The Other McCain

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

‘Smoking Gun’ on Biden Bribery Scandal

Posted on | July 20, 2023 | Comments Off on ‘Smoking Gun’ on Biden Bribery Scandal

Press release from Senator Grassley:

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) today released an unclassified FBI-generated record describing an alleged criminal scheme involving then-Vice President Joe Biden and a Ukrainian business executive. Grassley acquired the record, an FD-1023, via legally protected disclosures by Justice Department whistleblowers.
“For the better part of a year, I’ve been pushing the Justice Department and FBI to provide details on its handling of very significant allegations from a trusted FBI informant implicating then-Vice President Biden in a criminal bribery scheme. While the FBI sought to obfuscate and redact, the American people can now read this document for themselves, without the filter of politicians or bureaucrats, thanks to brave and heroic whistleblowers. What did the Justice Department and FBI do with the detailed information in the document? And why have they tried to conceal it from Congress and the American people for so long? The Justice Department and FBI have failed to come clean, but Chairman Comer and I intend to find out,” Grassley said.
“The FBI’s Biden Bribery Record tracks closely with the evidence uncovered by the Oversight Committee’s Biden family influence peddling investigation. In the FBI’s record, the Burisma executive claims that he didn’t pay the ‘big guy’ directly but that he used several bank accounts to conceal the money. That sounds an awful lot like how the Bidens conduct business: using multiple bank accounts to hide the source and total amount of the money,” House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer said. “At our hearing with IRS whistleblowers, they testified that they had never seen or heard of this record during the Biden criminal investigation, despite having potentially corroborating evidence. Given the misconduct and politicization at the Department of Justice, the American people must be able to read this record for themselves. I thank Senator Grassley for providing much needed transparency to the American people. We must hold the Department of Justice accountable for seeking to bury this record to protect the Bidens.”
Grassley first disclosed the FBI’s possession of significant and voluminous evidence of potential criminality involving the Biden family last year. He has since worked to unearth the FBI record, eventually partnering with Comer on a subpoena to compel its public disclosure. After delays, the FBI provided a highly redacted version of the document to select members of the House of Representatives, but it remained shielded from the public and omitted key details, including references to recordings. Following the FBI’s failure to fully comply with the congressional subpoena, Grassley received the legally protected disclosure with limited redactions to protect a trusted FBI source, handling agents, department whistleblowers and identifiers related to other ongoing investigations.



 

Category: Corruption, Joe Biden, Scandal

Orioles Face ‘Huge’ Series in Tampa

Posted on | July 20, 2023 | 1 Comment

Tyler Wells has thrown 105 strikeouts in 19 games

Last season, the Baltimore Orioles finished fourth in the American League’s East Division, and the year before that, they were fifth, losing 110 games. As of last night, however, the O’s were leading the AL East with a 58-37 record (.611), just fractionally ahead of the Tampa Bay Rays (60-39, .606). As recently as July 1, Tampa had a 6½-game lead over the Orioles in the division, but Baltimore is 8-2 in their last 10 games, while the Rays, who jumped out to a strong lead early in the season, are 3-7 in their last 10 games. Everything will be on the line starting tonight when the O’s face the Rays in Tampa for a four-game series:

“It’s all you want. You want to get to the big leagues, and then once you get here, your goal is to win,” [Orioles left fielder Austin] Hays said. “That’s what we’re playing for now. We’re winning a lot of games right now. We’ve got a long way to go, but we’ve put ourselves in a good situation at this point in the season.”
The Orioles (58-37) visit Tropicana Field on Thursday tied with the Rays (60-39) for first place in the AL East. The last time Baltimore was atop the division this late in the year was August 2016 — the last season they made the playoffs. If the Orioles sweep the Rays, it would be their first time with a four-game lead in the AL East after the All-Star break since September 2014 — the last season they won the division. . . .
“We knew that all those losing seasons wouldn’t last forever,” [Baltimore first baseman Ryan] Mountcastle said. “It came quicker, I think, than most people thought, and we’re just excited to be where we’re at right now. This series is going to be huge, and we’re super excited for it.”

A few years ago, my son Jim became an Orioles fan, listening to them on the radio during his long drives home from contracting jobs. The past couple of years have been painful for Jim and the rest of the O’s faithful, and this season’s long chase of the Rays has been frustrating. There were times when Baltimore’s record would have put them on top of any other division in the major leagues, but there they were, stuck in second place in the AL East behind Tampa, which was playing .600-plus baseball for so long that it couldn’t last forever. Baltimore deserves credit for hanging tough for three months, waiting for the Rays to stumble. The big break came during a stretch earlier this month when Tampa went 3-5 while the Orioles put together a seven-game win streak. Then on Wednesday night, the O’s beat the Dodgers 8-5 while the Rays lost 5-1 to the Texas Rangers.

