The Other McCain

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

Anarchy in Africa: U.S., U.K. Evacuate as South Sudan Spirals Out of Control UPDATE: Rebels Hit U.N. Mission

Posted on | December 19, 2013 | 29 Comments

The United States has evacuated non-essential personnel from its embassy in Juba, South Sudan, British nationals are being evacuated, and people are trying to make sense of the crisis that developed suddenly over the weekend:

During the final session of the National Liberation Council, one of the ruling party’s highest political organs, on December 15, there was a dispute among different elements of the Presidential Guards (Tigers) over orders to surrender their arms. According to Adwok, guards were disarmed but later the officer in charge opened the stores and rearmed only the Dinka soldiers. The Nuer guards questioned this, a fistfight ensued and more Nuer soldiers came in and broke into the stores. The Nuer soldiers managed to take control of the headquarters and the next day after some SPLA reinforcements, the mutineers were dislodged. There is no evidence of any planning, masterminding or political coordination before or during the clash.
Although ethnicity is a major factor, the crisis was actually precipitated by a deep political rift and power struggle. Yes, the President Salva Kiir is a Dinka and his rival the former vice-president Riek Machar is a Nuer. Yes, the race card is being played by both sides, and certainly it is a real dimension of the conflict especially at the ground level. But behind Riek Machar is a coalition that includes prominent Dinka politicians as well such as the former Sudanese minister of foreign affairs and the widow of the founding father of the SPLM John Garang. Other prominent non-Nuers are in the camp of the former vice president such as the now dismissed secretary-general of the ruling party, Pag’an Amum, a Shilluk.

Reuters reports that oil workers are being evacuated, and witnesses report that SPLA troops targeted ethnic Nuers.

South Sudan only recently gained its independence from Sudan’s Muslim-dominated Khartoum regime, and this sudden descent into violent tribal anarchy is profoundly disappointing for those who supported Juba’s independence. The breakdown of discipline in the SPLA is particularly disturbing, and remember that South Sudan is right next to the Central African Republic:

Armed gangs are rampaging through the Central African Republic carrying out atrocities including executions and mutilations, despite the presence of French and African troops.
Reports by two leading human rights organisations say the situation in the war-torn country is spiralling out of control and requires a robust response from the international community.
Both Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International say the death toll is much higher than reported and that peacekeeping forces in the CAR must be beefed up to protect the population from further war crimes.

Have you heard anything about this on the national news? Has any reporter asked our Nobel Peace Prize-winning president about it? No, of course not. Innocent people are being slaughtered wholesale, but it’s not “news” because, hey, it’s just Africans.

On the one hand, media silence about the bloodbath in central Africa is racist, but on the other hand, it’s also “racist” to expect Obama to do something to prevent genocidal violence. So this brutality continues, and we’re not supposed to notice.

UPDATE: South Sudan is rapidly going from bad to worse:

The United Nations says it fears casualties after attackers forced their way into a peacekeeping base in South Sudan’s Jonglei state.
Rebels from the country’s second-largest ethnic group, the Nuer, attacked the base, targeting civilians of the majority Dinka ethnic community. . . .
UN spokesman Farhan Haq told reporters on Thursday that “fighting took place” at the compound in Jonglei.
“We fear there may have been some fatalities but can’t confirm who and how many,” he said.
The UN peacekeeping mission is sheltering civilians in five state capitals, including Juba and Bor. The attack on the Jonglei compound came after Nuer rebels seized control of Bor. Even before the unrest, Bor was seen as one of the most volatile areas of South Sudan.
Earlier, there were reports of gun battles in the town, as renegade officers fought with troops still loyal to the president.

 


Category: Central African Republic, Sudan

Thanks to the Reader Who Bought ‘Call of Duty: Ghosts’ From Our Amazon Links!

Posted on | December 19, 2013 | 4 Comments

There’s still time to do your last-minute Christmas shopping via our Amazon Associates holiday specials, and this week somebody ordered the hottest game of the year, “Call of Duty: Ghosts” for an Xbox 360 system. (It’s also available for PlayStation and other systems.) The sale price was $47.99 and, as with all sales from our Amazon links, we got a small commission at no cost to you.

Among the other Amazon purchases this week, readers bought an Alexander Del Rossa designer fleece bathrobe for $49.99 and a Lenox Portola 65-Piece Flatware Set for $127.49.

