The Other McCain

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

Schizophrenic Criminal Faker Making Meaningless Gestures? Hmmm …

Posted on | December 13, 2013 | 34 Comments

The Washington Post reports:

The sign language interpreter who gestured meaninglessly at the Nelson Mandela memorial in South Africa on Tuesday has faced charges of murder, rape, theft, breaking and entering, malicious damage to property and kidnapping, according to eNCA.com.
The South African news site said the outcome of the murder charge against Thamsanqa Jantjie, brought in 2003, was unknown because the court case file is “mysteriously empty.”
Many of the other charges against Jantjie, dating back to 1994, were eventually dropped, eNCA reported, because he was deemed mentally unfit to stand trial. . . .
The disclosures reinforced questions about how Jantjie managed to get hired to stand right next to many of the powerful world leaders who spoke at the memorial for the late South African president in a large stadium in Soweto. Leaders of South African groups devoted to helping the deaf pointed out that Jantjie was making arm motions that made no sense and said he was a fake.
Jantjie has said he suffers from schizophrenia and was hearing voices when he was on stage. He said that he saw angels, according to the Associated Press, and that he could be violent.

The People’s Cube is having wwaaayy too much fun with this one.

Donald Douglas remembers that there are 5 A’s in “RAAAAACISM!” 

 

Category: Barack Obama

Remember: ‘Climate’ Is Not ‘Weather’ (Unless Scientists Tell Us It Is)

Posted on | December 13, 2013 | 56 Comments

Once you realize that anthropogenic global warming (also known as “climate change”) is a non-falsifiable theory, the pretzel logic is amusing: Any extreme or damaging weather — including extreme cold — can be cited as evidence of “climate change,” and anything that looks like contradictory evidence can be dismissed as irrelevant because . . . well, there’s a scientific consensus, and nobody can argue with a scientific consensus. In other words, the science of global warning is not science. It’s actually the exact opposite of science, because real science requires that a theory conform to the evidence, rather than attempting to conform the evidence to a theory. Don’t expect the global warming fanatics to have an explanation for this:

It snowed in Cairo today for the first time in, well … a long time! According to the Los Angeles Times, “Local news reports said the last recorded snowfall was more than 100 years ago,” while the AFP quotes a Cairo meteorologist saying that this is the first snow in “many years,” which is about as vague and unhelpful as it gets. Reports that this is Cairo’s first snowfall in exactly 112 years (see: Business Insider, Buzzfeed) seem to be based on a tweet by one local man who later acknowledged he was just guesstimating. Whatever the exact number is, though, the point is that it basically never snows in Cairo.

How dare you mere mortals doubt an Official Scientific Consensus!

 

 


Category: Environmentalism, Global Warming, Science

After Nine Long Years, Media Matters Declares Victory in ‘War on Fox News’

Posted on | December 13, 2013 | 68 Comments

Before addressing the report today at Huffington Post, let me ask: How many readers are students of military science? One of the things you learn about when studying basic tactics is that battlefields sometimes have “channelizing” terrain features that restrict troop movements, so that the direction of attack (or line of retreat) is predictable:

Restricted terrain for vehicles may be roads or highways, or rolling hills that include trees or outcroppings of rocks. Remember that terrain is restrictive if it constrains a unit’s options for movement. Jersey barriers or high embankments alongside a road, for instance, can turn it into restrictive terrain — a channelizing obstacle that benefits the defense, not offense. Restricted terrain for forces on foot would include swamps, dense vegetation, steep rugged terrain, and dense urban areas.

At the 1862 Battle of Antietam, for example, “Burnside’s Bridge” was a channelizing feature, so that a small Confederate force was able to hold off a much larger Union attack which was focused on taking the bridge. Similarly, at the Battle of Fredericksburg, channelizing terrain features — including marshy ground on the northern end of the battlefield — had the effect of directing repeated Union assaults against a Confederate stronghold at the famous Sunken Road, a position that proved impregnable to frontal attack.

