tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post3662219853258863652..comments2024-03-28T16:22:14.888-07:00Comments on Steve Sailer: iSteve: Susan Sontag's fame: Why?Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger112125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-54330860171468500682013-05-17T10:46:20.663-07:002013-05-17T10:46:20.663-07:00My first exposure to Sontag was "On Photograp...My first exposure to Sontag was "On Photography" back in the late 60's.<br /><br />I don't remember a single thing from it except her photo.<br /><br />I later picked up a volume of her short stories which were really boring! That's the end of my Sontag reading.<br /><br />The best explanation of what we know of homosexuality is from "Sperm Wars." <br /><br />Given the hereditary component, it must exist in equilibrium with normal heterosexual behavior (about 2% in Western industrial cultures). It has gotten consistent disdain from the bulk of all populations as a competitive threat to individual reproduction.<br /><br />Females show less dichotomy - ie more bisexuality - since they can always be impregnated, even passively. Plus, it adapts females to life in the harem under a dominant alpha male. Whitehallnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-86701869645870932382012-04-10T16:50:30.577-07:002012-04-10T16:50:30.577-07:00Anon at 3:33 am,
I just want to know, why is ther...Anon at 3:33 am,<br /><br />I just want to know, why is there homosexuality? I want a Darwinian explanation. That's what this blog is all about. Pathogen theory makes sense. Saying that other animals are homosexual is a poor argument. Pathogens occur across species and could provoke the same behavior; when monkeys get lice, they scratch - just like us!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-47898398559467922992012-04-10T09:15:58.092-07:002012-04-10T09:15:58.092-07:00"A truly odious woman intellectual would be L..."A truly odious woman intellectual would be Lillian Hellman. A liar through and through. <br />Mary McCarthy's feud with her was classic."<br /><br />Mary McCarthy on Hellman: "Everything she said was a lie including 'a' and 'the.'critiquenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-83735923533614346882012-04-10T03:33:31.042-07:002012-04-10T03:33:31.042-07:00@Anonymous 1:22 PM
"No, it's not a fac...@Anonymous 1:22 PM<br /><br /> "No, it's not a fact."<br /><br /> Yes, it is a fact. Exclusive homosexuality has been observed in birds, elephants, rodents and other species, and situational homosexuality has been observed in an even much larger number of species.<br /><br />"Homosexuality is rare to nonexistent in the natural world."<br /><br /> Wrong. <br /><br />"Again, read Gregory Cochran's writing on homosexuality. He notes that it's almost nonexistent in the natural world except for some humans and sheep."<br /><br /> That is either a blatant misrepresentation of facts or the result of poor research. Who cares what Gregory Cochran has to say, anyway? He is not a top tier scientist anyway.<br /><br />"I never said "taught", so I don't know why you're quoting that."<br /><br /> Excuse me. Now I see you subscribe to the disease theory of homosexuality<br /><br />"I don't know what specifically the vector might have been, whether it was pathogens, memes, etc."<br /><br /> I don't think a meme could turn a heterosexual man gay. As for it being cased by a virus, it leaves open the question why roughly 2% of the population are gay throughout most of the World. Viruses don't work that way. They are seasonal and different populations have different types of immune systems that would result in markedy different rates of "infection" if it were caused by a virus, you would expect extremely high rates of homosexuality in some parts of the World where their immune systems are more susceptible and much lower rates elsewhere. You would also expect higher amounts of gays of certain age groups since viruses come and go - assuming that, once infected, you are infected for life. Also, people infected with viruses show a high degree of physiological "sound". For instance, people with the flu get a running nose, brutal headaches, changes in body temperature, changes in the composition of the urine, etc. Gay men do not exhibit any physiological sound compared to straight people. The gay "lisp" could be seen as sound(literally!!!) as many have suggested, but the problem is that a LOT of gay men do not lisp, which rules out this hypothesis.<br /><br />"I said that the vector or vectors evolved in population dense, energy dense environs like civilizations and warmer areas, such as the Mediterranean world, the Mideast, Africa, etc., and spread northwards."<br /><br /> I see. But exclusive homosexuality has been observed in northern species. For insntace, there was the famous experiment that showed homosexuality among geese.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-75843893843119307762012-04-09T20:36:30.472-07:002012-04-09T20:36:30.472-07:00"Is it a legitimate hypothesis to say this is..."Is it a legitimate hypothesis to say this is the cause of cat hoarding by asexual women and their messiness and obliviousness to odor? How about the stereotype of gay men fancying cats?"<br /><br />I'm a believer that Cochran has advanced the idea that makes the most sense but I've never read that he suspects t. gondii, probably because if that were the cause of homosexuality we'd have found cysts in those affected by now.