The Other McCain

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

The Old ‘Ongoing Investigation’ Trick Is Being Used to Hide Benghazi Truth

Posted on | October 31, 2013 | 39 Comments

The Lonely Conservative:

The cover up continues. The State Department and the DOJ are blocking Congress from having access to survivors of the Benghazi attack. They blame it on the ongoing investigation.

This is a very familiar method of truth-suppression in D.C.: “I can’t comment because of the ongoing investigation.” Understand that when the federal government is investigating the federal government, denying information to Congress is a de facto cover-up.

Meanwhile, Rowan Scarborough of The Washington Times reports:

Masked from public view, two of the U.S. military’s elite special operations commandos have been awarded medals for bravery for a mission that further undercuts the Obama administration’s original story about the Benghazi tragedy. . . .
[S]ources directly familiar with the attack tell The Washington Times that a unit of eight special operators — mostly Delta Force and Green Beret members — were in Tripoli the night of the attack, on a counterterrorism mission that involved capturing weapons and wanted terrorists from the streets and helping train Libyan forces.
When word of the Benghazi attack surfaced, two members of that military unit volunteered to be dispatched along with five private security contractors on a hastily arranged flight from Tripoli to rescue Americans in danger, the sources said, speaking only on the condition of anonymity because the special operations forces’ existence inside Libya was secret.
The two special operations forces arrived in time to engage in the final, ferocious firefight between the terrorists and Americans holed up in the CIA annex near the ill-fated diplomatic mission in Benghazi, the sources added.
The two special operators were awarded medals for valor for helping repel a complex attack that killed Ambassador J. Christopher Stephens, another American diplomat and two former Navy SEALs, but spared many more potential casualties.

So here we have Green Berets getting medals for their bravery in a battle that the administration refuses to tell Congress anything about, because “ongoing investigation.” Next we’ll be told that Obama can’t say anything about Benghazi, because “national security.”

Remember the administration repeatedly claimed that Benghazi was a “spontaneous demonstration” inspired by a YouTube video.

They’re Democrats. Their first instinct is always to lie.

Now? “Phony scandal!” And whatever happened to Nakoula?

 

Category: Barack Obama, Libya, Military

IRS Leaker ID’d; Confidential Information Given to 2007 Harvard Graduate UPDATE: Gay ‘Diversity’ Program

Posted on | October 31, 2013 | 48 Comments

Eliana Johnson of National Review reports that congressional investigators have identified the Internal Revenue Service employee who leaked confidential information about donors to the National Organization for Marriage. Federal rules forbid the leaker’s name being made public, but we know to whom the information was leaked:

[A]n IRS agent working in the Exempt Organizations Division — the same division that, until May, was under the direction of Lois Lerner, who retired under duress last month — leaked NOM’s Schedule B to Matthew Meisel, a former employee of Bain & Company, the management consultancy where former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney worked in the 1970s and 1980s and where he served as interim CEO in the early 1990s. Between his stints there, Romney founded the private-equity firm Bain Capital in 1984. After he obtained NOM’s donor list from the IRS employee, the committee says, Meisel then turned it over to the Human Rights Campaign. Neither Meisel nor the Human Rights Campaign returned calls seeking comment. . . .
The emergence of Meisel, a 2007 graduate of Harvard University, and his connection to Romney’s firm may shed light on the motivation behind the leak, which was used to hammer Romney for supporting California’s Proposition 8.
[NOM chairman John Eastman] wants the Department of Justice to prosecute both the unnamed IRS leaker and Meisel, the recipient of the leaked documents. “This should be a relatively simple matter,” he says.

It also should be “a relatively simple matter” for a congressional committee to subpoena Meisel and officials of the Human Rights Campaign to testify at a hearing, and to subpoena Lerner for her testimony as well. Let them all plead the Fifth, if they want, but hold the hearing and let the American public see what has happened here.

