The Other McCain

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

Rule 5 Sunday: May Flowers

Posted on | May 8, 2016 | 7 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho

There’s an old saying that “April showers bring May flowers,” but that seems to have been reversed out here in the desert, where April was rather dry but the beginning of May has been rather damp and a tad chilly. Still, that’s no reason not to use this young lady and her tulip as an appetizer for this week’s post.

Not all flowers are the result of careful gardening…or are they?

Goodstuff leads off this week with Jacqueline Bisset – for SCIENCE! 90  Miles from Tyranny follows with Hot Pick of the Late Night, Morning Mistress, and Girls with Guns, while Animal Magnetism presents a Rule 5 Trumpkin Friday and the Saturday Gingermageddon. The Last Tradition brings us Megan Fox and Devon Windsor, Political Clown Parade returns with more Flowing Curves of Beauty, and First Street Journal salutes the ladies at BCT Fort Jackson.

EBL’s herd this week includes Trigger Warnings, Natalia Lima, Sway, Something In Common, Jennifer Beals, and Furries.

A View from the Beach presents Kelly Rohrbach and the Baywatch Reboot, High School Student Goes Topless for School Photo, Tanlines Thursday, Bad News, Boys, Young Women Chant, Take Off Shirts for Trump, Hot Mama Sued Over Organic Labeling, Another Victory for Socialism – No Money for Beer and Eat More Chocolate!

Soylent Siberia submits a steamy coffee creamer, followed by your Monday Motivationer, Tuesday Titillation with Kyla, Humpday Hawtness, Falconsword Fursday Perfection, Corset Friday with Leather and Lesbian Subtext, T-GIF Friday, Weekender In The Wild, and Bath Night Old School.

Proof Positive’s Friday Night Babe was Francesca Chillemi, his Vintage Babe was Phyllis Coates, and Sex in Advertising is covered by Trudy. At Dustbury, it’s Angela Bofill and Julia Roberts.

Thanks to everyone for their linkagery! Deadline to submit links to the Rule 5 Wombat mailbox for next week’s wild weekend in Reno is midnight on Saturday, May 14. Deadline to submit links for the FMJRA is noon on the 14th; please do try not to get them confused! If necessary, cc: my main mailbox with your FMJRA links.

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Category: Rule 5

FMJRA 2.0: Seven Days To Reno

Posted on | May 7, 2016 | 7 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho

First, thanks to everyone who bought stuff through my Amazon links in April; secondly, a reminder that next Friday I’ll be driving up to Reno for the Nevada State GOP convention at which there will hopefully be shenanigans, hilarity and tears to be harvested for the entertainment of our Loyal Readers. If you’d like to kick in a few shekels for gas and McFood, in the tradition of the great Shoe Leather Journalism Fund, it would be very much appreciated.




What #TrigglyPuff Means
Free Canuckistan
Antimisandry
Bookworm Room
90 Miles from Tyranny
Batshit Crazy News

Rule 5 Sunday: Blue Shirt Double-Dip Edition
90 Miles from Tyranny
A View from the Beach
Proof Positive
Animal Magnetism
Batshit Crazy News

FMJRA 2.0: Strange News From Clark County
A View from the Beach
Batshit Crazy News

In The Mailbox: 05.02.16
A View from the Beach
Proof Positive

Lawsuit Says Feminist @jenniferbedbaum Fired Employee in Purge of Lesbians
90 Miles from Tyranny
Batshit Crazy News

In The Mailbox: 05.03.16
A View from the Beach
Proof Positive
Batshit Crazy News

Delusions of Persecution: #TrigglyPuff’s Feminist Friend Jennie Chenkin Is Crazy
Batshit Crazy News

The Despicable David Brooks
Batshit Crazy News

In The Mailbox: 05.05.16
A View from the Beach
Proof Positive
Batshit Crazy News

The White Donkey and Other Tales of War
Batshit Crazy News

In The Mailbox: 05.06.16
Proof Positive
Batshit Crazy News

Top linkers this week:

  1.  Batshit Crazy News (10)
  2. (tied) A View from the Beach and Proof Positive (5)

Thanks to everyone for their linkagery!

The White Donkey
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Category: FMJRA Award

Connecticut Outlaws College Sex

Posted on | May 7, 2016 | 236 Comments

“Affirmative consent”:

If you’re a college student in Connecticut and want to have consensual sex, you might want to leave the state to do it.
The Legislature approved an “affirmative consent” bill Wednesday night that now goes to Democratic Gov. Dannel Malloy, a proponent of the idea that sex is rape if one partner does not get the other partner’s repeated and mutually-agreed upon consent throughout the act.

