Some Folks Just Need Killin...

Take four minutes and watch this video. Warning: it's graphic as fuck. But it still needs to be watched.

ISIS Death Squads In Iraq

People need to understand what we are dealing with here. This is the random slaughter of civilians...for fun. There's no rhyme or reason to it; they are just doing it because they can. And because they think it will inspire terror, which will in turn make it easier for them to complete their objective of a unified Sunni Caliphate that spans the breadth Iraqi and the Levant (the Levant is the Syria/Jordan/Palestine region of the Near East, for the uninitiated.) It's pure Sun Tzu; kill one to terrify ten thousand. But there's a difference here.

Civil war is one thing. Combat is combat and soldiers die, but these guys aren't simply killing soldiers. These are civilians being slaughtered. And this video is just the tip of the iceberg on ISIS atrocities. If you're feeling morbid, or just curious, you can go find beheadings, crucifixions, and all other manner of horrors committed against civilians by these fucks in recent weeks.

Take a look, people. Evil is real. It exists. And every "COEXIST" bumper sticker on the face of the earth is not going to change that fact. It's okay--admirable, in fact--to hope and strive for a better world. But it's tragic and stupid to forget the actual world we live in today.

We live in world where evil exists. And some folks just need killing. Think about this video the next time you see a sign/bumper sticker/whatever that says "No Blank Check For Endless War" or some other trite bullshit.

Sometimes good men with guns are the only solution to evil me with guns. As Jeff Cooper, LTC, USMC and firearms pioneer once said:

"The rifle is a weapon. Let there be no mistake about that. It is a tool of power, and thus dependent completely upon the moral stature of its user. It is equally useful in securing meat for the table, destroying group enemies on the battlefield, and resisting tyranny. In fact, it is the only means of resisting tyranny, since a citizenry armed with rifles simply cannot be tyrannized." 

"The rifle itself has no moral stature, since it has no will of its own. Naturally, it may be used by evil men for evil purposes, but there are more good men than evil, and while the latter cannot be persuaded to the path of righteousness by propaganda, they can certainly be corrected by good men with rifles."

Amen.

So, you like Game of Thrones?

Maybe you just got into Fantasy. Maybe you succumbed to the hype and watched Game of Thrones on HBO, then decided to read the George R.R. Martin (GRRM) books. Congratulations! However, you’re probably now in a quandary, since you have discovered that you actually like this stuff, but you have no idea where to find more of it. In that case, you’ve come to the right place.

Yes, I know there are other lists out there. Like this one. But that one sucks. I’ve read 80% of the books on that list and, while a few of them very clearly influenced GRRM, most of them are nothing at all like A Song of Ice and Fire.

As someone who’s been reading Fantasy since the 1980’s, I find it fairly gratifying that a somewhat significant slice of popular culture has at last come around to the proverbial Dark Side. On the other hand, it’s a bit annoying to me on multiple levels.

First, because you people have no goddamn idea how good you have it. Fantasy these days is so good. I would put the best Fantasy authors of 2014 up against the best fiction authors of any other genre in a heartbeat. That certainly wasn’t so 25 years ago. Yeah, there was always Tolkien. And there were certain other creations of brilliance (Earthsea, Melnibone, etc.) but for the most part reading the best Fantasy back then was equal parts wonder at the author’s world-building and frustration at his (or her) limited character development and simple archetypes. You know the story.

A young boy grows up in a remote somewhere. A Stranger comes unannounced on day, telling him know go on a Quest to perform something. If he doesn’t do this, the great evil Thingamajig will destroy the world as he knows it. Our young Hero stumbles out on his quest, losing his way many times, but eventually triumphing over Evil, and maturing much in the process.

That type of Fantasy has its uses, but Light vs Dark/Pure Good vs True Evil doesn’t resonate with most of us, because we understand that real life is far more nuanced. Call it a simpler worldview for a simpler time, if you will; Tolkien, after all, used World War One as one of his primary influences when writing The Lord of the Rings.

Ursula Le Guin’s Earthsea quartet. David Eddings’ Belgariad. Terry Brooks’ Shannara trilogy. Margaret Weiss and Tracey Hickman’s Dragonlance series., Raymond Feist’s Riftwar saga. R.A. Salvatore’s Dark Elf trilogy. Tad Williams’ Memory, Sorrow and Thorn. Janny Wurts’ Cycle of Fire trilogy…I could go on and on. These Fantasy entries from the 80’s and 90’s were all very similar in basic plot—see above. Hell, even Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time started out in such a fashion (the first book was published in 1990) before evolving into something much more along the course of 14 volumes and 23 years.