UPDATE: How did this happen? In a word, “diversity.” From a December 2008 article in the Harvard Crimson:

On a Monday night in September, about two dozen Harvard students gathered at the Harvard Square hot spot Red Line, to be wined and dined by recruiters from the consulting firms Bain and Co. and the Bridgespan Group. . . .
This event hosted by Bain and Bridgespan was just one in a series of efforts from a variety of firms across the country to target LGBT students interested in a future in finance. . . .
“Questions run the gamut, everything from what are your hours like to can I bring my boyfriend out with colleagues? About significant others and everything in between,” says Matthew S. Meisel ’07, an associate consultant from Bain and Co. . . .
About Bain and Co.’s larger diversity goals, Meisel says, “Bain is really looking for a diverse set of people and diversity means a lot of things of course, but as our clients change and as our clients’ needs change, one of the important things is that our team members come from diverse backgrounds.”

Score another win for Cultural Marxism.

UPDATE II: More on gay “diversity” from the Yale Herald, Nov. 5, 2010:

Matthew Meisel, a senior associate consultant at Bain who graduated from Harvard in 2007 and is a member of BGLAD [Bain Gay and Lesbian Association for Diversity], highlighted diversity in the workplace as an asset to the collaborative nature of consulting.
“If you get six identical people in a room together and ask them to solve a really difficult problem, you’re not going to get a very good answer,” he said. “But if you have people from diverse academic and personal backgrounds, you get more creative answers.” . . .
[C]andidates who want more information about specific companies should look to metrics such as the Corporate Equality Index published annually by the Human Rights Campaign, the largest LGBT civil rights organization in the U.S. According to Matthew Meisel, Bain was the first major consulting firm to receive a perfect score of 100 and has received that score for five years running.

So, it seems, Matthew Meisel was a sort of poster boy/P.R. spokesman for this corporate “diversity” program at Bain.

 

Category: Corruption, Crime, Gays, Taxes

A Petty Criminal

Posted on | October 31, 2013 | 20 Comments

Bryan Sweatt of South Carolina:

Sweatt has a lengthy arrest record that dates back nearly a decade, according to state police records. Most of his charges were related to property crimes, such as burglary or forgery, although he was arrested once on aggravated assault charges.

How many times have I pointed out that those who perpetrate headline-making atrocities are often petty criminals who escalated?

6 people shot dead in SC domestic dispute

Some people never learn: Criminals are dangerous.

 

Category: Crime

LIVE AT FIVESIX: 10.31.13

Posted on | October 31, 2013 | 12 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho


TOP NEWS
Red Sox Nation Unites In Joy: “This Is Our City”

Ladies and gentlemen, your 2013 Baseball World Champions.

Sox Top Cards 6-1 As Lackey Dominates
Third title since 2004 caps worst-to-first season

France Rejects NSA Denials As “Implausible”
NSA Uproar Could Spark Changes Not Seen Since 1970s


“Contrite” White House Spurns Health Law’s Critics
Obama defends #AbominableCareAct in Boston speech



POLITICS
All Apologies: Biden, Sebelius Sorry For Obamacare Site Debacle

“The website has never crashed” – Sebelius

One month after launch, the system is still down.
Congressmen Rip HHS Secretary For Insurance Cancellations, Website Woes

Hawaii Senate Passes Gay Marriage Bill

Booker Plans Hands-On Approach As Senator

Murray, Crapo Pursue Budget Deal Again

Napolitano: University Of California To Spend $5 Million On Illegals’ Tuition

Romney Rejects Administration Effort To compare Obamacare, Masscare Rollouts

Justice, State Departments Blocking Access To Benghazi Survivors



THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Crude Oil Drops In Asian Trade As Fed Stands Pat: NYMEX $96.57, Brent $109.56
Facebook Beats The Street; Shares Go On Roller-Coaster Ride
Fed Extends Stimulus As Growth Stumbles
ADP: US Companies Add Just 130K Jobs In October
Sony Slashes Full-Year Profit Forecast By 40%
McDonald’s Coffee Coming To Grocery Stores Next Year
Android KitKat Might Be Boon For Underpowered Devices
Google Mounts Product Recall For Glass Spy-Goggles
Ashton Kutcher Joins Lenovo As Product Engineer
Dell Denies Laptops Smell Like Cat Piss
Steam Reaches 65 Million Users



