compared to the level of their opponent. A lower level pokemon gains more EXP than a higher level pokemon defeating a similar pokemon of the same level. This makes it easier for freshly-caught pokemon to catch up to the rest of your team, and it also makes it harder to over-level.

Not only that, HMs aren’t as necessary for a playthrough as they were for other games in the series. The only HM that’s needed to progress is Cut, which is used early on. After that, HMs are pretty much optional, and usually just take you off the path. There are two that make things easier on Victory Road, but even then, they aren’t a necessity.

Teambuilding for this guide got trickier still when it comes to just how many pokemon in the 5th generation are great battlers. There are a lot of pokemon that almost made it onto the team, that still would have made great choices. So if a pokemon that you chose didn’t make the team, you might still have a pretty effective team.

Much of this guide focuses on pokemon that would be of help when facing Ghetsis’ Hydreigon. Hydreigon is the main opponent that players complain about when playing through this game. Yeah, Ghetsis is the final boss, and final bosses tend to be challenging, but Ghetsis with his Hydreigon has proven to be a little much for numerous players.

ghetsis.png

Hydreigon is a vicious pokemon, and it’s a winner even in competitive play, with great typing, a wide movepool, excellent stats, and a helpful ability. Ghetsis’ Hydreigon is right up there with Whitney’s Miltank in terms of challenge, and enough players have voiced their frustrations that it’s justifiable that this guide places a focus on helping them out. As challenging as the gym leaders are in this game, they’re still trivial compared to Ghetsis, mainly because of his Hydreigon.

Now, onto the team choices:

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Name: Oshawott
Location: Starter
When obtained: Outset
Evolves: at Level 17 and again at 36

How this little guy came to be so adored is an interesting story, but it also happens to be the most practical starter choice, all things considered. Because its physical and special Attack stats are both usable, it’s actually reasonable for Oshawott to have two Water moves on its moveset, allowing it to grill statistical weaknesses of a variety of opponents with moves based on its type. By the late game, this guy clearly tends towards the physical side of things, particularly with access to the excellent move Swords Dance, which gives Oshawott the ability to sweep entire teams.

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Name: Pansear
Location: Dreamyard, as a gift (requires having selected Oshawott)
When obtained: Before obtaining first badge
Evolves: With Fire Stone

Rainbow Monkeys! Pansear is a pretty bad pokemon, but he’s got some selling points for an early game of Black or White. For one thing, he’s got a type advantage against many early opponents, which makes up for how pathetic his attacks otherwise are. He also is a convenient option to teach Cut, which is necessary to use just once in a playthrough. Teaching it to Pansear will keep moves available for the rest of your team.

Pansear is mainly useful against the first and third gym leaders. Against the third, he does really well if you evolve him with a Fire Stone, which can be obtained in Castelia City from a scientist. The scientist gives you a choice between three stones, so if you goof and get the wrong one, you’d have to obtain a Fire Stone from somewhere else.

After the third gym, you should probably box this guy, because he won’t be contributing much more to your team, otherwise.

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Name: Drilbur
Location: Wellspring Cave (dust cloud)
When obtained: After obtaining first badge
Evolves: Level 31

Drilbur is like the Wolverine of Pokemon: he may be small, but he means serious business. Drilbur learns a variety of useful moves, including Dig, which is seriously strong for the point when he obtains it. And once this guy evolves at level 31, that’s when things get even better: he’ll pick up an additional Steel typing, which gives this little guy a pile of resistances. What’s more, he’ll be levels away from learning Earthquake, one of the best moves in the game, and Swords Dance, which allow him to demolish most opponents.

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Name: Scraggy
Location: Route 4 (higher level at Relic Castle)
When obtained: Before third badge
Evolves: Level 39

Simply OP. Scraggy is such an excellent pokemon that it may quickly become your team’s MVP. Fighting and Dark are great types, but putting them on the same pokemon gives it an immunity to a type that would normally be trouble to one of them. They’re great attack types, giving you an advantage against three of the members of the Elite Four. Not only that, but the moves this guy learns are relatively powerful. And if you get one with the Moxie ability, that alone can help him build momentum which can make him unstoppable against many in-game opponents with larger teams.

