The Other McCain

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

Report: Two Black Panther Terrorists Arrested in Ferguson Bomb Plot

Posted on | November 22, 2014 | 62 Comments

The deadly momentum of the hate machine made this inevitable:

Two men suspected of buying explosives they planned to detonate during protests in Ferguson, Missouri, once a grand jury decides the Michael Brown case, were arrested on Friday and charged with federal firearms offenses, a law enforcement official told Reuters.
Word of the arrests, reported by a number of media outlets Friday, came ahead of the grand jury’s widely anticipated decision on whether the white police officer who fatally shot Brown, an unarmed black teenager, should be indicted on criminal charges. . . .
[T]wo men described as reputed members of a militant group called the New Black Panther Party, were arrested in the St. Louis area in an FBI sting operation.
As initially reported by CBS News, the men were suspected of acquiring explosives for pipe bombs that they planned to set off during protests in Ferguson, according to the official, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to publicly discuss the case.
The official said the two men are the same pair named in a newly unsealed federal indictment returned on Nov. 19 charging Brandon Orlando Baldwin and Olajuwon Davis with purchasing two pistols from a firearms dealer under false pretenses.
Both men were arraigned on Friday in federal court, the law enforcement source said.

Having survived the 1960s and ’70s, I never thought American society would regress backward to that era of chaos and despair.

Hope and Change . . .

 

Category: Crime, Fear. Loathing., Missouri, Racism, Terrorism

Is Salon Saying That Rep. Paul Ryan Is A Time Traveller?

Posted on | November 22, 2014 | 46 Comments

by Smitty

There is so much buildup on Elias Isquith’s chin that he’s kind of incoherent (emphasis mine):

While there are no doubt many changes ideologues like Ryan would like to see the CBO make, reports indicate that the main reason GOPers want to install a right-wing hack as its chief is in order to make the agency integrate “dynamic scoring” more fully into its estimations. “Dynamic scoring,” for those who don’t know, is a phrase conservatives like to use to give a tenet of their anti-tax religion — lower taxes lead to more revenue! — an intellectual gloss. More importantly, dynamic scoring is generally the special sauce right-wing “wonks” put into their projections in order to claim that massively cutting taxes on the rich won’t lead to fiscal ruin. Remember the absurd claim that Bush’s tax cuts wouldn’t explode deficits? Thank dynamic scoring for that.

So this proposed idea of Ryan’s (the only guy I’ve ever heard of even trying to propose a way to balance the budget) appears to have gone back in time and exploded deficits. Such is the power of cheeseheads! Or maybe Isquith could have explained it all better. But wait:

Yes, this is where “Grubergate,” the most recent of the GOP’s seemingly endless supply of manufactured outrages, comes in. If you’re not familiar with this tempest in a teapot, I recommend you catch up by reading my colleague Joan Walsh. But for our purposes here, all you need to know is that Republicans have been devoting a ton of energy toward making MIT’s Jonathan Gruber’s admission, that the White House designed Obamacare with the likely political ramifications of the CBO score in mind, equivalent to the 18-minute gap in the Nixon tapes.

Did you get that, everyone? Grüberdammerung is like an 18 minute tape gap, or something.


You, Elias Isquith, deserve some award for useful idiocy.

Category: Media Bias

Sequels And Weirdness

Posted on | November 21, 2014 | 6 Comments

— by Wombat-socho


This week has been all about sequels, which in this particular instance is a Good Thing, because all of these sequels are pretty good stuff. We’ll start with Larry Correia’s Spellbound, the bridge novel between Hard Magic and Warbound, and as such it explains a lot of what’s going on in the early stages of the latter. It has an odd feel to it, with a healthy helping of X Files-like government conspiracy action added to the usual problems with the Imperium, and a not terribly positive view of FDR, which may be an additional point in its favor for some folks. Recommended, just like the rest of the Grimnoir trilogy.