This is analogous to the problem of conservatives making Fox News a singular focus of efforts to combat liberal media bias. As early as February 2009, I described what I called “The Fox Trap”:

Media-wise, the GOP made the mistake of putting all its eggs in one basket. I enjoy Fox News, but it has created a syndrome where Republicans watch Fox all the time and delude themselves into thinking, “Hey, our message is getting out! We’re winning!” Fact: The evening news broadcasts of ABC, NBC and CBS reach a combined audience of about 22 million; the top rated Fox News show, “The O’Reilly Factor,” reaches 4 million viewers. So if the three broadcast networks are viciously biased against Republicans — and they are — then that anti-GOP message is reaching more than 5 times as many TV viewers as Fox.

Last week, I described the problem again with updated numbers:

[D]uring the Bush presidency, the Left created institutions (notably Media Matters) based on the dubious theory that Fox News and other conservative media had too much influence.
That theory cannot be reconciled with the facts:

NBC Nightly News  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.3 million
ABC World News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.2 million
CBS Evening News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.3 million
Fox News (The O’Reilly Factor) . . . . . . . . . . . 3.2 million
MSNBC (Hardball with Chris Matthews) . . . . . 940,000
CNN (Anderson Cooper 360) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 605,000

Fox News is, as it proudly boasts, Number One in Cable News, accounting for 68% of the cable news audience. Add in the major network evening news broadcasts, however, and the total news audience is closer to 30 million, of which Fox’s share is about 11%.
In other words, 89% of news on TV is reliably liberal in its perspective, and the Left’s obsession with Fox News is absurd. Why should Media Matters have an annual budget of $10 million to counteract the influence of a network that gets 11% of the news audience?

We could discuss at length the ramifications of this data, but the point to be made immediately is that Fox News has functioned like a channelizing terrain feature in the informational battlefield. For the defenders of liberal media hegemony, all they had to do was to isolate Fox — identify it as a hostile force in the eyes of other media — and then to target both the network’s messages and its messengers.

In other words, a story that was damaging to Democrats or which undermined key elements of the liberal media narrative could be discredited simply by saying, “Oh, that’s a Fox story.”

This phenomenon was evident, for example, in the unrelenting attacks on Glenn Beck (whom liberals correctly identified as a popular figure among Tea Party-aligned conservatives) and even more clearly in the Left’s endless attacks against Andrew Breitbart.

What was the Left’s reaction to the initial revelations of “WeinerGate” in May 2011? “Oh, that’s bogus, because it’s just a Breitbart story.”

One thing that particularly enraged the Left was that CNN interviewed Breitbart about the story:

CNN Spreads Latest Breitbart Smear
— “Stranded Wind” (Neal Rauhauser), Daily Kos, May 30, 2011

CNN Knew Breitbart Was Lying 
— “Stranded Wind” (Neal Rauhauser), Daily Kos, June 1, 2011

This meme — that the Weiner cybersex scandal was a “Breitbart smear” which should not be reported by “objective” media like CNN — was consistent with a general strategy by the Left to limit the ability of conservative media to influence the larger narrative, by ensuring that (a) the Right’s most effective messengers were restricted to appearing on Fox News, and (b) Fox News was viewed as unreliable.

Andrew Breitbart understood this tactic, and fought very hard to escape the “Fox Trap,” which is why he delivered one of his biggest scoops on the WeinerGate scandal — the Meagan Broussard story, which confirmed that Weiner was “sexting” with multiple women — directly to ABC News as an exclusive. If conservative messages and messengers can be limited to one media channel, and that channel reaches no more than a minor fraction of the total news audience, liberals win. It’s really that simple, which is why this Huffington Post story is so significant:

