The Other McCain

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

Pouncing? Yes, But Also Seizing: GOP Gets Credit for Resignation of Harvard University’s Plagiarist President

Posted on | January 3, 2024 | Comments Off on Pouncing? Yes, But Also Seizing: GOP Gets Credit for Resignation of Harvard University’s Plagiarist President

Speaking on behalf of the “far right,” I must express our collective gratitude to the media for recognizing our work. Strange as it might seem, some journalists apparently believe it’s a bad thing to force the president of Harvard University to resign amid a plagiarism scandal, which followed close on the heels of Claudine Gay’s failure to condemn anti-Semitism. It was not anything that Gay did wrong, they tell us, but rather “a conservative-stoked firestorm” that brought her down:

Gay served a total of just six months as university president, the shortest tenure in the school’s nearly four-century-long history. She was the first Black person and just the second woman to lead Harvard. . . .
Gay received national scrutiny in December when she, MIT president Sally Kornbluth, and University of Pennsylvania president Elizabeth Magill testified before the House Education and Workforce Committee about their responses to incidents of antisemitism on their campuses.
Committee Chair Elise Stefanik asked the university presidents whether students chanting “intifada” violated the schools’ codes of conduct. Each president said it would depend on the context, with Gay pointing out that chants she finds “personally abhorrent” could still be protected under freedom of speech.
But the video clip that went viral — thanks to the right — showed the university presidents stumbling after Stefanik asked whether calls for genocide against the Jewish people should be forbidden, leaving out the longer disingenuous line of questioning.

See? It was a “disingenuous line of questioning” that provoked the Harvard president to defend the right of students to call for the genocide of Jews, and “thanks to the right,” the video went viral.

You’re welcome, America. To quote Treacher’s Law: “When a Republican screws up, that’s the story. When a Democrat screws up, the Republicans’ reaction is the story.” When the media tries to make the story about Republicans “seizing” and “pouncing” on a controversy, you know it’s about maintaining a narrative in which the GOP is always the villain, no matter how egregious the Democrat behavior in question may be. Hunter Biden makes millions of dollars peddling his father’s influence to shady foreigners, but if you watch CNN, the story is about how those mean Republicans are taking advantage of Hunter’s “struggles” with addiction.

“Republicans claim victory for Harvard president’s resignation” is the Politico headline, which is their way of telling their readership that this is a very bad thing those mean Republicans have done. Ed Driscoll at Instapundit has compiled a stack of reactions to the Harvard scandal.

Ace of Spades also has a round-up, emphasizing that Gay’s plagiarism was not minor or trivial. In fact, it was so clumsy and widespread in her work that it’s hard to believe she didn’t get caught at the time she published the articles but . . . Uh, “the wind is tempered to the shorn lamb,” you might say. And I really don’t need to say much more, because I’m sure our “far right” commenters will have plenty to say on how it was that this academic fraud made it all the way to the presidency of Harvard.



 

Category: Scandal, The Ivy League Is Depraved and Decadent

In The Mailbox: 01.02.24

Posted on | January 3, 2024 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 01.02.24

— compiled by Wombat-socho

I had a pretty good 2023, actually. 
Silicon Valley et Hamas delenda sunt.

Happy New Year, ya filthy animals. 

OVER THE TRANSOM
357 Magnum: Ford’s Mustang Mach-E’s Software Update Bricks Your Car, also, Good Guys 1 Bad Guys 0
EBL: Lieutenant Dan Happy New Year, The Boys in the Boat, The Holdovers, Tom Smothers RIP*, and Slow Horses
Twitchy: Keith Boykin Demands Equal Scrutiny For All College Presidents & Twitter Agrees, Saira Rao “Genuinely Terrified” By “Zionist” Doctors Treating Black & Muslim Patients, and Nikole Hannah-Jones Reacts To Claudine Gay’s Resignation As Only She Can
Louder With Crowder: “I Will Not Project Colonial Concepts On My Dog”, Sanctuary City Mayors Warn Cities Will Collapse Due To Biden Border Crisis, Delta employee has NO patience for trans activist harassing him over pronouns, puts activist in its place, and Trudeau’s conservative opponent declares he’ll “defund the media” with a smile and to thunderous applause
Vox Popoli: Dead Internet to Fake Internet, The Consequences of Rejecting Truth, An Unexpected Hitler, Sykes-Picot is Dead, and Welcome to 2024
T.L. Davis: We Are Not One [h/t Loyal Reader B.E.]