Oddly similar to the Grimnoir trilogy are the sequels to James Schmitz’ classic young adult SF novel, The Witches of Karres. For those of you who missed this one, it’s a madcap adventure involving hapless spaceship captain Pausert from the dull, boring world of Nikkeldepain, who finds himself saddled with three sisters in a foreign port – and worse yet, they’re all from the mysterious (and proscribed!) world of Karres, notorious home of witches who can manipulate klatha powers in various magical ways. Before he can say “Sheewash what?” he finds himself with a shipload of questionable passengers, a cargohold full of useless junk, and a course into the extremely dangerous Chaladoor. Wild adventure and a fair amount of comedy ensues. Well, Mercedes Lackey, Eric Flint and Dave Freer took a swing at writing a sequel, The Wizard of Karres, in which Captain Pausert and his two remaining charges, Goth and the Leewit, wind up running off to join the circus while scraping up funds to fix their damaged ship. Moon, Flint and Freer do a good job imitating Schmitz’s style, and The Warlock of Karres winds up being that rare beast, a decent sequel. The same is true for the second sequel, The Sorceress of Karres, in which a girl and some events from Pausert’s childhood return to haunt his present. Will his growing klatha abilities, added to those of Goth and the Leewit get him out of trouble this time?


The reason I maintain that the Karres novels are similar to the Grimnoir trilogy is that they share a similar plot: small band of super-powered heroes goes up against mysterious and powerful enemies in a battle to save humanity. The stages are different, the characters are different, but I think if you like Schmitz’s novel you’re probably going to like Correia’s, and vice versa – though given the unsparing description of violence in the Grimnoir trilogy, you might want to give a likely young person a copy of The Witches of Karres instead.


Last on the reading list this week: Philip K. Dick’s Clans of the Alphane Moon, which involves an Earth colony populated by escapees from a mental hospital. The colonists have sorted themselves out into clans based on their particular psychiatric problems, and regard the advent of Earth’s psychiatrists as an invasion to be resisted. Meanwhile, CIA agent Chuck Rittersdorf is being divorced by his wife Mary, a crack marriage counselor who is shipping out to the Alphane colony – but not before strong-arming Chuck into a writing job for TV comedian Bunny Hentman. Also involved in this mess is Chuck’s neighbor, telepathic Ganymedan slime mold Lord Running Clam, and of course Chuck’s fellow agents at the CIA. Chuck seizes on the chance to pilot a simulacrum to Alphane and thus revenge himself on Mary (who has taken him to the cleaners in the divorce) by killing her and making it look like a sim malfunction. Like so many of Dick’s work, this is weirdness on stilts, with outrageous coincidences, stupid assumptions by the characters, and hidden motivations all combining to send the characters caroming off each other until they finally reach a bizarre, yet logical conclusion. If this is the sort of SF you enjoy, then this will probably be a good book for you.


Category: Books

Reconciled to Servitude

Posted on | November 21, 2014 | 77 Comments

“Nor does the sexual promiscuity of Brave New World seem so very distant. There are already certain American cities in which the number of divorces is equal to the number of marriages. In a few years, no doubt, marriage licenses will be sold like dog licenses, good for a period of twelve months, with no law against changing dogs or keeping more than one animal at a time. As political and economic freedom diminishes, sexual freedom tends compensatingly to increase. And the dictator (unless he needs cannon fodder and families with which to colonize empty or conquered territories) will do well to encourage that freedom. In conjunction with the freedom to daydream under the influence of dope and movies and the radio, it will help to reconcile his subjects to the servitude which is their fate.”
— Aldous Huxley, 1946

That passage was quoted by a commenter in reaction to an earlier post about a typical specimen of 21st-century “education,” and I thought it deserved its own post. What Huxley was describing is how sexual promiscuity — a life lived in pursuit of meaningless thrills — is ultimately incompatible with liberty. Thrill-seekers claim to be liberated when they are in fact enslaved by their own passions.

Heedless of basic decency, lacking self-respect and sturdy discipline, the sexual slave requires a master — someone to tell him what to do, and to provide for him what the slave is incapable of providing for himself, including a sense of purpose in life. To be a good servant — “Life is good! Vote Democrat!” — gives the slave pleasure. And he pursues his own pleasure, having gained “the freedom to daydream under the influence of dope and movies and the radio.”

Dopehead daydreamers are everywhere now. One sometimes encounters them online, ranting furiously about “social justice.”

