The Other McCain

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

Was She Too … Bossy?

Posted on | May 16, 2014 | 26 Comments

Gossip swirls after New York Times publisher Pinch Sulzberger fires the paper’s top editor Jill Abramson:

Sulzberger and Abramson had a fraught relationship almost from the start of her tenure as executive editor, nearly three years ago. He saw her as difficult, high-handed, and lacking in finesse in her management of people at the paper. She, in turn, was increasingly resentful of his intrusions into her command of editorial operations, and of his increasingly close relationship with Mark Thompson, the company’s C.E.O., who came from England and the BBC to run the business side.
It is always hard to say what causes a final break—a firing, a divorce—but, clearly, a last straw came a few weeks ago, when Abramson, who made little secret of her displeasure with Sulzberger, decided to hire a lawyer to complain that her salary was not equal to that of her predecessor, Bill Keller. She had also been told by reliable sources at the paper that, as managing editor, she had once earned less than the managing editor of news operations, John Geddes. Abramson’s attempt to raise the salary issue at a time when tempers were already frayed seemed wrongheaded to Sulzberger and Thompson, both on its merits and in terms of her approach. Bringing in a lawyer, in particular, seems to have struck them as especially combative. Eileen Murphy, a spokeswoman for the Times, argued that there was no real compensation gap, but conceded to me that “this incident was a contributing factor” to the firing of Abramson, because “it was part of a pattern. . . .
Another episode that added to the characterization of Abramson as hard to deal with came after a decision was made to hire a second managing editor to oversee the Times’ digital endeavors. Abramson led that hiring effort. The Times, in its story on Abramson’s dismissal, said that Abramson had offered the job to Janine Gibson, the editor of Guardian U.S., “without consulting” Dean Baquet, then the managing editor and now Abramson’s successor. This implies that Abramson was operating more or less in a vacuum, without consistent consultations with her colleagues, particularly Baquet. Gibson met separately with Sulzberger and Thompson on May 5th, and had lunch with Baquet that same day. What Baquet did not know, until Gibson herself mentioned it to him at lunch, I’m told, is that she was offered a managing-editor job comparable to his own. . . .

Abramson offended the patriarchy! The New York Times is sexist! Has Amanda Marcotte reacted to this news yet?

UPDATE: Haven’t found Marcotte’s reaction yet, but the headline at the feminist blog Jezebel is: “Jill Abramson and Those Goddamn Pushy Female Bosses”:

Abramson had been a staunch advocate for women at the Times, but it was clear that gender imbalance remained an issue at the paper , and not only on the masthead. In a piece about the gap in byline counts this week, Times ombudsman Margaret Sullivan lamented that, “After three decades in journalism, I find it hard to believe that — while things have changed radically in some ways — there’s still such a gender imbalance.”

Yeah, baby! Patriarchy wins again!

 

Category: Feminism, Journalism, New York Times

LIVE AT FIVE: 05.16.14

Posted on | May 16, 2014 | 11 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho


TOP NEWS
It Is Modi All The Way

The next Prime Minister of India

BJP headed for historic victory, Congress for catastrophic failure

Judge Strikes All Bans On Gay Marriage In Arkansas
Loophole closed that temporarily halted gay marriages

At Least 21 Dead In Vietnam From Anti-PRC Protests
Rioters protesting against PRC oil rig in disputed area of South China Sea



POLITICS
Va Secretary Shinseki “Mad As Hell”, Not Resigning

Veterans attend a Senate hearing as Secretary Shinseki testifies

Vows to stay on job until problems are fixed or President fires him; Sanders makes excuses while Heller demands accountability, resignation

VA IG Says Federal Prosecutors Involved In Probe, Charges Possible

Federal Appeals Court Puts Idaho Gay Marriages On Hold

Lawmakers Says Rice’s Story Has “Absolutely Collapsed” Amid Ongoing Questions About Benghazi

