The Other McCain

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

If Only We’d Smaller Political Units Than Congress. We’d Need A Lot, Though, Perhaps As Many As We’ve States.

Posted on | November 3, 2014 | 69 Comments

by Smitty

I get a kick out of the people getting all fretty about expanding the House, the size of which has been frozen in time since 1910, emphasis mine:

I tend to rebel against the idea of adding even more members of Congress. Having nearly 700 of them squabbling over everything from major national policy to what to call the french fries in the cafeteria just gives me the willies. But I suppose there might be some benefits to consider. There are currently more than 700,000 people in each district on average. That’s a lot of folks to convince if you want to run for office, and competitive House races can get nearly as expensive as Senate races, which narrows the pool of people who can realistically take a shot at it. It’s also hard to make your voice heard to the representative when shouting from a crowd that large. And, at least in theory, the races would be more competitive.

The problem isn’t so much the inter-state and international policies that seem so contentious with Congress. Rather, all the social engineering nonsense brought in by the Progressives.

The explicit value of expanding the House of Representatives is to make it more representative. You know: its job. All of the difficulties in building consensus with an unwieldy number is a feature: we’re likely to move in the direction of a more Parliamentary-style House (and aren’t Europeans held up as an exemplar for us?). That is, our purported “two party” system (Progressives and Other Progressives) would face intellectual competition. That competition would force the House to focus on truly interstate and international issues, and leave the individually targeted (vote-buying) issues at the state level, where those casting votes are more accountable to those taxed to pay the bills.

The implicit value of expanding the House would be in affording employment to all of the federal civil servants, so they have something to do with themselves as we cheerfully whack all these deadwood federal agencies (e.g. the Department of Education) in the glorious future of conservative reform. OK, I’m  in my happy place now.

 

Category: Uncategorized

LIVE AT FIVE: 11.03.14

Posted on | November 3, 2014 | 4 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho


TOP NEWS
Fired-Up GOP Has The Edge In Midterm Turnout War

Early voters in Oklahoma City

Reuters/Ipsos poll gives GOP 55/47 lead when it comes to people certain they’ll vote
Polls give GOP momentum heading into Tuesday elections
Obamacare repeal pressure building on Boehner, McConnell


After Bank Of Japan Surprise, ECB Stimulus Hopes May Goose Indian Markets
BOJ’s resort to quantitative easing may stimulate interest in Indian stocks

Pro-Russian Rebels Vote For Separatist Leaders In Eastern Ukraine
US, EU condemn vote Ukraine president Poroshenko calls a “farce”



POLITICS
Connecticut Spoiler Endorses Foley Over Malloy

Gun-rights advocate Joe Visconti

Reverses course and calls on supporters to put Foley over the top “…if could not win, I had to help Tom Foley defeat Malloy.”

Both Parties Claim Superior Ground Game In Critical Closing Days

Democrats Pin Hopes For Hagan Victory On Black Vote

Wisconsin Mail Carrier Probed After Allegedly Dumping GOP Fliers

Thousands Brave Rain, Snow To Mourn Thomas Menino



THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Asian Crude Mixed; Demand Growth Capped By Strong Dollar: WTI $80.50, Brent $85.90
US Dollar Hits Seven-Year High Against Yen
US Gas Prices Still Falling
North Dakota Tribe To Drill Own Oil Wells
Hyundai, Kia Set Sales Records In BRICs
Android Still Leads Mobile Market, But Phones Only Marginally Profitable
Carnival Upgrading WiFi For Social Media Age
Microsoft Debuts Office For The Mac
Apple Pay Rival Says It’s Misunderstood
Soldiers In “Call Of Duty: Advanced Warfare” Fight Villain Played By Kevin Spacey



