LIVE AT FIVE: 11.07.14

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.

Think about it: Smart enough to get into Harvard. Too dumb to figure out sodomy without a workshop. http://t.co/bHqJeFTtbY @GadsdenJazz

— Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) November 6, 2014

Workshop at Harvard: "Your Ass and a Hole in the Ground: How to Tell the Difference." http://t.co/bHqJeFTtbY #IvyLeague @GadsdenJazz

— Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) November 6, 2014

Forthcoming Harvard #SexWeek Workshops: "How to Find Porn on the Internet: Your Parents Are Paying Us Big Money to Teach You This, Genius."

— Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) November 6, 2014

Forthcoming Harvard #SexWeek Workshop: "The Erotic Power of Your Student Activity Fees: We Get Horny Thinking How Much You're Paying Us."

— Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) November 6, 2014

FACT: 17% of male Harvard students did not know how to have an erection until they learned it at a #SexWeek workshop. The other 83% are gay.

— Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) November 6, 2014

FACT: Harvard has #SexWeek workshop to teach wealthy geniuses how to do something Jim McGreevey used to do in I-95 rest areas.

— Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) November 6, 2014

FACT: I graduated from a state university in Alabama in 1983. No free condoms. No #SexWeek workshops. Sex? Yeah, we figured that out OK.

— Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) November 6, 2014

FACT: My wife and I have six children. How did this happen to us? We don't know. We never attended a Harvard #SexWeek workshop.

— Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) November 7, 2014

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?”

.@AlecMacGillis Is it not true that Democrats are a party dedicated to intrusive regulation and burdensome taxes? #Wave

— Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) November 6, 2014

.@AlecMacGillis That is to say, if Democrats lose elections because their signature policies are unpopular …? #Wave

— Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) November 6, 2014

.@AlecMacGillis I fail to see how you have disproven the reality or significance of the Republican wave.

— Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) November 6, 2014

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.

Woke up to find @JoeNBC and the DNC Media Brain Trust trying to explain away the world-historic ass-kicking Democrats took last night.

— Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) November 5, 2014

Changing the channel to #MSNBC is like entering a weird kind of alternative universe. @JoeNBC

— Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) November 5, 2014

There must be a word for this. I believe it might be … HEH. pic.twitter.com/PmASGnTn4Q @jdmullane @instapundit

— Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) November 5, 2014

Busted on the river MT @nelderini Steyer's $65 million gamble to make climate change an election issue … http://t.co/T4LO8TZOPo cc @ali

— Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) November 5, 2014

Obama seems to suggest the only ideas he's willing to listen to are his own failed ones. That's the same approach America rejected.

— Reince Priebus (@Reince) November 5, 2014

LOVE THIS! h/t @kesgardner from FB #tcot cc:@Jacob1554 pic.twitter.com/IdemdsIqJl

— Scott Jones (@POPSradio) November 5, 2014

(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.

FOLLOW > @Rach_IC because if feminists hate a woman this much, she must be doing God's work! http://t.co/R8d95yhv6i #tcot

— Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) November 5, 2014

Feminist Dictionary: MYTH (noun) – a basic common-sense truth or moral belief that is disadvantageous to crazy lesbians.

— Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) November 5, 2014

As far as "myths" of patriarchy go, "All Women Are Born with Vaginas" … well, aren't they? http://t.co/FXMCViKK80 cc @g56yu @voxday

— Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) November 5, 2014

Alternate Headline: "Don't Worry About Dangers of Promiscuity, You Empowered Feminist Sluts!" http://t.co/P7T1IqGC96 cc @g56yu @deanesmay

— Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) November 5, 2014

Feminist Dictionary: PROGRESS (noun) — subversion of social order to make all women equal in their perversity, poverty and degradation.

— Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) November 5, 2014

Or: THEY TOLD @instapundit IF WE ELECTED A REPUBLICAN MAJORITY, CHILDREN WOULD BE VICTIMS AND … http://t.co/T4wz4KG9Ah @donsurber

— Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) November 5, 2014

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

There are 100 women in Congress for the first time ever http://t.co/vnCKWcekMC

— Josh Levin (@josh_levin) November 5, 2014

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:

—> RT @AoSHQDD: Republicans have won control of the United States Senate, carrying #IASen, #NCSen.