 

 

Let’s face it: You don’t want to go to the mall and fight those crowds, just to find they don’t have what you want, or they don’t have it in the right size or color. Who needs that hassle? Just click the link, shop around Amazon and have it shipped in time for Christmas!

And if you’re not sure what to buy that special someone? Just get them an Amazon Gift Card and have it shipped in a special gift box.

 

 

RECENTLY:

 

Category: Amazon

The #PajamaBoy Thing, Also: Bizarre Holiday Ad Targets Gays for ObamaCare

Posted on | December 19, 2013 | 60 Comments

OK, I’m way late blogging this.

Twitter gold! The Obama #PajamaBoy selfie
and other must-see mash-ups and memes
— Twitchy

Pajama Boy, An Insufferable Man-Child
— Politico

Footiejammies from the Id!
— Ed Driscoll

Even MSNBC Is Laughing
Hysterically at Pajama Boy
— Jammie Wearing Fools

Meanwhile, an organization called “Out2Enroll” (get it?) produced this gay-themed ad for ObamaCare:

 

Exit Questions: How many U.S. tax dollars are being spent to fund these laughable ObamaCare propaganda efforts? Couldn’t that money be better spent on, y’know, actual health care?

 

Category: Health Care

Today’s Ray Of Hope

Posted on | December 19, 2013 | 10 Comments

— Wombat-socho


Yesterday’s Washington Times featured an article by Rowan Scarborough indicating that the Army War College at Carlisle Barracks, Pa. was going to be removing portraits of Confederate generals such as Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson, and hinted that this was more political correctness run wild, as in the case of Duval County, Florida’s Nathan B. Forrest High School, soon to be renamed something less offensive. For The ChildrenTM.


Evidently the commandant of the War College reads the Times, or was informed of the article, since he posted an article to the War College blog pointing out the several inaccuracies in the article and stating that there was no plan to “remove all traces of the CSA”. They are planning on adding more art dealing with the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars, as well as organizing the art in a less random fashion, which will mean less of the Civil War-oriented art that currently dominates the walls, but there is by no means a politically correct art purge going on at Carlisle Barracks. So that’s something.


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Category: History, Journalism, Military

This Is Not News: Carl Herold and His ‘Domestic Partner’ Charles Dunnavant

Posted on | December 19, 2013 | 63 Comments

Interesting which crimes get overlooked by the national media:

Two Alabama men have been charged with imprisoning and filming their sexual abuse of a minor for use in child pornography made with the son of one of the accused.
Domestic partners Charles Dunnavant and Carl Herold face a litany of charges ranging from sexual torture and sodomy to exposing a person to an STD and child pornography production.
The young boy, only nine-years-old, was held hostage in the Huntsville house of horrors for eight months, during which he was sexually assaulted, abused, sodomized and exposed to an STD by both men while a camera caught all the depraved details, according to a court filing cited by WHNT. . . .
‘They held the child captive for eight months and there are no standards, taboos or lines this defendant and his co-defendant hesitated to cross,’ Huntsville Police Department investigator Chad Smith testified in court Monday, according to WHNT.

Yes, this is strictly a local news story:

Dunnavant lived with Herold  in Huntsville. . . .
Dunnavant was arrested at a family home in Lincoln County, Tenn., Friday investigators said. During a hearing Monday seeking to raise Dunnavant’s bond from $276,000 cash-only to $1 million cash-only, Huntsville Police Department investigator Chad Smith testified he was contacted by the FBI in early November about the possibility of a child sex victim in Huntsville.
Smith said investigators came across numerous photos depicting sexual torture involving a child.

This has no ramifications or significance outside Alabama. However, if somebody says something that offends gay people . . .

Hyping the absurd Duck Dynasty controversy, Chad Griffin of the gay-rights lobby Human Rights Campaign said this: “Phil Robertson’s remarks are not consistent with the values of our faith communities or the scientific findings of leading medical organizations. We know that being gay is not a choice someone makes, and that to suggest otherwise can be incredibly harmful.”

Got that? It is “incredibly harmful” even to “suggest” that individuals are capable of rational action. No, according to “scientific finding,” we are told, sexual behavior is biologically determined, utterly beyond our control, and our sexual preferences are so hard-wired and overpowering that incredible harm will result if we attempt to conform our actions to moral ideals or social norms.