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-79236350274469705162012-04-09T20:05:49.877-07:002012-04-09T20:05:49.877-07:00"Anonymous 11:25, ummmmm that's not exact..."Anonymous 11:25, ummmmm that's not exactly a novel insight about about Schumpeterian "dynamism". e.g. George Will, Jonah Goldberg, Michael Barone have probably produced 100+ newspaper columns on that between them."<br /><br />WELL, EXCUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUSE ME!!!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-56558430657634581232012-04-09T18:16:55.198-07:002012-04-09T18:16:55.198-07:00Anonymous 11:25, ummmmm that's not exactly a n...Anonymous 11:25, ummmmm that's not exactly a novel insight about about Schumpeterian "dynamism". e.g. George Will, Jonah Goldberg, Michael Barone have probably produced 100+ newspaper columns on that between them.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-33116878966903168592012-04-09T14:20:55.362-07:002012-04-09T14:20:55.362-07:00"Anon at 7:50:
"I didn't find where..."Anon at 7:50:<br /><br />"I didn't find where the parasite caused homosexuality, but it causes mice to be attracted to cat piss and that is fascinating."<br /><br /><br /><br />I agree with you that there's nothing that ties t. gondii to homosexuality, but not only does it cause "mice to be attracted to cat piss," it has been established fairly recently that it does so by causing the sexual centers of the rodent brain to be exicited by the urine.<br /><br />4/9/12 9:50 AM"<br /><br />It is a profound effect to turn away from one's survival instincts? A mouse is quite a complex animal.<br /> Is it a legitimate hypothesis to say this is the cause of cat hoarding by asexual women and their messiness and obliviousness to odor? How about the stereotype of gay men fancying cats?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-36116066884067115362012-04-09T14:03:38.487-07:002012-04-09T14:03:38.487-07:00a) human sexuality is too simple to go wrong at hi...<i>a) human sexuality is too simple to go wrong at high frequencies</i><br /><br />You don't understand Cochran's reasoning. <br /><br />Cochran doesn't argue that it's too simple to go wrong at high frequencies. He just argues that when it does, it's due to disease pathogens.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-33927188973992547862012-04-09T13:22:06.974-07:002012-04-09T13:22:06.974-07:00It is a FACT that homosexuality has been observed ...<i>It is a FACT that homosexuality has been observed in a myriad different species.</i><br /><br />No, it's not a fact.<br /><br />Homosexuality is rare to nonexistent in the natural world. <br /><br />Again, read Gregory Cochran's writing on homosexuality. He notes that it's almost nonexistent in the natural world except for some humans and sheep.<br /><br /><i>Stating that homosexuality was "taught" to northern Europeans by Mediteraneans is a LAUGHABLE statement</i><br /><br />I never said "taught", so I don't know why you're quoting that.<br /><br />I don't know what specifically the vector might have been, whether it was pathogens, memes, etc.<br /><br />I said that the vector or vectors evolved in population dense, energy dense environs like civilizations and warmer areas, such as the Mediterranean world, the Mideast, Africa, etc., and spread northwards.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-6803439202671884142012-04-09T12:08:13.590-07:002012-04-09T12:08:13.590-07:00"According to her son's account--and I kn..."According to her son's account--and I know of no reason to disbelieve it--Sontag was apparently so desperate to live that she made choices that robbed her of dignity sooner than she otherwise would have had to relinquish it."<br /><br />I just don't wanna pass judgment on people who are facing death. <br />A friend of mine died of blood cancer right after college. Brilliant person with bright future, and he just could't handle the prospect of death. He searched and searched for a cure and struggled, doing all sorts of research, tests, experiments, going from state to state. I heard from his sister that he desperately clung to life to the last minute. Perhaps it wasn't 'dignified', but I don't wanna pass judgment. People die differently, and that's just a fact.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-48579001207427080322012-04-09T11:38:39.618-07:002012-04-09T11:38:39.618-07:00"Disease is like torture. It eats away at you...<i>"Disease is like torture. It eats away at you until it leaves you with no 'dignity'."</i><br /><br />Not necessarily. My father died of the same kind of cancer that killed Sontag (myelodysplastic syndrome) and had virtually no pain until the last few days of his life. He only discovered he had this cancer (like Sontag, he'd had another form of cancer earlier) because his feeling of fatigue caused him to go to the doctor.<br /><br />My father did receive treatment but not of the same drastic nature as Sontag's and was able to stay alone in his own home until 3 days before he died. I'm not holding him up as a paragon of dignity but I am saying that even when diagnosed with a terminal illness, one can choose to confront the disease in ways that minimize the loss of dignity attendant on any final illness. <br /><br />According to her son's account--and I know of no reason to disbelieve it--Sontag was apparently so desperate to live that she made choices that robbed her of dignity sooner than she otherwise would have had to relinquish it.