In The Mailbox, 04.10.14

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— compiled by Wombat-socho


OVER THE TRANSOM
Proof Positive: Sluggish and “Now We’re Just Haggling Over The Price”
Michelle Malkin: The Meltdown Of The Obama Genderhawks
Doug Powers: House Panel Requests DOJ Prosecution Of Lois Lerner
Twitchy: Abominable Doucherocket Michael Tomasky Of The Daily Beast Explains Why Conservative Women Are So Dumb


RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
American Power: Ayaan Hirsi Ali – Banned At Brandeis
American Thinker: Pro-Choice – Defending The Right Not To Be Gay
Blackfive: The Bigotry Of The Myth Of The Ticking Vet
Blackmailers Don’t Shoot: Shocker – Gathering Of Drunk, Half-Naked College Students Ends In Disaster
Conservatives4Palin: Governor Palin Tells Holder “These Are My Identifying Bracelets”
Don Surber: Daily Scoreboard, April 9
Jammie Wearing Fools: Obama Pal Sharpton Wore FBI Wire To Save Himself From Drug Sting
Joe For America: Video Of Violence Breaking Out Between Ranchers, BLM Officers Over Cattle Dispute
Pat Dollard: IRS Agents Caught Openly Campaigning For Obama
Protein Wisdom: Radical Identity Politics, Homosexuality, And The Irony Of The New Jihad
Shot In The Dark: Chanting Points Memo – The New GULAG
STUMP: Public Pensions Watch – The Detroit Deal’s Basics
The Jawa Report: CAIR Complains Women Having Human Rights Is Anti-Islamic
Lonely Conservative: Lois Lerner Hoped To Get A Job With Organizing For America
This Ain’t Hell: Marine Corps Sergeant Major Says Poor Marines Are Best For The Corps
Megan McArdle: How Ukraine Could Alter New York’s Skyline


Five days left in tax season.

JustOneMinute: Fahrenheit 8

77 Cents on the Dollar?

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President Obama’s repetition of feminist “pay gap” lies — the false claim that women earn only 77 cents for every dollar men earn in the same jobs — has come back to haunt him, Jennifer Rubin says:

I’m betting the White House staffer who thought up the equal pay initiative is getting some fairly icy looks and snippy calls from Democrats.

Rubin cites a series of consequences, including this:

The White House discovered this week that calculations using average wages can yield unsatisfactory results. McClatchy newspapers did the math and reported that when the same standards that generated the 77-cent figure were applied to White House salaries, women overall at the White House make 91 cents for every dollar men make. White House spokesman Jay Carney protested that the review “looked at the aggregate of everyone on staff, and that includes from the most junior levels to the most senior.” But that’s exactly what the Census Department does.

The magic feminist “77 cents” number is derived from a crude comparison that, in essence, aggregates millions of apples-to-oranges comparisons. To compare the average income of all women to the average income of all men necessarily yields these false comparisons, because such crude averages do not take into consideration a host of factors that account for differences in income. Once you control for such factors — occupational specialty, years of education, etc. — the mythical “wage gap” evaporates. Caroline May at the Daily Caller reports:

The pay gap among women in the White House is more than twice as large as the average in the nation’s capital.
While female White House staffers earn about 88 cents for every dollar men in the White House make, women in the District earn about 95 cents for every dollar a men make, according to the most recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
That’s a 12-cent pay gap at the White House compared to a five-cent pay gap in the District of Columbia.

It’s always fun to play “gotcha” with liberals, using their own professed criteria to indict them for hypocrisy, but it’s important to remember that this is not ultimately the point of the exercise. When we call attention to the falseness of Democrat rhetoric by citing their inability to live up to the standards they would impose on others, our larger purpose should be to expose the erroneous beliefs that are embedded in liberal “standards.”

The radical  egalitarian worldview, which sees “discrimination” and “social injustice” wherever inequality exists, and which proposes government regulation as the solution to such alleged problems, invariably produces “solutions” that make life worse for everyone — except, perhaps, for the bureaucrats who get paid to enforce the regulations. A free economy may not result in what everyone would call fairness, but it does reliably produce prosperity. The radical egalitarian goal of “social justice” is a mirage, as Friedrich Hayek explained, and the pursuit of mirages is a waste of human resources.

