The Other McCain

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

Dear Vloggers: Please Learn to Type

Posted on | August 1, 2014 | 44 Comments

Jaclyn Glenn (@JaclynGlenn) is an atheist video performer — vlogger, as they say — whose online presence seems to consist entirely of a YouTube channel and a Twitter account. This presents difficulties for those of us whose preferred medium is the written word.

To explain: I’m a super-fast reader. If you were to provide me with a transcript of your 11-minute video rant, I could skim over it in less than a minute and locate the “money quote,” which I could then copy-and-paste into a block-quote on my blog and discuss it. Alternatively, I might decide that your 11-minute video rant is a silly piece of nonsense that should be ignored. Either way, the difference between (a) the 11-minute video rant and (b) a transcript of your rant is that (b) saves me 10 minutes of time over (a), not to mention the time savings between (c) doing a quick copy-and-paste of a quote and (d) having to transcribe your lunatic gibberish.

Excuse my prejudice, but whenever I encounter a vlogger who does not also have a blog — where they discuss topics in the format of written words — my suspicions run in one of three directions:

  1. This person is lazy. It’s easier for them to stare into their webcam and ramble aloud about their feelings than it is for them to bother writing down whatever it is they want to say.
  2. This person is mentally deficient. They’re so impenetrably stupid they were unable to learn basic spelling and grammar. They express themselves in video performances because if they tried to write what they think, it would be so full of obvious grammatical errors that nobody would take them seriously.
  3. This person really wants to be a TV star. That is to say, their videos aren’t really arguments so much as they are auditions. They hope a TV producer will spot their telegenic qualities and invite them on a cable-news discussion panel as a guest, or maybe cast them in a reality-TV series.

Maybe other people aren’t prejudiced this way like I am, but as a devotee of the written word, this is how I feel about vloggers.

So, all that is a long preamble to Jaclyn Glenn’s video “Atheists- Beware of the Extreme Feminist!” The title intrigues me, but I’ll be damned if I have the patience to watch the whole thing:

Fortunately, four minutes into this 11-minute rant, Jaclyn includes a screencap of a post by atheist blogger PZ Myers, so that I could Google that and find this description of the ridiculous “drama” among atheists that inspired the whole crazy thing:

Here’s the pocket summary: Glenn sets it up as an attempt to, in a comedic way, compare the bickering in the atheist community to arguments about vegetarians. To do this, she acts as two vloggers: for one, she puts on a blonde wig and glasses and makes a bunch of extremist, stupid arguments and demands absolute agreement; for the other, she just plays Jaclyn Glenn, reasonable, compromising, sensitive, egalitarian defender of reason who just wants to get along. In other words, she pretends to be the rational one pleading for unity while characterizing her critics as total idiots.
Really, it’s disgraceful and stupid and dishonest.

Thank you, Professor Myers. As to the question of whether it is Jaclyn Glenn or her atheist-feminist critics who are causing the “drama,” let me just point out this: Jaclyn Glenn has crazy eyes.

Beware of crazy-eyed atheist vloggers. Just sayin’ . . .

 

Category: Blogging, Feminism, How This Here Internet Thingy Works, Video

Atheist Creep @RichardDawkins Destroying His Own Reputation

Posted on | August 1, 2014 | 28 Comments

“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.”
— Romans 1: 18-19 (KJV)

Three days ago, I took notice of how notorious atheist Richard Dawkins had grossly offended many liberals with his Twitter rants about rape and pedophilia. One is reminded of last year’s atheist sex scandals which involved, among other things, Professor Lawrence Krauss’s defense of the billionaire sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Such is his appetite for self-destruction that Richard Dawkins is now being denounced by a feminist columnist in the Guardian:

Another day, another tweet from Richard Dawkins proving that if non-conscious material is given enough time, it is capable of evolving into an obstreperous crackpot who should have retired from public speech when he had the chance to bow out before embarrassing himself. . . .
This is Dawkins in 2014: a figure of mockery, a man so convinced that he possesses God-like powers of omniscience that he can’t understand why everyone’s getting angry at him for pointing out the obvious. Why won’t we all just learn how to think, damn it! . . .
Remember when Dawkins was widely respected? . . . I don’t. Having grown up after Dawkins made the transition from lauded science communicator to old man who shouts at clouds, it’s hard for me to understand why anyone continues to listen to him about anything.