Ideas Have Consequences, as Richard Weaver once famously observed, and this idea — what I’ve called the “Desire Is Destiny” view of sexuality — has consequences far beyond the narrow and selfish purposes of HRC’s Chad Griffin, who is interested only in fundraising, political power and his own $360,000 annual pay.

Chad Griffin is not some idealistic humanitarian, you see. He’s a highly paid professional activist, a full-time anger merchant who oversees an organization whose top dozen officials, himself included, rake off a combined $2.56 million a year. Most people don’t understand that there is a sort of political industry at work — Gay, Inc. — and there are many hundreds of people who earn their livings from various gay advocacy groups, not to mention other similar gigs, e.g., “Queer Theory” professors at universities.

All these people wake up every morning and go to work where they spend the entire day laboring to destroy morality in America. Given the enormous resources and manpower devoted to this project, we certainly ought not be surprised by their successes.

And never mind what they might consider a “success.”

 

 


Category: Crime, Gays, Sex

LIVE AT FIVE: 12.19.13

Posted on | December 19, 2013 | 5 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho


TOP NEWS
Obama Fixes Max Baucus Problem By Shipping Him Off To Beijing

Senator Max Baucus, D-Montana

President to name Blue Dog Senator ambassador to PRC

Advisory Panel Tells Obama To End NSA Phone Dragnet
One of five recommendations regarding the “rogue” intel agency


US Ignored Requests To Resolve Consul’s Maid Issue
SecState Kerry apologizes for humiliating treatment of Khobragade



POLITICS
Obama Advisor Podesta Under Fire For Comparing GOP To Jonestown

Head of the Center for American Progress can’t leave his mudslinging ways behind

Remark made while encouraging Obama “to rule like a Third World dictator”

Interim Minnesota Exchange Head Answers Conflict Of Interest Questions

Rep. Fleming: Best “Fix” For Obamacare Is A Mercy Killing

Ohio Secretary Of State Finds 17 Non-Citizens Cast Ballots In 2012 Election

Obenshain Concedes Virginia AG Race To Herring



THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Brent Slips Toward $109 As Dollar Rises On Fed Stimulus Tapering: NYMEX $97.73, Brent $109.35
Global Markets Rise After Fed’s Decision To Unwind Stimulus
Secret Service Probing Potential Target Data Breach
Housing Starts Jump To Highest Level Since February 2008
Astra Zeneca Pays $4.1 Billion To Buy Bristol Myers Out Of Diabetes Alliance
Holiday Shopping Season Proves Disappointing So Far
Frustrated Users Complain About SkyDrive Issues After Windows 8.1 Update
Will 2014 Be The Year Of Windows Phone?
LG To Launch World’s First All-In-One Chrome Computer
Research Shows How MacBook Webcams Can Be Activated Without User’s Knowledge
Comedian Gets Revenge On Loud Mobile Phone Users



SPORTS
FCC Proposes Ending Blackout Rules

Chargers fans in the first quarter of Sunday’s game against the Giants.

Only one of 224 NFL games blacked out this year; Feds mull change since leagues no longer get most of their revenue from ticket sales

Penguins Top Rangers With Sutter’s Lone SO Goal

Timbermutts Tame Streaking Blazers, 120-109

#10 Huskies Upset By Stanford At Home, 53-51

Jagr Passes Howe On Game Winner List As Devils Rout Senators

Clippers Overpower Pelicans 108-95

Tea Party Members Have Serious Beef With Braves’ New Stadium

The Rumor Mill: Nats Seeking Backup Catcher? Infield Help?



FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
Demi Lovato Leaving “X Factor”

Demi Lovato

Plans to spend 2014 completely focused on her music


Phil Robertson From “Duck Dynasty” Suspended For “Anti-Gay” Remarks

Paul Rudd To Star In Marvel’s “Ant-Man”

2 Fast, 2 Furious? Eva Mendes, Ryan Goslin Take Relationship Timeout



Pippa Middleton Announces Engagement To Boyfriend Nico Jackson

Joaquin Phoenix To Play Lex Luthor?

