The Other McCain

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

‘Broken People,’ Cats and Prozac

Posted on | November 7, 2014 | 100 Comments

Rebecca Jane Stokes (@Beeswrite) is a columnist for the feminist site @xojanedotcom and by “feminist site,” I mean digital estrogen.

If you want ball-busting radical man-hating, you’ll have to look elsewhere. XOJane is more about pathetic narcissism.

Glenn Reynolds’ remark about “broken people” — made in reference to the radical man-hater Kate Millett — came to mind as I was reading the XOJane biography of 29-year-old Ms. Stokes:

What I Do, Fun-wise: Cook, engage my cats in heady conversation, and perform subpar sexy dances to Hall and Oates

Cats. Of course, she’s got cats. Did I mention she’s 29? And an alumna of New School University (2014-15 tuition $41,836)? Also, you may not be surprised to learn, Ms. Stokes lives in Brooklyn.

See, this is the thing with young feminist writer types nowadays. They can’t go to Podunk State University. No, they must attend one of those private schools where annual tuition is at or near the median U.S. household income. This is the only way to become that glorious being, The Writer. And, probably because as girls dreaming of becoming The Writer, they watched a sitcom or movie about the lives of quirky bachelorettes in Brooklyn, they simply must live there after graduation.

Well, you may ask, what does The Writer write about?

Herself, of course! Do these elite colleges offer a major in Solipsism Studies nowadays? Because Ms. Stokes’s oeuvre is typical of the genre — menstruation, her sex dreams, things that make her cry.

Digital estrogen, like I said. Ms. Stokes has a series of columns called “Crushed,” from which a few samples:

The First Time Someone Liked Me
Seventh grade was when I ruined any chance I may have had of getting laid during my teens. Seventh grade was when I should have been learning to read the silent cues essential to non-platonic relationship dynamics. Instead, the diligent and concentrated effort I aimed at loathing myself distracted me, putting me officially on the late-bloomer end of the welcome-to-sexy-times-adolescents spectrum. It was the first time in my life somebody liked me — and I had no idea. . . .
We rode the bus together, lived in the same neighborhood, liked the same dorky things. I would chatter his ear off on the bus each morning and the poor guy, he listened, even as he was desperate to finish whatever homework he hadn’t managed to get done the night before. He was gawky and sweet and infuriating and he totally liked me and I didn’t get it. Which is classic, because, clearly I was likewise into him, but I didn’t know how to express that. So I didn’t. Instead I publicly declared us mortal enemies. . . .

When I Hit The 8th Grade And
Became Totally Terrified of Men
In science I sat with the smartest kid in class. The boy in front of us was loud, attractive and had teeth like a game show host. He wore Tommy cologne. He sneered a lot and stared at you until you blushed. He whispered a secret to the smart boy next to me. “Apparently,” my irascible deskmate said with a smirk, “he wants to go out with you.”
This is where I was supposed to do something, say something that would open me up to ridicule. I refused to play. Instead I stared down at my desk and said something sarcastic.
Inside I was cringing and mortified and embarrassed. Was it true? It wasn’t true. It couldn’t possibly be true. It was there looking me in the face in an unblinking way stinking of cheap cologne, it was grabbing me by the wrist and pulling me, insisting. My heart went a little faster and I licked my lips raw. I hunched under the weight of big boobs and contemplated the two ample rolls of my fish-belly white stomach with grim certainty: Sex and love are one big joke played on ugly people. I guess it’s easier to doubt something than it is to believe it and be made a fool. . . .

The Year I Fell In Love With
Two Of My Teachers, And A Girl
11th grade. Junior year. Where was I? Well, I lost some weight by reading fiction while using all the machines at the local YMCA and practicing fierce self-hatred. I ran for class president and lost. I discovered the comics of Lynda Barry and Robert Crumb. I discovered the plays of Sam Friel and Harold Pinter.
I did not discover masturbation. I missed that boat. While everyone else was probably frantically flicking the kidney bean to pleasure town, I was wondering if maybe SOMEHOW I was the lost Princess Anastasia. Time travel, maybe?
This is also the year I fell in love with two different teachers and a girl. . . .

College, And How I Learned There Are
Different Ways Of Being Loved
As an 18-year-old in college I fell in love roughly eight hundred times. When I joined a sorority (this is a long and hilarious story that I will save for another day) my nerdy sexless crushes were so well-known that my nickname was “Crush.” . . .
I will forever doubt that I am loved, that I deserve to be. I try to believe it but it doesn’t always fit me well. It’s like your skin when you get out of the shower and wait too long to put on lotion: It gets tight and strange. It itches. . . .

When I Was Nineteen And Deluded Myself
Into A Relationship That Didn’t Exist
. . . Every girl is crazy at least once. I was crazy when I was a junior. The guy was Adam. . . .
How do you explain to a 20 year-old boy that your delusions have almost nothing to do with him? There’s no explanation other than the ones the men in curled baseball hats sipping drinks utter like a sacred universally understood bro oath: “That girl is fucking crazy.”
And maybe she is a little. . . .

