The Other McCain

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

The Social Justice Lynch Mob

Posted on | March 27, 2015 | 61 Comments

Ashe Schow demolishes the Obama Age media:

The point here is that in example after example, the prevailing narrative sold by the media and social justice activists has been disproven after an investigation of the facts. When it comes down to it, it’s cheap and easy for Obama to say something in public to show solidarity with popular opinion. But having to back up that same popular opinion in a legal proceeding . . . is often impossible.

(Hat-tip: Instapundit.)

Whenever I see the liberal media jumping to a particular conclusion, my instinct is that the opposite must be true. Whenever I see the liberal media ignoring a story, I figure that story must be very important. Is it possible that the liberal media sometimes might be correct about one of these “social justice” narratives? Hypothetically, I suppose, but you’re seldom going to lose money betting against them.

Meanwhile, Christian Adams offers an important media parable.

 

Category: Media Bias

‘You Know You’re a Big Deal, Right?’

Posted on | March 27, 2015 | 20 Comments

The New York Times:

A trophy case framed in brass, set inside a wall near the entrance to the Bronx High School of Science, testified to the triumph of the school’s debate team. So did classroom 203, the de facto debate headquarters, where the sunlight danced off a collection of plaques and trophies.
The dynamic force behind that success was a teacher and coach named Jon Cruz, who transformed the debate team from a relatively modest club to a juggernaut that had nearly 300 members. . . .
One of his signature sayings, which he used to pump up students before an important round of debate, a recent graduate recounted, was to take them aside and say, “You know you’re a big deal, right?”
At the same time, the popular teacher and respected coach was regularly communicating with teenagers from outside Bronx Science. According to investigators, he was using a messaging app to flirt, cajole and coerce, to extract suggestive photographs of the boys, sometimes in the nude.
“Pictures just have a huge impact on me,” Mr. Cruz wrote in a conversation with a teenager from upstate New York, according to a criminal complaint. “Seeing your feet and face and muscles and room and awards and stuff reinforce what a big deal you are.”
Mr. Cruz, 31, was arrested on March 6 on charges that he persuaded three teenage boys to send him nude or suggestive photographs in exchange for gift cards. He was charged with possessing, receiving and producing child pornography. . . .

You’ll want to read the whole thing, including the part about the teenage boy in California whom Cruz sent “$10,000 over several years,” but then “became less complimentary and more abusive” when the boy didn’t meet Cruz’s expectations for more “hot” photos.

 

Category: Crime, Education, Gays, Sex

What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

Posted on | March 27, 2015 | 38 Comments

Liberals in California think their sex-offender laws are too strict:

California officials announced Thursday that the state would stop enforcing a key provision of a voter-approved law that prohibits all registered sex offenders from living near schools.
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said it would no longer impose the blanket restrictions outlined in Jessica’s Law that forbids all sex offenders from living within 2,000 feet of a school or park, regardless of whether their crimes involved children. . . .
The California Supreme Court on March 2 unanimously ruled that Jessica’s Law violated the constitutional rights of parolees living in San Diego County who had argued that the limitations made it impossible for them to obtain housing.

Keep in mind Democrat Gov. Jerry Brown has initiated a controversial prison “reform” program in California. In his first three years in office, Brown authorized the release of 1,400 criminals who had been sentenced to life in prison. Under Brown’s “reform,” California officials are releasing “non-violent” offenders from prison, which is why Robert L. Ranson was set free in June 2013:

He was considered a non-violent offender because his most recent prison term was for possession of a firearm by a felon. Ranson had previously served time for two carjackings and an assault with a firearm, prison officials said.

Carjacking, assault, possession of a firearm by a felon — yeah, let’s just turn that guy loose. What could possibly go wrong?

A man on probation as a “non-violent offender” under California’s prison realignment program has been charged with kidnapping, raping, and torturing a 16-year-old girl in South Los Angeles, and detectives suspect he may be connected to three other recent murders. Robert L. Ranson, 30, was arrested in late March [2014] after the girl escaped from a U-Haul van in an alley near Imperial Highway and New Hampshire Ave., according to police and booking records. The girl was covered in gasoline and said her attacker, later identified as Ranson, had tied her hands and taped her mouth, and was trying to light her on fire when she ran away, naked.

Now they’re going to let sex offenders live near schools.

No way that policy could lead to trouble.

Will the last sane person leaving California please turn out the lights?