The Orioles have been led this year by right fielder Anthony Santander (.272, 17 HR, 54 RBI), catcher Adley Rutschman (.275, 13 HR, 41 RBI), left fielder Austin Hays (.304, 9 HR, 37 RBI) and third baseman Gunnar Henderson (.247, 15 HR, 41 RBI). Top starting pitchers for Baltimore are Dean Kremer (10-4, 4.80 ERA), Kyle Gibson (9.6, 4.77 ERA) and Tyler Wells (7-5, 3.54 ERA), with Felix Bautista (4-1, 1.00 ERA, 26 saves) as their bullpen ace. Gibson is expected to take the mound tonight. All the O’s need to do is take it one game at a time. Orioles fever — catch it!



 

Category: Sports

In The Mailbox: 07.19.23 (Afternoon Edition)

Posted on | July 19, 2023 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 07.19.23 (Afternoon Edition)

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Silicon Valley delenda est.

Oops.

OVER THE TRANSOM
357 Magnum: Don’t Bring Garden Shears To A Gunfight
EBL: Snow White Looks Hilariously Bad
Twitchy: Rep. Adam Goldman (D-NY) Deems Hunter Biden The Victim Of A Two-Tiered Justice System, also, Daily Beast Disgusted With GOP Pouncing On Pramila Jayapal’s Antisemitic “Misstep”
Louder With Crowder: Leggy blonde emerges to save the day, drags eco-lunatics by the hair to stop them blocking traffic, Ron DeSantis GOES THERE, blasts Joe Biden refusing to acknowledge his granddaughter in South Carolina speech, and Jason Aldean’s anti-woke anthem “Try That in a Small Town” is causing quite the media meltdown
Vox Popoli: They’re Going to Need an Older Universe, Pharasaism is not Pre-Christianity, Learning from The Legend, Ancient Understanding, and The War Comes to the USA