SPORTS
Allen Iverson Announces Retirement From Basketball

“I’ll be a Sixer ’til the day I die”

11-time All Star brought street ball to the NBA

Sixers Stun Heat Behind Carter-Williams’ Strong Debut

Big Papi Chosen As World Series MVP

Leafs Quench Flames 4-2

Failure To Launch: Bobcats Drop Season Opener To Rockets

Wings Edge Canucks 2-1

Anthony, Knicks Hold Off Bucks

Pens Beat Bruins 2-1

Nats’ Hiring Of Williams Signals That Rizzo, Not Players, Makes The Call



FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
Kid Rock’s Ex Nearly Unrecognizable After Haircut

Some no-talent ex-starlet

Full version of “Half Your Age”


As Robin Thicke Admits “Blurred Lines” Is Ripoff, Marvin Gaye’s Family Sues

Inside The Wild World Of Katy Perry

Kristin Cavallari Pregnant With Baby #2


Liberty Ross Speaks Out About Kristen Stewart’s Affair With Her Husband

Eddie Cibrian Ready To Call It Quits With LeAnn Rimes?

Aaron Taylor-Johnson Closes Deal To Play Quicksilver In “Avengers: Age Of Ultron”

CBS Eyes “How I Met Your Mother” Spinoff

Kerry Washington Pregnant With First Child

Oprah Responds To Jenny McCarthy: “I Don’t Have A Sh-t List”

Katy Perry’s PRISM Shines At #1 Atop Billboard 200



FOREIGNERS
Bank Of Japan Raises GDP Forecast, Inflation Goal Intact
OGX Bankruptcy: What Now For Batista’s Brazil Projects?
Syris Meets Deadline To Destroy Chemical Warfare Equipment
PRC Media Call For “United Front Against Terror” After Arrests
Young Boy Steals Show During Papal Speech
Putin Tops Forbes Most Powerful People List
Chicoms Demand Explanation Of Spying Accusations Regarding Aussie Embassies
Bodies Of 87 Migrants Found In Niger Desert
Two Years After Pushing US Out, Iraq Returns Seeking Arms, Training And Troops


BLOGS & STUFF
Dead Republican Party: The Difference Between Freedom And Liberty
The Looking Spoon: The Dictionary Of Liberalism
Blackmailers Don’t Shoot: Obama’s Personal Approval Rating Now Pear-Shaped
Aewl’s Abode: Let It Burn, Let It Burn
Michelle Malkin: The Thuggery Of Obamacare Czarina Kathleen Sebelius
Twitchy: Harry Reid Goes Concern Trolling
Your Full-Service Obamacare Site (h/t Chicks On The Right)
Chicks On The Right: Meghan McCain And Her Dad Have The Sads
American Power: White House Jackboots Threatening Insurance Execs Into Silence On Obamacare Criticism
American Thinker: The Obama Facade Cracks At Last
The Necropolitan Sentinel: Obamacare Watch – Do It Yourself
Don Surber: Daily Scoreboard, October 30
Jammie Wearing Fools: Obama Announces Campaign Appearance for Lowlife Terry McAuliffe, Whose Lead Immediately Shrinks
JustOneMinute: Latest Obama Defense – Incompetence, Not Ignorance
Pat Dollard: Harry Reid Claims If Ted Cruz Is GOP’s 2016 Nominee, It’ll End The GOP
Protein Wisdom: Global Warming Gets Twice As Much Money As Border Security
Shot In The Dark: Narrative, Interrupted
The Jawa Report: Rand Paul – Cut Off Aid To Countries Who Persecute Christians
The Lonely Conservative: Sebelius Caught On Mic Whining “Don’t Do This To Me”
Megan McArdle: What Everyone Knew About Obamacare And Wouldn’t Say


Category: Live at Five

Bill Schmalfeldt Lies to @SilverbergDave: Failure and the Exact Opposite of Truth

Posted on | October 30, 2013 | 39 Comments

Bill Schmalfeldt ranting, 2011. (Image via Thomas Anderson at Vimeo)

“Bill Schmalfeldt doesn’t have principles. Bill Schmalfeldt doesn’t have values. Bill Schmalfeldt doesn’t have beliefs. Bill Schmalfeldt has enemies, and then nothing, a black and dank and empty void of sullenness.”
— Ken White, Popehat, Aug. 6

Arguing with a sociopath is generally a waste of time, and if you dedicated yourself to exposing every malicious lie Bill Schmalfeldt tells, you would never have time for anything else. Not a day goes by that someone doesn’t call my attention to Schmalfeldt’s compulsive dishonesty and, while I know many readers have grown weary of hearing about his constant vile behavior, occasionally he does something so hatefully false that I simply cannot ignore it.

