The Other McCain

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

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

Rocky Horror State University

Posted on | January 5, 2014 | 19 Comments

The University of Houston-Downtown has about 14,000 students and, while Wikipedia says UHD students are 39% Hispanic, 29% African American, 20% white, 9% Asian American, the percentage of transgendered students is evidently unknown. Nevertheless, with the encouragement of “the university’s new Center for Student Diversity, Equity and Inclusion,” UHD is now creating “gender-neutral” restrooms to accommodate the, uh, gender neutral. And this regime is “coming soon to a college near you,” as Aleister at College Insurrection says. Questions:

  1. Why does a campus with such a diverse student body need a “Center for Student Diversity”? Doesn’t the student diversity seem to be taking care of itself without supervision?
  2. Does anyone else remember when coed dorms were considered a scandalous idea? Or better yet, does anyone remember when many colleges were either all-male or all-female?
  3. Given that 26 million people live in Texas, if a student body of 14,000 contains enough transgender people to justify “gender-neutral” restrooms, isn’t it possible that Texas could create an all-transgender university, just for them?

Of course, creating UT-LGBT would be redundant, because students at the Austin campus are pretty much all gay anyway.

At least, that’s what the folks at Texas A&M tell me.

 

Category: Education, Gays

Deranged Cyberstalker Bill Schmalfeldt Insinuates Corruption in Carroll County

Posted on | January 5, 2014 | 30 Comments

John Hoge has already schooled Baghdad Blob about the actual findings of previous court proceedings, but something else caught my eye in Bill Schmalfeldt’s extended whine:

It took Hoge three times to get a peace order against me. Two Carroll County District Court judges turned him down. One even told him that he needed to man up and be a big boy and realize that if you dish it out, you’d better learn to take it. But after securing the legal services of the sister-in-law of the county State’s Attorney, somehow — as if by magic — Hoge secured a six month peace order from a Circuit Court judge who ignored all the evidence that said Twitter is not “contact” and is not “harassment.”
In December, Hoge and the State’s Attorney’s sister-in-law convinced the same judge to ignore even more specific evidence to determine there was “good cause” to extend the peace order another six months.
Not satisfied with his victory, as megalomaniacs will do . . . Hoge kept going back to the well.
I am accused of violating the peace order.

This is tantamount to an accusation of judicial corruption and, when presented to the court, such an accusation is unlikely to endear Bill Schmalfeldt to the officials who will determine whether his violations of the peace order shall be prosecuted.

But of course, Bill has been “cropped to defame“!

UPDATE: Add this one to the “You Stay Classy, Bill Schmalfeldt” files:

 

Category: Bill Schmalfeldt

De Blasio Plans to Destroy New York City: ‘We Won’t Wait. We’ll Do It Now.’

Posted on | January 5, 2014 | 23 Comments

“A dystopia straight out of Snake Plissken’s worst nightmares.”

Steve Sailer is so politically incorrect that you’re never supposed to acknowledge his existence, lest you become radioactive yourself. While I’ve forgotten what specific transgression put Sailer into the Toxic Zone, I vaguely recall it had something to do with seriously attempting to apply The Bell Curve to public policy. You’re not allowed to do that. Nobody is supposed to acknowledge reading The Bell Curve, except to denounce it as crypto-Nazi propaganda.

Anyway, someone re-Tweeted a Sailer item mocking newly-inaugurated Mayor Bill de Blasio’s plan for universal pre-kindergarten:

If universal pre-K works as well as the new mayor promises at reducing income inequality, its effects should be statistically noticeable by the 2040s, and be visible to the naked eye by the 2060s. By 2075, universal pre-K’s effectiveness at fighting income inequality should be undeniable.
Are we really ready for social change that’s that radical and fast-moving?

Certainly, de Blasio’s agenda deserves all the mockery it gets. Here’s an excerpt of the new mayor’s inaugural address:

We will require big developers to build more affordable housing. We’ll fight to stem the tide of hospital closures. And we’ll expand community health centers into neighborhoods in need, so that New Yorkers see our city not as the exclusive domain of the One Percent, but a place where everyday people can afford to live, work, and raise a family. We won’t wait. We’ll do it now.
We will reform a broken stop-and-frisk policy, both to protect the dignity and rights of young men of color, and to give our brave police officers the partnership they need to continue their success in driving down crime. We won’t wait. We’ll do it now.
We will ask the very wealthy to pay a little more in taxes so that we can offer full-day universal pre-K and after-school programs for every middle school student. And when we say “a little more,” we can rightly emphasize the “little.”
Those earning between $500,000 and one million dollars a year, for instance, would see their taxes increase by an average of $973 a year. That’s less than three bucks a day – about the cost of a small soy latte at your local Starbucks.
Think about it. A five-year tax on the wealthiest among us – with every dollar dedicated to pre-K and after-school. Asking those at the top to help our kids get on the right path and stay there. That’s our mission. And on that, we will not wait. We will do it now.

“That thou doest, do quickly.”