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
American Conservative: Time for a Taft Coalition
American Greatness: House Democrat Bill Would Scrub ‘Husband’ and ‘Wife’ from Federal Law, also, FBI Whistleblower: Investigators Were Told to Wait For Hunter’s Okay Before Approaching his House to Interview Him
American Power: U.S. Army Soldier in North Korean Custody After Crossing Border ‘Voluntarily’
American Thinker:  The Left Again Beclowns Itself Over White Supremacy, also, The Classic Psychology Text That Predicted Today’s Urban Decay
Animal Magnetism: Animal’s Lightning News
Babalu Blog: Reports from Cuba: Disenchantment with the ‘state methods’ of a privatized bakery in Havana, Díaz-Canel’s Portugal visit was worse than we thought, and Cuban State Security hunts down mothers to prevent them from peacefully protesting
Baldilocks: Communication
BattleSwarm: Crimean Bridge Hit Again
Behind The Black: SpaceX to raise another $750 million in stock sale; earnings rise to $8 billion in ’23, Glacial evidence in the dry equatorial regions of Mars?, The results of one in four medical clinical trials are probably fraudulent or unreliable, and Ohio Attorney General to college administrators: Discriminate and YOU will be personally liable
CDR Salamander: Army TLAM & SM-6?
Chicago Boyz: You’ve Heard of Local Area Networks…
Da Tech Guy: Investigative reporting still exists
Dana Loesch: Monday Night 2024 Cranky Thoughts
Don Surber: The Riot That Sent My Family To The Suburbs
The Geller Report: Unvaxxed Amish Death Rates 90 Times Lower Than Rest of America, Florida County GOP Declares COVID-19 and mRNA COVID Vaccine a ‘Bioweapon’, and Muslim Billionaire Wins Permission to Turn London’s Famous Landmark in Piccadilly Circus Into Giant 3-Story Mega Mosque
Hogewash: Team Kimberlin Post of the Day, also, CW Leonis
Hollywood In Toto: Is Disney Finally Getting the Picture?, Ellen Barkin: Trump Will Win, Kill 6 Million Jews (Like Hitler), and Fear the Night Delivers B-Movie Thrills (But Whiffs on More)
The Lid: Store Food While You Still Can – Global Famine Accelerates
Legal Insurrection: Georgia Supreme Court Unanimously Dismisses Trump Long-Shot Bid To Halt Grand Jury and Disqualify Prosecutor, Another Freight Train Derailment in Pennsylvania Results in Evacuations of Surrounding Area, Professor/Minister at Elon University on Mission to Preach That Abortion isn’t a Sin, Temple University Hosting ‘Philadelphia’s First Fat-Focused Convention’, and Oversight Committee: Former FBI Agent Confirms IRS Whistleblower Testimony About Biden
Nebraska Energy Observer: What’s going on in Europe, also, Impressed
Outkick: Diamondbacks Are Latest Team To Take Over Television Broadcasts, Russell Wilson Looks Stronger And Sharper While Throwing Alongside Deion Sanders At Colorado, Ric Flair Rips NBA Players Who ‘Whine And B—h,’ Draws Major Contrast To Pro Wrestlers, Brent Venables Takes Completely Unprompted Shot At Deion Sanders, Paul Finebaum Unloads Unhinged Nick Saban Take, Claims Legacy Will Be Damaged If Alabama Misses The Playoff, and Miss Hooters International 2023 Contestants Announced
Power Line: Confirming the IRS whistleblowers, Thermageddon Week, and The Daily Chart: Shocker—Biden Spending Underestimated
Shark Tank: Diaz-Balart Moves To Defund Smithsonian Over Inaccurate Portrayal Of Latinos
Shot In The Dark: It’s Almost As If There’s A Theme
This Ain’t Hell: Cadets at Ft. Knox have rough month, Today’s DOD Debacle Brought To Us By, and US Soldier Crosses Into North Korea
Transterrestrial Musings: Space Hookers Must Die, also,  “Toxic” Masculinity
Victory Girls: Military Does NOT Have “Sacred Obligation” To Pay For Abortion Travel
Volokh Conspiracy: Attempt to Block Comment About Critical Race Theory at State Bd. of Ed. Meeting Yields $89K Attorney Fee Award
Watts Up With That: BRICS and Nukes and LNG – the energy transition few are expecting, When Everything is Climate Change, Nothing is Climate Change, and YouTube suppressed this pushback video on heat wave alarmism – let’s give it a second life
The Federalist: Our Cultural Degeneracy Is Actually A Return To Normalcy, Republicans Had Better Reject Democrats’ NDAA Culture War If They Want Any Praise, In Iowa, Tucker Carlson Did The Job The Decaying Media Monolith Won’t, Biden Administration Rushes Appeal Against Court Ruling In Effort To Keep Censorship Regime Intact, Biden White House: Military Has ‘Sacred Obligation’ To Abort Babies With Your Money, and Trade Commission’s Retaliation Against Twitter Is More Proof The Biden Admin Is Violating The First Amendment
Mark Steyn: Trystless in Trieste

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Category: Linkagery

Just a Random Grandbaby Video

Posted on | July 19, 2023 | Comments Off on Just a Random Grandbaby Video

Got some day-job stuff to keep me busy this morning, and I’m thinking about doing one of my long, long posts that might take all day (or longer) to write. Glenn Reynolds recently shared “Thoughts on the Population Implosion,” which is a social problem that my numerous offspring have been doing their share to solve. And certainly, this is encouraging:

Who wouldn’t love a sweet little baby like that? And once you’ve got one sweet little baby, why not keep having more of them?

Oh, the experts tell us nowadays that economic conditions make parenthood more difficult, which makes me wonder why my Alabama farmer ancestors — who certainly had less money than most of these DINK (double-income, no kids) yuppies — had so many babies that the experts would say they “couldn’t afford” to have. It’s almost enough to make you think the “experts” are completely wrong.

Anyway, I was just looking for an excuse to post that cute video of baby Juniper, from my recent trip to Alaska. Any cultural commentary is more or less coincidental to my Proud Grandpa motives.



 

Category: Family

Don’t Believe CNBC’s Fake News

Posted on | July 18, 2023 | 1 Comment

Last week, CNBC issued two lists — “These are America’s 10 best states to live and work in for 2023” and “These are America’s 10 worst states to live and work in for 2023” — and these lists have been cited in dozens of headlines across the country. Just quickly scanning the lists, however, I noticed a distinct pattern. Here are the CNBC lists, to which I’ve added (a) the two U.S. Senators from each state, and (b) the percentage of the state’s vote received by Joe Biden in 2020:

