The Other McCain

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

LIVE AT FIVE: 10.02.13

Posted on | October 2, 2013 | 8 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho


TOP NEWS
No Progress On Ending Shutdown Stalemate

A Park Police officer looks on as a Park Service employee posts a sign on barricades closing off the Lincoln Memorial.

Lawmakers in both parties suggest Feds could be out for weeks

Berlusconi’s Allies Desert Him To Keep Grand Coalition Alive
More than 40 Freedom People MPs ready to back PM in confidence vote

Foreign Jihadis Playing Dominant Role In Syrian Civil War
Syrians still the majority among rebels, but Al-Qaeda foreigners playing important leadership roles



POLITICS
WW2 Veterans Storm Memorial “Closed” By Shutdown

“Well, they overran the barricades in wheelchairs…WTF do we do now?”

As Rep. Steve King (R-IA) distracted Park Police, veterans and Congressional staffers tore down barricades, rolled into WW2 Memorial

California Law Cracks Down On Internet Revenge Porn


House Fails To Pass Limited Funding Bills

ObamaCare Opens To Widespread Delays, Glitches

Casino Mogul Adelson Loses Libel Suit Against Democrat Group

States Carry On: Federal Shutdown Has Little Impact Outside DC

EPA’s “Secret Agent” Con Man Pleads Guilty, Then Takes The Fifth Before Congress

Obama’s Nominee For Top Energy Regulatory Spot Withdraws



THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Asian Crude Drops On US Government Shutdown: NYMEX $101.52, Brent $107.59
Vehicle Sales Hitting Top Speed In Canada
NY State To Sue Wells Fargo Over Mortgage Settlement
Amazon’s Bezos Completes Washington Post Purchase
Illinois Lawmakers Considering Tax Incentive Package To Keep ADM In-State
Wall Street Shrugs Off Shutdown, For Now
Carl Icahn Pushes For $150 BIllion Apple Stock Buyback
Small Band Of Microsoft Investors Push To Defenestrate Gates
New Amazon Kindle Fire HDX: It’s Hot Stuff
Scribd Launches Subscription E-Book Service For Android, iOS, Web
More Than Free Data: FreedomPop Launches Carrier-Killing Mobile Service With Free Calls, Texts



SPORTS
Pirates Win The Wildcard

Russell Martin is greeted by Clint Barmes after hitting his second-inning homer

Liriano goes seven as Pirates smother Reds 6-2

Shutdown Forces Service Academy Sports Into Limbo

Don Cherry: You Fight, You Get Hurt

Cashman: Blame Me For Yankees’ Finish

Royals Sign Ned Yost To Two-Year Extension

In First Game Of Season, Montreal’s Enforcer Parros Hospitalized After Big Hit

Frolik, Jets Top Oilers In Opener

Caps Drop Season Opener To Blackhawks, 6-4

Ajmal, Rehman Call For Restoration Of Cricket Ties With India

How Will Nationals Reload For 2014?



FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
Michelle Rodriguez Goes Both Ways

Likes the sausage.

Opens up about her love life to Entertainment Weekly, bemoans lack of manly men in LA

Jay-Z On His Rags-to-Riches Story: The Vanity Fair Interview

Kimberly Perry Engaged To J.P. Arencibia

Miranda Kerr Is Cosmo’s November Cover Girl

Angelina Jolie’s New Ring Sparks Fresh Wedding Rumors

Tyra Banks Sues Wigmakers For Stealing Her Name

What Celebrity Sex Tape “Stars” Really Get Paid

JWoww Calls Chris Christie “Retarded” On Gay Marriage

“It’s Not Just For The Sake Of The Children” Michael Douglas, Catherine Zeta-Jones Back Together After Trial Separation

Space Age At Any Age! Sandra Bullock And Emma Watson Rocking White Dresses At “Gravity” Premiere

Heather Graham: “Sex Is Part Of Who I Am”

“Breaking Bad” Finale Brings In Record Ratings



FOREIGNERS
Japan Awaits Abe’s Third Arrow As Companies Urged To Invest
Iranian Parliament Approves Rouhani’s Diplomatic Outreach
Obama Cancels Malaysia Trip, Blames Shutdown
Italy On The Brink, Once Again
Russia Charges Two Greenpeace Activists With Piracy
US Expels Venezuelan Diplomats
Rakhine State Religious Violence Flares Up Again Despite Thein Sein Visit
US, ROK Ink Security Pact
Xi Jinping Hopes Traditional Faiths Can Fill Chicoms’ Moral Void



