The Other McCain

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

‘U.S. Hate Preacher’?

Posted on | December 31, 2013 | 6 Comments

When I saw that phrase in a headline, I at first thought they were talking about Phil Robertson, but no, it refers to Harlem-born Islamic extremist Khalid Yasin, whose hateful doctrine inspired Michael Adebowale, one of the perpetrators of the Woolwich Massacre.

The article points out that Khalid Yasin preaches hatred toward homosexuals, in addition to the rest of his general all-purpose hatred (e.g., anti-Christian, anti-America and anti-Israel), which would be cheerfully endorsed by most of MSNBC’s audience.

(Via Memeorandum; more at Jihad Watch and Weasel Zippers.)

 

Category: Islam, Terrorism

Unpopular Personality @MHarrisPerry on Obscure MSNBC Network Apologizes

Posted on | December 31, 2013 | 25 Comments

The sequence of headlines tells the story:

Melissa Harris-Perry Panel Mocks
Black Romney Grandchild As Token
— The Right Scoop

Outrage as MSNBC panelists make Mitt Romney’s
adopted black grandchild the punchline of a joke
— Daily Mail

Sarah Palin: MSNBC ‘despicable’
— Politico

MSNBC host apologizes after panel makes
fun of Romney photo with black grandchild
— CNN

It goes without saying, of course, that Melissa Harris-Perry’s apology was insincere: She hates and despises Mitt Romney, she hates and despises the entire Romney family, and she hates and despises everyone who voted for Romney. Whatever offensive thing she said about Romney’s grandchild was simply an expression of her partisan hatred and — because partisan hatred is the entire raison d’être of MSNBC — there’s no way Melissa Harris-Perry is going to apologize for that, is there?

Anyway, Melissa Harris-Perry has now been compelled to apologize, which is perhaps of minor interest to the 600,000 or so Democrats who watch MSNBC, but the larger and more permanent question remains: When will the corporate proprietor of MSNBC come to grips with the reality that there is no commercially viable audience of Republican-hating news consumers on cable TV?

There were a few brief years during the Bush presidency when Keith Olbermann’s anti-Bush, anti-war, anti-GOP rantings attracted a large enough viewership to lift MSNBC past CNN in the cable-news ratings, but that boomlet has clearly ended. MSNBC’s audience has shrunken drastically since Olbermann’s departure (and especially, since Obama’s re-election). The only reason MSNBC is still in second place ahead of CNN is because, unwisely, CNN executives decided to mimic the anti-Republican bias of MSNBC, and the failure of CNN’s weak imitation only further demonstrates the non-viability of the MSNBC model.

MSNBC’s corporate parent Comcast is now subsidizing a continuation of this failed project only because their executives lack the creativity to envision anything more watchable. Therefore, the network gives airtime to third-rate talents like Melissa Harris-Perry and everybody acts surprised when their anti-Republican shtick (which is the only reason anyone watches MSNBC) yields embarrasment.

Well, excuse me for not playing along with this charade. At some point, a routine that is so predictable ceases to be interesting.

 


Category: MSNBC

In The Mailbox, 12.31.13

Posted on | December 31, 2013 | 3 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho


OVER THE TRANSOM
First Street Journal: They Missed It
Blackmailers Don’t Shoot: The Last of Us – An Overdue Game Review
Twitchy: Actress Pia Glenn Apologizes (Sort Of) After Mocking Romneys’ Grandchild On MSNBC


RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
American Power: Why Obama Frets About Income Inequality, Not Family Breakdown
American Thinker: The Trillion-Plus Heist
Blackfive: Exclusive Interview With W.E.B. Griffin And William Butterworth IV
The Necropolitan Sentinel: Sixth Day Of Dickens – Most Terrifying Villain? A Respectable Headmaster
Jammie Wearing Fools: Democrat Eleanor Holmes Norton Says The Reason People Aren’t Signing Up For Obamacare Is Because They Think It’s Been Repealed
JustOneMinute: Obamacare – Making Insurance Affordable For Fitness Buffs
Pat Dollard: MSNBC Racist Melissa Harris-Perry Mocks Romneys For Adopting Black Child
Protein Wisdom: Politifact Takes Page From USSR
Shot In The Dark: Gun Control In Minnesota – The Next Useless Wave
The Jawa Report: Palestinian Kids Pretty Sure It Was The Jooooos
The Lonely Conservative: Chamber Of Commerce To Spend $50 Million On “Centrist” Republicans
This Ain’t Hell: Army Wants In To The Pacific Rim
Megan McArdle: Change Is Obamacare’s Only Certainty


