The Other McCain

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

Teachers Arrested for Child Pornography

Posted on | November 4, 2013 | 78 Comments

Sunday, after reporting the arrest of a youth football coach for allegedly raping an 11-year-old cheerleader, I did a Google News search and quickly compiled a list of five other recent cases where cheerleaders were molested by coaches. My young friend Christine Rousselle objected that I was unfairly tainting an entire profession for the acts of a few bad apples. OK, then, let’s do the same thing by the same method, but using different search terms. St. Charles, Ill.:

School officials in St. Charles are moving to fire a Sycamore man arrested this week on charges of possessing and distributing child pornography.
Jerome McCauley, 45, was charged Monday after police searched his home in the 300 block of Grant Street in Sycamore. Court records show he acknowledged having between 1,000 and 1,500 images and five to 10 videos of child pornography, some showing 12-year-old girls.
St. Charles School District 303 soon will begin the dismissal process, Superintendent Don Schlomann said. McCauley is a 19-year employee with District 303, who taught seventh-graders and coached volleyball at Wredling Middle School. He was placed on leave after his arrest.

Marblehead, Mass.:

A Marblehead High School physics teacher has been placed on leave after he was charged in Rhode Island this week following an investigation into child pornography.
William Morgan, 30, of 18 Maverick St., Marblehead, was arraigned Thursday in a district court in Warwick on charges of possessing child pornography and transfer of child pornography, state police in that state announced.
The case was the result of an undercover investigation by Rhode Island state police, the United States Marshals and the Secret Service. Morgan was one of 11 men arrested.

Wilmington, Del.:

A University of Delaware elementary education student, who served as a student teacher in Middletown and Townsend, faces more than two dozen child porn charges.
Bradford Holstein, Jr. was arrested after a search of his Newark home on Thursday.
Police and members of the Child Predator Task Force confiscated four computers and several digital storage devices, on which they found multiple video files of child porn.

Marion, Ky.:

After an investigation by Kentucky State Police, a Crittenden County High School teacher is facing a number of sex offense charges including possession of child pornography.
In late August, Kentucky State Police say they received an anonymous tip regarding an inappropriate relationship between Blair Winders and a female high school student. . . .
Blair Winders, 37, of Marion was charged with the following:
• Sexual abuse 1st degree
• Use of a minor under 18 in a sexual performance
• Prohibited use of an electronic communication system to procure a minor regarding sexual activity
• Possession of matter portraying a sexual performance by a minor (51 counts)
• Distribution of obscene matter to a minor 1st offense
• Tampering with physical evidence
Winders was booked into the Crittenden County Detention Center.

Erie, Pa.:

A suspended northwestern Pennsylvania high school teacher awaiting trial on state court charges that he molested a boy for several years has now been charged for a second time this year with producing and possessing child pornography.
The latest charges filed by federal prosecutors in Erie allege David Montgomery, 43, of Erie, enticed two boys — described in court documents as one born in 1995 and the other in 2002 — to commit sexual acts so he could make photos or videos.
The charges involving the 1995 boy stem from at least eight incidents between July 2005 and July 2010, while Montgomery made pornography featuring the other boy once in August 2010, according to court documents.
The new charges, first reported by the Erie Times-News on Wednesday, grew out of a search of Montgomery’s residence in April that occurred after a now-18-year-old man claimed that Montgomery molested him repeatedly from age 8 to 15.

Bangor, Maine:

Patrik Ian Arsenault, 27, pleaded not guilty Friday in U.S. District Court to three counts of sexual exploitation of a male minor child and one count each of transportation of child pornography, receipt of child pornography and possession of child pornography.
Arsenault had been a teacher in a regional autism program Wayne Elementary School and was supposed to start at W.G. Mallett Elementary School in Farmington in the upcoming school year as a special education teacher in kindergarten through grade three, according to a previous published report. . . .
Arsenault was arrested at his home in August by Maine State Police and agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. . . .
Kennebec County District Attorney Maeghan Maloney told the Bangor Daily News in August that the incidents involving the boys allegedly occurred in Belgrade between June 15 and July 30. They are the children of someone Arsenault knows and have mental disabilities, she said.
“It’s really upsetting that he not only created the child pornography, but also distributed it on the Web,” the prosecutor said. “It hurts the victims every time it’s viewed by another person.”