It’s important to remember that, although these people exist in real life — that is to say, there are actual human beings running those batshit crazy troll accounts — they are as altogether artificial in their politics as they are in their online personas. They themselves have never done a goddamned thing for “social justice.” They simply enjoy mouthing these slogans about “oppression” and “patriarchy,” etc., because posing as Our Moral Superiors is an emotional compensation for their own obscurity and worthlessness.

They are the Nowhere People — rootless, without loyalty to family, community or religious tradition, and thus “free” to create for themselves imagined identities and idiosyncratic belief systems. Although they usually think of themselves as unique individuals, they are really sheep in a herd, predictable and therefore ultimately boring. Any politics, as long as it’s not conservative politics; any religion as long as it’s not Christian religion; any sexuality as long as it’s not normal sexuality. One notices that the Nowhere People are seldom husbands and wives, fathers and mothers. Idle narcissism is incompatible with the dutiful commitments of marriage and motherhood.

This afternoon I encountered Nissa on Twitter as @cuntxmuffin_ — nice handle, Nissa — when she trolled into my timeline. Why was she trolling me? I don’t know, but her Twitter profile lists her interests as “feminism, cross stitching, true crime, horror & iced coffee,” and links to her Tumblr page entitled, “I Only Exist Because I Dream.” What does she dream of? Oh, the horrors of transphobic bigotry, the joys of tattoos and nose rings. And what kind of life has she led?

I’m originally from Massachusetts and lived a good portion of my life in Nebraska; but I’ve lived in south Texas for five shitty years now. I’m moving to San Antonio soon tho, so lets be friends if you live there.
I’m 19 but I like to think i’m an old lady at heart.
I like cross stitching, coffee, feminism, knitting, girls, sometimes boys, beards and booty, cats, baseball, laying in my bed, and true crime. I’m a second year college student studying criminal justice.
Tell me some cool secrets and lets be friends
Party on, dudes

OK, so the 19-year-old bisexual feminist college student decided, randomly, that we needed her to lecture us about U.S. history.

The Nowhere People, living in the Brave New World. There is no point in arguing with these creatures, who are evidently content to remain ignorant. They are reconciled to their own servitude.





 

Category: Culture

No Prison for Lesbian Teacher, 24, Accused of Raping 17-Year-Old Girl

Posted on | November 21, 2014 | 36 Comments

 

The victim in the case doesn’t want her molester to go to prison, probably because that would be “hate” or something:

Prison time appears doubtful for a former Clearfield (Utah) High School teacher accused of making unwanted sexual advances on a student in January 2013.
Judge Brent West convened privately with prosecuting and defense attorneys twice [Oct. 29] in 2nd District Court before deciding to postpone Gaile Supp’s sentencing to Nov. 19 at 9 a.m. He told Supp he doesn’t anticipate she will be sentenced to prison.
“Clearly everyone is on board that no prison time should be spent,” West said. “The question is … how much jail time.”
Supp was charged with object rape, a first-degree felony, in April 2013 for allegedly committing a sexual act on an unwilling 17-year-old female student at her West Haven home three months earlier. In September, Supp pleaded guilty to an amended charge of sexual battery, a third-degree felony.
Supp and her attorney, Camille Neider, submitted a statement in support of a guilty plea on Sept. 3 that also was signed by West and Weber County Deputy Attorney Letitia Toombs. Prosecutors agreed in writing to recommend in favor of probation for Supp, recommend against prison and stay neutral on the issue of jail time.
The alleged victim is opposed to any jail time for Supp, according to the document.
Prosecutors also agreed not to require Supp to register as a sex offender or undergo a psycho-sexual evaluation. They noted Supp will be eligible to have her conviction expunged if she qualifies for that benefit after her sentencing.
Supp agreed in the document not to fight the revocation of her teaching license in Utah.

What exactly went on in this incident?

The student told police she went to Supp’s West Haven home in early January to get help with homework. Instead, her teacher showed her a sexually explicit movie and sexually assaulted her, according to a probable cause statement.
The student reported to police she told Supp she didn’t want the sexual advances, court documents state.

A lesbian teacher having sex with her student? This is just another random coincidence. There can’t possibly be a pattern here, right?

Michelle Smith White.

  • High school dance teacher Michelle Smith White, 37, of Durham, N.C., was charged in October with having sex with a 16-year-old female student. Police said White had the student’s name and initials tattooed on her body.