To say the very least. Where do they come from, these painfully sensitive writer girls with interior dialogues full of shame and fear?

“Feminine instinct without its proper object or purpose,” my gut tells me, speaking like an old-fashioned psychologist, or perhaps an anthropologist of the evolutionary “brain science” type. In an earlier age — say, 1800 or 1700 — the young Ms. Stokes would have lived on a farm, and at 15 or 16 would have married the 18- or 19-year-old son of a neighboring farmer and, by the time the actual 21st-century Ms. Stokes was getting weird high school crushes, she would have been heavily pregnant with her first child. And then they all would have died of smallpox or a potato famine or some such misery.

Once Upon a Time, you see, people had things to worry about that were more serious than their feelings. If my ancestors had any interior dialogues, these have been lost to posterity because (a) there were no blogs back then, and (b) most of my ancestors prior to the 20th century were illiterate, or nearly so. In the National Archives is a document pertaining to my great-grandfather, Winston Wood Bolt, a young farm boy who fought as a private in the 13th Alabama Infantry Regiment. The document is a receipt for an amount paid to Private Bolt, signed by his regiment’s colonel, Birkett Davenport Fry.

Private Bolt’s signature? “X.”

My illiterate great-grandfather had more serious things to worry about than his feelings. Not long after he signed his X to that receipt, Private Bolt was captured at Gettysburg, when the Iron Brigade outflanked Archer’s Brigade east of Willoughby’s Run, and Private Bolt spent the next two years imprisoned at Fort Delaware, where the prisoners caught, cooked and ate rats to augment their rations.

Hard times make hard people, and sensitivity is a luxury not afforded to those whose lives are a matter of toil and hardship.

Psychological toughness — a determination not easily daunted by difficult circumstances — is what young people really need, but how shall they acquire this if we are afraid to wound their self-esteem?

Our ancestors were all survivors. We forget this, or rather we never learn it and, with no knowledge of the struggles of our forebears, we suffer from not having their example to inspire us. But enough of that digression. Let us return to Ms. Stokes’s oeuvre at XOJane, and another of her series, “Dispatches from the Prozac Rabbit Hole”:

In Which I Stare At My
Naked Body For A Long Time
. . . I think of something my therapist said to me last week. We were talking about how feelings aren’t law. About how they cannot be flipped from an ‘on’ to an ‘off’ position. I jokingly said, “I’m going one day at a time — one hour a time.”
She didn’t think it was funny. She thought it was a good plan. “Less than an hour. Get up and leave here and go to get coffee and see if you can do that. Then, if you can, see if you can turn on your computer. Then the next thing, and then the next thing. Piece by piece.” . . .
I have spent so much time hating my body for being a thing no one could desire — be it to look at, or to touch. How could anyone desire me when I refuse to even run a glancing hand down my own body myself? . . .

My Failed Relationship Is Proof
I’m More Broken Than I Realized
. . . For the first time in my life, I couldn’t sit down and write. I managed a few assignments early in the day, but then the guy I’ve been dating let me know that he wanted to take a break . . . and my usually facile flow on the keyboard became just as jammed up as everything else in my life. . . .
How do people, normal people, meet someone, make a connection with them, and not melt away into their own self-loathing when that connection is tested or severed? I feel like I don’t know how. I feel like an idiot.
It’s harder to cry now that I am on antidepressants. . . .

On Learning To Live With My Sadness
. . . My throat swells and throbs. I remember the train ride home last night and how I squeezed my face so tightly to stop the tears but they came anyway.
“I am falling to pieces,” I said inside as I cried. “I am breaking into a million pieces and no one on this train will even look me in the eye.” . . .

It’s Not About Me, Even a Little
When I visited New York somewhere around the age of ten or twelve, I could not fathom the sheer volume of stories I saw spilling out around me everywhere. It’s funny how it’s only now, exhausted by my own self-examination and with the bolstering of serotonin that my pills provide, that I can see this again. . . .
Right now I’m sitting on the F train. It’s around noon. It’s Thursday. I work from home and once a week I journey into Manhattan to see my analyst. . . .

Well, of course, she’s got an analyst in Manhattan. Every writer in Brooklyn must have an analyst in Manhattan. And also, cats.

There are times I feel rather moody myself, although offering to sell the Hope Diamond for $25 kind of cheered me up a bit. The DSCC pulling out of Louisiana also gave me a nice little emotional boost. Being happy is really just an ability to accept survival as success.

The “broken people” are out there everywhere, inviting us to their pity parties. But I think about my ancestors, and I also think about Muhammad Ali, the best boxer in history. Of all his many great moments, his greatest was a fight he lost. In 1973, Ali fought Ken Norton, a Marine Corps veteran who broke Ali’s jaw — yet Ali did not quit. He went the full 12 rounds and lost a split decision to Norton, but the fact that he finished the fight with a broken jaw is a testament to Ali’s toughness. Howard Cosell once observed that, for all the praise Ali got for his speed and strength, few recognized what was perhaps Ali’s greatest trait as a boxer: His ability to take a punch.