Since its founding in 2004, the progressive watchdog group Media Matters for America has been a thorn in the side of Fox News. Its dozens of staffers monitor the network’s leadership, hosts, guests and financial dealings incessantly, calling out misinformation, conflicts of interest and evidence of a partisan agenda, in a bid to shed light on the workings of the right-wing echo chamber.
But in the coming years, Fox will no longer be the center of Media Matters’ universe. That’s because the group believes it has effectively discredited the network’s desire to be seen as “fair and balanced.”
“The war on Fox is over,” said Media Matters Executive Vice President Angelo Carusone. “And it’s not just that it’s over, but it was very successful. To a large extent, we won.”
According to its strategic plan for the next three years, a copy of which was provided to The Huffington Post, Media Matters envisions shifting its focus to new, increasingly influential targets, including Spanish-language media, social media streams, alternative online outlets and morning and entertainment sources. It will enhance its state media and issue-based monitoring, as well as continue its focus on right-wing radio and legacy outlets.
“We’ve always said, ‘Media Matters watches Fox, so you don’t have to,'” said Bradley Beychok, the group’s president. “That remains true. Fox News isn’t going to stop lying, so we’ll stay on that beat. But, our success regarding Fox News means that our talented team will carry out our mission in different ways consistent with a new strategic vision responsive to the transforming media environment.” . . .
Media Matters argues in its strategic plan that Fox News is no longer the gatekeeper it once was, now that social media has proliferated and many of the network’s personalities have moved elsewhere. . . .
Carusone argued that Media Matters’ focus on traditional outlets is more important than ever, especially given the changing nature of the news business and the staffing cuts happening in many places.
“These outlets are not our enemy. We do not have a hostile posture toward them,” he said. “But in some ways, because they’re vulnerable, because the right-wing echo chamber is so well-funded and so loud, there’s a role and a posture that we have to take that’s very different from the one we had in the past. It doesn’t mean that we don’t listen to the regular players anymore, but it just means that structurally, we have to think about how we make sense of it.”
Media Matters has also been branching out by doing investigative reporting and increasing its coverage of specific issues: gun violence, LGBT equality, energy and climate, immigration, the judiciary, the economy and women’s rights. Moving forward, it hopes to hold an annual conference in Washington, develop a deeper network of activists and expand its technological capabilities. One idea is a new portal site and a system, currently known as “Project M,” that will allow the group to better monitor the media landscape.
Carusone, who was recently promoted to his current role, has been a key foot soldier in the war on Fox. Before he joined the organization, back when he was still in law school, he started a campaign against Beck in response to the host’s 2009 comment that President Barack Obama is a racist. With the help of some progressive organizations, Carusone successfully convinced hundreds of companies to stop advertising on Beck’s show.
He joined Media Matters in 2011, around the time that Media Matters Founder David Brock declared an all-out “war on Fox” and launched a “Drop Fox” campaign aimed at the network’s advertisers. Although one of Media Matters’ main targets stood by Fox at the time, Carusone said the group considered the push a success. He pointed out that Fox President Roger Ailes said just a few months later that the network needed to do a “course correction” away from the far right.
Host Megyn Kelly has since taken over the 9:00 p.m. time slot that had been occupied for years by Sean Hannity, who is known for being more vitriolic and partisan than Kelly. Carusone argued that financial pressure, created in part by Media Matters, forced that shift. . . .

You can read the whole thing and decide for yourself whether (a) Media Matters has actually “won” its war against Fox News, or (b) whether the new “strategic plan” is just a fundraising pitch aimed at donors who have grown weary of funding an organization that has already spent millions of dollars on its anti-Fox News obsession. Readers may also want to remember something I wrote in April 2012:

The “Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy,” as Hillary Clinton dubbed it in 1998, was incapable of persuading a majority of Americans that Mrs. Clinton’s husband should be drummed out of office for his “high crimes and misdemeanors.” Similarly, conservative alternative media could not prevent Democrats from winning control of Congress in the 2006 midterm elections, nor prevent Obama’s 2008 election. And, although Republicans took back Congress in a historic 2010 midterm landslide, the prospects for defeating Obama’s re-election bid and unseating Harry Reid as Senate Majority Leader are uncertain at best, despite what most conservatives would view as the demonstrable failures of Democratic Party policies. Thus the question arises: “What are conservatives doing wrong in their efforts to expose, correct and offset liberal media bias?” . . .