10 BEST STATES
1. Vermont
Bernie Sanders (I), Peter Welch (D), Biden 66%

2. Maine
Susan Collins (R), Angus King (I), Biden 53%

3. New Jersey
Bob Menendez (D), Corey Booker (D), Biden 57%

4. Minnesota
Amy Klobuchar (D), Tina Smith (D), Biden 52%

5. Hawaii
Brian Schatz (D), Mazie Hirono (D), Biden 73%

6. Oregon
Ron Wyden (D), Jeff Merkley (D), Biden 56%

7. Washington State
Patty Murray (D), Maria Cantwell (D), Biden 58%

8. (tie) Colorado
Michael Bennet (D), John Hickenlooper (D), Biden 55%

8. (tie) Massachusetts
Elizabeth Warren (D), Ed Markey (D), Biden 66%

10. Connecticut
Richard Blumenthal (D), Chris Murphy (D), Biden 59%

 

10 WORST STATES
1. Texas
John Cornyn (R), Ted Cruz (R), Biden 46%

2. Oklahoma
James Lankford (R), Markwayne Mullin (R), Biden 32%

3. Louisiana
Bill Cassidy (R), John Kennedy (R), Biden 40%

4. (tie) South Carolina
Lindsey Graham (R), Tim Scott (R), Biden 43%

4. (tie) Alabama
Tommy Tuberville (R), Katie Britt (R), Biden 37%

6. Missouri
Josh Hawley (R), Eric Schmitt (R), Biden 41%

7. Indiana
Todd Young (R), Mike Braun (R), Biden 41%

8. Tennessee
Marsha Blackburn (R), Bill Hagerty (R), Biden 37%

9. Arkansas
John Boozman (R), Tom Cotton (R), Biden 35%

10. Florida
Marco Rubio (R), Rick Scott (R), Biden 48%

 
What a coincidence that every senator from CNBC’s “10 worst states” is a Republican, and Trump won every one of those states in 2020. And by the same remarkable coincidence, Biden won every one of CNBC’s “10 best states,” which have 17 Democratic senators, two “independents” (both of whom caucus with Democrats) and the nominal Republican Susan Collins. But can it really be true that, e.g., New Jersey is a better state “to live and work in” than, e.g., Florida? Is there anyone in Winter Haven or Apopka who would rather be living in Camden or Newark?

How is it possible that CNBC has classified among the “worst” states not only Florida but also Texas, both of which are among the fast-growing states in the country? How is it so much worse to “live and work” in sunny South Carolina or Louisiana than in chilly Vermont or Minnesota?

CNBC explains its rankings by citing “ten broad categories of competitiveness,” which are weighted into the final score: “The more weight a category carries, the more metrics it includes. This year’s study employs 86 metrics across the ten categories.”

The second most-weighted category is infrastructure, accounting for 15.6% of the total score and in assessing this category, “we measure each state’s sustainability in the face of climate change.” Oh.

The real kicker, though, is the “Life, Health & Inclusion” category, which accounts for 14% of the CNBC score:

With workers in short supply, companies are seeking to locate in states that can attract a broad array of talent. That makes quality of life an economic imperative. We rate the states on livability factors like per capita crime rates, environmental quality, and health care. We look at worker protections. We look at inclusiveness in state laws, including protections against discrimination of all kinds, as well as voting rights, including accessible and secure election systems. With studies showing that childcare is one of the main obstacles to employees returning to the workforce, we consider the availability and affordability of qualified facilities. And with surveys showing a sizeable percentage of women considering reproductive rights in deciding where they are willing to live and work, we factor abortion laws into this category as well.

Got that? Fourteen percent of a state’s score in the CNBC ranking comes from this bullshit category, an excuse to penalize conservative states while rewarding liberal states for “inclusiveness,” “voting rights,” etc. This is basically like taking the All-Star Game out of Atlanta because Biden said requiring ID to vote is “Jim Crow 2.0.”

While awarding 14% on the basis of things like “inclusion,” CNBC gives only 8.6% weighting to the category “Business Friendliness” and just 2% to “Cost of Living.” It’s expensive as hell to live in Massachusetts, and comparatively cheap to live in Tennessee. And guess which state’s government is more business friendly? (Hint: Not Massachusetts.)

The underlying bogusness of CNBC’s methodology — weighting the categories in such a way as to favor Democrat-controlled states — is overlooked in the secondary coverage of the CNBC lists in regional media (“Texas is worst state in the U.S. to live in for issues like abortion and voting rights, CNBC says,” San Antonio Express-News; “Indiana included on list of ‘America’s 10 worst states to live and work in’,” WISH-TV).

So far as I can tell, I’m the only guy on the Internet pointing out how bogus CNBC’s rankings are. It’s “fake news,” and no one should trust it.



 

Category: Media Bias

In The Mailbox: 07.17.23

Posted on | July 18, 2023 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 07.17.23

— compiled by Wombat-socho

I have VA appointments on Wednesday as well as an NSSAB meeting, so posting may be a little irregular for the rest of the week.
Silicon Valley delenda est.