Being able to take a punch, shake off the pain and keep punching back — that’s mental toughness. That’s what makes a champion.

UPDATE: Welcome, Instapundit readers! Art the comments:

Her tour at the New School was for post-baccalaureate schooling. Her first tour at higher education was at Sewanee. There, as at the New School, the degree she received was impractical (in theatre). It would appear from the dates on her degrees that she’s 31, not 29.

Thanks for the additional research, Art.

 

Category: Feminism

LIVE AT FIVE: 11.07.14

Posted on | November 7, 2014 | 10 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho


TOP NEWS
Sixth Circuit Breaks Ranks: Upholds Gay Marriage Bans In Four States

States affected by the decision

Decision says gay marriage best decided through the political process, not the courts
Back to the Supreme Court





Narendra Modi Visits Varanasi
Opens trade facilitation center for weavers
Asks weavers to utilize e-commerce market
Goa Chief Minister resigns, is appointed India’s new Defense Minister

Euro Struggles In Asia After Falling On Draghi’s Comments
Markets apparently not thrilled by further ECB stimulus plans



POLITICS
Election Results Looked Nothing Like The Polls – How’d That Happen

Pollsters, Larry Sabato wants you to check yourselves now that you’ve wrecked yourselves

A night expected to be full of nail-biters turns into a bloodbath for Democrats


Bin Laden’s Alleged Shooter Goes Public, Fellow Seals Call BS


Boehner Warns Obama On Immigration Executive Action

Idaho Guard Chopper Crashes, Two Killed

Issa: Document Dump Shows Holder At The Middle Of “Fast & Furious”

Detroit Ready For Judge’s Decision On Bankruptcy

Ex-US Diplomat Under Criminal Investigation

Source: Obama’s Letter To Khamenei “F*cks Everything Up”



THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Asian Crude Sinks To New Lows On Strong Dollar: WTI $77.66, Brent $82.28
53 Million E-Mails Breached In Massive Home Depot Hack
Stronger Earnings By Corporate Giants Push Dow To New Highs
Bank Of America Takes $400 Million Litigation Charge
Fannie Mae Announces Dramatic Easing Of Mortgage Standards
Mexico Cancels High-Speed Rail Deal With Chinese
Microsoft Offers Free Office To Mobile Users
Amazon: Put This Always-On Wifi Mic In Your House – What Could Go Wrong?
Zuckerberg: Facebook Will Be Mostly Video In Five Years
Scribd Launches Audio Book Library
Internet Archive Delivers 900 Classic Games To Your Browser



SPORTS
Hamilton, Bruins Surge Past Oilers In Third Period

Loui Erickson (#21) congratulated by teammates after scoring during the third period flurry

Boston rallies to beat Edmonton, which hasn’t won against the Bruins since October 2000


Browns Dominate Bengals, 24-3

Ray Rice’s Future In Arbitrator’s Hands As Appeal Ends


Rockets Dominate Depleted Spurs

Sens Shut Out Wild, 3-0

Corbett: Joe Paterno Wrongly Fired

Lightning Snuff Flames 5-2

Beane Protege Named New Dodgers GM

Pens Edge Jets In Shootout

Canucks Tip Sharks 3-2

Nationals Pick Up Span’s Option For 2015, Decline Soriano And LaRoche



FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
Jessica Chastain Trapped In Publicity Tug Of War

One star, two movies

Nolan’s “Interstellar” blocking her from promoting “A Most Violent Year”

Rachel Bilson, It’s A Girl!

“Toy Story 4” To Hit Theaters In 2017

Britney Spears Confirms New Boyfriend

Taylor Swift Defends Pulling Her Music From Spotify

Mark Wahlberg & Peter Berg Are Bionic Duo On “Six Billion Dollar Man”

Homeless Amanda Bynes Crashes At LA Shopping Mall

Netflix Adapting “A Series Of Unfortunate Events” Into TV Series

Kenya Moore: This Is My “Redemption Season” On “Real Housewives Of Atlanta”

Anne Hathaway On Dealing With Internet Bullies: “I Hadn’t Learned To Love Myself Yet”

PETA Slams “Eaten Alive” Star For Anaconda Stunt

Miley Cyrus Dating Patrick Schwartzenegger

Channing Tatum Eyes “Hateful Eight” Role

Mark Zuckerberg Whines “The Social Network” Hurt His Feelings

Prosecutors Drop Murder-For-Hire Charges Against AC/DC Drummer



FOREIGNERS
Obama Turns To Iran For Help With ISIS
French President Hollande’s Popularity Sinks To New Low In Midterm Poll
German Divisions Persist 25 Years After The Fall Of The Berlin Wall
Chicoms, Japan Agree To Resume Dialogue
Series Of Explosions Strike Fatah Targets In Gaza
Over 600 American Troops Complained Of Chemical Weapons Exposure In Iraq
Libya Faces (More) Chaos As Court Invalidates Parliament
ICC Won’t Prosecute Israel Over 2012 Gaza Flotilla Deaths
Malaysian Court Overturns Ban On Cross-Dressing
Burkina Faso’s Interim Leader Dismisses AU Deadline



