The Other McCain

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

‘Gender Integration’ = FAIL

Posted on | November 23, 2013 | 26 Comments

This is both hysterically funny and pathetically sad:

The Army colonel who wrote an internal email suggesting public affairs officers use photos of “average-looking women” when they need to illustrate stories about female soldiers has stepped down as the leader of an Army study on gender integration.
Army spokesman George Wright confirmed on Saturday that Col. Lynette Arnhart had agreed to step aside from the Training and Doctrine Command study she was leading.
In addition, Wright said, Col. Christian Kubik, a public affairs officer at TRADOC, was suspended for his involvement in the email chain.
“In order to protect the integrity of the ongoing work on gender integration in the Army, Col. Lynette Arnhart agreed to step down as the gender integration study director,” Wright said in a statement. “Concurrently, TRADOC suspended Col. Christian Kubik from his position as the public affairs officer pending the outcome of an investigation.”

I agree with Ann Althouse that this was a silly “scandal” — two military careers wrecked because of an internal e-mail — but the larger problem remains: MEN AND WOMEN ARE DIFFERENT.

Insofar as they are different, they are not equal, because equality implies fungibility — sameness, so that one may be substituted for the other — and therefore the attempt to equalize things which are not the same is foredoomed to failure. What inevitably occurs in these kinds of social-engineering experiments is a lot of official make-believe, in which people are required to pretend that the failing policy is actually a success. Telling the truth becomes a firing offense.

The people who are ramming these policies through the Pentagon in the name of “gender integration” should be ashamed of themselves for perpetrating such a fraud. It is a dishonest and dangerous policy that is harmful to America’s national security.

 


Category: Ann Althouse, Feminism, Military

Weird NY Times Column: Not Supporting ObamaCare Is Slavery or Something

Posted on | November 23, 2013 | 42 Comments

This is just downright bizarre:

[T]he South is once again committed to taking a backward path. By refusing to expand health care for the working poor through Medicaid, which is paid for by the federal government under Obamacare, most of the old Confederacy is committed to keeping millions of its own fellow citizens in poverty and poor health. They are dooming themselves, further, as the Left-Behind States.

What? Let’s read that again:

“Medicaid . . . is paid for by the federal government under Obamacare.”

What does this mean?

Elsewhere, the expansion of Medicaid, the health care program for the poor, has been one of the few success stories of Obamacare. . . .
In Kentucky, which has bravely tried to buck the retrograde tide, Medicaid expansion is projected to create 17,000 jobs. In Washington, the state predicts 10,000 new jobs and savings of $300 million in the first 18 months of expansion.

Do you believe this? “Free” money from the federal government? Medicaid as a job-creation dynamo? While I have not bothered to dig down on the data here, the basic economics of it is like saying that if you take $5 out of your pants pocket and put it in your coat pocket, you will then have $10. Government has no money of its own to spend. Every cent expended by government must come either from tax revenue or from borrowing, and borrowing — i.e., deficit spending — is ultimately a drag on economic growth, because capital invested in government bonds (which is how deficit spending is financed) is capital not invested in private-sector businesses.

The liberal belief in “free government money” is like one of those quasi-religious magical thinking exercises that Ace discusses here.

To cite X-number of people signing up for “expanded Medicaid” as “success” is simply to say that if you’re giving away the taxpayers’ money, moochers will gladly take their share of the loot.

Is the South doomed to be the “Left-Behind States”? Next time you hear of someone moving from Texas to Detroit, let me know.

 

Category: Health Care, New York Times

Just Call Me ‘Grandpa McCain’

Posted on | November 23, 2013 | 180 Comments

The Victory Through Breeding™ program — our long-term plan for McCain world dominance through superior procreative capacity — took an important step forward this morning with the birth of our first grandchild James William McCain Jr.