 

Category: California, Crime, Liberals

Police Say Teacher’s Texts Expressed ‘Deep Love’ for 11-Year-Old Girl

Posted on | March 27, 2015 | 19 Comments

Geraldine Alcorn, 28, was arrested this month in Pittsburgh after police say she became obsessed with an 11-year-old student at Beechwood Elementary School, where Alcorn was a pre-kindergarten teacher:

Alcorn took the student ice skating and later lured the 11-year-old girl to her house, according to a criminal complaint.
Another time, Alcorn was found alone with the girl in the student’s home while the girl’s mother was at work, according to the complaint.
Police say Alcorn and the girl sent each other more than 2,400 text messages during a two-week span in late January and early February.
In the messages, both expressed “a deep love for each other,” according to the complaint.
The two also talked of Alcorn adopting the girl and discussed running away together. Alcorn told the girl they would “be on the run” for a while, according to the complaint.
The girl told police she and Alcorn tried to keep their interactions a secret from the girl’s mother.

Police say there was no indication of sexual activity between Alcorn and the girl. However, the relationship was emotionally intense:

The complaint further states the mother discovered Post-It notes and letters from the girl to Alcorn on which the girl had written, “Things Ms. Alcorn and I can do,” “What we can do” and “When we can do it,” CBS Pittsburgh reports. . . .
Contact between the two continued even after school district officials suspended Alcorn on Feb. 13 and warned her not to contact the girl again, reports the Tribune-Review.
On March 13 — the same day that Alcorn met with police — she returned to her school to collect her belongings. The girl subsequently found gifts and a letter from Alcorn in her locker, including a math worksheet encrypted with circled numbers requesting the girl to call her, according to the criminal complaint.
After her arrest Tuesday, Alcorn was arraigned Wednesday on charges of child luring, corruption of minors, and attempting to interfere with custody of the child.

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review notes that in Allegheny County, “there are at least three other active criminal cases against teachers accused of behaving inappropriately with students”:

  • Megan Batykefer, 31, was arrested in August after she admitted to police she had a sexual relationship with a male student at North Allegheny High School. The boy was a member of the school’s rowing team, which Batykefer coached. Although she did not have sex with the boy until after his 18th birthday, Batykefer was charged with institutional sexual assault under state law forbidding sex between students and teachers.
  • Jason Cooper, 38, was arrested in February after police say he had sex with an 18-year-old girl who was a student at Plum High School, where Cooper was a science teacher. Cooper was charged with institutional sexual assault, corruption of minors and furnishing alcohol to a minor. Two weeks later, his bond was revoked when police say Cooper called the girl involved in the case, and he was charged with witness intimidation.
  • Joseph J. Ruggieri, 40, was also a teacher at Plum High School, and was arrested just days after Cooper was first arrested. A girl told police she had sex with Ruggieri at his home. He was vice-president of the district’s teachers union and his salary was more than $100,000 a year. Last week, Ruggieri’s bond was revoked and he was charged with witness intimidation after police say he contacted his accuser using online video chat software, telling the girl, “My livelihood will be ruined,” “My kid’s life will be ruined,” and “I miss you.”

Why aren’t you homeschooling your kids yet?

 

Category: Crime, Education, Sex

Just Murder, Not a ‘Hate Crime’

Posted on | March 26, 2015 | 26 Comments

The headline in January was frightening:

Lesbian gunned down in North Philly
A North Philadelphia lesbian was shot in broad daylight [Jan. 13] while on her way to work.
Kim Jones, 56, was shot in the head at 9:30 a.m. while she was standing on the corner of 12th and Jefferson streets near Temple University, waiting to take the bus to work, police said.
The gunman came up behind Jones, who was wearing headphones, and shot her point-blank in the back of the head.
Investigators believe Jones was targeted, but a motive had not been announced as of presstime.
“She had her purse, she had her cellphone, she had jewelry on, none of which was taken, none of which was disturbed,” said Homicide Capt. James Clark in a press conference Tuesday.
Officer Tanya Little, a police spokesperson, said investigators are aware that Jones, who married her partner last month, was a lesbian, and do not yet know if that could have played a role in her killing.
“Investigators have not ruled out anything at this point,” Little said.