— John Ekdahl (@JohnEkdahl) November 5, 2014

Heteronormative patriarchy #WINNING RT Wendy Davis didn’t even win women: http://t.co/MfDE0cOhGT @AsheSchow @instapundit

— Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) November 5, 2014

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

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

Yeah, I'm watching #MSNBC tonight. The chyron should be "The Tears of Unfathomable Sadness."

— Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) November 5, 2014

@rsmccain There's not enough Zoloft to go around at #MSNBC tonight. pic.twitter.com/JeXblECgu9

— Katie Scarlet (@Katiescarlet2) November 5, 2014

The Empire State Building is flashing bright red to announce that the GOP has taken over the Senate. pic.twitter.com/7fOzP7PDpa

— Chris Moody (@moody) November 5, 2014

FOX, NPR CALL NORTH CAROLINA FOR THOM TILLIS. Fox also calls it for Joni Ernst. GOP at +7 in… http://t.co/J98DlsYTsQ via @instapundit

— Instapundit.com (@instapundit) November 5, 2014

Republican Gov. Rick Snyder re-elected in Michigan. Suck it, Democrats. #Wave #Tsunami

— Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) November 5, 2014

.@BigFurHat Obama-Democrats Crushed as Republicans Take Control of Senate, Pad Majority in House! http://t.co/Tui3K54SC3 @RSMcCain @lamblock

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) November 5, 2014

OUCH: Republican Charlie Baker elected governor of MASSACHUSETTS. Suck it, Democrats. #Wave #Tsunami

— Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) November 5, 2014

Tweet of the Day: This is how @barackobama feels this evening pic.twitter.com/eWnF7O19X5 — … http://t.co/gtqpnqgcZ1 #tcot #hewitt #pjm

— Ed Driscoll (@EdDriscoll) November 5, 2014

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.

WOW: Abbot stomps @WendyDavisTexas by 17 points? Guess that whole babykiller-mocking-wheelchairs strategy didn't work so good for her.

— Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) November 5, 2014

* * * 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.

Shorter Scarlett Johansson: "Vote Democrat because — VAGINA!" http://t.co/QQCbGnOZRR pic.twitter.com/ZnKDeGc6tq @LifeNewsHQ @ChantellDawnSny

— Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) November 4, 2014

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

The #StreetHarassment Meme and #Feminism’s Kafkatrapping Tactics

Posted on | November 3, 2014 | 85 Comments

The Left’s tactics aren’t hard to understand, really. The “catcall” video that went viral last week — see “Racism, Classism and Catcalling (or, #Feminism Is for Rich White Lesbians)” — was an Alinksy Rule 12 classic: “Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.”

Heterosexual men are the target, obviously. Feminists want women to identify themselves as feminists — to join a movement that is defined by its anti-male/anti-heterosexual ideology — and the basic problem is the same as it has been for more than 40 years: Most women are heterosexual (97.7% according to the latest federal data) and, believe it or not, these normal women genuinely like men.

Normal women have not succumbed to feminism’s politicized hatred of males. Normal women have fathers and brothers and husbands and sons they love. Normal women have male co-workers and friends whom they respect and admire. Whatever problems normal women may have in their lives, they don’t buy into feminism’s conspiracy theory of heteronormative patriarchal oppression.

“What are the behaviors and roles considered appropriate for one’s sex? . . .
“If you are a Feminist . . . the answer to this should be ‘There are no behaviors and roles considered appropriate for my sex because Females can be and do anything.’
“If you are not a Feminist, your answer might be ‘My role as a woman is to be a Wife (fuckhole) and Mother (breeder).’”
— Cathy Brennan, December 2012

How can feminists ever hope to gain support from normal women? Sure, they may pick up a few misfit stragglers who turn lesbian because of propaganda like Orange Is the New Black. And, yes, feminists want to normalize lesbianism in your daughter’s school.

Still, feminism’s War on Human Nature can’t succeed entirely via direct recruitment — e.g., housewives turning gay by watching cable TV — and so they must stir up anti-male resentment among otherwise normal women. Therefore, feminism constantly focuses its public rhetoric toward “issues” that highlight male/female conflict, presenting males as objects of contempt, and attempting to provoke a “conversation” that feminists can control: Rule 12.