The main drawback to Scraggy is that he is a little on the slow side. But that really doesn’t hold him back by much.

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Name: Archen
Location: Somewhat complicated, see below.
When obtained: After third badge
Evolves: Level 37

Players were at first quick to write off Archen because its ability was more of a penalty than a benefit. But then they noticed that its excellent Speed and Attack stats allowed it to wipe out numerous in-game opponents with Acrobatics, which it could learn early on without the need for Skyla’s TM, thank you very much. That alone is justification for having Archen on your team, but there’s more: his move selection is excellent. Crunch? Shadow Claw? Rock Slide? Archen can really bring a whoopin’.

About that ability, it only kicks in when its HP is at half or less. Because you can stock up on healing items like Lemonade from vending machines, it’s a snap to keep this guy’s morale up.

You might be wondering how to obtain this guy. After the third badge, you can access the Relic Castle in the Desert Resort. A backpacker inside gives you a choice between the Cover Fossil and the Plume Fossil. Choose the Plume Fossil (the second choice). Then, take it to Nacrene Museum, where it can be restored into an Archen. Save before the exchange at the Museum if you wish to soft-reset for a particular nature. Adamant or Jolly work great.

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Name: Herdier
Location: Cold Storage
When obtained: Before 5th badge
Evolves: No need to worry about it.

The main point of having Herdier on your team is that it’s a nice, convenient pokemon that can learn both Surf and Strength, two moves that make the trip through Victory Road much easier. There’s no hurry to get one before then, so you can come back for it. It pretty much helps you through the use of these HMs, but they aren’t even mandatory to get through Victory Road.

It’s spoilers from here on out, so it’s up to you whether you read on and ruin the surprise. They begin immediately after the picture of the two legendary pokemon below:

reshiram and zekrom.png

Name: Reshiram (Black version), or Zekrom (White version)
Location: N’s Castle
When: Immediately after the Elite Four
Evolves: They don’t, and don’t really need to.

Wow, your league challenge really got derailed, didn’t it? Now it’s time for an epic throne room showdown that seems somehow reminiscent of Gilgamesh. But first, you’ll need a legendary pokemon to face N’s. It’s pretty much a scripted event, and the catch rate for the legendary is pretty high (no need to use the Master Ball). Afterwards, if you already have six pokemon on you, you are given the option to immediately box one so you can add the legendary directly to your team.

Nothing really needs to be said to sell anyone these legendaries, seeing as they have to be caught to advance the story (a few clever players have found a way around it, but it’s really not worth the effort just to say you did). They’re both strong Dragon types, but with some differing characteristics:

  • Reshiram, the white one, is exclusive to the Black version. It’s a Fire type, and is more inclined to being a Special attacker,
  • Zekrom, the black one, is exclusive to the White version. It’s an Electric type, and is more inclined to being a physical attacker.

After catching it, you can have it in your party for the next two battles. If you immediately add it to your party, it will take point, so it will face N’s dragon right away, which he leads with. N’s dragon seems programmed to continue using a move until your own legendary dragon uses it’s own equivalent, which is actually to your advantage. The two dragon’s signature moves go that if they both use them on the same turn, the one to attack after the first gets a power boost. N’s pokemon is a couple levels higher, so your own would be likely to go second. So go ahead and grill that weakness, because the game seems to want you to.

Outside of that, N’s team doesn’t have much to challenge you. Be warned that he has a Zoroark on his team, so there’s potential for mistaking one of his pokemon for another.

In case you’re concerned, you do get your team healed before the battle with N, and before the battle that immediately follows. Yeah, it’s Ghetsis that’s up next. That and his famous Hydreigon. Thankfully, you have plentiful strategies to get you through him, but they take planning, and not every player plays through with a confrontation with him in mind.

