The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Rule 5 Sunday: Tracy Cortez

Posted on | June 26, 2023 | 2 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho

UFC flyweight fighter Tracy Cortez is a tough gal (10-1) but also a cutie, as Outkick noticed since they’re always on the lookout for cute sports gals. Here’s a pic of Miss Cortez outside the ring – imao, she looks a lot better with her hair down.
Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley esse delendam.

ANIMAL MAGNETISM: Rule Five Fascism Friday and the Saturday Gingermageddon. 

EBL: Saturday Night Girls With Guns, MAGA Double Standards Feat. Merrick Garland, Plague Dance, “I’m Henry The Eighth, I Am”, Jury Duty, Jonna Jinton, Sunrise At Stonehenge, Ann Wilson, Pinup Noir, and June Brides

A VIEW FROM THE BEACH: Raquel Petit – Keeping Her Nose Clean, Hunter Whistleblower Testimony Revealed, Fish Pic Friday – Ape Reel, Shy, Random Celebrity News, The Wednesday Wetness, Tuesday Tanlines, Gone Fishin’, The Monday Morning Stimulus, Check Out Her Mama, Flotsam and Jetsam on Father’s Day, Palm Sunday, Happy Surfing Day! and $30M for ‘The Big Guy’?

FLAPPR: 100 Alternative Words For Boobs, also, T.I.T.S. For June 23

Thanks to everyone for all the luscious links!

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Visit Amazon’s Intimate Apparel Shop
Shop Sex & Sensuality Gifts




Category: Rule 5

Who They Think We Are

Posted on | June 25, 2023 | 1 Comment

The editor of Iowa’s Quad Cities Times has apologized for publishing the cartoon above, after being called out on Twitter by Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, who lamented the “shameful” cartoon and said: “It’s sad that this is how the MSM views Republicans. I’ve met with grassroots conservatives across America & never *once* experienced the kind of bigotry that I regularly see from the Left.”

Several commentators have described the cartoon as “racist,” but that’s not really the point. Rather, it is the libelous attribution of hateful bigotry to Republicans which is so offensive. What this illustrates is the assumption of liberals that they are morally and intellectually superior to the rest of us, especially in regard to racial issues, but really on every subject imaginable — economic policy, climate change, gay rights, you name it. “Hate” is now defined as disagreeing with liberals.

Thomas Sowell’s 1995 book The Vision of the Anointed: Self-Congratulation as a Basis for Social Policy remains the definitive analysis of the psychology of liberalism, and if you haven’t read it yet, what the hell are you waiting for? There is a tremendous irony, by the way, in my having been branded a “white supremacist” by the SPLC, in that it was Sowell’s book that really opened my eyes to one of the false premises that informs liberal beliefs about race, i.e., that white “racism” is to blame for every ill suffered by black people. Sowell doesn’t address this specifically in The Vision of the Anointed, although he has elsewhere. Rather, one sees the point in Sowell’s criticism of the liberal “anointed” as assuming that their own good intentions are sufficient to justify any policy, from which they derive the belief that the opponents of their policies (the “benighted”) must be motivated by bad intentions. When liberals advocate some policy intended to help the homeless, for example, their rhetoric will seldom address the questions about the efficacy or necessity of the specific policy; rather, liberals will routinely portray themselves as caring about the homeless, while accusing opponents of selfish greed or cruel indifference to the plight of the homeless who, as Sowell observes, function as “mascots” for the liberal crusade.

In this way, the “anointed” liberals transform every policy question into a test of moral virtue, attributing malicious motives to anyone who fails to support the liberal agenda. They are intelligent and educated; you are stupid and ignorant. They are generous; you are greedy. And, as always, liberals conceive of themselves as the enlightened benefactors of oppressed racial minorities, while their opponents are hateful racists. In other words, the disagreement is not about the pros and cons of any particular policy, but rather about giving the anointed another opportunity to display their moral superiority, hence Sowell’s subtitle, “Self-Congratulation as a Basis for Social Policy.”

What I deduced from Sowell’s argument is this: It doesn’t really matter what your opinion is about race, in terms of whether any particular policy helps or hurts black people (or Hispanics, etc.). And as Sowell has demonstrated in several of his books, including Discrimination and Disparities, “racism” (however you may define it) is simply insufficient as an explanation for the problems affecting black Americans. Political arguments ought to be about policy, not mere sentiment, and policies ought to be evaluated with the kind of rigorous inquiry that includes examination of alternatives, including the alternative of doing nothing. Liberals are always running around pointing to some kind of “crisis,” insisting that we must do something about whatever problem they’re focused on, and whatever this something may be, it almost always involves more taxation, regulation and/or deficit spending.