Dawkins made his reputation as a “lauded science communicator” on the basis of his selfish arrogance, and is now destroying himself because of that same trait. Dawkins was embraced by liberals, so long as he limited his attacks to Christians. Now that he’s offending Muslims and feminists, however, Dawkins gets no love:

It’s hard to deny that Dawkins’s ‘secular fundamentalism’ — as liberal commentators now describe it — makes for an embarrassing spectacle. When enraged pensioners pick fights with total strangers, one’s natural reaction is to go and sit somewhere else on the bus.
But Dawkins was just as offensive when his target was Christianity; it’s just that the Left didn’t have a problem with his description of Pope Benedict XVI as a ‘leering old villain in the frock’ who ran ‘a profiteering, woman-fearing, guilt-gorging, truth-hating, child-raping institution … amid a stench of incense and a rain of tourist-kitsch sacred hearts and preposterously crowned virgins, about his ears.’
As I said at the time, that article — in the Washington Post, no less — ‘conjures up the image of a nasty old man who’s losing his marbles. It’s not very nice about the Pope, either.’ But Dawkins has not become any crazier in the intervening four years; he’s simply widened his attack on blind faith, as he sees it, to include Muslims and feminists.

Da Tech Guy points out that atheism is not random in its hostility to religion. Atheism has a teleology — a purpose, an inherent goal — having developed in the West as a means of undermining the social and legal authority of Christian morality. Atheism is therefore not equally hostile to all religious beliefs, nor is it objective in its selection of targets.

People who hate Christianity nowadays declare themselves “atheists” in much the same way as people who hate America once declared themselves “Communists.” For that matter, it’s the same way women who hate men call themselves “feminists.” The claimed label is a means of rationalizing one’s hatred in a self-flattering way, by distinguishing one’s own enlightened sophistication in contrast to those whom one ridicules as ignorant simpletons for their traditional beliefs.

“Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.”

Nearly 2,000 years later, this verdict still condemns them.





 

Category: Feminism, Intellectuals, Religion, Science

Israel/Gaza Ceasefire Collapses, Along With Joe Scarborough’s Credibility

Posted on | August 1, 2014 | 123 Comments

The 72-hour ceasefire fell short by about 70 hours:

A 72-hour humanitarian cease-fire agreed upon by Israel and Hamas collapsed shortly after it took effect Friday morning.
Mortar shells fired from within the Gaza Strip landed near a border-regioning town some two hours after the truce deal brokered by the United States and the EU kicked in, and shortly thearafter Palestinian medical sources reported that at least 25 Gaza residents were killed and dozens of others wounded by IDF artillery fire directed at the southern Strip. . . .
Gaza militants opened fire at IDF troops operating in the southern Gaza Strip at 9:30 A.M., and it is feared an Israeli soldier has been taken captive by Gaza militants, the IDF Spokesman says. . . .
UN Special Coordinator Robert Serry says he has received word from Israel regarding a “serious incident” that occurred after the cease-fire deal took effect, “involving a tunnel behind IDF lines in the Rafah area of the Gaza Strip.”
“The United Nations is not in a position to independently confirm these reports,” said Serry. “However, if corroborated, this would constitute a serious violation of the humanitarian ceasefire in place since 8 A.M. this morning by Gazan militant factions, which should be condemned in the strongest terms.”

So it’s war to the knife, knife to the hilt or — to borrow a phrase from the Beastie Boys — “no sleep ’til Brooklyn.” Israel will continue Operation Protective Edge until the fanatical death-mongers in Gaza are smashed into tiny jihadi smithereens. Selah.

Being old enough to remember watching the Six Day War on the nightly news, I’ve long since given up hope on Middle East peace. To the Palestinian leadership, peace is a synonym for “kill Jews.” It is impossible to negotiate with such hateful thugs.

Meanwhile, on MSNBC, Joe Scarborough accused Israel of “indiscriminate” killing of civilian women and children in Gaza:

“This continued killing of women and children in a way that appears to be indiscriminate is asinine. . . .
“And women and children are being seen because you know what? As much as we all hate Hamas, what is going to replace Hamas is going to be much worse. It is going to be a radical Islamist group instead of just power-hungry, corrupt people that despise Israel. . . .  The United States of America — we cannot be associated with this if this continues. This is so bad, not only for the Israeli people, but for us.”