That fear-inspiring possibility — an incipient wave of anti-lesbian terrorism, perhaps? — was left to dangle in the public mind for a couple of weeks until police solved the case:

Randolph Sanders was careful.
Lurking in a breezeway on the morning of Jan. 13, with a gun tucked into his duffel bag, Sanders hid his face under a cap and bulky headphones.
He was careful, police said, not to look at the security cameras that captured him when he approached his boss — Kim Jones — and shot her in the back of the head as she waited for a bus. . . .
Police said Jones suspected him of stealing funds — about $40,000. He was convinced that she would report him to authorities and that he would lose his job at Turning Points for Children, the organization where they worked, police said.
On the morning Jones was killed, she had scheduled a meeting with the Department of Human Services, which funds Turning Points.
Sanders, 36, knew she was going to turn him in, Homicide Detective James Clark said.
“He laid in wait, and he ambushed her,” Clark said.
Sanders had been hired by Jones in 2012 and served as the assistant director of the nonprofit’s Families and Students Together (FAST) program, an after-school outreach designed to strengthen parents’ bonds with their children.
Turning Points said in a statement Monday that it believes the alleged misappropriation of funds was “an isolated incident” but will hire a third-party investigator to look into the matter.
An investigation into the allegedly stolen funds is ongoing, but Clark said police believe Sanders had been stealing gift cards meant for families participating in the FAST program and keeping them for himself.
He has been charged with murder and related offenses.

The anti-gay hate-crime angle was never a valid concern despite the LESBIAN GUNNED DOWN IN BROAD DAYLIGHT fear-mongering coverage. It is important to understand how the media deliberately manipulate perceptions. The murder of Matthew Shepard was portrayed as a hate crime, despite every evidence to the contrary, because gay activists figured out that depicting homosexuals as victims — and depicting opponents of the gay agenda as motivated by dangerously violent “hate”– was the key to political success. Both the news media and the entertainment industry have seized on this theme, promoting the Gay Victimhood narrative so relentlessly as to foment paranoia and generate a certain number of fake hate-crime hoaxes. Meanwhile, public school administrators are twisting themselves into pretzels to be “inclusive” and “tolerant” of homosexuality, implementing “anti-bullying” campaigns based on the belief that our society is pervaded by an irrational homophobia that causes gay kids to commit suicide.

What should disturb us about this is how unbalanced and unrealistic these perceptions are. Studies indicate that only 2.3 percent of the U.S. population (about 1-in-40) is gay or bisexual, and yet media have exaggerated this to the point that young adults believe 30 percent of people are gay! The same media which so exaggerate the size of the gay population also foster the idea that gay people are persecuted victims of oppression and, because elite culture has become so oriented toward the protection of victimized minorities, anyone attempting to counter-balance this narrative is more or less automatically accused of hate.

Crazy people don’t need any special incentive to be crazy, but this victimhood rhetoric can incite crazy people to do crazy things: Floyd Lee Corkins told the FBI he attacked the headquarters of the Family Research Council because the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) identified them as a “hate group” due to their traditional marriage views. And then there’s the case of Jan Hamilton of Aspen, Colorado.

In 2001, when she was 59, Hamilton was attending a Bible study class at a Baptist church in Aspen when she and another woman in the class became involved in a lesbian relationship. After a couple of years, the other woman broke off the relationship and “Hamilton became relentless in her quest to re-enter the woman’s life,” according to an Aspen Times article about the case. In 2005, Hamilton was banned from the church and it appears that her stalking of her ex-lover escalated:

[The victim testified at a 2012 hearing] that despite a restraining order she filed in 2008, Hamilton would often show up at her home uninvited, or send emails and other bits of correspondence, until some point in 2010.
Hamilton’s activities affected her well-being to the point where eating and sleeping were difficult, the woman testified.
“It’s very upsetting,” the woman said. “I have come to understand that Ms. Hamilton is relentless in the pursuit of her agenda and will stop at almost nothing.”
The restraining order, and promises from Hamilton that she would leave her alone, made no difference at all, the woman said.
“I live constantly knowing something’s going to happen, but I don’t know how or where or when,” she said.

And then there’s this:

Hamilton has filed numerous lawsuits over the past few years against her perceived adversaries, claiming everything from sexual discrimination to retaliation and defamation to attempted second-degree murder. . . .
Hamilton says she is afflicted with cancer because of the stress that residents, landlords, churchgoers and others have inflicted upon her. Others have suggested, in court and otherwise, that Hamilton has extreme mental-health issues.