Something else: Liberals never acknowledge that the problem they’re calling a “crisis” today may have been caused by the “solutions” they imposed decades earlier to address some previous “crisis.” If you ever feel neglected because you haven’t been called “racist” lately, try pointing out that many (perhaps most) of the problems now afflicting black America may be direct consequences of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Because it is seen as the signal victory of the civil-rights movement, the details of the 1964 bill — the final bill was 18,000 words long — are considered to be beyond criticism. Yet the bill was such a vast expansion of government authority, and subjected so many areas of life to supervision of federal courts, that its potential consequences were nearly infinite in scope.

Sen. Barry Goldwater voted against the 1964 act, specifically citing Title II and Title VII as unconstitutional, and likely to lead to the government mandating racial quotas in employment decisions. Beyond the specific problems with the bill, anyone can see with the benefit of hindsight that 1964 marks a dividing line — a historical fulcrum — in terms of race relations and the situation of black people in urban areas affected by “white flight.” Whether or not any of the opponents of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 predicted every harmful consequence of that legislation is beside the point. Because it represented The Vision of the Anointed — the good intentions of its sponsors — the possibility that the bill in some ways hurt black Americans is never even considered. To suggest that some of the provisions of the 1964 Civil Rights Act need to be repealed or revised is to invite denunciation as a crypto-Nazi, as if you were advocating a return to Jim Crow segregation or worse. Emotion rules the day.

Thus we return to Vivek Ramaswamy and this insulting cartoon for which the Quad Cities Times was forced to apologize. Readers will recall how, at CPAC this year, I praised Ramaswamy as “an outspoken and articulate critic of the religion of ‘Wokeism,’ but more than that . . . an enthusiastic proponent of American exceptionalism.” And I suppose that any conservative who has paid attention to Ramaswamy feels the same way, whether or not they support his presidential campaign. Conservatives still believe America is, and always should be, the land of opportunity, where anyone willing to work hard can have a shot at the American Dream, and we are sick and tired of how Democrats depict America as a wicked oppressor, crammed full of helpless victims.

Vivek Ramaswamy isn’t buying any of this victimhood narrative, and conservatives applaud him for standing up in defense of a pro-America, pro-liberty worldview. Yet liberals evidently think GOP voters would respond to Ramaswamy’s message by shouting, “Get me a Slushee, Apu!”

Because liberals are anointed, and think we are benighted.

There is so much cause for discouragement about America’s future. And yet Vivek Ramaswamy dares to express hope. Were I asked to help write his speeches, I’d encourage him to quote a great American:

“My experience of men has neither disposed me to think worse of them nor indisposed me to serve them; nor in spite of failures which I lament, of errors which I now see and acknowledge, or of the present aspect of affairs, do I despair of the future. The truth is this: The march of Providence is so slow and our desires so impatient; the work of progress so immense and our means of aiding it so feeble; the life of humanity is so long, that of the individual so brief, that we often see only the ebb of the advancing wave and are thus discouraged. It is history that teaches us to hope.”

Deo vindice.



 

 

Category: Iowa, Liberals, Racism, Thomas Sowell

FMJRA 2.0 Let It Ride

Posted on | June 25, 2023 | 1 Comment

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Another week of .500 baseball for the Senators; we took two of three from the Hated Yankees in New York and then came home to lose two of three in RFK to the Reds, getting 2b Cookie Rojas crunched for 60 days in the process. So we’ll have to make do with Mike Andrews, who is a latter-day Rogers Hornsby (good hit, no field) only without the obnoxious behavior. Perversely, we’re not getting any kind of home field advantage: between the wipeout against the Angels and this series against the Reds, we’re 1-5 at home. Ah well, it’s a long season.
Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley esse delendam.

“Maybe we should have stayed on the road” – all the Senators, especially 2b Cookie Rojas

Liberals: ‘There Is No Cancel Culture’; Also Liberals: ‘Let’s Cancel This Comic’
The Pirates’ Cove
The DaleyGator
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum



The Ontological Error of ‘Gun Violence’
The Daley Gator
EBL
357 Magnum

 

FMJRA 2.0: Back To Earth
A View From The Beach
EBL

Rule 5 Sunday: Natalya Neidhart
Animal Magnetism
A View From The Beach
EBL

In The Mailbox: 06.19.23
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum

Detroit: Transgender Woman of Color Murdered During Pride Month
Flappr
EBL

Slap on the Wrist for Hunter Biden
Flappr
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum

In The Mailbox: 06.20.23
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum

As a Commentary on Our Decadent Elite, the Missing Luxury Sub Is Near Perfect
The DaleyGator
EBL
357 Magnum

In The Mailbox: 06.21.23
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum

White Privilege or…Biden Privilege?
The Pirate’s Cove
A View From The Beach
EBL

‘Five Passengers Set Sail That Day for a Three-Hour Tour…a Three-Hour Tour’
EBL

In The Mailbox: 06.22.23
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum

Now That We’re All Dead…
EBL
357 Magnum

Crazy People Are Dangerous
EBL
357 Magnum

In The Mailbox: 06.23.23
EBL
357 Magnum
A View From The Beach

Top linkers for the week ending June 24:

  1.  EBL (16)
  2.  357 Magnum (11)
  3.  A View From The Beach (10)

Thanks to everyone for all the links!