Sabrina Epps.

  • Dance teacher Sabrina Epps, 19, was arrested in October after police say she admitted having lesbian sex with a 14-year-old girl who was a student at the Tennessee studio where Epps taught.

Amanda Feenstra.

  • Dance teacher Amanda Feenstra, 30, was sentenced to probation in October after she pleaded guilty to having lesbian sex with a 17-year-old student at the Texas high school where Feenstra taught.

Rebecca Diebolt.

  • California teacher Rebecca Eileen Diebolt, 35, was arrested in June after a woman told police that she and Diebolt had a four-year sexual relationship that began in 2004, when the victim was 15 and Diebolt was her language arts teacher and swim/water polo coach.

Nichol Marie Phelps.

  • Dance teacher Nichol Marie Phelps, 30, was sentenced to prison in June after she pleaded guilty to having lesbian sex with a 15-year-old student at the Florida academy where Phelps taught.

Left to right: Nicole Wooten, Tonya Drueppel, Andrea Cardosa.

  • Andrea Michelle Cardosa, 40, was charged with 16 felony counts in February after two former female students accused her of sexually molesting them. One accuser said Cardosa started having sex with her when she was only 12.
  • Tonya Drueppel was arrested in January on charges that she had sex with a middle-school girl beginning in October 2012, when the victim was 13.
  • Nicole Wooten was arrested in February 2013 on charges that she had sex with a girl in 2005 and 2006, when the victim was a 12-year-old eighth-grader.
  • Kelly O’Rourke, 42, was sentenced to 10 years in prison in October 2013 for having sex with a 16-year-old girl.
  • Sarah Blessing, 28, was convicted in 2010 of having sex with a 17-year-old Catholic school girl who was on a swim team Blessing coached.
  • Jaymee Wallace, 30, was sentenced to three years in prison in 2007 for having sex with a 14-year-old girl who was her student at a Florida high school.

Does anybody know where school teachers get the idea that teenage girls are all uncontrollably lusting for lesbian sex?

Because I have no idea. None at all.

What’s that word, Andrew?

Ah, yes, “culture.” Our culture has been corrupted by an intellectual elite, teaching “doctrines of devils.” And while Hollywood and academia are busy perverting the minds of America’s youth, conservatives are obsessively focused on Obama. We’re losing that war, too.

 

Category: Crime, Education, Gays, Utah

LIVE AT FIVEEIGHT: 11.21.14

Posted on | November 21, 2014 | 1 Comment

— compiled by Wombat-socho


TOP NEWS
Obama Ignites Fight With Republicans Over Deportation Reprieve

“We, Barackus Imperator, do decree…”

Defers deportation for an estimated five million illegals
GOP Considers Its Countermoves
Obama sets off to sell his policies
Immigration activists regard amnesty as just the first step



Iran Nuke Deal Remains Dim Prospect
SecState Kerry heads to Vienna for talks



Tory Defector Mark Reckless Victorious
UKIP now has two seats in Commons



POLITICS
More Arrests As Protesters Await Ferguson Grand Jury Decision

A protester is arrested for blocking traffic

Urban militia offering bounty to find officer Darren Wilson

AG Nominee Lynch May Face Grilling Over Massive Civil Forfeitures

County Judge Set To Rule On Illinois Pension Reform

DIRNSA: Chicoms Can Damage Power Grid

Jeb Bush Ready For Fight On Common Core

DHS: Visitors From Ebola Zone May Stay In US For 18 Months

Sen. Cruz Invokes Cicero To Slam Obama On Immigration

Russian Bombers Threaten Guam



THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Asian Crude Spikes On OPEC Output Cut Speculation: WTI $76.31, Brent $79.57
China Surprises With Interest Rate Cut To Spur Growth
Euro Shares Surge On China Rate Cut
Amazon’s Pricing Strategy Making Life Miserable For The Competition
Ahead Of Holiday Sales, Best Buy Sees Its Profits Double
Intel Shares Climb As Statement Delivers Optimistic Outlook For 2015
Breached Webcam, Baby Monitor Site Flagged By Watchdogs
Facebook Creating Drone Team
Barbie Book Outrage – Author Speaks Out After Girl Geek Book Pulled From Amazon
Google Tests Replacing Ads With Contributions
“Assassin’s Creed” – City In Turmoil