First, the stats on Hydreigon:

Hydreigon
Level: 54
Nature: apparently random
Item: None
Ability: Levitate (grants immunity to Ground-type attack moves)
Moves: Dragon Pulse, Fire Blast, Surf, Focus Blast

Hydreigon has decent bulk, a nice Speed stat, and a high Special Attack stat for those special attacks to come off of. It has a set of very strong moves with excellent coverage, so it’s little wonder that it wipes out the teams of many a player who felt confident after beating everything else up to that point. You know that super-powerful Dragon-type legendary pokemon you just caught that supposedly has enough power to destroy the Unova region? Ghetsis just laughs at it. Hydreigon is not a joke.

As much as I wanted to use some damage calcs in this, it appears that the nature of most trainer’s pokemon in Black and White are random, with those of Ghetsis included. Because of that random element, there may be some wide variation in the outcome of the battle with Hydreigon. You might get off well and he doesn’t get a nature that benefits Hydreigon much, or he might get a Modest nature and wipe your team out easily.

Also, be aware that Ghetsis can use Full Restore up to 4 times during the battle. If you count the number of times he uses one, that could make the battle more predictable.

If you plan on taking on Hydreigon the old fashioned way, you’ll want the pokemon that you’re saving for it to remain at full HP until the time comes for them to face it, otherwise, it’s going to be hard for them to tank its moves and return fire. Many of your best choices Hydreigon will likely outspeed, which makes it much harder to go blow-for-blow with the thing.

There are a couple fine Fighting types that might serve you well if you go with them: Sawk and Throh. If you choose to go with either of these, they’d likely replace Scraggy on your team. I recommend Scraggy because it’s better against more of the game’s opponents. Between Sawk and Throh, which one is easier to find depends on the version you’re playing, but they are both available in both games.

If you go with Sawk, it will be preferable for it to have the Sturdy ability. This will allow it to survive one of Hydreigon’s moves, and get an attack in. At level 46, Sawk can get a likely 2HKO with Brick Break, but you’ll be much better off with Close Combat at level 49. If Sawk reaches level 55, it gets a very likely OHKO with Close Combat.

Throh is superior as far as its defense stats go; it’s out of OHKO range by about level 39 (of course, crits can happen). At around level 48, Throh gets a 2HKO with Storm Throw. It learns Superpower at level 49, but has to be brought up to a high level of 58 to get a likely OHKO.

You can still attempt Scrafty, though. The main move to watch out for would be Focus Blast, which it’s weak to, but because Focus Blast has an accuracy of 70%, it’s a risk that can pay off. Use caution if going for Hi Jump Kick, as it has an accuracy of 90%, and if it misses, Scrafty takes a big blow. Scrafty is such a heavy hitter that a Hi Jump Kick can do 50% of Hydreigon’s HP by around level 40, and at level 58, it’s a OHKO.

Samurott is usable, as it’s not weak to any of Hydreigon’s moves. It’s still likely to take over 50% damage due to how strong its attacks are, but at least it can tank a hit and get in one of its own. Revenge would be a prime choice, because Hydreigon is weak to it, and it does more damage if the user took damage already on the same turn. Hydreigon only has attack moves, so Revenge might serve you well. Samurott is likely out of OHKO range by level 46, and Revenge can take a decent chunk out of Hydreigon.

However, levels like 55 and 58 are kind of hard to reach, unless you have a stock of Rare Candies to spend right before battling the legendary (your last chance to use them if you plan on beating the last bosses on the first try). Your team may be at around level 50 by this point, so it would take some power-leveling to reach such high levels, which doesn’t really lend itself to an efficient playthrough. But there are other strategies that you could use.

One fun and somewhat cheesy strat is to immediately switch to Excadrill at the start of the battle, as Ghetsis leads with Cofagrigus. Cofagrigus uses the Toxic/Protect strategy, but because Excadrill is a Steel type, it can’t be poisoned. What’s more, Excadrill resists Cofagrigus’ attack moves, so there isn’t much it can do about Excadrill.

Preferably, you want Swords Dance and X-Scissor (which Hydreigon is weak to) on Excadrill’s moveset. The idea is to use Swords Dance until Excadrill’s Attack stat is as high as it can get, then use X Speed on it a few times so it can outspeed anything on Ghetsis’ team. Use healing items as needed. You might also want to use a couple X SpDef to make up for the Special Defense drops that have a chance of happening due to Cofagrigus’ moves. Once you’re ready, you can have Excadrill go ahead and attack. Excadrill will likely be able to wipe out Ghetsis’ entire team by itself, Hydreigon included.