The Big Based Book Sale continues![
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Category: FMJRA Award

Undertakers of Democracy: How the Washington Post Is Deliberately Burying the Hunter Biden Influence Scandal

Posted on | June 24, 2023 | 1 Comment

When I first joined the staff of The Washington Times in 1997, a senior editor explained to me that the difference between how they covered the news and how the hated crosstown rival Washington Post covered the news was very simple: “selection and emphasis.” During more than a decade at the conservative Times, I observed (and was a direct participant in) the process of “selection and emphasis” by which our newsroom distinguished itself as a vital alternative to the dominant liberal media machinery. That experience taught me to focus on something crucial that most people never think much about: “Who decides what the ‘news’ is? How and why are these choices made?”

Every day at The Washington Times, there were two meetings — one shortly before noon, and one about 5 p.m. — where the editors at various desks (national, foreign, metro, sports, etc.) presented their top stories to the editor-in-chief, Wes Pruden or his deputy, acting as surrogate in the boss’s absence. From among these offerings (“touted,” as we said), Pruden would select those stories that would go on the front page, A1, and in what priority. The No. 1 story of the day was usually at the top right position, or “bannered” across the top, and everything else proceeded as a consequence of those choices. If the national desk “touted” a story for the front page that didn’t make the cut, it would be placed on A3, and trust me, the reporters resented such snubs. The difference between a byline on A1 and A3 was night and day in a reporter’s mind, and when they had a story they believed was worthy of the front page, they were deeply hurt when they didn’t make the cut.

HUMAN BEINGS MAKE THESE DECISIONS.

This is my point. The answer to the question of what constitutes “news” — what is worthy of coverage, and which stories are most important — is by no means always self-evident, and it is a mistake to believe that whatever is on the front page of the Washington Post (or leading the hour on CNN) is indisputably more important than other stories, including stories that these organizations ignore altogether. Cable-TV news viewers were subjected to endless hours of “lost submarine” coverage, as if the fate of the crew of the OceanGate Titan was, without question, the most important thing in the world. But what about DeAndre Hopkins?

The reader asks, “DeAndre who?”

All-Pro wide receiver, a/k/a DHop, recently cut by the Arizona Cardinals, now a free agent. Where will he sign? Can the New England Patriots get DHop, or will they be outbid by one of their NFL rivals?

Unless you’re a Patriots fan, you probably think this is trivial nonsense, but speaking on behalf of legions of Patriots fans, let me assure you the DHop drama is infinitely more important than five chumps on a sunken sub. Were I the editor of the Boston Herald, there’s no question which story would get more coverage, especially on the front page.

Like the man said, “selection and emphasis” is what it’s about, especially when it comes to the matter of political bias in journalism. As Professor Reynolds likes to say, most journalists nowadays are merely “Democratic operatives with bylines,” and evidence of that bias is everywhere.

Friday morning, I was browsing headlines at Memeorandum on my phone while having a smoke outside the local convenience store.

“Wow,” I said to myself. “This story’s getting covered in both the Washington Post and the New York Times?” Finally this scandal is breaking through the wall of partisan propaganda, I surmised. For the record, here’s the top of the Washington Post story:

An IRS agent who supervised the investigation into President Biden’s son Hunter told lawmakers that Justice Department officials slowed and stymied the investigation, whittling away the most serious evidence of alleged tax crimes, according to a transcript of his account released Thursday.
The agent, Gary Shapley, offered a detailed and potentially damning account of prosecutors who were either timid or uninterested when it came to examining the financial misdeeds of Hunter Biden, which Shapley said included instances in which the president’s son treated prostitutes and their travel costs as his business expenses.
The agent’s account to the House Ways and Means Committee also directly challenged congressional testimony from Attorney General Merrick Garland, in which he said that Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss — a holdover from the Trump administration — had full authority to lead the investigation into Hunter Biden and could do whatever he wanted in the case.
A Justice Department spokesman stood by Garland’s previous comments, and the lead Democrat on the House committee said the allegations should not have been released publicly while lawmakers are still vetting them.
The transcript almost certainly will fuel criticism of the Justice Department’s five-year investigation of Hunter Biden, which this week led to a proposed plea agreement on two misdemeanor charges that will probably allow him to avoid jail time. Biden is due in federal court in Wilmington, Del., on July 26 to enter his guilty plea, which must be approved by a judge.
The criminal probe of Biden was given the code name Sportsman, Shapley told lawmakers, and it was “an offshoot of an investigation the IRS was conducting into a foreign-based amateur online pornography platform.”
His account offers a host of new allegations, including a text message that Biden allegedly sent on July 30, 2017, that invoked his father — at that time a former vice president — as he tried to get a business partner to fulfill some expected promise.
“I am sitting here with my father and we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled. Tell the director that I would like to resolve this now before it gets out of hand, and now means tonight,” the younger Biden allegedly told businessman Henry Zhao. “And Z, if I get a call or text from anyone involved in this other than you, Zhang, or the chairman, I will make certain that between the man sitting next to me and every person he knows and my ability to forever hold a grudge that you will regret not following my direction. I am sitting here waiting for the call with my father.”