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
Adam Piggott: I pray for the Sword, Christ is Born! Glorify Him! and The purposeful discord sown by the ambiguous Vatican on fag couples
American Conservative: The Sources of American Estrangement, The Path to a ‘Dormant NATO’, and An Admiral’s Augury
American Greatness: The Constitution Absolutely Prohibits Nikki Haley From Being President Or Vice President, Why Trump Is Correct About Presidential Immunity, Bidenomics Bogosity Will Unravel In 2024, and Erasing Trump from 2024 Ballot Is an Inside-the-Beltway Job
American Thinker: The Real Reason Trump is a Threat, Our Awakening Terrifies the Left, Happy New Year, Anyway, and The Great Taking: You Really No Longer Own Your Securities, and You Could Also Lose Your Freedom
Animal Magnetism: Happy New Year’s Eve! also, Happy 2024!
Babalu Blog: Some Cubans greet 2024 by burning an effigy of ‘president’ Díaz-Canel, Sixty-five years of communism and destruction in Cuba, Mexico gives Biden the finger, and Guyana requests 200 slave nurses from Cuba despite invasion threat by Venezuela
BattleSwarm: Another Case Of That Democratic Party Voting Fraud That Doesn’t Exist, Illegal Immigration Crisis Reordering French Politics, LinkSwarm For December 29, and Old And Busted: Botched Software Update Bricks Your PC. The New Hotness: Botched Software Update Bricks Your Car
Behind The Black: First Juno images of Io from December 30th fly-by, India completes first launch of 2024, and Republicans propose another deep state bureaucracy to enforce civil rights laws
CDR Salamander: DDG to FFG to OPV – Small Ships, Big Sticks, & Scaled Escalation
Chicago Boyz: New Year’s Eve 2023
Da Tech Guy: The Best Advice I can give to Start a Year, New Year New Indulgence Calendar, Illinois conservatives, start planning now for the 2028 constitutional convention vote, and DaTechGuy’s Top 5 Posts of 2023
Don Surber: It’s what they don’t say that matters
First Street Journal: Once again, The Philadelphia Inquirer pegs the irony meter, SEPTA wants more tax dollars, but just a $1.00 fare increase would wipe out their deficit, The only way to end protests which stop traffic is to not stop traffic for protesters,  and An uplifting story in the Lexington Herald-Leader
Gates Of Vienna: Europe Looks Forward to 2024, A Green Holodomor for Germany? The Islamization of Spain is Unstoppable, A Calvary in the 8th Arrondissement, and The Rebirth of the Ottoman Empire
The Geller Report: World Ignores Muslims Butchering and Slaughtering Christians “For Sport” in Nigeria, 50,000 and Counting, Unhinged Muslims Attack Jewish Family in New Jersey, Massive NYPD Mobilization as Islamic Extremists Block JFK Punishing Travelers So They Can’t Return Home After New Year’s Eve, German Police Foil Islamic Terrorist Attack on the Iconic Cologne Cathedral on New Year’s Eve, Five More Muslims Arrested, and Muslims Attack the Police Across France: Riots, Arson, & Stoning
Glenn Reynolds: Claudine Gay Has Gone Away
Hollywood In Toto: Boys in the Boat Is Everything You Expect (But Somehow Less), Ferrari Races to First Place in Best of 2023 Competition, Ricky Gervais’ Armageddon Drops Atom Bomb on Woke Nation, Why Critical Drinker Avoids the Word ‘Woke’ (When Possible), and The 23 Best Television Shows of 2023
The Lid: How Will Modern Spin Doctors Address The Demise Of America’s Most Famous Eco-Terrorists? also, Is Occasional Cortex Half Right About Bethlehem?
Legal Insurrection: ‘Death to America, Death to Israel’, Portland Facing Shigella Outbreak, Generally Found in Third-World Countries, A Preview of California’s Newest Crime-Related Laws for 2024, Ex-Biden Energy Official Sam Brinton A Free Man Despite Facing Charges for Allegedly Stealing Luggage, The Fight to Stop California Politicians from Enshrining Racism in State’s Constitution, and Biden’s FCC is Adopting New ‘Diversity’ Rules to Take Control of the Internet
Nebraska Energy Observer: New Year – Keep up the Skeer, also, Heroes Still Defend the Dream
Outkick: Michigan Refuses To Go Into Off-Season Drama Just Yet, Defeats Alabama In Dramatic OT, Carolina Panthers Owner David Tepper Appears To Throw Drink On Jaguars Fan, What The Duck? Duck Dynasty Star Willie Robertson Helps Liberty Troll Oregon Ducks With Unique Hype Video, Kirby Smart Sounds Off On ‘Unfortunate’ State Of College Football Following Georgia’s Orange Bowl Blowout Of Florida State, Ravens Honored Ray Rice During Sunday’s Game Against Dolphins, and Heidi Klum Ends 2023 On The Beach Topless
Power Line: Degenerate Animals [Updated], Thoughts from the ammo line, Innocent Civilians? and The Welfare-Industrial Complex
Shark Tank: Luna Warns Of New Migrant Caravan – Says stand-Alone Border Security Bill Needed
Shot In The Dark: The Galling Part Is…
The Political Hat: Happy New Year!
This Ain’t Hell: Marines changing rifle marksmanship training & eliminating Scout Sniper school, A Chinese spy balloon communicated with China via an American internet provider, A year starts with contrasts: LCPL Dural vs. dirtbags, Covid “Declaration of Military Accountability” Letter, and Navy Sinks Houthi Gunboats
Transterrestrial Musings: Happy 2024
Victory Girls: Victory Girls Predictions For 2024: Political And Non-Political, Happy New Year from Victory Girls, and Happy Houthis Year From the Pro-Palestinian Protesters In NYC
Volokh Conspiracy: Disunion, Slavery, and the Causes of the Civil War, Donald Trump and Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, and Are Hispanics Following the Path of the Irish?
Watts Up With That: Is the Low Snowpack this Year a Sign of Global Warming? Biden Admin Rolls Out Slew Of Regs Targeting Americans’ Appliances On Last Friday Of The Year, Cargo ship carrying burning lithium-ion batteries reaches Alaska, but kept offshore for safety, and Judge Resurrects Zombie Kids’ Climate Case: Expect More Eating of Brains
The Federalist: Minister Of Defense Profiles Both The Player And The Preacher In Reggie White, Aaron Sorkin Is The Real Villain Behind The Senate Sex Scandal, Russell Kirk Warned That Without Virtue, ‘Democracy’ Is A Dead End Here And Abroad, 50 Years Ago, Gulag Archipelago Unveiled A Haunted World, ‘GlitterBomb’ Creator Mark Rober Is Doing More To Foil Crime Than Democrat Cities Like San Francisco, and Barry Sanders’ Humility Is A Quality Modern Athletes Severely Lack
Mark Steyn: They Hate You Too, Not with a Whimper but a Bellow, and Unlucky Lindy: Billy Wilder and The Spirit of St. Louis