Today on Morning Joe, Scarborough delivered a non-apology of the most offensive kind, a lecture in which he insisted that his critics are ignorant and simple-minded. Meanwhile, Allahpundit dismantles the “logic” of Scarborough’s argument:

If you take the “whatever comes next will be worse” logic to its ultimate conclusion, though, you’re forever left defending whichever bunch of degenerates is in charge at the time. Israel can’t oust Hamas because then Al Qaeda might take over; if Al Qaeda takes over, Israel can’t oust them or else ISIS might move in. If ISIS moves in, Israel can’t oust them or else a portal to hell will open in the ground and Hitler and Bin Laden will emerge from the earth to rule Gaza together. And so on. Essentially, so long as Eliminationist Group A remains a bit less savage than Eliminationist Group B, they can be as savage as they like and the west’s commentariat will defend leaving them in power.

By the way, if a portal to hell open in Gaza, the IDF will kill whatever comes out of hell. No sleep ’til Brooklyn.

 

Category: Islam, Israel, Military, MSNBC, Terrorism

LIVE AT FIVE: 08.01.14

Posted on | August 1, 2014 | 4 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho


TOP NEWS
Bruised And Battered Hamas Now Accepts Ceasefire

John Kerry meets with Egyptian President al-Sisi

72-hour unconditional ceasefire omits all of Hamas previous demands
Uneasy truce in Gaza City
As bulldozers destroy Hamas underground network, IDF sees light at the end of the tunnel

Gas Leaks Trigger Powerful Explosions In Taiwan
Buildings toppled in Kaohsiung; 22 dead, over 260 injured

CDC Director: US Ebola Outbreak “Not In The Cards”
International health experts preparing “surge” into West Africa to fight deadly virus



POLITICS
Senate Sends Transportation, VA Bills To White House On Eve Of Summer Recess

Dorn VA Medical Center in Detroit

$16 billion for the VA; highway funding extended through May


CIA Admits To Spying On Senate Intelligence Committee


House GOP Leadership Spikes Own Immigration Bill After Conservatives Revolt

California Bullet-Train Plan Scores Legal Win

Wisconsin Supremes Uphold Collective Bargaining Crackdown

Obamacare Subsidy Fight Could Go To Supreme Court

Illegal Immigrant Kids Exposed Border Agents To Lice, Scabies, TB And Chicken Pox

Pennsylvania Legislature Nixes Philly Cigarette Tax; School Opening May Be Delayed



THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Asian Crude rades Near Four-Month Low As US Supplies Expand: WTI $98.01, Brent $106.07
Asian Stocks Extend Global Rout Amid Earnings Concerns
Wall Street Plunges, Wiping Out July’s Gains
Dollar Just Off Ten-Month High Before US Job Data
GoPro Reports Wider Loss In First Report After IPO
WWE Signs Historic Multimedia Deal With Rogers
NY Judge Rules US Court Can Search E-Mails In Ireland
Microsoft Security Tool EMET 5.0 Puts Leash On Plugins
Surprise Bidder Enters Battle For T-Mobile
Apple Eliminating 200 Jobs At Beats After Acquisition
BBM Now Available For WinPhone Users



SPORTS
Red Sox Lead The Way On Busy Trade Day

Yoenis Cespedes acquired from A’s for pitcher Jon Lester

Lester, Lackey deals among 12 completed at Fenway
Did the Red Sox in Trading Day, rearm for 2015?

Tigers Acquire David Price From Rays

Pirates Can’t Overcome Snakes’ Homer Barrage

Kershaw In Complete Control As Dodgers Sweep Braves

Angels Edge O’s 1-0 In Extras


Mariners Slug Their Way To 6-5 Win Over Tribe

Reds Beat Fish 3-1 On Controversial Replay

Astros Bullpen Chokes, Jays Win 6-5

Cards Top Padres 6-2, Avoid Sweep

Cubs’ Arrieta Dominates In 3-1 Defeat of Rockies

Royals Rally, Tip Twins 6-3

Tigers Bullpen Caves, Pale Hose Win 7-4

Phillies Stand Pat, But GM Says Roster Needs To Change

Cabrera Leaves Tribe For Nationals;  Pen Struggles As Phillies Romp 10-4



FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
Kelly Rowland Talks Pregnancy

It’s a boy!

“We’re very excited.”


“Gypsy” Back On Track By Hiring New Screenwriter; Will Star Barbra Streisand Also Direct?