This is an absolute bombshell, and within 10 days of Hunter sending that text to Zhao, a payment of about $5 million was sent.

What was Hunter selling? What skill or expertise did this crack-addicted loser possess that might be worth $5 million to a Chinese “business partner”? The only thing Hunter Biden had to sell — his only marketable value — was his father’s political influence. Period, end of sentence.

The authenticity of that threatening text message is not disputed. It is clearly the smoking gun of this scandal, and so it was with a sense of eager anticipation that I went back inside the convenience story Friday morning, walked to the newspaper rack, and looked at the front page of the Washington Post. Not on the top of Page A1? Hmmm.

Flipped the paper over to look at the bottom half of the front page and there, in tiny type, in a box at the bottom left of the page:

DAMN YOUR SOULS TO HELL,
YOU MISERABLE LYING BASTARDS!

Probably I muttered a few other obscenities, so offended was I by this blatant malfeasance of editorial authority. After five years of federal investigation, the controversy over the “laptop from hell,” and everything else we’ve seen in this scandal, an IRS whistleblower delivers the smoking gun in testimony to the House Oversight Committee, and you’re going to BURY THE STORY ON PAGE A15? You deserve contempt.



 

 

Category: Corruption, Joe Biden, Media Bias, Scandal

The Wonderful Joys of ‘Progress’

Posted on | June 24, 2023 | Comments Off on The Wonderful Joys of ‘Progress’

“In our day, innovations march with so rapid a stride that they quite take away one’s breath. The fantastical project of yesterday, which was mentioned only to be ridiculed, is to-day the audacious reform, and will be to-morrow the accomplished fact.”
— R.L. Dabney, 1871

The person now known as Stacie Marie Laughton went by the name Barry Charles Laughton, Jr., when he was convicted in 2008 of credit card fraud. At the time, Laughton was living with his wife Lisa in Laconia, N.H. After serving four months of a 12-month sentence, Laughton evidently realized he was actually “she,” and also, a Democrat.

Innovations were indeed marching with a rapid stride, so that by 2012, Laughton had gone from the jailhouse to the statehouse, winning election as a state representative, New Hampshire’s first transgender lawmaker.

A glowing profile at Huffington Post quoted Laughton: “My hope is that now maybe we’ll see more people in the community running, maybe for alderman. . . . I want the community to feel inspired.” Unfortunately for him/“her,” Laughton had forgotten to consult the election laws of the state for which he/“she” proposed to make laws. Under New Hampshire law, a person convicted of a felony must complete their entire sentence (including probation, the payment of restitution, etc.) before being eligible to hold office, and Barry/“Stacie” had not done this. Perhaps he/“she” believed that the change of identity might conceal his/“her” criminal past, but a local newspaper reported the facts, and Laughton was forced to resign before taking office. Less than three years later, Laughton made headlines again — not in a good way:

Stacie Laughton, the state’s first openly transgender legislator, was arrested [March 12, 2015] by Nashua police after saying she is the person responsible for calling in a hoax bomb threat at a local hospital.
Laughton, who was elected to the House of Representatives and then withdrew her candidacy days later, turned herself in . . . on a warrant for the Feb. 27 incident after spending two weeks receiving treatment at a Vermont hospital for bipolar disorder.
Police charged her with a felony count of falsely reporting an explosive.
“I have had a mental illness my whole life, and I guess this was my worst break with it. I was untreated for a long time, and I didn’t have medication,” Laughton told the New Hampshire Union Leader, adding she is very remorseful for her actions.
Laughton said she was not in the right frame of mind when she called in a bomb threat to Southern New Hampshire Medical Center around 8:30 a.m. on Feb. 27. Laughton, who also suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, described feelings of extreme impulsivity when she made the phone call.
“I wasn’t trying to hurt anyone, and it was totally out of character for me. I have put a lot behind me, and I never thought I would do this in a million years,” she said.
Laughton is expected to be charged with a felony for calling in a fake bomb threat, which prompted a systematic search of the hospital by local authorities and hospital security.
She fully admitted her involvement to police, who opted not to formally charge her until her stay at the Brattleboro Retreat, a mental health and addiction treatment facility in Vermont, was complete. Laughton maintains that she was not under the influence of anything at the time of the incident, says she is cooperating with police and is grateful that they allowed her to seek medical assistance before her arrest. . . .
“I never thought I would see the inside of a police station again,” Laughton said on Thursday before turning herself in. “I am extremely remorseful. I have been crying frequently, and I wish I had never done it.”

