The Other McCain

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

Police: Ex-Teacher Tonya Drueppel, 33, Had Sex With 13-Year-Old ‘Girlfriend’

Posted on | January 30, 2014 | 50 Comments

The headline at the Sioux Falls (S.D.) Argus Leader:

Former Sioux Falls teacher accused
of raping female student, 14

The headline is misleading because (a) the girl was 13 when the “relationship” began in 2012, and (b) it was “consensual.”

Or, as Whoopi Goldberg might say, “It wasn’t rape-rape.”

The quality of news coverage on this case ranges from confusing to inadequate. Evidently no journalist in Sioux Falls was able to find a mug shot of the accused perp, and the story of the alleged crimes is so badly told that you’d rather they just posted the police affidavit verbatim.

By reading multiple accounts — including those from KSFY-TV and KELO-TV — it’s possible to glean this narrative:

Someone became concerned after seeing Tonya Marie Drueppel together with the 14-year-old girl “in the corner of a bathroom” at the YMCA earlier this month.
On Jan. 22, Sioux Falls police began an investigation after receiving a referral from the Department of Social Services. On Jan. 23, police interviewed the girl at Axtell Park Middle School, where the girl “told officers her relationship with Drueppel was physical between October 2012 and December 2012” when Drueppel was her teacher.
Drueppel, 33, had taught at the school since 2009, but resigned in May 2013 and was employed at a local daycare. Drueppel is a mother of three — two girls, ages 14 and 12, and a boy, 9 — and her husband filed for divorce in March 2013.
On Jan. 24, Drueppel did not show up for work and the girl did not show up for school. Police found them together in a room at the Nites Inn motel, where the girl said they had sex. When police entered the room, Drueppel was in the bathroom trying to hang herself with an electrical cord. According to police, the girl said she had at least five sexual encounters with Drueppel. The girl said “she performed oral sex on Drueppel” and also had sex with her teacher when she spent the night at Drueppel’s house twice. “The victim stated that she kind of looks at (Drueppel) as being her girlfriend. The victim stated that (Drueppel) feels the same way about her.”

An eighth-grade girl with a 33-year-old “girlfriend” — who are we to judge? Drueppel has been charged with three counts of fourth-degree rape and two counts of sexual contact with a child under 16. She is being held on a $500,000 cash bond.

 

Category: Crime, Education, Sex, South Dakota

Ted Cruz: Media Acting as ‘Palace Guard’ to Protect Obama in IRS Scandal UPDATE: Tom Perez Fails to Provide Information on Bosserman’s Appointment

Posted on | January 29, 2014 | 28 Comments

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz said Wednesday the media have failed to do their job by demanding answers in the Internal Revenue Service scandal.

“The media should hold the administration accountable,” Cruz said. Instead of acting as watchdogs, however, the media are acting as a “palace guard” protecting President Obama from scrutiny, the conservative Republican told bloggers during a conference call.

Cruz’s comments came after a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in which he questioned Attorney General Eric Holder about the Justice Department’s investigation of the IRS scandal. In wake of reports that the investigation is being led by Barbara Bosserman, who donated thousands of dollars to Obama’s presidential campaigns, Cruz asked Holder: “I would call upon you to carry out the tradition of independence that attorneys general have honored that office with for centuries and protect the integrity of the Department of Justice, given the political sensitivities, given the fact that individual citizens believe they are being persecuted by the Department of Justice for partisan reasons. It would further Justice and further the integrity of the Department of Justice for you to appoint a special prosecutor with a meaningful degree of independence to investigate and find out what happened, and I would suggest that any special prosecutor should have integrity beyond reproach, and not be a major Obama donor.”

Holder answered: “I don’t think that there is a basis for us to conclude on the information as it presently exists that there is any reason for the appointment of the independent counsel. … The notion that somehow this has caused a loss of faith in this Justice Department is inconsistent with the facts.”