*To be honest, I never cared for Tom Smothers. His humor wasn’t funny to me, but he was decent with the yo-yo.

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Category: Linkagery

An Inauspicious New Year

Posted on | January 2, 2024 | Comments Off on An Inauspicious New Year

My brother and I saw it happen — on national TV!

The FBI needs to investigate the crime that happened Monday night in Pasadena, California — a case of identity theft, in which a group of young men claiming to be the University of Alabama football team perpetrated an implausible impersonation of the Crimson Tide. The fraudulent “football team” that took the field at the Rose Bowl looked nothing like the mighty Crimson Tide, which had defeated the defending national champion Georgia Bulldogs 27-24 to win the SEC title.

Let us stipulate that Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe had been inconsistent all season long. His miraculous game-winning TD pass against Auburn — on fourth-and-goal from the 31 — was perhaps divine intervention, or else the Crimson Tide never would have gotten to the national championship playoffs. But the only reason the Auburn game was close enough to require such a last-minute miracle was because Alabama’s offense had been so listless and mistake-prone, committing 72 yards of penalties and converting only six of 16 third downs.

Nevertheless, having survived that scare, the Crimson Tide were more impressive against Georgia in the SEC title game, mounting two lengthy first-half drives to take a 17-7 lead at halftime, and then holding off the Bulldogs in the second half. While I wasn’t confident about Milroe and the offense going into Monday night’s game, I felt like ’Bama could rely on its defense, which had proved itself sturdy.

My brother Kirby and I went to Buffalo Wild Wings to watch the playoff game against Michigan, and were ecstatic when a muffed punt return by the Wolverines set up a touchdown that gave the Crimson Tide a 7-0 lead.

Alas, the Alabama defense — or I should say, the identity thieves impersonating the Alabama defense — let Michigan march right down the field to tie the game, and I began to fret, which required me to order another Yuengling (for medicinal reasons, a treatment prescribed by my Samoan attorney as the cure for fretting). Michigan had a 13-10 lead at halftime, and I ordered the All-American Cheeseburger (which isn’t prescribed treatment for anything, but Bert the Samoan attorney assures me it’s still a tax-deductible business expense). During the third quarter, Alabama kept Michigan pinned down deep in their own end of the field, and then mounted a 55-yard drive that ended in a touchdown that gave the Crimson Tide a 14-13 lead early in the fourth quarter. Alabama later added a field to go up 20-13 with 4:41 left to play and I thought to myself, “Winner, winner, chicken dinner.” Surely now the Alabama defense would choke the life out of the Wolverines, and we’d be onto the national championship game. But as I say, the “Alabama defense” were obviously a crew of impostors, who had somehow sneaked onto the team bus in an elaborate conspiracy. For all we know, the real Alabama defense is still being held hostage somewhere in Pasadena. Why isn’t the FBI investigating this crime? Or is the FBI part of the cover-up? Probably the CIA’s in on it, too, not to mention the Bavarian Illuminati.

The criminal conspiracy resulted in Michigan scoring a touchdown that tied the game at 20, requiring overtime (and also requiring me to order another Yuengling, on advice from my Samoan attorney) during which the San Andreas Fault suddenly erupted in a cataclysmic earthquake and the entire state of California collapsed into the Pacific Ocean.

Wait a minute. Let me check my notes . . .

No, the cataclysmic earthquake was what I wished would have happened, instead of what actually did happen, which is a permanent stain on the hitherto honorable reputation of the state of Alabama.

So, 2023 was a bad year — R.I.P., John Hoge — and 2024 has gotten off to an inauspicious start, which I now intend to forget ever happened. (“Game? What game? Why are you asking me these questions?”)