So, in addition to being transgender, Laughton is also bipolar and suffers from PTSD. “I have had a mental illness my whole life” — well, can’t all Democrats say the same thing? At any rate, “a judge reduced the charge to a misdemeanor and sentenced her to a six-month suspended jail term,” because Democrats never suffer serious consequences for their crimes. Just ask Hunter Biden. You might think the voters of New Hampshire would have had enough of Laughton, but you would be wrong. Despite the fact that he/“she” is mentally ill and has a criminal record, Laughton was elected to the state legislature again in 2020.

You may be shocked (but probably not) to learn that this was not the end of Laughton’s criminal career. In 2021, while serving in the legislature, Laughton was once again arrested for criminal charges:

State Rep. Stacie Laughton (D-Nashua) was arrested [July 27, 2021] on seven counts of penalty for false information, all misdemeanors. Police accuse Laughton of misuse of the state’s 911 texting system.
“From May 2021 to July 2021, officers from the Nashua Police Department’s Uniform Field Operations Bureau responded to (an apartment on) Elm Street on several occasions due to text messages being sent to the state of New Hampshire E-911 center from a telephone number associated with Laughton,” Capt. Matthew DiFava of the bureau. “On each occasion, it was determined there was no emergency by officers.”
After the seventh incident, police applied for an arrest warrant against Laughton, which was approved.
“This investigation is still ongoing and additional charges are expected,” DiFava added.

Despite this, Laughton was re-elected to the legislature in 2022, but a few weeks after election day, he/“she” was arrested on new charges:

State Rep. Stacie Marie Laughton, 38, was arrested by Nashua police on [Nov. 12, 2022] on a warrant out of Hudson on a violation of stalking order charge. She is being held in the Valley Street Jail in Manchester.
Limited information is available about the case. But Lt. Roger Lamarche, the second shift commander of the Hudson Police Department, confirmed the arrest and charge. Laughton was accused by police of communicating with the victim on social media on Nov. 8.
The protective order was filed against Laughton, who also serves as a city selectman, on July 25.
According to Lamarche, this was not the first time Laughton was arrested on charges for communicating with the victim. She was accused of stalking and harassment in late August and was arrested in early September.

Wouldn’t it appear that Laughton is a habitual offender? And given Laughton’s admission of having “mental illness my whole life,” wouldn’t you think the taxpayers of New Hampshire would be better served by sending Laughton to a state mental hospital, rather than to the state legislature? And now there’s more news about Laughton:

The arrest Thursday of a former state representative from Derry, New Hampshire, is connected to a woman from Hudson who is accused of taking explicit photos of children in her care at a child care facility in Massachusetts, sources told News 9 Investigates.
Sources did not explain the exact connection between Lindsay Groves, 38, of Hudson, and Stacie Laughton, 39, of Derry.
Groves is facing state charges in New Hampshire and federal charges in Massachusetts. She is in preventative detention after she waived her arraignment in Nashua.
Groves is charged in New Hampshire with four counts of possession of child sex abuse images. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Massachusetts is also charging her with one count of sexual exploitation of children and one count of distribution of child pornography.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Groves worked at Creative Minds Early Learning Center in Tyngsboro, Massachusetts, where she allegedly used the children’s bathroom breaks to take nude photos of them in a private bathroom and text them to a person she was in a relationship with.
The pictures included four photos of children who appear to be 3 to 5 years old.
Officials said there were more than 2,500 text messages sent between Groves and a former partner talking about transferring the photos.
Groves wasn’t in the New Hampshire courtroom as she waived her arraignment, and the prosecution and defense agreed that she be held without bail. Groves’ parents were in the courtroom in Nashua and said she’s innocent. . . .
Groves is scheduled to be back in court in New Hampshire on Aug 30. She will appear in federal court in Boston on a future date.
Nashua police on Thursday evening announced the arrest of Laughton on four counts of distribution of child sexual abuse images.
Investigators said they spoke to people on Tuesday who indicated Laughton had distributed sexually explicit images of children.
Laughton was arrested on Thursday and was expected to appear in court on Friday for an arraignment.

Documents in the federal case against Groves do not identify Laughton, but you can read between the lines:

An employee of a Tyngsboro day care faces federal child exploitation and pornography charges after she allegedly took nude photos of children at the day care and then shared the images with a person she had previously been in an intimate relationship with. . . .
The alleged photographs were taken between May 2022 and June of this year.
An affidavit filed in federal court by a special agent with the Department of Homeland Security states the investigation began on June 20, when the Nashua Police Department was contacted about a woman who was allegedly showing pornographic images of children to other adults.
According to the affidavit, the woman allegedly disclosed to one adult that she had obtained the images from Groves.
The affidavit states on June 20, the Nashua Police interviewed the woman, who is not identified in the charging documents. The woman confirmed she had formerly been in an intimate relationship with Groves and allegedly admitted that Groves had sent her sexually explicit images of children.
The following morning, police executed a search warrant at Groves’ home in Hudson. At that time, the affidavit states Groves told police that her former intimate partner had requested she take photos of nude children at the day care for her “sexual gratification.”