Selena Gomez – I Did NOT Bang Orlando Bloom


More Layoffs Today At CBS Films

Are Cameron Diaz and Benji Madden Ready To Wed?

Look: Chris Nolan’s “Interstellar”

Adrienne Bailon Defends Herself Against Unspeakable Armenian & Family

Sony Film Advertising Shakeup

“Sharknado 2” Nearly Triples Original’s Ratings, Sets Syfy Record



FOREIGNERS
Argentina’s Fernandez Denies Default As Bonds Sink
RBS Expresses Concerns Over Scotland Independence
India’s Demands Block $1 Trillion WTO Deal On Customs Rules
Forensic Investigators Finally Reach Malaysian Air Crash Site
Libyan Hospitals Face Collapse As Asian Staff Flee
Islamic Militias Declare Control Of Benghazi
Imam Of China’s Biggest Mosque Murdered By Extremists
Turks Abroad Begin Voting In Presidential Election
VP Biden Praises Japan’s New Military Policy
Thai Junta Appoints Military-Dominated Legislature



BLOGS & STUFF
Doug Powers: Bloomberg Anti-Gun Group Shoots Itself In Foot
Twitchy:“In The Shadows?!?” Colorado To Issue Driver’s Licenses To Illegals Monday
American Power: Illegal Alien Suspect In USC Murder Wanted By ICE For Deportation; Victim’s Family Fought For Entry Visa
American Thinker: The Three Faces Of Cronyism
BLACKFIVE: Bill Clinton’s Hard Choice On Bin Laden
Conservatives4Palin: Governor Palin Takes On Jesse Ventura
Don Surber: Corporations Aren’t People – Except When They Are
Jammie Wearing Fools: Democrat Fundraising E-Mail Rages Over Republican Fundraising E-Mail – “We’re Still FUMING”
Joe For America: What Will Happen First – Economic Collapse, Or Martial Law?
JustOneMinute: Mickey Strikes Again!
Protein Wisdom: “Are Hostile Blog Posts Key To Dan Markel Murder Mystery?”
Shot In The Dark: Our Gullible Left
STUMP: On Going To The Ivy League
The Gateway Pundit: Obama Halts Visa Applications From Israel
The Jawa Report: Noted Hamas Supporters To Raise Money For “Gaza Victims” At Six Flags Magic Mountain, LA
The Lonely Conservative: Dem Rep Who Co-Sponsored Bill To Impeach Bush Now Claims They Never Tried To Impeach Bush
This Ain’t Hell: Ventura/Janos Not Done?
Weasel Zippers: Wisconsin School Says FLOTUS Lunch Mandate “A Disaster”


Deadline to submit links for the FMJRA is noon tomorrow.
DO IT.
Deadline to submit links for Rule 5 Sunday is midnight tomorrow.
DO THAT TOO.


Category: Live at Five

Nina Burleigh: #WomenAgainstFeminism Is for ‘Pedophiles … Dirty Old Men’ UPDATE: ‘Perverted Rightwing Spite’

Posted on | July 31, 2014 | 99 Comments

@NinaBurleigh publishes an absolutely disgusting libel:

Women Against Feminism had, last time I checked, 16,013 followers on Facebook. Its tumblr is constructed of selfies of young women, dressed and posed like ads for DIY escort services, holding up bits of notebook paper on which they’ve scrawled screeds against feminism. . . .
Everything about Women Against Feminism suggests it’s a sock puppet for the aggrieved misogynists and pedophiles of the anti-feminist men’s rights crowd. The main clue is that almost all the women on the site are nubile and posed in ways that fulfill dirty old men’s wildest dreams about pliant young things.

This vile smear is doubly disgusting because of Nina Burleigh’s infamous 1998 comment about the Monica Lewinsky scandal:

“I would be happy to give [Bill Clinton] a blowjob
just to thank him for keeping abortion legal. I think
American women should be lining up with their
presidential kneepads on to show their gratitude
for keeping the theocracy off our backs.”

So, according to this soi-disant feminist intellectual, it’s perfectly acceptable for a 20-year-old intern to fellate the married middle-aged man who happens to be her boss — Nina Burleigh expressed no complaints about “pliant young things” and “dirty old men” in 1998 — but when women reject feminism’s radical ideology, the only possible explanation, according to Ms. Burleigh, is that these women are sock puppets for pedophile misogynists.