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Category: Linkagery

Game Hackers Launch DDOS, Target @PhantomL0rd for SWATting
UPDATE: In Video, Gamer Describes Police Raid With Automatic Weapons

Posted on | December 31, 2013 | 15 Comments

@PhantomL0rd is a popular videogame blogger who last night got SWATted by a gang of hacker trolls:

A group of hackers going by the name DERP has launched DDoS attacks on a number of big games and websites today, bringing a number of them down, including the homepage of Electronic Arts.
The attacks have been focused on a single gamer — Phantoml0rd — and have been systematically trying to crash all of the games he regularly streams on his Twitch page, including World of Warcraft and League of Legends. . . .
The group — or maybe it’s just one guy, we’re looking into it — then moved onto other targets like Club Penguin and Electronic Arts . . .
PhantomL0rd has posted a message on his Facebook page saying that police arrived at his home — called to investigate a “hostage situation” — earlier this evening.

just had an automatic pointed at me, put in hand cuffs and sat in the back of a cop car as I watched as 6 policemen go through my whole house.. will keep you all updated.

It appears those going after the streamer’s games have moved on from trying to bring down websites to “Swatting” his home.

The idea that “SWATting” is a harmless prank to play — an idea that originates with the same kind of vandal mentality which considers taking down Web sites with DDOS attacks a pleasant amusement — will not be endorsed by @PhantomL0rd, nor by anyone else who has ever been the target of such crimes.

(Hat-tip: David West on Twitter.)

UPDATE: Just listened to @PhantomL0rd’s hopelessly rambling YouTube video explanation — where do I apply to get a refund for that hour of my life? — and transcribed this:

“Three cop cars and about seven policemen. . . . The first thing I see is this guy leaning on a tree with a fully-automatic [weapon] . . . I wasn’t scared. I knew what was going on. . . . He just yelled at me: ‘Turn around and walk backward.’ . . . Hands up behind my head. . . . Immediately, he puts the handcuffs on me. . . . Now there’s like 13, 14 cops. . . . The police chief was there. . . . These f–king handcuffs hurt. . . 25, 30 minutes in there [locked in back of a police car] . . . They sent about six cops into my house. . . . Later found out that the [fake] threat was a hostage situation, that I was [reportedly] holding five people hostage.”

Really, if someone else wants to take the time to do a complete transcript of that video, good luck. His description of the SWATting starts about the 20-minute mark, after @PhantomL0rd has described his entire day from the time he woke up in the morning.

I understand how, in the jangled emotion of the moment, people lose focus, but the larger problem with first-person accounts of this sort is the lack of objective judgment: What do people need to know? What is the most important part of this story?

Think about the viewer (or reader) and tell your story in a way that engages and makes sense. The viewer or reader doesn’t give a damn about you, as a person or as a videogamer or whatever. You are not the story; the crime against you is the story, and you need to try to tell that story in a just-the-facts-ma’am manner. Anyway . . .

It appears that envy was the motive for the harassment of @PhantomL0rd: He is both popular and successful as a gamer, and was “streaming” some of his game action for a rather large viewership when the hacker or hackers began sequentially targeting online game servers for DDOS attacks. That is to say, they targeted the games that @PhantomL0rd was playing, just to mess up his streaming, and then added a SWATting for good measure. Also, @PhantomL0rd was targeted for about a half-dozen hoax pizza deliveries.

The fact that these crimes were inspired by petty jealousies among videogamers is irrelevant. The people responsible for this kind of harassment need to go to prison.

 

Category: Crime

Ten Years of AOSHQ Awesomeness

Posted on | December 30, 2013 | 17 Comments

Back when I was working the national desk at the Washington Times, I’d read Ace of Spades and say, “Wow. That looks like fun. He’s writing about politics and making dirty jokes. I could do that.”