Wow, this is bad — even by Democrat standards.

Does the community feel “inspired” yet?



 

 

Category: Crime, Democrats, New Hampshire, The Transgender Cult

In The Mailbox: 06.23.23

Posted on | June 24, 2023 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 06.23.23

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Anybody have “Russian civil war during bloody unsuccessful foreign misadventure” on their 2023 bingo cards?
Usual weekend deadlines for the usual weekend posts.
Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley esse delendam.

From r/NonCredibleDefense

OVER THE TRANSOM
357 Magnum: Tesla, Batteries, & Human Rights Abuses
EBL: Dreaming about Ocean Gate
Twitchy: Mercenary Rebellion Against Russia?, Watch Increasingly Desperate Special K Glitch Out Trying To Avoid Hunter Biden Questions, and Canuckistani Journo Tries Deleting Insane Tweet About Elon Musk’s Followers – But The Internet Is Forever
Louder With Crowder: UFC’s Dana White confirms Elon, Zuckerberg “dead serious” about charity cage match as YOU make your predictions
Vox Popoli: Not Meeting Expectations on Any Front, also, A Word to the Fearful
According To Hoyt: Update On Itty Bitty Kitty, Dominion Voting Machines, Insecure by Design, and The Best Laid Plans
Stoic Observations: The Kwanzaa Reference
Gab News: The Terminal Decline Of Civilization & Hope For The Future

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
American Conservative: Teaching the Truth About Communism
American Greatness: Reps. Greene, Stefanik Move to Expunge Trump Impeachments from Congressional Record, Wisconsin GOP to Cut University’s Funding for ‘Diversity’ Programs, and California Bill Would Enable Therapists to ‘Emancipate’ 12-Year-Olds from Their Own Parents
American Power: Submersible Passengers Died in Implosion
American Thinker: President Trump Did What Ross Perot Could Not, Saying the Quiet Part Out Loud, and It’s Not The 50-50 Country that the Woke Want Us to Think It Is
Animal Magnetism: Rule Five Fascism Friday
Babalu Blog: Cuba’s oligarchs blame island’s extreme food shortages on climate change, Cuba boasts of hosting 1.2 million visitors in past 5 months, nearly half of them Canadians, and Afro-Cuban/Afro-American nun is declared ‘Venerable,’ first step toward canonization
BattleSwarm: LinkSwarm for June 23
Behind The Black: SpaceX launches 56 more Starlink satellites, Ariane-6 engineering test rocket at launchpad for engine tests, House Democrats propose and Republicans approve Space Force increasing spaceport fees, Determining whether a Martian crater is impact or volcanic, and Real pushback: Thirteen university-run child mutilation clinics to shut down this year
Cafe Hayek: Pilkington Is Mistaken About Trade Deficits
CDR Salamander: Fullbore Friday
Chicago Boyz: Book and Movie Review: The Valley of Decision
Da Tech Guy: Five Fast Thoughts Under the Fedora
Dana Loesch: News You May Have Missed
Don Surber: The Wages Of BLM
The Geller Report: NO LOCKDOWNS, NO VAX MANDATES, Sweden Wins With Lowest Pandemic Mortality in Europe, also, SHOCKING! Planned Parenthood Brought Monstrous, Depraved Sex Acts Cards To School To Teach Children
Glenn Reynolds: Run Silent, Run Very Very Deep
Hogewash: Team Kimberlin Post of the Day, Sonification: Chandra, Spitzer, Hubble, and M104, and Meanwhile, in Russia
Hollywood In Toto: Why Are John Cusack, Chevy Chase (and Randy Quaid!) Hitting the Road?, also, Woke Grease Prequel Canceled, Erased from Paramount+
The Lid: Biden Lies About Guns And The Founders Again
Legal Insurrection: USDA Gives OK for Sale of ‘Lab Grown Meat’ to Public, White House Refusing To Answer Questions About Hunter Biden’s Threatening WhatsApp Message, Lawsuit Against Bias Response Team at Virginia Tech Could Go to Supreme Court, Europeans Mutiny Against Committing Economic Suicide by Green Energy Policy, and Macon Bacon Baseball Team Facing Calls to Change Name, Stop ‘Glorification of Bacon’
Nebraska Energy Observer: Scattershot Friday
Outkick: Carson Wentz Hunted A Giant Black Bear In Alaska And Some People Aren’t Happy About It, Max Kellerman’s Future At ESPN Is Up In Air, With Both Radio And TV Shows Ending, Shakoi O’Neal! Shaq Now Owns A Massive Koi Shipped In From Japan, Names It ‘Charles Barkley’, LSU And Tommy ‘Tanks’ Top Wake Forest With Walk-Off HR In 11th To Reach World Series Final Series, Gradey Dick Stole The Show During NBA Draft, Likely Just Getting Started, and Donna D’Errico Slips Back Into Iconic Baywatch Swimsuit To Reclaim Title As ‘America’s Hottest Lifeguard’
Power Line: Thoughts from the ammo line, The Roof Is Collapsing On Biden, and On Merrick Garland, a Smoking Gun
Shark Tank: House Republicans Protect Everglades Funding
Shot In The Dark: Rule Changes, also, Anniversary!
This Ain’t Hell: Valor Friday, Rules for us but not for them, Super Size That? Fast Food Jobs Bad For Recruiting, Military base at center of drag contraversy hosted pride reading event for kids, and Justice and equality before the law…aw, the hell with it
Transterrestrial Musings: This Fine EdD, Our Titanic, and NASA’s Latest Budget Issue
Victory Girls: Australia Hates Elon Musk
Volokh Conspiracy: Making Sense of Arizona v. Navajo Nation, also, Supreme Court Rules Red States Lack Standing to Challenge Biden Immigration Enforcement Guidelines
Watts Up With That: Hollywood Climate Summit: A Pompous Spectacle of Celebrity Virtue Signaling
The Federalist: Why Gutting Title IX Is Psychological Warfare, How The Ballot Amendment Process Became Democrats’ New Strategy To Entrench Their Agenda Into Law, Delaware U.S. Attorney’s Office Buried Biden-Bribery Allegations AG Barr Sent For Investigation, Local Wisconsin Supervisor Calls For Police Investigation After Child Participates In Madison’s Adult Naked Bike Ride, and New FBI Whistleblower Says Deputy Director Threatened Agents Uncomfortable With J6 Investigations
Mark Steyn: Live Around the Planet

