The Other McCain

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

The Elite Who Are Destroying America

Posted on | December 23, 2015 | 111 Comments

The habits of America’s “meritocratic” elite are the subject of an American Interest blog post that includes the phrase “educational assortative mating” — i.e., Ivy Leaguers marrying Ivy Leaguers, generation after generation, so that the influential elite form a separate caste, with no familial ties to the rest of the nation, and no direct knowledge of how most Americans live or what most Americans believe.

Professor Glenn Reynolds (himself a Yale Law alumnus) sees this as evidence that our national aristocracy “is becoming increasingly inbred and stupid,” but perhaps a more important point is that our soi-disant “elite” are arrogant, lack the capacity for self-criticism, and refuse to recognize the possibility that intelligence is not synonymous with virtue. The simplest disproof of this Ivy League superstition about “meritocracy” is Ted Kaczynski, Harvard University, Class of 1962, but if that didn’t clinch it, there’s Barack Obama, Columbia University, Class of 1983. Very intelligent people can do very bad things. Even if we stipulate not merely their high IQs, but also their good intentions, it is still quite often the case that smart, well-meaning people turn out to be incompetent fools whose hubristic sense of their own superiority is a chief cause of their folly. Have none of these people read David Halberstam’s The Best and the Brightest? Or are they just too arrogant to understand the fundamental lesson? It wasn’t just the Vietnam War that the liberal elite bungled. They proved themselves at least as inept in domestic policy as they were in foreign affairs, but I digress . . .

Charles Murray deserves an apology. The phrase “assortative mating” is immediately recognizable to anyone who has read The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life. In the first 125 pages of that book, Murray and his late co-author Richard Herrnstein described how the advent of universal standardized testing and nationwide recruiting by the Ivy League and other elite schools had created a sort of IQ segregation in American society. Yet this valuable insight was overlooked amid an absurd liberal temper tantrum. Herrnstein and Murray dared to talk about IQ and race and, as a result, they were falsely accused of being crypto-Nazis and advocates of eugenics. To accuse Herrnstein and Murray of racism is analogous, really, to saying that anyone who criticized U.S. policy in Vietnam under the direction of McGeorge Bundy (Yale, ’40) et al., was guilty of being “soft on Communism.” One could hate Communists and also believe that the liberals in charge of U.S. policy were idiots, just as one can despise racism while believing that liberal rhetoric about race and the policies resulting from this rhetoric are profoundly wrong. If voting for Democrats and pursuing liberal policies could solve America’s race problems, then Detroit would be Heaven on Earth, rather than the dangerous and bankrupt municipal catastrophe that it is.

The immaturity and selfishness of Ivy League students like Jerelyn “Who the F–k Hired You?” Luther should serve to remind us that the admissions committee at Yale is demonstrably incompetent to choose our nation’s leaders. The Ivy League is decadent and depraved.

The administration, faculty, students and alumni of Yale and Harvard are destroying America, and it does not matter whether they are doing this accidentally or on purpose. However, if the decades of disastrous policy inflicted on America by the elite were the result of incompetence, we might expect they would occasionally do something good or right, by accident. As it is, everything they do is bad and wrong.

The liberal elite consistently support policies directly opposite to America’s best interests. The excuse that they are well-meaning bunglers is implausible. Only active malice — anti-Americanism — can possibly explain how we have been betrayed so badly by these “leaders” whom elite universities have handpicked and indoctrinated.

The graduates of Harvard and Yale are America’s most dangerous enemies, carefully trained for their assigned roles in accomplishing our nation’s destruction. Americans can never possibly hate the elite as much as the elite hate America. Alger Hiss (Harvard Law, Class of ’29) could not be reached for comment.




 

Category: Education

LIVE AT FIVE: 12.23.15

Posted on | December 23, 2015 | 5 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Our new theme song

TOP NEWS
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 Nails The Landing

Falcon 9 sticks a perfect vertical landing after launching 11 ORBCOMM satellites, as God and Robert Heinlein intended

Air Force Personnel Killed In Suicide Bombing Attack
Most press attention dwells on “trailblazing” lesbian major

Trump Says “Schlonged” Comment Toward Clinton Not Vulgar
More whining from Hillary’s campaign about the #waronwomen



POLITICS
WaPo Pulls Cartoon Depicting Senator Cruz’ Daughters As Trained Monkeys

The cartoon, and the lame excuse for it

Editors post apology in place of cartoon
Senator Rubio slams Post for “disgusting” cartoon

Franklin Graham Leaves GOP Over Planned Parenthood Funding

Hillary’s Hispanic Outreach Triggers #notmyabuela Backlash

KY Governor Bevin Orders Clerks’ Signatures Removed From Marriage Licenses

County Judge Upholds Seattle’s “Gun Violence Tax”