Niagara Falls, N.Y.:

Deborah Lee Updegrove Tipton, 45, a former Lockport resident and a Niagara County Community College and SUNY Brockport graduate who became a teacher in Asheville, N. C.,, is appealing her child pornography sentence on the grounds that it is excessive.
Tipton was sentenced last month to 18 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to charges related to child pornography. Her appeal was filed on Oct. 2 with the United States Court of Appeals.
The original case against Tipton stemmed from charges that she filmed videos of a nude 12-year-old girl and sent them via the internet to her boyfriend, Chadwick Hamby, of Hendersonville, N. C.,the former principal of the school where Tipton worked.
According to reports, Hamby, who seemed to be drifting from his seven year, adulterous relationship with Tipton, enjoyed sexual fantasies concerning animals and children.
Tipton, desperate to keep Hamby’s interest, according to testimony by an FBI special agent, introduced a then 11-year-old child into the couple’s chat room talks, and later created pornographic videos of a girl, nude in a shower, that featured her genitals.

That’s just a sample of stories — all from the past week — found by doing a Google News search on “teacher + child + pornography,” the same way a Google News search on “coach + cheerleader + rape” found multiple articles from recent months.

My apologies if this method of aggregation may create unfair suspicion, but the world is full of freaky creepazoids nowadays, and there are certainly ample grounds for suspicion, fair or not.

 

Category: Crime, Education, Sex

‘Silence of the Conservative Lambs’

Posted on | November 4, 2013 | 32 Comments

Baron Bodissey at Gates of Vienna employs that evocative phrase for the unwillingness of many people to weigh in on the controversy surrounding Diana West’s American Betrayal. He has written a quite literary and erudite examination of the problem, tending toward a conclusion that I am reluctant to endorse, i.e.: Are exaggerated fears of anti-Semitism at the root of this ugly uproar?

It is a shocking thing to consider whether ethnic sensitivities that polite people hesitate even to acknowledge could be behind all this. This is a retrograde step toward the dueling paranoias of the Cold War: On the one hand, anti-Communists feared there was a cover-up of Soviet infiltration, in which powerful establishment forces were unwilling to confront the extent of subversion, while on the other hand, there were those who feared that anti-Communists were secretly anti-Semites who hated Reds as a socially acceptable proxy for hating Jews. Baron Bodissey suggests we might be reverting to that era:

Can there be a fear that a full and open discussion of the number of Jews among communist infiltrators would awaken latent anti-Jewish sentiments?
And is this fear strong enough to mobilize major Jewish donors against American Betrayal?

You can read the whole thing and make up your own mind. As I say, I am reluctant to endorse this conclusion, because Occam’s Razor suggests such a motive is unnecessary. There are simpler explanations for the conflict — including issues of personal temperament, professional rivalries, and honest differences of opinion — without touching on the subject of anti-Semitism (or the fear thereof). And I would not even have mentioned Baron Bodissey’s comment, were it not for the stark irrationality of the reaction toward Diana West’s book.

When we behold irrational behavior, we must suspect an irrational motive, and if there were fears that somehow American Betrayal would inspire anti-Semitism, fears that no one wanted to express in so many words . . . Well, I’ve heard crazier theories.

Let’s hope everyone calms down and this unfortunate feud can be forgotten, because there’s too much craziness in the world already.

 

 

PREVIOUSLY:

 

Category: Books

The ObamaCare Quagmire

Posted on | November 4, 2013 | 60 Comments

“Obama: Anatomy of a World Leader,” by Alex Gray (detail)

“I am absolutely certain that generations from now, we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment when we began to provide care for the sick and good jobs to the jobless; this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal.”
— Barack Obama, June 3, 2008

Attempts by the White House and liberal media to spin their way out of this mess are failing almost as badly as ObamaCare itself.