 

Texas Tranny Teacher

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Say hello to Laura Jane Klug who, until quite recently, was Kurt Klug. In fact, as recently as July 2011, Kurt Klug was complaining on Facebook about the emotional turmoil caused by his wife leaving him. And so now, the divorced Kurt has decided to be “Laura Jane,” and wants to be a fifth-grade teacher in small-town Texas:

A transgender substitute teacher said she has been told she should not return to her classes, after parents complained about her.
Laura Jane Klug, who was born Kurt Klug, worked as a fifth grade substitute teacher at Lumberton Intermediate School, but was asked not to return after some of the students’ parents contacted the school.
Klug told 12 News that she met with a representative of Lumberton Independent School District’s Human Resources and Superintendent John Valastro Tuesday afternoon. Klug said they suspended her pending a decision by the school board on whether to continue using her as a substitute teacher.
Roger Beard, whose son was in the class Klug was subbing, said what concerns him is the distraction he believes a transgender teacher poses to ten and eleven year old children.
“If it does affect my child and his ability to learn or if it causes questions that I don’t feel are appropriate then undoubtedly there’s an issue with having somebody transgender, transsexual or transvestite, to be teaching that age group,” Beard said.
Klug said that she has substituted at the school without any issues before and she’s unsure what instigated the outrage.
“I have always conducted myself in a professional manner and would never discuss my gender identity in school,” Klug said.

The population of Lumberton is not quite 9,000 people.

12 News KBMT and K-JAC. News, Weather and Sports for SE Texas

 

You really need to read the report by David Bellow at Texas Conservative Republican, which includes comments from people on Facebook, e.g.: “Here is what a [Lumberton] teacher said yesterday at church: ‘He has 5 o’clock shadow and fake fingernails. The 5th grade class he was in spent more time staring at him than taking their test, so he was pulled out for hall duty.” We can expect LGBT activists to portray  Klug as a victim of bigotry, but common sense suggests that if your mid-life crisis involves a sex change, maybe “fifth-grade teacher in small Texas town” is not an ideal career choice.

 

Police: Child Welfare Official Exposed Himself to Teenage Girls at Hotel

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The victims of this weird crime “were staying at the hotel while attending the Nebraska Family, Career and Community Leaders of America state leadership conference” in Lincoln, Nebraska:

A director of a national child welfare center in Washington, D.C., was arrested and jailed Monday night for allegedly exposing himself to four teenage girls in a Lincoln hotel.
He was in town to help the state Department of Health and Human Services work on child welfare issues. . . .
Steven L. Preister, 68, was cited by police after allegedly confronting the girls as they exited a stairwell and began lecturing and yelling at them for being too loud. He allegedly followed them to their room and held the door open despite their attempts to close it — all while intoxicated and wearing nothing but a T-shirt, according to Katie Flood, a police officer with the Lincoln Police Department.
Police were called shortly before 10 p.m. to the Cornhusker Marriott Hotel, where four girls, ages 14 to 15, said they were confronted by Preister. Two adult chaperones and another hotel guest reportedly witnessed the incident.
The Washington, D.C., man is associate director of the National Child Welfare Resource Center for Organizational Improvement. He is listed as a faculty member at the Cutler Institute for Health and Social Policy at the Muskie School of Public Service, which “develops innovative approaches to pressing health and social challenges faced by individuals, families, and communities.”
Flood said Preister was in Lincoln to speak and provide assistance with child abuse investigations. Kathie Osterman, spokeswoman for the state Department of Health and Human Services, said Preister was recommended by the feds to give the state technical assistance.

More at Watchdog.org. (Hat-tip: Melissa Clouthier on Twitter.)

 

House Democrats and the IRS Cover-Up

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Headline by Katie Pavlich at Townhall:

BREAKING: Emails Show Lois Lerner
Fed True the Vote Tax Information
to Democrat Elijah Cummings

Details from Eliana Johnson at National Review:

The war between Oversight Committee chairman Darrell Issa and the committee’s ranking member, Elijah Cummings, rages on.
Issa on Wednesday accused the Maryland Democrat of colluding with the Internal Revenue Service in its targeting of the conservative nonprofit group True the Vote . . .
In a letter signed by his five subcommittee chairmen, Issa raised the possibility that Cummings coordinated with the IRS, “surreptitiously” contacting the agency to request information about True the Vote.
E-mails unearthed in the course of Issa’s investigation into the IRS’s inappropriate targeting of right-leaning groups show that in January 2013, a member of Cummings’s staff contacted the IRS asking for any publicly available information on True the Vote. The matter was discussed by IRS officials that included Lois Lerner, the former exempt-organizations chief who retired in the wake of the targeting scandal. One of Lerner’s deputies, Holly Paz, subsequently sent the organization’s 990 forms to Cummings and his staff — not an illegal disclosure of taxpayer information, though sources say the exchange of such information was not routine.