There is another strategy you can use, and it’s easily the most reliable and hilarious of what’s available. I’ve tested it, and I can tell you through experience that it works.

You’re up against an oppressive and tyrannical force. And your weapon is Roggenrola.

roggenrola.png

Name: Roggenrola
Location: Various, but preferably Wellspring Cave
When obtained: After first badge
Evolves: Don’t worry about it.

Roggenrola gets Sturdy as its ability, so if its HP is full, it can withstand an attack move with 1 HP remaining. If Roggenrola is low enough in level, then you can easily replenish its HP with a cheap item like Fresh Water, which you can buy at vending machines. See where I’m getting at?

But you’re not just stalling out Hydreigon’s moves, you’re messing with it. As it so happens, Roggenrola learns Sand Attack, which it likely has when you catch one at Wellspring Cave. So not only can Roggenrola withstand Hydreigon’s attacks, it can also lower its accuracy. If Hydreigon can’t get a move in, it won’t matter how strong its moves are. Six uses of Sand Attack will be all it takes to bring Hydreigon’s accuracy to its minimum.

But it gets better. Roggenrola can be taught Toxic by TM, so it quickly loses HP as it swings away at Roggenrola in vain. Better still, Roggenrola can be taught Protect, which puts it in a better position to stall out Hydreigon as its HP drains away. If Ghetsis uses a Full Restore, just use Toxic again.

One thing that can potentially go wrong with this strategy would be that Fire Blast might cause a burn, which could take away Roggenrola’s last HP. If you still have a Rawst Berry which you can get from Pokemon Rangers, you can give Roggenrola one to hold as a precaution, in case things go wrong.

The TM for Toxic can be reached once you have a pokemon with Surf. It’s on Route 17, and can be easily reached. As for the TM for Protect, you can obtain one from Professor Juniper at her lab once you’ve seen at least 60 pokemon. That’s pretty easy to accomplish through the course of the game.

So, there you have it! Now you know how to beat Ghetsis and his Hydreigon, and in so doing, beat Pokemon Black and White. Then you might be ready for the postgame, where you face some seriously overleveled opponents, including a buffed-up Elite Four.

Hey, Pokemon Black and White are great games to play if you’re looking for a challenge.

How to Tell That Someone is a Pedophile

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iris sternly regards

DISCLAIMER: This post is sarcasm.

You know all those times when someone is accused of being a pedophile, and you hear your friends say, “I knew it. I can tell the signs.”? It happens every time someone is outed as a pedophile, even though they don’t seem to say anything about it until after the facts are known.

You nod and say that you could tell the signs too, but we all know the reality of the matter, and that’s that you really didn’t see it coming. Don’t you feel left out when your friends have the ability to determine that someone is a pedophile, but you don’t?

Well, have no fear! By the time you’ve finished reading this article, you’ll have had the training you need to determine whether someone is a pedophile, well before you either see them on the news or they are accused on Facebook.

To tell whether someone is a pedophile, you have to look for certain mannerisms. To be more specific, if they do something that you find at least mildly irksome, that’s a sign that they might be a kiddie-diddler. The more irritating that you find someone’s behavior, the more likely it is that they’re a pedophile.

For example, if you find it annoying how that guy on the corner taps his feet when waiting for the light to change, that’s a sign of pedophilia. His pedophilia, of course. Or, if someone in front of you is just a little too slow or is taking too long to get out of the way, that’s a classic sign that he’s a pedo. You don’t know for sure, but play it safe and assume the worst. Or, if someone pays for a small grocery order with a check, that’s a sign he’s a pedophile, too. Keep your distance, and regard with disgust.

In fact, the longer that you pay attention to someone, the more little signs you’ll notice that he’s a pedophile, and it will continue to add up. Proven fact.¹ You might notice that there are a lot of pedophiles in public places you frequent, such as big box stores. In spite of the fact that true, clinical pedophilia is something rare, they tend to congregate everywhere you go, for some reason.