The New York Observer should be ashamed to publish a deranged fanatic as hateful and dishonest as Nina “Kneepads” Burleigh.

UPDATE: The New York Observer‘s current editor, Ken Kurson, is their sixth editor in seven years, and unless Kurson strongly repudiates Nina Burleigh’s reprehensible column, he should be fired immediately. Her deliberate lies are unacceptable.

UPDATE II: The shameless lying hater tells more hateful lies:

Did I mention Women Against Feminism has a popular Facebook page?

UPDATE III: Other than (a) fantasizing about providing oral sex for pro-abortion Democrats and (b) telling hateful lies against feminism’s critics, I’m not sure what kind of “feminist” ideology Nina Burleigh promulgates. However, I’ve recently begun a series of essays about radical feminism called “Sex Trouble”:

Honestly, I had been procrastinating about writing the next long installment in the series, so I’m glad that Nina Burleigh provided this helpful inspiration. Life is good. Hit the tip jar.





 

 

Category: Feminism, Journalism, Media Bias

Headline of the Day

Posted on | July 31, 2014 | 18 Comments

Courtesy of @KatherineMiller at BuzzFeed:

We Never Tried To Impeach Bush,
Says Democratic Lawmaker Who
Co-Sponsored Bush Impeachment Bill

Remember: It is Democrats who are currently raising millions of dollars through fearmongering e-mail appeals that accuse Republicans of planning to impeach President Obama. And in June 2008, Dennis Kucinich introduced articles of impeachment against President Bush, a measure co-sponsored by Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas), who seems to have forgotten all about that:

I ask my colleagues to oppose this resolution for it is in fact a veiled attempt at impeachment and it undermines the law that allows a president to do his job. A historical fact: President Bush pushed this nation into a war that had little to do with apprehending terrorists. We did not seek an impeachment of President Bush, because as an executive, he had his authority. President Obama has the authority.

Democrats: No one can ever accuse them of honesty.

 

Category: Constitution, Democrats

LIVE AT FIVE: 07.31.14

Posted on | July 31, 2014 | 3 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho


TOP NEWS
IDF Hits UN School, Market; Palestinian Death Toll Hits 1361

IDF opens fire after taking mortar fire from school grounds
Israel calls up another 16,000 reservists
Turkish PM Erdogan: Israelis surpass Nazi barbarism
Arab leaders, seeing Hamas as worse than Israel, remain silent

Liberia Closes Schools As Ebola Spreads
Peace Corps pulls out of three countries

Russia Scorns Sanctions; Ukrainian Army Drives On
Kiev: No scaling back offensive, but no control of crash site without international help



POLITICS
House Approves Lawsuit Against Obama For Abuse Of Executive Powers

Pivoting to the economy in Kansas City

Democrats brand vote as “political charade”, effort to mollify impeachment firebrands

White House “Accidentally” E-mails Torture Report Memo To Reporter

Investigation: Failures In Management Led To ObamaCare Website Woes

Christie Urges Lawmakers To Overhaul Bail System

Is “Billionaire’s Club” Financing Environmental Groups Through Shady Network?

FLOTUS Urges Young African Leaders To Embrace Womens’ Rights

VA Wants To Fire Colorado, Wyoming Supervisors Implicated In Data Manipulation

Seattle Police Officer Responsible For 80% Of City’s Pot Tickets Reassigned



THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Asian Crude Slips As Traders Discount Russia Sanctions: WTI $99.61, Brent $106.22
Argentina Defaults As Last-Minute Talks Fail
US Economy Grew 4% In Second Quarter
Scripps, Journal To Merge Broadcast Operations, Spin Off Newspapers
Bank Of America Ordered To Pay $1.3 Billion For Countrywide Fraud
Bullish Dollar Retains Bulk Of Gains On US Growth Report
Cortana’s Cute Face Only Has Eyes For China
How To Sideload Apps On The Amazon Fire Phone
Facebook-Backed Nonprofit Brings Free Internet To Zambia
Shazam Launches Its First Desktop App
Supr Mario Fails To Rescue Nintendo From Quarterly Loss



SPORTS
Kemp Delivers Again As Dodgers Edge Braves In Extras

Turner scores the winning run on Kemp’s single

Dodgers streak extends to season-best five games

Fear Factor Cooling MLB’s Trade Market?

