The Other McCain

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

In Which @AmandaHess Locates the Problem of Online Harassment

Posted on | January 7, 2014 | 37 Comments

She wants to believe that it is about sexism or misogyny, but as a guy who has experienced online harassment myself, I know this is false. Yes, women are in many ways particularly vulnerable to this — ask Michelle Malkin, Dana Loesch, Ann Coulter or Katie Pavlich — but the fundamental problem isn’t really about that:

On the one hand, it seemed unlikely that I’d soon be defiled and decapitated at the hands of a serial rapist-murderer. On the other hand, headlessfemalepig was clearly a deranged individual with a bizarre fixation on me. I picked up my phone and dialed 911.
Two hours later, a Palm Springs police officer lumbered up the steps to my hotel room, paused on the outdoor threshold, and began questioning me in a steady clip. I wheeled through the relevant background information: I am a journalist; I live in Los Angeles; sometimes, people don’t like what I write about women, relationships, or sexuality; this was not the first time that someone had responded to my work by threatening to rape and kill me. The cop anchored his hands on his belt, looked me in the eye, and said, “What is Twitter?” . . .
Andy Trotter, a communications adviser for the British police, announced that it was Twitter’s responsibility to crack down on the messages. . . . Police “don’t want to be in this arena.” It diverts their attention from “dealing with something else.” . . .
Abusers tend to operate anonymously, or under pseudonyms. But the women they target often write on professional platforms, under their given names, and in the context of their real lives. Victims don’t have the luxury of separating themselves from the crime. When it comes to online threats, “one person is feeling the reality of the Internet very viscerally: the person who is being threatened,” says Jurgenson. “It’s a lot easier for the person who made the threat — and the person who is investigating the threat — to believe that what’s happening on the Internet isn’t real.”

You can and should read the whole thing, because Amanda Hess has located the basic problem: Police are either ignorant of social media — “What is Twitter?” — or can’t comprehend the reality of a type of threat that has never been aimed at them.

Unless and until you have been targeted by obsessed hate-trolls, you really can’t understand what it’s like. And the inherent imbalance between anonymous harassers and their targets — “who write on professional platforms, under their given names, and in the context of their real lives” — is not a problem that is limited to women. When your livelihood is in large measure dependent on using Twitter to obtain information and promote your work, whereas the anonymous hate-troll uses the Twitter platform only to engage in harassment, you quickly discover that your ability to counteract the harassment is quite limited.

Amanda Hess should ask Patrick “Patterico” Frey how difficult it is to get law enforcement to take online harassment seriously. The dangerous tactic of “SWATting” is dismissed by some journalists as a “prank” and, despite the fact that some people have been sentenced to prison for SWATting hoaxes, so few perpetrators are prosecuted that SWATters believe (quite correctly) that they are unlikely to face serious consequences for their actions.

Part of the problem — and perhaps Hess hasn’t thought about this — is that many journalists actually celebrate online harassment.

What else were the crimes of “Anonymous,” except orchestrated online harassment of designated enemies? The fact that this criminality was done in the name of a political cause, and that the targets were corporations like Sony and Amazon rather than individuals, does not change the fact: Crime was committed, and many journalists have treated Anonymous hackers as heroes.

“The time for talk is over, it’s time for collective refusal, civil disobedience, and direct action.”
— Jeremy Hammond, Anonymous hacker

Why is it acceptable to target PayPal with DDOS attacks, but not to target journalists with personal threats? Why have some people tried to make a hero of former Anonymous spokesman Barrett Brown, who threatened to “destroy” an FBI agent’s family?

Why didn’t Amanda Hess take notice of Mandy Nagy’s harassment by Anonymous supporter “Occupy Rebellion”? Here you have a gang of vicious cyberterrorists whose very name, Anonymous, is intrinsic to the problem of online harassment, and whose claim of “civil disobedience” in defense of their crimes is a direct challenge to the rule of law. And, in case Amanda Hess has forgotten, it was the defense of Julian Assange’s Wikileaks that was the rallying cry of Anonymous in 2010.