A concern troll popped up in my Twitter timeline this morning:

Are we having a referendum on catcalls? If we are, then, I vote "no." Next question. @MaryReiki @instapundit

— Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) November 3, 2014

You see? The whole point of the “catcall” video was to provoke conflict over a phony “issue” that is not really an issue at all. That is to say, everybody is anti-catcall, except those men who are actually engaged in this boorish behavior, so why is there an “issue” here?

Objectively, catcalling presents no cause for political controversy. Ah, but it does give feminists a chance to (a) demonize men, and (b) discredit any male commentator who attempts to dispute feminism’s authority to define what catcalling means as an “issue.” This is really about who controls the narrative, see?

There is a tactic of debate known as throwing your antagonist onto the horns of a dilemma: Present him with a binary choice and demand that he either agree or disagree with a controversial proposition. For example, I might ask a feminist if she agrees that “Rapists Serve All Men by Enforcing Male Supremacy.” If she says “yes,” she looks like a paranoid lunatic. If she says “no,” she has rejected the fundamental feminist interpretation of rape’s social and cultural meaning.

“Susan Brownmiller’s [1976] book, Against Our Will, is a milestone in the women’s movement because it demythologized — desexualized — rape. We learned . . . that sexual and physical violence against women is not ‘sexual’ at all but simply violent. Men use it to dominate women. . . .
“Susan Brownmiller showed us that rapists serve all men by enforcing male supremacy. . . . [W]e should be clear that our quarrel is not only with certain abusive men but with male supremacy. Our goal should be not merely to redefine our sexuality but to redefine the world and our place in it.”
— Ann Jones, “Family Matters,” in The Sexual Liberals and the Attack on Feminism, edited by Dorchen Leidholdt and Janice G. Raymond (1990)

A statement like that is either true or it is not. Either rape is a crime — proscribed by our society’s most ancient and venerable laws, and condemned by all law-abiding citizens — or else rape is, as feminists believe, a political manifestation of “male supremacy.”

Feminists never want to debate this subject openly, you see. Instead, they have built echo chambers in university Women’s Studies programs where the factual premises of their perverse theories can never be questioned. Women’s universal oppression under “male supremacy” — is that the genuine reality of women’s lives, or not? Anyone who expresses doubt toward that basic premise in an academic environment will be shouted down and demonized by feminists. Larry Summers was compelled to resign as president of Harvard University merely for suggesting that “innate differences” between men and women might have meaningful significance in their career choices.

Feminists can’t permit a free debate where the flawed premises of their warped totalitarian ideology might be called into question. Instead, they must silence their critics or attempt to discredit critics through character assassination. We see how feminists tried to do this to George Will, who disputed their phony campus “rape epidemic” campaign, by falsely depicting Will as “pro-rape.” The tactic is basically Kafkatrapping, “using denial of guilt as proof of guilt.” As I said of the “SlutWalk” movement, we may distill feminist rhetoric on this subject to its totalitarian essence, “Shut up, because rape.”

We are expected to believe — or at least required, by the rules of public discourse imposed by feminism’s hegemonic cultural authority, to pretend we believe — that relentless propaganda about a (non-existent) “rape epidemic” on university campuses is unrelated to feminism’s anti-male/anti-heterosexual ideology. Feminism is about “liberating girls and women, those who are born into the sex caste female, from the unnatural, yet universal roles patriarchy has assigned.” Feminism is about abolishing the traditional family and promoting lesbianism and, perhaps ultimately, a genocidal reduction of the planet’s male population.

All that is necessary to discredit feminism is to quote what feminists say, when they believe they are speaking only to their fellow feminists.

“Male sexual violence against women and ‘normal’ heterosexual intercourse are essential to patriarchy because they establish the dominance of the penis over the vagina, and thus the power relations between the sexes. . . . When a male sexually violates a female, he is doing work for patriarchy.”
— Dee Graham, Loving to Survive: Sexual Terror, Men’s Violence, and Women’s Lives (1994)

The anti-social lunacy of feminist ideology is rejected by all sane people. Feminism would have near-zero political influence were it not for the terroristic intimidation of silencing tactics by which feminists conceal their intellectual bankruptcy from public scrutiny.

Feminists can “win” arguments only if they are permitted to control the terms of debate, to decide what the issues are, to limit the parameters of discussion, and to disqualify critics who refuse to cooperate with feminism’s Orwellian thought-control project.