BLOGS & STUFF
Proof Positive: Auditioning For The Dustbin Of History
Doug Powers: The Nation And Salon Say Scott Walker Could Never Be Elected President, So Just Put It Out Of Your Minds!
Twitchy: “It’s Over. Let It Go.” Conservatives Keeping Mary Landrieu’s Dying Twitter Feed On Life Support
Sultan Knish: The Unbearable Lightness Of Feminism
American Power: California Scrambles To Deal With Effects Of Proposition 47
American Thinker: Were Women A Factor In The Great Democratic Shellacking Of 2014?
BLACKFIVE: Bergdahl And Tahmooressi – A Tale Of Two Sergeants
Conservatives4Palin: Where Is The Media On The Attkisson Story?
Don Surber: Reset Button Politics
Jammie Wearing Fools: Thanks Obama! There Are Now 357 People Being Monitored For Ebola In NYC
Joe For America: Obama On The Midterm Results – Not ME!
JustOneMinute: In Which I Effortlessly Square A Circle
Pamela Geller: Exhale
Protein Wisdom: The Axis Of Right-Wing Extremism
Shot In The Dark: It’s Getting To The Point…
STUMP: Illinois Election Wrapup – Congrats, Rauner, I Guess
The Gateway Pundit: Terrific! Minnesota Monitoring 48 For Ebola, 12 Already Missing
The Jawa Report: Bask, Jawas, Bask
The Lonely Conservative: Cosmo Is Super Thrilled About All Those Women Elected After Working Against Them
This Ain’t Hell: John McCain Promises To Save The Warthog From Extinction
Weasel Zippers: State Senate Seat Wendy Davis Gave Up Now Belongs To Pro-Life Tea Party Republican
Megan McArdle: Fifteen Things We Learned On Election Night


Shop Amazon – Countdown to Black Friday

Category: Live at Five

Harvard #SexWeek Punch Lines

Posted on | November 6, 2014 | 68 Comments

Years ago, when I was covering education for a newspaper in Georgia — when my oldest daughter (now 25) was in kindergarten and my twin sons (now 22) were just toddlers — I came to the conclusion that “sex education” in schools is (a) morally corrupting and (b) a harmful waste of taxpayer money. As to point (a) just think about your typical public school teacher. Have you seen these people? Have you ever had a conversation with a public school teacher?

Are you aware that students pursuing education degrees, on average, have the lowest SAT scores of any college major?

If you are sufficiently literate to read and comprehend this sentence, congratulations: You’re smarter than a fifth-grade teacher!

If you are more intelligent than the average public-school teacher, why the hell would you trust one of those hopeless dullards to teach your kids about sex? Might as well send your kid to the Post Office or Department of Motor Vehicles to ask a random bureaucrat about sex.

“Hi, my Mommy said you can you tell me where to find my uterus. And what’s this whole ‘menstruation’ deal about?”

No, hell, no. You wouldn’t want a DMV bureaucrat talking to your children about sex, so why let a public school teacher do it? It doesn’t make sense, especially if you can conjure up the mental image of your typical school teacher — not a particularly attractive person, OK? — standing in front a classroom of children, showing them anatomical pelvic cross-section charts and teaching them the Latin words for various parts: Labia minora, vagina, mons pubis, et cetera.

The ONLY Latin they teach in schools nowadays, you see?

Public schools won’t teach your kids a goddamned line of Cicero, but it is crucially important fifth-graders learn to spell “vulva,” “testes” and “glans penis,” because common English slang just won’t do.

Might as well send your kids to the DMV, really.

If you are naïve enough to believe a word any government education bureaucrat says, you might think we live in a culture where facts about sex are hidden in the shadows, suppressed by puritanical prudery, so that it would be impossible for kids to learn about this stuff were it not for “comprehensive” sex education in public schools.

If you’re that stupid, click here and hit my tip jar for $25 and I’ll send you the Hope Diamond via FedEx. It’s just a 45-carat blue paperweight sitting here on my desk, but I digress . . .

No, the Hope Diamond is not for sale. I’m just kidding.

Acidic sarcasm as a means to educational reform is a technique I’ve been using since fifth grade, and all it ever got me was trips to the principal’s office, multiple paddlings and several suspensions.

You’ll notice that al-Qaeda terrorists have never targeted the offices of the U.S. Department of Education. This is no coincidence, and neither is the fact that they didn’t hit Harvard University on 9/11:

Organizers of Harvard University’s “Sex Week” event have added a new workshop this year aimed at teaching students the joys of anal sex. Anyone bothered by the workshop is obviously “repressed” and hates gays and women, says one of the organizers.
One of the organizers of “sex week,” co-president of Sexual Health Education & Advocacy Throughout Harvard (SHEATH) Kirin Gupta, spoke to MTV and denigrated those who have criticized Sex Week in general and her anal sex workshop in particular.
Gupta, who was the 2012 “Global Citizen of the Year,” insisted that anyone who criticized her anal workshop, titled “What What In The Butt,” were just a bunch of haters.
Saying that “What What In The Butt” added “something that was missing” during past Sex Week celebrations, Gupta admitted that there has been some criticism of the workshop. But these critics just hate gays, she decided.
“The conservative backlash speaks to the latent homophobia that society thinks so often it has gotten over, and has not. It speaks to these residual prejudices that people [have] when faced with a reality they’re not willing to acknowledge or respect,” she said.