Indiana Governor Pence Unveils “Homegrown” Health Care



THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Asian Crude Down Slightly On US Supply, Eurozone Weakness: NYMEX $102.00, Brent $109.42
Draghi Urged To Stop Being Shy, Buy Euro Bailout Bonds
Penney’s Beats Expectations As Sales Improve
Stung By Weather, Walmart Profit Down 5%
Deutsche Bank Agrees To Sell Cosmopolitan Resort In Vegas For $1.73 Billion
Gold Settles Below $1300 After Jump In Consumer Prices
Controversial Net Neutrality Proposal Gets Nod From FCC, Public Comment Solicited
UCI Med Students Get Google Glass
Giant Amazon Locker Placed In San Francisco Plaza
Top Tech Titans Get Thumbs-Up In EFF Transparency Report
Flappy Bird Flies Again In August With Multiplayer



SPORTS
Kevin Durant Leads Thunder Past Clippers

Russell Westbrook scores in the second period

Thunder rally in the final minute, win Game 6 104-98

Sterling Refuses To Pay Fine, Threatens NBA With Lawsuit

Morse Homers As Giants Hold Off Marlins

Cueto Pitches Three-Hitter, Reds Blank Padres 5-0

Orioles Beat Royals 2-1 To Snap Skid

Twins Edge Bosox In Extras 4-3

The Struggles Of Ian Desmond



FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
SI Swimsuit Model Slammed For Topless #HashtagDiplomacy

Doing her part for Nigeria

Got to admit, she looks better doing it than FLOTUS

“Spring Breakers 2” Producers – James Franco Is A Hypocrite

Bieber Sued Over Alleged Subway Beatdown

Country Singer Randy Houser Divorcing

Drew Barrymore On Baby Girl Frankie: It Feels Like A Miracle

Miranda Lambert Reveals Her Favorite Post-Weight Loss Body Part

Emily Maynard Celebrates Bachelorette Party With “White Trash Bash”

Lily Allen Turns Thumbs Down On Incestuous “Game Of Thrones” Role



FOREIGNERS
Cold-Shouldered By West, Putin Hopes For Sympathy From PRC
Bangladesh Ferry Capsizes; At Least 26 Dead
Sudanese Woman Gets Death Sentence For Converting To Christianity
“Friends Of Syria” Discuss Supporting Opposition
Turkish Unions Hold Protests In Wake Of Mine Disaster
Thai Army Chief Warns Of Military Action If Clashes Escalate
Syria UN Peace Envoy Brahimi Quits Amid New ChemWeapons Charges
Egypt’s Imprisoned Journalists Angry After Lawyers Quit



BLOGS & STUFF
Michelle Malkin: The VA’s Deadly Bureaucratic Drones
Doug Powers: “Phony Scandal” Update – Meet More “Low Level” IRS Employees In Cincinnati
Twitchy: And Now, A PSA From FLOTUS, Brought To You By “Bad People”
American Power: Liberals’ Dark Ages
American Thinker: Walls Closing In For Jews At UCLA – And In America
BLACKFIVE: Book Review – Dale Brown’s Starfire
Conservatives4Palin: Why Democrats Are So Scared Of Benghazi
Don Surber: Under Obamacare, She Pays $987 A Month
Jammie Wearing Fools: Flashback – How Ten high-Profile Democrat Senators Pressured The IRS To Harass GOP And Tea Party Groups
Joe For America: Moderate Muslims In US Condemn Boko Haram – Oh, Wait…
JustOneMinute: Funny, In A Terrifying Sort Of Way
Pat Dollard: Obama Threatened Nigeria With Sanctions In 2013 For Fighting Boko Haram
Protein Wisdom: New Benghazi Investigation Spooks GOP Leaders
Shot In The Dark: Dear Minimum Wage Activists
The Jawa Report: Everyone Wave Buh-Bye To Kassim Alhimidi
The Lonely Conservative: While Veterans Die Waiting For Care, Bradley Manning Gets Approval For A Sex Change
This Ain’t Hell: Shinseki Vows Not To Resign
Weasel Zippers: Jeb Bush – I Would Like To Govern Like LBJ As President
Megan McArdle: Why Antibiotic Dreams Don’t Come True


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

LIVE AT FIVE: 05.15.14

Posted on | May 15, 2014 | 7 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho


TOP NEWS
Death Toll Nears 285 In Turkish Mine Explosion

Rescuers carry a miner to safety

Hope fading for the remaining 150 trapped

Black Pastors Join Legal Fight Against Gay Marriage In Michigan
Ministers criticize gay marriage/civil rights parallel

Iran Nuke Talks Resume In Vienna
Emerging deal unlikely to satisfy Congressmen wanting harder line against Iranian nuclear weapons