But all that has changed. Fantasy today is more cynical, nuanced, gritty, brutal, darker and in all ways more real; at least by the standards of the world we live in. You can certainly thank GRRM for that. No, he wasn’t the first to pen Fantasy in such a fashion, but he was the first to pen Epic Fantasy in such a fashion—at least to mass-market success.

It takes a certain kind of person to like GRRM’s books. You have to like long, involved, complicated, epic (the true definition of “epic”) narratives. So, if you’re that person—the kind of person that thinks 500 pages is a “light read”—then the following list is for you. I’ve listed these alphabetically by author, so as not to attempt to “list” or “rank” them, although it’s very obvious that one series stands out as my clear favorite. Enjoy!

The First Law Trilogy, by Joe Abercrombie. Not nearly as complicated as GRRMs work, but still an excellent foray into modern Fantasy, with realistic and multifaceted characters and a plotline that is equal parts gritty, brutal and humorous.

The Prince of Nothing, by R. Scott Bakker. Dark, dark, dark. I didn’t think it was possible to enjoy a story this much while not liking any of the protagonists. Bakker’s protagonists are flawed, imperfect and believably villainous; yes, those are the “good guys.”  His antagonists, however, are Eeevilllll (like the fru-its of the Devilll). There’s a lot of pain, misery, and damnation to go around in this tale. Did I mention that this shit is intricate and complex? It is. Think GRRM. The first half of the first book is slow going, whilst you familiarize yourself with the world of Earwa. But the payoff is well worth it.

The Malazan Book of the Fallen, by Steven Erikson. Quite simply, the Malazan Book of the Fallen (MBotF) is the greatest thing I have ever read in my entire life, and I believe Erikson is not only the greatest Fantasy writer, but the greatest writer of fiction—any fiction—on earth. 10 volumes and 9000+ pages spanning multiple worlds and over 100,000 years. Hundreds of POV characters. Thousands of different dramatis personae. Reading this series is work. In addition to the complexity, volume one is a bit disjointed and of a noticeably lower quality than the rest of the series, and it isn’t until halfway through the third book that we start to get a sense  of the Big Picture. But they payoff—for what at times might feel slogging through and struggling to make sense—is just sooo worth it. Oh, and make sure you have some Kleenex handy. You may or may not ball like a little bitch at times whilst reading this.  

The Wheel of Time, by Robert Jordan. This one really shouldn’t need an introduction. This is the 800-pound gorilla of Fantasy, the Epic saga by which all other levels of Epic-ness are judged. No, really. 14 volumes. Around 13,000 pages. Hundreds of different POV characters. Super quick TL;DR synopsis: books 1-6 are outstanding. From there the series starts to drag from books 7-11. 12-14 are fantastic, and remind you why you started reading in the first place. If you need something long and complicated to hold your interest, this is your huckleberry.

The Kingkiller Chronicles, by Patrick Rothfuss. The books are absolutely wonderful. The only legitimate gripe I have is that—much like GRRM—Rothfuss is a slow writer.  The Name of the Wind was released in 2007, with a The Wise Man’s Fear following in 2011, and that’s all we have so far. Doors of Stone is currently slated for an August 2015 release.

The Stormlight Archives, by Brandon Sanderson. By the time this is done, it might even surpass Erikson’s MBotF as the greatest Fantasy series ever. It’s certainly right up there. Only two volumes down so far, but that’s over 2000 pages. Luckily, Sanderson is a fast writer (this is the guy that was hand-picked by Robert Jordan to finish off the Wheel of Time series after Jordan’s death) so we should be able to expect a new volume every 18-24 months or so for the next decade.

The Lightbringer Series, by Brent Weeks. This one starts out as typical “high fantasy” (young hero, quest, etc. See above.) but gets murky and awesome almost immediately after that. There have only been two books released so far (volume 3 hits the shelves in August of 2014) but the story has been exceptional so far.

Faith Doesn't Trump Math, Dickheads

It's amazing how this is being noted as "faith questioned." I mean, unless you are an imbecile. 

From Bloomberg:
"Detroit’s record municipal bankruptcy may set precedents for how retirees and bondholders are prioritized when a locality falls into distress. It’s poised to test the assumption in the municipal-debt market that states and cities will raise taxes as high as necessary to make full payments on bonds backed by their full faith and credit."

As high as necessary eh?

So a city or other municipality can raise taxes to 100% of residents income if necessary to pay bondholders, and should? Bondholders should assume that such a premise exists?

There are plenty of people who are spending too much time in Denver smoking bong hits among these so-called "investors" and ratings agencies.  I say this because there is plenty of evidence that raising taxes provides a disincentive to behavior and, what's worse, people CAN and DO move to lawfully avoid paying said taxes.