Holder said: “I don’t have any basis to believe that the people who engaged in this investigation are doing so in a way other than investigations are normally done. That is by looking at the facts, applying the law to those facts, and reaching the appropriate conclusion. I don’t have any basis to believe anything other than that is occurring.”

Sen. Cruz responded, “I would say a lot of American citizens have a basis to believe it, given 282 days have passed and no on has been indicted, 280 days have passed and many, if not all, of the victims have not even been interviewed. 280 days have passed and apparently the anger and outrage that both the President and you expressed has utterly disappeared. Indeed, in last night’s State of the Union address the President did not so much as mention the word ‘IRS.’ So the anger and outrage sees very little manifestation in actual action.”

Speaking to bloggers after Wednesday’s hearing, Cruz said “Holder accepted no accountability,” and said the Justice Department “has done absolutely nothing” in its investigation of the IRS scandal, which Cruz described as “abuse of power and lawlessness.”

UPDATE: In related news, on Jan. 14, House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa (R-California) and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) sent a letter to Labor Secretary Tom Perez, who in his previous job as an assistant attorney general was Barbara Bosserman’s boss at the Justice Department until July 2013.

In their letter, Issa and Jordan asked Perez to provide documents related to Bosserman’s appointment to lead the IRS investigation: “Please supply this information as soon as possible, but no later than 5:00 p.m. on January 28, 2014.”

Just checked with a source at the Oversight Committee, who reports that Perez failed to comply with Issa and Jordan’s request.

 

Category: Eric Holder, Scandal, Taxes, Ted Cruz

Obama Endorses Feminist Folly

Posted on | January 29, 2014 | 45 Comments

The myth that women are systematically underpaid — that they’re paid a fraction of what men are paid for the same work — is a basic apples-and-orange error based on comparing the wages of men (on average) with the wages of women (on average) without regard to their occupations, educational levels or years of workplace experience. But the “wage gap” myth is so deeply entrenched in feminist dogma that Democrats insist legislation is needed to correct it, as Obama proposed Tuesday in his State of the Union address:

You know, today, women make up about half our workforce, but they still make 77 cents for every dollar a man earns. That is wrong, and in 2014, it’s an embarrassment.
Women deserve equal pay for equal work.
You know, she deserves to have a baby without sacrificing her job. A mother deserves a day off to care for a sick child or sick parent without running into hardship. And you know what, a father does too. It is time to do away with workplace policies that belong in a “Mad Men” episode. This year let’s all come together, Congress, the White House, businesses from Wall Street to Main Street, to give every woman the opportunity she deserves, because I believe when women succeed, America succeeds.

So here we have a myth (women “still make 77 cents for every dollar a man earns”), a slogan (“equal pay for equal work”), and a number of vague rhetorical gestures toward policy to overcome a mythical disparity in accordance with an egalitarian slogan. As a demagogic bonus, Obama then implies that his political opponents — those who refuse his invitation to “let’s all come together” in support of his policy proposals — are enemies of women’s success.

Question: If this was such an urgent policy priority for Obama and Democrats, why didn’t they solve this problem in 2009-2010, when Democrats controlled both houses of Congress?

 

Category: Feminism

SOTU Response From A Veteran: NO!

Posted on | January 29, 2014 | 11 Comments

by Smitty

 

The speech was a Mark 1, Mod 0 Obama affair, “More Smears and Lies“, as Gateway Pundit deftly summarized. I expect the conservative blogs will be awash today in point-by-point denunciations and deconstructions of what #OccupyResoluteDesk excreted before Congress last night.

What motivates this post was the climax to the whole “self-congratulatory blowout celebration of how well our governing class has done their jobs”, where a wounded warrior was dangled like a prop to squeeze the final standing ovation from the crowd.

I suppose al Qaeda is cheered by seeing their handiwork on display before Congress, and I suspect that may have been the intended audience. But to have the President who has cut military pensions, and who, apparently, played spades during the bin Laden raid (what about while men were dying in Benghazi?) put on a show like this SOTU was deeply offensive. I know: as a male of European extraction, Political Correctness precludes me from becoming officially offended, due to generations of injustice perpetrated by those of similar gender and skin pigment, but still.