POLITICS
VA Secretary Shinseki Welcomes White House Review

The VA Medical Center in Phoenix, Arizona

Expected to testify today about “wait list” allegations


Obamacare Contractor Reportedly Pays Employees To Do Nothing



Obama Promotes New Transportation Bill

Geithner Backs Off Claim Of White House Pressure

GOP Lawmakers Tell FCC To Back Off Internet Rules

Court Strikes Down Wisconsin Issue Ad Ban

High School Senior Beats Incumbent WV State Legislator In GOP Primary



THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Asian Crude Falls From US Highs: NYMEX $102.04, Brent $110.00
Japan’s First-Quarter Growth Strongest In Two Years
Macy’s Profit Up 3% Despite Declining Sales
US Household Debt Jumps For Third Quarter
German Economy Grows As France Stagnates
Asia Stocks Down As Weak Wall Street Offsets Japan GDP News
Autodesk To Offer Spark Open-Source Platform For 3-D Printing
Will Elon Musk Help Fund A Tesla Museum?
Comcast Exec Says Wired Broadband Users Should Pay As They Go
Netflix Share of Peak Internet Traffic Rises
“Game Of Thrones”, Super Mario Brothers Style



SPORTS
It’s Over And Out For Bruins

Net Loss: The puck slips by Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask

Listless start leads to sad end as Habs win 3-1

Spurs Beat Blazers, Return To West Finals

Kings Edge Ducks To Force Game 7

Heat Defeats Nyets In Game 5, Advance To East Finals

Murphy, Indians Rout Blue Jays 15-4

Ortiz Bashes Two More Dingers As Bosox Beat Twins Again

Dominguez Delivers In 9th, Lifts Astros Past Rangers

Nats Score 4 In 9th, Take Series From The Snakes



FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
Olivia Munn Now Dating Aaron Rodgers

It’s football season already?

Recently split from BF of two years Joel Kinnaman


Casey Kasem Found In Washington State, Daughter’s Publicist Says

“Grace Of Monaco” Slammed At Cannes

“How I Met Your Dad” Not Going Forward At CBS

“Two And A Half Men” To End After Season 12


Lindsay Lohan Reveals Miscarriage In Reality Show Finale

Rihanna, Drake Split

Angelina Jolie Talks Wedding Plans, Her Health, And How Her Life Has Changed

Coroner: Julia Roberts’ Half-Sister Committed Suicide

Lea Michele, Naya Rivera Both Returning To “Glee” Next Season

Jessica Simpson Sets Wedding Date With Fiance

Prince Harry Hooks Up With Blonde Socialite After Cressida Bonas Split



FOREIGNERS
UK Official: Nigeria Rejects Swap Of Jihadis For Schoolgirls
Riots In Vietnam Leave One Chinese Dead, Hundreds Injured
Ferry Captain, Three Crew Face Murder Charges In Sewol Sinking
Three Anti-Government Protesters Killed By Gunmen As Violence Returns To Bangkok
Afghan Presidential Election Heads For June Runoff
EU Court Holds People Have Right To Be Forgotten On Internet
Japanese Panel Says Nation Should Exercise Right Of Collective Self-Defense
Takeaway From Modi’s Success Story? Ignore The Critics
Kiwi Government Projects Budget Surplus
Ukraine Reports Military Success In The East



BLOGS & STUFF
First Street Journal: Feds To Pay For Manning’s Sex Change
Blackmailers Don’t Shoot: Trigger Warning – Dude Looks Like A Lady
Michelle Malkin: Cash For Obamacare Shirkers
Twitchy: Texas Gun Shop Takes Swipe At Obamacare With Provocative Sign
The Peoples’ Cube: Do Not Ridicule Hashtag Diplomacy!
Chicks On The Right: This Chick Wants To Reclaim Her Mamahood After Abortion. OMG.
American Power: Well, I Was Wondering What Got Jill Abramson Fired…
American Thinker: Inside The Obama Frat House
Conservatives4Palin: New SarahPAC Video – Roaring To November
Don Surber: Daily Scoreboard, May 14
Jammie Wearing Fools: Eleanor Rodham Clift Doubles Down On Idiotic Benghazi Tale
Joe For America: Drugs Are Bad! Dancing Naked Woman Proves It
Pat Dollard: Mark Levin Goes Off – “Carl Levin Should Be Dragged In Front Of A Grand Jury And Forced To Answer Questions”
Protein Wisdom: Sterling’s Silver Lining
Shot In The Dark: Of Those With Cow, And Those With Moo
The Jawa Report: American Muslims More Outraged Over Bill Maher’s Islamophobia Than Boko Haram Kidnapping & Selling Christians
The Lonely Conservative: Obama Says Enforcing Immigration Laws “Isn’t Smart”
This Ain’t Hell: And The Coverup Continues…
Weasel Zippers: New E-Mails Show Dem. Senator Carl Levin Pressured IRS To Target Conservative Groups
Megan McArdle: Why The US Isn’t Creating More Small Businesses