Equipped by ancestral heritage with a keen eye for quality womanhood, our son Jim clearly chose well in his selection of the lovely Danielle as his mate. She may look like a delicate slender thing, but her reproductive excellence was amply demonstrated. Not only did she carry our first grandchild two weeks past the normal gestation period (which scientific researchers theorize is an adaptation necessary for the advanced development of the massive McCain brain), but Danielle accomplished the delivery after just 20 hours of labor.

Obviously, a woman  worthy of the McCain seed.

Did I mention that Danielle is also an honor student? The Next Generation of the McCain World Dominance System is proceeding with expected advances in the James 2.0 prototype, who immediately began a series of cardio-pulmonary exercises we call “aerobic crying.”

It is to be hoped that the arrival of Baby James will set off a procreative stampede. Aunt Kennedy is rumored to be envious that her younger brother beat her to the honor of providing us with our first grandchild, and word from Fort Bragg is that Uncle Bob is worried that his status as an Army Special Forces trainee may delay him in matching his twin brother’s achievement. And also our younger children — Uncle Jeff, Uncle Emerson and Aunt Reagan — now have the inspiration for their own future contributions to the McCain World Dominance System.

“All is proceeding as I have foreseen.”

Further photos and videos of adorable cuteness are anticipated, as our sweet little Baby James makes his own distinct effort to teach the online world The Five Most Important Words in the English Language:

“Hit the freaking tip jar!”





Category: Family

Report: Muslim Warlords Out of Control in African Country, ‘Genocide’ Feared

Posted on | November 22, 2013 | 28 Comments

This situation made headlines last December. then disappeared from the front pages. Now it’s gone from bad to much, much worse:

France said on Thursday that Central African Republic was “on the verge of genocide” and it expected the United Nations to give Paris and the African Union permission to intervene.
Central African Republic, a landlocked nation of 4.6 million people, has descended into violence and chaos since Seleka rebels, many of them from neighbouring Chad and Sudan, ousted President Francois Bozize in March.
The U.S. State Department estimates that nearly 400,000 people have been displaced and 68,000 have fled to neighbouring countries since Seleka leader and interim president Michel Djotodia has lost control of his loose coalition of warlords.
The violence has increasingly pitted Seleka’s mainly Muslim fighters against Christian militias. Christians make up half the population and Muslims 15 percent, the CIA World Factbook says.
“The country is on the verge of genocide,” French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told French television station France 2. “France, CAR’s neighbours and the international community are worried. The United Nations will give permission to African forces, the African Union and France to intervene.”
While U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Monday he may be prepared to deploy U.N. peacekeepers, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has made it plain Washington favours an African peacekeeping force.

What we seem to be looking at is a potential Somalia, the “failed state” nightmare scenario of savage anarchy. Worse than Detroit, even.

 


Category: Central African Republic

The Hate-Troll Sockpuppet

Posted on | November 22, 2013 | 55 Comments

After a while, you learn to discern the pattern:

  1. Not operated by a named person.
  2. Not associated with any organization.
  3. Lots of hashtags and/or slogans in the profile to signal ideological solidarity.
  4. Lack of organic content.
  5. Associates with other known trolls.

There are other traits — dots in the pattern — but the point is that such an account has no basis of responsibility.

No name, no location, no one to take the blame, so that when the account stops its automated “bot” function and begins harassing people, the target of the harassment finds himself arguing with a digital shadow. This type of account, the Hate-Troll Sockpuppet, deliberately spews insults in an attempt to provoke the target into an angry rage.

Do this: If you or any of your Twitter friends are ever waylaid by one of these accounts, do not immediately engage them. Instead, check out their timeline and look for the pattern. Have they previously done this to other people? Is their usual method of “argument” to hurl insults and obscenities? Going back-and-forth on Twitter with such an account is a complete waste of time. Just expose them:

See the point? It is a fact that many accounts like this are operated by the kind of drug addicts, criminals and perverts who supported the “Occupy” movement. The reason they don’t put their names on the accounts is because if people knew who they really were, nobody would have anything to do with them. (See, for example, the mentally ill convicted prostitute Melissa Brewer, or the convicted sex criminal John Thiessen or anal-rape enthusiast Bill Schmafeldt.) Their obscene derangement and obsessive hatred of normal people are never coincidental.