It’s been three whole years since the last time Alabama won a national championship. I blame Joe Biden. And also the Bavarian Illuminati.

My brother picked up the tab at Buffalo Wild Wings, which somehow makes me feel even worse. The only thing that can cheer me up is if you’ll remember The Five Most Important Words in the English Language:

HIT THE FREAKING TIP JAR!




 

Category: Football

Rule 5 Sunday: Happy New Year!

Posted on | January 1, 2024 | Comments Off on Rule 5 Sunday: Happy New Year!

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley et Hamas delendam sunt.

Actually, it’s been Reiwa 4 for a while now.

ANIMAL MAGNETISM: Rule Five Goodbye 2023 Friday, and the Saturday Gingermageddon.

EBL: Saturday Night Is Right For Girls With Guns, Auld Lang Syne, MAGA Maine Democrat Fix, The Dollyrots, Nikki Haley, Wonka, “Precious”, Caroline Werner, Leave The World Behind, Yoko Swifto? The Feast Of Seven Fishes, and Kissing Santa

A VIEW FROM THE BEACH: Alexa Collins, Yes, They’re Coming for Your Burgers, Fish Pic Friday – Kristina Carlson, Gone Fishing’, Thursday Tanlines, The Wednesday Wetness, DNR on the Watch for Cold Turtles, Flotsam and Jetsam on Boxing Day, TattooTuesday, Christmas songs 3 4 5, Merry Christmas!, Christmas Morning Stimulus, Random Celebrity News, Flotsam and Jetsam on Christmas Eve Morn, Palm Sunday and Biden Chops Old Growth Logging

FLAPPR: T.I.T.S. for December 29, In Mammoriam 2023, 2023 Big Booty Award, and Milkers Of The Year

AVERAGE BUBBA: Rule Five Saturday – Patriotic Edition

Thanks to everyone for all the luscious links! More to come next year!

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Category: Rule 5

FMJRA 2.0: (Like) There’s No Tomorrow

Posted on | December 31, 2023 | Comments Off on FMJRA 2.0: (Like) There’s No Tomorrow

— compiled by Wombat-socho

I haven’t listened to my lengthy collection of Conelrad electronica in a while, so this weekend I’m making up for lost time. He seems to have pulled his music off Amazon, but the whole catalog seems to be on YouTube now. If you’re looking for chill, relaxing electronic music with a bit of Cold War ambience, this is right up your alley.
Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley et Hamas delendam sunt.

One of the first Conelrad releases.

‘Corporate Profit’ and the Political Ideas That Are Driving America’s Crime Wave
The Daley Gator
Flappr
EBL
Average Bubba
357 Magnum
A View From The Beach






Rule 5 Sunday: Santa, Baby!
Animal Magnetism
Flappr
EBL
Average Bubba
A View From The Beach

‘Oh, We’re Halfway There’
The Daley Gator
EBL
357 Magnum
A View From The Beach

Meth-Crazed Lesbian Dies in Proverbial Hail of Gunfire; No Charges for Cops
EBL

Ex-NFL Player: ‘Average White Guys’ Shouldn’t Be Talking About Football
EBL
357 Magnum
A View From The Beach

FMJRA 2.0: Our Annual Rogers Hornsby Moment
EBL
A View From The Beach

 

 

NYC Maniac Turned Loose So He Could Stab Two Girls in Grand Central Station
The Daley Gator
EBL
357 Magnum

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Category: FMJRA Award

‘Teens Arrested’

Posted on | December 31, 2023 | Comments Off on ‘Teens Arrested’

After reading a story about a recent murder, the idea occurred to me, why not just Google “teens arrested”? One of the first news stories I saw was the case from Charlotte, North Carolina, where five teens in a stolen Dodge Charger led police on a high-speed pursuit Thursday afternoon. The youthful miscreants were ages 14-16:

Police said they are serial offenders and had racked up at least 84 charges between them before Thursday’s arrest. Several of the teens were linked to multiple vehicle break-ins, police said.

A stolen firearm was found in the vehicle. Anyway, I continued my Google search and here is a sampling of recent headlines:

Four teens arrested in connection
to the murder of a 17-year-old in November
— KNXV-TV, Phoenix, Dec. 20

3 teens arrested
in string of armed robberies
across San Diego County
— KNSD-TV, San Diego, Dec. 18

Two teens arrested after fight breaks out
at Southern Park Mall
— WFMJ-TV, Youngstown, Ohio, Dec. 27

10 teens arrested in 2 carjacking rings
— WRC-TV, Washington, D.C., Dec. 11

5 teens charged in violent beating
at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School
— CBS News, Dec. 19

Four arrested, including three teens,
for carjacking in Baltimore County
— WBAL-TV, Baltimore, Dec. 5

3 teens arrested after assaulting,
carjacking 72-year-old woman
in Bethesda: police
— WTTG-TV, Washington, D.C., Dec. 13

5 teens arrested after crashing
stolen vehicle into patrol cars
at downtown apartment parking garage
— KSAT-TV, San Antonio, Texas, Dec. 19