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Category: Linkagery

Crazy People Are Dangerous

Posted on | June 23, 2023 | Comments Off on Crazy People Are Dangerous

James Lanier (left); Express Mini Mart (right)

Everyone agrees that the late James Windale Lanier had “been dealing with mental health issues,” as WCTI-TV put it. But despite the relevance of this information to Lanier’s untimely demise earlier this year, I’ve been unable to find any media account that specifies how these “issues” had been diagnosed or treated. Because I’m not a licensed clinician and don’t have a copy of the latest Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders handy, I should avoid speculation about Lanier’s mental condition on the evening of Feb. 24. However, based on the report of his behavior, I think it fair to conclude that he was daft, demented, deranged, bonkers, berserk, off his rocker, nuttier than a Snickers bar, a few fries short of a Happy Meal, and cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs.

You see, the late James Lanier was naked at the Express Mini Mart in Wallace, North Carolina, on the evening in question. A clerk at the convenience store called 911 at 10:56 p.m. to report that Lanier was naked, spitting on customers, and trying to start a fight. Three minutes later, the first cop arrived on the scene, and immediately confronted Lanier. Less than 30 seconds after the officer exited his patrol car, Lanier struck him. The officer retreated, repeatedly yelling “get back” at Lanier, who nevertheless advanced on the officer. The officer deployed his taser, but it had no apparent effect. Then the officer pulled his pistol and fired three shots, one of which fatally struck Lanier.

All of this information is derived from a 14-page statement issued last month by District Attorney Ernie Lanier, whose report noted that the situation “rapidly escalated,” and that less than a minute transpired between the officer exiting his patrol car and the fatal shot being fired. Lee said that the officer’s actions were justified, based on the threat posed by Lanier’s behavior. No charges will be filed.

Of course, the family demands answers:

Attorney Ben Crump was in Wallace on Wednesday for a press conference where he demanded the release of video footage in the death of James Lanier.
Crump was joined by members of the victim’s family along with additional attorneys, members of the Duplin County NAACP and others who spoke and kept the chant of “release the video.”
“Don’t say no more, release the video, don’t say no more, release the video,” Crump said as others joined in his chant.
Crump, a nationally renowned civil rights and personal injury attorney, and the others spoke at Adoram Baptist Church in Wallace during the press conference. Together, they demanded the release of footage in the death of Lanier, an unarmed Black man who was shot and killed outside the Express Mini Market at 814 N. Norwood St. around 11 p.m. on Feb. 24. . . .
“Just understand this thing. I’m trying to say we are trying to save our race and all this stuff. The officer incited race when he shot and killed a black man with a mental health crisis,” Crump said. . . .
“James should be with us,” said Dawn Blagrove, an attorney with Emancipate NC. “And we’re not asking that general had been treated with special care. We’re just asking that he be treated with the same care.”
Family members said they are pushing for the video footage to be made public so people can make their own opinions on the incident.
“I need somebody to help me find justification for them shooting my son, so I want everybody to watch the video so they can show me what I see,” said James Lanier Sr., the father.
Meanwhile, Crump is standing beside the family, fighting for justice.