Calendar reform

OVER THE TRANSOM
357 Magnum: Pay No Attention To The Child Labor That Goes Into Your EV Battery
EBL: The Dogs of Chernobyl, also, Critical Drinker: Why Hollywood Will Collapse
Twitchy: Matt Walsh Reveals Brilliant Johnny The Walrus Troll, Schools See The Result Of Eliminating Advanced Math Classes For Equity, and John Kirby Claims Abortions Are “Foundational Sacred Obligation” Of The Military
Louder With Crowder: Kamala Harris demands the population be reduced in today’s episode of “Freudian Slip or Embarrassing Gaffe?”, Sports Illustrated goes nuts over Brittney Griner’s dunk, gets roasted, and Bystander helps put an end to a police chase… then just gets back in his truck and bounces
Vox Popoli: Preposterous!, Business When the Bubble Bursts, Material Greed vs Spiritual Wickedness, Tell Me You’re a Ticket-Taker, and Clown World Won’t Quit
Gab News: Nurturing A New Christendom

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
Adam Piggott: Better to be a racist than to have abos rule over you
American Conservative: What Do the French Riots Mean?, also, Joe Biden and the DNC: Some Kremlinology
American Greatness: ‘Not My Concern” Narrows the GOP Field, Disinformation: Doing Putin’s Job for Him, and It’s Time To Acknowledge America’s Education Crisis
American Power: In Rolling Hills Estates, Million Dollar Homes Slide Down the Canyon, The 2024 Election Is a Fight Over America’s Way of Life, and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., In Hot Water After Comments Suggesting Chinese and Jews Were Spared Covid
American Thinker: Tucker Carlson Helps Cull the Republican Presidential Field, God’s Children Are Not for Sale: Why the Left Hates Sound of Freedom, 10 Paradigm Shifts that Shatter Establishment Illusions, and Defense Policy and the Social Issues: Who Started This Fight?
Animal Magnetism: Goodbye, Blue Monday
Babalu Blog: The EU invites Cuba’s oppressive dictatorship to CELAC, continuing its bad policies, Shocking! Rationed sugar sold to Cubans is disgustingly awful, How Cubans in Cuba refer to July 11, two years after massive protests were crushed, and The Texas Political Report with George Rodriguez
Baldilocks: Asking For It
BattleSwarm: Nicholas Moran Rates Realism of Tank Scenes in Movies (Again), also, Why Homelessness in California is Worse Than In Other States
Behind The Black: SpaceX launches using its second Falcon 9 first stage on its sixteenth flight, Chandrayaan-3 completes second orbital maneuver, An apparent rocket section washes up on Australian coast, Rocket Lab launches seven satellites; recovers first stage from ocean, House committee imposes major cuts to Justice, FBI, Commerce Departments, and California Democrats retreat on their effort to defend child slavers
CDR Salamander: Summer Doldrums Melee On Midrats , also, Seaplanes Bring Out The Worst In The Potomac Flotilla
Chicago Boyz: The End of Science Education in the West?
Da Tech Guy: Republicans find their spinal cord when it comes to DoD abortion, A Sad Thought on a Good Story, Under the Fedora: Competence Rules, Russia Mistakes, Islam vs Alphabet in Michigan, Racism Shortage…Except in AI, and The Subsidies Don’t Cover Repair Bills
Don Surber: When Ray Charles Culturally Appropriated Eddy Arnold
First Street Journal: Saturday morning, Theodore Johnson says the quiet part out loud, and Another story you won’t find in The Philadelphia Inquirer
Gates Of Vienna: Nicolas Bay: “We Will Have to Choose: Either Your Sanctimony or Our Identity”, Don’t Romanticize Volodomyr Zelensky, Whale Tale, Taharrush in Heidelberg and Mallorca, and The EU Pays Protection Money to Tunisia
The Geller Report: Pray for America’s Children, Final Death Blow To Pence Presidential Campaign, and And BAM! It’s No Longer an Insurrection
Hogewash: Stressful Cities, LEDA 89996, Here’s Looking at Euclid, Team Kimberlin Post of the Day, IC 4701, and Don’t Know Much Biology
Hollywood In Toto: Scorching Sound of Freedom Eyes $100 Million (and more), WaPo Blistered Over Woke ‘Fast Car’ Spin, and A.I. Movies Bring Industry’s Mortal Fear to Life
The Lid: RFK Jr. Makes Anti-Jewish Conspiracy Theorist Comments At Political Dinner, also, Biden Gets Fish-Slapped By Twitter’s ‘Community Notes’