Julian Assange is an accused rapist. Kinda relevant.

Law enforcement must take online harassment more seriously. Amanda Hess has that exactly right. But we cannot expect law enforcement to prosecute harassment if we ignore (or endorse) the lawless anarchist impulse of digital terrorists. Nor can we expect online harassment of women to be taken seriously when liberals like Amanda Hess tolerate the constant obscene harassment of conservative women:

The C-word and the F-word, and various combinations thereof, are somehow acceptable political discourse when liberals do it. Eventually, Amanda Hess managed to overcome the problems of anonymity and of law enforcement not taking online harassment seriously:

My harasser finally acquiesced to the protection order when my lawyer showed him that we knew the blog comments were coming from his computer—he had made a valiant attempt to obscure his comments, but he’d slipped up in a couple of instances, and we could prove the rape threats were his. When the judge approved the order, she instructed my harasser that he was not allowed to contact me in any way—not by email, Twitter, phone, blog comment, or by hiring a hot air balloon to float over my house with a message, she said. And he had to stay at least 100 feet away from me at all times. The restraining order would last one year.
Soon after the order expired, he sent an email to my new workplace. Every once in a while, he re-establishes contact. . . .
A few days before I received the threats in Palm Springs, he sent me a link via Twitter to a story he wrote about another woman who had been abused online. Occasionally, he sends his tweets directly my way—a little reminder that his “game” is back on.

This raises a question: Why doesn’t Amanda Hess publicly name the monster who is perpetrating this harassment? Crime is a people problem. Identifying the perpetrators is essential to preventing and discouraging crime, but perhaps Amanda Hess is afraid of being sued by her harasser. That can be a problem, too.

BomberSuesBloggers.com

UPDATE: Credit where credit is due:

As I say, I mostly agree with Hess’s analysis of the online harassment problem, but I don’t think turning it into a Women’s Studies candlelight-vigil take-back-the-night rally is the solution. That kind of “consciousness raising” solidarity protest may feel good, but is no substitute for law enforcement locking up criminals.

 

Category: Crime

Al Gore and the Big Climate Lie

Posted on | January 7, 2014 | 49 Comments

Sometimes my hatred of lying liberals inspires me with a vitriolic rage that is very difficult to restrain. They lie with such arrogant impunity because liberal dominance of the intelligentsia means they can always count on their lies being applauded. And indeed, there are vast segments of the culture — academia, journalism, entertainment — so overwhelmingly liberal as to constitute a cocoon.

Within these cocoons where only liberal ideas are expressed, categories of “truth” and “error,” “right” and “wrong,” “fact” and “myth” are distorted beyond recognition, creating an alternative reality unrecognizable to those outside the cocoon.

So it is with the alleged “science” of anthropogenic global warming (AGW), also known as “climate change.” The means by which a scientific consensus was created in favor of AGW theory involved (a) advanced methods of propaganda, and (b) lots of money.

Last month, Al Gore tweeted out an article from The Daily Climate that bore this description:

Digging into the underpinnings of the climate denial movement, a Drexel University study finds a large slice of donations funneled through pass-through organizations that conceal the original funder.
Koch Industries, ExxonMobil disappear from traceable public databases after 2007.

Knowing what I know about the AGW movement’s sources of funding, this imputation that critics enjoy lavish secret funding — “climate denial” researchers are all rolling in Koch bucks, we are led to believe — absolutely enraged me. But what can I do?

If you’ll take a second look, you’ll see that The Daily Climate is a publication of Environment Health Sciences:

The Daily Climate is published every morning (US East Coast time) by Environmental Health Sciences, a global nonprofit media company with headquarters in Charlottesville, Va.

Oh, “a global nonprofit media company”? What can we learn about Environmental Health Sciences?

Today, EHS’s budget is at $2 million — largely supported by major foundation grants — and Environmental Health News and The Daily Climate see 25 million page views per year. A team of 36 people work for its two publications . . .