The problem with “affirmative consent” is that such laws make it practically impossible to use circumstantial evidence as a defense against an accusation of rape. It is not enough to show that a woman voluntarily went to a man’s dorm room with the intent to have sex; it must be shown that she agreed to engage in specific sex acts. Thus, “affirmative consent” shifts the burden of proof so decisively against the accused that the accusation alone suffices as proof of guilt. All sex is effectively illegal, requiring only an accusation to make your hookup a crime.

Ashe Schow at the Washington Examiner:

From the moment the students are about to touch, they would have to ask: “May I kiss you?” “May I touch you here?” etc. . . .
The policy decouples context from the totality of the sexual experience. If a student fails to ask for permission before one escalation, but asks for it for a different escalation, the entire encounter can be considered sexual assault. If a student has been drinking (the bill doesn’t require an accuser to prove they were incapacitated), then all consent is negated. Further, once someone is accused, their level of intoxication doesn’t matter, even if under the same policy they could be considered too incapacitated to consent. . . .
Past sexual encounters between two people also don’t count as consent, so even people in years-long relationships are required to follow these rules or they’ve committed rape (unless, of course, no one reports it).
That’s the thing about these policies: No one has sex this way, which means every student (even the accusers) are sexual assaulters and sexual assault victims. . . .
All an accuser has to do is claim they were too drunk and that they were not asked for consent and the accused is considered guilty, thanks to pressure from the federal government. Following this policy to the letter means nothing if an accuser claims one did not follow it precisely.

Greg Piper at the College Fix:

Only one lawmaker opposed the bill, Republican Sen. Joe Markley, saying it creates an uneven playing field between college students and others, the Hartford Courant reports:
“It criminalizes what many of us would consider entirely normal,” Markley said. “Almost any of us would say that we have done things under this policy which do not correspond to affirmative consent. To ask to change that behavior would ask to change human behavior.”

It’s 2016, and “entirely normal” human behavior is a crime.

Remember, guys: Never Talk to a College Girl.

UPDATE: Reporting another “John Doe” case, this one involving the University of St. Thomas, a Catholic school in Minnesota, Greg Piper remarks:

It should be abundantly clear by now that any disputed sexual contact between male and female college students will get the male in trouble, even if the female initiated sex and hard evidence contradicts her account.

To repeat what I have said before:

The more I read about the current climate on America’s college and university campuses, the more convinced I am that no man smart enough to go to college would ever be stupid enough to date a college girl.
Feminists have ginned up a frightening hysteria of anti-male fear among female students. Any boy who kisses a girl on campus could be expelled for sexual assault, and even speaking to a college girl might result in accusations of harassment.

Never Talk to a College Girl. Warn your sons, America.

 

Category: Education, Sex Trouble

In The Mailbox: 05.06.16

Posted on | May 6, 2016 | 4 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho


OVER THE TRANSOM
Proof Positive: Call Me Cassandra
EBL: Damian Lewis In Julius Caesar – Antony’s Funeral Oratory
Da Tech Guy: The Best Explanation For Jew Hatred I’ve Ever Read
The Political Hat: Nevada Democrats Celebrate Trump’s Nomination
Michelle Malkin: Hey, Silicon Valley – American STEM Workers Are Right HERE
Twitchy: “Selfie President” Reminds Trump Being POTUS Is No “Reality Show”
Shark Tank: GOP Does Not Want To Unify Behind Donald Trump


RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
American Power: “When Traditional Religion Is Rejected, The Odds Are Pretty Good That Something Cultish Will Replace It”
American Thinker: Trump Supporters Need To Be Held Accountable
BLACKFIVE: Book Review – Blood Defense by Marcia Clark
Don Surber: What A Coal Miner Tweets
Jammie Wearing Fools: White House Admits It Played Us For Fools to Sell Iran Deal
Joe For America: Hacker Easily Gained Access To Hillary’s Server – People Died
JustOneMinute: Two Thumbs Down
Pamela Geller: Genocide In The Congo – Christians Hacked To Death As Thousands Flee Continuing Muslim Violence
Protein Wisdom: Thoughts My Brain Made
Shot In The Dark: Death Is Easy, Survival Is Hard
STUMP: Lunchtime Pension Post – Around The Web In 20 Minutes!
The Jawa Report: Zo! Noooooo!
The Lonely Conservative: FNC Hosts Silent As Trump Spouts Conspiracy Theory About Cruz’ Dad And Lee Harvey Oswald
The Quinton Report: Former Cruz Consultant Blasts GOP, Conservatives
This Ain’t Hell: SFC Richard Crossen Saving The World
Weasel Zippers: Homeland Security Officer Murders Wife, Shoots Three Others At Bethesda, Md. Mall