Please read the whole thing. No one associated with Fox News will ever acknowledge the limits of their influence, but conservatives should not let themselves be blinded to the larger media reality.

 

You can buy Hating Breitbart now.

It would be a wonderful Christmas gift for your kids.

 

Category: Fox News, Media Bias

To the Troll at IP 178.20.55.18

Posted on | December 13, 2013 | 36 Comments

When news broke Wednesday that Lamar Alexander’s chief of staff had been busted for child pornography, I asked a question:

This was an obvious angle on a shocking story, but evidently the Ryan Loskarn scandal had made the story radioactive enough that no Hill staffer wanted to speculate on his preferences. So when details were made public Thursday, this was my headline:

‘Hundreds of Videos Depicting Underage
Boys … in Sexually Explicit Conduct’

That was a direct quote from a “Statement of Facts” issued by the Justice Department (PDF) and, if you’ll click the link, you will learn that the investigation of Ryan Loskarn began in 2010. Toronto Police were investigating a company that was producing videos: “The majority of these films feature young nude boys. . . . Review of the customer invoices and purchase summary from the database revealed that Loskarn had made several purchases between November 2010 and March 2011.” Then on Wednesday, when Loskarn was raided, police say he attempted to hide a Toshiba external hard drive that included the “hundreds of videos depicting underage boys.”

It would therefore appear that Loskarn’s preference is for young boys.

However, the Justice Department “Statement of Facts” also makes reference to a 28-minute video entitled “6 Yo Girl Kidnapped and Raped in Woods,” which investigators say was “offered for download on October 5, 2013, from Loskarn’s IP address.”

Does this contradict the evidence that would seem to indicate Loskarn’s preference for boys? No. More likely, it indicates that in accumulating the stock-in-trade on these online file-sharing networks, Loskarn was acquiring and transmitting the stuff in batches. But as for his own personal use — what police say he got via mail from the Toronto company and what he evidently downloaded and stored on an external hard drive — it was “underage boys.”

Which brings us to the troll at IP 178.20.55.18, who showed up in the comments of my post to make these remarks:

Sadly, McCain’s (and by extension his readers) gay bias has to show itself through the headline even though when you go on to read the rest of the article the material he was caught with contained both boys and girls. I’m sure Alessandra will be showing up soon to blame this all on gay people too.

Bullshit. The evidence described in the Loskarn case is clear enough. Anyone can read the linked article and make their own judgment.

The accusation of “gay bias” is a deliberate smear, and the reference to Alessandra — who blogs at Reflections by Alessandra — indicates some kind of agenda, because the same “Dudeski” had this to say to Alessandra in the comments on Dec. 8:

Tyrannical, narrow-minded, hypocrite. When a psychological evaluation is turned on you, and I’m willing to bet I’m not terribly far off and you’ve suffered some kind of trauma, or sexual trauma, your only response is to mindlessly attack. I pity you. You’re sad, ugly, and pathetic.

That comment was posted from IP 94.242.251.112, which is in Luxembourg, whereas IP 178.20.55.18 is in France, and both are frequently reported as spam — see here and here — and the obvious inference is that these IPs are from anonymous TOR routers.

Hmmm. A troll who (a) uses an anonymous TOR router, (b) exhibits hostility toward women, and (c) falsely accuses me of bias.

You can hide your IP, but you can’t hide your personality, troll.

 

 

P.S.: We must distinguish the troll currently using the handle “Dudeski” from previous commenters using the same name, e.g., recommending Ludwig von Mises and criticizing celebrities.

 

Category: Gays

LIVE AT FIVE: 12.13.13

Posted on | December 13, 2013 | 11 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho


TOP NEWS
Norks Say Leader’s Uncle Executed For Treason

Jang Song-Thaek in Beijing last year

Accused of preparing military coup

Missing American In Iran Was On Rogue Mission For CIA
Three analysts fired, seven disciplined for unauthorized mission

UN Report Confirms More Chemical Weapons Use In Syria
Poison gas used at least five times, but report doesn’t say who users were



POLITICS
House Passes Budget Deal With Bipartisan Vote, 332-94

Speaker Boehner and Rep. Paul Ryan

Boehner still bashing

Federal Judge Orders Mt. Soledad Cross Removed

GOP May Tighten Presidential Primary Rules For 2016

Senator’s Memo Shows Iran Links To Troubled Homeland Security Visa Program

White House’s $100M Mental Health Pledge: Token Gesture Or Real Reform?