Another sign that someone is a pedophile is that they’re being too nice. How is that a sign of pedophilia? It’s a little known fact that a large percentage of child molesters are someone who the victim knows. Pedophiles are actually quite methodical; they’ll build a positive rapport in an effort to get closer to the one their sights are really set on: your child. Don’t have children yet? They’re planning ahead for the eventuality that you get one. They’re really cunning.

But, what about your children? What if the mean people go right for your kids when you’re not around, and try being nice to them? There is a time-proven method for preventing child abuse, and that’s to teach your children about “stranger danger”. How it works in principle is pretty simple: just teach your children that people they don’t know are molestation waiting to happen, and your children will be much better prepared to take care of the rest. Your children may have their ability to form interpersonal relationships stunted for the rest of their lives, but that’s a small price to pay to avoid having their faces show up on milk cartons.

While we’re talking about your children, we know it’s hard to avoid taking them into public. To avoid having a pedo snatch them away, teach your kids to scream “RAPE” at the top of their lungs in the event that someone gets too close.

The exact odds of a child abduction may be significantly lower than them being struck by lightning, but you’re still not willing to take that chance, are you? Besides, people get struck by lightning with frequency compared to winning the lottery. You buy tickets, don’t you? Play it smart.

Another sign to watch for is whether someone seems to be particularly jittery about being accused of being a pedophile. It’s true that accusations of pedophilia are going around like crazy, and are increasing all the time. But no one would actually be afraid of being called a pedophile unless they have actual reason to be concerned, right? And who would be more concerned about being outed than an actual pedophile! Am I right?

So, how can you use this to determine whether someone is a pedophile? Easy, just bring up pedophiles and how much you hate them, every opportunity you get. Say how much pedophiles make you angry, and what you’d do if you met one. If there were any pedophiles in earshot, they’d start to get at least slightly fidgety. That’s a giveaway! If anyone so much as breaks a sweat, they’re busted.

The last method for finding pedophiles is by far the most effective. Just go around and accuse people of being pedophiles. It can be for any reason or no reason at all. If it turns out that they’re not pedophiles, don’t worry, they’ll be screened by the criminal justice system. In the meantime, there will be plenty of media attention surrounding that person’s alleged pedophilia, so people will keep their distance from them and employers will avoid hiring them, which will makes things much harder for that pedophile in the event that they actually are one. And if they’re not, the press will just go back over their archived news articles and search engines will edit their automated indexes, and things will be all better again. That’s how it works, right?

And if it turns out that that person actually is a pedophile, you’ll have been the person to have nailed them. Sweet victory! Just be aware that you might have to take a few shots with different people until one of them rings true.

So, there you go! Because you stumbled on the right article while using the internet, you’re now armed with knowledge, and ready to spot those pedo-meanies with your EAGLE EYES! Child molesters won’t be able to resist your ability to see the green-colored glow that they emanate.²

I’m glad I was able to help. I aim to please.

Works cited:

  1. I’m not sure. Some guy on YouTube probably did the legwork or something. Look it up.
  2. Do NSA-type folk actually have the ability to see green glows around pedophiles? I don’t know. I heard it somewhere, and decided that it would sound neat for this article.

Expensive Tech as Fashion

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airpods as fashion.jpg

Apple is attempting to market AirPods as fashionable. I get the idea that fashion is supposed to be intrinsically difficult to figure out, because I’m having a hard time comprehending how fashionable it is to look like white plastic solidified while oozing out of someone’s ears. It’s like the earwax of nightmares. Gross.

The audio industry has long been a scary place. To start with, there’s “ordinary” headphones that a person can easily find for something like $20 at places like Target, then there’s the stuff of elites which can set a person back something like $300, which supposedly offer a superior audio experience. When a person is considering dropping all that cash on a single piece of tech, they’d want to be sure they’re getting their money’s worth, so they start doing some research to find which pair of headphones are right for them.

