The Other McCain

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

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.


Category: Live at Five

Also, Troll, You Misspelled ‘Syphilis’

Posted on | November 21, 2013 | 59 Comments

Between 5:21 and 5:23 p.m. ET, someone using my name and the bogus e-mail address “[email protected]” posted four insulting comments on an earlier thread, one of which mentioned my 14-year-old son by name. Wombat whacked them with the troll hammer, but not before the IP address (46.182.106.190) was traced to a proxy server in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Question: Who habitually uses Dutch proxy servers?

Answer: Spammers, hackers, child pornographers and other criminals, as well as various demented admirers of Brett Kimberlin.

Not long after these troll comments were deleted and the proxy server IP address was banned, Bill Schmalfeldt said this on Twitter:

“I am out of the political radio business.
What’s the point? They attack me, I respond, they retaliate
I retaliate, and what good does it do?”

Probably just a coincidence.

 

Category: Blogging

Alleged Pederast Harry Reid Disregards Senate Rules, and Also Craves Boy Flesh

Posted on | November 21, 2013 | 135 Comments

You’ve probably forgotten the Harry Reid pederasty scandal of 2012, because the lamestream media refused to cover the accusations. There was certainly as much evidence for that as for Harry Reid’s claim that Mitt Romney evaded paying income tax — an accusation that Reid insisted Romney must disprove — and I don’t remember Harry ever proving he is not sexually interested in young boys, so by his standards of logic, it’s fair to say Harry Reid is a pederast.

Now the alleged deviant Harry Reid has stricken down the Senate rules:

After years of threats and warnings, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and his Democratic majority on Thursday executed the “nuclear option” to eliminate the filibuster for executive branch and judicial nominees, except for the Supreme Court.

Drew M. at Ace of Spades explains:

This is going to result in all out partisan warfare in the Senate. Democrats complain fillibusters slow the Senate down but requiring a vote on everything and not agreeing to any unanimous consent requests will grind it to a halt. . . .
Reid is a lying hypocrite who is trying to change the subject from the damage that ObamaCare is causing across the country.

The Senate has adjourned, and Harry Reid will now return to his home state to meet with his constituents and fellate teenage boys.

Allegedly.

 

Category: Harry Reid

Our Moral Superiors: @Peter_Turchin’s Career of Selfish Academic Decadence

Posted on | November 21, 2013 | 30 Comments

The Myth of Progress, which imagines history generally as a more or less steady advancement toward enlightenment, is dependent upon our willingness to ignore the possibility of decadence.

Are we really more “enlightened” than the Founding Fathers? Do we see, in the general social and cultural trends around us, evidence of our moral and intellectual superiority to our ancestors? Even if education is more available and information more readily accessible because of technological advancement and increased affluence, does this really mean we are today more virtuous than our predecessors?

Whatever my career or educational attainments, it is certainly difficult for me to imagine that I am the moral superior of my father, who was born on a farm in Alabama, was wounded while fighting the Nazis in World War II, graduated from the University of Alabama, moved to Atlanta, worked 37 years at the Lockheed aircraft plan in Marietta, and raised a family of three sons, myself included.

My mother was also an intelligent and hard-working woman, my grandparents and aunts and uncles were all decent, respectable citizens, and it has been a formidable challenge to myself, my siblings and my cousins to strive to match the achievements of our forbears, to do our share to uphold and advance the family honor.

Cheap talk of “progress” is therefore something I regard with necessary skepticism, insofar as I am not actually offended by the imputation of dishonor on my parents and ancestors implicit in the notion of “progress,” as if I were somehow better than my father simply for having been born three decades later than him.

University of Connecticut Professor Peter Turchin has an essay today at Bloomberg, “Blame Rich, Overeducated Elites as Our Society Frays,” which examines some of the problems of America’s decadent elite from an egalitarian progressive perspective.

It’s worth reading, although I perceive that Professor Turchin is ultimately part of the problem and not part of the solution. Let us ask this: What is Professor Turchin’s annual household income, and in what percentile of the U.S. economy does that place him?

His salary at the University of Connecticut is reported at $122,000 a year, which certainly puts him in the top 5% and yet, not content with this handsome taxpayer-subsidized income, Professor Turchin’s overwhelming greed leads him also to seek additional wealth in the form of fees for writing articles in professional journals and the popular press. Yet even that isn’t enough to satisfy Professor Turchin’s infinite avarice, as he also pursues lucrative book contracts and public speaking fees.