You want to know who has some credibility on the topic of the military? George W. Bush, that’s who. You can agree or not, but I’d contend that honoring the troops is not something done for spectacle, as seems everything that BHO does, but is rather closer to prayer, i.e. best done in secret. Anyone giving a speech can put on a spectacle; what’s done off-camera reveals the motives.

Unfortunately, Obama deals more from the deck of Gustav LeBon, where the image of a soldier with major head trauma is supposed to be what you take away from the speech. Seeing Remsburg at the climax of an hour of banalities was a punch to the gut.

In closing, this post is calling into question the cynical motives of Obama for using Sgt. 1st Class Cory Remsburg. I’m not taking away anything from Remsburg himself. Cory is a man following orders. Would that the one giving the orders were worthy.

Category: Uncategorized

LIVE AT FIVE: 01.29.14

Posted on | January 29, 2014 | 4 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho


TOP NEWS
President Ignores Obamacare Stumbles While Taunting GOP

President Sham-Wow bores the cr@p out of an already apathetic nation.

As Obama talks, GOP fires back on Twitter



Commie Folksinger Pete Seeger Assumes Room Temperature
Faithful Stalinist finally shuts up



Ukraine Government Resigns, Narrowly Avoiding No-Confidence Vote
Putin warns West against meddling



POLITICS
Supreme Court Grants Stay Of Execution To Missouri Murderer

On death row since 1993 for first-degree murder

Lawyer whines that unknown execution drug mix could cause pain & suffering


Democrat Senators Urge Supremes To Deny Religious Exemption In Hobby Lobby Case


Abortion Barbie Fires Back At Critics

GOP SOTU Response: Look Outside Washington To See What Really Matters

Sen. Coburn Says Obamacare Cost Him Coverage For Cancer Doctor

Panel That Cleared Sen. Mark Udall? All Democrats.



THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Asian Crude Falls On Increased US Inventories: US $97.18, Brent $107.40
Asia Enjoys Relief Rally As Turkey Takes Bold Step
Alibaba Quarterly Profit Rises Ahead Of IPO
Ford Posts Second-Highest Profit In Last Ten Years
Icahn Ups Apple Stake After Stock Price Drops
Indiegogo Raises $40 Million Ahead Of Global Expansion
Feds To Allow Firms To Release Data On NSA Requests
AT&T Posts Strong Q4 Profits But Loses 27% Of Customers
Google Releases Chrome-Based Lego Set
Nintendo Denies Smartphone Software Rumor
Silicon Valley Is Now Public Enemy #1, And We Have Only Ourselves To Blame



SPORTS
Knicks Win Third Straight With Celtics Rout

Carmelo Anthony scores 24; four other Knicks in double figures too

NY 114, Boston 88: early-season rout avenged


Spezza Scores In Third As Sens Edge Blue Jackets

College Athletes Take Steps To Form Labor Union


Bruins Rout Panthers 6-2

Rockets Rally For 97-90 Win Over Spurs

Predators Edge Jets 4-3

Jimmie Johnson Shocked, Supports Potential Chase Changes

Leafs Post 3-2 Win Against Lightning

Anthony Rendon Is Ready For 2014



FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
Zooey Deschanel Teams Up With Tommy Hilfiger

From Zooey, To Tommy: not a love note, but a clothing line

They say they’re flirty but they look nicely modest to me

Toni Braxton Buys $3 Million Mansion Just Six Months After Bankruptcy

Rosie O’Donnell Returns To “The View” As Guest Seven Years After Bitter Exit

Bieber To Be Arraigned February 14

Miley Cyrus, Madonna Performing Together For Miley’s “MTV Unplugged” Special


Kanye West Settles With LA Beating Victim

“Captain America 3” Takes Shape At Marvel

Vin Diesel’s One-Man Dance Party To Katy Perry Jam

John Noble, Lyndie Greenwood Promoted To Regulars On “Sleepy Hollow”

Alyson Hannigan Cries When Saying Goodbye To “How I Met Your Mother” Husband Jason Segel

Will Guy Ritchie Pull Sword From Stone After All And Make King Arthur Movie At Warner Brothers?