Then they’d find out that there’s many, many different varieties of elite headphones that each cost tons of money, and they’d have to do more research than they thought. They might attempt web searches to narrow things down, and find some blogs making direct comparisons between headphones on the market. Can we trust their opinions? When we see their pages littered with Amazon affiliate links for these products, it becomes apparent that these are for-profit blogs, and their opinions may be largely informed by what brings in the greater ad revenue for them.

The audio industry is intimidating, but lately, it’s gotten worse. The Beats brand of headphones has previously been marketed using endorsements by Dr. Dre as Beats By Dre. Since then, the Beats line has dropped the Dre endorsement, and was purchased by Apple, a company that already had a reputation for producing questionably expensive luxury tech.

That’s not to say that they’re no longer into the idea of celebrity endorsements for Beats, as the Beats brand has been endorsed by a number of celebrities, with even a special edition commemorating an endorsement by Justin Bieber. What sets these headphones apart from other headphones in the Beats line? Their color. That’s pretty much it.

These headphones are pricey, so one would imagine that they are some high-quality headphones. Instead, they are panned by audiophiles everywhere. The high price of these headphones is driven by the force of the demand generated by celebrity endorsements. The audio industry has found yet another way to liberate people from piles and piles of cash: with the words of people that are rich and famous.

And now, people are wearing Beats headphones and even AirPods with the belief that doing so would make them more fashionable. With tech companies standing to profit, I wouldn’t expect them to discourage this, but I’ve been noticing an increasing trend in the audio industry of encouraging style over producing a quality product, which provides another obstacle to avoid having spent hundreds of dollars on an inferior product.

I admit that if I were to spend a lot of money on something, I’d have a desire for it to look appealing. But when someone places undue importance on fashion when purchasing headphones, they just look like a sucker that caved in to marketing.

NHS Performs Unethical Experimental Treatments on Children, 5 Employees Quit

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What is with the timeline we are in? I ask this because there is a clinic in the UK which has been performing experimental hormone therapy on children as young as three that is designed to prevent the onset of puberty.

An NHS clinic has been determining children to be “transgender”, then performing hormone therapy on them. Five employees of the NHS have called it quits over the experiments, with some of them saying that they felt pressured to prescribe the treatment against their better judgement, and that the transgender status of the children had not been properly ascertained.

No kidding.

At least one clinician stayed in their position by reason that they’d be in a position to protect children from inappropriate therapy. Here’s an idea: don’t diagnose children as transgender. They’re too young to know what’s going on, and are obviously being preyed upon by being introduced to terrible ideas, the full implications of which they don’t fully comprehend. And while you’re at it, don’t perform unethical human experiments of any sort. I know that there’s money involved, but giving yourself up is too high a cost.

Once the subjects reached the age of 16, they would then be put on a hormone regimen to help them develop the characteristics of the gender they have been deluded into identifying with by people they were supposed to be able to trust.

If you’ve wondered what things would look like when those who are more concerned with profit than your physical and mental well-being are put in establishment control, that’s where we’re at right now. This is the kind of thing that happens when we allow into positions of authority those who propagate obvious delusions to the detriment of even children.

And there’s likely a lot more going on that we don’t yet know about.

Being a Voice of Reason in the Face of Drama

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A few prominent Pokemon YouTubers have been accused of preying on minors. As it often goes, it started with one person coming forward, and afterwards, more people came forward claiming to be victimized by prominent members of the Pokemon community.

It’s really nothing new that some people misuse games and social media to attempt to take advantage of other people, but it’s still disappointing when it happens.

When it comes to the nature of the crimes committed, I know that it may not be popular to speak as a voice of reason, but it’s still important, considering that society would quickly break down if accusations (true or false) were allowed to run all over the place without scrutiny.

civilization doremi.jpg“And we can’t have that.”

So, considering what’s at stake, let’s be brave enough to use our heads. There are a few important points to consider as this and any similar drama unfolds.

First, accused does not mean guilty.

I don’t mean to make excuses for these guys in the event that they actually did sexually abuse a minor. If that were the case, I say throw the book at them. I’ve known a couple people who were sexually abused as children, and that’s the kind of thing that can mess a person up for a very long time.