SPORTS
Brady Does It Again: Pats Rout Manning, Broncos 43-21

Gronk shrugs after catching yet another pass from Brady

Brady now 11-5 against Manning; Patriots now 7-2

Flames Roast Habs, 6-2

I Went To The Brawl In Fort Worth And A NASCAR Race Broke Out

Jets Blank Blackhawks, 1-0


RGIII Returns, Redskins Lose Anyway 29-26

Predators Rally To Beat Canucks, 3-1

Big Ben Does It Again: Six TDs In 43-23 Rout Of Ravens

Coyotes Snap Slump, Edge Capitals 6-5



FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
Jessa Duggar, Ben Seewald Get Married

Marriage to air on “19 Kids And Counting” next season

Ceremony held Saturday at the First Baptist Church in Bentonville, Arkansas

Cops Tell Selena Gomez “Just Lock Your Damn Door”

Static-X Frontman Wayne Static Dead At 48

Angie Harmon, Jason Sehorn Split

“Ouija”, “Nightcrawler” Tied At Box Office Over Halloween Weekend

Judge Turns Thumbs Down On Amanda Bynes’ Request To Revoke Mom’s Conservatorship

Nichelle Nichols’ Companion Busted At LAX For Meth

NBC To End “A To Z”, “Bad Judge”

Gym Members Want Kaci Hickox’ Lawyer Out

Trent Reznor Turning 50 “With Some Sense Of Dread”

Stars Go All Out For Kate Hudson’s Hollywood Bash

“Gambit” Spinoff Moving Forward

Prince Takes Over NYC Lounge After Epic SNL Performance

Calvin Harris Paid $1 Million To DJ At Private Bacardi Event

Iron Chefs Delight At VIP Benefit Dinner



FOREIGNERS
Argentina Halts Procter & Gamble Operations In Country, Accuses Corporation Of Tax Fraud
PRC Official PMI Hits Five-Month Low
Burkina Faso Army Disperses Protesters, Pledges Unity Government
Sixty Killed, Over 150 Injured In Suicide Bomb Attack On Wagah Flag-Lowering Ceremony
Hong Kong Police Arrest British Banker For Murder, Dismemberment Of Two Escorts
Iraqi Kurds Join The Fight In Kobane
Romania Heading For Runoff In Presidential Election
Merkel: Germany Would Accept UK Departure From EU To Protect Migration Rules
Norks Launch Soviet-Style Ballistic Missile Sub
Mexican Soldiers To Be Tried In Civilian Court For Murder Of 22 Students
Bangladesh Upholds Death Sentence For Islamist Leader
“Arbeit Macht Frei” Sign Stolen From Dachau



BLOGS & STUFF
First Street Journal: Count On President Obama To Take Credit For This
American Power: Joni Ernst Takes Seven-Point Lead In Des Moines Register Poll
American Thinker: What Do Gays Really Want From The Church?
Conservatives4Palin: A Special Message From Governor Palin For Louisiana Voters
Don Surber: Fearless West Virginia Forecast
Jammie Wearing Fools: Nurse From Hell Not Polling Well
Joe For America: CDC Admits Lying About Ebola Spread
JustOneMinute: A Times “Analysis” Of Expert Opinion Vs. The Great Unwashed
Pamela Geller: Muslim Sets Fire To UK Army Cadet Selling Remembrance Day Poppies
Protein Wisdom: EV-D68 – Obama And The Democrats Feel Paralysis And Death Is A Small Price To Pay For Open Borders
Shot In The Dark: Things You’ll Never See Or Hear On The Twin Cities Mainstream Media
STUMP: Fight The Patriarchy! Work More! Study Engineering!
The Gateway Pundit: Illinois Democrat Caught In Vote Buying Scandal On Facebook
The Jawa Report: CAIR Totally 100% Outraged By Islamic Halloween Costumes
The Lonely Conservative: Roommate Of Kaci Hickox In Africa Has Ebola
This Ain’t Hell: Andrew Tahmooressi Back In The US
Weasel Zippers: Check The ZIP Codes/Cities Where The Obama Regime Has Released Criminal Illegal Aliens (Including Murderers)
Megan McArdle: Get Thee To A 17th Century Dictionary


FYI – There will be no Live At Five on Election Day; as a Fairfax County Election Officer, I have to be at the polls by 0500, and I have to sleep sometime.