Bill Schmalfeldt has a habit of getting himself banned. He got banned from Daily Kos because of his grossly offensive anal rape “satire,” and has been repeatedly banned from the Examiner. In September, Schmalfeldt attempted to sneak back onto the Examiner as “Lester Klemper,” and when his unwelcome presence was (predictably) rejected, he unleashed obscenity-strewn threats of vengeance:

As I said at the time, this is typical Schmafeldt: The Dire Warning of Terrible Consequences — dreadful woe shall befall ye whom he hates.

What followed instead was Schmalfeldt’s complete humiliation at the Oct. 16 hearing on John Hoge’s peace order, and the subsequent rejection of Schmalfeldt’s appeal in the case. Keep in mind that, prior to the Oct. 16 hearing, Schmalfeldt had repeatedly boasted that he would prove Hoge guilty of perjury (!) with the predicted result that Hoge would leave the courtroom in handcuffs.

Threaten, threaten, threaten. Fail, fail, fail.  Lather, rinse, repeat.

Meanwhile, however, Schmalfeldt had announced that he would begin writing for DigitalJournal.com. Schmalfeldt’s evident motive was that being published somewhere beside his own blog was necessary to Schmalfeldt’s defense of his harassment as “journalism.”

Of course, this was futile: Maryland’s harassment statute doesn’t have a Journalism Exemption. Schmalfeldt never got a chance to argue this in the Hoge v. Schmalfeldt hearing. Nevertheless, Schmalfeldt was a diligent DigitalJournal.com contributor, writing 56 articles between Sept. 25 and Oct. 27, generating 19,000 page-views. (That’s not bad, really, although by comparison this month I’ve published more than 150 posts with more than 300,000 page-views.)

It looked like Bill had found a home at DigitalJournal.com, but then he screwed it up because, as Ken White said, Bill has enemies.

Vengeance on his enemies is Schmalfeldt’s raison d’être and, after a month of being on his best behavior at DigitalJournal.com, he fell off the wagon and used an Oct. 25 article about the arrest of Alabama smear-blogger Roger Shuler to suggest that somehow Ali Akbar and I were responsible for Shuler’s arrest. That prompted Ali to write an e-mail to DigitalJournal.com publisher David Silverberg, and this false accusation was deleted from Schmalfeldt’s article.

But then in a follow-up article on Oct. 27, after name-checking me again, Schmalfeldt made a nameless reference to Lee Stranahan, which has been preserved by Aaron Walker:

Right wing bloggers don’t even need to have something actually happen to them to get the right wing blogosphere up in arms.
One writer for the extremist right wing blog Breitbart.com claimed a phony rape threat from a man with a progressive neurological disorder who lived 1,400 miles away from him. He sent the police to the man’s house, then cried to whoever would listen that he needed money, lots of money, so he could relocate his family. Right wing bloggers from coast to coast came to his aid, exhorting their readers to raise money for this man, who continued with his claim of death and rape threats from a man who would have to ask his wife to drive him the 1,400 miles to commit this imaginary crime the right wing blogger created in his mind.

I wrote to Silverberg asking that my name be removed from that article, and the above-quoted passage was also removed, so that all that remains of the Stranahan reference in the article is this:

In this climate where a right wing blogger can lie about a threat that never existed and raise thousands of dollars to “move” — and then not even change apartments — the left wing media establishment (such as it is) should be shamefaced over their lack of concern about an older man who is nursing his bruises behind bars while his wife remains barricaded in her house.