The simple facts are against them, and the elaborate rationalizations cannot hide the truth. A quick sample of headlines today:

Health Consumers Finding Out
They Were Sold a Lemon
— Megan McArdle, Bloomberg

I had great cancer doctors and
health insurance. My plan was cancelled.
Now I worry how long I’ll live.
— Edie Littlefield Sundby, Wall Street Journal

Will Insularity, Incompetence,
and Lies Doom Obamacare?
— Ron Fournier, National Journal

Obamacare: Memo reveals health care adviser
warned W.H. was losing control 3 years ago
— CBS News

Feinstein: Hey, you could have kept your
plan … until we enacted ObamaCare
— Ed Morrissey, Hot Air

What this resembles, quite frankly, is the way George W. Bush’s popularity tumbled in his second term after the insurgency in Iraq started inflicting significant casualties on U.S. troops with no apparent end in sight. Bush was re-elected in 2004 because voters believed (by a relatively narrow majority) that we should “stay the course” in Iraq, and that the insurgency was being defeated. But as 2005 gave way to 2006 and the U.S. death toll in Iraq kept mounting, the perception began to grow that we had taken on an impossible task, that our troops were stuck in a pointless mission they could not win, and there was a political backlash that caught most Republicans by surprise.

ObamaCare is a quagmire, and Democrats have no exit strategy.

 

Category: Barack Obama, Health Care

Jesus Saves … Kirsten Powers?

Posted on | November 4, 2013 | 35 Comments

The headline at Hot Air caught my eye:

Kirsten Powers: My journey
from atheist to Christian

Whoa! Who saw this coming? Feminist Democrat gets Jesus?

It’s like picking up the paper and reading that Kim Jong Un has decided that free markets and democratic elections are the way to go.

Anyway, in her article in Christianity Today, Kirsten Powers credits a pastor, Tim Keller of Redeemer Presbyterian Church on the Upper East Side of New York. What’s very interesting to me is the extent to which she confirms what I’ve long suspected about a certain type of atheist: It’s an intellectual thing, about self-image.

Christianity is profoundly unfashionable among college-educated young people. If there is no one in their lives who will speak up for the Gospel truth, peer pressure and popular culture will be the predominant influence. The supposedly radical individual, as atheists often like to think of themselves, is usually just following the herd. Here, let’s let Kirsten give her testimony:

I was so clueless about Christianity that I didn’t know that some Presbyterians were evangelicals. So when we arrived at the Upper East Side service of Redeemer Presbyterian Church, I was shocked and repelled by what I saw. I was used to the high-church liturgy of my youth. We were meeting in an auditorium with a band playing what I later learned was “praise music.” I thought, How am I going to tell him I can never come back?
But then the pastor preached. I was fascinated. I had never heard a pastor talk about the things he did. Tim Keller’s sermon was intellectually rigorous, weaving in art and history and philosophy. I decided to come back to hear him again. Soon, hearing Keller speak on Sunday became the highlight of my week. I thought of it as just an interesting lecture—not really church. I just tolerated the rest of it in order to hear him. Any person who is familiar with Keller’s preaching knows that he usually brings Jesus in at the end of the sermon to tie his points together. For the first few months, I left feeling frustrated: Why did he have to ruin a perfectly good talk with this Jesus nonsense?
Each week, Keller made the case for Christianity. He also made the case against atheism and agnosticism. He expertly exposed the intellectual weaknesses of a purely secular worldview. I came to realize that even if Christianity wasn’t the real thing, neither was atheism.
I began to read the Bible. . . .

You can read the whole thing. That Kirsten Powers is willing to frankly admit her ignorant prejudice — she was “clueless,” and shocked to discover that a Presbyterian minister could be “intellectually rigorous” — might just be a miracle, praise God.

 

 


Category: Religion

Vichy GOP Irritates Dan Riehl. Unwise.

Posted on | November 4, 2013 | 74 Comments

by Smitty

Over at Breitbart, “Did the NRSC’s Josh Holmes Just Cost Mitch McConnell His Primary?”