Got that? Your problem is “residual prejudices toward a practice you’re not willing to acknowledge or respect,” you ignorant bigots. Whereas the problem at Harvard University is, highly intelligent students at that elite institution don’t know how to have butt sex.

What else can I say? I could riff endlessly about this, but Harvard won’t listen because I’m obviously afflicted by latent homophobia, residual prejudices and, also, the Hope Diamond. That useless blue rock is just sitting here on my desk, gathering dust . . .





 

Category: Education, Sex

And @AlecMacGillis Misses the Bus

Posted on | November 6, 2014 | 43 Comments

To quote what I said Wednesday:

The aftermath of a wave election always involves a contest by partisans and pundits to seize control of the narrative, to tell us What It Really Means, although usually the truth can only be known with the advantage of hindsight.

When Democrats sustain a world-historic ass-kicking, as they did Tuesday, a certain quality of unreality in the post-election spin is predictable. The demise of the Democrats’ moderate “Blue Dog” wing means that the party now has few if any sane adherents, and thus liberal journalists trying to explain the devastation of Democrats in the mid-terms are not apt to recognize the symptoms of madness.

Democrats Didn’t Lose Governor’s Races
Because of a GOP Wave. They Lost
Because of Bad Candidates.

So says Alec MacGillis of the New Republic, but it’s difficult to say that this is a distinction that matters, even if it were true. MacGillis talks about the Maryland governor’s race, in which Democrat Anthony Brown was defeated by Republican Larry Hogan:

[E]very single voter I spoke with Tuesday — including several who voted for Barack Obama — at a polling station in a swing district in Baltimore County, just outside the Baltimore city line in the Overlea neighborhood, brought up the rain tax.
The rain tax is a “stormwater management fee” signed into law by Governor Martin O’Malley in 2012 that requires the state’s nine largest counties, plus Baltimore city, to help fund the reduction of pollution in Chesapeake Bay caused by stormwater runoff. The tax is hardly draconian . . .
Yet everyone I spoke with cited it as the crowning example of the nickel-and-diming taxing regime under O’Malley that also includes the $60-per-year “flush tax” to upgrade sewage treatment plants and higher taxes on alcohol, cigarettes, and gas. “The rain tax was the last straw,” said Mike Eline, 64, who does pest control at the University of Maryland campus in Baltimore. “How many taxes can there possibly be?” “It seems any reason they can, they say, ‘let’s tax the people,’” said Daniel, a 63-year-old African-American warehouse worker. “What really upsets me is the rain tax. Rain is something natural that’s just given to us. Nobody has to work for it. But they say, ‘let’s tax it.’”

Permit me to say that when a black Democrat in Baltimore — a bastion of Democrat loyalism, where Nancy Pelosi’s father was once boss of the notoriously corrupt political machine — can see the problem with his party’s policies, they’ve probably pushed it too far.

How is this inconsistent with the claim of a “GOP wave”? It’s not.

In fact, it’s the key to understanding the wave that MacGillis imagines himself to be disproving. The swelling progressive momentum of the Obama Age made Democrats believe they had reached the Promised Land and could enact bad policies without political consequence. No matter how high they raised taxes, no matter how onerous the regulatory regime, no matter how extreme the Democrat Party’s policy agenda, they could never lose — and then they did.

At the national level, pundits and triumphant Republicans are pointing to Republican Larry Hogan’s win over Brown in Maryland as the ultimate evidence of the 2014 anti-Democratic wave. Not only did Republicans win Senate seats in red and purple states, the claim goes, but they won governorships in true-blue Maryland, Massachusetts, and Illinois as well.
I’m skeptical of that claim. No doubt, disaffection and low turnout among core Democratic voters hurt the party’s gubernatorial candidates in blue states as it did Senate candidates in red and purple ones. And anti-Washington, anti-Obama sentiment certainly played a role in the GOP’s Senate takeover. But to explain why some Democratic gubernatorial candidates lost in blue states while others (such as Gina Raimondo in Rhode Island, Dannel Malloy in Connecticut, and John Hickenlooper in Colorado) managed to hang on, one really needs to take into account the state and local context of the races. . . .

You can read the whole thing, and see how MacGillis is employing psychological defense mechanisms — denial, rationalization, minimizing, smokescreening — one would expect to encounter in a family therapy session where the husband has been caught in adultery but wants to avoid personal responsibility for his wrongs. That makes MacGillis the co-dependent wife who is actually enabling her husband’s wrongful behavior. “How’s that working out for ya?”