However, people are capable of making stuff up, children included. If it turns out that at least one of the accused is innocent, this whole matter really sucks for them. Worse yet, it can ruin opportunities down the road, as their name will continue to come up in connection to crimes that they didn’t actually commit in web searches for years to come.

When it comes down to it, it’s for a court of law to determine innocence or guilt. We the public may be presented with convincing evidence, but the evidence has a lot of potential to have been doctored or be one-sided. Therefore, let’s not be too hasty to rush to conclusions, considering that we may not have the full story.

Second, if you really were a victim of sexual abuse, you need to take this information to the proper authorities.

By “proper authorities”, I mean “the police”, since law enforcement would have a better chance of stopping the predator and bring the person to justice than your Twitter audience, no matter how big the audience may be.

I know how hard it can be to come forward, considering that sexual predators usually intimidate their victims out of doing so. Making it harder still is that people don’t want to be known as the person who was victimized. Still, it’s very possible that the predator has other victims, no matter how things may seem. Because of this, it’s important to come forward.

To law enforcement, of course. Taking it to law enforcement would allow the victim to maintain their dignity and remain anonymous while an investigation can be conducted, and in the event that guilt is determined, justice may be served. On the other hand, taking it to social media comes off as a grab for attention, and law enforcement still might not get wind of it.

I know it sounds like I’m really laboring the point here, but bringing the matter to social media isn’t as productive as it may seem. People might be outraged and bang their pots and pans together, but the end result is likely the predator remaining free and picking the next victim just shortly afterwards. It’s law enforcement that gets results. Law enforcement.

Third, a few scummy people don’t define an entire community.

While we already know this, the corporate media is very predictable, and there’s a big chance that they will use this to make the case that the Pokemon community, or even gaming communities in particular, are populated by predators. We know that this is not the case, but old media tends to sensationalize things in an effort to get their audience interested.

If they pull this, just remember that they’re old media, and they don’t matter as much as they used to.

Old media makes bank off of mischaracterization, sensationalism, and outright libel. You don’t, so you have no incentive to do the same thing. Don’t be like them.

I know that there are other points to make, but that’s satisfactory for now. I’m interested in seeing how the drama unfolds, and in the outcome in the event that these YouTubers are taken to law enforcement. Come to think of it, have any of the accusers taken the matter to law enforcement? It’s kind of important that they do.

The UK Tried to Control Knife Crime With Knife Surrender Boxes. Criminals Stole the Knives.

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There comes a time when you have to admit that good intentions aren’t what it takes to solve a problem. The UK’s intention was to solve the problem of knife crimes. The solution that they came up with? It was pretty much “We’ll just leave this box here, you put your knives in, and then things will be peachy-keen.”

How do you think that went?

No prize for guessing that criminals stole the knives. That was exactly what happened. If you have to be brought to the finish line, then let’s go over a couple points; go over them as slowly as you need to:

  • Criminals seldom surrender the implements they use to commit crimes,
  • Criminals steal things.

Therefore, the main people who deposited their knives into the boxes were those whose heartstrings were tugged by the good intentions of the deposit boxes, and they put them right where criminals could steal them, which they did. The end result is fewer knives in the hands of people who wouldn’t commit crimes with them, and more in the hands of those who would.

Here in the US, we got it right. We made guns legal for ordinary members of the population to possess, and it was so important to us that we made it the second amendment of our Bill of Rights. Because of this, criminals are terrified to commit crimes. Someone who thinks of threatening a random person on the street with a gun is hesitant on the chance that they might be carrying one, too.

One who has never been to the US might imagine that the US is riddled with gun violence. But, on the contrary, most Americans have never witnessed a shooting. There’s relatively little gun control, and gun violence is scarce. That pretty much demolishes the misconception that gun rights breed gun violence.

Anywhere that gun ownership is restricted, if someone manages to get their hands on a gun, they have an advantage over the rest of the population. Gangsters don’t give a care about a “criminal” moniker, and if there’s a possibility that they may be armed, the unarmed population is terrified to so much as gainsay them, and they can exercise control over entire neighborhoods, effectively becoming a form of underground government.

