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?