Four teens arrested after Little Rock
traffic stop leads to seizure
of six guns, 42 grams of marijuana
— KARK-TV, Little Rock, Arkansas, Dec. 22

Metro police: 3 teens caught
with 2 stolen cars, 6 guns, 19 key fobs
— WKRN-TV, Nashville, Dec. 28

So much high-spirited adolescent hijinks! So many mischievous young scamps! Stealing cars, stealing guns, shootings, beatings, armed robberies — typical fun for American teens! With few exceptions, the news media never identify these fun-loving youngsters by name, but when they do . . . Well, it’s ain’t Amish kids, OK? Consider this recent report about some Florida teens celebrating the festive holiday season:

Two brothers, 14 and 15, face murder charges after an argument over who was getting more presents led to a shooting that killed their sister — a mother of two — on Christmas Eve.
Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said the “family spat” began Sunday during a shopping trip in Largo. When the family returned to the home of the boys’ grandmother in the 2300 block of 22nd Avenue Southwest, the teens were still arguing.
Standing in the kitchen, Damarcus Coley, 14, pulled out a .40 caliber semi-automatic handgun and aimed it at his brother, 15-year-old Darcus Coley, threatening to shoot him in the head, Gualtieri said.
The teens’ uncle separated the boys, telling Damarcus to step outside. Gualtieri said a neighbor’s outdoor camera captured audio of their sister, Abrielle Baldwin, 23, as she tried to intervene.
“You all need to leave that stuff alone. Why are you trying to start it? It’s Christmas,” Baldwin told her younger brother, Gualtieri said.
At about 1:45 p.m., Damarcus yelled threats at Baldwin and then shot her in the chest, Gualtieri said. The round went through her left arm before puncturing her lungs. At the time, Baldwin was holding her 10-month-old baby, who was not injured, Gualtieri said.
After hearing the gunshot, Darcus ran outside, screaming about how Damarcus had shot their sister.
Eight seconds after the fatal shot rang out, Darcus fired a round at his brother with his own .45 caliber pistol, Gualtieri said. The 15-year-old threw his gun in a neighbor’s yard and ran to a relative’s home in Clearwater, where deputies later arrested him, Gualtieri said. Darcus made statements about self-harm and was taken to a mental health facility.
Baldwin was taken to Largo Medical Center, where she died. She was also the mother of a 6-year-old boy.
Damarcus was taken to a hospital where he underwent surgery. Gualtieri said later will be moved to a juvenile detention center.
“This is what happens when you’ve got young delinquents and they carry guns,” Gualtieri told reporters. “They get upset, they don’t know how to handle stuff, so they just pick up their guns and start shooting each other.”
Damarcus Coley is charged with first-degree murder, child abuse and being a minor in possession of a firearm.
Darcus Coley is charged with attempted first-degree murder and tampering with physical evidence. . . .
Family members told investigators the two boys routinely carried guns. . . .
Damarcus’ arrest history dates back to when he was 12. He previously has been charged with vehicle theft, battery on a school employee and battery on a law enforcement officer, Gualtieri said. He said both brothers were arrested in May for multiple car burglaries and both have previous juvenile charges for being a minor in possession of a firearm.
Gualtieri said he believes both guns used in Sunday’s shooting were likely stolen from unlocked cars.

This case has been widely commented upon, but as I watched the video of Sheriff Gualtieri’s press conference, I noticed something that nobody else in the media seemed to notice. He stated that the victim, Abrielle Baldwin, was born May 5, 2000. He further noted that the mother of the victim (who is also the mother of the Coley brothers) was born June 25, 1984. Apparently nobody else bothered to do the basic arithmetic here: Abrielle was born when her mother was only 15 years old and, given that Abrielle’s oldest child is 6 years old, this means that she became a mother at age 17. Abrielle’s mother became a grandmother when she was no older than 33. Am I the only one who perceives this as relevant?

Also, notice that Abrielle and the Coley brothers have different surnames, indicating they were sired by different baby-daddies, none of whom are named as attendees at the festive family holiday gathering. Teenage mothers and absentee fathers would seem to be normative in this community. Also: “Family members told investigators the two boys routinely carried guns.” Routinely! If your 14-year-old was “routinely” carrying a pistol, wouldn’t this be a cause of parental concern? One kid’s got a .40-cal, the other’s packing a .45, both guns were likely stolen during the multiple burglaries perpetrated by the Coley brothers, but nobody in the family did anything about it until, of course, the festive holiday was celebrated with gunfire. Youthful hijinks!

Speaking of the Idiot-in-Chief:

Biden’s Crime Problem: Violent Crime
Is Down, but Voters Don’t Believe It

Yes, this year, many police agencies will report a record decrease in crime, made possible because crime was so completely out of control after the 2020 George Floyd riots, with many cities setting homicide records in 2021 and 2022. But a decline from a historic peak does not return America to the level of public safety the nation had before the summer of “fiery but mostly peaceful protests.” Furthermore, one reason for the reduction in crime is that law-abiding citizens just got the hell out of Democrat-controlled cities, and learned to avoid areas where teenage criminals — excuse me, I mean, urban youth — pose a constant threat to life and property. If you’ve sold your city home and moved to the countryside — hunkered down in a rural bunker, protected by guard dogs and video surveillance — you probably don’t feel a lot of gratitude to President Biden for your circumstances. You damned deplorable!