More documents are available at the Oversight Committee web page. Remember what I said yesterday:

My interpretation is that Democrats who have repeated claims that there was no political bias in the IRS are essentially part of a cover-up effort. And make no mistake: There was (and still is) a cover-up.

Elijah Cummings is a corrupt liar. Which is to say, he is a Democrat.

 

Brandeis and Suicidal Liberalism

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Brandeis University has withdrawn an honorary degree for the courageous truth-teller Ayaan Hirsi Ali, because gutless lying liberals hate truth and courage. Bill Kristol is disgusted:

Brandeis University has in recent years bestowed an honorary degree on Tony Kushner, who called the creation of Israel as a Jewish state “a mistake” and who attacked Israel for ethnic cleansing and for causing “terrible peril in the world.” Brandeis has also honored Desmond Tutu, who compared Israel to Hitler, attacked the “Jewish lobby” as too “powerful” and “scary,” and complained of the “Jewish monopoly of the Holocaust.” . . .
Brandeis president Fred Lawrence came under “pressure” — i.e., received complaints from some students and whining from some faculty — and promptly caved. He has disinvited Ayaan Hirsi Ali from receiving an honorary doctorate this year.
His justification for caving was pathetic. Lawrence announced that “we cannot overlook certain of her past statements that are inconsistent with Brandeis University’s core values. For all concerned, we regret that we were not aware of these statements earlier.” Needless to say, he doesn’t specify any of these statements. And he doesn’t explain how Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s life and thought — but not Tony Kushner’s or Desmond Tutu’s — has been in any way “inconsistent with Brandeis University’s core values.”

(Via Memeorandum.)

 

Judge Scolds Brett Kimberlin

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ROCKVILLE, Maryland — Brett Kimberlin was scolded by a Montgomery County judge today for illegally altering a document in Kimberlin’s lawsuit against Aaron Walker and other bloggers.

Circuit Court Judge Joan E. Ryon verbally admonished Kimberlin after he admitted that he had fabricated evidence relating to his attempt to serve notice of the lawsuit on one of the defendants, conservative New Media actvisist Ali Akbar.

“Did you alter the document?” Judge Ryon asked Kimberlin, after he had attempted to excuse the fabrication of a post office record. When Kimberlin again attempted to avoid a direct answer, Judge Ryon said: “You’re not answering my question.”

Kimberlin then admitted that he had altered the document, but sought to excuse the error by pointing out that he is pursuing his suit against the bloggers on a pro se basis, acting as his own attorney. To that, Judge Ryon responded: “Don’t even use that with me.”

Kimberlin, a convicted bomber who became famous for claiming once to have sold marijuana to former Vice President Dan Quayle, is suing five bloggers in Maryland court, and has also filed a federal lawsuit against a total of 21 defendants, claiming that they have conspired against him for purposes of harassment.

Patrick Ostronic, attorney for defendants in the Maryland case, asked the court to sanction Kimberlin for altering a postal document previous submitted as evidence in preliminary filings. After Kimberlin admitted during Wednesday’s hearing that he had altered the document, Judge Ryon said she would not dismiss the case against Akbar, as Ostronic had asked, but said she would fine Kimberlin if she had statutory authority to do so. The judge called a recess to consult Maryland statutes, and returned to say she could find no authority for such a penalty. However, Judge Ryon sternly admonished Kimberlin about submitting altered documents.

Kimberlin filed the Maryland lawsuit seeking $1 million damages last September, and sued for $2 million in federal court in October. In the federal lawsuit, Kimberlin has admitted to forging a summons for Twitchy, a popular Twitter aggregation site started by syndicated columnist Michelle Malkin.

UPDATE: More from my co-defendant John Hoge.