Sorry, Mitch. I honestly had considered using my little platform here to try and encourage friends and fans to give you a pass, while shifting more time and money over to taking out Landrieu in LA. Thanks to your hand-picked would-be henchman at the NRSC, Holmes, that’s now an impossible position for me to take and defend. If the many phone calls I’ve had both to and from other activists in the last two days are any indication, all Holmes did was energize and incentivize the very movement against you, which you so shortsightedly dispatched him to the NRSC to try and quash.

Sending Josh Holmes to the NYT to pronounce a fatwah against associates of the Senate Conservatives Fund helps to pull the Tea Party/GOP struggle into focus.

I myself had been a part of the Silent Majority for years, and only got dragged into blogging after seeing the Google Reader touted on Slashdot, picking up Instapundit as subscription, who linked a certain Revanchist, Seditious Madman, who apparently liked my gags enough to rope me in. That was a couple of centuries back, in internet years. Read more

Category: Dan Riehl, Kentucky, Mitch McConnell, Republicans

LIVE AT FIVE: 11.04.13

Posted on | November 4, 2013 | 12 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho


TOP NEWS
Both Sides Invoke Obama As Virginia Governor Race Gets Down To The Wire

Obama stumps for McAuliffe, calling on Virginians to think about the future

Both GOP and Democrats paint the other’s candidate as too extreme for the Commonwealth

Toronto Mayor Acknowledges “Mistakes” But Won’t Step Down
Rob Ford asks police to release controversial video

TSA Union Reacts To Screener’s Shooting At LAX
Wants armed guards at every checkpoint



POLITICS
Snowden’s Bid For Clemency Rejected

Edward Snowden

White House, Congressional intel committee heads say no deal

Obamacare’s Architect Says Rocky Rollout Not President’s Fault

Chuck U. Schumer Endorses Hillary In Iowa

Sen. Graham Vows To Block All Obama Nominees Until Benghazi Info Released

GOP Primary Fight For IL-13 Seat Turns Bitter, Pits Former Miss America Versus Old Guard

DC Next To Decriminalize Pot, Legalization To Follow?

Christie Gaining Coattails As Buono’s Base Bails

Romney Rips Obama’s “Dishonesty” On “Meet The (De)Press(ed)”



THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Crude Oil Up Slightly In Asian Trade: NYMEX $94.70, Brent $106.16
Twitter Faces Skeptical Investors
Dallas Fed’s Fisher Says US Economy “Hogtied” By Government
PRC’s BYD To Hire More Workers At American Electric Bus Plant
Oracle Shareholders Turn (Symbolic) Thumbs Down On Ellison’s Pay
FTC Approves OfficeMax Merger With OfficeDepot
New Quality Complaints About Lululemon Pants
Bing, Twitter Continue Their Search Party
Patent Trolls Are Damaging The Economy
On Facebook, A Growing Teenage Wasteland
The Preview Is Over: Instagram Ads Are Here
Amazon Prime Members Can Now Get New E-Books Free



SPORTS
Jimmie Johnson Dominates Texas 500, Takes Control Of Chase

Jimmie Johnson celebrates his victory

Only Matt Kenseth remains in the running, seven points back with two races left

Texans Coach Kubiak Collapses At Halftime

Florida State Reclaims #2 In BCS Standings

Tigers Name Brad Ausmus To Succeed Leyland At Helm

Stars Top Sens In Shootout, 4-3


Seahawks Rally From 21 Down, Beat Bucs In OT

Pesky Celtics Outmanned In Paint, Fall To Pistons

Flames Edge Blackhawks In OT

Tom Brady Has Monster Game As Pats Dismantle Steelers 55-31

Lakers Blow 21-Point Lead, Hang On For Win Against Hawks

Browns Best Ravens For First Time In 11 Games, 24-18

Westbrook Returns, Makes Thunder Whole Again In 103-96 Win Over Suns

Dolphins Beat Bengals On OT Safety 22-20



FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
Britney Spears Opens Up About New Song “Perfume”

From the new album

“‘Perfume’ is incredibly special to me because it hits close to home, and I think the story is relatable to everyone.”