Secret Service Agent Loses Gun, Badge, Handcuffs To Thief

State Department Whines Over Dominican Cardinal’s Mockery Of Gay Ambassador

Virginia Revokes Concealed Handgun Permit Reciprocity With 26 States

Planned Parenthood Hit With Federal Probe, Defunding In Utah



THE ECONOMY, STUPID
U.S. Crude Flips To Premium Over Brent; Markets Still Glutted: Brent $36.29, WTI $36.33
U.S. Economy Set To Grow Less Than 3% For Tenth Straight Year
Why You Should Buy The Men’s Version Of Most Products
Abercrombie & Fitch Names New President In Effort To Boost Sales
Haul For Starbucks Gift Cards Nears GDP Of Trinidad & Tobago
Disney Eyes Exit From Fusion As Venture Struggles
Google Trials Replacing Passwords With Smartphones
Bjork Launches Virtual Reality App For iPhone, iPad
New System Lets Self-driving Cars “Learn” Streets On The Fly
2015: Microsoft’s Biggest Year Ever?
Is This Battlefield 4 Easter Egg The Most Complex Ever?



SPORTS
Panthers Lead League With Ten Picks For Pro Bowl

Franchise record

Undefeated Panthers send five first-time picks to the Pro Bowl

Blues Blank Bruins 2-0

Kobe Scores 31 As Lakers Rally To Beat Nuggets

Canucks Edge Lightning 2-1

Heat Blows 18-Point Lead, Falls To Pistons’ Bombs

Hapless Habs’ Skid Hits Five Against Wild

Warriors Even Odds To Repeat As NBA Champs

Panthers Edge Sens In Shootout, 2-1

New Nats Reliever Shawn Kelley: “The Horse Head Is Not Retired”



FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
Jennifer Lawrence Admits Toking Up Before The Oscars

Chaka, when the walls fell.

Admits pre-awards pot smoking, smooching Liam Hemsworth off-set during taping of Watch What Happens Live

Steve Harvey Invited Back To Host Miss Universe

Former Nickelodeon Star Busted For DUI

Nick Cage Returns Stolen Dinosaur Skull He Bought

Christmas Then And Now

Ben Affleck And Jennifer Garner To Spend Christmas Together – For The Kids

The Lost Boys Star Brooke McCarter Dead At 52

Gwen Stefani’s Kids Adore Her New BF Blake Shelton



FOREIGNERS
Zimbabwe Makes Chinese Yuan Legal Tender
Man Found Alive After Over Sixty Hours In China Landslide Rubble
Iraqi Forces Storm Downtown Ramadi In Bid To Eject ISIS
NZ Judge Approves Kim Dotcom’s Extradition To U.S.
Indian Parliament Passes Tough Juvenile Law: 16-18 Year Olds Can Now Be Tried For Rape, Murder
EU Gets One Million Migrants In 2015; Smugglers Turn Billion-Dollar Profit
Miss Spain Crowned Miss World
Japan Says Armed Chinese Coast Guard Ship Spotted Near Disputed Islands
Kenyan Muslims Defy Terrorist Demands To Give Up Christians In Bus Attack
Indian External Affairs Ministry Asks Students To Delay Travel To U.S. Until Recent Deportations Explained



BLOGS & STUFF
American Power: “Ultra-Conservative” Protests Against “Refujihadi” Invasion Of Europe
American Thinker: The Liberal Christmas From Hell
Conservatives4Palin: Jeff Sessions – Without Ted Cruz, Amnesty Would Have Passed In 2013
Don Surber: American Bacon Will Save China
Jammie Wearing Fools: Miss Puerto Rico Dares To Utter Opinions About Muslims, Gets Hammered For It
Joe For America: Bowe Bergdahl Facing Desertion Charges
JustOneMinute: Meanwhile, Back In The Lake Wobegon School District
Pamela Geller: Muslim “Refugees” In Italy Revolt Over Lack of Wi-Fi
Shot In The Dark: Un-Abeler To Compute
The Gateway Pundit: Somali Muslim Caught Smuggling Illegals Across U.S. Border
The Jawa Report: Sandcrawler PSA – Islamic State Is Very Islamic
This Ain’t Hell: “Tops In Blue” On Chopping Block
Weasel Zippers: San Bernardino Shooter Tashfeen Malik’s Visa Approved Despite Not Providing Required Information
Megan McArdle: Books That Don’t Feel Like Homework
Mark Steyn: Giuliani Talks To Steyn About 9/11…And Those Who Celebrated


What Did You Do In The War, Dad?
There Will Be War Volume X

Category: Live at Five

In The Mailbox, 12.22.15

Posted on | December 22, 2015 | 1 Comment

— compiled by Wombat-socho


Still struggling for consistency.