 

Category: Crime

History You Probably Never Knew

Posted on | December 30, 2023 | Comments Off on History You Probably Never Knew

Very early in my childhood, history became a favorite subject, most likely because of my father’s service in World War II. Knowing that he had been wounded while fighting the Germans in France — he had a deep scar on the back of his neck from the shrapnel that nearly killed him — I was always eager to read anything about that war, and while still in high school read the entirety of William Shirer’s monumental The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. The history of the Civil War was of less interest to me, but my sixth-grade project for the Social Studies Fair at Lithia Springs Elementary School was about the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain, which took place in neighboring Cobb County. Many times as a boy, driving up to Lake Altoona for fishing trips, we had stopped at Lost Mountain Store, near the western part of the Confederate defense line during that battle; when I was in college, I had a girlfriend who lived in Kennesaw, and my route to her house had me driving past the battlefield at Cheatham Hill on a regular basis. In 1979, to mark the 115th anniversary of Sherman’s capture of Atlanta, the Atlanta-Journal Constitution published a multi-part series about that campaign beginning at Dalton, and I was fascinated by this as the most detailed account of the Atlanta campaign I’d encountered up to that point. Later, after graduating college, I purchased Bruce Catton’s Civil War, a one-volume compilation of his three-part Army of the Potomac series, and as anyone who has read it knows, that was a masterpiece of narrative history.

All of this I recount as partial explanation of how it was that I subsequently became known as a “neo-Confederate,” an appellation intended by some to designate the target as a dangerous extremist — “RAAAAACIST!” — like those “neo-Nazi” misfits who fancifully imagine they can somehow bring about a Fourth Reich. The point I wish to make is that my interest in the Confederacy stemmed from my larger interest in military history and, considering how crucial battles of the Civil War were fought in the immediate vicinity of my childhood home in Georgia, this interest was by no means remarkable. The further tale of how I became a member of the League of the South, I’ve recounted elsewhere and need not repeat here; during the Great LGF Blog War of 2009, I decisively vindicated my reputation, without ever having been compelled to apologize or repudiate any of my prior associations. Whatever my faults and errors may be, those who know me best know that I am nothing like the sinister “white supremacist” character that left-wingers have manufactured by their smears. I owe those bastards no apologies.

Recently, I encountered on Amazon a book I’d never seen before: The Heritage of The South by Jubal Early, a Confederate general who rose to corps command in Lee’s army, and who had been a delegate to the Virginia convention that voted for secession (which Early voted against). Because of his background as a lawyer deeply involved in Virginia politics — representing Franklin County in the House of Delegates for one term, and later serving as Commonwealth’s Attorney — Early was well-qualified to discuss the history of events that led to the Civil War.

Here is how General Early begins his tale:

The struggle for independence made by the Southern States of the American Union, grew out of questions of self government arising mainly in regard to the institution of African slavery as it existed in those states, and as that institution was the occasion for the development of the difficulties which led immediately to the struggle, the conduct of the states lately forming the Southern Confederacy has been misunderstood, therefore, misrepresented, with the effect of casting upon them not only the odium of originating the war but even for the existence and continuance of slavery itself.
Much misapprehension has existed in the minds even of intelligent foreigners upon these subjects and it is therefore not inappropriate to take a retrospective view of the history of slavery in general and especially of the slave trade and of slavery in the United States, as well as of the questions which led to the secession of the Southern States and to the war consequent thereon.
It is said that the Portuguese began the traffic in slaves on the coast of Africa in the 15th century, and that at the beginning of the 16th century negro slaves had become quite common in Portugal.
After the discovery of America, the Spaniards made slaves of the Indians and employed them in their first settlements in the newly discovered country, but the supply not being found sufficient and the Indians not being very well adapted for the purpose in the tropical regions, negro slaves were introduced from Africa—the first being imported[ 12 ] into Hispaniola (St. Domingo), in the year 1503. The example of Spain in regard to the use of negro slaves in her American Colonies was followed by all the other nations of Europe, who undertook the colonization of the newly found continent and islands, to-wit: the Portuguese, English, French, Dutch, Danes and Swedes.
Sir John Hawkins, an English admiral and adventurer, was the first Englishman known to have engaged in the African slave trade, and he carried his first cargo to the Spanish West India islands about the year 1562. Report says that Queen Elizabeth became a partner in and shared the profits of his subsequent voyages in the prosecution of the trade. From that time the African slave trade became a regular branch of English commerce, and was conducted in its first stages principally under monopolies granted to companies, in the profits of which members of the Royal family, noblemen, courtiers and churchmen, as well as merchants, shared, as was the practice in those days in all important branches of commerce.
From the restriction under Charles II, the African trade, including that in slaves, was monopolized by the “Royal African Company” for a number of years; and that company built and established, on the coast of Africa, forts and factories for the purpose of facilitating and protecting the trade; but in the year 1698, the slave trade was thrown open to private traders, upon the payment to the company of a certain percentage towards the support of its forts and factories.
The growing demand in Europe for colonial products now gave a new impulse to the slave trade, and its profits were very great. It was not only recognized by the government, but was sustained by the universal public sentiment in England, and was fostered and cherished by Parliament as a lucrative traffic.
In the year 1713, by the treaty of Utrecht, the Assiento, a contract originally entered into by the Spanish government with a company of French merchants for a monopoly by the latter of the trade in slaves to Spanish America, was assigned to the South Sea Company. By the terms of this contract 4,800 negro slaves were to be furnished to the Spanish colonies annually for thirty years, the company being privileged to introduce as many more as could be sold.
In this company Queen Anne and the King of Spain became stockholders, as did a large portion of the nobility, gentry, churchmen, and merchants of England. England thus sought a monopoly of the entire slave trade, at least so far as her own and the Spanish colonies were concerned. The exclusive privileges granted to the Royal African Company having expired, in the year 1750 the British Government undertook to maintain the forts and factories on the African coast at its own expense, and the slave trade was thrown open to free competition on the part of its citizens. A great increase of the trade now took place, and England had become the leading nation in that trade, which was carried on chiefly from the ports of Bristol and Liverpool, but other ports including that of London shared in it—the West Indies furnishing the principal market, but a considerable number were also introduced into the colonies of North America. . . .