You might think that all this money-grubbing would provide more than enough to meet the reasonable needs of even the most extraordinarily selfish person, but the boundless materialism of Professor Turchin drives him still further, as he moonlights as the vice president of a non-profit boondoggle called the Evolution Institute — the kind of posh gig that probably pays him tens of thousands of dollars annually just to attend meetings and seminars and so forth. (See update below.)

Let’s not even try to calculate the worth of the stocks and bonds and mutual funds in Professor Turchin’s 401(k) plan, nor can we estimate the dollar-value of the health insurance, vacation, sick leave and other benefits provided to him (courtesy of taxpayers) as a state university professor. The point here is that Professor Turchin’s sinecure — academic tenure guaranteeing him lifetime employment — has made him quite a wealthy man, and that he has taken advantage of every imaginable opportunity to augment his enviable riches.

If the most significant problem of American society is that the rich are getting richer, Professor Peter Turchin’s research into that problem requires only that he look in the nearest mirror.

Such is my contempt for Professor Peter Turchin that I would not bother to take notice of him, except to point out that he’s the kind of son of bitch who never even hit a blogger’s tip jar.

Our Moral Superiors: We can never hate them as much as they hate us.




 

UPDATE: A reader did some research and reports that the Evolution Institute is a nickel-and-dime outfit — collecting about $200,000 a year — and that Professor Turchin is paid nothing as vice-president thereof. But has the IRS checked the books?

A thorough investigation might reveal that the Evolution Institute spends money hiring transvestite hookers to service its officers at the annual board meeting. Excuse my extreme skepticism of Professor Turchin’s allegedly philanthropic endeavors. Any devotee of evolutionary theory would be required to believe that altruism always serves a self-interested ulterior motive. So when a Darwinist pretends to be acting on principles of unselfish idealism, my gut hunch instinct is always, “Yeah, right. What in it for him?”

You may laugh, but this instinct is uncannily accurate.

Remember Professor Hugo Schwyzer, the “male feminist” who expressed his idealistic commitment to equality by boning 19-year-old coeds? Academia is crammed full of such frauds and perverts. Honesty is increasingly rare in America’s colleges and universities, and seldom do these corrupt intellectuals lie so boldly as when they tell us that they are motivated by selfless idealism.

 

 


Category: Culture, Economics, Education, History

Hey – Maybe It’s Just A Sandwich

Posted on | November 21, 2013 | 86 Comments

— Wombat-socho

“There are some ideas so wrong that only a very intelligent person could believe in them.”
-George Orwell

Which is about as good an introduction as we’re going to get for the mind-numbingly ridiculous The McRib: Enjoy Your Symptom, an essay for The Atlantic scrawled by one Ian Bogost, whose surname is reminiscent not only of “bogosity” but of the Britishism “bogroll”, which is our English cousins’ word for the household item commonly used to remove things most similar to this essay from your rear end.

“Lacan is a tyrant who must be driven from our shores. Narrowly trained English professors who know nothing of art history or popular culture think they can just wade in with Lacan and trash everything in sight.”
-Camille Paglia

Bogost would like us to take him seriously as he delivers a post-modernist philosophical critique of McDonald’s, that food emporium so often mocked by the intellectualoids as a threat not only to the diet and health of America but the very world, so he drags in the French pseudo-philosopher Lacan and the deranged, posturing Slovenian Communist Slavoj Zizek to “prove” that we don’t really know what we’re doing when we order the McRib, Chicken McNuggets, Double Quarter Pounder, or the other items on the menu. No, we’re just slaves to our unconscious, which desires things that aren’t on the menu but are rather marketed without being marketed. This is obvious nonsense, and Bogost teases us with the notion that he knows it’s nonsense before dancing away on another binge of free-association tarted up with art history and pseudo-paradoxes that exist only in the mind of people without the brainpower to do their own thinking without the crutches of Lacan, Saussure and their ilk.

Most people don’t want to know how the McRib and McNuggets are made for the same reason they don’t like hanging around slaughterhouses and meatpacking plants, and to suggest that there’s something wrong with this is itself wrong. It’s a clear signal that the writer doesn’t understand ordinary folks and how they think and feel. Unfortunately, this is a common problem with the academic Pecksniffs among us, who can’t understand why Americans prefer tasty, affordable mass-produced hamburgers and pork sandwiches to tasteless, expensive “organic” foods that can’t be easily consumed while on the road in the family minivan. Or, for that matter, a preference for clinging to guns and religion in a time when the intellectualoids and their Lightworker are in charge and straining to produce a national transformation.