Yes, “largely supported by major foundation grants,” EHS gets $2 million a year to run a couple of Web sites with a staff of 36.

So an organization that gets funding from major tax-exempt foundations publicizes a study by Drexel University (annual tuition $43,135) suggesting that critics of the AGW “scientific consensus” are unfairly enriching themselves. Isn’t that special?

Meanwhile, in the real world:

About 500 passengers aboard three Amtrak trains were stranded overnight in a remote part of northern Illinois because of blowing and drifting snow, Amtrak officials said today.

The nation is gripped by one of the most severe cold-weather systems in recorded history — “It’s So Cold in the Midwest that Antifreeze Could Freeze” — but somehow, this evidence does not affect “major foundation grants” for the 36 lying liberal propagandists employed at Environmental Health Sciences.

I’d love to laugh at that, but yesterday the dog escaped and, while chasing him down the road, I slipped on the ice, fell hard on my right side and injured my ribs so severely that it hurts to laugh — or sneeze or cough, for that matter. And I know damned well that I’m not getting any “major foundation grants,” so please hit the tip jar.





 

Category: Environmentalism, Global Warming

In The Mailbox, 01.07.14

Posted on | January 7, 2014 | 3 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho


Neither the spirit nor the flesh were terribly willing this morning. Apologies.


OVER THE TRANSOM
First Street Journal: There Are Reasonable Savings In The Defense Budget!
Proof Positive: Obama – “If You Like Your Jobs, You Can Keep Your Jobs”
The Looking Spoon: If The Obamas Posed For An Imperial Portrait
Blackmailers Don’t Shoot: Prediction – Yes, Bill De Blasio Will Get Away With This
Michelle Malkin: Obama’s Afghanistan Mess
Twitchy: Chief Justice John Roberts Denies Stay On Obamacare; SCOTUS’ Alternate Universe Noted
Fausta: The Triple Package Stirs The Pot


RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
American Power: Rachel Maddow Wears The “Ideological” Pants At MSNBC
American Thinker: Obama’s War Against The Elderly
The Necropolitan Sentinel: Obamacare Watch – Medicaid Enrollment Even More Screwed Up Than Previously Thought
Don Surber: Daily Scoreboard, January 6
Jammie Wearing Fools: “Mom, There’s An Old Guy In The Jacuzzi With This Girl, And She’s Topless, And She’s Got Her Legs Wrapped Around Him”
Pat Dollard: FBI Changes Its Primary Mission From “Law Enforcement” To “National Security”
Protein Wisdom: Your Friends, The Establishment Republicans
Shot In The Dark: This Spring At The Session…
The Jawa Report: Super Greedy Rich Bastard Al Gore Lays Off 90 Poor Struggling Workers From Green Jobs
The Lonely Conservative: Dem Reps Invited Terrorist Group To Brief Them On National Security
This Ain’t Hell: William Derek Church, The Round Ranger
Megan McArdle: Can Unions Save Adjuncts?


Kindle Countdown Deals

Category: Linkagery

It Is Not Often That I Greet A New Federal Reserve Chair. . .

Posted on | January 6, 2014 | 9 Comments

by Smitty

Cultural references, alas.

Before it ends YOU!

Category: End The Fed

Will De Blasio Get Away With This?

Posted on | January 6, 2014 | 95 Comments

“You’ve got a group of people who are being fed nonsense. The guy who’s funding all this is a real estate guy. . . . He’s interested in buying the land. The stables are located right by the Javits Center and they want to put hotels up in there.”
— David Koch, New York carriage driver

