The Other McCain

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

An Honest Headline

Posted on | March 13, 2015 | 57 Comments

Canadian gay activist S. Bear Bergman (@sbearbergman) writes an article at the Huffington Post with this headline:

I Have Come to Indoctrinate
Your Children Into My LGBTQ Agenda
(And I’m Not a Bit Sorry)

. . . I am here to tell you: All that time I said I wasn’t indoctrinating anyone with my beliefs about gay and lesbian and bi and trans and queer people? That was a lie. . . . That is absolutely my goal. I want to make your children like people like me . . .
That is our job: to encourage people, especially children, to think differently about a subject than they do now.

Bergman is reportedly a “transman” (female-to-male transsexual) whose spouse, J. Wallace, is also a female-to-male transsexual. If either of them tomorrow declared themselves to be the resurrection of Napoleon Bonaparte, this would not surprise me because what else do we expect? They’re Canadians. Insanity rivals hockey as the Canadian national pastime, and far be it from me to interfere with the rights of insane Canadian lesbians to be as crazy as their fellow Canadians.

However, I do not believe my children should be required to “like” Canadian lesbians. In fact, hating Canada is a traditional American pastime rivaled only by (a) baseball, (b) football and (c) hating France.

When I went to check out Bergman’s timeline, s/he was ranting at Jeff Allen and, when I pointed out her Canadianism, she huffed: “I’m a US citizen, born in New York.” So she is a transnational transgender, an expatriate ex-woman and — for all we know — the resurrection of Napoleon Bonaparte. The question is whether we want these lunatics acting as “educators” teaching our children (or Canadian children or anybody’s children) what to think. Do you suppose that any school system in an urban liberal community would invite Republicans, NRA activists or conservative Christians to give presentations to young students to encourage the kids to “like” economic freedom, Second Amendment rights and traditional morality? Of course not.

“Tolerance” and “diversity” are always a one-way street or, to be more accurate, a highway that is proverbially “paved with good intentions,” and leading toward an infernal destination:

Bergman, like many today, know no shame (Zep. 3:5). They parade what is shameful (Rom. 1:27) around in the open and expose young impressionable minds to it (Matt. 18:6). . . .

You can read the rest of that. Welcome to the 21st century, where anyone who believes the Bible is now a Thought Criminal.

“Especially important is the warning to avoid conversations with the demon. . . . He is a liar. The demon is a liar. He will lie to confuse us. But he will also mix lies with the truth to attack us. The attack is psychological, Damien, and powerful. So don’t listen to him. Remember that — do not listen.”
The Exorcist (1973)

“Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.”
Romans 1:29-32 (KJV)





 

Patricia Jannuzzi Is Right

Posted on | March 13, 2015 | 88 Comments

“We need healthy families with a mother and a father for the sake of the children and humanity,” wrote Patricia Januzzi, in a Facebook post in which she warned that same-sex marriage is part of an “agenda” that aims toward the “slow extinction” of Western civilization.

Ms. Januzzi is a teacher at Immaculata High School, a private Catholic school in New Jersey. While I am not Catholic, I am sufficiently acquainted with their doctrines on marriage and the family to conclude that Ms. Januzzi said nothing in her rant with which the Pope would disagree. And having spent the past several months researching radical feminism, I can say with absolute certainty that the “agenda” is exactly what Ms. Januzzi says it is. But the 21st-Century Thought Police can’t let the truth be spoken:

SOMERVILLE, N.J. — An anti-gay rant by a religion teacher at a Catholic high school in New Jersey is drawing the ire of alumni across the country, including a former Real Housewives of New Jersey cast member and New-Jersey-raised Susan Sarandon.
On her now-deleted Facebook profile earlier this week, the veteran private Catholic school teacher said gays or gay activists “want to reengineer western civ (sic) into a slow extinction” as part of their “agenda.”
“We need healthy families with a mother and a father for the sake of the children and humanity!!!!!” wrote Immaculata High School teacher Patricia Jannuzzi, adding that the argument that gays are protected under the 14th Amendment is “bologna.” . . .