Ridiculous. You can read Aaron Worthing’s account and decide for yourself whether the rape threat was “phony,” and you can also read Stranahan’s own account, “Bill Schmalfeldt: The Stranger Who Harassed My Family.” Decide for yourself whether what Schmalfeldt was doing could be described as Ethical Journalism.

What was happening at DigitalJournal.com repeated a familiar pattern: Schmalfeldt was trying use his access to somebody else’s platform to pursue his personal enemies, the unprofessional behavior that got him banned from the Examiner in December 2011:

Bill,
I am yet again forced to discuss your column after you continued to (1) make your OBN articles personal, rather than talking about what such an organization is attempting to do and its potential implications, and (2) continued to reply in an antagonistic manner within the comments sections / Facebook.
Due to the continued disregard for projecting yourself in a professional manner, I am forced to suspend your access to our publishing platform again.
This was not how I hoped things would work out, but I’m no longer in a position to justify the amount of effort we as an organization have to put in to mitigate the complaints your work is constantly receiving. I wish you well on your blog.-
Best regards,
Kevin Staunton
Director, Northeast & Mid-Atlantic Regions

Bingo: “[T]he amount of effort we as an organization have to put in to mitigate the complaints your work is constantly receiving.”

That was in December 2011, when Schmalfeldt was pursuing his insane jihad against “Operation Burn Notice” (OBN), a Facebook group that opposed the recall of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker.

Months before I ever heard of the guy, Schmalfeldt’s habits were making him obnoxious to management at the Examiner. Now, in October 2013, he has repeated the pattern at DigitalJournal.com, recycling his smears against Stranahan, Akbar and me with no legitimate journalistic purpose. And today, apparently in a snit because his articles were being edited, Schmalfeldt announced his resignation by publishing an e-mail exchange with Dave Silverberg:

Dave:
First, let me express my gratitude for taking me back, I appreciate it very much and have tried very hard to abide by your rules. I have no problem with you or the site, and I will always have a soft place in my heart for you guys.
It is clear that I can’t turn from side to side without being attacked by the trolls who have decided that I have to be denied from doing any writing anywhere for anybody. Nor am I particularly agreeable to having to defend myself to my editor whenever one of these trolls raises a stink with you. This is how they are trying to get me fired. I choose not to grant them that trophy.
So, with great regret, and to save you and your publication any further difficulty with these criminals (not hyperbole), I offer you my resignation. If you choose to accept it, please advise.
And again, I am an appreciative and humble servant.
Thanks again for the opportunity.
Bill Schmalfeldt

Hi Bill,
We respectfully accept your resignation, and we sympathize with your situation. They are relentless, those people following you around online.
Thanks for your time on the site, and we hope you still check out the news content and vote and comment, as you like.
Note your Digital Journalist status has been removed.
Wishing you the best,
David

This is such a steaming heap of nonsense, I scarcely know where to begin debunking it. Schmalfeldt was not being “attacked by the trolls.” Rather, he was using his DigitalJournal.com access to make defamatory accusations against three innocent people who just happen, coincidentally, to be targets of Brett Kimberlin’s wrath.

Bill’s version of events is the exact opposite of truth: He was not being attacked, he was attacking. He is not a victim, but a victimizer.

Contrary to his claim that “trolls” want to prevent Schmalfeldt “from doing any writing anywhere for anybody,” nobody paid any attention to his DigitalJournal.com writing until there were specific complaints made by specific people about two specific articles.

As far as anyone “trying to get [Schmalfeldt] fired,” that description fits exactly one person: Bill Schmalfeldt, whose repetition of his previously demonstrated bad habits was the sole cause of the problem.

However, notice — as did Aaron Walker — how in attacking Lee Stranahan, Schmalfeldt referred to himself in the third person as “a man with a progressive neurological disorder.” Were DigitalJournal.com readers informed at any time that the author of that article was the same person who made the “phony rape threat” against Stranahan?

Because . . . ETHICS!

So, having tried unsuccessfully to use DigitalJournal.com as a platform for pursuing his own vindictive obsessions, now Schmalfeldt dishonestly claims victimhood as an excuse for his latest failure.

And isn’t crazy “a progressive neurological disorder”?

