The Other McCain

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

#RapeCulture Eggs and Omelettes

Posted on | May 21, 2014 | 32 Comments

Last night I linked A.J. Delgado’s item about the suspicious nature of the rape “epidemic” on college campuses. This phenomenon contradicts common sense: Overall, rates of violent crime (including rape) in the United States are on a downward trajectory, and universities have undertaken extraordinary programs to raise awareness (for both men and women) to prevent rape. However, the reported incidence of rape has actually increased on campuses, and Delgado asks: “Did all the bad guys suddenly decide to enroll in universities?”

This trend makes no sense, you see, and this strange trend calls for scrutiny of the individual cases that comprise the trend. Professor William Jacobson at Legal Insurrection notes a case at Columbia University, where a male student-athlete has filed a federal lawsuit, claiming that his due-process rights were violated when the university punished him for alleged “sexual misconduct” that was never reported as a crime. The lawsuit describes a one-night hook-up between the student-athlete and a female student in her Columbia dorm room on May 12, 2013, and alleges:

Several weeks into the Fall 2013 semester and nearly five (5) months after the one night of sexual activity, Jane Doe decided to report the Evening of May 12 as “non-consensual” sexual activity. No contemporaneous report was ever made nor was any police report was ever filed by Jane Doe in connection with her sexual activity with Plaintiff John Doe; no visit to a medical care facility was ever made by Jane Doe in connection with such sexual activity either; and indeed, no allegation of improper sexual behavior was made by Jane Doe for nearly five (5) months after the one night of sexual activity with John Doe. Notwithstanding the foregoing, and further notwithstanding a paucity of direct evidence, including an unforgiveable lack of administrative continuity and simple, practical good sense during the investigatory process, Defendant Columbia found John Doe guilty of sexual misconduct in having non-consensual sex with Jane Doe and has issued Plaintiff John Doe an order of suspension from Columbia University until Fall 2015.

Here’s the important thing: We don’t know, and in fact cannot know, what actually happened on May 12, 2013, because the only witnesses to the sexual activity were the two people involved.

As usual in such cases, it’s “he-said/she-said,” with no evidence or testimony beyond the competing claims of a woman who says it was rape and a man who says it was consensual. We can, perhaps, deduce a belief one way or the other based on circumstances, but we can never really know — and yet the student-athlete was suspended on the basis of this university disciplinary procedure, where the rights of the accused and standards of evidence are not the same as in a criminal court. He was, in effect, found guilty without trial.

This is simply wrong. If the guy committed rape, he should be prosecuted as a criminal, and if the accuser was unwilling to pursue criminal prosecution, then the university cannot let its disciplinary process function as a pseudo-court where students are judged “guilty” of heinous crimes for which they never actually stood trial.

If incidents like this Columbia University case are typical of what is driving the campus rape “epidemic” trend — and I don’t claim to have done enough analysis to say that it is so — then we have a very serious problem: Colleges have become Darkness at Noon, like the Moscow “show trials” of the 1930s, where a political agenda incites a prosecutorial zeal that tramples the innocent under foot.

There is an old (and extremely cynical) phrase that was used by Soviet apologists to defend the inhumanities perpetrated by the Communists: “You have to break a few eggs to make an omelette.” That is to say, the murderous nature of the Bolshevik regime was excusable to admirers of the Soviets, because the victims (eggs) were killed (broken) to create a socialist order (the omelette).

Knowing what we know about feminists and their agenda — which demonizes men and stigmatizes heterosexuality — what political purpose is served by the proliferation of “sexual misconduct” accusations on campus, especially when the statistics are inflated by the inclusion of cases where no criminal charge was ever made?

The accused are just “eggs,” broken in the process of making this feminist “omelette,” which has a suspiciously totalitarian flavor.

 

Category: Crime, Education, Legal Insurrection, Sex

Like Fish Don’t Notice Water

Posted on | May 21, 2014 | 29 Comments

CNN President Jeff Zucker declares his network won’t “be shamed into” covering a congressional investigation of the Benghazi scandal, as he claims the pressure to cover Benghazi comes from “others who have political beliefs that want to try to have temper tantrums.”

Mocking CNN’s bizarre and monomaniacal devotion to the story of a disappeared jet, Grover Norquist wondered what would happen if the Malaysian plane were to land in Benghazi. OK, so . . . forget about politics. What does Zucker’s bias mean for CNN’s ratings?

First Night of CNN Primetime Changes
Land Network in Third Place
CNN took third place among cable news networks [Monday] night after making significant primetime changes, including the removal of live programming at 9PM. The new lineup lost to both FOX News Channel and MSNBC during the 8PM, 9PM and 10PM hours.