Let me interrupt here to quote more of Ms. Januzzi’s post. She was reacting emotionally to a story (“Crass: Gay Activist Tweets THIS To Ben Carson Following CNN Interview”) that she linked on her Facebook page, and her point was not very clearly made. She said gay activists, after using the “born that way” argument to gain status under the 14th Amendment “equal protection” clause, will then “argue everyone should be able to choose” homosexuality. Anyone familiar with feminist theory knows that radical lesbians have never accepted the “born that way” argument, instead advocating lesbianism as a “challenge to male supremacy and its basic institution of heterosexuality,” to quote Professor Sheila Jeffreys. This feminist perspective was celebrated in a 1973 song by Alix Dobkin, “Every Woman Can Be a Lesbian.”

The radical “choice” view of sexuality advocated by lesbian feminists is seldom heard from gay males, who usually describe their homosexual desires as an uncontrollable urge. However, one finds across the spectrum of the LGBT rainbow a unanimous consensus on what we might call the Compulsory Approval Doctrine:

No one can ever be permitted to express a personal aversion or moral objection to homosexual behavior.

Disapproval is synonymous with “hate,” according to gay activists, and the cultural consequence of the Compulsory Approval Doctrine is to stigmatize heterosexuality as an expression of prejudice. Many gay people have convinced themselves that the “straight” person’s rejection of homosexual behavior is implicit proof of homophobia — an irrational fear — so that all heterosexuals are basically viewed as ignorant bigots afflicted with neurotic sexual repression. And if you dare cite religious injunctions against homosexuality, you thereby prove that you are certainly a hater. Quod erat demonstrandum.

The Compulsory Approval Doctrine of the gay-rights movement is exemplified by the thug mob reaction to Mrs. Januzzi:

The school has since forced Jannuzzi to take down her Facebook page, which was no longer visible Wednesday evening, but not before others took screenshots of the rant and shared it on social media.
Immaculata principal Jean Kline on Wednesday distanced her school from Jannuzzi’s comments and said that “through an investigation, we have determined that the information posted on this social media page has not been reflected in the curriculum content of the classes she teaches.”
In her statement, Kline said the school “takes this situation very seriously.”
“We are dedicated to creating a school environment that promotes mutual respect and provides a challenging academic program, rooted in the Gospel message of Jesus Christ.”
It remains to be seen whether the school’s response will allay reaction by alumni, some of whom remember losing a gay classmate to suicide.
Former Real Housewives cast member Greg Bennett, who graduated from Immaculata in 2004 and who had Jannuzzi as a teacher his senior year, shared the screenshot of Jannuzzi’s post on his Twitter account, asking his 165,000 followers to sign a petition addressed to school administrators calling “for action to be taken and hate speech to stop at Immaculata.” . . .
Earlier on Wednesday, Sarandon, who graduated from Edison High School, shared a letter written by her nephew, Scott Lyons, to Jannuzzi, his former teacher at the high school.
“You have a responsibility as a teacher to lead by example and the words that you have been throwing out there are detrimental to the well being and health of the youth that you inspire,” Lyons, who has an adopted son with his husband, writes. “I am certain that the pope himself would take issue with your extreme point of view on homosexuality.” . . .
“I left this school after being told in religion class I must live a celibate single life if I had gay ‘feelings,’ ” writes Doug Bednarczyk of Marlton, N.J. “Around the same time, a gay classmate committed suicide.”
Lucas Bernardo, of Philadelphia, says he was 16 when he took a class taught by Jannuzzi.
“I didn’t feel comfortable in her class with the negative messages about gay and lesbian people she was preaching to us,” he writes. “I remember arguing with her about such topics and being in total disbelief that such blatant hate could be taught in a religion class.”

Read the whole thing. The Thought Police never bothered to disprove what Ms. Januzzi wrote. They offered no evidence to contradict her claims. Instead, they denounced her for engaging in “hate speech,” having an “extreme point of view,” teaching “blatant hate” and, they insinuated, Ms. Januzzi is responsible for teenagers committing suicide.

Look: I’m old enough to remember when a boy could be suspended from public school if his hair was long enough to touch his shirt collar in back. I remember when a girl could get kicked off the cheerleading squad if she engaged in PDA (public display of affection) by holding hands with her boyfriend. There was a time — and not really that long ago, either — when young people could not demand approval from their elders, and in fact teenagers were constantly subjected to lectures of adult disapproval for their adolescent wildness. Yet we did not commit suicide, nor did we organize petitions to get our teachers fired because they disapproved of us, inter alia, smoking dope and listening to Led Zeppelin.