The obvious solution to knife violence is to give the general population license to fight back, as it has been with gun violence. However, the leftist ideal of weapon control is so dominated by fairyland happy thoughts that they actually believed that a surrender box would work. Again, the only people who would have surrendered their knives to these boxes would have been the ones whose heartstrings were tugged by the good intentions, which sadly would have contributed to a false sense of progress in the event that these boxes filled up.

From my observations, it appears as though a certain ideology is predisposed to encouraging acts of fanaticism with sharp objects. I know that correlation does not equal causation, but it’s interesting that Britain’s recent spike in knife crimes coincides with a recent increase in the ideology described. Wouldn’t it be far more productive to acknowledge and address the ideology that bears primary responsibility for the recent surge in armed crime?

Hey blue people, you win.

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Shortly after I started playing Pokemon Go, I picked the yellow team. The main reasons were that I like Zapdos, and I like Raichu, which is the same type. Knowing that it wasn’t a popular team didn’t discourage me; instead, I felt a certain desire to bring things up for the underdogs.

It’s been about a year-and-a-half, and I made it up to level 37. After all that time of playing the yellow team, I broke down and got a Team Medallion, and used it to change teams to the blue team.

That’s right, blue people. You win.

It’s not so much anything against anyone in any team in particular as it is Niantic’s failure to effectively disincentivize everyone choosing the same team. I got tired of people not wanting to raid with me because I didn’t contribute to the popular team bonus. I also got tired of hammering away at a gym in one place for about ten minutes, then seeing my pokemon get sent right back to me shortly afterwards with only a few PokeCoins as reward. Not only that, I got tired of only having a few Premier Balls to catch a legendary pokemon after a successful raid.

Being on the yellow team was largely a cynic’s quest, where the main reward is to say that you got as far as you did. Now I’m on the blue team, where the main drawback is the angst of watching as your gym defenders actually succeed in holding down a gym for a significant period of time. Now I consistently reach the 50 PokeCoin a day limit.

Sometimes, the key to victory really is to walk the path that’s been beaten so flat that Eratosthenes could have used it to accurately calculate the curvature of the earth.

The Trump-Russia Conspiracy Theory Fizzled Out

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russian-collusion-club.jpgNo silly, it’s “password“. Now try again.

To the surprise of absolutely no one, there was no collusion between the Russians and the Trump administration to win Trump the 2016 presidential race. This was the conclusion that Special Counsel Robert Mueller has arrived at after having spent two years and $30 million taxpayer dollars at the insistence of Democrats.

Wow, $30 million dollars? There have been times in the last couple years that I’ve been eating macaroni and cheese to get by, and wouldn’t have minded just a few dollars to go out and buy a hamburger. And all this money was wasted in an effort to give credence to a blasted fantasy?

Now that one conspiracy theory is debunked, a set of fresh new ones are likely to emerge, such as Mueller possibly being paid off. I doubt I was the first to call it, but by now we’re familiar with how the shills think.

We all know that the reason why the Trump-Russia conspiracy theory came to be was because it was the best that the left could come up with after the DNC’s email server was hacked, and oodles of their emails were circulated, including ones showing that they screwed over Bernie Sanders to favor Hillary Clinton, bypassing the will of voters from their own party. So they blamed the Russians, and claimed that they hacked their emails and were in league with the Trump campaign.

To say that the DNC’s emails were hacked is pretty generous. If one could have called it a hack-job, it would have been one of the simplest hack-jobs in history. All that happened was someone guessed their password. That’s it. A grade-schooler could have pulled that off.

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What you just read in that blockquote was the DNC’s password for their emails. I kid you not. When I say “A grade-schooler could have pulled that off”, I wasn’t kidding. They invented the Trump-Russia conspiracy theory in an attempt to hide just how dim they are with cybersecurity.

I don’t know what the code for Hillary Clinton’s briefcase might be, but I suspect it’s 1-2-3-4-5.

So, what did we learn? For one thing, liars don’t prosper in the long run. Also, don’t set your password as “password”, especially if you’re hiding evidence of a conspiracy to subvert the will of the American electorate.