Category: Live at Five

The Kook Caucus and the Pervert Lobby

Posted on | May 14, 2014 | 47 Comments

The earlier post about @Belle_Knox (Miriam Weeks) elicited an e-mail response from my old college buddy Bert the Samoan Lawyer, who suggests that Ms. Weeks is in need of prayer.

Be that as it may, however, Ms. Weeks has quite emphatically rejected any suggestion that she is a “rescue project” in need of assistance. Furthermore, as my analysis of her situation made clear, Ms. Weeks is not a victim of poverty or misfortune; she is not an outcast or an orphan or the product of a broken home; rather she is the typical result of parental overindulgence and leniency, accustomed to the satisfaction of her childish whims as she was raised in protected circumstances of affluence that failed to prepare her to lead a responsible adult life.

There are too many innocent souls in this world afflicted with real hardship for me to waste prayers on Poor Little Rich Girls.

Beyond that, however, I cannot help but view Ms. Weeks as symbolic of much larger problems, so that her bad example is held up for emulation, sending the message that what she does is valid, and that all criticism of what she does is invalid. These are themes I explored in my e-mail reply to Bert the Samoan Lawyer:

Glad you are still reading the blog. The fact that Weeks’ behavior presents itself as symptomatic of mental illness and yet, in contemporary culture, has been analyzed chiefly in terms of its feminist political significance, tells you an awful lot about (a) what’s wrong with contemporary culture, and (b) what’s wrong with feminist politics, as well as (c) the correlation between (a) and (b).
Instead of trying to solve personal problems — attempting to help people experiencing unfortunate circumstances — instead contemporary culture prefers to politicize everything. Therefore, the attempt to understand extraordinary phenomena (e.g., a girl from a privileged background whose psychiatric problems lead her to make a spectacle and a ruin of herself) is thwarted by the kind of horse-race politics, which side wins or loses in the politicized Culture War, because the Left insists that all such phenomena must be viewed in that context. Because the culture of sexual restraint — of chastity, fidelity and modesty — is associated with the Right, and because Weeks presented herself as a symbolic champion of sexual liberation, therefore the Left must justify the career of “Belle Knox” against all critics, impugning them as adherents of an obsolete Victorian or puritanical ethos, as well as branding these critics as misogynists whose “slut shaming” is assumed to express an anti-female double standard.
Never in contemporary culture can the most obvious truths about the analyzed phenomenon be admitted by all: i.e., that Miriam Weeks’ behavior is extremely dysfunctional, harmful to herself and others, and symptomatic both of her own personal psychiatric afflictions and of the way in which social environments foster such afflictions in young people. The fact that Weeks was a “cutter,” and the fact that self-mutilation is a common enough trend among youth that we have a well-recognized slang term to describe such people — well, it’s shocking. I know that when I graduated high school in 1977, the term “cutter” was unknown in youth culture. There may have been young people in 1977 who did that to themselves, but they were called “kooks” or “weirdos” and viewed as being in need of confinement in what it was still possible to call “the loony bin” without fear that one had committed ThoughtCrime by the use of such vernacular.
We have, in a sense, mainstreamed mental illness and normalized the pathological in such a way that even to speak of sanity and normality may be politically incorrect, as these terms imply a negative judgment on the insane and the abnormal. Thus empowered by an egalitarian worldview (in which all personalities and all behaviors are of equal value) and by the victimhood rhetoric common to identity politics, lunatics and deviants present themselves as oppressed minorities, gaining sympathy, support and advocacy from all the Usual Liberal Suspects who are forever looking for new Victims of Society whose trendy “causes” can be used as a bludgeon with which to knock down another pillar of Western Civilization.
Thus do what can be called the Kook Caucus and the Pervert Lobby manifest themselves in contemporary culture, exercising a political and social influence that renders it impossible either to treat the individual weirdo’s problems or to alter the environments that breed weirdos. And it takes a strong mind to resist the temptation to believe that this is exactly what the Left wants. That is to say, because the Left has always hated America, they must embrace and advocate anything that harms American civilization, anything which weakens our civilization and which may hasten its collapse. Never mind how many people suffer needlessly in the process, of course, because liberals care nothing for actual human beings, loving only “humanity” in the abstract.
— RSM