<br /><br />http://www.salon.com/2008/02/13/david_rieff/<br /><br />I'm not going to bother to make the link clickable, I've already spent too much time on my reply to you.Kylienoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-61912113933372731532012-04-09T11:32:02.528-07:002012-04-09T11:32:02.528-07:00There could be two kinds of minds in thought and c...There could be two kinds of minds in thought and culture: the original and the reliable. <br /><br />Hilton Kramer went into art cuz he was really passionate about it, not because of the politics of art. But he got sick of liberal politicking in art and turned conservative. As editor of NEW CRITERION, he chose people like Kimball who was reliable than original. Kimball was a cultural hack but reliable on politics. If art came first and politics second for Kramer, the opposite was the case with Kimball. <br /><br />Same with Buckley and Lowry. Buckley was an original in his own way. He took chances. But as he grew older and NR became a cushy part of the establishment, he chose someone who was reliable than original. Someone who would try hard not to rock the boat. And that hack was Lowry.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-40828663147113899162012-04-09T11:25:58.235-07:002012-04-09T11:25:58.235-07:00The irony of American conservatism is that the con...The irony of American conservatism is that the conservatives are trying to conserve what they believe to the engine of change. Conservatives are capitalist and individualist but why? They believe capitalism and individualism lead to the fastest growth, progress, change, 'creative-destruction'. <br />American conservatives are not trying to conserve a period but a process, a process that produces most change at revolutionary speed.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-90964165929049175352012-04-09T10:07:38.504-07:002012-04-09T10:07:38.504-07:00I think where I disagree with Greg Cochran would b...I think where I disagree with Greg Cochran would be the proposals that:<br /><br />a) human sexuality is too simple to go wrong at high frequencies (bees do, birds do it... so what, birds and bees also think and use it to provision, and yet their cognition and provisioning is quite unlike ours in terms of complexity)<br /><br />b) human cultural environments through history are similar enough to today that any cultural factor causing homosexuality (through its interaction with the human sexuality system) have been present and thus any genes affected by it would already have been removed by selection<br /><br />c) in pre-modern environments, reproductive variance of homosexuality as unconstrained by cultural conditions would lead to it being removed<br /><br />I doubt all of these propositions.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-12381353232757112192012-04-09T09:50:49.864-07:002012-04-09T09:50:49.864-07:00Anon at 7:50:
"I didn't find where the p...Anon at 7:50:<br /><br />"I didn't find where the parasite caused homosexuality, but it causes mice to be attracted to cat piss and that is fascinating."<br /><br />I agree with you that there's nothing that ties t. gondii to homosexuality, but not only does it cause "mice to be attracted to cat piss," it has been established fairly recently that it does so by causing the sexual centers of the rodent brain to be exicited by the urine.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-6354406026448531332012-04-09T01:45:36.170-07:002012-04-09T01:45:36.170-07:00@Anonymous 12:23 AM
"Homosexuality hasn'...@Anonymous 12:23 AM<br /><br /> "Homosexuality hasn't been observed in most species. Homosexuality is virtually nonexistent in the natural world, aside from humans and some sheep."<br /><br /> I think you are trolling me. You are either just being disengenious or are extremely ignorant about a lot of topics. My personal opinion is that it is a combiation of both. <br /><br /> It is a FACT that homosexuality has been observed in a myriad different species. Even among gorilla, who are naturally polygamous, homosexuality occurs when young males dabble together without available females. Homosexuality has been observed in most species of higher animals.<br /><br /> Stating that homosexuality was "taught" to northern Europeans by Mediteraneans is a LAUGHABLE statement made by an obviously proud man of northern Eueopean descent who believes that homosexuality makes one inferior and that, since Mediterraneans are inferior, you think, homosexuality could only possibly manifest in Mediterraneans. I wonder how you explain all those blonde Swedish gay men who never came into contact with a Mediterrenean person in their lives...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-39468488998820809772012-04-09T00:23:01.677-07:002012-04-09T00:23:01.677-07:00Suetonius, Tacitus, and even Julius Caesar in his ...<i>Suetonius, Tacitus, and even Julius Caesar in his Comentarii De Bello Gallica observed the custom of Germanic shamans of having sex with young warriors, and the Greeks were scandalized by the sexual depravity of the Celts and the Germans they came in contact to.</i><br /><br />No, this is simply not true. Like I said Tacitus noted that the ancient Germans punished homosexuals with death by pressing them into the bog. Homosexuality among the ancient northern Europeans was basically nonexistent and unknown and only really started appearing following contact and influence from the south.<br /><br />The Celts by that time had been in nearly continual contact with the civilizations of the Mediterranean and Middle East for millenia. Celts were Germanics who failed to maintain a deadzone between them and civilization and as a result became more exposed earlier to the kinds of pathogens and memes that evolve in population dense, energy dense environs like civilizations and warmer areas.