“OK, Stacy, but what does this have to do with the mid-term elections?” asks the reader, because conservative political bloggers are supposed to be talking about nothing else but the Real Clear Politics poll averages and Nate Silver’s Senate projections.

WHAT WILL BE THE ‘GENDER GAP’ ON TUESDAY?

How many of those key Senate elections will be determined by women’s preference for the (feminist-approved) Democrat candidates?

In how many of those Senate campaigns have Democrats attempted to leverage the “War on Women” meme against Republicans?

"Culture matters. As Andrew Breitbart liked to say, politics is downstream of culture." — @SarahPalinUSA, July 2013 http://t.co/ZFjNEco5RB

— Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) November 3, 2014

Readers are free to go check the latest Senate polls, and I’ll still be here talking about feminism’s cultural hegemony, OK? Don’t let me distract you from whatever Karl Rove is saying on Fox News.

We have congressional elections every two years, and elect a president every four years, but the culture shapes the attitudes and beliefs of our youth seven days a week, 52 weeks a year, every year, from the time a kid starts watching Sesame Street until the time he’s an adult who has been so thoroughly indoctrinated that he cannot think outside the limits of this cultural programming.

“In the hands of a skillful indoctrinator, the average student not only thinks what the indoctrinator wants him to think . . . but is altogether positive that he has arrived at his position by independent intellectual exertion. This man is outraged by the suggestion that he is the flesh-and-blood tribute to the success of his indoctrinators.”
– William F. Buckley Jr., Up From Liberalism (1959)

We return, then, to the catcalling video, and the concern troll who was trying to bait me into reacting according to script, implying that I was “excus[ing] the catcalls” and trying to steer the conversation back toward “misogyny.” Nice try, troll, but you’re not going to force me to play a phony game by your dishonest rules. Mama didn’t raise no fools.

The #StreetHarassment conversation isn't actually about #StreetHarassment. Nobody is pro-#StreetHarassment. 1/5

— Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) November 3, 2014

That is to say, everybody with enough education to write a paragraph about #StreetHarassment is against it. 2/5

— Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) November 3, 2014

So, why are feminists talk-talk-talking about #StreetHarassment if everybody is already against it? 3/5

— Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) November 3, 2014

The feminist message of the #StreetHarassment meme is: ALL MEN ARE EVIL. It's anti-male propaganda. Period. 4/5

— Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) November 3, 2014

What the feminist #StreetHarassment message exposes is #feminism's anti-male agenda. IT. IS. THAT. SIMPLE. 5/5

— Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) November 3, 2014

“Turn the camera around,” as Andrew Breitbart used to say. Instead of them demanding answers from you — “Look at this awful misogyny! Why don’t you denounce this misogyny? Is it true that you secretly hate women?” — you start asking them questions:

Who appointed you as Grand Inquisitor?
What is the basis of your authority to interrogate me about this? What difference does my opinion make?
When did Americans elect you as Our Moral Superior?
Where do you get the idea that I’m obliged to cooperate in this transparent political “gotcha” game you’re paying?
Why is it necessary that I answer your questions?
How much is the Democrat Party paying you to do this?

“Five W’s and an H,” as our student newspaper adviser at Turner Middle School explained to us when I was 12 years old.

The Left loves nothing more than to arrogate to themselves a pretended authority to speak on behalf of alleged victims of oppression. Covering themselves in secondhand martyrdom, figuratively brandishing the victim’s corpse as a shield against criticism, leftists start playing the Grand Inquistor, demanding that we respond according to the script. Matthew Shepard, James Byrd Jr., Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown — somebody’s dead, and the Left wants to turn this death into a political morality play that means exactly what they say it means, and nothing else. People are killed every day in America, but only certain deaths provide the Left with opportunities for these media-orchestrated events, “A National Conversation About [Insert ‘Social Justice’ Issue Here].”