Administration Can’t Answer Simple Questions About Afghanistan War Costs

Politifact’s Lie Of The Year: “If You Like Your Health Plan, You Can Keep Your Health Plan”



THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Brent Hangs Above $108 Ahead Of Libya Port Reopening, Fed Meeting: NYMEX $97.52, Brent $108.77
Stocks Fall For Third Day In A Row
OC Register Plans Daily LA Paper
Hilton Worldwide Holdings IPO Climbs 9%, Raises $2.35 Billion
World Stocks Down On Prospect Of Fed Stimulus Cut
Investors Pull $6.5 Million Out Of Mutual Funds
Aereo To Broadcasters: “We’ll See You In (Supreme) Court”
Twitter Backflips On Blocking Policy
Instagram Adds Direct Messaging
Spotify Offers Free Music Streaming App For Mobile Devices
GMail To Show Images By Default



SPORTS
Chargers Score Mile-High Stunner, Upset Broncos

WR Keenan Allen caught two TD passes from Phil Rivers in the 27-20 win

San Diego keeps playoff hopes alive while complicating Denver’s road to the playoffs


Mariners Sign Robinson Cano For Ten Years, $240 Million


Nyets Win Third In A Row, Down Clippers 102-93

Blue Jackets Deal Rangers Fourth Straight Loss At MSG

Seahawks QB Russell Wilson Drafted By Rangers

Iginla Scores Two As Bruins Double Up Oilers 4-2

Avs Edge Jets In Shootout 4-3

Boswell On The Bench (Players)



FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
Prince To Appear In “New Girl” Super Bowl Episode

The rocker formerly known as a ridiculous symbol has eyes for Jess!

Will appear as himself, providing romantic complications for Zooey’s character

“12 Years A Slave” And “American Hustle” Lead Golden Globes Pack

Kanye West Ripped By Ohio Police Chief

Susan Sarandon: I Was Stoned At “Almost All” The Awards Shows

First Look At Johnny Depp’s Mind-Melding Technothriller “Transcendance”

“Teen Mom 2” Star Jenelle Evans Expecting Second Child

Demi Lovato Says Little Sister Madison Helped Her Turn Life Around

Miley Cyrus To Perform Live In Times Square On New Year’s Eve

Victoria’s Secret Model Lindsay Ellington Engaged To Sean Clayton

Models Frolic In Island Paradise



FOREIGNERS
Typhoon Death Toll In Philippines Passes 6000
Echoes Of Cold War In Ukraine As Russia Battles US Influence
Bangladesh: Islamist Leader Hanged For 1971 War Crimes
Amnesty International Whines That EU Is Failing Syrian Refugees
Yemen Officials Say US Drone Strike Wipes Out Wedding Party By Mistake
Japan, ASEAN Fete Forty Years Of Ties
Humanitarian Crisis In Central African Republic Mounts Even As Combat Recedes
Catalonia Sets Date For Independence Vote
India’s Deputy Consul General In NYC Arrested For Visa Fraud