SPORTS
Raiders Stun Chiefs For First Win Of Season

Chiefs QB Alex Smith gets sacked by Raiders CB Charles Woodson

Rookie Derek Carr leads Raiders to 24-20 win

Bills, Jets To Meet In Detroit Next Tuesday

Leafs Stop Skid With 5-2 Pounding Of Lightning

Kings Brush Aside Bulls 103-88

Habs Whip Blues 4-1

Blue Jackets’ Johnson Files For Bankruptcy After Parents Take Out $15 Million In Loans In His Name

Sens Edge Predators 3-2

Dodgers Acquire Peralta From Rays

Red Wings Rally Past Jets 4-3

Jordan Zimmerman, Fister On The Trading Block?



FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
“Graduate” Director Mike Nichols Dies, 83

Condolences to Diane Sawyer

Also directed “Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?”, “Working Girl”, and “The Birdcage”


Evan Ross Of “Mockingjay” Talks New Music, Having Lots Of Kids With Ashlee Simpson


Ben Affleck: Jennifer Takes On “The Lion’s Share” Of Responsibilities

Jon Hamm And Others Returning To “Parks & Recreation”

New Cosby Accuser Has Long Criminal History, Including Fraud

Penelope Cruz Catwalks To “Zoolander 2; More Silly Sequels After “Dumber To”?

Michael Phelps’ Self-Proclaimed GF Admits She Was Born Male

Country Singer Ty Herndon Comes Out As Gay

Sadie Robinson From “Duck Dynasty” – It’s An Honor To Be Compared To The Duggars!

Notorious Race Hustler And Tax Cheat: “Bill Cosby Has To Answer To Someone”



FOREIGNERS
Violence Flares On Mexico City Streets Over Missing Students
Hamas Conspiracy To Kill Israeli Foreign Minister Exposed
Guru Rampal’s Army Armed To The Teeth
Miss Honduras’ Slaying A Shock To A Violent Nation
Chicoms Try Journalist, Scholar In Closed Hearings
Norks Threaten Another Nuke Test
Two Security Officers Killed, Six Injured In Peshawar Blast
Thai Justice Minister – Martial Law To Remain “Indefinitely”
Labour MP Thornberry Quits Over “Snobby” Tweet
Chicom Defense Minister Pledges More Dialogue To Resolve Territorial Conflicts
Health Minister To Challenge Sri Lanka’s President At Polls
Israel Rejects EU Appeal Over Demolishing Terrorists’ Homes



BLOGS & STUFF
Crashr: Comparing The Reagan And Obama Amnesties
First Street Journal: The Double Standard
Michelle Malkin: Refresher Course – When White House Promises Immigration “Background Checks”, They Lie
Doug Powers: With A Rebuttal To President Obama’s Amnesty Announcement, Here’s President Obama
Twitchy: #Fruitpickers And #Bedmakers – Proud, Obama? Bigoted Amnesty Speech Sparks Two Hashtags
American Power: House GOP Hires Liberal Law Professor Jonathan Turley For Obamacare Lawsuit
American Thinker: Shutdown Hangover For GOP?
BLACKFIVE: Adam Baldwin Joins Mission VALOR
Conservatives4Palin: Governor Palin Weighs In On Obama’s Executive Amnesty
Don Surber: Race Card Debt Comes Due For Democrats
Jammie Wearing Fools: Trey Gowdy On Gruber – “Let Him Keep Talking”
Joe For America: This WWI-Themed Christmas Ad Is Blowing Up The Internet
JustOneMinute: Saving Tinkerbell Obama
Pamela Geller: UK Police Concerned For Welfare Of Convicted Muslim Child Gang-Rapists
Protein Wisdom: Obamnesty – Fundamentally Transforming America Into A Neo-Feudal State
Shot In The Dark: ProtectMN – An Unreliable Source
STUMP: Public Pension Watch – How Screwed Is Chicago?
The Gateway Pundit: Univision’s Jorge Ramos Complains Illegal Aliens Not Represented In Congress
The Jawa Report: Jihadtube – Hosting Hamas Propaganda Indoctrinating Palestinian Children To Kill Jews In Violation Of OFAC Terrorist Designation? We’re Cool With That
The Lonely Conservative: Obama To Add More Foreign Workers Than Jobs Created During His Presidency
This Ain’t Hell: Amy Rising – Pothead Wants Free Weed From VA
Weasel Zippers: Louisiana Senate Runoff Update – Cassidy 56%, Landrieu 41%
Megan McArdle: Obama’s Immigration Speech Acrobatics