George Clooney’s Reddit AMA: The Ten Best Questions And Answers



FOREIGNERS
India Raises Interest Rates To Stem Inflation
Putin: We Stand By Ukraine Commitments
Are Queen Elizabeth’s Advisers Wasting Money While Palaces Crumble?
Pope Francis Makes The Cover Of Rolling Stone
Trierweiler: Outside Forces Killed My Marriage
Indian Court Refuses To Review Gay Sex Ban
HK Tycoon’s Lesbian Daughter Pens Open Letter To Dad: Stop Trying To Buy Me A Husband
South African Opposition Groups Merge Ahead Of Vote
Karzai Suspects US Is Behind Recent Insurgent Attacks
Turkish PM Delivers Speech As Ten Foot Tall Hologram
GCHQ Chief, Buffeted By Snowden Leaks, To Step Down



BLOGS & STUFF
First Street Journal: Looks To Me Like Someone Else Needs To Go To Jail
Doug Powers: CNN Host Apologizes For Making It Look Like Hillary Is Laughing About Benghazi
Twitchy: Is This The Most Unsettling Part Of President Sham-Wow’s SOTU Speech?
Moe Lane: NYT – TREMBLE, Mortals, At The Power Of The Koch Artillery War-Zeppelin! (N.B.: He’s taking volunteers for crew in the comments. ^_^)
American Power: “America’s Most Successful Communist” Trending At Memeorandum
American Thinker: Guns Don’t Kill People, Democrats Kill People
Blackfive: Snowden, The Government, And You
Blackmailers Don’t Shoot: From The Comments At Talking Points Memo
The Necropolitan Sentinel: Obamacare Watch – The GOP Alternative
Conservatives4Palin: McCain, Palin, And The Difference Between Support And Agreement
Don Surber: Daily Scoreboard, January 28
Jammie Wearing Fools: Historic! Record Number Of Americans To Ignore King Obama’s Rant
Joe For America: Christian Grammy Nominee Natalie Grant Walks Out On The Awards Show
JustOneMinute: I’m Not Having A Senior Moment, I’m Just Accessing My Vast Database
Pat Dollard: ICE Officers Plead With GOP To Stand Up To Obama
Protein Wisdom: The Price Of Liberal Cosmopolitanism
Shot In The Dark: What Could Go Wrong?
The Jawa Report: Muslims Massacred At Mosque By Christian Extremists
The Lonely Conservative: Obama’s Ambassador To PRC Admits “I’m No Real Expert On China”
This Ain’t Hell: Pelosi Has Brain Fart, Complains “We Did Not Treat President Bush This Way”
Megan McArdle: Not All Democrats Want A Higher Minimum Wage


Category: Live at Five

Perhaps @TomKludt Could Explain Why Killing Babies Is Such a Good Thing

Posted on | January 28, 2014 | 14 Comments

Kludt wrote a Talking Points Memo blog with this headline:

Erick Erickson Responds To Greta Van Susteren With Graphic Anti-Abortion Screed

We could get bogged down by asking why Tom Kludt is stirring up a fight between Erickson and Van Susteren, or ask why this argument is being treated like a popularity contest, as if Erickson and Van Sustern were rival candidates for sophomore class president. But that would be a distraction from the actual public policy issue involved, and such a distraction is exactly what Kludt is trying to create.

Is abortion a good thing or a bad thing?

If you think abortion is a good thing, you are simply wicked. Even most people who are in favor of keeping abortion legal will admit that the act itself is morally repugnant, an evil that they would prefer to avoid but do not believe can be or should be effectively outlawed. With such people, it is possible to have civil and reasonable disagreements. Not so those who are consciously pro-abortion, e.g., NARAL and Planned Parenthood and other abortion industry lobbying groups.