WAKE UP, LIBERAL MEDIA! You are not helping Democrats by trying to convince Democrats they don’t have a problem. You are being manipulated by a narcissistic sociopath named Barack Obama.

It was as if he didnt lose the Senate, around 14 House seats, blue State Gov races that he campaigned for, and lots of State legislatures.
Condensed version:
People want us to work together.
People want us to get stuff done.
I’ll listen to whatever ideas are out there, as long as they are in agreement with me.
Minimum wage
Greatest economy in the world
Infrastructure
Executive action on illegal immigration
Willing to improve ObamaCare, just not in ways they might want to.
Minimum wage
Illegal immigration
I increased oil production
Budget
Get stuff done
This sums it up quite nicely.

 

Category: Democrats, Election, Media Bias

LIVE AT FIVE: 11.06.14

Posted on | November 6, 2014 | 8 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho


TOP NEWS
Seeking Unity, GOP Crafts Agenda For Congress

I can dream, can’t I?

Quick votes to erase obstructionist image
What Obama can (and can’t) do with a Republican Congress
GOP in charge, eager to move on Keystone XL, taxes




Two Palestinians Plow Into Israelis As Tensions Rise In Jerusalem
Jordan recalls ambassador from Israel

Coakley Concedes To Baker
Massachusetts elects a Republican governor again



POLITICS
Mixed Message – Obama Strikes Bipartisan Tone, But Vows Executive Action On Immigration

“Americans want us all to get the job done.”

Vows to work across the aisle, even as he promises to press ahead with controversial executive orders on immigration




NYC Prosecutor Loretta Lynch Eyed To Replace Holder As AG

GOP Makes Record Gains At State Level Along With Congressional Wins

Berkeley Passes First Soda Tax In Nation

Alaska, Oregon, DC Legalize Recreational Pot

Teenage Republican Saira Blair Elected To WV State Legislature

Judge Rules Missouri Gay Marriage Ban Unconstitutional



THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Asian Crude Slide Continues: WTI $78.80. Brent $83.02
Whole Foods Profit Beats Expectations As It Gains Market Share
Time Warner Strikes Back At Dish
US Businesses Add 230,000 Jobs In October
Lower Gas Prices Boost SUV Sales
Qualcomm Hit With New Probes By FTC, European Regulators
New Apple-Focused Malware Uses Macs To Infect iPhones
Excavated Atari Games Going For Up To $500 On EBay
Jawbone Stays Screenless With New UP Move and UP3 Fitness Trackers
Android 5.0 (Lollipop) Rollout Reportedly Delayed Due To Wifi Bug
“Legend Of Zelda: Majora’s Mask” Coming To 3DS



SPORTS
Curry, Warriors Rout Clippers

Curry celebrates a second-quarter basket against the Clippers

121-104 thrashing leaves Warriors 4-0 in best start since 1995

Habs Edge Sabres In Shootout. 2-1

Hayward’s Jumper Lifts Jazz Past Cavs, 102-100

Rangers Beat Red Wings In OT, 4-3

Goodell Testifies For Over Two Hours At Ray Rice Hearing

Islanders Edge Ducks In OT, 3-2


Pistons Hold Off Knicks For First Win

Lawyer Says A-Rod Admitted Roid Use To DEA

Lowry Leads Raptors Past Celtics

Timbermutts Nip Nyets 98-91

Kings Rout Nuggets 131-109

Magic Over Sixers At The Buzzer For First Win, 91-89

Indian Cricket Legend Tendulkar Unveils Autobiography

Nationals Announce 2015 Spring Training Schedule



FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
Miranda Lambert, Luke Bryan Win Big At CMAs

Miranda speaks backstage after taking four of the nine awards for which she was nominated

Hosts Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood’s show opening drew attention to the absence of Taylor Swift, who has shed her country roots for pop music, with a comical song about “Postpartum Taylor Swift Disorder,” or PPTSD.

Benedict Cumberbatch Announces Engagement To Directrix Sophie Hunter

Channing Tatum Admits Experimenting With Drugs During His Stripper Years

Jessica Biel and Justin Timberlake Are Expecting

Kelly Rowland, It’s A Boy!

Ex-Cheerleader Molly Shattuck Indicted For Statutory Rape

“After Nine Months Of Intensive Development, Team Downey Is Pleased To Announce…”

Lucy Hale Dishes On Her CMA Red Carpet Style

Britney Spears Dating Charlie Ebersol



FOREIGNERS
Forbes Debuts PM Narendra Modi At #15 On World’s Most Powerful List
Burkina Faso Agrees On One-Year Transition Period Before Elections In 2015
Pakistan Arrests 43 Over “Blasphemy” Killings
Bomb On Egyptian Train Kills Two, Wounds Fourteen
Million Mask March – Ten Arrested During Anonymous Protest In London
Thousands Protest For Missing Mexican Teachers
Obama – US Has Offered Iran “Framework” For Nuclear Deal
Great Successor Photobombed By Toys Having Sex During Nork Orphanage Visit
Pakistan Butthurt Over Pentagon Report That It Supports Jihadis In India, Afghanistan
Pope Francis Considering Changes To Annulment Process
Georgia’s Premier Sacks Pro-Western Defense Minister
Three Hong Kong Protesters Arrested In Overnight Skirmishes