Legal Insurrection: Donor Pulling $400K Gift to Arizona State U. Citing ‘Left-Wing Hostility and Activism’, Pittsburgh Couple Indicted for Disrupting Michael Knowles Event May Have Ties to ‘Anarchist Extremists’, Rhode Island State Senator Who Allegedly Keyed Man’s Car Now Facing an Obstruction Charge, Rep. Katie Porter, Who Hates Big Banks, Silently Erased Her Job at Ocwen Financial Corporation, Activists at Harvard Disrupt Ice Cream Social to Demand Creation of Ethnic Studies Department, and Ex-Energy Official Sam Brinton was on Tax-Payer Funded Secret Trip at Time of Luggage Theft
Nebraska Energy Observer: Mental health day, also, Sixth Sunday after Trinity
Outkick: NFL RBs, OJ Simpson Sound Off On Lack of Respect For Position After Josh Jacobs, Saquon Barkley’s Failed Contract Talks, Stephen A. Smith, Dan Le Batard Feud Over Who Ruined ESPN, Sports Media, Brittany Mahomes Says She ‘Was Not Prepared’ For NFL Fame, Kate Upton Joins Threads, Drops Bikini Photo, Cincinnati Reds Manager David Bell Goes OFF On Umpire In Potential MLB ‘Ejection Of The Year’, and Former ESPN Legend Tim Brando Wonders What The Hell Is Happening At Ex-Employer
Power Line: Five Essential Truths About the Modern Left, Sunday morning coming down, and Biden then and now
Shark Tank: Is America Ready For A Trump/Donalds Ticket In 2024?
Shot In The Dark: A Nation Of Boogeymen, also, Weasel Words
This Ain’t Hell: Kerry in the News, Republicans fight woke initiatives through Defense bill; accused of ‘living in the 1950s’, Some Veterans quit Florida State Guard, the program had changed from what was advertised, City Council Fires HR Commissioners for Pride Flag Display, and A veteran, and a couple of National Guard members, were among the officers involved with a violent traffic stop
Transterrestrial Musings: The Internet, And Freedom, Commercial Space Legislation, Squatters, and Obama’s Russian Doctrine
Victory Girls: Rep. Summer Lee (D-PA) Bashes Alaskan King Crab For Military, Nancy Mace Makes Another Butthole Statement, and Trudeau Insults Muslim Parents Over LGBTQ Curriculum Objections
Volokh Conspiracy: New Statistical Evidence Supports the “Minneapolis Effect” as an Explanation for Increases in Homicides
Watts Up With That: Guardian: Climate Activists can Overcome Greed by Shouting Louder, Climate Activists are Targeting Billionaire Toys, Why Global Warming Lawsuits Deserve to Fail, Dishonest Climate Fear-mongering headline of the week goes to USA TODAY, and Politico: Chinese Emissions are Cancelling Biden’s Efforts to Save Us from Climate Change
The Federalist: Somebody Tell Planned Parenthood Summer Camp Is For Good Clean Fun, Not Sex Ed, It’s Joe Biden, Not Tommy Tuberville, Who Brought The ‘Culture War’ To The Military, Black Mirror Season Six Gets Sucked Into The Black Hole Of Modern Leftism, Ron DeSantis Heads To CNN To (Hopefully) Confront Jake Tapper, The Most Dishonest Man On Cable News, and The Lifestyle Of Climate Radicals Tells You All You Need To Know About Their Sincerity
Mark Steyn: No Joke, Punch Cards and Picket Lines: Jean Arthur in The Devil and Miss Jones, and Smile (Ton sourire est dans mon coeur)

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Category: Linkagery

When They’re Dead, They’re Just Hookers

Posted on | July 17, 2023 | 1 Comment

Archer: Oh, my God! You killed a hooker!
Cyril: Call girl! She was a call girl!
Archer: No, Cyril. When they’re dead, they’re just hookers.
— Archer, Season 1 (2010)

Why is it that the Long Island serial killer case keeps reminding me of sitcom gags? My irreverent sense of humor has been getting me in trouble since grade school, and of course, as a professional journalist, I know that one is supposed to speak respectfully of murder victims, even when they’re dead hookers. But today I was reading a CNN report today about a “flood of evidence” in the case since the arrest of New York architect Art Vandelay — I’m sorry, of course I meant Rex Heuermann — as the prime suspect in the case. And what annoyed me in that story was that not once did they mention what it was these three women had in common, besides being dead. Hence, the Archer dialogue.