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Category: Live at Five

Rule 5 Sunday: Absolutely 100% Lena Dunham Free

Posted on | November 2, 2014 | 17 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho

After that last post by Stacy I felt compelled to add the assurance in the post title. Because.
As usual, some of the following links lead to pix normally considered NSFW, so exercise discretion in the clicking.

The Roar of the Jaguars

Leading off this week is Average Bubba’s Rule 5 Friday: Can You Say Fore? followed by Loose Endz with Alice Krige, Goodstuff’s Blogging Magazine with Jessica Alba, Valley of the Shadow with Nicole Sixx, and First Street Journal with the women of the YPJ. Ninety Miles from Tyranny checks in with Hot Pick of the Late Night, Morning Mistress, and the Natalie Dormer edition of Girls with Guns. Animal Magnetism has Rule Five Friday and the Saturday Gingermageddon.

EBL brings us some Vintage Halloween Rule 5, Danielle Fishel, Alicia von Rittberg from “Fury”, and a twofer post featuring Grace Kelly and Audrey Hepburn.

A View from the Beach serves up Wednesday Child – Christina Ricci, Trick or Treat!, Wombat’s Friday Fodder, “I Put a Spell on You”, Foreigners Doing Jobs Americans Can’t, You Can Turn Almost Anything Into a Rule 5 Post, Wombat’s Wednesday Tips, Girls with Big Guns, TMI from Amy Poehler, And Worth Every Penny I’m Sure, And It’s . . ., “Close to My Fire”, Pre-Halloween Obamacare Schadenfreude, and “Don’t That Road Look Rocky”.

At Soylent Siberia, it’s your morning coffee creamer, Afternooner Lisa Kate, Monday Motivationer Harvest Time, Evening Outstanding…Well, Something Is, Tuesday Titillation Animation, Happy Hour Hawt, Humpday Ha-wet-ness, Late Nighty Header For Irish, Fursday Auburn Awesome Fantasy, Overnighty Lanny, Corset Colossus Mit Snoochfrau, T-GIF Friday She Rises, A Soylent Halloween Costume Suggestion, Soylent Halloween Spassfabrik, Weekender Linky Love Contender, Smokin’, and Bath Night Halloween Holdover.

Proof Positive provides Friday Night Babes: The Halloween Edition; his vintage babe was Grace Kelly, Teri Garr covers Sex in Advertising, and of course there’s the obligatory 49ers cheerleader. At Dustbury, it’s Melba Moore and Sophie B. Hawkins.

Thanks to everyone for their linkagery! Deadline to submit links to the Rule 5 Wombat mailbox for next week’s Rule 5 roundup is midnight on Saturday, November 8.


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Category: Rule 5

Andrea Dworkin . . .

Posted on | November 1, 2014 | 124 Comments

. . . could not be reached for comment:

BAY MINETTE, Ala. — By most accounts, 19-year-old Brittney Wood was with uncle Donnie Holland the night of May 30, 2012, the last time anyone saw her. Holland — who was under investigation for horrific sex crimes at the time — died from a bullet within days in what was ruled a suicide.
The investigation that followed has publicly unraveled what authorities describe as a dark, twisted tale of perversion in the working-class neighborhoods and piney backwoods of coastal Alabama.
Eight of Woods’ adult relatives and three family friends have been charged with dozens of felonies in two counties as the alleged members of an incestuous ring that authorities say shared children for group sex. Holland was the leader, prosecutors say, of what has been described as the largest sex ring ever uncovered in Alabama. Wood was a victim and likely key witness. . . .
Even without Wood to testify, two of her uncles and an older brother already have pleaded guilty to sex charges, and jurors this month convicted a friend of Holland’s of multiple sex charges in the first trial. Others — including the missing teen’s mother, Chessie Wood, and two aunts — await trial. . . .
The case is so big officials don’t know exactly how many kids inside and outside the family might have been victimized; estimates range from 11 to 16 children who were as young as 3 or 4 when they were first molested or made to watch adult relatives during drug-fueled orgies.