OVER THE TRANSOM
EBL: Happy Winter Solstice!
Proof Positive: Meanwhile, In An Alternate Universe
Michelle Malkin: Backlash BS – The Myth Of The Muslim Hate Crime Epidemic, Again
Twitchy: Ted Cruz Shames WaPo Cartoonist For Cruel Attack On His Daughters


RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
American Power: FHM And Zoo Magazines To Suspend Production
American Thinker: Glenn Beck Vs. The Tea Party
BLACKFIVE: Merry Christmas! Be Careful Out There
Conservatives4Palin: Governor Palin To Star In “30 Rock” Parody
Don Surber: Hey, Kids! Krugman Is Why Your Student Loans Are So High
Jammie Wearing Fools: Obama Claims People Dislike Him Because He’s “Different” Or Something
Joe For America: Boycott Launched Against Sam’s Club After CEO Makes Anti-White Comments
JustOneMinute: Those Recalcitrant Bitter Clingers
Pamela Geller: ISIS Recruitment Video Features Bill Clinton And Barack Obama, Not Donald Trump
Protein Wisdom: A Little Christmas Music
Shot In The Dark: Lie First, Lie Always – Take Off Your Shoes, You’ll Need ‘Em
STUMP: Pensions Watch – Show Us The Money
The Gateway Pundit: Franklin Graham Resigns From Republican Party
The Jawa Report: Sandcrawler PSA – Hijrah And You
The Lonely Conservative: Time For A Break
This Ain’t Hell: Sheriff Mike Johnstone, Who Opposed Concealed Carry In Iowa, Shoots Himself
Weasel Zippers: 2887 Shooting Victims YTD In Gun-Controlled Chicago
Megan McArdle: Keurig Kold Makes Great Sodas, But It’s An Expensive Habit
Mark Steyn: There She Goes, Miss Colombia


What Did You Do In the Cold War, Dad? – #1 On Kindle In Cold War Books
Shop Amazon – Holiday Gift Cards

Category: Linkagery

The Feminist-Industrial Complex: Lesbians ‘Learning How to Scream’

Posted on | December 22, 2015 | 21 Comments

 

More than 40,000 students are enrolled at Concordia University in Quebec, one of Canada’s largest universities and home to the Simone de Beauvoir Institute, named for the author of The Second Sex (and Jean Paul Sartre’s lover). The institute employs four full-time professors, 10 part-time professors, two visiting professors and 25 research associates. The total undergraduate enrollment is “usually around 150 in our Women’s Studies Major program and 70 others in our Specialization, Minor and Certificate programs.”

Among the fall courses at the institute was “Feminist Perspectives on Culture” (WSDB491) taught by Magdalena Olszanowski, a part-time instructor in communications who has written a paper entitled “Feminist Imaging Practices: Fostering Community on Instagram Through the Hashtag.” Here is the course description of WSDB491:

This seminar explores the central concepts and theories in feminist cultural studies, as they inform feminist, post-colonial, queer, and post-structuralist understandings of culture. The focus is on women as cultural producers and subjects in/of various cultural texts (e.g. cinema, visual arts, music, advertising, popular media, feminist writings). The discursive construction of gender, as it is inflected by class, race, sexuality, and location, is examined as well as the ways in which it is used, displayed, imagined and performed in contemporary culture. Students develop practical and analytical skills, posing questions of how particular cultural narratives function within social, political and economic contexts. Students are required to participate in and lead discussions of the readings and to create and/or critique cultural productions.

Ah, “the discursive construction of gender”! This senior-level class — open only to students who have completed a prerequisite 30 credit hours of Women’s Studies courses — distinguished itself by creating a Tumblr blog, which includes among other things, a course syllabus for  “Feminist Perspectives on Culture.” What are these Concordia feminists required to read in this senior-level course? Among the assigned readings is “Rape Culture and the Feminist Politics of Social Media” by Carrie Rentschler, director of the Institute for Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies at McGill University in Montreal. Professor Rentschler cites the 1993 book Transforming a Rape Culture in defining the phenomenon:

Rape culture refers to the “complex of beliefs that encourages male sexual aggression and supports violence against women. It is a society where violence is seen as sexy and sexuality as violent. In a rape culture women perceive a continuum of threatened violence that ranges from sexual remarks to sexual touching to rape itself. A rape culture condones physical and emotional terrorism against women as the norm.”

Thus, feminists are taught that “sexual remarks” are part of “a continuum of threatened violence” that “encourages male sexual aggression” and “condones . . . emotional terrorism.” Men cannot be permitted even to talk about sex, because anything a man says about sex is part of the “continuum” of rape culture. Stigmatizing male sexuality as inherently violent and harmful to women fosters a sexual paranoia (“Fear and Loathing of the Penis”) that is fundamental to the feminist worldview.

It is scarcely surprising, therefore, that the assigned texts in “Feminist Perspectives on Culture” include SCUM Manifesto, written by Valerie Solanas, the psychotic lesbian who attempted to murder artist Andy Warhol in 1968. Homicidal rage against males is celebrated in this Women’s Studies course as “the culture of resistance.”

 

Endorsing anti-male violence as “resistance,” by assigning the deranged screed of a notorious criminal, while accusing men of “emotional terrorism” merely for making “sexual remarks,” is typical of the Feminist-Industrial Complex of academic Women’s Studies. In these programs, feminist intellectuals provide emotionally vulnerable young women with one-sided arguments that function as rationalizations to justify an attitude of hatred and hostility toward men. The indoctrination process in Women’s Studies programs can best be understood by studying cult “mind control” methods. It may be assumed that all women who enroll in these programs are inspired by some level of anti-male prejudice, sharing the feminist belief expressed by the 1969 Redstockings manifesto: “Women are an oppressed class. . . . We identify the agents of our oppression as men. . . . All men have oppressed women.” The Women’s Studies curriculum provides young women with arguments that articulate that sense of oppression, justifying their resentment of men as “agents” of the hostile patriarchal force arrayed against them. Within this academic cult environment, students are bombarded constantly with information that supports feminism’s anti-male worldview, while criticism and dissent are prohibited.