Real estate developer Steve Nislick

“The bad guy in this drama, according to the carriage drivers, is Steve Nislick, chief executive officer of a New Jersey-based real-estate development company, Edison Properties. The company ’employs legions of lobbyists to influence city decisions on real estate and zoning in its favor,’ journalist Michael Gross reported in 2009, pointing out that two of Edison’s businesses ‘have multiple locations in the same Far West Midtown neighborhood as the stables where the Central Park horses are housed.’ An anti-carriage pamphlet Nislick circulated in 2008 made this interesting observation: ‘Currently, the stables consist of 64,000 square feet of valuable real estate on lots that could accomodate up to 150,000 square feet of development. These lots could be sold for new development.’
Gross asked the obvious question: ‘What are the odds that good neighbor Nislick, the out-of-state real estate developer, simply covets those valuable, underdeveloped New York lots — and has teamed up with ambitious pols to use the emotions of animal rights activists as fuel for their own agendas?'”
— Robert Stacy McCain, The American Spectator, “DeBlasio’s Horse-Drawn Carriage Ban: Is It Really About Campaign Cash?”

It was right there in the open: A story that, if it didn’t exactly “write itself,” as they say, was not very difficult to put together. All you have to do is go to SaveNYCHorseCarriages.com and start clicking links. Everything is right there, including links to news coverage of the shady background of the anti-carriage crusade:

It’s Parkingtown, Jake
— Michael Gross, Feb. 11, 2009

Secret tape: how to spin council
— David Seifman, New York Post, Jan. 1, 2012

Top de Blasio supporters funded anti-Quinn group
— Chris Bragg, Crain’s, Oct. 3, 2013

Anyone can go see the “Timeline of a Scandal,” and anyone can find out how to contact carriage industry supporters for interviews. So why isn’t this sleazy hustle — real-estate money bankrolling politicians to push a phony animal-rights issue — front-page headlines in the New York Times? They won’t do it, so we’ll have to do it ourselves.

 Linked by Instapundit and a Memeorandum thread. Let’s roll.

 

Category: Corruption, New York

LIVE AT FIVE: 01.06.14

Posted on | January 6, 2014 | 7 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho


TOP NEWS
Record-Setting Cold Temperatures Blow Into Midwest, Northeast

Icy roads and high winds make travel treacherous

Polar vortex spurs wind chill warnings from Montana to Alabama

Election-Year Politics Shaping Congressional Agenda
Democrats want minimum wage hike

South Sudan Peace Talks Delayed Amid Fresh Gunfire
Capitol residents on edge from rumors of rebel advance



POLITICS
Liz Cheney Abandons Senate Bid

Official announcement expected today

Stumbling campaign faced wide poll lead by incumbent Enzi



Utah Gun Maker Turns Down $15 Million Deal With Pakistan


Rand Paul: Kentucky Health Exchange Also A Mess, Gave His Son Medicaid

Environmentalists Pin Hopes On Obama’s Executive Orders

President’s Birthday Gift To First Lady: Time Alone In Hawaii

Kerry Vows Support For Iraqi Government In Fallujah But Won’t Send Troops



THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Asian Crude Rebounds On Bargain Hunting: NYMEX $94.13, Brent $107.13
JPMorganChase Nears $2 Billion Deal In Case Related To Madoff
Yen Gains In Asia On Investor Caution
American Vehicles Jump Decades With Best Sales Since 2007
US Office Vacancy Rates Unchanged Amid Sluggish Job Growth
Liberty Media Bids For Full Ownership Of Sirius XM
Five Questions About The Future Of Tech That CES 2014 Will Answer
Roku TV Unveiled: TV Sets With Roku Streaming Built In
Nvidia Updates Mobile Processor With PC-Level Graphics Boost
HP Takes Android Over Chrome For New Slate 21 Pro All-In-One
Drone Maker Parrot Gets Playful



SPORTS
Legendary Padres Broadcaster Jerry Coleman Dies, 89

“The Colonel” had been the Padres’ broadcaster since 1972

Former Yankees infielder, Marine pilot saw action in WW2, Korea. Tony Gwynn: “He was just how you should be. He represented all the good while being so humble. He never boasted about himself. Jerry’s one of the best human beings you’ll ever want to meet.”