In case you didn’t get the headline reference to the late feminist Andrea Dworkin, here’s a quote from her 1974 book Woman Hating:

The incest taboo does the worst work of the culture: it teaches us the mechanisms of repressing and internalizing erotic feeling . . . The destruction of the incest taboo is essential to the development of cooperative human community based on the free-flow of natural androgynous eroticism. . . .
The incest taboo can be destroyed only by destroying the nuclear family as the primary institution of the culture. The nuclear family is the school of values in a sexist, sexually repressed society.

Most people have no idea of the insane hateful perversity that is feminism’s ideological core. The fundamental theories of feminism constitute a doctrine hostile to men, marriage, motherhood, morality and, ultimately, hostile to heterosexuality, per se.  But this esoteric doctrine is never the topic of discussion when feminists are engaged in public propaganda. The general audience hears only the exoteric discourse, which focuses on specific grievances and is couched in liberal rhetoric about “rights,” “equality” and “progress.”

Feminism’s inherent contradictions create cognitive dissonance, and the feminist is prone to irrationality, becoming unhinged from the stress. And since we’re on the topic of unhinged perverts:

Where to begin with Lena Dunham? First of all, we can’t imagine a world where accusations of the molestation of a younger sibling would be “LOL.” And second, while the most disturbing passage from Dunham’s book, “Not That Kind of Girl: A Young Woman Tells You What She’s ‘Learned,’” has been covered by conservative outlets like National Review and Truth Revolt, it’s far from a “right wing news story” when those sites simply quote verbatim from Dunham’s book.

Weird things keep happening. Remember the gay men who shared their adopted son with a pedophile ring called the Boy Lovers Network? Remember “My Sister Is Pregnant and We Don’t Know Which of My Brothers is the Father”? Police in Arkansas say a 2-year-old girl died after suffering “severe internal injuries” when she was raped by her uncle. Yet amid this frightening epidemic of wickedness, Lena Dunham thinks she can write a bestselling memoir in which she confesses to doing creepy things with her baby sister and nobody can be allowed to criticize her for it? This freak has an HBO series?

Andrea Dworkin could not be reached for comment, but I get the feeling Lena might be seeing her soon enough, as she seems to be traveling at top speed down a highway that leads to the gates of Hell.

 

Category: Celebrities, Crime, Sex

I’ll Go With “Troll Of The Century”

Posted on | November 1, 2014 | 13 Comments

by Smitty

I mean, there is using someone else’s name to prove a point about voter fraud, but then there is going after Snidely Whiplash himself:

In my opinion, O’Keefe

boldly blazes beyond brass balls,
triumphantly treads titanium
testicle territory!

Category: Uncategorized

FMJRA 2.0: Astradyne

Posted on | November 1, 2014 | 4 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Rule 5 Sunday: Ricochet
Batshit Crazy News
That Mr. G Guy
Animal Magnetism
Proof Positive
A View from the Beach
Ninety Miles from Tyranny

New Rule On Firearms Reporting: No Benefit Of The Doubt For Inaccuracy
A View from the Beach

FMJRA 2.0: I Can’t Breathe Anymore
Batshit Crazy News
The Pirate’s Cove
That Mr. G Guy

Saturday Afternoon College Football & Open Post
Regular Right Guy
SimpleNewz

Police Say Dance Teacher Admitted Lesbian Sex With 15-Year-Old Student
Scoop.it
That Mr. G Guy
Batshit Crazy News

LIVE AT FIVE: 10.27.14
That Mr. G Guy
Batshit Crazy News
A View from the Beach

The Gay Hate Machine
Batshit Crazy News
That Mr. G Guy

‘Overpopulated’? With Liberals, Perhaps
Batshit Crazy News
That Mr. G Guy

The Crazy Feminism of Joyce Trebilcot
Batshit Crazy News
The DaleyGator
That Mr. G Guy