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Category: Linkagery

A Little Coonskin In The Game

Posted on | May 6, 2016 | 11 Comments

by Smitty

One of the rare pleasures amid our slow-motion political collapse is sending ‘shop notions to my curmudgeonly friend over at Political Clown Parade: . In defense of Kerry: he hasn’t managed to get an Ambassador butchered; he thinks a mail server is having a dude wait his table down ‘the country club; and he’s not much of a Presidential threat anymore. As long as you’re not living in an area where American foreign policy ineptitude has significantly increased the chaos, he’s mostly harmless.

“If Assad’s strategy is to somehow think he’s going to just carve out Aleppo and carve out a section of the country, I got news for you and for him: this war doesn’t end.” He also suggested that if serious progress is not made toward politically removing Putin’s puppet from power by August the Obama Administration would have no other choice but to dramatically change its approach to Syria’s 5-year-old civil war.

In future administrations, our foreign policy would seem to be heading toward a “default isolationism”. Bismarck was a brilliant foreign minister. The battleship Bismarck proved that being immensely powerful really macht nichts if your rudder has you stuck in a Lefty turn, swinging through all possible courses, awaiting your demise.
Kerry is a disaster on land or at sea.

Category: Uncategorized

The White Donkey and Other Tales of War

Posted on | May 5, 2016 | 4 Comments

— by Wombat-socho


Most of you who are interested in the Marines, or military humor period, are probably familiar with Max Uriarte’s webcomic Terminal Lance. Well, Max had a Kickstarter a while back so he could devote all his waking hours not spent on the webcomic, hookers, and booze to his magnum opus, The White Donkey. While Abe and Garcia appear in this too, it is as different from the webcomic as combat is from garrison duty, and it is a harrowing read. I don’t get emotional over books too often, but The White Donkey hit me like a Mike Tyson sucker punch, and I maintain that if you don’t have a similar reaction, you have no soul. I don’t want to get into the details, because it’s really a short story in the form of a graphic novel and to discuss the plot would spoil it, but I cannot recommend it highly enough.


Not quite as hard-hitting, but still containing some first-class combat SF, is the Castalia House reissue of Jerry Pournelle’s There Will Be War Volume IV, formerly subtitled The Day of the Tyrant. Among the great stories in this volume are Poul Anderson’s “No Truce With Kings”, “Interim Justice” by William F. Wu, and “Three Soldiers” by D.C. Poyer; it also includes G.K. Chesterton’s epic poem “Lepanto” and a fair amount of non-fiction that unfortunately seems to be coming around to being topical again. Recommended.


Old stuff I’ve been (re)reading of late: Alexis Gilliland’s The End of the Empire, which I’ve previously reviewed (back in March, as it happens) and am obviously still quite fond of. Also, Robert Frezza’s A Small Colonial War, first book of Frezza’s Suid-Afrika trilogy, previously reviewed here.


Category: Books

In The Mailbox: 05.05.16

Posted on | May 5, 2016 | 4 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho


OVER THE TRANSOM
Proof Positive: Re-elect Donald Trump
The Camp of the Saints: Swing And Sway With Donny – Hey!
EBL: Natalia Lima & Ed Henry Fox News Scandal
Da Tech Guy: Baldilocks – Inserting a Brand-New Language Into A Not-So-New Brain
The Political Hat: Survival Guide For Social-Justice-Minded Special Snowflakes
Michelle Malkin: Tale Of Two Tribes – “Climate Refugees” Vs. EPA Victims
Twitchy: Hillary Clinton Suffers Convenient Memory Loss During Anderson Cooper Interview
Shark Tank: Top McCain Aide Says He’d Back Clinton Over Trump


RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
American Power: Vox Day – “Why I Support Donald Trump”
American Thinker: Get Over What About Trump, Exactly?
BLACKFIVE: Book Review – I Let You Go By Clare Mackintosh
Don Surber: With Malice Toward None
Jammie Wearing Fools: Washed-Up Hag Madonna Claims Ridiculous Outfit Was “Political Statement”, Not Desperate Plea For Attention
Joe For America: Want To Watch A West Virginia Coal Miner Rip Hillary A New One?
JustOneMinute: Sharing His Pain
Pamela Geller: EBay Removes Mohammed Cartoon Auction
Protein Wisdom: The Bully You’ve Brought To The Party…
Shot In The Dark: Minneapolis – “We Can’t Be Bankrupt, We Still Have Checks!”
STUMP: Puerto Rico Watch – PR Defaults! Again! Also, A New Jersey Connection
The Jawa Report: Sandcrawler PSA – What Communists Eat
The Lonely Conservative: Who Is John Galt?
The Quinton Report: Kasich Event With Bob Ehrlich Likely Off
This Ain’t Hell: Senate Caves To Unions In VA Omnibus Bill Dispute
Weasel Zippers: Oldest WW2 Veteran Dies At 110
Megan McArdle: The Four Horsemen Of The Republican Apocalypse


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Category: Linkagery

The Despicable David Brooks

Posted on | May 5, 2016 | 264 Comments

 

Once upon a time, David Brooks Fisking Day was celebrated here every Tuesday. The New York Times‘ token “conservative” column was so predictably wrong about nearly everything — his political instincts are so bad — that I had to lash him around every week just to relieve my system of the excess bile generated by reading his pretentious bulls–t. At least twice, circa 2007-2008, I walked out of events where Brooks spoke; the experience of being in the same room with him was intolerable. Once, a fews years ago, I found myself in a discussion with Jonah Goldberg as to which New York Times columnist was worse, David Brooks or Thomas Friedman. Goldberg insisted Friedman was worse than Brooks, and I suppose it’s a matter of opinion, but in my opinion, Goldberg is wrong. Friedman may be demonic, but David Brooks is Satan.

“Brooks should never be argued with — he should be mocked, and often, and by someone who knows how.”

Why do I hate David Brooks so much? Because I am a populist, a Jacksonian who believes that the American people deserve a government that serves their interests, and not the interests of a decadent elite. All elites eventually become decadent and corrupt. This is what history teaches, and our country is being ruined by the sort of people David Brooks rubs elbows with during his annual pilgrimages to Davos, deracinated cosmopolitans with no loyalty to anything, devoted to no principle except the increase of their own wealth, status and power. The comprehensive wrongness of David Brooks eventually became so glaringly apparent — about the time he expressed his admiration of Barack Obama’s pants creases — that everyone realized he is Satan. Once his diabolical wrongness was universally acknowledged, everybody with a blog got in on the Brooks-fisking game, and I lost interest in the sport. Nowadays, it takes a really spectacular exercise in Brooksian douchebaggery to get my attention, and he delivered such a specimen earlier this week:

Donald Trump now looks set to be the Republican presidential nominee. So for those of us appalled by this prospect — what are we supposed to do?
Well, not what the leaders of the Republican Party are doing. They’re going down meekly and hoping for a quiet convention. They seem blithely unaware that this is a Joe McCarthy moment. People will be judged by where they stood at this time. Those who walked with Trump will be tainted forever after for the degradation of standards and the general election slaughter. . . .

OK, let me interrupt this to make an important announcement. I hadn’t been planning to do this, but I now officially endorse Donald Trump.

If David Brooks hates Donald Trump, then it is my duty as a patriotic American to love Donald Trump. And if David Brooks says the fall election will be a “slaughter” for Republicans, this means Trump will win. And now let’s return to the total wrongness of David Brooks:

The suicide rate has surged to a 30-year high — a sure sign of rampant social isolation. . . .

(No, the high suicide rate is caused by the existential despair of Americans who understand that Barack Obama has destroyed their country.)

A record number of Americans believe the American dream is out of reach. And for millennials, social trust is at historic lows.
Trump’s success grew out of that pain, but he is not the right response to it. The job for the rest of us is to figure out the right response. . . .

(Who is “the rest of us,” Mr. Brooks?  Clueless douchebags on Pinch Sulzberger’s payroll? The people you hang out with in Davos?)

I was surprised by Trump’s success because I’ve slipped into a bad pattern, spending large chunks of my life in the bourgeois strata — in professional circles with people with similar status and demographics to my own.

(Which is to say, clueless douchebags.)