Kaepernick Bares Arms, Tats, And Toughness For Victory At Lambeau

Third Straight One-And-Done Leaves Nothing But Disappointment In Cincinnati

Canucks Sign 43-Year-Old As Emergency Backup Goalie

#20 Colorado Upsets Undefeated #10 Oregon

Oilers End Lightning’s 5-Game Win Streak

Are The Nationals Done Building This Winter?



FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
Ke$ha Enters Rehab For Eating Disorder

“[I need]…to learn to love myself again. Exactly as I am.”


Blames producer Dr. Luke for disorder: “He called me fat”

“Hangover” Star Justin Bartha Marries Trainer Lia Smith In Hawaii

“Young & Restless” Star Michael Muhney Fired For Groping Co-Star’s Breasts

Liam McIntyre Marries Erin Hasan

Phil Everly Of The Everly Brothers Dies, 74

Lisa Robin Kelly From “That 70s Show” – Death Ruled Accidental Drug Overdose

Universal To “Retire” Paul Walker’s “Fast & Furious” Character

Instagram Star Jen Selter Has An Enviable Butt  – And 1.3 Million Followers

Women Of “Banshee” Go Wild In Las Vegas

“Tiger Mom” Amy Chua: Some Cultural Groups Are Just Better Than Others

Snow Freezes New Equinox Ads

Palm Beach Coconuts Change Look



FOREIGNERS
Activity In India’s Services Sector Shrinks, But Hiring Picks Up
Bangladeah’s Ruling Awami League Wins Boycotted Poll
Sunni Tribal Militias Lead Drive To Eject Al-Qaeda As Iraqi Army Holds Back Troops
Israeli Arabs Reject Liberman’s Bid For Land Exchange With Palestinians
Hun Sen Moves To Suppress Cambodian Opposition
Hospital Chief: Ariel Sharon’s Condition Stable, But Prognosis Grim
Pope Francis To Visit Holy Land In May Amid Peace Push
India’s Aam Aadmi Party To Contest Lok Sabha Elections
Travel Industry Worried Over Continuing Thai Unrest



BLOGS & STUFF
American Power: Antarctic Global Warming Scientists Risked Lives Of Paying Tourists On Chartered Russian Vessel That Couldn’t Break Ice
Proof Positive: Bright Idea and It’s Girl Scout Munchie Time!
Dead Republican Party: Diversity Is Divisiveness In Disguise
Michelle Malkin: Obama’s Afghanistan Mess
Twitchy: “Early Favorite For Weirdest Of 2014” – New Old Spice Ad Creeps Out Consumers
American Power: “Everything Starts With Karl Marx And Ends With The Democrats”
American Thinker: The Denaturalization Of America
Blackfive: Al Qaeda Back In Charge Of Fallujah And Ramadi
The Necropolitan Sentinel: Obamacare Watch – Don’t Even Think Of Making Changes
Don Surber: Prospects For 2014 Are Encouraging
Jammie Wearing Fools: “Affordable” Obamacare – Woman With Chest Pains Skips X-Ray After Discovering She Has A $5500 Deductible
JustOneMinute: TimesWatch, With A KausWatch Bonus
Pat Dollard: Kerry Reportedly Offering US Troops To Secure Borders Of “A New Palestinian State”
Protein Wisdom: Let’s Just Finally Come Out And Say It, Shall We? All Penetration Is Rape
Shot In The Dark: The Thing About Obama Supporters
The Jawa Report: US Sends Icebreaker To Free Icebreaker Sent To Free Global Warming Nuts
The Lonely Conservative: Senator Ron Johnson Suing Over Obamacare Exemptions For Congress
This Ain’t Hell: A Damn Nice Gesture
Megan McArdle: Can’t Get Tenure? Then Get A Real Job


The FMJRA will be posted tomorrow night.


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Category: Live at Five

Rule 5 Sunday: New Year’s Extended Hangover Relief Edition

Posted on | January 5, 2014 | 7 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho

It’s a new year, and the time has come around again to take a break from the madness of popular culture and the daily exhibition of depravity, greed and abject stupidity of contemporary politics. Yes, it’s time once again for Rule 5 Sunday. As usual, some of the following links are best not opened in the presence of wives, girlfriends, and others easily offended by the scantily clad (or even nekkid) female form.