Kuh-RAY-zee! It’s not against the law to be crazy, but our nation’s mental-health facilities are overcrowded, and so it’s impossible to lock up all the lunatics. Earlier this month, Jan Hamilton was back in court:

An Aspen woman [March 6] was arrested for the 16th time in six years after she allegedly violated restraining orders by driving by a church from which she is banned — to the point where the pastor said congregation numbers are dwindling — and using a networking website to contact a person named in a protection order.
Judge Jonathan Pototsky of the 9th Judicial District set bond for Jan Hamilton, 73, at a cash-only amount of $30,000, telling her that he would raise it to $50,000 or $100,000 if she bonded out and continued to commit offenses.
Hamilton, as she has repeatedly, said she was innocent and is being persecuted for being a lesbian. She once spent 25 months in jail on similar accusations; was on trial March 4 for harassment and bail-bond violations (the judge has not yet rendered his verdict); and is to be sentenced [March 16] in two cases in which she was convicted for false reporting and harassment.
In the latest case, a member of Christ Episcopal Church of Aspen contacted Aspen police officer Jeff Fain on March 1. The man told Fain that Hamilton drove by the church repeatedly and asked members going in and out to pray for her. A restraining order prevents her from contacting the man, his wife and others, and Hamilton is also prevented from going to places where she knows the people will be.

Of course, Jan Hamilton has a Twitter account — all the lunatics are on Twitter now — and has used it to claim that she is a victim of a “Religious Extremist Lynch Mob,” invoking the 2009 Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Act. When federal law encourages this victimhood mentality, are we surprised that paranoid lunatics like Jan Hamilton think they have a “right” to harass people at churches? And a very similar phenomenon is at work when we see rape hoaxes on university campuses. Sen. Kristen Gillibrand continues her crusade to deny male students ordinary due-process protections, and liberals claim that fraternities trying to protect themselves against false accusations are a “rape lobby.”

The problems caused by endless celebrations of victimhood are going to keep getting worse, until people wake the hell up.

Speaking of crazy, years ago I convinced Mrs. McCain this “blog” thing could be an actual business and it’s been amazingly successful, but the past few months have been kind of rough financially., and a little extra support from the tip-jar hitters — $5, $10, $20, whatever you can spare — would be deeply appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

 

 

Category: Crime, Gays, Sex Trouble

German Co-Pilot Commits Mass Murder

Posted on | March 26, 2015 | 62 Comments

This news is absolutely sickening:

The co-pilot of the doomed Germanwings jet locked his captain out of the cockpit before deliberately crashing into a mountain to ‘destroy the plane’, it was sensationally revealed today.
French prosecutor Brice Robin gave further chilling details of the final ten minutes in the cockpit before the Airbus A320 plunged into the French Alps killing 150 people.
Revealing data extracted from the black box voice recorder, he said the co-pilot — 28-year-old German Andreas Lubitz — locked his captain out after the senior officer left the cockpit.
At that point, Lubitz used the flight managing system to put the plane into a descent, something that can only be done manually — and deliberately.
He said: ‘The intention was to destroy the plane. Death was instant. The plane hit the mountain at 700kmh (430mph).
‘I don’t think that the passengers realised what was happening until the last moments because on the recording you only hear the screams in the final seconds’. . . .
Responding to revelations, Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr said all pilots undergo annual medical checks, but not special psychiatric assessments beyond training.
He added: ‘He passed all medical exams, all checks. He was 100 per cent fit to fly without any restrictions.
‘I am not a lawyer. I am the CEO of a big company. If one person takes 149 people with him to death, it is not suicide.’
However, it emerged today that Lubitz had to stop his pilot training in 2008 because he was depressed and suffering ‘burnout’.
A schoolmate told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung that he had taken a break because of depression.
The woman said: ‘Apparently he had burnout, he was in depression.’

Breaking News: Crazy people are dangerous.

Interruptions during Lufthansa pilot training were common and trainees are required to provide an explanation for their absence, Spohr said. However, German law prevents Lufthansa from obtaining information on an employee’s medical history. The chief executive said only that Lubitz went on hiatus for a period of “a few months,” adding that he was later deemed fit to return to training and that he passed all subsequent physical and psychological tests.

You might think that this incident seven years ago — when Lubitz was 21 and “depression” interrupted his training — would have caused someone to question his fitness to be a commercial pilot. Oh, but that would be discrimination against the mentally ill, which is unacceptable. Misguided ideas about “human rights” thereby result in putting a murderous psychopath in the cockpit so he can kill 149 innocent people by flying into a mountain at 400 miles an hour.

“You only hear the screams in the final seconds.”

(Via Memeorandum.)