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Category: Live at Five

Interstellar

Posted on | November 20, 2014 | 16 Comments

— by Wombat-socho


I was extremely fortunate to get a comp ticket to see Interstellar at the National Air & Space Museum’s Udvar-Hazy Center out by Dulles; first because the theater there is one of those ginormous IMAX installations, and second because Interstellar is a pretty good movie. Christopher Nolan deserves a lot of credit for not gunking up the movie with a lot of expository jibber-jabber; the world our characters live in is just there, not explained ad nauseam, and we move right along to the action. Matthew McConaughey plays Cooper, a NASA pilot unwillingly working as a farmer, until the “poltergeist” in his daughter’s room reveals the coordinates to a secret NASA base whose intention is to save mankind from a dying Earth. It seems there are half a dozen Earthlike planets orbiting a black hole accessible through a wormhole near Saturn, and Cooper’s wanted for the mission that will follow up on the initial probes. There’s a lot more to it than that, of course; Cooper has to leave his kids (the rebellious but talented Murph and the steady farmer Tom) behind, hoping that despite the time dilation imposed relativity he can make it home to save them, and of course this is a voyage of exploration, so there’s more than a little risk involved.


The visuals were almost overwhelming in IMAX, and the soundtrack, while mostly unobtrusive, has a way of sneaking up on you and yanking on your emotions. The actors all do an outstanding job, even Matt Damon, and both Anne Hathaway and Jennifer Chastain are looking mighty good while delivering their lines. I am not an astrophysicist, but I am assured by people who are that the science is reasonably accurate up to a point, and you’ll know that point when you see it. Finally (and this isn’t spoiling anything) the robots get some of the best lines. Definitely recommended, on as big a screen as you can stand.


Category: Culture, Movies

In The Mailbox: 11.20.14

Posted on | November 20, 2014 | 11 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho


OVER THE TRANSOM
Crashr: An Illustrated Guide To The Five Pillars Of Liberalism
Michelle Malkin: A White House Mass Pardon For Identity Thieves
Twitchy: “Sorry, Progressives!” No, Obama’s Executive Order Is Not At All Like What Reagan And Bush The Elder Did
Movoto: Minnesota Food Taste-Test (Video)


RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
American Power: Dems Take Hard Left Turn After Losses
American Thinker: Ben Bradlee And The Death Of American Journalism
BLACKFIVE: Free Fire Zone – No Moral Equivalence For Terror
Conservatives4Palin: Race Relations Perceived To Be Getting Worse Under Obama
Don Surber: Make Obama Veto Keystone
Jammie Wearing Fools: Remember When The NIH Said They Didn’t Have Enough Money To Fight Ebola? They’re Paying Gruber $2 Million
Joe For America: Liberals In Chicago Are Teaching 5th Graders To Have “Safe” Anal Sex
Pamela Geller: Which Is More Offensive At UC Berkeley – The ISIS Flag Or The Flag Of Israel?
Protein Wisdom: Two-Minute Grubering
Shot In The Dark: An Idea Whose Time Is Long Overdue
STUMP: On Public Pension Transparency
The Gateway Pundit: After Fanning Flames, Obama Administration Concerned Ferguson Protesters May Turn Violent
The Jawa Report: Caption This – Double Agent Dr. Rusty Shackleford Edition
The Lonely Conservative: Warren Buffett’s Wind Company Sues To Block Release Of Data On Bird Deaths
This Ain’t Hell: Ferguson Protesters Target Veterans For Peace
Weasel Zippers: Ferguson – Gun Sales Skyrocket Ahead Of Grand Jury Decision “We’re Selling Everything Not Nailed Down”
Megan McArdle: GruberGate’s Insider Problem


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