The syllabus for “Feminist Perspectives on Culture” includes a paragraph on “Learning Environment” which explains that “the production of research on culture . . . cannot be apolitical, value-free, neutral, non-biased.” Professor Olszanowski declares that “her role is to offer an analytical framework for understanding culture from a feminist standpoint” before issuing this warning:

It is the responsibility of all to create a learning environment where one can safely say what one thinks, keeping in mind the collective responsibility of all to create an environment free of racism, sexism, heterosexism, cissexism, cisgenderism, classism, ageism and ableism.

A student “can safely say what one thinks,” but only if what is said does not violate the “responsibility” to “create an environment” that excludes a long list of possible Thought Crimes. Of course, if every student in this senior-level class has already taken at least 30 hours of Women’s Studies courses, they have almost certainly attained a level of intellectual homogeneity that would rival the Soviet Politburo under Stalin, so that Professor Olszanowski’s warning is a pro forma gesture.

Probably no senior student in the Simone de Beauvoir Institute would even notice the contradiction apparent in a class where (a) the assigned texts include a would-be murderer’s anti-male manifesto, and (b) the course syllabus features a “safe space” disclaimer:

Concordia classrooms are considered ‘safe space classrooms’. In order to create a climate for open and honest dialogue and to encourage the broadest range of viewpoints, it is important for class participants to treat each other with respect. Name-calling, accusations, verbal attacks, sarcasm, and other negative exchanges are counter-productive to successful teaching and learning. The purpose of class discussions is to generate greater understanding about different topics. The expression of the broadest range of ideas, including dissenting views, helps to accomplish this goal. However, in expressing viewpoints, students should try to raise questions and comments in ways that will promote learning, rather than defensiveness and feelings of conflict in other students. Thus, questions and comments should be asked or stated in such a way that will promote greater insight into the awareness of topics as opposed to anger and conflict. The purpose of dialogue and discussion is not to reach a consensus, nor to convince each other of different viewpoints. Rather, the purpose of dialogue in the classroom is to reach higher levels of learning by examining different viewpoints and opinions with respect and civility.

Yes, we must have “respect and civility”! No “name-calling” or “sarcasm” will be tolerated in this class where all men are portrayed as complicit in oppression, rape and “emotional terrorism”! We will permit no “negative exchanges” which might be “counter-productive” while we teach the “culture of resistance” by reading SCUM Manifesto by Valerie Solanas!

Feel free to examine the, uh, scholarship these students have produced, which is to feminist insanity what Baskin-Robbins is to ice cream. Among the 31 flavors of crazy offered by these senior Women’s Studies majors is “an online feminist art exhibition that explores the uterus and vagina from the perspective of someone who has painful periods every month and who doesn’t like most kinds of penetration”:

In conversation with Carolee Schneemann’s “Inner Scroll,” and to a lesser extent, Magenta Baribeau’s Maman? Non Merci!, my work explores the vagina, the uterus, and the vulva, or to be more specific, my vagina, my uterus, and my vulva, in ways that I feel are at times unacceptable to express within feminist circles. My work sometimes depicts penetration as disgusting or scary, because that’s where I’m at in my process of learning to be comfortable with my body. Similarly, some of my other works depict periods as violent and aggressive, because that’s how my period feels to me sometimes. I want to make it clear that I’m not advocating for people to be disgusted with their bodies or periods, but merely voicing my reality, merely saying that sometimes, when I sit in on feminist community events, I’m frustrated that the body, and more specifically the uterus, is mystified and uncritically celebrated. I want there to be space to express discomfort with one’s body or with sex without being labeled as body-shaming or sex-shaming, so that people, like me, who still struggle with total body image, who are uncomfortable with things like penetration sometimes, and who cannot, and will not ever be able to embrace periods beyond the point of agreeing that they should not be taboo have a space to speak. Because sometimes it is so hard to not be allowed to openly critique something that causes you so much pain, and that is, for now, incurable. But again, this is all coming from the person who interviewed you all about your periods a few weeks back! All from the person who wants to talk about periods, and make them less taboo! But I’m also the person who wants to move beyond the current popular discourse in feminist circles in Montreal, that are uncritically celebratory of period experiences, and silence those who wish to speak about their frank dislike of them (that sometimes co-exists with their appreciation of periods of course!).So all in all, I’m a little nervous about sharing this work, both because I’m afraid that the content may come to bite me in the uterus ass later, and because I’m nervous that despite my whole spiel, my work will simply be dismissed as some body-negative, sex-negative art, making me a “bad feminist.”

Question: Has she consulted an endocrinologist? To convert one’s medical and/or psychiatric problems into a senior-level university project for “Feminist Cultural Perspectives” is a sort of academic alchemy, where “the personal is political” means you are entitled to three semester credits for complaining about your menstrual cycle. Women’s Studies promotes a feminist ideology which views activism as a valid substitute for therapy, so that the student gets academic credit for producing art that depicts vaginal “penetration as disgusting or scary” as part of “my process of learning to be comfortable with my body.”