Because the vast majority of people never realize that they were programmed by skillful indoctrinators, as Buckley put it, they can’t figure out what’s really happening in these ginned-up media controversies. Well, everybody is against racism, sexism and homophobia. Nobody is in favor of “police brutality.” Nobody is pro-pollution or pro-poverty or pro-rape. So why do we find ourselves constantly subjected to these moralistic lectures on cable TV news channels, as if we need to be told for the umpteenth time how dreadfully oppressive American society is? The Daily Atrocity Parade in the liberal media is a continuation of the cultural Marxism programming everybody got in the Government Youth Indoctrination Centers euphemistically known as “public schools,” and we are supposed to react like Pavlov’s dog: “Racism! Sexism! Poverty! Global Warming! Vote Democrat!”

Anybody with common sense recognizes that there is something distinctly weird about all this. How is it that the media decides which dead victims are worthy of wall-to-wall cable news TV coverage? And why is the moral of the story always the same? VOTE DEMOCRAT!

Every once in a while, simply as a matter of arithmetic and random coincidence, you’d think maybe twice a year somebody would get killed in a manner that would tend to the opposite conclusion. Unfortunately, Mary Jo Kopechne could not be reached for comment.

What’s with this Michael Brown deal in Ferguson, really? I haven’t paid much attention to it, but what little I’ve seen tends to suggest (a) Brown was a teenage dopehead who (b) ripped off some cigars at a convenience store, then (c) Brown resisted arrest when Officer Darren Wilson attempted to apprehend him, and (d) Officer Wilson shot Brown: “Evidence shows that Brown was struggling to get officer Wilson’s pistol.”

A lamentable incident, certainly, but you’d have to be as stupid as a typical Democrat voter to see this as a “social justice” issue deserving constant media commentary. There are lots of typical Democrat voters in Ferguson, however, so they had a riot.

My point, however, is not the subnormal intelligence of Democrat voters, although anybody who takes Al Sharpton seriously is in obvious need of remedial education. Rather, my point is: Why does the media insist we pay attention to the death of Michael Brown?

Two word answer: VOTE DEMOCRAT!

The moral of the media message is always the same, you see.

Whether it’s a concern troll with only one Twitter follower, or a CNN reporter or an MSNBC host, it’s the same Alinsky playbook. Here is this “issue,” and here is a liberal demanding that we, the lab rats in the Skinner box, provide the programmed response.

Zombie-like, we must repeat the mantra: “Misogyny is a bad thing. All men are rapists. All women are oppressed.” And, hey, Mom, let your young daughter have a slumber party with Lena Dunham.

What could possibly go wrong?

"I’ve been obsessed with it since I was a kid." — @LenaDunham >> http://t.co/OT2tQeUcXz h/t @BreannaHowe pic.twitter.com/0cuD3BmufQ

— Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) November 3, 2014

heteronormativity deems certain behaviours harmful, and others "normal"; the state and media are always invested in maintaining that

— Grace Dunham (@simongdunham) November 3, 2014

Heh: "Heteronormativity" FTW! https://t.co/T6Qszm78yy Thanks, celebrity pervert's loyal lesbian sister! #feminism #LenaDunham

— Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) November 4, 2014

"Dunham Family Values" {{ shudder }} @justthoughts19 @KevinNR @benshapiro

— Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) November 4, 2014

From a future deposition of @lenadunham's sister: @Beer__Wolf @TwitchyTeam @michellemalkin @soderstrom @rsmccain pic.twitter.com/uTn8LyNigZ

— Aaron Worthing (@AaronWorthing) November 3, 2014

This essay is part of the “Sex Trouble” series about radical feminism’s war against human nature, a reader-supported project that began in July.

Among the entries in this series are “Sex Trouble: Radical Feminism and the Long Shadow of the ‘Lavender Menace’” (July 14), “Feminists Worry That Disney Movies Are Making Girls Heterosexual” (July 26), “Hey, Moms: Feminists Think They Know What’s Wrong With Your Children” (Aug. 6), “Reading Feminist Theory” (Aug. 23), “Kate Millett’s Tedious Madness” (Sept. 1), “Slate Scrapes the Bottom” (Sept. 19), “Gender Theory Hits K-12 Schools” (Oct. 9), “The Indecent Mind of Andrea Dworkin” (Oct. 12) and “The Externalization of Responsibility: Monica Lewinsky’s Personal Shame” (Oct. 21).

To support continuing research for this project, which I plan to turn into an ebook, readers are encouraged to remember the Five Most Important Words in the English Language:

HIT THE FREAKING TIP JAR!

Category: Culture, Media Bias, Sex Trouble

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