Our parents and teachers told us we were hellbound heathens and, once we grew up and looked back on our misspent youth, most of us agreed they were right. God forbid any of my kids should ever go wild like I went wild in the ’70s. America was still a free country back then, and adults weren’t expected to tiptoe around lest they bruise the fragile self-esteem of a Special Snowflake. Back then, totalitarianism was a threat posed by the Soviet Union. Now the totalitarians are here among us, organizing to suppress dissent, punishing expression of opinions contrary to those of the progressive elite. It is not yet illegal to speak truth, however, and I will exercise my First Amendment right to say this: Damn the Thought Police. Damn them all to hell.

“Truth is great and will prevail if left to herself . . . she is the proper and sufficient antagonist to error, and has nothing to fear from the conflict, unless by human interposition disarmed of her natural weapons, free argument and debate, errors ceasing to be dangerous when it is permitted freely to contradict them.”
Thomas Jefferson, Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, 1786

“If you only stand up for speech you approve of, you’re a hack. If you only stand up for speech that everyone approves of, you’re a coward.”
Glenn Reynolds, 2015

The “slow extinction” of Western civilization is beginning to accelerate. If a Catholic teacher at a Catholic school is not free to express Catholic teaching, who among us is truly free?

The Thought Police are everywhere now, monitoring our opinions, so we can only think what Our Moral Superiors™ want us to think.

(Hat-tip: Donald Douglas on Twitter.)





 

‘Early in Their Political Lives, the Clintons Needed to Maintain a Level of Artifice’

Posted on | March 13, 2015 | 15 Comments

by Smitty

I guess Matt Bai has some connection with Pravda on the Hudson (the NYT), which explains why his work as a Clinton apologist at Yahoo looks like it fell out of the Screwtape Letters. He mentions the word ‘lie’ about as often as Her Majesty touches the truth. The opening gag juxtaposing Senator Cotton’s epistle to the Iranian mullahs with a Nigerian email scam is clever. Always start with a laugh. And then:

If Clinton thinks, however, that her explanation is going to end speculation about whatever sinister secrets she is said to be keeping, she’s mistaken. And that’s not because she’s an especially nefarious person, or because she’s a woman, or because the media is bent on destroying her.

This is beautiful in the way the reader is lured by the plausibility of “whatever sinister secrets she is said to be keeping” into buying “not because she’s an especially nefarious person”. The full court press of David Brock, Lanny Davis, James Carville, and Matt Bai himself indicates just how much “sin” that Her Majesty puts in “sinister”. Bai then dismisses the gender card, and the victim card. Is the media bent on destroying Her Majesty? Let’s stipulate that mutual contempt is certain, but the media is a pit bull that knows from whence its scraps come.

No, to understand why truth and transparency are Clinton’s main vulnerability in 2016, you need to understand the moment in which the Clintons entered American politics, and how they came to dominate it.

Having thrown out a joke and a few reasonable conjectures, he moves to a professorial sentence: “Come, let me share the skinny”.

First, let me say that I have a hard time getting too worked up about Clinton’s vanishing emails, although maybe I should. It’s possible, I guess, that in the many thousands of unreleased emails is evidence of her having endangered national security by talking policy on unsecured servers. It’s possible that some emails refer to meetings that Clinton or her aides would rather not make public.

And now that you’re semi-hypnotized, but still reading, let’s have Bai reach in and modulate your stance concerning one of the all time great middle fingers ever given the American people by a public figure.

Read the whole thing. Bai’s article should be studied as a masterpiece of concise Mephistophelian persuasion. His task is not to change your mind, but to alter the course of your thinking, so that you get where he wants you over time. Absolutely brilliant soft sell for a woman with a concrete heart.

We can only hope Hillary’s security flunkies were as proficient as her propaganda people.

via HotAir

Tumblr + Feminism = GENIUS!