A hate-troll’s gotta hate-troll.

So if an account like this gets in your face on Twitter, remember: It’s not about you, and there is no “argument” to win. They have harassed others before, and will keep on harassing people as long as they have Internet access. It’s who they are. It’s what they do.

You can never know exactly who is operating a Hate-Troll Sockpuppet account, but a pseudonym can’t sue for libel, either.

 

Category: Blogging

Confirmed: Crazy People Are Dangerous

Posted on | November 22, 2013 | 28 Comments

He was once described as “happy-go-lucky,” but then his father lost an election and his parents divorced and Gus Deeds went nuts:

“Eventually it got to the point where everyone… you couldn’t ignore it. It was obvious he was going through a difficult time,” Tony Walters, who has been friends with Gus since they were children in Bath County, Va., told ABC News on Wednesday. “I don’t know where they ended up taking him but he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and did get treatment for a while and I know he was on medication. . . .
“He seemed very sort of scattered, very different. He had strange paranoias,” Walters said. “And he was imagining different schemes against him; suspicions of people around him…it really seemed like he was going through a very difficult time.”
At one point, Gus said that God told him to drive to the Pacific and he did.
“He would say it was a spiritual thing that he felt a calling that just needed to go and drive west, see the ocean and when he came back that’s when he really, he was a different Gus than he was,” said Adam Michaels, a friend who worked at Nature Camp with Gus for several summers. “His personality had changed a lot, he was pretty manic for a while.”

Was this really bipolar disorder? The symptoms actually sound more like schizophrenia, but ultimately the bottom line is the same: Gus Deeds was crazy, and crazy people are dangerous. See my Wednesday column, “Madness Takes Its Toll.” And speaking of crazy . . .

The problem is really spiritual and moral. Unable to cope with failure, the damaged personality seeks to externalize responsibility by fixing blame on demonized scapegoats. This is how disappointments, which the healthy mind can cope with rationally, become psychic wounds that develop into paranoia: “RACISTS! EVERYWHERE!”

Some people unfortunately resort to violence and self-destruction. Charles Johnson committed reputational suicide.

 

Category: Charles Johnson, Crime, Health Care

Conor Friedersdorf’s Grassy Knoll

Posted on | November 22, 2013 | 52 Comments

Conor Friedersdorf is the Lee Harvey Oswald of journalism — an alienated young man consumed by irrational hatred of his own country.

Fortunately, the Secret Service need not worry about Friedersdorf purchasing a Mannlicher-Carcano rifle just now. The focus of his manic obsession is not the current president, but his predecessor.

Bush Derangement Syndrome — the psychiatric malady that seized the minds of liberals for eight years of their paranoid nightmares — has left the landscape littered with deranged kooks. In 2011, Jared Loughner succumbed to 9/11 Truther craziness and went berserk in Tucson. Barrett Brown flipped out last year, ranting about a mad conspiracy against him. Down in Alabama, Roger Shuler is convinced he is the target of a corrupt scheme masterminded by Karl Rove. Anonymous hacker Jeremy Hammond blames Bush, too.

Then there is Conor Friedersdorf, superficially rational yet consumed by the delusion that George W. Bush was the worst president in American history, and in the grip of a dread fear that there will be a Second Coming of Dubya if the GOP ever wins another election.

