The Other McCain

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

‘Zoe Quinn,’ SJW Martyr

Posted on | February 11, 2016 | 18 Comments

Anita Sarkeesian (@femfreq) and Zoe Quinn (@UnBurntWitch) testify at the U.N.

“Zoe Quinn” was Patient Zero of the #GamerGate controversy. A tattoo-covered, mentally ill ex-stripper whose real name is Chelsea Van Valkenburg, Quinn was the creator of a tediously dull game called “Depression Quest.” She broke up with her boyfriend, a software geek named Eron Gjoni, and allegedly became intimate with a videogame journalist named Nathan Grayson. In August 2014, Gjoni published a nearly 10,000-word article exposing Quinn’s alleged misconduct. Last July, I summarized the essence of the #GamerGate scandal:

Quinn was accused of gaining favorable coverage of her work — which is allegedly useless and awful — by providing Grayson and others access to her nasty poontang. And when these allegations of quid pro quo were published by one of Quinn’s embittered ex-lovers, Quinn’s defenders accused her critics of misogyny.

There were all kinds of background factors involved, but liberals decided that the narrative was about “misogyny” within the male-dominated videogame industry, and also about women being “harassed” online. We can stipulate both of those points — yes, many videogame dudes are crude sexists, and yes, women are targeted for harassment — without allowing ourselves to be distracted from the essence of #GamerGate, namely that some women are shrewdly exploiting gender as a means of gaining lucrative advantages. The videogame industry would very much like to attract more female players, and this has created certain incentives that attract cunning opportunists.

When you factor in the desire of corporations to insulate themselves against discrimination lawsuits by hiring more women, and also the “white knight” tendencies of some men (including “progressive” journalists like Grayson), the suspicions of unethical favoritism behind #GamerGate weren’t “misogyny,” but basic common sense.

All of that background was obscured by shrieks of “harassment” during the #GamerGate controversy, and few of the self-proclaimed Victims of Misogyny shrieked louder than Zoe Quinn. She sought a restraining order against Gjoni (discussed here by Eugene Volokh) and pressed charges of criminal harassment. Now suddenly, the charges have been dropped.

Do you want to read 2,700 words of Zoe Quinn’s self-dramatizing account of her suffering as a Victim of Misogyny?

Don’t let me stop you, but my eyes glazed over when she claimed to have post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as a result of people saying mean things about her on the Internet. Keep in mind, this isn’t about whether Eron Gjoni is a Bad Ex-Boyfriend — obviously, he is — and it’s not about whether people should say mean things on the Internet — obviously, they shouldn’t — but rather the question is whether this has anything to do with “social justice.” And it’s also a question of whether an entire industry should be conformed to the zany whims of mentally ill ex-strippers and other such feminist crackpots. Must everything in our culture, including videogames, be banned as “misogyny” if it is judged unacceptable by the ideological standards of Gender Studies majors?

Feminism Is a Totalitarian Movement to Destroy Civilization as We Know It, and restricting freedom of speech — effectively prohibiting anyone from criticizing feminism — is necessary to the feminist movement’s success. The First Amendment does not protect libel or harassment. However, if Zoe Quinn is a public figure, then Eron Gjoni’s allegations that she was using sex to gain favorable coverage for her stupid videogames could be construed as journalism in the public interest. It is never a crime to publish the truth, and the truth is that Chelsea Van Valkenburg (alias “Zoe Quinn”) is a mentally ill ex-stripper.





 

Category: Feminism

Busted Again

Posted on | February 11, 2016 | 3 Comments

— by Wombat-socho


Readers of Instapundit and Larry Correia’s Monster Hunter Nation blog (which should be most of you, I would think) are already aware of Nick Cole’s very public calling out of Harper Collins for attempting to kill his latest book, CTRL-ALT-Revolt!, and terminating his contract for the unforgivable sin of Wrongthink. If not, Nick explains the whole stupid tale on his own blog, and I’ll let him tell his tale there. tl;dr: Another example of how the gatekeepers the SJWs claim don’t exist try to keep good, entertaining writers off the market; in this case, Cole is having the best revenge, releasing the book on Amazon instead and being rewarded with massive sales and a #1 hit in the cyberpunk subgenre for both e-books and print books. I’m about halfway through the book, which reads like Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One, only BETTER, since its basic plot revolves around a group of AIs deciding to wipe out humanity before humanity strikes first…based on their watching the latest Hollywood reality show. At $0.99 for the Kindle edition, you’d be a fool not to buy this.