So after I actually quit my job and started blogging, Ace’s inspiration was alway there. R.D. Brewer takes us on a trip via the Wayback Machine to the AOSHQ Primitive Era, before he got all respectable and shit.

George W. Bush was in the White House, Republicans controlled both houses of Congress, Howard Dean was running around Iowa as if he were a Serious Contender, and it was safe to ridicule Democrats while making masturbation jokes.

Good times, my friends, good times.

Alas, Karl Rove’s Permanent Republican Majority proved to be not quite so permanent, and the Era of Grim Seriousness has overtaken us. Ace still manages to crack a joke now and then, but we’ll probably never return to the carefree days of yore.

Overwhelmed with bittersweet nostalgia? You can go read 2004’s “Ace’s Generic Walk-Thru For Every Video Game You’ve Ever Played,” or the 2007 classic, “Howard Fineman Has Nothing to Say So He Gets Falling Down Drunk and Gushes about Barack Obama,” and laugh so hard you’ll piss your pants, but once you’re sitting there in a warm puddle of your own urine . . . then what?

See what I’m talking about here? Even if you were Ace of Spades and had consistently written the funniest shit on the Web for the past 10 fucking years, that’s all in the past and is of no use whatsoever in dealing with today or tomorrow. Hell, no, you’ve got to get up in the morning — just like every morning for the past 3,650 days — and try to think up some new funny shit to say about the latest silly D-vs.-R controversy in Washington about which, if the truth were known, you probably don’t even really care very much.

Look back 10 years and then look ahead and say to yourself, “Is this all there is? Am I going to be doing this until the day I die?”

The real miracle of AOSHQ is that he hasn’t yet been overwhelmed by existential dread. You should probably go hit his tip jar.

 


Category: Ace of Spades

Gay Student Charged With Felonies in Weird Sexual Extortion Scheme

Posted on | December 30, 2013 | 68 Comments

In an unusually elaborate example of media bias, the only way you would realize the perpetrator of this crime was gay is if you carefully scrutinized the pronouns in the Columbus Dispatch story:

An Ohio University student is set to go on trial in February on felony charges of blackmailing another student into having sex with him.
Dorian J. Graham, 19, of Bedford Heights, near Cleveland, was indicted on Nov. 25 on one count each of sexual battery, attempted sexual battery, extortion and attempted extortion. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges, which are third- and fourth-degree felonies. He is free on recognizance while he awaits trial, with a $10,000 bond guarantee.
Documents filed in Athens County Common Pleas Court say that Graham, who was living in an OU residence hall, struck up a “texting relationship” on Sept. 20 with another OU student, with Graham pretending to be a woman.
Authorities say Graham persuaded the other student to send him nude pictures or video of himself and then posted them on a website. The Dispatch does not typically name victims of sex crimes.
The student texted Graham, begging him to remove the images because he feared they would damage his reputation. Athens County Prosecutor Keller Blackburn said that Graham, as the price of removing the pictures, coerced the student to have sex with him on Sept. 23 and to record the sex and provide the video to Graham.
Graham allegedly told the student that he also was the victim of a blackmail scheme by the same nonexistent woman. At the time of the sexual conduct, Blackburn said, apparently the victim “still thought it was a girl that was making him do this.” At some point after the sex occurred, however, the victim became aware that Graham was the real culprit, he said.

This is how the media function as public relations agents for the gay rights movement: Whenever homosexuals claim to be the victims of crime, the “gay victim” meme is highlighted. Yet when homosexuals are the perpetrators of crime . . . What crimes?

The “gay perpetrator” category is non-existent, so far as the liberal media are concerned, which not only explains why the gay factor was downplayed in Graham’s sexual extortion, but also explains why fake “hate crimes” don’t make national headlines.

Oliver Darcy at The Blaze has a mug shot of Dorian Graham.

(Hat-tip: Barbara Espinosa on Twitter.)

 

Category: Crime, Education, Gays, Ohio, Sex

‘Unusually Thick Ice’ in Antarctica Traps Scientists With Unusually Thick Heads

Posted on | December 30, 2013 | 60 Comments

It probably seemed like an excellent idea: Load a bunch of tourists and journalists aboard a ship for an expedition to Antarctica in December (the height of summer at the South Pole) so they can see for themselves how global warming is melting the ice.