Bogost drivels on about the seasonal appearance and disappearance of the McRib as if it were some kind of overwhelming cultural event, fraught with significance and weighing heavily on the American id. Clearly, he has zero understanding of the fast food business -or of any part of the food business, I daresay- and its attention to the changing tastes of the American consumer. Even a decade ago, the menus at McDonald’s and Burger King featured nothing more spicy than ketchup and pepper packets, but now both chains (and their competitors) boast barbeque sauces (hot and mild), jalapeno and habanero pepper-spiced items, and various Southwestern and Buffalo-style chicken items that leave a definite burning sensation behind on their way to the digestive tract. Items rotate in and out of the menu on a seasonal basis: you won’t find egg nog shakes in the middle of summer, or the regional specialty McBrat outside tailgate season in the Midwest.

There are many reasons to visit a McDonald’s: cheap, tasty food served fast; large sodas sold for cheap in the pit of the summer; free wifi when the home internet is down. Nobody goes there for the ambience or to experience a gastronomic thrill, and only a deluded intellectualoid like Mr. Bogost would think anyone would go there driven by the unquiet urges of their id. In the end, the McRib is just a sandwich.


Category: Farce, Intellectuals

‘Community Liaison,’ IYKWIMAITYD

Posted on | November 21, 2013 | 80 Comments

Officer Chris Wilson was the Phoenix Police Department’s “community liaison to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community” until August 2012, when he was arrested and charged with having sex with two teenage boys:

Officer Christopher J. Wilson, 43 . . . faces 10 felony counts of sexual assault with a 14-year-old and a 17-year-old, Phoenix Police Chief Daniel Garcia said at a Wednesday news conference.
“This tragic incident is a disturbing violation of our public’s trust,” Garcia said.
Garcia called the 14-year-old boy “courageous” for informing his parents of the alleged assaults. The parents called police Tuesday afternoon, and detectives immediately sought more information, Garcia said.
Through the investigation, detectives learned of a second accuser, the 17-year-old boy, he said. . . .
The sexual encounters took place at several private locations, including Wilson’s home, Garcia said. Wilson lives by himself, according to court records.
Wilson worked as the department’s community liaison to the Valley’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community and met his accusers through his job, police said.

So, being the “gay community liaison” turns out to have been a way for Officer Chris to meet teenage boys for sex. And it now appears that one of his young victims was also himself a victimizer:

A prominent LGBT rights and anti-bullying teen activist faces more than a dozen charges of sexual misconduct with a minor.
Caleb Laieski, 18, was indicted by a grand jury in Phoenix, Ariz., on the sex crime charges as part of a case against former Phoenix Police Detective Chris Wilson.
Wilson was arrested in December 2012 in the alleged sexual assaults of two male teen, ages 14 and 17. According to the Phoenix New Times, Laieski is that 17-year-old.
Laieski’s indictment doesn’t provide details about the alleged crimes, but accuses him of engaging in sexual activity with the 14-year-old.
Wilson, who resigned from the Phoenix police department following his arrest, had met Laieski and the 14-year-old while serving on department’s Community Response Squad as a liaison officer to the LGBT community.
The 14-year-old victim, who’s also emerged as a prominent young activist against anti-gay bullying, had told his parents about his alleged relationships with Laieski and Wilson, prompting his parents to file a complaint.
Laieski has said that he was “16-years-old, or at most, 17-years-old” when the alleged sexual encounters occurred, according to court filings.
Laieski began his anti-bullying activism after dropping out of high school at age 16. He achieved his GED, and rose to national prominence in May 2011 when he traveled to Washington to lobby Congress during a month-long lobbying crusade to garner support for the Student Non-Discrimination Act (SNDA).
He later met President Barack Obama and Vice-President Joe Biden as a guest at the White House pride reception in June 2011.

President Obama and accused gay teen sex offender Caleb Laieski.

Does anyone see this case as evidence of what could be a larger problem? The whole “gay youth” movement — encouraging kids to “come out” and openly identify themselves as homosexual, even before they are legally old enough to be having sex — has always struck me as potentially problematic. And, as everybody knows, the recent “anti-bullying” initiative in public schools has been promoted by gay activists who claim that homophobic bullying is responsible for suicide by gay teens.

Nobody wants kids to be bullied or to commit suicide, of course, which is how “anti-bullying” becomes just another way for gay activists to gain support from well-meaning people whose reaction might otherwise be, “Whoa! Wait a minute! Aren’t these kids just a little bit too young to be marching around in the Gay Pride parade?”

That kind of reaction is just common sense. But common sense is politically incorrect, and some facts are now considered to be “hate.”

 

Category: Arizona, Crime, Gays, Sex
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