You can purchase the book from Amazon (paying me a small commission) and read the rest of General Early’s account, but perhaps you grasp the point he was endeavoring to make, i.e., that while Southerners were blamed for “the existence and continuance of slavery itself,” the institution had a much larger history. In fact, there were far more African slaves imported to the Spanish and Portuguese colonies (Cuba, Brazil, etc.) than ever arrived in the English colonies that eventually became the United States. According to Wikipedia, some 5.8 million Africans were shipped to Brazil, for example, compared to less than 400,000 shipped to North America. For some reason, however, we don’t hear many denunciations of Portugal (or Spain or France) over slavery; instead, as General Early remarked, the “odium” has historically been focused on the South. This was a function of politics, you see. The damned Yankees wished to believe that they were entirely innocent and that Southerners were uniquely guilty in regard to the practice of slavery. It may or may not surprise readers to learn that I grinned ever so slightly as I wrote about Albany, New York, removing the “statue of General Philip Schuyler that stood in front of Albany City Hall for nearly a century.” Because, yes, Schuyler owned slaves, and the fact that African slaves had toiled as far north as upstate New York might seem strange to most Americans, but guess what? Southerners knew all about the North’s hypocrisy, and were never deceived by the Yankees’ (rather conveniently belated) attempt to claim moral superiority in this matter.

And in breaking 19th-century news:

Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley has come under fire for issuing a word-salad response when asked in New Hampshire on Wednesday why America fought in the Civil War, refusing to say the word “slavery.”
The moment came during a campaign event in the Granite State when someone in the crowd asked Haley what caused the Civil War. The presidential candidate seemed somewhat puzzled by the question to the point of calling the answer difficult.
“I mean, I think the cause of the Civil War was basically how government was going to run. The freedoms and what people could and couldn’t do,” Haley said.
When Haley asked the voter what he thought had sparked the Civil War, the voter said, “I’m not running for president.”
“I think it always comes down to the role of government and what the rights of the people are,” Haley added. “I will always stand by the fact that I think government was intended to secure the rights and freedoms of the people. It was never meant to be all things to all people,” she said.

Because I watch CNN (so you don’t have to), I’ve been watching this story recycled hourly for three days. Even if you don’t like Nikki Haley, sensible people must abhor the fact that she is subjected to such an inquisition, merely because she is from South Carolina. This continued effort to stigmatize the South, to fasten upon the Southern people this burden of blood-guilt, has become so mindless that even the daughter of Sikh immigrants from Punjab gets targeted, as if she bears personal responsibility for the, uh, misunderstanding at Fort Sumter.

The execrable Nikole Hannah-Jones was among those exulting over Nikki Haley’s stumble, but Glenn Reynolds took the opportunity to remind us of Hannah-Jones’s own history of . . . unusual comments.

That comment provoked a discussion in which Hannah-Jones refused to give the North any credit for ending slavery by force of arms:

Far be it from me to waste my time arguing with fools, a bad habit that anyone would be well advised to avoid, but the reality of the modern information system is such that it is dangerous to let folly go unrebuked. When people publish inflammatory and insulting claims, the absence of immediate pushback will lead many observers to think that the claim made is valid, and thus do bad ideas and harmful myths become commonplace. Are black people collectively victims of “inhumanity visited” upon them by white Americans collectively?

This is the implied meaning of Hannah-Jones’s rhetoric, seeking to make personal responsibility disappear by the use of racial collectivism to point the accusing finger at white people. The circumstances of history cannot be changed retroactively, and this guilt-tripping attitude — seeking to impugn white people based on what happened centuries before they were even born — also has the rhetorical effect of implying that no black person can expect success or happiness in America because white people are always inflicting “inhumanity” upon them.