Laughing Conservative leads off with Catalina Oltivaro, followed by the return of IMSHO with Girls of Summer and Randy’s Roundtable with Heather Crook. Fishersville Mike checks in with Missy from Duck Dynasty, Blackmailers Don’t Shoot presents Adrienne Palicki, and Ninety Miles From Tyranny has Morning Mistress along with Girls With Guns. First Street Journal as usual does things differently, with an easy Rule 5 post courtesy of the IDF.

EBL’s herd of heifers this week includes Badgers cheerleaders, How About A Little Sugar?, Green Bay Packers fans, Congratulations Oklahoma, Crazy From Alabama, Congratulations Colts, and the Aints as well.

A View From The Beach has Natalie Dormer (A Real Bodice Ripper), Elves And Hobbits And Dwarves Oh My, Let It Snow!, The Translation Is Better Than The Original, …And Grab A Beverage Of Your Choice, Happy New Year!, Client 9 Likes “It” Rough, “Candy”, The Great Underwear Double Standard, and a movie review of The Desolation Of Smaug.

Soylent Siberia serves up your Sunday breakfast burrito, followed by the Monday Motivationer, Tuesday Titillation “Nice Pomegranates!”, Soylent Siberia Year In Review, Happy New Year!, Falconsword Fursday Carlotta, Corsetsssssss, T-GIF Friday Flotation Devices, Friday Overnighty, Weekender Jasmine, and Classic Afternooner Tracy.

Proof Positive’s Babe of the Week is Lindsay Ellington, his vintage babe is Daniele Gaubert, the Sex In Advertising is courtesy of Kate Moss, and of course there’s the obligatory 49ers cheerleaders. Dustbury offers Sonja Kristina and Taylor Swift.

The DaleyGator’s DaleyBabes this week include Xanny Disjad, Logan Stanton, Jamie Chung, Leah Francis, Nicole Mejia, Lindsey Vonn, Manuela Arcuri, Jessica Sutton, Ami Kawase, Kelly Andrews, Charly Atwell, Gemma Merna, and random beauty.

Thanks to everyone for their linkagery! Deadline to submit links to the Rule 5 Wombat mailbox is Saturday, January 11.


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Category: Rule 5

HELP! #SaveNYCHorseCarriages Campaign Fights Mayor to Save Jobs

Posted on | January 5, 2014 | 39 Comments

Earlier today I talked about how Mayor Bill de Blasio’s agenda will turn New York City into a squalid nightmare. He has chosen an odd starting spot for his effort to destroy the city’s economy: About 200 people who earn their living as horse-drawn carriage drivers.

“We are going to get rid of the horse carriages. Period,” de Blasio said on Monday. “It’s over.” . . .
NYCLASS, the animal rights advocacy group that has been leading the charge against the carriage horses, donated $220,000 to a group dedicated to sinking former City Council Speaker Christine Quinn’s mayoral aspirations and another $124,000 on their own anti-Quinn efforts. NYCLASS was responsible for $774,000 worth of ads attacking Quinn, and its board members donated to de Blasio’s election fund.
During the campaign, Quinn said she supported the carriage horse industry. Her opponent, Bill de Blasio, promised he would ban it immediately. After his primary victory, some of de Blasio’s biggest fundraisers donated tens of thousands of dollars to NYCLASS.
NYCLASS has suggested replacing the horses with electric antique replica cars.

Electric cars.

That’s going to be a real romantic treat for honeymooners, isn’t it? “Oh, we went to New York and rode the electric cars!”

Don’t let this “animal rights” talk deceive you. Starry-eyed idealist don’t have that kind of juice. The big money behind the anti-carriage effort is rumored to come from real-estate interests who covet the property currently occupied by carriage stables.

It’s a crooked dirty scam either way, and the campaign to fight back against de Blasio is SaveNYCHorseCarriages.com.

 

Category: New York
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