Today, the target in Conor’s crosshairs is Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, whose Crime Against Humanity is publishing a book:

The latest evidence can be found in a McKay Coppins profile of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, whose recently published book, Unintimidated: A Governor’s Story and A Nation’s Challenge, was coauthored by Marc Thiessen, a former Bush Administration speechwriter whose work as a commentator has marked him as one of the most fervent apologists for “enhanced interrogation techniques.” . . .
The question being posed here is as follows: is it ethical to take a blindfolded human being who hasn’t been given any due process, to strap him to a board, to force water into his cavities until it fills his lungs, to induce the physical terror that accompanies drowning, and to leverage that terror in order to coerce him into giving information he may or may not possess.
The euphemism we use for that is “water-boarding.” And the answer an ambitious Republican governor gives, when asked about it, is that he doesn’t have enough knowledge or information to comment. This is alarming, for this is the answer given at a moment of relative calm, when fear of terrorism isn’t much on anyone’s mind. Imagine a plausible future where Governor Walker has been elected to the Senate, or a less likely but still plausible future where he takes the White House. What would he say to water-boarding in the panic that follows a terrorist attack?
The arc of the moral environment the Bush Administration created bends toward torture. The taboo against it is not strong enough to prevent its resurgence.  . . .

Thus, an al-Qaeda terrorist “who hasn’t been given any due process” is rendered a victim of “the panic that follows a terrorist attack.”

Conor is here expressing the same sympathy for America’s worst enemies that led Lee Harvey Oswald to defect to the Soviet Union, to distribute “Fair Play for Cuba” leaflets in New Orleans, and ultimately to fire three shots from the Texas School Book Depository.

Let us pose a simple question: Would the al-Qaeda terrorist have more “due process” if, instead of being taken prisoner, he had been shot dead, died from a bomb blast or (as seems to be the current policy) was taken out by a Predator drone strike?

Torture is a bad thing, and I’m against it, but I don’t lose much sleep at night with worries that somewhere a violent jihadi isn’t getting “due process.” If we are at war and al-Qaeda terrorists are trying to destroy us, then I am quite decidedly in favor not only of depriving them of “due process,” but also killing every last one of them.

“Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill,
that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet
any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe,
to assure the survival and the success of liberty.”

Some of us still believe in America that way, but Conor Friedersdorf speaks for that decadent fringe who perversely imagine that John F. Kennedy should have said, “Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for America’s enemies.”

The Secret Service need not view Conor Friedersdorf as an active menace just now. But if any Republican is ever again elected to the White House, look out for Conor somewhere on a grassy knoll.




 

Category: Culture, History, Intellectuals, Journalism, Military, Terrorism

LIVE AT FIVE: 11.22.13

Posted on | November 22, 2013 | 10 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho


TOP NEWS
Critics Say Iran Deal Will Allow Spread Of Nukes

“Useful but tough” talks

Former IAEA head Olli Heinonen: “If you can’t enforce this kind of simple thing, what’s the meaning of the Security Council?”





Senate Democrats Vote To Curb Filibusters
An admission of defeat

At Least 26 Dead In Latvian Supermarket Collapse
Death toll includes 3 firefighters; 35 injured as roof gives way



POLITICS
California Health Exchange Votes Against Implementing Obamacare “Fix”

Peter Lee, director of Covered California, discusses enrollment

“…extending the deadline offers no benefit to the consumer and may create confusion…”


6000 Arizona Child Abuse Reports Not Investigated



Utah Attorney General Announces Resignation

News Groups Blast White House For Photographer Restrictions

Stain From Navy Scandal Continues To Spread

Legal Expert Says Dems’ Resort To “Nuclear Option” Could Lead To “Mass Destruction”

Senate GOP Blocks Defense Bill In Protest Of Dem Tactics



THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Crude Pops On US Jobless Claims: NYMEX $95.24, Brent $110.01
Better Job News Sends Stocks Higher, Dow Hits 16,000
German Growth Led By Domestic Demand As Investment Climbs
Treasury Seeks GM Exit By Year’s End
Fannie, Freddie Attract Investor Groups
Target’s Frosty Canadian Welcome Weighs On Profit
Jury Awards Apple $290 Million In Samsung Patent Dispute
Consumers Line Up For XBox One
Microsoft Launches Anti-Google “Scroogled” Merchandise Line
HBO Go App Updated With Chromecast Support
ESPN Releases All-New SportsCenter App