Hugh Jackman In Talks For Blackbeard Role In “Pan”

Jay Leno In Demand; CNN’s Zucker Among Suitors

Christina Aguilera, Lady Gaga Sing Duet On “The Voice” Season 5 Finale

Will Ferrell Explains Why There’ll Never Be An “Elf” Sequel

R. Kelly Hates On The Haters Who Hate That He Hate-F*cks Teens

Evangeline Lilly – Orlando Bloom Lied About Us Getting Wasted Together



FOREIGNERS
Rebels Take South Sudan Town After “Coup Attempt”
Muslim Brotherhood Rejects Terrorism Charges Against Morsi
Putin: Russia Will Take “Tough Steps” To Guard Its Arctic Interests
India’s FM Khurshid Wants “Friend” US To Drop Case Against Khobragade
Tokyo Governor Resigns Over Bribery Scandal
Angela Merkel Appeals For “More Europe”
Thai Protesters On The March Again
Indian Media Welcome Historic Anti-Corruption Bill



BLOGS & STUFF
Proof Positive: President Selfie Is 111th Most Important Man In History
Dead Republican Party: New #FreeKate Charges On The Way?
The Looking Spoon: The Team To Bring In If You’re Afraid America Is Too Big To Fail
Michelle Malkin: While America Sleeps – The Crony Obama Donors In Charge Of DHS
Twitchy: Selective Outrage – GLAAD Slams Phil Robertson After Letting Alec Baldwin Slide
American Power: Leftist Character Assassins Now Remorseful Over Destruction Of Mitt Romney
American Thinker: The Decline And Fall Of Political Discourse
The Necropolitan Sentinel: Walt Kowalski Meets Pajama Boy
Don Surber: Saving Obamacare Is A Pretty Easy Task
Jammie Wearing Fools: Pajama Boy – The Obama Machine’s Id
JustOneMinute: Ironic Genius At The WSJ
Pat Dollard: Pelosi Says Lacking “Sufficient Documentation” Not Enough Reason For Deportation
Protein Wisdom: Ohio Democrats – “If You Like Your Children, You Can Keep Your Children”
Shot In The Dark: Conscripted
The Jawa Report: When The Obvious Becomes Controversial
The Lonely Conservative: Senate Dems Refused To Cut Illegal Alien Welfare To Spare Military Retiree Cuts
This Ain’t Hell: Anger Understandable, But Cool Thinking Needed
Megan McArdle: More Obamacare Delays. Surprised?


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Category: Live at Five

Is Phil Robertson Wrong?

Posted on | December 18, 2013 | 87 Comments

You’ll excuse my confusion, but amidst the hyperventilating screeches — GLAAD claiming that Phil Robertson was pushing “vile and extreme stereotypes” — maybe I missed what it was the Duck Dynasty patriarch actually said that was wrong.

“It seems like, to me, a vagina — as a man — would
be more desirable than a man’s anus. That’s just me.”

Is it a “vile and extreme stereotype” to say that gay men engage in anal sex with each other? Or is it in some way objectionable for heterosexuals to say that they prefer the opposite sex? Why is this offensive? To whom is it offensive and why?

“We are extremely disappointed to have read Phil Robertson’s comments in GQ, which are based on his own personal beliefs and are not reflected in the series Duck Dynasty,” A&E said in a statement, which was reported by The Hollywood Reporter. “His personal views in no way reflect those of A+E Networks, who have always been strong supporters and champions of the LGBT community. The network has placed Phil under hiatus from filming indefinitely.”

Again: Why? Not just why has Phil Robertson been placed on hiatus, but why is A&E obliged to proclaim that they are “strong supporters and champions of the LGBT community”? Is someone threatening to sue them for discrimination?

Mary Katharine Ham points out that Duck Dynasty “averages 14 million viewers per episode,” 4 million more than the much-ballyhooed finale of AMC’s Breaking Bad. A major reason for the show’s popularity is the down-to-earth backwoods Bible-thumping wholesomeness of the Robertson family, whose values Phil Robertson rather bluntly expressed in a magazine interview.

It would seem to me that A&E is cutting off its entertaining nose to spite its profitable face, and that once again the tail is wagging the dog: The gay minority (no more than 4% of the population) dictating to the straight majority, as if the 96% had no rights at all.

 


Category: Culture, Gays

Brett Kimberlin’s Conspiracy Theory and Other Recent Legal Proceedings

Posted on | December 18, 2013 | 37 Comments

Brett Kimberlin could have been sentenced to 230 years in federal prison

“Kimberlin seemed to be the only one with a possible motive — to distract police attention from the Scyphers murder and delay or halt their quiet investigation of him.”
– R. Joseph Gelarden, Indianapolis Star, “Kimberlin case a maze of murder, deceit,” Oct. 18, 1981

“I have filed over a hundred lawsuits and another one will be no sweat for me. On the other hand, it will cost you a lot of time and money . . .”
— Brett Kimberlin, Oct. 11., 2010, e-mail to Patrick Frey

The World’s Worst Pro Se Litigant™ continues to pursue his $1 million Maryland lawsuit, Kimberlin v. Walker, et al., as well as his federal RICO lawsuit, which has been dubbed Kimberlin v. The Universe, et al., as if either of these nonsensical pieces of amateur litigation has the proverbial snowball’s chance in hell of success.