It takes an act of will to rip yourself out of that and go where you feel least comfortable. But this column is going to try to do that over the next months and years. We all have some responsibility to do one activity that leaps across the chasms of segmentation that afflict this country. . . .
Up until now, America’s story has been some version of the rags-to-riches story, the lone individual who rises from the bottom through pluck and work. But that story isn’t working for people anymore, especially for people who think the system is rigged. . . .
We’ll probably need a new definition of masculinity, too. There are many groups in society who have lost an empire but not yet found a role. Men are the largest of those groups. The traditional masculine ideal isn’t working anymore. It leads to high dropout rates, high incarceration rates, low labor force participation rates. This is an economy that rewards emotional connection and verbal expressiveness. Everywhere you see men imprisoned by the old reticent, stoical ideal.

You can read the rest, but I must warn you that reading David Brooks columns can lead to existential despair and suicide. Honestly, I’d rather read Third Wave feminist theory textbooks. At least feminists are honest about hating men, hating America, hating God and everything else.

What is so despicable about David Brooks is his condescending attitude, his insuperable conviction that he is better than the rest of us, more intelligent and sensitive — all that “emotional connection and verbal expression,” you see. And as he departs on his tour of the American hinterlands, ripping himself out of the “bourgeois strata” to leap across “the chasms of segmentation,” I hope David Brooks gets what he deserves, namely to be beaten to a bloody pulp by a tattooed redneck.

This would be a triumph of social justice, really and it’s not hard to imagine how it would happen, either. Probably at a Waffle House.

“Hey, buddy, you look kinda familiar,” says the truck driver, while he’s paying at the cash register. “Don’t I know you from somewhere?”

“You’ve probably seen me on Meet the Press or PBS Newshour,” says Brooks, who has been sitting at the counter, studying the menu and wondering why there’s no espresso. “My name’s David Brooks.”

“Well, doggone it, I thought so,” laughs the trucker. “I was just thinking to myself, that fellow looks like he writes for New York Times.”

“Thanks,” says Brooks, taking this as a compliment.

“So I guess you’re out here covering the election?” asks the trucker.

“No, actually, I’ve decided to leap across the chasms of segmentation that afflict this country, to mingle with the common folks in an effort to discover why men are imprisoned by a stoical ideal.”

“Oh, really?” says the trucker. And after listening patiently to Brooks prattle on about his ideas, the trucker will gesture toward the parking lot. “You ought to come take a look at my truck. It’s a fine one.”

After he accepts this invitation, David Brooks will probably be surprised to discover that his tour of the parking lot includes an old-fashioned stoical ass-whupping, and maybe the trucker will be prosecuted for assault, but really, who could pass up such an opportunity?

Oh, there’s a reason I always walked out a room whenever David Brooks walked in. Restraining my Jacksonian populist urges requires conscious effort sometimes, and it’s best not to risk an assault charge.

Look what he’s made me do here. I’ve endorsed Trump for pure spite. The worst thing David Brooks can imagine is Donald Trump winning the Republican nomination, but what would be worse for Brooks — what he cannot even imagine — is for Donald Trump to be elected president.

Let us rekindle our Jacksonian spirit, America. Let us ignore the advice of David Brooks and ask ourselves, “What would Old Hickory do?”

If we cannot punch David Brooks in the nose — and I apologize to my readers for having passed up the chance when I had it — then what can we do to fulfill our duty to our children and to our nation’s future? How can we avenge the numerous insults that David Brooks has heaped upon us? How can we escape the condemnation of future generations if, knowing that we had a moral obligation to do the exact opposite of whatever David Brooks said we should do, we did not do it? Our honor is at stake, you see.

David Brooks, a foul stain on the history of American journalism, has thrown down the gauntlet and challenged us to prove him wrong. He has predicted “general election slaughter” for Republicans as a consequence of Donald Trump winning the GOP primary campaign, and declared: “People will be judged by where they stood at this time.” Will people stand with David Brooks? Will people join this supercilious punk in his determination to see Hillary Clinton elected? God forbid!

However crazy it seems, we cannot say it is impossible for Donald Trump to be elected president, and if it is possible to elect Trump, then we are obliged to do all we can to make this happen, if only because a victory for Donald Trump would be a defeat for David Brooks.

Don’t blame me for this. Blame David Brooks. And, also, Satan.

But I repeat myself.





 


Category: David Brooks Fisking Day, Election
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