BLOGS & STUFF
Valley Of The Shadow: Democrats Are Zombies
Blackmailers Don’t Shoot: Government Shutdown Day One – The Trials Of A Modern Tom Joad
Dead Republican Party: The War In Afghanistan
Michelle Malkin: Accountability For Camp Bastion? Two Marine Generals Reportedly Fired
Twitchy: Heckuva Job! @HealthCareGov Shamed Into Apology After Touting Glitchy O-Care Website
American Power: The President’s Shutdown
American Thinker: Why “Equality” Must Die
The Necropolitan Sentinel: ObamaCare Theme Song
Don Surber: Daily Scoreboard, October 1
Jammie Wearing Fools: Oops – “Glitch” Prevents CNN Host From Signing Up For ObamaCare
Pat Dollard: Radical Liberal Blogs Suggests Obama Should Use Military To Arrest, Assassinate GOP Dissenters
Protein Wisdom: NPR Helps The Cause!
Shot In The Dark: Cataclysm
The Jawa Report: Government Shuts Down, Al-Qaeda Forum Hardest Hit
The Lonely Conservative: Nonprofit Sued For Fraud 18 Months Ago Now Enrolling People In Obamacare
Megan McArdle: Why Won’t The Exchanges Load?


Category: Live at Five

Kaitlyn Hunt Gets Another Plea Offer

Posted on | October 1, 2013 | 73 Comments

The state’s attorney’s office in Vero Beach, Florida, has offered another plea-bargain deal to accused sex offender Kaitlyn Hunt:

Special conditions in the plea include:
*Hunt remains jailed until December 20, and on that date, probation will convert to community control.
*She shall have no contact directly or indirectly, including electronically or through third parties, with the victim.
*If the victim initiates contact, Hunt shall not respond in any manner.
*Hunt shall remain at least 500 feet from the victim, her residence, place of work, and school at all times. If Hunt becomes aware that she is within 500 feet of the victim, she shall immediately remove herself to a distance of at least 500 feet.
*Hunt shall submit to warrantless search and seizure by the probation officer (and law enforcement at the request of the probation officer), of her residence, car, phone, and computer.
*Hunt shall provide the probation officer with immediate and full access to telephone and Internet communications including call logs, text logs and messages, instant messaging logs and messages, emails, social media accounts, Skype or similar accounts, and account names, numbers and passwords for all accounts. And Hunt shall not use any such account belonging to any other person nor allow any other person to use any such account belonging to her.
*Hunt shall complete 150 hours of community service at a minimum 15 hours per month commencing upon her release from jail.
*Hunt shall submit to a Florida department of corrections-approved psychological evaluation and successfully complete recommended treatment, if any, at her own expense. She shall waive confidentiality regarding all aspects of the evaluation and treatment.
*Hunt shall submit to electronic (GPS) monitoring during the entire term of supervision.
*Upon completion of one-year of community control, Hunt may ask the court to convert the remainder to probation with the same terms and conditions.
*During her probation, Hunt shall observe a curfew from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m.
*Hunt may transfer probation to any state that will accept supervision, and if she transfers out of Florida, electronic monitoring will be discontinued. If Hunt returns to Florida, electronic monitoring will resume immediately.
*Hunt shall pay restitution to be determined to the Crimes Compensation Trust Fund, costs of investigation, costs of prosecution ($828.00), costs of incarceration, and standard felony court costs in equal monthly installments to commence upon her release from jail. Hunt also stipulates that she has the ability to pay all costs at the date of sentencing.
*There shall be no early termination of probation, and there shall be no modification of the standard or special conditions of community control or probation without the agreement of the State Attorney’s Office.
*The sentences on all counts are to run concurrently.

This appears to be far more strict probation than the first deal Hunt was offered in April or the second deal she was offered in July, but then again, that was before they caught her sending nude photos and a masturbation video to the victim, who is now 15.

 

Category: Kaitlyn Hunt

Bad Causes Attract Bad People: Now That the ‘Free Kate’ Narrative Has Collapsed …

Posted on | October 1, 2013 | 163 Comments

Accused sex offender Kaitlyn Hunt was sent to jail after an August hearing.

“A few days from now, Jim and Laurie Smith of [REDACTED], Vero Beach, FL, are going to be murdered by Lycere Freemartin Cunningham for their involvement in the Kaitlyn Hunt case. Mr. Cunningham has learned that Mr. Smith has caused new charges to be brought against Kaitlyn that revoked her bond and landed her back in jail just the other day. He didn’t have to do that to her. It was a deliberate malicious act. He turned her in to the authorities. He and his wife will pay with their lives for [thinking] it is okay to sic law [enforcement] on people.”
— e-mail sent to SupportHonesty.net, Aug. 26

There hasn’t been much actual “news” in the Kaitlyn Hunt case during the several weeks since her violations of the “no-contact” order sent Kaitlyn to jail in August, but my Twitter timeline has remained a constant source of updates on the behind-the-scenes arguments involving the “Free Kate” movement. Matt Ross yesterday reported this death threat against the parents of Kaitlyn Hunt’s victim. I am unable to determine if “Lycere Cunningham” is a real person who actually made this threat, and whether it should be taken seriously. (You can Google it yourself.)