Alas, sarcasm is “counter-productive”! Students in WSDB491 are OK with a movie celebrating serial killer Aileen Wuornos, but sarcasm is impermissible. Meanwhile, this is a senior project:

Exploring the links between archiving and activist action/intervention, my final project, in conversation with The Lesbian Avengers Documentary Project, is a zine documenting and commenting on the creation of the first dyke marches in Montreal from 2012 to the present. This zine is also part of a larger project called LEARNING HOW TO SCREAM, an activist and archival project which by its focus on lesbian lives, theory and activism aims to confront lesbian history and make sense of it in contemporary contexts.
As part of this project, I will be facilitating a lecture series next semester on lesbian theory and activism.

Women’s Studies at one of Canada’s largest universities means a “discursive construction of gender” through studying “rape culture,” an art project about menstrual cramps, and a lecture series about “dyke marches” and lesbian theory. When the only thing you produce is ridiculous gibberish, sarcasm is counter-productive.




 

Category: Sex Trouble

Victims of ‘Cissexist Heteropatriarchy’

Posted on | December 21, 2015 | 75 Comments

 

Let me state clearly what should be obvious to longtime readers: I don’t like it when kids at elite colleges claim to be victims of oppression.

Self-pity as a basis for political activism is a very bad idea and should be discouraged. Generally speaking, young people are ignorant and foolish. Being highly intelligent is not a substitute for experience, and youthful enthusiasm should never be confused with actual knowledge. Do not tell me you are a victim of oppression if your Daddy is rich enough to send you to a school where tuition is $50,586 a year:

There are too many white musicians in the Oberlin College jazz band. This was among the numerous complaints — “concrete and unmalleable demands” — in a 14-page manifesto issued last week by the Black Students Union (BSU) at the elite private liberal arts college in Ohio. The second item on their list of demands was “a concerted effort to increase the percentage of Black students and specifically Black female identifying instrumentalists in the Jazz department. We would like to reiterate the demand for a 4% annual increase in the enrollment of Black students in the Jazz Department starting in 2016 to accumulate to 40% increase by the year 2022.”
Underrepresentation of “Black female identifying instrumentalists in the Jazz department” might seem a rather odd choice of student grievances to those of us old enough to remember when campus radicals focused their attention on serious issues like the Vietnam War. The seemingly trivial nature of the Oberlin BSU complaints contrasts starkly with the group’s dramatic denunciation of the college as an institution that “functions on the premises of imperialism, white supremacy, capitalism, ableism, and a cissexist heteropatriarchy.” . . . .

Read the rest of my column at The American Spectator.

 

Category: American Spectator, Education

RETURN OF THE BRIDE OF THE SON OF THE BEAST OF LIVE AT FIVE 12.21.15 CONQUERS THE MARTIANS

Posted on | December 21, 2015 | 9 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Our new theme song

TOP NEWS
37 Intentionally Hit By Woman Driver On The Las Vegas Strip

Las Vegas Metro Police Deputy Chief Zimmerman: “This was not an act of terrorism…”

One dead, eleven hospitalized. Driver repeatedly swerved onto and off of sidewalk, surrendered peacefully to police and is currently in custody

Trump Scores With Miss Universe Blunder
Host Steve Harvey mistakenly crowns Miss Colombia

Spain’s Conservatives Have First Shot At Forming Coalition
Indecisive election cost PM Rajoy’s Popular Party 100 seats, but no party has a majority in the Cortes



POLITICS
Democrat Split On Terror Reframes Presidential Race

Hillary Clinton returns from the bathroom after debate has already restarted

O’Malley, Sanders seek to show Clinton’s “hawkish” posture a poor fit for the current Democratic electorate

Clinton Missed Debate Because She Wouldn’t Share The Ladies’ Room

Trump Returns Democratic Fire From Third Debate

Rubio Plays Hard-To-Get With Voters

Poll: Cruz Leads In Iowa, Trump Still Ahead In NH, SC

Obama’s Year-End News Conference: I Won

California Regulators To Propose Water Conservation Changes



THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Brent Crude Falls To 2004 Low As Market Rout Heads Into Christmas: Brent $36.17, WTI $34.40
European Stocks Open Lower As Oil Plunges To 11-Year Low
Toshiba To Cut 7000 Jobs In PC, TV Units, Expects Fiscal Year Loss
Shkreli Blames Arrest On Drug Price Hikes- WSJ
GE Postpones Decision On Leaving Connecticut To January
Money Can’t Buy Love (Yet) For Atlantic City Casino Owner
Apple’s Cook Claims There’s No Tradeoff Between Privacy, Security
Blackberry CEO Says Priv Has Been Well-Received
Extroverts Rejoice! Now Facebook Finds You Parties
How To Hack Any Linux Machine Using Just The Backspace Key
Microsoft Adds HALO:Reach And Other Backward Compatible Games To The XBox One



SPORTS
Phil Rivers Wins One For The Fans In Chargers’ Last Game In San Diego (Maybe)

Phil Rivers prepares to pass against the Dolphins

Chargers beat Dolphins 30-14 in matchup of last-place teams; team may move to LA for next season

FIFA Bans Blatter, Platini From Soccer

Bucks Coach Jason Kidd Headed For Surgery



Redskins Ready To Take The East After Beating Bills

Kyrie Returns As Cavs Crush D-League Sixers

Panthers Edge Canucks In OT

Howard, Rockets Pull Away Early To Drop Clippers

Bruins Edge Devils In Shootout

Nats Passing On Reds’ Phillips?



FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
Adele Quit Smoking Out Of Fear

Down from 25 cigs a day in 2011

Had to cancel shows in 2011 after losing her voice; doctors told her career might be over if she didn’t stop smoking

Kim Richards Is Returning To Reality

Jenelle Evans Celebrates 24th Birthday

Nicki Minaj Ignores Human Rights Activists, Performs For Angolan Dictator

Police Raid Lenny Kravitz’ Free Dental Clinic

Farrah Abrahams Calls Other Teen Moms “Losers”

Aretha Franklin Totally Allowed To Be An Obnoxious Theatergoer



FOREIGNERS
Iraq Hoping Oil Prices Rebound In 2016
Landslide Devastates Chinese Industrial Park, 91 Missing
Indonesia Terror Plot Foiled
Indian Gang Rapist’s Release Sparks Protests
Israeli Interior Minister Resigns Over Sexual Harassment Allegations
Israeli Air Strike Near Damascus Kills Top Hezbollah Commander
Canadian Pastor Jailed By Norks Gets First Visit From Consular Officials
Saudi Air Defense Intercepts Rocket Fired From Yemen
Syrians Claim Dozens of Civilians Killed In Russian Strike On Rebel-Held Idlib
Helmand Province In Afghanistan Set To Fall Again To The Taliban?



BLOGS & STUFF
Da Tech Guy: Alas, These Are Islamists, Not Catholic Priests
EBL: Defense Department To Start Selling M1911 Pistols Through CMP
Doug Powers: White House To Use More Obama “Theater” In Counterterrorism Efforts
Twitchy: Oberlin College Cafeteria Accused Of Serving “Culturally Disrespectful” Food


American Power: Trump Campaign Lags In Mobilizing Iowa Caucus Voters
American Thinker: Obama – Disengaged, Delusional, Or Diabolical?
Conservatives4Palin: The Debate Democrats Can’t Have
Don Surber: According To PolitiFact, Hillary Is The Most Honest Candidate Since Washington
Jammie Wearing Fools: Obama Puts A Record 95 Criminals Back On The Street
Joe For America: Reverend Franklin Graham Calls For Ban On Sharia Law In The U.S.
JustOneMinute: Fox Butterfield, Is That You?
Pamela Geller: Muslims Beat And Kick Swedes On The Sidewalk In Broad Daylight
Protein Wisdom: Cruz Christmas Classics
The Gateway Pundit: Americans Boycott Sam’s Club After CEO’s Racist Comments About White Men
The Lonely Conservative: Figures – In Last Debate, Democrats Had Problem With The Truth
This Ain’t Hell: 26th Anniversary Of Operation Just Cause
Weasel Zippers: Reuters Poll Asks Which Democrat Candidate Best Suited To Handle Terror – Top Answer? None
Megan McArdle: The Gotta-Have-It-All Kitchen Gift Guide
Mark Steyn: The Fabric’s Fading Dye


What Did You Do In The Cold War, Dad? Just 99 Cents!
Deal of the Day – AmazonBasics 4.0 Amp Dual USB Car Charger for Apple and Android Devices (High Output) – $7.49

Category: Live at Five

Rule 5 Sunday: Pre-Christmas Shopping Frenzy Edition

Posted on | December 20, 2015 | 8 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Just four shopping days until Christmas, and only two if you’re trusting Amazon to live up to the two-day shipping promise of Amazon Prime. Me, I’ve pretty much got the close friends and family taken care of, and the rest are getting gift cards. As a relief from shopping, politics, and especially the crazed sexual politics of radical feminists, The Other McCain once again provides Rule 5 Sunday to soothe the itching, burning sensation so often provoked by today’s news. This week, our appetizer is by the legendary pin-up artist Gil Elvgren. As usual, many of the following links are to pics commonly considered NSFW, and clicking them at the wrong time or place may lead to you winding up on the Naughty List and finding coal in your stocking. Not the valuable hard anthracite, either, I’m talking that powdery lignite that gets into everything and doesn’t burn worth a damn.

This delicious young lady clearly knows how to stuff a stocking.

Goodstuff leads off this week with Amanda Blake and Stefanie Powers, followed by Ninety Miles from Tyranny with Hot Pick of the Late Night, Morning Mistress, and Girls With Guns. Animal Magnetism has Deep Thoughts Rule 5 Friday and the Saturday Gingermageddon, The Last Tradition contributes Top Ten Friday Babe Of The Week For 2015 and Sarodj Bertin, and First Street Journal pays tribute to the women of the IDF: On The Front Lines Against Islamist Terrorism.