Just so we’re clear, here are the known facts via WABC-TV News:

  • Melissa Barthelemy was last seen at her residence, a basement apartment at 1149 Underhill Ave. in the Unionport section of the Bronx on July 12, 2009. She was 4 feet 10 inches tall and was 24 years old when she was last seen.
    Barthelemy was a sex worker who advertised on Adult Friend Finder as well as other sites. She used the aliases Chloe and VerySexyChloe. She had tattoos of the words “Blaze” and “Focus” on her back, and letters on her chest. She was also known to meet clients at bars, restaurants and hotels on the West Side of Manhattan.
    On July 12, 2009, the night she was last seen, Barthelemy told a friend she was going to see a man and would be back in the morning. This friend was aware she was a sex worker, but Barthelemy offered no other details. Her cellphone records show she traveled from the Bronx to Manhattan, most likely via taxi.
    Barthelemy’s mother had not heard from her or been able to contact her for a few days so she reported her missing to the NYPD on July 18, 2009. The investigation showed cellphone activity in Manhattan, Freeport, Massapequa and Lindenhurst. Motels in and near these neighborhoods were investigated.
    After Barthelemy had been reported missing, her younger sister received a series of taunting phone calls from someone using Barthelemy’s phone. These calls are believed to have come from the killer and were made from the area near the Port Authority Bus Terminal on 8th Avenue, and also from near Penn Station. These areas were thoroughly canvassed immediately following the calls, however, due to the large amount of pedestrian and vehicular traffic, no leads were developed.
    On December 11, 2010, Barthelemy’s body was found on the north side of Ocean Parkway, near Gilgo Beach . . .
  • Megan Waterman was 22 years old when she was last seen on June 6, 2010. Waterman was a resident of Scarborough, Maine and was a sex worker who advertised on Craigslist and Backpage. She used the names Lexxy and Sexy Lexi. She was last seen by her family boarding a New York-bound Concord Trailways bus in Maine, possibly with her pimp.
    Waterman was staying at the Holiday Inn Express, located at 2050 Express Drive South in Hauppauge. Waterman was known to stay at other hotels and motels on Long Island, including the Extended Stay America in Bethpage. Waterman left the Holiday Inn Express at 1:30 a.m. on June 6, 2010 to meet a client. Waterman called her pimp, who was in Brooklyn at the time, to tell him she was going to a convenience store near the hotel.
    Waterman was reported missing to the Scarborough Maine Police Department on June 8, 2010. Family members felt it was unlike her not to call them to check on her then-3-year-old daughter. The Scarborough Maine Police Department contacted the Suffolk County Police to assist in the missing person investigation.
    Waterman’s body was found on December 13, 2010 on the north side of Ocean Parkway, near Gilgo Beach . . .
    Waterman’s pimp was arrested on federal charges of Interstate Trafficking of Prostitutes on April 11, 2012 and was sentenced to three years in federal prison in January 2013. There is no information to suggest he had any knowledge or participated in any way in Waterman’s murder.
  • Amber Lynn Costello was 27 years old and lived at 1112 America Ave. in West Babylon when she was last seen by acquaintances. Costello was a heroin addict who lived at the house with another female and two men, who were also heroin addicts. Costello, who was 4 feet 11 inches tall, and was a sex worker who advertised on Craigslist and Backpage to support her and her roommates’ heroin addiction. Costello used the names Carolina or Mia and had tattoos of “Kaos” on her neck, a butterfly on her lower back and the word “Margeret” on her leg.
    Costello had moved to New York from Clearwater Florida and had completed a 28-day drug rehab, but had relapsed not long before her disappearance.
    Costello and her roommates shared a cellphone. The other female roommate was also a sex worker supporting a heroin addiction and the two male roommates would arrange dates with clients for the women. Costello did “in-calls” at her home, as well as “out-calls.”
    When Costello would meet clients at her home, the two male roommates would often arrange a scam, during which, once a client had paid money, and before any sex acts occurred, they would confront the client saying Costello was their girlfriend and the client would flee.
    Costello was last seen leaving her residence on foot on September 2, 2010 to meet a client who was picking her up at her house. Costello did not have her cellphone with her at the time and she was never reported missing.
    Costello was found on December 13, 2010 on the north side of Ocean Parkway, near Gilgo Beach . . .

Is this situation sufficiently clear? All three of these women were advertising their services via Internet sites like Craigslist and Backpage, which is presumably how the killer found them. And it would seem to me that, in reporting on a “flood of evidence” received by detectives investigating the case, CNN should have seen fit to mention this.

Police say they suspect Heuermann in at least one other murder — Maureen Brainard-Barnes, who was also a sex worker call girl hooker — and it is important to note that these women did not become victims randomly. It appears that, in using the Internet to advertise their services as prostitutes, these women made themselves targets.