Anyone who wishes to pray for Miriam Weeks may do so. My own impulse when confronted with such evil people as Ms. Weeks — who daily curse God and mock the righteous, as they urge others to join them in the willing embrace of Satan in a self-chosen journey to Hell — is to wish them bon voyage on their journey, and to hope that their destruction is both sudden and so catastrophic that the agony of their disgrace will make their spectacular doom a warning to any other fool who may ever be tempted to emulate them.

One hesitates to wish destruction on others. Yet when fools bring destruction upon themselves, when they disregard all warnings of the wise, when they mock those who attempt to tell them they are traveling the road to Hell — well, like I said: Bon voyage!

UPDATE: The latest from the inspirational Ms. Weeks:

Because, hey, getting paid to satisfy the kinky tastes of fetishistic paraphiliac sadomasochists is “empowering”!

 

Category: Culture

‘She Passed Out in a Bedroom . . . She Wasn’t Strong Enough to Push Him Away’

Posted on | May 14, 2014 | 59 Comments

When @Belle_Knox — porn alias of Miriam Weeks, the Duke University freshman Women’s Studies major — began telling her story, everyone with an interest in the field of abnormal psychology took notice.

Her explanation of why she was doing what she was doing simply didn’t add up. We were asked to believe that financial desperation had driven Weeks to her career as a “teen porn” starlet, yet she was the daughter of an affluent Spokane physician who had attended a prestigious prep school and, Weeks said, she had turned down a full scholarship to Vanderbilt in order to attend Duke. And there were clear indications that it wasn’t really all about the money. Miriam Weeks is a “cutter,” with visible scars that show her history of self-harm: “Apparently her ex-boyfriend that cheated on her told her she was fat so she carved the word into her thigh.” Furthermore, she said she started watching porn at 12 and — maybe I’m naive and maybe times have changed — but sixth-grade girls diddling themselves to porn videos seems rather weird, eh?

“I think that when people condemn pornography, they’re really just following this societal construct of what sex is, based on religion, based on patriarchy, and so many societal forces. . . .
“The first porn I ever watched was — it was just like an orgy of girls getting fingered . . . and I remember how much it aroused me. . . .
“I like what I like. But I do really like rough sex and stuff. And I like lesbian porn. . . .
“The only porn I watch is blowjob porn. It is the only thing I can get off to, is watching a girl get her face fucked . . . That’s hot. I can’t watch normal sex and get off to it. I have to watch blowjob porn. I don’t know why.”
— Miriam Weeks (“Belle Knox”)

To put it as bluntly as possible: Miriam Weeks is a perverted freak.

Her claims that she started doing porn because of financial desperation are obviously a rationalization of her perverse appetites, her preference for sado-masochistic degradation and her own damaged sexuality, which have rendered her, at the age of 19, incapable of deriving erotic satisfaction from “normal sex.” Her scapegoating of “religion . . . patriarchy, and so many societal forces” is likewise a rationalization, a sort of sour-grapes rejection of those forces she blames for her sense of shame at her ruined condition.

“I like what I like,” Weeks says, unable to escape the subjectivity of her experience to wonder how she learned to like it. This is where psychological therapy would be more helpful than her jargon-laden feminist rhetoric about “societal forces.” Yet she insists that degrading herself on video in exhibitionistic re-enactments — is her career a case of porn imitating life, or life imitating porn? — is an “empowering” expression of her “sexual autonomy.”