Happy belated birthday to EBL! Also, check out Saoirse Ronan, Slave Leia, M1911 Rule Five, and Dorothy Parker.

A View from the Beach contributes Saved by the Showgirls – Elizabeth Berkley, There’s Good Money in Farming, It Better Be a Pretty Good Beer, “Hotel California”, Jingle, Uh, Bells, How About Some Strauss This Morning?, “All I Want for Christmas is You”, Can the Redskins Skin the Bears?, and “Baby It’s Cold Outside”.

At Soylent Siberia, your weekend coffee creamer is served in the breakfast nook, your Monday Motivationer is Gemma, Tuesday Titillation has some excitation, the Humpday Hawt is Jessica, there’s a Falconsword Fursday Flashback, T-GIF Friday, and Weekender Blake.

Proof Positive’s Friday Night Babe is Daphne Joy, his Vintage Babe is Carole Landis, Sex In Advertising is handled by the Victoria’s Secret Ice Angel, and of course there’s the obligatory 49ers cheerleader. At Dustbury, it’s Taylor Swift and Tina Fey.

Thanks to everyone for their linkagery! Deadline to submit links to the Rule 5 Wombat mailbox for next week’s Rule 5 roundup is midnight on Boxing Day, December 26.


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Category: Rule 5

The Feminist-Industrial Complex: Guilt and Queer Theory in Wisconsin

Posted on | December 20, 2015 | 31 Comments

“The excitement around [Jessica] Valenti’s visit ignited activism among Women’s Studies Program faculty and students. . . . The students enrolled in WMNS 250: Feminist Methodologies felt inspired to join the national and international viral movement called ‘I Need Feminism Because’ . . . University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire feminists felt that Valenti’s visit was a good time to get their fellow students talking with their own signs and a video. . . . The weather was chilly, but Women’s Studies Program majors and minors dressed warm and stood on the newly opened campus sidewalks leading to Davies Center with their signs.”
— Women’s Studies department newsletter, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, 2014

More than 10,000 students attend the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire (UWEC) of whom 85 were enrolled in the Women’s Studies/LGBTQ Studies program in 2014. “The good news is that with thirty-one minors, sixteen majors, thirty Women’s Studies certificate students, and eight Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Queer (LGBTQ) Studies certificate holders, our program is flourishing,” Professor Asha Sen wrote in the department’s newsletter. “The challenge, though, is to sustain and grow us in a time of budgetary crisis.” Exactly why this department has any budget at all is something of a mystery.

Fewer than 1% UWEC students are pursuing degrees or certificates in this program, and the offerings are replicated in many similar programs on other campuses in the University of Wisconsin system. Among these choices, one could pursue this subject in the Women’s and Gender Studies program at UW-Green Bay, or the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies program at UW-La Crosse, or the Gender and Women’s Studies program at UW-Madison. Is it really necessary — “in a time of budgetary crisis,” as Professor Sen says — that Wisconsin taxpayers support so many similar programs at campuses all over the state?

Of course, efficient use of taxpayer dollars has no part in the agenda of Women’s Studies, which is basically a full-employment program for women with Ph.D.s. Perhaps someone in the Republican-controlled Wisconsin legislature could undertake an investigation of exactly how much is being spent to support these programs in the state’s university system, how many professors are employed in these programs and what they are teaching. If any Republican in Wisconsin cares to examine this 2014 newsletter from the UWEC Women’s Studies program, I’m sure there would be some questions that come to mind.

For example, “What’s the point?” A recent UWEC Women’s Studies graduate, Gretchen Bachmeier, wrote to praise the program:

The women’s studies courses I took were truly transformative. Being raised in Eau Claire, I came into college with a limited perspective. I quickly learned my white, middle-class, Catholic, heterosexual background left much room to examine and challenge the privileges in my life. For me, as for most people, challenging my privilege hasn’t been the smoothest of roads. It’s been a road filled with much guilt. I’ve learned to redirect that guilt and to learn privilege does not prohibit me from being a good-enough or a true-enough feminist.
I’ve been blessed to have many opportunities as a women’s studies undergraduate. The summer after my freshman year, I attended the National Conference for College Women Student Leaders. . . . The last three semesters of my academic career, I had the incredible opportunity to intern in the Women’s and LGBTQ Resource Center.

And what has she done with this “transformative” feminist education?

In June, I will be starting a job with Target in the Minneapolis area.

Working for a discount retail store isn’t necessarily a bad job, but why did she need a Women’s Studies degree to do it? Was the whole point to teach Ms. Bachmeier to feel guilty about her “white, middle-class, Catholic, heterosexual background”? Can’t privileged white kids learn to hate their middle-class backgrounds without spending four years (at $8,744 annual tuition) to get a diploma in Guilt Studies?

Guilt isn’t the only thing taught at UWEC, however. The Women’s Studies newsletter reports the 2013 program award winners, including the Helen X. Sampson Graduate Research Paper or Project Award, which went to Christopher Jorgenson for his thesis, “Like a Girl: A Gay Man’s Theoretical Exploration of Identity.” Whatever the value of this “theoretical exploration” to Mr. Jorgenson personally, we must ask, “What benefit did the taxpayers of Wisconsin derive from it?”