 

Category: Bill Schmalfeldt

Elizabeth Plank (@feministabulous) Proves She Is a Special Kind of Stupid™

Posted on | October 30, 2013 | 64 Comments

It was not my plan to write about Elizabeth Plank today because, until about 2 p.m., I’d never even heard of this particular idiot, but then a commenter left this comment on an earlier post:

Someone’s still buttmad over the possibility of a woman possibly avoiding rape and insisting that constant and inescapable victimhood is empowering. Because, feminism.
Oh. It’s Liz Plank. So that’s why it’s cray cray.

Well, who is this cray-cray person?

Elizabeth Plank
Viral Content & Social Justice Editor at PolicyMic. Masters degree from the London School of Economics. Behavioral science consultant by training and feminist crusader by passion.

Uh, “Social Justice Editor”? Social justice is a mirage, as Friedrich Hayek observed, and we might therefore assume that Liz Plank‘s job is to advocate for unworkable schemes of utopian impossibility.

Nice work, if you can get it.

Liz Plank is “buttmad” about something that was published 12 days ago by Emily Yoffe at Slate, pointing out the role that alcohol plays in the date-rape phenomenon plaguing colleges and universities. Yoffe said that, for sexually predatory men, “the rise of female binge drinking has made campuses a prey-rich environment.”

This would seem to be merely a common-sense observation, which Yoffe elaborates by reference to research on the phenomenon, but feminists went nuts, screeching that Yoffe was engaged in misogynistic victim-blaming and slut-shaming and enabling “rape culture.”

Just when you thought the resulting screech-fest had played itself out — see my two cents, “The Drunk Sluts Rights Movement” —  Plank responds by complaining that telling women not to get drunk “would be sensible advice if it didn’t reinforce the very structures that make sexual assault not only possible, but probable.”

You see that word “structures”? That’s jargon.

It’s a sort of code, an intellectual signifier, a way of saying, “Hey, I paid attention in my undergrad Critical Theory seminar.”

Jargon is a method of avoiding plain truth, and the minute people start talking that way, I figure them to be pretentious idiots who arrogantly assume they can baffle us with fancy bullshit.

Liz Plank reminds me of a certain TV personality in A Hard Day’s Night, about whom George Harrison says: “She’s a drag. A well known drag. We turn the sound down on her and say rude things.”

 

Category: Feminism, Sex

ObamaCare: The Liar-in-Chief Throws Kathleen Sebelius to the Wolves

Posted on | October 30, 2013 | 32 Comments

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius today displayed the classic combination of dishonesty and entitled arrogance we have come to expect from the monstrously selfish people who insist that we call them “public servants,” although Sebelius could scarcely conceal her contempt for the public she claims to serve.

Not a single Republican voted for ObamaCare, and the responsibility for its massive failure therefore lies entirely with Democrats. Therefore, the task assigned to Sebelius (and to Democrats on the committee) was to convey the impression that the failure is not actually failure, that contrary to all evidence, ObamaCare is successful, and that it is only the mean-spiritedness of Republicans that is the problem.

Even as Sebelius was compelled to embarrass herself in defense of President Obama’s indefensible failure, however, the president is busy trying to make her his designated scapegoat:

An agitated President Obama has expressed frustration to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius about the faulty ObamaCare enrollment website.
A visibly annoyed Obama behind closed doors has made clear to Sebelius that it’s her responsibility to fix what has become an unwanted second-term blunder, according to senior administration officials.
White House officials say the strong words from Obama don’t mean Sebelius is necessarily in the doghouse but that she’s responsible for fixing the problem.
In the words of one senior administration official, “She’s in a tough spot. She’s on the hook.”

These petulant children deserve each other.

 

Category: Barack Obama, Health Care

Marriage, Success and Feminism

Posted on | October 30, 2013 | 48 Comments

Bradley Wilcox has an excellent article at The Atlantic showing the data that correlates marriage to economic outcomes for children. This is reminiscent of one of the most best articles ever published by The Atlantic, Barbara Dafoe Whitehead’s 1993 “Dan Quayle Was Right.”