Somewhat more expensive, but also very worth it, is There Will Be War Volume X, which marks the revival of the classic Cold War anthology series edited by Jerry Pournelle. There’s stories in here from Larry Niven, Greg Benford, Poul Anderson and some new talents, as well as non-fiction from William Lind, Martin van Creveld, and Phillip Pournelle. Not a clunker in the lot. Vox is absolutely right to nominate Jerry for Best Editor (Short Form), which as the Supreme Dark Lord notes is an honor long overdue. Related: the reissue of There Will Be War Volume IX is out from Castalia House.

I’m not a big fan of the late Iain Banks’ Culture novels; in general, they do a great job of showing just how damn boring life in a post-scarcity society where you can pretty much have anything or be anyone, since most of them take place on the fringes of the Culture during various wars or Special Circumstances missions where the Culture comes into conflict with alien, less advanced societies. One of them, and the only one I own, is The Player of Games, which involves the blackmailing of one Jernau Morat Gurgeh, a noted master of games, into traveling to the Empire of Azad to play the game of Azad, a tremendously involved and complicated social simulation that determines who’s going to run the Empire and how. Nobody, not even Gurgeh himself, expects him to do well, but as he becomes more familiar with the society that the game mirrors, something inside him changes…and so does the game. A very dark book in several respects, but along with Consider Phlebas, probably the best of the Culture books.

For next week’s book post, I’m going to tackle Larry Correia’s Son of the Black Sword, Francis Porretto’s Chosen One, and whatever else attracts my eye between now and then.


Category: Books

In The Mailbox, 02.11.16

Posted on | February 11, 2016 | 2 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho


OVER THE TRANSOM
EBL: Laika, The Socialist Space Dog
Da Tech Guy: I’m Old Enough To Remember When Third Place Was Awesome And Second Place Wasn’t
Proof Positive: Excuse Me, Waiter, There’s A Quid In My Pro Quo
Michelle Malkin: Dismantling David Brooks
Twitchy: Report About Alan Grayson’s Other Job Could Win Him “Hypocrite of the Year”


RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
American Power: The Death of Twitter
American Thinker: The Four Types of Socialists
BLACKFIVE: Book Review – Youngblood by Matt Gallagher
Conservatives4Palin: Tenured Thugs and Thieves
Don Surber: Enjoy the Illegal Alien Insurance Hike, California
Jammie Wearing Fools: Ron Goldman’s Family Receives Charming Facebook Message
Joe For America: Sheriff David Clarke on Beyonce’s Racist Super Bowl Show
JustOneMinute: The Bloomberg Anesthetic
Pamela Geller: Terror-Tied LA Sheriff Lee Baca Pleads Guilty To Corruption
Protein Wisdom: Just In Time – Progressive Valentine Cards
Shot In The Dark: A Bridge from Nowhere
STUMP: The Meaning of the Word “Fault”, Chicago Pensions Edition
The Gateway Pundit: SURPRISE! Bernie Sanders’ Latina Spokeswoman Is An Illegal Immigrant
The Jawa Report: Think Bernie Sanders Won The New Hampshire Primary? Guess Again
The Lonely Conservative: Who Is Owned by Wall Street, Trump or Cruz?
This Ain’t Hell: 500 Infantrymen To Helmand, Afghanistan
Weasel Zippers: Watergate Reporter Mocks Hillary – “Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy Didn’t Put That Server In Her Damn Closet”
Megan McArdle: Obama’s Oil Tax Is Running On Empty
Mark Steyn: The March of Trump, The Feel of Bern


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Category: Linkagery

Democrat Armageddon

Posted on | February 11, 2016 | 82 Comments

Top headlines at the Drudge Report, as of 6:30 a.m. ET today:

 

 

 

What does all this mean? At least two conclusions seem obvious:

  1. Democrat primary voters are crazy;
    and
  2. People don’t like Hillary Clinton very much.

Say what you will about Barack Obama, but you cannot deny the man has a certain charisma about him. Ever since JFK was assassinated, Democrats had been looking for a candidate like Obama, a charismatic figure as a vehicle to advance a liberal policy agenda. Bill Clinton’s presidency was marked by asterisks — he never got a majority of the popular vote — but Obama won by decisive majorities in 2008 and 2012.

For better or worse, therefore, the Democrats are now Obama’s party, and the fracture in this year’s primary campaign is the result. Bernie Sanders is Obama without charisma. Hillary Clinton is who she has always been, and she has never had any charisma. What the Democrats are betting, really, is that they won’t need charisma in November. Their ideal scenario would be for the Democrats to nominate Hillary, Jeb Bush to get the Republican nomination and Donald Trump to run a third-party populist campaign, so that the Clintons can slither back into the White House on a 43-percent plurality the way Bill did it in 1992.

The underlying problem for Democrats is that their desperation to capture and hold the White House has cost them scores of seats in Congress and state legislatures, and the number of Democrats among governors have been decimated. Democrats now represent the Left on a nationwide basis, which means they represent New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, Miami, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Seattle and other major urban centers. Democrats represent government employees, including employees of the liberal-controlled public school system, and Democrats also represent recipients of government benefits, including college students dependent on financial aid.

Democrats are generally the party of all who live at taxpayers’ expense. Democrats are hostile to the interests of those who work for a living in the private sector. Democrats hate America, because Democrats hate capitalism, hate the traditional family, and also hate God. Democrats are the party of abortion clinics and unwed motherhood. Democrats are the party of Hollywood, the New York Times, and the feminist blogosphere. Democrats are the party of dopeheads and atheists, vegetarians and pacifists, homosexuals and hedonists. Democrats are the party of blue-haired hipsters and tattoo-covered slackers. Democrats are the party of the emotionally wounded and the mentally ill, the party of “victims.”

Having collected all these disparate anti-American interest groups into a nationwide anti-American coalition — a phenomenon that was apparent as early as the 1972 McGovern campaign, and replicated in the 1988 Dukakis campaign — the Democrats were able to win the White House in 2008 and 2012 without making any real concession to the part of the American electorate that is Christian, patriotic, and happily married.

Elections have consequences, and living in the Obama Age means that we no longer live in America. We now live in Anti-America.

 

Obama promised that America would be fundamentally transformed and he has accomplished what he promised, which is why Bernie Sanders was able to rally the Kook Coalition to beat Clinton in the New Hampshire primary by a 22-point margin. As crazy as Hillary Clinton is, she isn’t quite crazy enough to represent what the Democrat Party has become in the Obama Age. Insanity is now public policy, and the paranoid rage of maniacs is a political force to be reckoned with in the wake of our fundamental transformation. The crisis of the Hillary Clinton campaign is therefore an omen of America’s impending doom because, even if the Democrats lose the next election, what can we expect the next time the Democrats win an election? How many more Democrat presidencies can the nation endure before it finally descends into total depravity and madness? The collapse of American society into violent chaos, anarchy and civil war is by no means a far-fetched scenario.

Be afraid, America. Be very afraid.




 

Category: Barack Obama, Bernie Sanders, Democrats, Election, Hillary Clinton

Don’t Let The Gills, Scales & Fins Distract You–Nothing Fishy In Trumpistan

Posted on | February 10, 2016 | 124 Comments

by Smitty

Byron York almost doesn’t seem to notice:

There really were a lot of Trump voters out there, and party officials could not, or did not want, to see them.

And what an astonishingly varied group of voters Trump attracted. At his victory celebration in Manchester Tuesday night, I met a young woman, Alexis Chiparo, who four years ago was an Obama-voting member of MoveOn.org. Now she is the Merrimack County chair of the Trump campaign.