Cardinals Pick Up Pitcher Masterson From Tribe


Duda Stays Hot As Mets Stomp Phillies 11-2

Jeter’s Farewell To Texas A 3-2 Yankees Loss

Astros Pound A’s Hammel For Six In First, Go On To 8-1 Win

Giants Snap Six-Game Skid, Top Bucs 7-5

Gyorko, Venable back Hahn In Padres’ 12-1 Laugher

Fish Rally But Fall Short As Nats Hang On For 4-3 Win



FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
Lana Parrilla Gets Married

Hitched before starting show’s fourth season

Evil queen of “Once Upon A Time” marries fiance Fred Di Blasio

How Four Directors Saved Film

“Big Bang Theory” Contract Negotiations Force Delay In Season 8 Production

Tom Lesinski Out At Legendary

Katy Perry Wants Kids With Or Without A Man


Another Top Sony Pictures Exec Gets The Boot

Drew Barrymore’s Half-sister Jessica Found Dead; Possible OD

Miranda Kerr: I Never Slept With Justin Bieber

Jamie Fox To Play Mike Tyson In New Film

New Poster For Tarantino’s “The Hateful Eight” Debuts

Taylor Swift To Perform At MTV Music Awards

Kirstie Alley Ends Maksim Chmerkovskiy Relationship Over Leah Remini

Allison Williams To Star As “Peter Pan” In NBC’s Live Production

Penelope Cruz Clarifies Views In Anti-Israel Letter



FOREIGNERS
Rights Groups Call Separatism Charges Against Uighur Scholar “Ludicrous”
Russian Stocks, Ruble Stronger After EU Publishes New Sanctions
Dozens Feared Trapped In India Landslide
France Evacuates Foreign Nationals In Libya As Fighting Intensifies
Kerry Pushes To Save WTO Deal Before Deadline
Pentagon Restocks Israel’s Ammo Supplies
British MPs Say NATO Unprepared For Russian Threat
ROK’s Ruling Saenuri Party Takes By-elections In Sweeping Victory
19 Drown Off Karachi Beaches After Ignoring Monsoon Swimming Ban
Bolivia Officially Declares Israel “Terrorist State”



BLOGS & STUFF
Michelle Malkin: Want A Real Anti-Poverty Plan? Stop Amnesty Now!
Twitchy: MMFA Attempted Smear Of Fox Gets Debunked By “Commie Girl”
American Power: Amid Ballooning Costs, Billions Raided From Other Programs To Deal With Illegal Alien Invasion
American Thinker: Obama The Blamethrower
BLACKFIVE: Janos The Anos
Conservatives4Palin: “Keep It Right Here On Morning Jew”
Don Surber: Daily Scoreboard, July 30
Jammie Wearing Fools: Top House Dem – Of Course We’re Running On Impeachment, We Have Nothing Else
Joe For America: Ebola Diagnostic Kits Deployed To National Guard In All 50 States
JustOneMinute: Send Out The Clowns
Protein Wisdom: On Impeachment
Shot In The Dark: Democrat Womens’ War On Themselves
STUMP: Checking The Numbers – Decrease In Median Household Net Worth
The Gateway Pundit: Hamas “Humanitarian Organization” Shoots Twenty Antiwar Protesters
The Jawa Report: “Wonder Woman” Actress Gal Gadot Gets 189,560 Likes For Ripping Hamas On Facebook
The Lonely Conservative: “Assume That Future Revisions Of Q2 2014 Data Will Be Lower”
This Ain’t Hell: Walsh Plagiarism – The Fix Is In?
Weasel Zippers: Italian Reporter Leaving Gaza Confirms It Was Hamas Rocket That Hit Schoolyard, Killing Ten Kids
Megan McArdle: Everyone Wins When You Buy A Rotisserie Chicken


Category: Live at Five

Millionaire Transsexual Bankrolls PAC for Son’s Florida Democrat Campaign

Posted on | July 30, 2014 | 50 Comments

Martine Rothblatt (left); Gabriel Rothblatt (right).