Unfortunately, the frivolous litigation that a perjuring bomber files against innocent people must nonetheless be taken seriously by the defendants, and therefore motions must be filed and so forth. Even if I were not among the innocent defendants in these cases, they would still be amusingly newsworthy, i.e., the notorious criminal who says he has been defamed by a vast conspiracy of law-abiding citizens. In response to my attorney’s motion to dismiss the Maryland suit, filed last month, Brett Kimberlin filed a motion that included this:

Regular readers know that I moved out of Maryland in mid-2012 to avoid harassment by Brett Kimberlin and his associates. Now, in order to assert that I am subject to the jurisdiction of Maryland courts, Kimberlin asserts (in his own words) a “conspiracy theory” claiming that John Hoge is my “agent” whose actions may be “attributed” to me “in furtherance of a conspiracy.” In other words, Brett Kimberlin alleges I am responsible for Hoge’s actions — that Hoge has acted as my “agent” in Maryland — and Kimberlin claims he can “demonstrate” this as a matter of fact.

You may ask: What is this 2006 Mackey v. Compass Marketing case that Kimberlin cites? It involved two corporate executives who were accused by a plaintiff of conspiring to reduce the commission rate they paid to a broker who lived in Maryland.

That case had nothing to do with defamation, harassment and the other “tortious actions” that Kimberlin alleges against the defendants in this suit and, I would argue, this difference is quite important, because what I have actually done (as opposed to what the convicted perjurer Brett Kimberlin falsely alleges I have done) is to report about and comment on various newsworthy events, a sort of business quite unlike the paying of commissions to brokers. In fact, my reporting and commentary were (and are) matters directly related to the exercise of freedom of speech and freedom of the press under the First Amendment. Readers should forgive me for suspecting that Kimberlin will be required to clear quite a high threshold of proof to claim that my communications with John Hoge constitute a conspiracy, rather than the ordinary business of a journalist citing sources for accounts of events.

Well, I am not a lawyer and it would perhaps be imprudent to discuss any further my own view of this particular matter. Maybe later I’ll share more amusing excerpts from Brett Kimberlin’s conspiracy theory case, but of more immediate interest:

  1. Aaron Walker has published his motion to dismiss Kimberlin’s federal RICO lawsuit, and has also published his lengthy supplemental memorandum to that motion;
    and
  2. John Hoge notes that, even before Walker published the memorandum, that filing was already being discussed by certain persons on the Internet as if they had direct familiarity with the document.

It is perhaps merely a coincidence that Bill Schmalfeldt seems to be privy to every detail of Brett Kimberlin’s legal proceedings, but if one were prone to constructing conspiracy theories, one might allege that Schmalfeldt and others are Kimberlin’s agents.

Brett Kimberlin’s pro se litigation is outrageous because, if he had sought the counsel of any competent attorney, that attorney would have been obliged to tell him that his conspiracy theory is nuts and that he has zero chance of prevailing in court, and therefore no such lawsuit ever would have been filed. However, because no court has yet imposed sanctions on Kimberlin, the dishonest felon continues to persist in this pattern of “lawfare” harassment.

Exit Question 1: If it is defamation and harassment for the defendants to have expressed suspicion that certain people are acting on behalf of Brett Kimberlin, how are Kimberlin’s own false conspiracy allegations (e.g., that Hoge is my “agent”) not also defamation and harassment?

Exit Question 2: If your answer to the previous question is that Kimberlin’s allegations are privileged because they were made as part of a civil lawsuit, doesn’t this tend to incentivize such litigation, so that the safest way to smear a person’s reputation is to file a frivolous lawsuit crammed full of malicious accusations that would be libelous if they were published as journalism?

Exit Question 3: When are courts going to take notice of Brett Kimberlin’s own boast that he files lawsuits merely for the purpose of harassing people against whom he has a grudge?

 

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Category: Journalism, The Kimberlin Files
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