Here are the numbers:

8 p.m. ET
Fox: The O’Reilly Factor ….. 2,019,000
MSNBC: Chris Hayes ………… 639,000
CNN: AC360 …………………… 274,000

9 p.m. ET
Fox: The Kelly File ………….. 1,787,000
MSNBC: Rachel Maddow …….. 720,000
CNN: Parts Unknown …………. 281,000

10 p.m. ET
Fox: Hannity ………………….. 1,383,000
MSNBC: The Last Word ……… 531,000
CNN: Tonight …………………… 304,000

Averaged over prime time (8-11 p.m.), the three major cable news networks had a combined audience Monday of 2.7 million viewers, and here are the percentage shares:

Fox ……………… 65%
MSNBC …………. 24%
CNN …………….. 11%

Now, let us stipulate that politics is not the only factor that influences cable TV news ratings. However, the news junkie — the kind of person who prefers cable news as a prime-time viewing habit — is also usually a political junkie. Because of a general perception that most news media have a liberal bias, Fox News dominates cable news ratings by delivering news and commentary from a standpoint that is decidedly not liberal. In a distant second place, MSNBC caters to an audience of left-wing news junkies whose political appetites are not satisfied by a half-hour of biased news nightly on the Big Three broadcast networks. And CNN . . .

Jeff Zucker’s network is a fucking asterisk, is what they are — an irrelevant afterthought in the TV new business, of interest only as an example of how not to operate a cable news franchise.

The most obvious play for CNN would be to try to peel off some of the conservative viewers — two-thirds of the cable-news audience — who are now regularly watching Fox. One can easily imagine how this could be done. If Zucker can’t imagine it, he should drop me an e-mail and I’d offer a few suggestions, but of course that’s not going to happen because, as Zucker’s Benghazi comments show, he thinks he’s such a goddamned Harvard-educated genius that nobody can tell him anything.

Therefore, CNN continues failing.

Everyone in the organization, from Zucker on down the line, should feel a profound sense of shame for how they’ve squandered CNN’s advantage as the pioneer in the industry, failing to adapt to changing circumstances as they’ve drifted down to the ratings cellar, where they sit day after day, hoping for the Big Event — the breaking-news story that will make people switch over for continuous coverage. It’s a pathetic waste of resources, a disgrace and a failure for which no excuses should be accepted.

Many years ago, not long after I became an ex-Democrat, I explained the problem simply: Most people in the news media don’t notice liberal bias for the same reason fish don’t notice water — it’s everywhere all around them and it’s all they’ve ever known.

Insofar as CNN is failing because of its liberal bias, Jeff Zucker isn’t the solution to the problem, he’s part of the problem.

 

Category: CNN, Libya, Scandal

Nerd Jokes in Georgia

Posted on | May 21, 2014 | 19 Comments

The yearbook quote that got Mundy’s Mill High School senior Paris Gray in trouble was actually kind of clever, if you’re into rap music and the periodic table of elements. Maybe not as clever as the Nine Sexiest Words, but still clever, and if kids are making chemistry jokes, they’re probably doing OK in school. So I’m glad the school decided that she can still speak at graduation.

 

Category: Education

A Busy Day at Acme Law

Posted on | May 20, 2014 | 71 Comments

Monkey see, monkey do — after months of cheerleading for Brett Kimberlin’s vexatious lawsuits, now Bill Schmalfeldt announces:

Today I have filed a lawsuit in the US District Court for the District of Maryland, Northern Division.
The defendants are:

WJJ Hoge III
Robert Stacy McCain
Nancy Gilly, aka “LibraryGryffon”
Paul H. Lemmen
Bettina Haper, aka “Black Betty”
Chris Heather, aka “Embryriddlealum” and any number of other sock puppets
Kyle Kiernan
Stephen R. Sheiko
Kimberly Dykes
The anonymous blogger calling itself “Paul Krendler”

I have filed under the following Claims for Relief.

1. Malicious Prosecution and Abuse of Process
2. Defamation and Libel
3. Harassment and Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress

Having not seen the complaint, I can’t imagine what manner of tortious injuries Schmalfeldt is claiming to have suffered from me.

My co-defendant John Hoge has no comment.

UPDATE: More ranting from the Neckless Troll:

They’re yukking it up over at Hogetown since I announced that I have filed a Federal lawsuit. A lot of the mindless sheep are bleating about wanting to be included. I can accommodate them. I imagine I have until such time as the case is officially docketed to change the list of defendants, so if you REALLY, REALLY want to be included, contact me with proof that you are you, and I will only be too happy to oblige.
Personally, I’m thrilled that I’m not being taken seriously. Wait until the summonses start arriving.

Yeah. Whatever, Bill. What I can’t wait for is when the complaint is posted. Should be good for a few laughs.




 

Category: Bill Schmalfeldt

Campus Rape Reports Increase?

Posted on | May 20, 2014 | 25 Comments

A.J. Delgado has some interesting observations:

[I]f recent reports are to be believed, there is an outright “epidemic” of rape on college campuses, one so grave that students are even complaining that school administrators are not going far enough in hunting down and punishing the accused. NPR confirmed last month that campus rape reports are on the rise and that students at Columbia University are now even placing in bathrooms flyers containing the names of “sexual-assault violators on campus.” . . .
Violent-crime statistics — including sex crimes — have been declining for two decades. Did all the bad guys suddenly decide to enroll in universities? No one can explain it, other than to claim that rapes must have been underreported in the past (a claim that is, conveniently, impossible to disprove).