Every policy in Bill de Blasio’s agenda will contribute to New York City’s destruction, and the more quickly his agenda is implemented, the sooner the destructive effects will be evident. It’s so obvious, even a Harvard graduate can see it:

De Blasio’s signature proposal, universal pre-K, is a more ambiguous case. Most research indicates that early childhood education doesn’t have the benefits to children’s prospects that its advocates suggest. But it’s possible the program could increase the [economic] mobility of parents, by lowering costs and stress for two-earner and single-parent households.
But there’s also a pessimistic scenario, in which the growing cost of New York’s existing welfare state means that de Blasio’s crusade ultimately just devolves into interest-group featherbedding, in which the rich are squeezed to benefit a well-compensated public sector and preserve bureaucracies that ought to be reformed.

What Ross Douthat calls a “pessimistic scenario” is in fact the only possible outcome. “Universal pre-K” simply means expansion of the city’s bloated and corrupt public school bureaucracy.

“Since 2002, starting salaries for NYC public school teachers have increased 43%.” A teacher fresh out of college is paid $45,530 a year and, after five years, receives an annual base salary of $64,006. “Teachers can earn additional income from after-school, weekend, or summer school employment. This work is paid at a contractual rate which is currently $41.98 per hour.” Implementing universal pre-K and expanding after-school programs will increase the size of this taxpayer-funded unionized public sector work-force. One-third of New York City public-school teachers enroll their own children in private schools. With the support of their union and the protection of tenure, bad teachers can never be fired, not even criminals who rape students.

The New York City public school system is a despicable abomination, and yet Mayor de Blasio wants to raise taxes to expand it.

Every item in De Blasio’s agenda is as bad as (or worse than) his education policy, and the important thing is that it be implemented immediately, so that its failures are not delayed. Economic decline, escalating crime, rampant corruption, an exodus of law-abiding citizens, an influx of deadbeats and predators — the sooner New York City descends into bankrupt anarchy, the better.

God forbid anything good should ever happen to the people of a city so depraved as to elect Bill de Blasio their mayor.

New York’s future is going to be worse than Dinkins — a dystopia straight out of Snake Plissken’s worst nightmares.

 

 


Category: New York

Democrats and the Murder Vote

Posted on | January 5, 2014 | 15 Comments

Ann Althouse was shocked by this quote:

“There are thousands of murderers walking around who
haven’t been brought to justice…. It’s horrifying.”

But how else could Democrats get elected?

Jail survey: 7 in 10 felons
register as Democrats

Maybe somebody should write a book about this . . .

 

Category: Ann Althouse, Crime, Democrats

‘They Are Not Allowed to Fail’

Posted on | January 5, 2014 | 15 Comments

Amanda Carpenter called attention to a letter a Maryland middle-school teacher wrote to the Washington Post‘s education writer:

I am paid to give out gold stars to everyone so that no one feels left out, to give everyone an A because they feel sad if they don’t have one. I take the perpetual, insane harassment from parents who insist that their child’s failings are solely my fault because I do not coddle them to the point of being unable to accept any sort of critique; if each student is not perfect and prepared for college and life by age twelve, then I must be wrong about the quality of their work. I lower my own standards so much that I have been thinking my grades were generous. After years of being harangued, I gave Bs to D-quality work, but that is never good enough. All I can do is field the various phone calls, meetings, and e-mails, to let myself be abused, slandered, spit at because that is my career, taking the fall for our country’s mistakes and skewed priorities. So if you want your child to get an education, then I’m afraid that as a teacher, I can’t help you, but feel free to stop by if you want a sticker and a C.

You should read the whole thing, because part of the blame belongs to the Bush administration’s “No Child Left Behind” (NCLB) legislation, which was and is bad policy, directly opposite to the conservative critique of public education. Conservatives are against centralized bureaucracy and against an expanded role for the federal government in education. The invocation of “standards” as a magic word — Abracadabra! — seems to have deceived many Republicans into supporting NCLB, imagining that standardized testing would somehow solve problems. But the problems of public education are beyond reach of such “solutions”:

Eventually, the meeting came down to two quotes that I will forever remember as the defining slogans for public education:
“They are not allowed to fail.”
“If they have D’s or F’s, there is something that you are not doing for them.”
What am I not doing for them? . . . I was called down to the principal’s office many more times before I was broken, before I ended up assigning stupid assignments for large amounts of credit, ones I knew I could get students to do. Even then, I still had students failing, purely through their own refusal to put any sort of effort into anything, and I had lowered the bar so much that it took hardly anything to pass. According to the rubrics set forth by the county, if they wrote a single word on their paper, related or not to the assignment, I had to give them a 48 percent. Yet, students chose to do nothing. Why? Because we are forced to pass them. “They are not allowed to fail,” remember?

The teacher decided to quit:

I would love to teach, but I refuse to be led by a top-down hierarchy that is completely detached from the classrooms for which it is supposed to be responsible. . . .
I quit because I’m tired of being part of the problem, and as only one soul in the river Styx, it is impossible for me to be part of the solution.

Hear! Hear! More and more good, honest, decent, caring teachers are quitting the public school system. The deteriorating quality of faculty and administration is increasingly pervasive because no intelligent person would willingly submit themselves to such an oppressive bureaucratic yoke. The public education system is doomed beyond all hope of redemption, and the sooner Americans cease cooperating with the system — get your children out and support alternatives — the sooner its final collapse will arrive.

 

 


Category: Education
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