The moral of the story? Don’t be a hooker.

Also, never trust CNN.



 

Category: Crime

A Strange Thing to Say

Posted on | July 17, 2023 | Comments Off on A Strange Thing to Say

OK, first the news:

Biden National Security Council adviser John Kirby on Friday told CNN host Kate Bouldan that it is “very difficult” to see the president signing an NDAA [National Defense Authorization Act, i.e., the Pentagon budget] that does not include abortion and trans rights.
“It’s very difficult to see the President supporting legislation that would make it harder for Americans to serve in uniform, and to not be able to do so with dignity, would not be able to do so with the proper care that they need both medical and mental care,” Kirby said. “It’s very difficult to see that the President would ever, ever sign legislation that would put our troops at greater risk or put our readiness at risk.”

This is lunacy. Does anyone really believe military readiness will be “at risk” without transgender treatment or taxpayer-funded abortion? As if it were self-evident that “proper care,” as John Kirby calls it, is somehow essential for America’s ability to win wars? Such a claim can only be believed by those indoctrinated with an ideology which places “inclusion” and “diversity” as the highest values. How dare you deny mentally deluded people the “proper care” necessary to engage in a sad effort to imitate the opposite sex? In this worldview, the military becomes just another agency of the liberal Welfare State, with an agenda that must be pursued without regard to what actual “readiness” requires.

At HotAir-dot-com, David Strom reacts:

Republicans didn’t “insert” culture war
into Defense bill; Democrats did

While agreeing with most of what Strom writes, I found myself perplexed by a couple of sentences here:

The Republicans have to become the Party of Parents, who are waking up to how radical the Left has become. We have to go around the MSM, ridicule them, and keep the pressure on. The more parents dealing with normal kids suddenly swept up in the alphabet movement, the more we need to recruit.
Like all social movements, progress is slow until the moment it goes into hyperdrive. That is what happened with gay marriage. We can make it happen here.

Wait, is he saying that mandatory recognition of same-sex “marriage” is “progress”? Whether or not Strom intends such an interpretation, the idea that the “social movement” suddenly had a “moment” where it went “into hyperdrive” is patently false. Voters of 31 states approved state constitutional amendments that defined marriage as the union of one man and one woman. Even before that happened, of course, President Bill Clinton had signed the Defense of Marriage Act, affirming that the federal government would do nothing to undermine a traditional understanding of marriage. The assertion by Strong that same-sex “marriage” became mandatory because the “social movement,” after years of slow progress, somehow reached its “moment” of “hyperdrive” — that’s not how it happened at all. What actually happened was a series of three Supreme Court decisions, beginning with Lawrence v. Texas in 2003, in which a 6-3 majority of the justices claimed to have found something in the Equality Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment that prohibited states from outlawing and prosecuting sodomy. Of course this was absurd; every state that ratified the Fourteenth Amendment had laws against sodomy, a topic that the amendment itself never addressed.

Justice Antonin Scalia saw very well where the majority’s argument was leading, and I endorse his Lawrence dissent 100%. As soon as the Lawrence ruling was issued, activists in several states, led by Massachusetts, claimed this ruling as a de facto mandate for legalizing same-sex “marriage,” even while voters in other states approved ballot measures defending traditional marriage. Even in liberal California, gay activists could not prevent passage of Proposition 8 in 2008.

There followed the U.S. v. Windsor case in 2013 (see Scalia’s dissent), which was the foreshadowing of Obergefell v. Hodges in 2015 (see Scalia’s dissent). It was not a “social movement” that made this happen; it was liberals on the Supreme Court, using fictitious interpretations of the Constitution to impose their policy preferences nationwide. What the majority did in these three decisions (Lawrence, Windsor and Obergefell) was an insult to the Constitution, and an attack on the procedural norms of democracy, per se. The way David Strom speaks of “what happened with gay marriage” ignores the Court’s role in all this.

It is important to point out this history, because what actually happened was something that has happened before, i.e., the liberal elite using the Supreme Court to impose policies opposed by a majority of voters and then, celebrating this as “the law of the land,” using the court’s ruling as a mandate to silence dissent. Once criticism of the policy is effectively prohibited, no one is permitted to point to social problems and describe them as negative consequences of the policy imposed by court fiat.

“How dare you say this is not progress?”

Even conservatives are now expected to act as if the Obergefell decision was inherently praiseworthy, and risk denunciation from our supposed “friends” in the Republican Party if we refuse to play along.



 

Category: Gays
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