You may remember the controversy referenced in the title: Vice President Quayle criticized the CBS comedy Murphy Brown for glamorizing unwed motherhood. There was fierce feminist criticism of Quayle who, supposedly, was against Progress and Equality. But the social science then, as now, was perfectly clear: Marriage is a good thing, and is especially beneficial to children.

Whitehead expanded her thesis into an excellent book, The Divorce Culture: Rethinking Our Commitments to Marriage and Family, which I strongly recommend to anyone who wants to understand the social, economic and cultural forces that hurt families.

Divorce and unwed parenthood are correlated with bad outcomes for children, but we must remember that correlation is not causation and that a demonstrable statistical trend — e.g., higher incomes for children of intact marriages — does not mean that every child from a broken home is doomed to a life of poverty. Something else to remember: Trends do not make people. Rather, people make trends.

What causes divorce? Most often, selfishness is the reason. Marriage requires generosity and patience, because any two people will inevitably have conflicts. The normal human tendency in any conflict is to blame the other person, and it requires an unselfish spirit to say to ourselves, “Maybe this is my fault or, even if it isn’t entirely my fault, it’s better to just take the blame and end the argument.”

The selfish person is the one who insists on winning every argument, merely to satisfy his or her pride. Such a selfish spirit is unsuited for marriage, because if you insist you are always right, this turns your marriage into a constant humiliation for your spouse.

A domineering personality — a selfish bully who enjoys the humiliation of others — does not want a partner in marriage so much as he wants a handy target, someone he can push around, just to prove to himself his own superiority. A good marriage requires respect and trust. We should strive to deserve the admiration and cooperation of our spouses, rather than seek to coerce or trick them, which is what the domineering, controlling or manipulative spouse does. And because all of us are imperfect, voluntary cooperation within marriage requires an unselfish, forgiving and patient temperament.

We have to know our own needs, and to be able to discern between our actual needs and our mere wants. I sometimes joke that I married a woman mean enough to keep me in line, and there is truth in humor. My wife is a sweet and generous woman, but she is nobody’s doormat. She is ferocious when angry and always willing to tell me when I am out of line — which, of course, I occasionally am.

OK, probably more than just “occasionally.”

My goal in life is to make her happy, and I succeed in this goal far less often than I would wish. As I am proud to have her as my wife, I want to make her proud to have me as her husband. This requires a constant striving, and that in turn requires a determined commitment — the mental will to stick it out, no matter what, even when she’s so angry that she is ready to pack my bags and kick me out.

“If Americans can be divorced for ‘incompatibility of temper,’ I cannot conceive why they are not all divorced. I have known many happy marriages, but never a compatible one. The whole aim of marriage is to fight through and survive the instant when incompatibility becomes unquestionable. For a man and a woman, as such, are incompatible.”
— G.K. Chesterton, 1910

My defense of the traditional family and my criticism of feminism have, I fear, created the impression that I am some kind of Archie Bunker stereotype of a husband, a perception that is quite the opposite of truth. Actually (as my oldest daughter’s husband could certainly testify), our daughters have been raised to be confident and independent. A good woman is not timid or helpless and, in fact, one of the reasons I despise feminism is because it fosters a victimhood mentality that cripples women’s capacity for happiness.

Like all other radical egalitarian movements, feminism degrades the individual in order to promote a sense of collective grievance (on the part of the alleged victims) and collective guilt (on the part of their alleged victimizers). The ordinary unfairness of life — which we all experience routinely, no matter who we are — is rhetorically magnified into systematic Social Injustice, and the radical crusade for collective Equality is promised as the utopian solution. Anyone who buys into such a mass movement mindset thereby surrenders responsibility for their own life, and this is in fact the basic incentive: “You are not responsible! Your unhappiness is not your fault!”

Damn you, and damn your miserable victimhood movement.

Marriage requires mutual respect and cooperation. I refuse to endorse the degradation of women inherent to the feminist mentality.

 

 


Category: Feminism, Marriage
« go back — keep looking »

    About

    This is an area on your website where you can add text. This will serve as an informative location on your website, where you can talk about your site.

    Subscribe to our feed

    Search

    Admin