The premise of "full faith and credit" is therefore at the outset a lie to the extent that anyone believes it means that a government can raise taxes "as high as are necessary" to make bond payments.  They can certainly try but rates are immaterial; what matters is how much you collect.

If you have a 100% tax rate but the response is that the population all quits working and sits on their ass, collecting from the public dole instead, you get zero from that tax in actual revenue.

Isn't it funny how nobody wants to talk about that little problem, even when we have Detroit as a shining example of the consequences of failing to do so?

Brace yourself. Or, as we used to say in the Army, BOHICA...

The market has selling off substantially for over 24 hours now, with no visible signs of stopping.  

The real story is in the FX markets which are utterly going apeshit, along with the Treasury Curve which is blowing wildly higher (rates); the TNX is now +5.9% on the day (10 year).  The odd part of this is that the 30 year is only up 2.4% -- but the FVX (5 year) is up a stunning 15% -- straight up. Mortgage backed securities have fallen over 200 basis points in the last 36 hours. Gold is plummeting as well.

Reduce risk folks—the FX moves alone are going to generate some very interesting margin activity over the next couple of days, and coming right into the maw of a Quad Expiration along with the bond market moves..... oh boy.

What we have here is a massive clusterfuck.  "QE" has been a disaster, irrespective of what you think about Bernanke's "crisis management."  The fact of the matter is that the "crisis" was in 2007 and 2008, The Fed caused it with its policies back in 2001-2004 and through willful and intentional failures in supervision of the banks and non-banks through 2007 and Bernanke was both there and then running the show during that time; in point of fact he was one of the chief cheerleaders for Greenspan's policies during that time period!

You can always trust the guy who blew it to blow it again and that's exactly what has happened.  Not necessarily hyperinflation; what we've done is grossly inflate fast-money asset prices while the rest of the economy does not merit those prices.

Any sort of dispassionate analysis must arrive at the same end-point--the gross and outrageous distortion of borrowing costs and "easy money" have massively diluted the currency while at the same time has led corporations to make radically uneconomic decisions that only work due to those distortions, but during the time they're in place they are the only reasonable way to satisfy investors.

That is a recipe for a massive reversion back to value and what's worse is that the costs, particularly the rollover risks that have now become embedded through the economy, are going to screw people up, down and sideways.

You and I don't see these risks because rollover risk is something that most consumers never deal with (except for those who were in Option ARMs during the bubble, of course—they got a lesson in it first-hand and most of them went ka-boom because they were stupid.)  But for corporations and governments this risk is a daily issue that never goes away.  Schools, roads, capital equipment in business and even operating expenses are often rolled up into various financing packages none of which are typically amortized to completion and retired--they are instead rolled over continually because this makes your operating results look much better than they otherwise would.

The problem is that this "picture" of the health of your enterprise is dangerously distorted.  The fact of the matter is that debt, when taken to increase production, can be beneficial provided you can and do retire it at a rate that exceeds the economic service life of whatever it buys.  When it is rolled over on a continual basis it is not beneficial; it simply adds leverage to your enterprise, whether a company or a government.

The reality of leverage is that it amplifies results, both on the upside and the downside. It's a math thing, and since we refused to learn this in 2007 we will get taught the lesson again—soon.

Brace.

We're Number One...in San Francisco??

Really? How did this happen?

I guess it explains much regarding me, personally. I did--for reasons unknown--grow up in a household that loved the University of Michigan. I can remember watching Michigan play in the Rose Bowl (what seemed like) every single year; my father going on and on about how great Bo Schembechler was and how what a  great academic school UM was.

"The Berkeley of the Midwest," he called it.

Something must have stuck. Because here I am; almost 30 years later and 2500 miles away. But you know what; turns out I didn't grow up in an isolated household. In fact, it turns a lot out people in San Franscisco love the University of Michigan.

How much?

According to Deadspin, more than any other college competing in this year's NCAA basketball tourney. More than longtime powers Duke, UNC and Kansas. More even than local entrants St. Mary's (from nearby Moraga) or UC Berkeley, who's main campus is only a jaunt across the Bay Bridge away.

Here's Deadspin regarding teams that failed to win the popular vote of their local surrounding areas.

"That leaves Cal as the most baffling: the prestigious public university didn’t manage to snag even one of the eight counties that make up the Bay Area. One went to also-local Saint Mary’s, six went to Kansas, Duke, or UNC, and San Francisco, for some reason, went to Michigan."

So I guess there's only one thing left to say.

HAIL.

That "can't happen here." Bullshit, it can't. It already has.

Anyone remember what happened 71 years ago this week?

Probably not.