Be sure to read the whole thing, including Delgado’s discussion of her friend Amy’s “regrettable sex” — the unfortunate (usually drunk) consensual hook-up that is later regretted, the remorse for which can inspire some women to re-invent the event as rape.

The problem is this: If it weren’t for drunken hook-ups, college kids would be having a lot less sex. But if you tell college kids to stop getting drunk and hooking up, you’re a right-wing extremist. So, instead, the kids get drunk and hump like bunnies and (predictably, as a consequence of the Law of Large Numbers) some of this ubiquitous drunken humping will be rape, or at least the kind of “regrettable sex” that the girls will subsequently decide was rape because the guy didn’t call back. The problem in such cases is that it’s always “he-said/she said” — there are no witnesses to the drunken deed that occurred in his dorm room or her apartment — so criminal prosecution is generally impossible. You can’t prove rape under those circumstances and . . . what can you do?

What ends up happening is a lot of feminist protests and lecturing, none of which involves the advocacy of sobriety. And so the drunken hook-ups and morning-after claims of rape continue.

It’s sad, but these kids won’t listen to right-wing extremists who tell them to stay sober and stop humping.

 

Category: Education, Sex

The Tea Party is Over: @Allahpundit and Mitch McConnell Declare Victory

Posted on | May 20, 2014 | 51 Comments

It’s “Spring Time for Mitch” over there at RINOville:

Politico has a pre-election postmortem on how McConnell beat back the tea party, although most of it will be familiar to you if you’ve been following the race even casually. . . .
Between McConnell’s easy ride to victory and Lindsey Graham’s trouble-free reelection campaign in South Carolina thus far, it’s worth asking just how vulnerable GOP incumbents are to tea-party primary challenges anymore. Philip Klein surveys the landscape and says, “Not very.”

So, all conservative grassroots enthusiasm is over, and there is now zero hope that the GOP can ever be more than Democrat Lite. And what are the chances that in November, people will stampede to the polls to vote for the Boring Old White Guy Party?

 

Category: Election, Tea Party

Not Saying It Was Aliens…

Posted on | May 20, 2014 | 22 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho


…which I guess could be construed as sort of a spoiler for John Barnes’ disappointing The Last President, which is the last of the Daybreak novels. I hated this novel for at least a dozen reasons, not the least of which is that Barnes pulls a diavolo ex machina out of his hat which (for me) just completely ruined the whole trilogy. Not that there weren’t enough other things in the plot to tick me off, mind you. Anyhow, if you enjoyed the first couple of Daybreak novels (Directive 51 and Daybreak Zero) you may or may not like the third one; if not, you can’t say I didn’t warn you.


Charles Gannon’s Fire with Fire got nominated for a Nebula Award by the SFWA but didn’t win; I refuse to speculate on whether this was because it’s a Baen product or whether it’s because Mr. Gannon is a white cismale oppressor. (Just kidding! Sort of.) Anyway, Gannon’s novel reads like a cross between technothriller and first contact novel, with coldsleep complicating the protagonist’s life and a shaky confederation of aliens ready to explode when humans show up on the galactic scene. Not a bad read; lives up to the standard set by his earlier collaboration with Eric Flint, 1635: The Papal Stakes. Gannon and Flint have a couple of other collaborations out, The Aethers of Mars being the more interesting to me with its echoes of Frank Chadwick’s Space 1889 RPG.


Speaking of the “Ring of Fire” novels, Flint and David Carrico’s 1636: The Devil’s Opera is a pretty good read, mixing a police procedural with opera and power politics in the suddenly-unstable United States of Europe.


Finally, I’m going to have to pick up a copy of the new Delta Green fiction anthology, Delta Green: Tales from Failed Anatomies.


Category: Books

The Libyan Disaster

Posted on | May 20, 2014 | 44 Comments

Obama’s “Arab Spring” continues unraveling:

The revolt by Gen. Khalifa Hifter threatens to detonate the long volatile divisions among the multiple militias that dominate Libya amid the weakness of the central government and military. Hifter says he aims to crush Islamists he accuses of seizing control of the country and he appears to have the support of some militias from the eastern half of the country and the western Zintan region. . . .
In the other camp, parliament chief Nouri Abu Sahmein — an Islamist-leaning politician — ordered a powerful umbrella group of mainly Islamist militias known as “Libya’s Central Shield” to mobilize on Monday to defend against Hifter’s forces. The umbrella group is dominated by a militia from Libya’s third largest city, Misrata.

Walter Russell Mead:

Dozens have been killed, dozens more wounded, and the clashes between General Hifter’s forces and Islamist militias don’t seem to be winding down. The country is thoroughly fragmented, flirting with the failed state label.

Instapundit delivers the sarcastic verdict:

It was a war of choice, fought on the credit card, with no real understanding of the country targeted and no clear exit plan, complicated by astonishing incompetence in following up after the dictator was toppled.

Gosh, that sounds so familiar . . .

 


 

Category: Libya
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