Oh, he’s “fighting for justice,” is he? Isn’t it more likely that Crump is fighting for a large payoff from the city, so he can collect his lucrative fee as attorney for the Lanier family? It seems to me that this demand for releasing the video (both from surveillance cameras at the store and from the body-worn cameras of the officers on the scene) reflects a belief on the part of Crump that the video would help incite the kind of destructive race riots mostly peaceful protests that would give the city an incentive to make a wrongful death settlement, despite the DA’s finding that the officer acted legally during the incident. And to point out a common factor this incident shares with lots of similar incidents, why is it that no reporter who does these “Family Demands Answers” stories ever asks: “Why didn’t you do something about your nutjob kid before he got shot by the cops?” I mean, how is it that Lanier’s family bears no responsibility for him ending up naked at the Express Mini Mart that night?

Wouldn’t it have been better for him to be strapped into a straitjacket, locked in a padded cell and dosed with Thorazine, than to let his mental illness — whatever the diagnosis was — escalate until he ended up in what seems to have been a suicide-by-cop situation? Because you’ve got to be far gone down the road to Crazytown not to realize that when a cop points a gun at you and yells, “back up,” maybe you should back the fuck up.

Oh, the local police chief has thoughts:

Wallace Police Chief James Crayton came to Wednesday’s press conference to listen to what the community had to say.
“Race had absolutely nothing to do with this,” Crayton said. “The police officer was not white. If and when the superior court judge orders that release, we’ll be happy to release it.”

Does it strike you that Chief Crayton is demonstrating the serenity of a Christian holding four aces? He’s seen the video. He’s not afraid of anything. That speaks volumes about this case.

Mental illness is a serious problem in our society, and nobody wants to see people die this way. As a treatment for acute psychiatric disorders, 124 grains of lead traveling at 1,000 feet per second is perhaps not the preferred medication, but it usually provides a permanent cure.

Remember: Crazy People Are Dangerous.



 

 

Category: Crime, North Carolina

Now That We’re All Dead …

Posted on | June 23, 2023 | Comments Off on Now That We’re All Dead …

In case you missed it, humanity was wiped out Tuesday, according to angry Swedish adolescent Greta Thunberg who, for some reason, decided it was prudent to delete that tweet. Her apocalyptic prediction is part of a long series of false prophecies by environmental doomsayers following in the failed footsteps of Population Bomb author Paul Ehrlich who, despite being completely debunked, is still sought out as an “expert” by the liberal media. One cannot help but notice that the same people who’ve been wrong about everything regarding climate change — exactly none of their dire predictions have come true — were also the people telling us that The Science™ required economically destructive lockdowns, compulsory masking and mandatory vaccines to deal with COVID-19, all of which measures proved either unnecessary or only modestly efficacious in stemming the pandemic. Coincidence? I don’t think so.

The thing is, intelligent observers have known for decades that the “climate change” hysteria is not scientific. Ronald Bailey is an award-winning science writer for Reason magazine. In 1993, he published Ecoscam: The False Prophets of Ecological Apocalypse, and in 2002, he published Global Warming and Other Eco Myths: How the Environmental Movement Uses False Science to Scare Us to Death. Both of these books, now more than two decades old, are crammed with scientific truth in opposition to the pseudoscientific bullshit of “climate change” and other such environmentalist doomsday myths.

When people say, as they sometimes do, “you ought to write a book” about such a topic, I’m filled with a sense of futility. What’s the point of writing a book debunking “climate change” or some other false liberal belief, when there is already a vast library of books proving that liberals are always wrong about everything? Whatever the issue may be — economics, foreign affairs, education, race relations, you name it — if liberals have any clear set of consensus beliefs on a subject, their opinions and policy preferences are without exception demonstrably wrong.

And yet, Joe Biden is president.

Why even bother pointing out the errors of liberalism? It’s clear that at least half the population is emotionally committed to the pursuit of irrationality and error, no matter what the facts may be.

Yet despite the hopelessness of curing these fanatics of their mental disorder, Catherine Salgado at PJMedia points out the latest evidence that the “climate change” kooks are wrong: Computer-model predictions of temperatures in the U.S. “corn belt” (i.e., the agricultural heartland that feeds the world) have all overestimated the warming trend.

(Hat-tip: Stephen Green at Instapundit.)

In the past 50 years, the actual temperature increase was minimal, a fraction of a single degree of warming. But every one of the computer models predictions had predicted at least twice as much of an increase, with some missing it by far larger factors. This is not a minor error, nor is it a trivial matter. If “climate change” was real, the possibility of dramatic warming in the world’s prime agricultural region — producing severe droughts and other adverse weather effects — would be catastrophic. But the predictions were all wrong, and there has been no catastrophe.

And despite Greta Thunberg’s prediction that humanity would be wiped out by Tuesday, I’m still very much alive, and so are you. And I’m glad. Otherwise, you couldn’t HIT THE FREAKING TIP JAR.



 

 

Category: Global Warming, Science
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