Now an article in Rolling Stone offers still more insight into her behavior:

Weeks knows that the prevailing narrative for women who enter porn is that they’re crazy, damaged or have daddy issues; and so she hesitates to tell me the parts of her story that seem most to fit that narrative. It’s not until dinner at a Panera Bread close to campus that, picking nervously at a cup of soup, she reveals that she was raped at a house party in high school. She’d had so much to drink that she passed out in a bedroom, waking when a guy she’d seen eyeing her earlier opened the door. She wasn’t strong enough to push him away. The experience, and her friends’ responses to it — blaming her for being slutty and careless, begging her to not press charges because they’d all been underage and drinking — are what got Weeks interested in women’s rights to begin with. And the vast difference in her mind between what it felt like to be raped and the consensual sex she has on camera has made her defense of the porn industry come more naturally.

“Paging Dr. Freud! Dr. Sigmund Freud, please call your office!”

Freudianism is dead, thank God, but there are some cases where certain psychoanalytic concepts might seem to offer explanations for why people do what they do. We must not “blame the victim,” however, and I will therefore leave the psychology majors to reach their own conclusions about the self-destructive behavior of Ms. Weeks.

Nevertheless, it is safe to say, she hates herself.

Her ego and sense of personal identity are profoundly damaged, and her narcissistic exhibitions — her craving for admiration — are an acting-out of her own internal drama, where her flawed self is being constantly chastised by the frightening voice of shame. She seeks to silence the voices in her heed, to drown out the shouted denunciations of herself that have tortured her since childhood, through performances (her entire life is a narcissistic performance, where others are always spectators) by which she seeks to elicit admiration that negates, or at least counterbalances, the voice of shame inside her head.

The narcissist cannot understand herself because her selfish egocentric perspective traps her in subjectivity, so that her mind has no access to an objective view of herself or others. However, Miriam Weeks is a high-functioning borderline case, her extreme intelligence and privileged social position (her affluent background and elite education) providing her with resources that permit her to cope with her identity crisis, even if she cannot accurately the sources of her psychosexual problems.

Her verbal fluency and familiarity with jargon enable her to rationalize and justify her deviant behaviors: She is “empowering” herself and exercising her “sexual autonomy,” blahblahblah, and resents those who try to treat her as a “rescue project,” as someone who needs to be saved from herself. The self she has created through narcissistic performance — her public identity, her persona — must be defended from criticism, as the validation of her creation (her inauthentic impersonation of a self she wishes to be) is necessary to her attempted self-deception.

All her relationships are dysfunctional as a result of her defective personality. Miriam Weeks has no true friends, because deception is the fundamental basis of the narcissist’s life. No one can ever trust her to tell the whole truth, and her egocentric selfishness makes it difficult for anyone to rely on her to keep any promise she makes.

Her sense of friendlessness is related to her mood disorders. She has said she has suffered from depression, and she exhibits the classic bipolar tendency when, in a hypomanic phase, she takes extravagant risks and makes grandiose pronouncements. Her seemingly impulsive decision to become a porn performer — she says it was a sudden whim, although you can never trust a narcissist to tell the truth about anything — is exactly the sort of overconfident bad judgment that is characteristic of the bipolar personality’s manic mood.

If Miriam Weeks has previously been treated with psychiatric drugs, it may be that she is quite literally “off her meds” now, so that her insane behaviors are emerging symptoms of a mental disorder that her medication was supposed to suppress. It is also possible, especially in light of what she says about her binge-drinking experiences as a teenager, that Miriam Weeks has substance abuse issues and is attempting to “self-medicate” with a varying mixture of stimulants (methamphetamine, cocaine, coffee) and depressants (alcohol, tranquilizers, pain pills).

If this is the case — and we are simply hypothesizing a possibility, on the basis of available evidence and known experience of similar cases — then Miriam Weeks is dangerously out of control. Her high intelligence and elite academic background make it easier for her to conceal her underlying problems and to rationalize his deviant behavior. Her statements in interviews are accepted as justifications by sympathetic journalists and readers.

However, if Miriam Weeks is in fact suffering from a serious mental disorder, if her bizarre behaviors are in fact psychiatric symptoms, and especially if she is secretly engaged in “self-medicating” substance abuse, she is in real danger, and intervention will eventually be required. Sooner or later, the manic phase of bipolar disorder ends in the shattering “crash” of depression. Anyone who has seen the results of “self-medicating” substance abuse knows such “treatment” is as dangerous as the untreated craziness the patient is trying to cure. Too often, the final cure is death — as in the case of celebrities like John Belushi.