Oprah’s Yard Sale Raises $600K For Charity

Kristen Stewart Joins Tim Blake Nelson’s “Anesthesia”


Pamela Anderson Runs The NYC Marathon

Miley Caught Partying With Open Bottle In Back Of Car

Incredibly – No Video Of Chris Brown Fight

“Attack The Block”‘s Joe Cornish Beaming Up For “Star Trek 3”

Katy Perry And Niall Horan Celebrate Their (Fake) Engagement With A Selfie

Eva Longoria Has A New Boyfriend

“Ender’s Game” Wins The Weekend At Box Office With $28 Million

Civil Rights Group Pushes Lorne Michaels: Why No Black Women On SNL?



FOREIGNERS
Chicom Leaders To Begin Reform Summit As Economy Recovers
Egypt On Edge For Morsi Trial
13 Killed In Matamoros Shootouts
Anonymous Indonesia Targets Australian Websites To Protest Spy Revelations
Xinjiang Military Chief Purged By Chicoms
Israel To Build Security Barrier Between West Bank And Jordan
Kosovo To Vote Amid Serb Boycott Concerns
Karzai Criticizes Timing Of Taliban Leader’s Death By Droning
Boat Sinks As Muslims Try To Flee Burma; At Least 50 Feared Dead
ROK President Park: “No Purpose” To Japan Talks



BLOGS & STUFF
Blackmailers Don’t Shoot: This Extremely Interesting Week, Land Of The Dead Edition
Proof Positive: The Peasants Are Revolting, Class Of 2013, and One Payer To Rule Them All And In The Darkness Bind Them
American Power: Obama Lied – White House Aides Debated President’s “You Can Keep Your Plan” Pledge
American Thinker: The Silence Of The Left
The Necropolitan Sentinel: Obamacare Watch – The Swiss System and Just Read Charlie
Don Surber: Daylight Savings Scoreboard and Saving Obamacare Could Be Easy As Pie
Jammie Wearing Fools: Well, This Makes Sense – Obama Donor’s Firm Hired To Fix Website Mess It Helped Make
Pat Dollard: LA Billboard Featuring US Soldier And Burka-Clad Muslim Woman As Couple Sparks Outrage
Protein Wisdom: The Fear Is Palpable – Those Goddamn Teabaggers Won’t Just Fold Up And Go Home
Shot In The Dark: Let Me Get This Straight
The Jawa Report: MEMRI YouTube Account Suspended
The Lonely Conservative: SEALs Ordered To Remove “Don’t Tread On Me” Navy Jack From Uniforms
Megan McArdle: Why Obama’s “iPod Presidency” Was Doomed


The FMJRA and Rule 5 Monday will be posted later today.


Category: Live at Five

Youth Football Coach Charged With Raping Cheerleader When She Was 11

Posted on | November 3, 2013 | 37 Comments

The Philadelphia Inquirer:

A Bucks County man was charged Friday with allegedly raping a girl when she was between the ages of 11 and 13. Authorities said they are concerned about the possibility of more victims.
Keith Peschen is a former football coach and is the board president of the Levittown Lions, a youth football league with players and cheerleaders between the ages of 5 and 12.
Peschen, 37, of Peartree Lane in the Levittown section of Falls Township, faces charges that include rape and involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, first-degree felonies each punishable by up 20 years in prison. . . .
The victim, now 17, reported the rape over the summer to Falls Township police, who began an investigation, court records state.
The girl’s mother and Peschen’s wife had met at a parent-teacher organization meeting, and the families became friends, police said. The girl also was on a cheerleading squad that was part of the youth football league, police said.
The assaults began when she slept over at his house to babysit his children and continued for two years, according to court records.