“Remember the Time Warner Voted Against Obama?” Said No One. Ever.
Batshit Crazy News
That Mr. G Guy
Regular Right Guy

Elections Have Consequences. Will GOP Victory = ‘Consequences’ Consequences?
Batshit Crazy News

LIVE AT FIVE: 10.28.14
A View from the Beach

Another Feminist ‘Success’ Story
That Mr. G Guy
The DaleyGator

The Problem of ‘Equality’
The Camp of the Saints
Batshit Crazy News
That Mr. G Guy

When Parody Unites With The Subject
The DaleyGator
Batshit Crazy News
That Mr. G Guy

LIVE AT FIVE: 10.29.14
That Mr. G Guy
Batshit Crazy News
A View from the Beach

Police: High School Dance Teacher, 37, Had Lesbian Sex With Girl, 16
Inoperable Terran
Batshit Crazy News
Regular Right Guy
That Mr. G Guy

Did Pervert @LenaDunham Make Her Younger Sister Grace a Lesbian?
I’m 41
Batshit Crazy News
A View from the Beach

LIVE AT FIVE: 10.30.14
Batshit Crazy News
A View from the Beach

Racism, Classism and Catcalling (or, #Feminism Is for Rich White Lesbians)
That Mr. G Guy
Batshit Crazy News
Regular Right Guy

Retro Love For Kaci Hickox
That Mr. G Guy
Regular Right Guy

Women’s Studies Major Gets Spanked
That Mr. G Guy
Da Tech Guy
Regular Right Guy

LIVE AT FIVE: 10.31.14
Batshit Crazy News
That Mr. G Guy
A View from the Beach
Proof Positive

Hateful Bigoted Incestophobes!
Scoop.it

Top linkers this week:

  1.  (tied) Batshit Crazy News and That Mr. G Guy (17)
  2.  A View from the Beach (8)
  3.  Regular Right Guy (7)

Thanks to everyone for their linkagery! Deadline to submit links for next week is noon on Saturday, November 8.

Bonus linkagery:
Mary Katherine Ham: “Frozen” Is Just Disney’s “The Shining”

Category: FMJRA Award

Hateful Bigoted Incestophobes!

Posted on | October 31, 2014 | 32 Comments

Earlier today I was reading The [Un]Documented Mark Steyn, which has many things to say about the West’s heedless descent into degeneracy — wealthy gay men employing surrogate mothers as womb-for-hire baby-makers and so forth — and then I returned to the computer to find that New York State’s highest court has ruled that an uncle has the constitutional right to have sex with his niece.

The Creepy Uncle Clause is probably right there in the Constitution next to the Emerging Awareness Doctrine that Justice Kennedy used to legalize sodomy in the Lawrence v. Texas case.

However, sophisticated ideals of social progress haven’t made much headway in Louisiana where, believe it or not, it is still considered illegal to have sex with dogs or 3-year-olds on video.

 

Category: Constitution, Crime, Sex

“He Was A Very Nice Boy…He Used To Write Science Fiction”