SPORTS
Saints Beat Reeling Falcons

Saints TE Benjamin Jackson catches a 1-yard TD pass

Brees eclipses Moon on passing list as Saints hold off Falcons, 17-13

Durant, Thunder Take It To The Clippers

Lundqvist Saves 41 As Rangers Edge Stars

Nate Robinson Spurs Nuggets To Victory Over Bulls

Avs Beat Coyotes 4-3 In Overtime

#13 Gonzaga Beats Washington State 90-74

Devils Top Kings On Jagr’s Record-Tying OT Goal


#18 Florida State Wears Down #10 VCU

Hurricanes Fall To Red Wings

#18 Connecticut Barely Holds Off Boston College, 72-70

Sharks Open Homestand By Whipping Lightning 5-1

Outsized Huskies Struggle, Fall To Hoosiers 102-84

England Collapses On Day Two Of Ashes As Aussies Take Charge

Hossa Returns, Hawks Thump Jets 6-3



FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
Jennifer Lawrence Hospitalized With Stomach Pains Before “Catching Fire” Premiere

Missed the afterparty

Suspected ulcer turned out to be gas



Aaron Carter Files For Bankruptcy – “Even My Dog’s Worthless”

Whitney Port Engaged To BF Tim Rosenman



Liam Hemsworth “More Grounded Than Ever” After Miley Cyrus Breakup

Daniel Radcliffe Warns Social Media-Addicted Celebrities

Chris Brown Wants To Take Medical Marijuana For Anger Management Issues

Hugh Jackman Treated For Skin Cancer

Alec Baldwin – I’ve Loved A Lot Of Dudes…But I’m Definitely Not Gay

Taylor Swift, Hayden Panettiere To Present At American Music Awards

Lindsay Lohan Is Not Afraid Of Little People



FOREIGNERS
South London Slave Investigation: Latest Updates
Aussie Opposition Labels Government’s Asylum-Seeker Briefings “A Weekly Embarrassment”
Russia Frees American Captain Of Greenpeace Ship On Bail
Rising Violence In Iraq
Lebanon: The Next Battleground In Syria’s War
East China Oil Pipeline Explodes, Killing 22
West Disappointed After Ukraine Scraps EU Deal
Iran Fears Forge Strange Alliance Between Israel, Gulf Nations
Tehelka Magazine Founder Tarun Tejpal Steps Down After Sexual Assault Charges



BLOGS & STUFF
Proof Positive: “Help! I’ve Fallen And I Can’t Get Up!”, also, A Modest Proposal
Dead Republican Party: New Campaign Graphics
Blackmailers Don’t Shoot: A Pointless Exercise In Academic Hipsterism
First Street Journal: Tough Enough!
Doug Powers: Dems Vote For Nuclear Option They Used To Claim Was “Affront To Constitution”
Twitchy: Obamacare “Bat Signal”? Guess Which Journos Were Spotted Heading To “Apparent Meeting” With Obama
American Power: Che-Loving Kshama Sawant Exhorts Workers To Seize Boeing
American Thinker: Obamacare And Liberal Cruelty
The Necropolitan Sentinel: Obamacare Watch – The Regulators Speak
Don Surber: Daily Scoreboard, November 21
Jammie Wearing Fools: Elder Democrat Staffers Bug Out Over Obamacare Costs – “Simply Unacceptable”
JustOneMinute: Making History
Pat Dollard: Allen West On Why Jackson, Sharption Won’t Talk About “Knockout Game” Attacks “There’s No Profit In It For Them”
Protein Wisdom: Matt Yglesias, Progressive Social Engineers Set To Determine What Kind Of Profit Greedy Doctors Can Make
Shot In The Dark: Minneapolis – The Racket Wants To Strike Back
The Jawa Report: War P0rn – It’s Coming Right For Us!
The Lonely Conservative: Elizabeth Warren Wants To Expand Social Security
Megan McArdle: Did The Recession Make You Stupid?


Deadline to submit your links for the FMJRA is midnight tonight.
DO IT.


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