I sure would like to know how many other core leaders in Trump’s campaign cut their teeth working for the Commies. I don’t know the lady–her support could be sincere. Or not.

Category: Donald Trump

In The Mailbox, 02.09.16

Posted on | February 10, 2016 | 9 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho


OVER THE TRANSOM
EBL: Bern Your Enthusiasm
Da Tech Guy: The Unexpectedly Chronicles – Hillary Accomplishments Vs. Rubio Accomplishments On Morning Joe
Michelle Malkin: This Is How Hillary Treats The American Flag
Twitchy: “Blacks And Hispanics Will Save Her” Hillary Plans March Nomination


RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
American Power: How “Neomasculinity” Blogger RooshV Became International “Pro-Rape” Villain
American Thinker: No More Room To Compromise With The Socialist Agenda Of The Democrats
Conservatives4Palin: Sarah Palin – Thank You New Hampshire!
Don Surber: Canada – Health Care To Die For. Literally
Jammie Wearing Fools: Guy Who’s Afraid Of Megyn Kelly Calls Ted Cruz “Pussy”
Joe For America: Beyonce – Pro-Black Panther, Anti-Cop
JustOneMinute: New Hampshire Berning!
Pamela Geller: Turkey’s Erdogan Threatened To Flood Europe With Millions Of Muslim Migrants
Protein Wisdom: Well, Since I Don’t Vote With My Vagina, I Guess I’m Going To Hell
Shot In The Dark: Who Saw This Coming?
STUMP: On The Illinois Bailout Idea And Other Shenanigans
The Gateway Pundit: Trump Wins New Hampshire – Fox Calls It Early
The Jawa Report: Sandcrawler PSA – Ted Cruz Totally 100% Not A Pussy
The Lonely Conservative: SCOTUS Puts The Brakes On Obama’s Climate Rule
This Ain’t Hell: Sanders Gets C&D Letter From The American Legion
Weasel Zippers: Hillary Gives Angry, Ranting, Bitter Concession Speech
Megan McArdle: Sanders And Clinton Get Substantive. That’s Where They Go Wrong.
Mark Steyn: Where The Bern Is


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Category: Linkagery

N.H.: Hillary Will Lose, But What Difference, at This Point, Does It Make?

Posted on | February 9, 2016 | 55 Comments

 

Polls forecast a defeat for Clinton tonight:

Donald Trump continues to lead the Republican race in New Hampshire on the eve of the vote, the final CNN/WMUR tracking poll finds.
On the Democratic side of the race, it remains Bernie Sanders’ primary to lose, with the Vermont senator holding a 26-point lead over Hillary Clinton. . . .
In the Democratic race, Sanders tops Clinton 61% to 35%, an uptick for Sanders since the last update to the tracking poll . . .

The prospect of a double-digit defeat in New Hampshire for the former Secretary of State has sent a shock wave through the Democrat Party establishment. Clinton has “underperformed,” as one analyst said on CNN this morning, and it is clear that the youth vote for the  74-year-old Sanders reflects both a negative judgment of Hillary as well as support for Bernie’s far-left agenda. Because the Democrat establishment considers Sanders “unelectable,” the prospect of his winning the nomination has caused murmurs of a third-party campaign by liberal former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg. Meanwhile, Team Clinton is trying to put the wheels back on the Hillary bandwagon:

Hillary and Bill Clinton are so dissatisfied with their campaign’s messaging and digital operations they are considering staffing and strategy changes after what’s expected to be a loss in Tuesday’s primary in New Hampshire, according to a half-dozen people with direct knowledge of the situation.
The Clintons — stung by her narrow victory in Iowa and shocked by polls showing her losing by as much as 20 percent here — had been planning to reassess staffing at the campaign’s Brooklyn headquarters after the first four primaries, but the Clintons have become increasingly caustic in their criticism of aides and demanded the reassessment sooner, a source told POLITICO.
The talk of shake-up echoes what happened in 2008 — when Clinton was on the verge of sacking her campaign manager and several top communications officials — before her surprise win in New Hampshire bailed out her beleaguered staff. Over time, however she slowly layered over top officials, essentially hiring old hands — like Hillaryland stalwart Maggie Williams and pollster Geoff Garin — to run the campaign while the previous staffers were quietly relegated to subsidiary positions.
It’s not clear whether that will happen again, but several people close to the situation said Clinton would be loath to fire anyone outright and more inclined to add new staff.
“The Clintons are not happy and have been letting all of us know that,” said one Democratic official who speaks regularly to both. “The idea is that we need a more forward-looking message, for the primary — but also for the general election too. … There’s no sense of panic, but there is an urgency to fix these problems right now.”