Posted on | October 31, 2014 | 32 Comments

— by Wombat-socho


I am speaking, of course, about Neal Stephenson, who after two unsuccessful novels broke out with the wildly successful Snow Crash, a wild tale about hackers, feudal corporatism, an Aleutian with a nuke, and a girl and her dog. He followed that up with the even more complex and fascinating The Diamond Age…and then there was Cryptonomicon. Cryptonomicon was an outstanding book that jumped back and forth between World War II and the present, with cryptography tying it all together, but whatever it was, it sure wasn’t science fiction, and it didn’t really fit in the technothriller genre box either. It was still popular with science fiction fans, and a lot of other folks bought it too. The Baroque Cycle departed even further from SF, being a three-part historical novel set in the 17th and 18th centuries. Stephenson insists that it’s SF due to some mysterious events that take place and the novels’ concentration on technology, cryptology and numismatics, but he may be the only person that believes this. With the exception of the monumentally boring Anathem -the first piece of writing by Stephenson I had to push myself to finish, hoping he’d pull a rabbit out of the hat and make the dull, boring book exciting at last- he’s avoided the genre lately in favor of historical novels co-written with a squad of other folks (The Mongoliad) or mainstream novels that, like Cryptonomicon, have a lot to do with the Internet and the people that use it, whether they’re MMORPG magnates, fantasy novelists, or deranged Russian mafiosi. I am speaking, of course, of Reamde, which resembles its predecessor Cryptonomicon quite a bit but doesn’t have nearly as much annoying and obtrusive mathematical equations interrupting the narrative.

I like Stephenson’s writing quite a bit; his non-fiction pieces are every bit as interesting as his fiction, and I think I’d pay to pick up a collection of them. One of the things I like about his writing is that for somebody who grew up in academia (admittedly, the engineering and science side) Stephenson exchanged his disdain for middle-class working folks for serious respect, and you can see this very clearly if you compare the “meshbacks” in Snow Crash to the Forthrasts in Reamde. It’s not something you see a lot of in mainstream fiction these days, and it deserves kudos. As for The Mongoliad, I have finished the first three volumes and am probably going to pick up the rest as they become available at the county library. It’s historical fiction that diverges from actual history somewhat in its explanation of the death of Ogedai Khan and the abrupt cessation of the Mongol invasion of Europe; its depiction of the brief reign of Pope Celestine IV also plays fast and loose with history. Still, they are entertaining books, and despite the contributions of the other authors (including Greg Bear) the Mongoliad comes off as a Neal Stephenson novel, with attention paid to the fine details of combat and characters alike.

On the non-fiction side of the house, I finished Rick Atkinson’s The Guns at Last Light, which covers World War II in Western Europe from 1944-45, and in its own way is every bit as bloody and gore-spattered as Stephenson’s tales of the Mongol invasion. Being a sometime student of military history and a wargamer, I was conscious in an academic way of the staggering casualties and materiel losses involved in the reconquest of Europe and the fall of the Third Reich, but Atkinson’s book brought it all home in a way that no previous history had before. Atkinson quotes dozens, possibly hundreds of soldiers, sailors and airmen who did not survive the war, and spares nothing in his account of the grisly battles from Normandy Beach through the Hurtgen Forest and into the concentration camps. I don’t know if I’ll ever re-read it, but it was definitely worth reading once.

At the moment, I’m splitting my attention between two books: Bill James’ Popular Crime, which is a fascinating book about infamous crimes, the criminals who commit them (or were convicted of them; not always the same thing) and the times in which they occurred. James first rose to public notice as a student of baseball, the coiner of the word “sabermetrics” to describe that study, and the author of several books on the subject, including the fascinating Historical Baseball Abstract, but lately he’s been branching out into other matters that interest him, and he’s very much worth your time. The other book is an old favorite, Samuel Eliot Morison’s The Two-Ocean War, a condensation of his epic fifteen-volume History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, which is without question the best-written and most enjoyable of the four official military histories published by the U.S. Armed Forces. Neither are available in Kindle format, unfortunately, but at $3.96 for a used hardback copy, The Two-Ocean War is an absolute steal.

Inadvertently omitted from last week’s book post, was David Drake and S.M. Stirling’s Hope Rearmed, the second volume in the third reissue by Baen of the Raj Whitehall novels. This time the series has been republished in three two-book collections, with The Chosen (best described as Raj Whitehall and Center vs. the Draka) added to round out the original five novels. Same books, of course, but it looks like someone at Baen went through and removed the more numerous annoying typos that infested the first two editions. Worth picking up if you don’t have either of the first two editions on hand.


Joe’s Garage Acts I II & III

Category: Books
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