Cheerleaders raped by coaches — how common is this? You might be surprised, or not. Dallas, Texas:

A former Frisco [Texas] cheerleading coach was indicted [in June] by a Collin County grand jury on three counts of continuous sex abuse of a child younger than 14.
Kyle Austin Ware, 30, remain in the Collin County jail, where he has been since his arrest in April. U.S. Customs agents saw his name on a passenger manifest for an overseas flight bound for Paris and took him into custody at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. He had been trying to flee the country. His bail is set at $1.05 million.
The charges stem from Ware’s time working at Express Cheer & Dance in Frisco, police said. He left that gym in May 2011 to work as a tumbling coach for Cheer Athletics in Plano. He was fired from his coaching job there in May 2012 after an inappropriate text with an athlete.

Corvallis, Oregon:

A cheerleading coach who is a registered sex offender faces accusations he raped a 17-year-old cheerleader while she was unconscious under the influence of prescription medicine.
David A. Chatman, 38, faces charges of first degree rape and second degree sex abuse by a coach.
The alleged rape took place in September 2012 but didn’t come to light until the teen’s mother contacted the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office in March. . . .
Chatman was arraigned Monday [April 8]. He pleaded not guilty to the charges against him.
He is a registered sex offender based on a 2007 incident on an airplane involving a 16-year-old cheerleader, according to police. He was convicted in federal court of touching the girl as she slept on a plane.

Monterey, California:

A volunteer cheerleading coach at Monterey High School was arrested on charges of illegal sex with a minor, police announced Wednesday.
Gregory Aaron Uvalles, 22, of Watsonville was arrested late Tuesday [Sept. 10] in the Monterey High School parking lot, said Monterey Peninsula Unified School District Assistant Superintendent Kevin McClelland. . . .
Uvalles was still in custody Wednesday in Monterey County Jail in lieu of $200,000 bail on four counts of alleged unlawful sex with a minor, usually known as statutory rape. He is specifically charged by police with being over the age of 21 while the victim was under age 16.

Albany, New York:

A Latham cheerleading and dance coach is accused of rape, in an alleged months-long sexual relationship with one of his students.
Colonie Police say 24-year-old Alexander “Sasha” Oouch had an eight month long relationship with a 14-year-old girl he coached at “X-Factor’s All-Star Cheer and Dance” gym. And police say Oouch was caught after friends of the girl found inappropriate pictures of the two, on his cell phone.

Heber Springs, Arkansas:

A cheerleading instructor remains in jail in Cleburne County after being accused of raping a 13-year-old girl. . . .
The affidavit shows allegations from the teenager said that while at the studio one night.
“Matthew unbuttoned her pants and pulled them down to her ankles,” and later “told her not to tell anybody about this.”
The alleged victim also told police through “text messages Matthew has ask her to have sex with him on different occasions,” this all before one night when “Matthew started having sex with her.” Then once again, she claimed “he told her not to say anything about this.”

 

Category: Crime, Sex

Cirque du Soleil: Why Do You Think They Call It ‘The Wheel of Death,’ Anyway?

Posted on | November 3, 2013 | 26 Comments

OK, for purposes of truth in advertising, maybe they should call it “The Wheel of Hospitalized in Stable Condition“:

LAS VEGAS — A Cirque du Soleil performer remains hospitalized after a fall during a show Friday night at the Aria resort on the Las Vegas Strip.
The performance company issued a statement Saturday saying the male artist was appearing in the “Wheel of Death” act during the 7 p.m. performance of “Zarkana” when he slipped and fell off the wheel.
The act features two people who perform high-risk feats atop and inside a pair of spinning wheels rotating high above the stage, including rope skipping and jumps.
The company says the show was halted and the performer was taken to University Medical Center, where he was in stable condition and expected to be discharged in the next few days.

In terms of career paths, this is one you probably want to avoid. I mean, it’s not like you’re going to retire and get a gold watch after 30 years of doing “The Wheel of Death.” Yeah, sure, it might be a cool thing for a while. Imagine going back to your 10th high school reunion:

“Oh, hi, Jennifer. What have you been up to?”
“Working in IT at an insurance agency. How about you, Sean?”
“I’m doing The Wheel of Death in Cirque du Soleil.”

Impressive in the near-term, sure. But there’s no future in it.

 

Category: Uncategorized
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