Posted on | March 12, 2015 | 39 Comments

The digital armpit that is Tumblr.com seems to be the preferred medium of young feminists who, although they have accomplished nothing and have no credentials, find that they can become Internet Superstars by disparaging men. It seems that the most formulaic, banal and stereotypical derision of males is enormously popular with a certain type of young woman. Here we find Thea, who is all about “female liberation” and proclaims zero tolerance “for soulless male devils.” Thea offers her expertise on male emotional inadequacy:

straight men repress their feelings so severely with their friends and family, and then they come across a girl (whos been socialized to be Empathetic and Nurturing) and they find that they can tell this girl about their Feelings ! everythings great she’s The One ! in reality they just have a normal human bond but actually connecting with anyone is so foreign to men and their emotionally barren male relationships that it seems like something great and wonderful. so now girl is put on a pedestal that she’ll eventually fall from bc she’s human and not just a Male Feelings Receptacle and everyone loses all bc fathers refuse to cry in front of their sons

Thea’s treatise received more than 20,000 notes in five days.

What would we call a man who generalized so broadly about females? I mean, “soulless . . . devils”? Nevertheless, denouncing “straight men” as “emotionally barren” (we notice the absence of caveats or qualifiers in Thea’s rhetoric) is applauded as a genius insight in this bizarre hate-filled universe of Tumblr feminism.

Almost makes you nostalgic for MySpace . . .

 

Ferguson Update: Three Questioned After Shooting of Two Police Officers

Posted on | March 12, 2015 | 30 Comments

We reported this morning that two police officers were shot in downtown Ferguson, Missouri. The investigation into that shooting led to what police called a “tactical situation” at a home in Ferguson. KTVI reports:

Police swarmed a house in Ferguson, just four blocks from the Ferguson Police Department, where the shooting took place ,according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. A tactical team scaled the home and tried to break in through the attic, where they believed one of the suspects may have been hiding. The house is located on Dade Avenue, near Tiffin Avenue.
After breaking through, there was no one found. Two men were however escorted from the home in handcuffs, as well as the woman who rents the home. Police would not comment on the situation.
Raw video from the scene showed protesters pointing to a nearby hill after shots rang out at about midnight. Police say they officers were shot from about 125 yards away.

Meanwhile, the two wounded officers have been released:

Two area police officers seriously wounded after they were shot while standing along S. Florissant Road directly in front of the Ferguson Police Department Thursday morning have been released from the hospital.
The officers are from St. Louis County and Webster Groves. . . .
St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar says at least three shots were fired. The Webster Groves police officer, a 32-year-old who has been on the force seven years, was shot just under his right eye, in the high-cheek area. The bullet is lodged underneath his right ear. . . .
The St. Louis County officer, a 41-year-old with 14 years of law enforcement experience, was shot in his right shoulder. The bullet traveled through his back and out between his scapula and spine.

Warner Todd Huston comments:

The “BlackLivesMatters” rioters insisted that the shooter wasn’t with them as they gathered outside the police station.
But other witnesses note that there were two distinct groups of protesters. One group marching and chanting peacefully and another one getting increasingly mean spirited, loud and violent. In fact, as the cops were lying on the street shot, one protester is heard on video saying that they deserved what they got.

Obviously, expect more updates as this breaking story develops.

UPDATE: Shell casings were found at the scene, indicating a semiautomatic handgun was likely used in the shooting.

UPDATE II: Ace of Spades comments:

The left is having spasms that people on the right are suggesting that these shootings just might be the result of a viciously false narrative peddled by the radical left, the President, and their fellow travelers in the media.
In every other shooting, the left goes looking for the toxic politicsthat animated the shooting, and tries to connect it with a politician’s words; here, they’re aghast that anyone would be so gauche to do that.

We will continue monitoring developments in the investigation.





 

In The Mailbox, 03.12.15

Posted on | March 12, 2015 | 11 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho


The death march to April 15 is underway. Posting will be sporadic until after the rush is over, and mostly on Thursdays or weekends.


OVER THE TRANSOM
Proof Positive: Hillary Clinton And The E-Mails Of Doom!
Louder With Crowder: Surprising Video About Marijuana Science
EBL: Separated At Birth
Michelle Malkin: Obamacare’s 1095-A Nightmare
Twitchy: “Smell The Fear”: Is Hillary The Democrats’ “Whole Plan” For 2016?


RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
American Power: The “Islamophobia” Scam Returns
American Thinker: Black Mob Violence Spreads As The President Preaches Victimization In Selma
BLACKFIVE: Authorization Of Force Vs. ISIS/Daesh
Conservatives4Palin: Clinton E-Mail Was Unencrypted, Vulnerable to Spies
Don Surber: Lawrence Welk, The Square Giant
Jammie Wearing Fools: Are We Ready For Ten More Years Of Wrath From The Eternal Woman Scorned?
Joe For America: FBI Hires “Special Agents” From Muslim Brotherhood’s ADAMS Center
JustOneMinute: Krugman On Nutrition – Fat, Stupid And Republican Is No Way To Go Through Life
Pamela Geller: AP Exploited Children To Stage Anti-Israel Gaza War Photos
Protein Wisdom: Obama Claims It’s Easier To Buy A Gun Than A Vegetable
Shot In the Dark: Trulbert! Part XXX – Armageddon’s Two-Minute Warning
STUMP: Obamacare Tax Watch – Run Away! Run Away!
The Gateway Pundit: It Begins – Illegal Aliens Demand Safer Way To Sneak Into The US
The Jawa Report: Sandcrawler PSA – About Those Innocent Muslim Children We’re Bombing
The Lonely Conservative: Scott Walker Hits Back At Obama Over Workers’ Rights
This Ain’t Hell: Another Indicator Of The VA’s Culture Issues
Weasel Zippers: White House Goes To Condition Squirrel 4, Obama To Hit Late Night Talk Show Circuit
Megan McArdle: Fewer Tax Refunds, Fewer Scams
Mark Steyn: The Day After Tomorrow


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Two Cops Shot in Ferguson

Posted on | March 12, 2015 | 26 Comments

Months of anti-police agitation produce the expected consequences:

Two police officers were hit by gunfire early Thursday outside the Ferguson police department.
The shots were fired just after midnight as police were confronting protesters who had gathered outside the police station.
St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar said one officer was with his department and the other was with the Webster Groves department. Both were being treated at Barnes-Jewish Hospital, where Belmar spoke.
The chief said at least three shots were fired. He described the injuries of both men as “very serious wounds.”
The Webster Groves officer was shot in the face. He is 32 and has been on the force five years.
The county officer was hit in the shoulder. That officer is 41 and has been on the force for 14 years.
Belmar said no suspects have been identified in the shootings.

Via Memeorandum. This incident occurred the same day Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson was forced to resign.

UPDATE: The two wounded officers have been released from the hospital and police are still searching for the gunman.

 

EmailGate Is Just How Her Majesty Rolls

Posted on | March 11, 2015 | 22 Comments

by Smitty

Trende gets close to the bone in Why Clinton’s Emails Matter, which you should read. But it’s not just a case study in Advanced Scandal Choreography, as we move from

  • Bibi (“Quick, #OccupyResoluteDesk is too amateurish”) to
  • Her Majesty’s Secret Email Service to
  • Oh My God! Those 47 GOP Senators said something concise and cogent pointing out, for the 1,103 time this Administration, the Rodeo Clown ain’t got sack.

As Trende points out, scandals come and go, cancelling across parties stochastically and sarcastically. Closer to the election is certainly worse, and Her Majesty must know that she’s got a full-on zombie parade to await, should the Royal Syllables condescend to grace the ballot. But this is Her Majesty, Hillary What-difference-at-this-point-does-it-make Diane I’ve-schemed-for-this-for-decades-and-this-is-MY-turn Rodham If-you-make-a-last-mistake-and-cross-me-you-get-Foster-care Clinton.

The woman doesn’t give a tinker’s dam about anything. This is the woman who doesn’t just fully comply with every rule, but “I fully complied with every rule I was governed by.” A look at her soiled career from Watergate to now indicates she’s been governed (in the sense of properly controlled) pretty much never. It’s always some angle, some nuance, some loophole she’s working.

A Hillary administration would likely deliver some email-gate style outrage frequently, perhaps weekly. Do you doubt that ObamaCare would be terminated and replaced with Single Prayer, should Her Majesty be the next Commie in the oval office? An even more weaponized IRS/DoJ tag team showering goon squads on the South and flyover country?

The good news  about Her Majesty oozing toward a run is that these and other foreseen horrors are going to bring conservatives out of slumber. Every election is the Most Important Election In U.S. History, and 2016 isn’t going to disappoint in that regard.

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