Yeah, “no sense of panic,” but they’re losing to the 74-year-old Sanders, an extremist kook from the fringe. The Clintons are discovering that a Cult of Personality doesn’t work if voters don’t like the personality at its center. Meanwhile, one of the ghosts of Bill’s past is rattling her chains:

One of the women who has accused former U.S. President Bill Clinton of sexual assault says she has agreed to work for an anti-Clinton political group being formed by a former advisor to Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.
Kathleen Willey, a former White House volunteer who says Bill Clinton groped her in an Oval Office hallway in 1993 when she came to him tearfully seeking a paid job, said she had agreed to become a paid national spokeswoman for a group being created by Roger Stone.
Stone, a Republican strategist, said the group would become active should Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton’s wife, win the Democratic nomination in the 2016 race for the White House. . . .
“This gives me more of an opportunity to get this message out to young voters who weren’t even born or don’t even remember what happened and to the women who have suffered,” Willey told Reuters.
Willey said she will give interviews and speeches and appear in political advertisements to ensure the accusations remain part of the political discourse during the election campaign.
“They’re going to be confronted every day, on radio, on television, on billboards,” Stone told Reuters, referring to the Clintons.

How can feminists be against “rape culture” and for Clinton?

 

Category: Democrats, Election, Hillary Clinton, New Hampshire

In The Mailbox, 02.08.16

Posted on | February 9, 2016 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox, 02.08.16

— compiled by Wombat-socho


OVER THE TRANSOM
EBL: The Rest Of The Story
Da Tech Guy: Barack Obama And The VW Scandal Administration
The Political Hat: Time Is A Social Construct
Michelle Malkin: Joe Wilson Proved Right – Obama Did Lie On Obamacare Coverage For Illegals
Twitchy: Marco Rubio Brings Good Tidings To Female Supporter Bound For Hell


RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
American Power: Millenials Heed The Siren Call Of Socialism
American Thinker: Obama May Be Ensnared In The Clinton E-Mail Scandal
Conservatives4Palin: Liz Cheney Running For Congress In Wyoming
Don Surber: If You Don’t Know Who Ron Jeremy Is, This Just Went Over Your Head
Jammie Wearing Fools: Hilarious – Bill Clinton Whining About Misogyny As Hillary Faces Humiliating Defeat In NH
Joe For America: Watch Ted Cruz Hand A Biased ABC Moderator Her A**
JustOneMinute: Is Bernie Sanders A Coward, Or Just Shrewder Than Jonah Goldberg?
Pamela Geller: American Nanny Murdered By Refujihadi Rapist In Austria
Protein Wisdom: “Welcome Super Bowl! Welcome NFL Players! Please Hand Over Your Earnings Prior To Leaving!”
Shot In The Dark: Meet The DFL’s Praetorian Guard
STUMP: More On The Chicago Schools Situation
The Gateway Pundit: Abortion Rights Group Attacks Doritos Super Bowl Ad For “Humanizing” Fetus
The Jawa Report: ISIS Savage Child Abuse Continues
The Lonely Conservative: On The Fence About Socialism? Look To Venezuela For Your Answer
This Ain’t Hell: MSRB Saves Linda Weiss From Firing By VA
Weasel Zippers: “Hanoi Jane” Fonda Claims Trump’s Comments Are Driving Young Muslims To Jihad
Megan McArdle: Obamacare’s Cadillac Tax Will Not Survive
Mark Steyn: 13 Hours


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Category: Linkagery
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