<br /><br /><i>Saying that homosexuality has only been observed in humans and sheep is OBVIOUSLY not true. It has been observed in birds, small mammals, equines and in our closest genetic relatives, the apes.</i><br /><br />No, this is not true. Homosexuality is basically nonexistent in the natural world except for humans and some sheep. Read Greg Cochran's writing about it.<br /><br /><i>The only thing more absurd than that is saying that the homosexuality in British boarding schools and the Royal Navy came from contact with Mediterraneans and Africans.</i><br /><br />The Brits by that time were northern Europeans who had had hundreds, thousands of years of contact with the Mediterranean world and Africa. They weren't <i>ancient</i> northern Europeans by then and would have been exposed long enough to the pathogens or pathogenic memes that cause homosexuality that evolved in more southerly environs and encroached northward.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-17754731348161553742012-04-08T22:45:26.461-07:002012-04-08T22:45:26.461-07:00@Anonymous 6:09 PM
"No, I'm not Christia...@Anonymous 6:09 PM<br /><br />"No, I'm not Christian.<br /><br />No, I'm right, and you're wrong. You're just spouting homosexualist propaganda. Tacitus noted that the ancient Germans punished homosexuals with death by pressing them into the bog. Homosexuality among the northern Europeans and ancient Germans was basically nonexistent and unknown. It only really started appearing following contact and influence from more the Mediterranean and southerly world.No, this isn't true. Homosexuality was not common among northern European peoples in the past. The homosexuality in the British navy and public schools was following hundreds of years after and during significant contact with the Mediterranean and African worlds.Homosexuality hasn't been observed in most species. Homosexuality is virtually nonexistent in the natural world, aside from humans and some sheep."<br /><br /> What a LAUGHABLE answer. Suetonius, Tacitus, and even Julius Caesar in his Comentarii De Bello Gallica observed the custom of Germanic shamans of having sex with young warriors, and the Greeks were scandalized by the sexual depravity of the Celts and the Germans they came in contact to.<br /><br /> Saying that homosexuality has only been observed in humans and sheep is OBVIOUSLY not true. It has been observed in birds, small mammals, equines and in our closest genetic relatives, the apes.<br /><br /> The only thing more absurd than that is saying that the homosexuality in British boarding schools and the Royal Navy came from contact with Mediterraneans and Africans. This is a BLATANT LIE and you should feel ashamed for making that statement.<br /><br /> You care for the truth? Right...you are just as bad as those gay activists who claim every historical figure was gay, except that you are at the opposite(conservative, northern European apologist) of the spectrum.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-60369563106679491402012-04-08T22:32:15.172-07:002012-04-08T22:32:15.172-07:00"How ironic then that she succumbed to cancer..."How ironic then that she succumbed to cancer--and according to her son's account, after a protracted struggle rife with pain and almost totally lacking in dignity."<br /><br />Disease is like torture. It eats away at you until it leaves you with no 'dignity'.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-161971549145109052012-04-08T21:53:53.051-07:002012-04-08T21:53:53.051-07:00"Sontag at her most chic" looked and sou..."Sontag at her most chic" looked and sounded like a man in drag.<br /><br />Deep voice, huge nose...very masculine.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-69827233236141449042012-04-08T19:47:55.254-07:002012-04-08T19:47:55.254-07:00Sontag wrote somewhere (or was it her son, David R...Sontag wrote somewhere (or was it her son, David Reiff, writing about her after she died? I don't remember) that she was always more attracted to men than to women. Sontag (or Reiff) says she decided to pursue romantic relationships with women in her late 30s because men were not paying as much attention to her, so she settled for the legions of lesbians who found her irresistible into late-middle age. <br /><br />Where did I read that? It might have been a review of the tell-all on Sontag by her son's college girlfriend who lived in Sontag's flat for a while.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-47841906448607011472012-04-08T19:46:02.345-07:002012-04-08T19:46:02.345-07:00There were two modes of thought in Europe: the Ang...There were two modes of thought in Europe: the Anglo thought and the Continental thought. Jewish intellectuals are steeped more in continentalism, and so Sontag's sensibility was more along that line. Not always logical or rational but grasping for meanings hidden in the shadows. Anglo sensibility trusts nothing outside the purview of visible light.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-74846890133317403492012-04-08T19:41:35.884-07:002012-04-08T19:41:35.884-07:00A truly odious woman intellectual would be Lillian...A truly odious woman intellectual would be Lillian Hellman. A liar through and through. <br />Mary McCarthy's feud with her was classic.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-72476209065553574582012-04-08T19:38:45.373-07:002012-04-08T19:38:45.373-07:00Sontag at her most chic.<a href="http://youtu.be/UirwUtTCfLY" rel="nofollow"> Sontag at her most chic.</a>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com