They and their supporters actively encourage abortion, because they are heartless bloodthirsty monsters who love evil. And the Texas Democrat candidate for governor, Wendy Davis, has welcomed the embrace of these ghoulish Death Merchants. Davis filibustered Texas legislation to restrict late-term abortion.

So when Erickson defends his criticism of Davis by describing late-term abortion in vivid terms, he is trying to place the focus where it belongs — on these gruesome atrocities, and on Democrats like Wendy Davis who advocate these atrocities. “Abortion Barbie” is not the worst thing she could be called. Perhaps Tom Kludt can explain why “slaughtering children on the altar of Moloch” is a good thing. But nobody ever asks liberals for such explanations.

 

Category: Abortion

How Bad Is Stephen Glass? ‘Morally Unfit to Be a Lawyer in California’!

Posted on | January 28, 2014 | 25 Comments

Are California lawyers particularly moral people? However low the threshold of morality to be admitted to the practice of law in California, disgraced journalist Stephen Glass failed to clear it:

The decision is long and citation-filled. It claims to make a rational, precedential case that Glass has not met the legal standard for being a lawyer in California. But reading it as a non-lawyer and a non-Californian, I’m instead struck by its anxious snobbishness. The Committee of Bar Examiners and the Supreme Court justices — every one a lawyer — don’t want to let Glass be a lawyer because they’re embarrassed that anyone could possibly think that he’s like them. He’s not one of us, dear.

David Plotz thinks this is wrong. and maybe he’s got a point: if we kicked all the liars out of journalism, where else could they go?

There are only 535 seats in Congress . . .

 


Category: Journalism

From Child Abuse to Child Pornography: ‘Our Society Is Quick to Judge’

Posted on | January 28, 2014 | 138 Comments

The quoted phrase is from the mother of former Republican Senate aide Jesse Ryan Loskarn:

Ms. Loskarn complained about the “media frenzy” surrounding her son’s arrest in December.
“The last month of Jesse Ryan Loskarn’s life was surrounded by a media frenzy, with what appeared to be the goal of destroying his reputation beyond repair,” Mrs. Loskarn said. “Newspapers and other media outlets depicted him mostly in a negative light and stole away any good he had done during his short but full life.”
Mrs. Loskarn added: “During this tragic time he had no voice, but in his death he can be heard. Our society is quick to judge especially when the topic surrounding his death is so difficult. This letter written by Jesse Ryan Loskarn was found after he took his own life on January 23, 2014. If his words can help just one person who is suffering in silence, it will be his greatest accomplishment.”

Blaming media scapegoats? Portraying the criminal as victim? What were those who “depicted him mostly in a negative light” supposed to do after Loskarn was arrested with “hundreds of videos depicting underage boys … in sexually explicit conduct“?

Loskarn committed suicide — a decision for which he alone was responsible — and his mother obviously doesn’t want to accept that her son was responsible for his own choices. Jesse Ryan Loskarn’s final letter is an interesting document in its own right, but his mother’s preface to the letter is . . . well, it seems rather misguided.

It was not the media that destroyed Loskarn’s “reputation beyond repair,” it was Loskarn’s own criminal actions. But we are living amid an epidemic of Special Snowflake Syndrome, typified by several bad ideas: Nothing bad should ever happen to the Special Snowflake and, if misfortune should befall him, however great his own role in bringing about that misfortune, the Special Snowflake is not really to blame.

Bad things happened to Ryan Loskarn, some of which clearly were not his fault. He was only to blame for his own choices, but those were very bad choices and if, as Mrs. Loskarn says, “our society is quick to judge,” I’m not sure we are judging too quickly.

If you think the problem with “our society” is that we are too judgmental about perversion, you obviously aren’t paying attention.

 

Category: Crime, Sex
« 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