Alas, somebody forgot to tell the ice that “the science is settled”:

Most of the passengers and some of the crew stranded on a scientific expedition ship off Antarctica will be evacuated by a Chinese helicopter should the weather allow, Russian authorities say.
“A decision has been reached to evacuate 52 passengers and four crew members by helicopter from China’s Xue Long ship, should the weather allow,” the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement.
The Russian-flagged MV Akademik Shokalskiy has been stuck on an ice field since last week with 74 people on board. The multinational passenger list includes scientists as well as tourists and crew.
Snow gusts that severely hampered visibility on Monday forced the icebreaker Aurora Australis to turn around, passengers aboard the stricken MV Akademik Shokalskiy had been told to prepare for the “worst case scenario”. . . .
The expedition is being led by University of NSW Professor Chris Turney who continues to post updates on social media.

Try not to laugh at their ridiculous misfortune:

After nearly a week trapped by deep Antarctic ice, the 74 passengers aboard an expedition vessel could soon be freed.
An Australian icebreaker ship Aurora Australis is 28 nautical miles away from the Russian-flagged Akademik Shokalskiy and is waiting for snow showers to pass, according to the Australian Maritime Safety Authority.
The Aurora Australis needs better visibility before trying to break through the ice and reach the stranded vessel.
This attempt follows the Chinese icebreaker Xue Long, or Snow Dragon, which was just six nautical miles away from the trapped vessel when it couldn’t get any closer due to unusually thick ice.

Via Memeorandum, with more blog commentary by Doug Powers at MichelleMalkin.com, Weasel Zippers and Pirate’s Cove.

Special thanks to Susan Rector on Twitter for the joke I stole.

 

Category: Global Warming, Science

Kaitlyn Hunt’s Probation Page

Posted on | December 30, 2013 | 40 Comments

The World’s Most Famous Sex Offender™ was released from the Indian River County Jail Dec. 20 and will remain part of Florida’s “supervised population” until Oct. 1, 2016. WPTV reported:

VERO BEACH, Fla. — Kaitlyn Hunt, the Sebastian-area teenager who was arrested after police said she had a sexual relationship with an underage girl, was released from the Indian River County Jail early Friday morning [Dec. 20].
Hunt, 19, was released just after 1 a.m. and was quickly driven away in an SUV with her family.
“I think she’s grown up a lot. She’s had to face a lot of adult issues being very young. She’s learned and she wants to just close a chapter and move on, set some goals and look to the future,” said Hunt’s mother Kelley Smith.

Remember: Prosecutors offered Hunt a plea bargain and no one outside Indian River County ever would have heard of this case if she had accepted that deal. Instead, the “Free Kate” movement decided to turn Kaitlyn Hunt into a gay-rights cause célèbre.

“Free Kate” supporters lied about the ages of the girls and demonized the victim’s family, subjecting them to harassment even while, as prosecutors subsequently learned, Hunt violated her terms of pre-trial release by continuing to communicate with her underage victim, sending the girl obscene photos and videos. And so Kaitlyn Hunt had to serve three months in jail.

Most of us would like to forget about this sordid episode and move on. Unfortunately, some of Kaitlyn Hunt’s most fanatical supporters — including @NicoleBonnet1 and @Periabo — continue cyberstalking and harassing critics of the “Free Kate” movement:

See? If you think Florida law should be enforced, you’re a “disgusting perv” and @NicoleBonnet1 will report you to Child Protective Services for investigation by social workers. There’s going to be lawsuit! She’s making a list! She’s going to get “the feds” after you!

This obsessive behavior is simply online terrorism, intended to smear and intimidate opponents of the movement @NicoleBonnet1 supported. Meanwhile, Rachael Carson Zerbe (whose maniacal persistence I described six weeks ago) now seems to be under the impression that quoting from a “FreeKate” Facebook page is a crime.

Rachael and her friends are the ones who support the criminal in this case, yet they’re convinced their critics are guilty of crimes.




 

 

Category: Crime, Gays, Kaitlyn Hunt, Sex
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