 

Category: Crime

Teach Women Not to Rape

Posted on | March 25, 2015 | 38 Comments

The weirdness has been “newly augmented” in Scottsdale:

An Arizona woman is accused of allowing seven boys at a bar mitzvah to fondle her newly augmented breasts.
Lindsey Radomski, 32, also performed a sex act on one of the teenagers at the party in Scottsdale last Saturday, police say.
The yoga teacher was drunk when she allegedly exposed herself at the Jewish male coming-of-age celebration for up to 100 guests.
Radomski was told to “sleep it off” in one of the bedrooms after showing her breasts to a group of five adults and again to a group of boys by a swimming pool at the home.
In the early hours of Sunday 22 March, Radomski allegedly invited seven boys, ranging in age from 11 to 15, to her room and allowed them to feel her breasts.
Later, all the boys left the bedroom except for a 15-year-old, according to police.
It is alleged that Radomski performed a sex act on him. . . .
Sgt Ben Hoster told Sky News it was a “bizarre” case.
“We haven’t had a woman allowing herself to be fondled by multiple juveniles before,” he said.

Oy vey!

(Hat tip: @g56yu on Twitter.)

 

Category: Crime, Sex

In The Mailbox: Pre-Death March Edition

Posted on | March 25, 2015 | 8 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho


Since I have the day off today, I thought the least I could do before sloping off to Minnesota to visit friends and family was get caught up on all the stuff people have been sending me, to say nothing of hitting the highlights from Feedly. First, though, a couple of books, since I’m not going to be around tomorrow for the usual Thursday book post. First, Megan McArdle’s The Up Side of Down, subtitled “Why Failing Well Is The Key To Success”. This is an affecting little book, since it draws on McArdle’s own experiences of failure and recovery, but it has a few things to say about how America is built to encourage people to bounce back from failure and how “helicopter parents” are screwing their kids over by insulating them from the experience of failing at precisely the time when they’re best able to adapt, react, and overcome it. This is well worth reading, and I suggest you pick it up at the library if you can’t afford to buy a copy. The second book I want to mention is Herman Wouk’s The Hope, an epic novel tracing the history of Israel from its birth in battle back in 1948 to its shattering success in the Six Day War. I haven’t read any Wouk since War and Remembrance back in my active duty days, but I remember him as a great writer and am looking forward to this; it is currently free through the Amazon Prime lending library and just $1.99 otherwise. Heck of a deal. Finally, as a follow-up to my previous book post, I cashed in some Amazon gift certificates to get the Kindle edition of Jack Vance’s Demon Princes.


OVER THE TRANSOM
Louder With Crowder: Black Conservative Woman Kira Davis Rips Starbucks A New One
Blackmailers Don’t Shoot: What English Majors Are Qualified To Do
Proof Positive: The Monuments Men, ISIS And Empire
The Camp of the Saints: “We Mustn’t Hurt Preciousss. Bad, Nasty Hobbitses!”
Shark Tank: Obama Still Upset over Netanyahu’s Win, May Turn To UN For Help
Michelle Malkin: The NAACP’s Fomenters Of Fear
Twitchy: “Surreal Times” – Remember What Susan Rice Said About Bergdahl? These People Do
Tom Kratman: China Doesn’t Really Want To Go To War


RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
American Power: Wind Turbines Bring Large-Scale Massacre Of Birds At Altamont Pass
American Thinker: Democrats For A Dictatorial Presidency
BLACKFIVE: Combat Soldier Replies To “Colonel Ellen”, An Expert On Combat And Valor
Conservatives4Palin: Reagan Bumper Sticker Available From SarahPAC
Don Surber: Norman Borlaug – He Saved A Billion Lives
Jammie Wearing Fools: Students Told To Wave “Jazz Hands” At Conference Speakers, Because Whooping And Clapping Might Be Too Scary
Joe For America: “Black Brunch” Protesters Target, Harass, And Disrupt White Patrons
JustOneMinute: Wall Street To Hillary – Go On, Take The Money And Run
Pamela Geller: British Jihadi Calls On Muslims To Kill UK Home Secretary Theresa May
Protein Wisdom: Person Putting “Whites Only” Stickers Up Around Austin Turns Out To Be Social Justice Warrior
Shot In the Dark: Trulbert! Part XXXII – Twerking With The Devil and Part XXXIII – Snap
STUMP: Obamacare Tax Watch – H&R Block Notes Shoe Yet To Drop
The Gateway Pundit: Pro-Amnesty Democrat Shouted off Stage By American Patriots At USC
The Jawa Report: Actual Sandcrawler Used In Suicide Bombing
The Lonely Conservative: Press Gave Hillary A Standing Ovation After She Refused To Take Questions
This Ain’t Hell: Lawyer – Bergdahl To Be Charged With Desertion
Weasel Zippers: Planned Parenthood Supporter Throws Molotov Cocktail At Prayer Group Outside Abortion Provider
Megan McArdle: Rolling Stone Fails A Police Fact Check
Mark Steyn: A Tale of Two Rapes


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