Historically, people who incite this Us-vs.-Them way of thinking have not been viewed as philanthropic humanitarians. Unless you consider Pol Pot to be an advocate for “social justice,” you’d best avoid the kind of blame-game rhetoric that is the stock-in-trade of Nikole Hannah-Jones.

Rooting around in remote history in search of a pretext to hate other people is not just foolish, but wicked. It is un-Christian, to say the very least, and as the descendant of Confederate soldiers — including one who was captured at Gettysburg and spent two years as a prisoner of war at Fort Delaware — I know the importance of letting the past be the past. We should study history with an eye toward finding examples that can inspire us, as individuals, to strive for the best in ourselves and, as citizens, to benefit from what history can teach us about policy.

In 2019, I wrote this for The American Spectator:

Private Bolt signed his parole with an “X.” He was completely illiterate, you see, and it is therefore impossible for me to know what my ancestor’s opinions were on the controversies that led to the Civil War. However, I can form an estimate of his character from knowing his daughter Perlonia, my grandmother, a stern but kindly Christian woman who lived to be 94 years old. It should not be necessary to explain why I bristle at any insult to my grandmother’s family, to hear them smeared as “racists” by people who never knew them. Some people like to display their imagined superiority by impugning my Southern ancestors in this manner, and I’ve learned to restrain my temper about such insults. Had such men as Alabama’s William Lowndes Yancey been better able to restrain their tempers, there might never have been a Civil War, but we must live with the consequences of history as it actually happened, rather than in whatever fictional alternative anyone might fondly imagine. Wishing that slavery or secession never happened is as futile as wishing that J.E.B. Stuart’s cavalry had been present to protect the advance of Lee’s army toward Gettysburg on that fateful July morning in 1863. . . .

You can read the rest of that, if you’re interested. As a famous Yankee once said, we should act with malice toward none, but with charity for all, to bind up the nation’s wounds. Alas, I fear that not everyone takes those words as seriously as they should. Beware the consequences.



 

Category: History, Racism

NYC Maniac Turned Loose So He Could Stab Two Girls in Grand Central Station

Posted on | December 28, 2023 | Comments Off on NYC Maniac Turned Loose So He Could Stab Two Girls in Grand Central Station

Gosh, if only there were some simple phrase to briefly summarize the public safety threat posed by the mentally ill:

The unhinged vagrant accused of randomly stabbing two teen tourists at Grand Central Station was a stalker who suffered from paranoid delusions and was in dire need of psychiatric help, his ex-girlfriend told The Post Wednesday.

(Kind of like Hillary Clinton, in some ways.)

Charisma Knight, 37, said onetime beau Steven Hutcherson allegedly threatened to kill her “at least five times” in the past year and became increasingly deranged after he refused to take his meds for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
“I called the police all the time and said ‘he’s bipolar and schizophrenic, ‘he needs help, he needs help.’ These people actually do need help. If you’re just letting them go… he might just kill somebody,” Knight said from her East Harlem apartment.

(If only there were some phrase . . .)

“He should have been in a mental institution where he cannot come out and they can monitor him taking his medication,” she added.
Knight and Hutcherson, 36, met in elementary school and dated for three months in 2021 and then again for nine months, until October 2022, she said. . . .
Her ex had a penchant for conspiracy theories, watching videos on YouTube about Malcolm X, wars and “how to train to fight with a knife,” Knight said.
“He swore the government was after him,” she said.

(Too bad they weren’t “after him.”)

“I knew this was gonna happen because if you look at his Facebook account with all the rants that he’s doing with the police, it’s crazy,” Knight added, referring to the Grand Central attack.
At one point, he thought mold growing in his bathroom was planted by the police, and also suspected a close friend of being an FBI informant, Knight recalled. . . .
Hutcherson was estranged from his mother but never recovered from her death some two decades ago — sparking a particular disdain for the holidays, Knight said.
She theorized that may have contributed to his alleged violent outburst on Christmas Day, when he is accused of stabbing the teen sisters, 14 and 16, in a French restaurant at the Grand Central dining concourse.
“He gets depressed around the holidays. Around October he starts thinking about his mom and thinking about how he has no one. Around Thanksgiving and Christmas he’s weird — extremely weird,” she said.
“Being that it was Christmas, it triggered something in him, whether he was mad that it was like a family setting that they were having and they was enjoying themselves,” she opined.

He was arrested in November, but the judge turned him loose:

Prosecutors wanted Steven Hutcherson, 36, to be committed to a psychiatric program for randomly threatening a stranger on a Bronx street last month, but Judge Matthew Grieco instead gave the career criminal a conditional discharge that put him back on the street, records show.
Less than two weeks after that Dec. 12 hearing, Hutcherson allegedly went off the rails at a restaurant in the historic Midtown terminal, launching into an anti-white rant and knifing a 14-year-old girl and her 16-year-old sister, visiting the city from Paraguay with their family.

Have I mentioned lately that Crazy People Are Dangerous?



 

Category: Crime, New York
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