BLOGS & STUFF
First Street Journal: OK, You Won. Now What Are You Going To Do?
Michelle Malkin: Is GOP Ready For Obama’s Attorney General Fight?
Twitchy: “The Greatest Prognosticator Of Our Times” – Oliver Willis’ Epic Fail
SooperMexican: The Winning And Losing Women Of Election 2014
Popehat: BREAKING – Existence Of U. Oregon’s Student Senator Miles Sisk Confirms Failure Of American Experiment
American Power: Leftist Billionaire Tom Steyer Sees Little Payoff For Millions He Spent On Climate Change Agitprop
American Thinker: Obama – “Don’t Think We’re Not Keeping Score, Brother”
BLACKFIVE: Free Fire Zone – A Tale Of Two Sergeants
Conservatives4Palin: Sarah Palin – “It’s The GOP’s Turn To Show Us What They Got”
Don Surber: The Sun Finally Shines On West Virginia
Jammie Wearing Fools: Fox Crushes Broadcast And Cable Networks On Midterm Coverage
Joe For America: VA Hospitals To Treat Ebola Patients?
JustOneMinute: The Obama Presser
Pamela Geller: Alabama Joins List Of States Banning Sharia Law
Protein Wisdom: California Voters Poised For A Huge Case Of Karma
Shot In The Dark: Trulbert! Part XX – Night Of The Dark Soles
STUMP: Election Day 2014 – Hope For A Conservative Yankee
The Gateway Pundit: Missouri National Guard Reserves 100 Rooms In Downtown St. Louis For This Weekend
The Jawa Report: Great Moments In Trolling
The Lonely Conservative: CMA Mocks Obama, Democrats, Kaci Hickox
This Ain’t Hell: Dear Republicans – You Didn’t Build That
Weasel Zippers: Flashback – Obama Says He Doesn’t Want To Be President Without A Democrat-Majority Senate
Megan McArdle: The Election Is Over. Take A Breath.


Category: Live at Five

The Sweet Hangover of Victory

Posted on | November 5, 2014 | 59 Comments

Tuesday’s Republican tsunami left Harry Reid disgraced and desperate to rescue some semblance of Democrat relevance:

Reid has run the US Senate for the past eight years like a dictatorship, steadily eroding minority privileges to the point where Republicans couldn’t offer amendments or put up any significant resistance to Barack Obama’s radical appointments, unless Democrats forced Reid’s hand on either score. After watching his party lay a historic egg in the midterms — the size of which is still not yet fully known — Reid tried spinning the results as a mandate for the kind of compromise that he’s blocked ever since winning control of the upper chamber in 2006 . . .

Read the whole thing at Hot Air. The aftermath of a wave election always involves a contest by partisans and pundits to seize control of the narrative, to tell us What It Really Means, although usually the truth can only be known with the advantage of hindsight.

(Left to right: That’s Elise Stefanik, the Republican who last night became the youngest woman ever elected to Congress; Mia Love, who last night became the first black Republican woman ever elected to Congress; and Joni Ernst, the Republican who last night was elected Iowa’s first-ever female U.S. Senator.)

Sandra Fluke got beat and, meanwhile, back at the feminist salt mines . . .

Christian Post columnist Rachel Alexander had some delightfully blunt truths about the “catcalling” video that went viral last week:

The truth is, catcalls bother feminists because they’re jealous. One of Rush Limbaugh’s 35 Undeniable Truths of Life is that “feminism was established so as to allow unattractive women easier access to the mainstream of society.” Feminists are highly critical of women who choose to make a significant effort to look attractive. If they can stop men from complimenting pretty women, they won’t have to observe it and feel pangs of jealousy.
The other dynamic at play here is feminists want to make men just like women. They don’t want to acknowledge there are differences between the genders . . .

Feminists reacted by going completely berserk — even more berserk than usual. There’s crazy feminism and kuh-RAY-zee feminism.

Today I’ve been chilling out most of the day, watching MSNBC and laughing. Elections come and go, but the Culture War never ends.

 

Category: Election, Feminism, Harry Reid, Senate

GOP #WarOnWomen Results In 100 Female Representatives: We Blame Rule 5

Posted on | November 5, 2014 | 47 Comments

by Smitty

Isn’t it amazing what good old-fashioned conservative misogyny can do? Congrats to Mia Love: we feel a strong affection, for which we lack a word, toward you.

Category: Republicans

Election 2014 BREAKING: GOP Wins Senate Majority, @AoSHQDD Says

Posted on | November 4, 2014 | 88 Comments

UPDATE 11 p.m. ET: Always trust the reliable source:

It’s a blowout, folks. A total Republican wave.