Wisconsin taxpayers might also be interested in the course syllabus for “Queer Theory and Sexual Politics” (WMNS 406) as it was taught during the spring 2014 semester at UWEC. Among the four assigned texts for this course were The Routledge Queer Studies Reader, edited by Donald Hall and Annamarie Jagose (2013) and Unlimited Intimacy: Reflections on the Subculture of Barebacking by Tim Dean (2009). Far be it from me to say that the “subculture of barebacking” (i.e., unprotected anal intercourse) is not an interesting topic, but the question is why this must be studied as part of a course at a state university. Let us quote the course syllabus as to the aims of WMNS 406:

Queer theory is an interdisciplinary set of approaches that resists categorization. In A Critical Introduction to Queer Theory, Nikki Sullivan highlights the frustration that many students and scholars new to queer theory feel: She writes that queer theory “is a discipline that refuses to be disciplined, a discipline with a difference, with a twist if you like. In saying this, however, I don’t mean to endow Queer Theory with some sort of ‘Tinkerbell e!ect’; to claim that no matter how hard you try you’ll never manage to catch it because it is ethereal, quixotic, unknowable” (v). Queer theory can be so difficult to “catch” because of its interdisciplinary approaches and because it questions and critiques binaries, hierarchies, and assumptions that are commonly held, including those about the regulation of sexuality, gender and sexual identity, knowledge production, citizenship, rights claims, family, and ethics. In this seminar, we will attempt to “catch” queer theory by reading and responding to a variety of queer theorists.
Queer theory finds its genealogical roots in poststructuralist theory, feminist theory, and the grounded theory of queer activism of the 1970s, ‘80s, and ‘90s. We will begin by reading and responding to poststructuralist theory (Michel Foucault) and feminist work that began to address the categories of sex and sexuality in the 1980s and 1990s (Gayle Rubin, Judith Butler). From there, we will explore various approaches to queer theory: historical and temporal scholarship, psychoanalytic work, explorations of new relationalities, negative thinking and utopian thinking, critiques of the sexualization of citizenship, the mediatedness of intimacy and sex, critiques of heternormativity and homonationalism, relationships between theoretical work and explicit activism and social life, critiques of metro-normativity, anthropological approaches, critiques of liberalism and neoliberalism, and critical race and disability-based critiques of queer theory.

So with its “interdisciplinary approaches,” Queer Theory “questions and critiques binaries, hierarchies, and assumptions,” but for what purpose? How does this benefit the Wisconsin taxpayer, who seems to be on the receiving end, so to speak, of this “unlimited intimacy”? The total budget of the University of Wisconsin system is more than $6 billion — I repeat, SIX BILLION DOLLARS — and it was big news in July when Gov. Scott Walker signed a bill that reduced the taxpayers’ share of that budget by $250 million, which would amount to about a 4% cut. However, it seems this reduction did not cause anyone to question the necessity of Women’s Studies. In fact, UWEC posted a help-wanted advertisement for a “tenure-track faculty position at the rank of Assistant Professor . . . with an appointment in either the Department of Sociology or the Women’s Studies Program. . . . The successful candidate will contribute to both Sociology and Women’s Studies/LGBTQ Studies.”

The ad didn’t say whether the “successful candidate” will teach barebacking. Certainly the state’s university faculty have been known to pursue “interdisciplinary approaches” in the field of sexuality:

A UW-Madison African Studies professor was charged [in July 2012] with lewd and lascivious behavior for allegedly exposing himself last month to a student near campus, who, it turned out, had taken one of his classes.
Kennedy A. Waliaula, 47, of Madison, an assistant professor of African languages and literature, was charged with the misdemeanor for allegedly exposing his genitals to the woman as he walked past her on North Charter Street mid-afternoon on July 10, according to a criminal complaint filed in Dane County Circuit Court.
When police located Waliaula about two hours after the student reported the incident, he first said he discovered after seeing the student’s shocked expression that his zipper was down. But he later admitted that he opened his pants himself so that he could expose himself to women and that he had exposed himself to about five women, the complaint states.
Waliaula admitted to police that he has a problem exposing himself in public, according to the complaint.
Waliaula was placed on paid leave after his arrest, UW-Madison spokesman Dennis Chaptman said.

More recently:

The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse has canceled the summer school contract of a professor charged with sexually assaulting a minor . . .
Paul Miller, 47, of La Crosse and has agreed to remain off campus until the case is resolved.
Miller was charged [in July 2015] with second-degree sexual assault of a child younger than 16. The incident occurred June 13, when several children were staying overnight at Miller’s residence in preparation for a birthday party the next day, the complaint states.
According to a La Crosse Police Department report, a 14-year-old girl told investigators that Miller slept in the same bed as her, as well as kissed, fondled and performed oral sex on her.

Neither of these men were Women’s Studies professors, who are paid to expose students to indecent ideas and assault their minds.




 

Category: Education, Sex Trouble
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