BLOGS & STUFF
Dead Republican Party: What We Need For Christmas
The Looking Spoon: FLOTUS’ Death Stare Isn’t Just For POTUS
First Street Journal: Economics 101 – Detroit Is Failing Because It Had To Fail
Doug Powers: Please Pass The Pepto – Rep. Alan Grayson Seeks “Friends With Benefits”
Twitchy: Eric Bolling Leads Hashtag Hijack Of #GetCovered
American Power: The Left’s Latest Lie – An Obamacare Enrollment “Surge”
American Thinker: Charity By Force – Jesus Vs. Marx
Blackfive: Wreaths Across America
The Necropolitan Sentinel: Obamacare Watch – Yeah, It’s Far From Free
Don Surber: Daily Scoreboard, December 12
Jammie Wearing Fools: Maryland Exchange Director Resigns; Was On Caribbean Vacation When It Imploded
JustOneMinute: Small Businesses Do The Math, Drop Their Healthcare Plans
Pat Dollard: Senate Democrats Hold Midnight Vote To Confirm Radical Left-Wing Judge
Protein Wisdom: “House Passes Bipartisan Murray-Ryan Budget Bill”
Shot In The Dark: Just As A Matter Of Consistent Integrity
The Jawa Report: Good News! Western-Backed Rebel Leader Flees Syria
The Lonely Conservative: Sebelius Says Losing Insurance Coverage Not The Same As Plans That No Longer Exist
This Ain’t Hell: Budget Deal Screws Troops And Veterans
Megan McArdle: Obamacare’s Never-Ending Fix-A-Thon


Shop Amazon – Holiday Favorites from Marketplace Sellers

Category: Live at Five

World’s Youngest Blogger: #ObamaCare Metaphor? Dad, This Is A Fashion Atrocity

Posted on | December 12, 2013 | 17 Comments

Category: humor, World's Youngest Blogger

Christian Groups Ask Pentagon to End Connection to ‘Anti-Christian’ SPLC

Posted on | December 12, 2013 | 27 Comments

Domestic terrorism has consequences:

The Thomas More Law Center with the Family Research Council (FRC) and 14 other organizations announced yesterday the submission of a letter to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel requesting that the Department of Defense (DOD) ensure that future training materials do not rely on information from the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) or any other organization that engages in groundless and highly pejorative mischaracterizations of long-standing Christian organizations for their own political purposes.
The request comes after several training incidents in which Army instructors may have relied on anti-Christian materials produced by the Southern Poverty Law Center, an organization that was linked to domestic terrorism in federal court in February, 2013. …
“We will continue to monitor this situation and remain in contact with the Department of Defense to ensure that instructors carry out their role to train our troops to defend our freedom, and not push the Southern Poverty Law Center’s anti-Christian agenda,” [said FRC executive vice-president Lt. Gen. (Retired) Jerry] Boykin.

You can read the letter to Secretary Hagel here (PDF).

 

Category: Military, Terrorism

‘Hundreds of Videos Depicting Underage Boys … in Sexually Explicit Conduct’

Posted on | December 12, 2013 | 69 Comments

That’s a description of what the cops found on an external hard drive when they arrested a top Senate GOP aide:

Ryan Loskarn, the now ex-chief of staff for GOP Sen. Lamar Alexander (Tenn.), appeared in federal court on Thursday after being arrested and charged with possessing and distributing child pornography.
A nervous Loskarn, whose hands were visibly shaking, was detained as a flight risk and because he is a threat given his alleged crimes involving children. Loskarn said nothing in court except his name and was wearing the same gray sweatshirt and jeans that he had on when he was arrested on Wednesday. . . .
A “Statement of Facts” released by the Justice Department on Thursday alleged that Loskarn had been viewing and sharing child pornography with others for several years, a claim that stunned Alexander and Loskarn’s many friends and colleagues on Capitol Hill. . . .
According to the complaint, Loskarn, 35, made “several purchases” between November 2010 and March 2011 from a Toronto-based movie production company operating a website that offered DVDs via mail and streaming video. The court documents said “the majority of these films featured young nude boys.”
Starting in October 2010, the U.S. Postal Service Inspection Service and the Toronto Police began investigating the company. A “review of the customer invoices and purchase summary” revealed Loskarn billing and shipping address in Washington, D.C., according to the document.
In October 2013, the postal service also found Loskarn’s residential IP address on the “Gnutella peer-to-peer network offering files with names that are consistent with child pornography broadcasting as a download candidate.” . . .

You can read the whole thing.

 


Category: Crime, Sex
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