UPDATE 1 a.m. ET: Did I say “wave”? No, it’s a tsunami:

UPDATE 9 p.m. ET: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell crushed Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes in Kentucky, apparently out-performing polls, perhaps signalling a “surge” for the GOP.

Meanwhile, in West Virginia, Republican Shelley Moore Capito defeats Democrat Natalie Tennant and Republican Tom Cotton has defeated incumbent Sen. Mark Pryor in Arkansas, so that the GOP so far has a net gain of two seats, needing four more pickups to get to the magic number of 51 to control the Senate.

* * * PREVIOUSLY (4 p.m. ET) * * *

Allahpundit summarizes the likely Senate scenario:

Right now the GOP has 45 seats. You can go ahead and bump that up to 48 because three pick-ups are a fait accompli: Steve Daines will win big in Montana, replacing Max Baucus; Mike Rounds will cruise in South Dakota, replacing Tim Johnson; and Shelley Moore Capito will enjoy a landslide in West Virginia, replacing Jay Rockefeller. With those three in the bank, getting to 51 early in the evening should be easy, no? Tom Cotton’s going to beat Mark Pryor in Arkansas for number 49. Joni Ernst is probably going to beat Bruce Braley in Iowa for number 50. And then Cory Gardner’s going to put Mark Uterus out of his misery in Colorado — or I will take a flamethrower to this place — for number 51. There’s our majority! But wait: If Greg Orman knocks off Pat Roberts in Kansas, as he’s (slightly) favored to do, that knocks us back down to 50. What then?
Well, there’s always Kentucky, where Mitch McConnell is expected to beat Alison Lundergan Grimes. But McConnell is simply protecting his seat; that’s not a pick-up, so we’re still stuck at 50. Ditto for Georgia: Even if David Perdue avoids a runoff and beats Michelle Nunn outright tonight, he’s simply holding Saxby Chambliss’s seat. No pick-up there either. We could get back to 51 if either Thom Tillis beats Kay Hagan in North Carolina or Scott Brown beats Jeanne Shaheen in New Hampshire, but the Democratic incumbents are favored in both races. Assuming they win, we’re still stuck at 50.

Read the whole thing. Without checking my archives, I can assure you that I predicted this basic scenario weeks ago. It’s weird to have ignored all the cable-TV pundit hype about the campaign during the past month, and then return to the subject on Election Day and find out, yeah, all that hype didn’t really change anything.

Here’s my gut hunch: About midnight Eastern time, the cable-TV talking heads will have the GOP at 48 or 49 Senate seats. Election junkies will stay awake until the wee hours and maybe — just maybe — the GOP will get to 50 seats by the time we crash out at 3 a.m. ET. By lunchtime Wednesday, about three of those 50 GOP seats will be within the range of a mandatory recount, and MSNBC talking heads will be screaming “vote fraud” (meaning somehow Republicans cheated) despite the fact that, as every liberal knows, there is no such thing as “vote fraud” (if that phrase means Democrats cheating).

So, while both parties will be scrambling squadrons of lawyers to the recount states, everything will ultimately come down to (a) the possible runoff in Georgia, and (b) the absolutely guaranteed runoff in Louisiana. At best, the Republican majority will be 52-48. At worst, Harry Reid’s Democrats will maintain control by the narrowest of margins, either 51-49 or else 50-50 with Joe Biden casting the deciding vote to keep the Majority Leader’s gavel in Harry’s hand.

All of that’s just gut-hunch stuff, of course.

We’ll see how my shoot-from-the-hip gonzo forecast holds up against the “expert” talking heads on cable TV who have spent the past month wasting their time (and ours) by telling us basically nothing.

UPDATE: The usual suspects, the usual message:

In a recent Democratic National Committee email, actress Scarlett Johansson said if Republicans win control of the Senate they will take away a woman’s right to choose. . . .
In fact, in August she designed a t-shirt on behalf of the abortion giant. As LifeNews previously reported, the pink t-shirt read, “Hey Politicians! The 1950s called …” on the front. And on the back, the shirts say: “They want their sexism back!”  . . .
An article in the Washington Examiner shares more about Johansson’s letter. The author, Ashe Schow, wrote the following:

“Despite the Left’s insistence that abortion is one of the few things women voters care about, the word “abortion” rarely makes it into their campaign ads. The reason abortion supporters call themselves “pro-choice” is that they’d rather not say the word. Abortion isn’t actually as popular as they would have you believe — it doesn’t poll well, and other than the first three months of pregnancy, large majorities of Americans think it should be illegal.
And so it is with a recent Democratic National Committee email sent on behalf of actor Scarlett Johansson (Black Widow from “The Avengers”), which claimed that if the GOP wins control of the Senate, they will take away “a woman’s right to choose.”
The email vaguely describes that choice as the ‘right to make her own personal health care decisions,’ but never says that the only decision they mean is abortion.

Experts predict a big win tonight for heteronormative patriarchy. And you know what that means? Prepare to be oppressed, ladies.

 

Category: Election, Harry Reid, Mitch McConnell, Senate
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