All of this is speculative amateur psychology, of course, but trust me: I know what crazy looks like, and “Belle Knox” is crazy.

But is Miriam Weeks/”Belle Knox” a feminist role model? Huffington Post columnist Jess Carbino doesn’t think so:

Due to their privileged social positions and flawed reasoning, Knox’s and [virginity auctioneer Elizabeth] Raine’s efforts to use sex work as a platform against women’s inequality are rather perpetuating women’s inequality.

You can read the whole thing. I think Miriam Weeks is a perfect feminist role model: “Crazy” is a good synonym for “feminist.”

UPDATE: The Kook Caucus and the Pervert Lobby.

 

Category: Education, Feminism, Sex

Today’s Ray Of Hope: Harvard Gets A Clue

Posted on | May 14, 2014 | 51 Comments

— Wombat-socho


“Despair is a sin.” – J.E.Pournelle


This should actually have gone up yesterday, but I spent most of the day waiting for my truck to be worked on and am not much interested in trying to make posts from my cellphone, bolshy great phablet that it is. It’s actually better for having waited a day, since now I can point you to Da Tech Guy’s excellent post on the Eucharistic Adoration held Monday night at MIT’s chapel, and the consequent mass at St. Paul’s in Cambridge, which were a protest to the Black Mass scheduled to be held at Harvard. You should go read it now, enjoy the many interviews Pete did with (among others) former mayor of Boston and ambassador to the Vatican Ray Flynn, and check out the even more numerous pictures. Throw money at Da Tip Jar while you’re there.


Maybe I’m blowing this out of proportion, but I find it significant in this time of “anything goes” religious and anti-religious practice that the people of Boston and Cambridge stood up in great numbers and said “This far and no farther.” The Black Mass was not only protested by local folks but by thousands of students and faculty at Harvard itself, and whatever failures of nerve Harvard President Drew Faust may have shown in the past, I think it took a bit of courage to attend the Adoration and the Mass. Andrew Breitbart is often quoted as saying “Politics is downstream from culture,” and is it too much to hope for that the Silent Majority has finally grown sick of hipsters mocking their religion and pretending to play at Satanism to shock the bourgeoisie? As Pete points out, the outcry was enough for the club originally sponsoring the Black Mass to withdraw its sanction and with it, the use of Harvard space. Some sources say that the event was eventually held off-campus at a Chinese restaurant; others say the property owner refused to rent the space. One thing is clear: there was no Black Mass held at the college that once was known for training Congregationalist preachers.


Category: Catholics, Culture, Da Tech Guy

LIVE AT FIVE: 05.14.14

Posted on | May 14, 2014 | 3 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho


TOP NEWS
201 Dead, Hundreds Missing In
Turkey Coal Mine Fire

Medics help a wounded miner after the mine disaster in western Turkey

Almost 800 miners inside when electrical unit exploded, triggering fire

Uttar Pradesh Embraces Modi, Bihar Not So Much
Secular voters combine with Muslims against BJP in Bihar; Modi leading in all four major polls anyway

Ukraine Round Table Talks Begin Today
Degrees of decentralization to be discussed



POLITICS
Tea Party Favorite Ben Sasse Wins Bruising Nebraska Primary

Midland University president Ben Sasse, now GOP candidate for Senate from Nebraska

Establishment favorite Shane Osborn concedes after finishing third


Rove Defends Comments Questioning Hillary’s Health

Federal Judge Strikes Down Idaho Ban On Gay Marriage



Mooney Wins Crowded WV-2 GOP Primary; Capito To Face Nick Casey In General For Senate

Rep. Conyers Fails To Qualify For Michigan Primary Ballot

Sallie Mae Reaches $60 Million Settlement With DOJ Over Military Student Loans

Ras Baraka Declares Victory In Newark Mayor Race



THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Asian Crude Up On Hints Of US Crude Exports: NYMEX $101.96, Brent $109.35
Asian Shares Rise, Euro Wobbles Under Pressure
Dow, S&P 500 End At Record Highs Again
Hollywood, Amazon, And Your Local Realtor Pushing To Legalize Drones
IRS Misses Deadline To Appeal Tax Preparer Rules Rejection
Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift Didn’t Deliver For Elizabeth Arden
Microsoft Backflips On Kinect For XBox One
Google’s Self-Driving Car Makes Strides
Suspected Iranian Hackers Target US Defense Industries
Oracle Wants Its $1.3 Billion Pound Of Flesh In Unique SAP Theft Case
FCC Adjusts Open Internet Rules Amid Controversy



SPORTS
Rangers Cap Comeback, Top Penguins 2-1 In Game 7

The Rangers’ Boyle shoots, and scores!