Next time Democrats claim that Republicans are “the party of the rich” or complain about millionaires using PACs to funnel big money into politics, just mention this weird story about the Democrat candidate for Congress in Florida’s 8th District:

A congressional candidate in Florida is getting a boost from a super political action committee with one donor, which happens to be his dad.
But there’s a twist.
Gabriel Rothblatt’s father, Martine, used to be Martin Rothblatt before undergoing gender reassignment surgery. She — Martine — founded Sirius Satellite Radio and a Maryland-based biotech company that paid her $38 million in compensation last year, according to Forbes. . . .
Records show Martine Rothblatt contributed $225,000 to SpacePAC last quarter. Additionally, SpacePAC’s treasurer is a former federal regulatory lawyer and now influential attorney associated with United Therapeutics Corp., Martine Rothblatt’s pharmaceutical company.
Federal election laws prohibit super PACs from coordinating with candidates, but the close familial ties in this case could easily complicate those restrictions — and already may have. . . .
Rothblatt is endorsed by the Teamsters, a powerful labor union, and the National Organization for Women, a feminist group. The district includes Brevard and Indian River counties, and parts of Orange County.

Now, I’m going to get to Martine Rothblatt’s genuinely weird biography in a minute, but first, here’s a report from local newspaper columnist Russ Lemmon about the “infestation” of campaign signs for Gabriel Rothblatt that covered the 8th District:

As I noted last week, Rothblatt sent me an email in May and he said the signs were put out by SpacePAC, a political action committee that is supporting his campaign. He said election laws prohibit him from having contact with SpacePAC.
I said it was a lame excuse, as he surely knows someone who knows someone who could get the word to SpacePAC.
Which inadvertently set the stage for a humorous email from Curtis Carpenter:
“His excuse that it’s a Political Action Committee that is responsible for their placement might almost be believable except for the fact that his parents founded the PAC!”
Yes, it’s true.
SpacePAC was formed by Bina and Martine Rothblatt, according to the website spacepac.us. (Some interesting trivia from the website: “The Rothblatts created Sirius XM satellite radio in 1990.”)
During our initial email exchange, Gabriel Rothblatt didn’t say a word about his parents’ involvement in SpacePAC. I told him that was a pretty big omission on his part.
“The May conversation was brief and any number of topics could either be considered an omission, or just not relevant to a brief directed response and reserved for a still anticipated in-person conversation,” he said Thursday via email.
Seriously? I’m thinking he should have given disclosure of the SpacePAC relationship a much higher priority.

First, does anyone believe that Gabriel Rothblatt is not “coordinating” with a PAC whose sole contributor is his . . . er, ex-father?

It appears the SpacePAC exists solely as a single-donor money-funnel with the goal of electing Martine Rothblatt’s son to Congress. There’s your grassroots party of the working-class “little guy,” eh?

Now, let’s examine the bizarre biography of Martine (neé Martin) Rothblatt: It’s wrong to call him/her Gabriel Rothblatt’s “mother,” because it appears that after undergoing sex-change surgery in 1994 at age 40, Martin/Martine remained married to his/her wife, who is the mother of their four children, Eli, Sunee, Gabriel, and Jenesis. So I guess that means Martin/Martine is a translesbian.

In 1995, Martine Rothblatt published The Apartheid of Sex: Manifesto on the Freedom of Gender, about which we read:

Rothblatt makes a case for the adoption of a new sexual model that accommodates every shade of gender identity. She reveals that traditional male and female roles are dictated neither by genetics, genitals, nor reproductive biology, but rather by social attitudes that originated in early patriarchal cultures and that have been institutionalized in modern law, and she calls a new acceptance of human sexuality in all its prismatic variety. . . .
Arguing that “the legal division of people into males and females is as wrong as the legal division of people into black and white race,” Rothblatt, an attorney and transsexual, is a proponent of “transgenderism,” which she characterizes as a grass-roots movement whose guiding principle is “that people should be free to change, either temporarily or permanently, the sex type to which they were assigned since infancy.” Using a provocative reinterpretation of historical and legal issues, feminist thinking, and scientific research to defend her belief in continua of sex, gender, and sexual identity, Rothblatt sometimes seems unclear of her intended audience.

Yeah, whatever. And if you think that is weird, try this:

In 2004, Rothblatt launched the Terasem Movement, a transhumanist school of thought focused on promoting joy, diversity, and the prospect of technological immortality via mind uploading and geoethical nanotechnology. Through a charitable foundation, leaders of this school convene publicly accessible symposia, publish explanatory analyses, conduct demonstration projects, issue grants, and encourage public awareness and adherence to Terasem values and goals..

So here’s your Gabriel Rothblatt campaign slogan:

VOTE DEMOCRAT
Elect the Millionaire Weirdo’s Son to Congress!

 

Category: Democrats, Election, Florida
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