On February 19th, 1942 FDR willfully and intentionally violated The Constitution, an act for which he should have been impeached. I am speaking of the Executive Order 9066, more commonly referred to as Japanese Internment--the rounding up of over 100,000 people who were frog-marched into Concentration Camps on American soil.  Far more than half of these people were American Citizens with a full and complete set of alleged Constitutional Rights.

We, America, did this.

We, America, imprisoned our own citizens without trial, without suspicion, without due process of law and without evidence. We did so merely on their genetic code and the ancestry of their parents. We did this on American soil and through the American mainland, not in some foreign combat zone.

I repeat:  We, Americans, did this.

We did this here.  We not only took these people's freedom without cause we dispossessed them of every worldly thing they owned that was not able to be carried in their hands at the time they were rounded up.

 Those who are in our government in any capacity, local, state or federal, and state that our government "would never do such a thing" are factual liars, as our government has already proved through its own actions that it not only will do so, but has done exactly that.

NEVER AGAIN is not just for Jewish people. 

It is for us all.

It's not about hunting, idiots...

In the wake of the Sandy Hook tragedy, I have tried to stay out of the Gun Control debate all weekend, due to the fact that I have very firm feelings. But one thing that struck me over the weekend is this: to a man, every single proponent of firmer gun control laws talked about how certain types of firearms are "unnecessary" for hunting or self defense. These weren't just journalists, but politicians as well.

Funny, how not a single one of them points out that the Second Amendment wasn't established with hunting in mind at all, and self-defense being a very small reason. I haven't heard a SINGLE person (so called "expert") bring up the fact that the Second Amendment was in fact established to vouchsafe the populace against the tyranny of government. The United States government. Yours and mine.

"The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government." – Thomas Jefferson 

The fact that none of these politicians bring this up should surprise me, but does not. Governments by nature want to hold on to (and/or grow) their power. Firearms threaten that, which therefore makes sense that you don't hear about this (most important) aspect of the Second Amendment.

"The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground." – Thomas Jefferson 

The greatest enemy of a police state Big Brother government is a populace that is both well-informed and armed. Since the US was established and the Constitution drafted, governments across the world have killed hundreds of millions of people--their own citizens. Not so in the US, and there is a reason for that.

"This year will go down in history. For the first time, a civilized nation has full gun registration. Our streets will be safer, our police more efficient, and the world will follow our lead into the future!" 

– Adolph Hitler [1935] The Weapons Act of Nazi Germany. 

I have heard it surmised that the Founders of our government never envisioned a world where one could purchase an .223 AR-15 with a 30-round magazine when they drafted the Declaration of Independence; that this document was drafted based on a world of muskets that required 20 seconds to load, aim and fire a single round. That's utter hogwash and anyone spewing that drivel either A.)Has an agenda, or B.)Doesn't understand the purpose of the Second Amendment. It was put in place so that average citizens could--in the event of tyranny or dictatorship--band together in the form of organized militias (almost exactly as they did during the Revolutionary War) in order to combat the forces of the government. If the intent is to ensure the population can effectively combat soldiers that in 2012 are carrying M-4s and SCAR-17s, then of course it makes sense that the average citizen should be able to purchase one.

"Germans who wish to use firearms should join the SS or the SA--ordinary citizens don't need guns, as their having guns doesn't serve the State." – Heinrich Himmler 

The Second Amendment ensures that the government is sufficiently scared of the population, which is exactly what it is intended for. The Second Amendment is what gives teeth to the rest of the Bill of Rights, and ensures "government of the people, by the people, for the people." The rights to freedoms of speech, assembly, religion, etc. don't mean squat without the Second Amendment, because it is the right to bear arms that ensures the people are in power.

"When the government fears the people, it is liberty. When the people fear the government, it is tyranny." – Thomas Paine

Sadly, this liberty has a price; collateral damage. We see it every day, According to the CDC, approximately 19,000 people were murdered in America in 2009; that's roughly 46 people per day. I won't get into the rise of mass murders over the last few decades, which in my mind is more a function of the use/abuse of psychotropic drugs amongst our youth than anything else. But the bottom line is this: people die every day through violence in America. And this is a side effect of living in a free society. It sucks, and I would love for us to find a way as a society to make it better.

The hard question is: is it an acceptable side effect of living in a free society? I would say it is. But that's a hard question that most people don't want to answer. How do you tell someone that lost a loved one in a shooting that it was "acceptable collateral damage"? It's not nice, it's not polite, and it's certainly not politically correct. But it's still accurate.

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." – Benjamin Franklin 

But when you accept the fact that we are debating the future of a nation, and the rights of your children and your children's children to grow up in free society, then it's a hard question that must be asked.

"Make yourself sheep and the wolves will eat you." – Benjamin Franklin 

 And we all know how I feel about sheep.