Lundqvist made 35 saves to put the Rangers ahead

Gortat Pummels Pacers As Wizards Narrow Gap To 3-2

Wild’s Season Ends With 2-1 Loss To Blackhawks


Stan Van Gundy Hired By Pistons

Royals Shut Down Rockies Offense In 5-1 Win

Keuchel Goes The Distance As Astros Blank Rangers

Parmelee’s Sayonara Blast In 9th Wins For Twins

Nats Rally, Edge Snakes 6-5



FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
Harry Potter Spinoff “Fantastic Beasts” To Hit Big Screen November 2016

J.K. Rowling

First movie in a projected trilogy

Channing Tatum Cast As X-Man Gambit

Justin Bieber – LAPD Investigating Alleged Attempted Robbery

Alec Baldwin Arrested For Wrong-Way Biking In NYC

Roberto Orci To Direct “Star Trek 3”

Drew Barrymore “Couldn’t Be Better” After Having Second Child



FOREIGNERS
PRC Set To Charge Glaxo Over Bribery
Vietnam Protesters Torch PRC Factories Over South China Seas Dispute
Nigeria Signals Readiness To Talk To Boko Haram
Special UN/Arab League Envoy To Syria Suddenly Quits
Italy Lashes Out At EU After Migrant Shipwreck
Suspected Nork Drone Found On Mountain Near Seoul
Japan’s PM Shinzo Abe To Pitch Security Change To Divided Voters, Wary Partner
ICC Prosecutor To Examine Alleged British Crimes In Iraq War



BLOGS & STUFF
Doug Powers: Behold The Epic Self-Inflicted Beclowning Of Eleanor Clift
Twitchy: Chris Hayes Uses Benghazi In Failed Trolling Attempt
American Power: Harvard’s Kennedy School Adds “Check Your Privilege 101” To New Student Orientation
Blackmailers Don’t Shoot: Noted Di Blasio Supporter Has Run-In With Petty Statists
Conservatives4Palin: Joni Ernst Snags Chamber Of Commerce Endorsement In Iowa
Jammie Wearing Fools: Warren Buffett Has Given $1.2 Million To Abortion Groups
Joe For America: Does Hillary Clinton Have Brain Damage?
JustOneMinute: Don’t Dream It, Be It
Pat Dollard: MSNBC’s Jonathan Capehart Doesn’t Think Tolerance Should Be A Two-Way Street
Shot In The Dark: Chanting Points Memo – The Straw War
STUMP: Campbell’s Law And Talking Back To Numbers – The Public Pensions Connection
The Lonely Conservative: CAIR Wants “Islamist Extremist” And “Jihadism” Removed From 9/11 Memorial
This Ain’t Hell: Along With The A-10, Guess What Else The Air Force Wanted To Ax?
Weasel Zippers: Obama-Appointed Former CIA Director Backs Benghazi Select Committee
Megan McArdle: The Little States That Couldn’t On Obamacare


Category: Live at Five

The Brutality of Kurt Schlichter

Posted on | May 13, 2014 | 46 Comments

Of course, I mean brutality as a compliment, expressing my admiration of his skillful demolition of a liberal “argument”:

Mock them. Accuse them of adhering to a transphobic cisnormative paradigm and start shrieking “Hate crime!”
Don’t worry about not making sense. They’re college students. They are used to not understanding what people smarter than they are tell them.
Respectful argument should be reserved for those who respect the concept of argument. The sulky sophomores who babble about privilege do not. They only understand power. And we give them power when we give their nonsense the respect we would give a coherent argument.
They deserve only laughter. . . .

Read the whole thing. Somebody ought to teach classes in this kind of rhetoric. And that column should be included in the textbook.

 

 

Category: Conservatism 101, Intellectuals
« go back — keep looking »

    About

    This is an area on your website where you can add text. This will serve as an informative location on your website, where you can talk about your site.

    Subscribe to our feed

    Search

    Admin