What made the Kaitlyn Hunt story newsworthy in May was the appearance of a “mainstream” groundswell of sympathy, created through fictions and half-truths that misrepresented the ages of both Hunt and her victim, and sought to portray Hunt as the essentially innocent victim of anti-gay prejudice. This victimhood narrative had snowballing momentum when I first noticed the story on May 22, but by early June, the facts of the case had been made sufficiently clear that the liberal media dropped the story, and even most gay-rights organizations distanced themselves from the “Free Kate” movement.

However, while the movement lost its mainstream appeal, there was still a sizeable hard core of Kaitlyn Hunt fanatics remaining, but even that crew of misfits, kooks and weirdos was winnowed down pretty seriously after August, when it was revealed that Hunt had flagrantly violated the “no-contact” order of her pre-trial release.

Whatever misplaced sympathy (or twisted affinity) had led people to support the “Free Kate” movement quickly lost its rationale.

Not only did the violations put the original charges in a new and unfavorable light — Kaitlyn Hunt’s interest in her (still) underage victim seemed to be a sort of perverse obsession — but the new charges of transmitting material harmful to a minor looked to be a slam-dunk conviction. What’s the purpose of rallying in support of someone who is almost certain to go to prison no matter what?

Alas, there are kooks beyond reach of any rational argument:

You may remember Rachel Carson Zerbe as author of what Matt Ross called a “jailbait manifesto” in defense of Kaitlyn Hunt. In accusing me of “hate,” Zerbe links to an article at a liberal site called Political Freakshow: “#SmearKate: The Kaitlyn Hunt Saga Has Now Become A Talking Point For Republicans To Push Their Bullshit ‘Pedophilia Is Being Normalized’ Theory And Their Constant Homophobia.”

The problem? That article was written in May, before the truth was widely known, when the belief that Kaitlyn Hunt was a victim of homophobia was still quite widespread. For that matter, contrary to the headline by Political Freakshow blogger Drew Childers, the effort to normalize pedophilia is not a “Republican theory.” It is not “bullshit.” It is very real, the “Free Kate” movement was part of it, and many people are now on the alert for this dangerous tendency.

You keep on, Rachel. Keep on ranting about how Kaitlyn Hunt is a victim of “hate,” and I’ll keep calling attention to sick freaks like you.

UPDATE: Kaitlyn Hunt Gets Another Plea Offer.

 

Category: Kaitlyn Hunt

It’s a Good Thing @GabrielMalor Isn’t Trying to Win Any Popularity Contests

Posted on | October 1, 2013 | 101 Comments

The morning Open Thread at AOSHQ gives their resident Eeyore a chance to voice his dissent from the GOP shutdown strategy:

So the score is: conservatives didn’t manage to stop Obamacare. Conservatives are oddly celebrating a shutdown they claimed they did not want. The GOP is getting blamed. Oh, and how are voters looking at this? A new Quinnipiac poll out this morning finds voters opposed 72%–22% to Congress shutting down the fed govt to block implementation of Obamacare.
Brilliant work. And, of course, we still have the eventual GOP surrender to look forward to, wherein the ultimate pointlessness of this strategy is revealed for all to see.

Lots of savage RINO-bashing from the commenters, which is fine and dandy. We don’t necessarily have to be waving our pompoms and doing backflips in celebration of the “Don’t Fund It” strategy. Nobody ever asked me for my advice on this, and if I had volunteered my advice, they would have ignored me, so I try to avoid the tempting illusion that anyone is going to be persuaded by my strategic advice or strategic criticism. “The dogs may bark, but the caravan moves on.”

My bedtime reading recently has been The World Crisis, Winston Churchill’s 1,400-page history of World War I, which is not just a history but a memoir, given Churchill’s key role at the Admiralty, and subsequently in the Ministry of Munitions. This is the third or fourth time I’ve read The World Crisis, as it is my habit to re-read old books I like, because it is good to be reminded of excellent stuff you’ve forgotten since the last time you read it, and this time I found myself fascinated (again) by Part III, Chapter II, “The Blood Test.”

Here, Sir Winston examines the bloody folly of the “attrition” argument that was used to justify a series of murderous Allied offensives on the Western Front from 1915 through 1917. Churchill undertakes this survey after chronicling the failure of the Gallipoli campaign, for which Churchill was widely (and unfairly) blamed.

The strategic purpose of the Gallipoli invasion had been to support a British naval effort to force their way through the Dardanelles and to knock Turkey out of the war. The fall of Constantinople would have tipped the Balkans toward the Allies, and would have relieved pressure on Russia’s southern front. If the Dardanelles campaign had succeeded (as it quite nearly did, and might still have succeeded even after the initial setbacks, if only its importance had been more widely appreciated), the endless slaughter on the Western Front could have been averted, an Allied victory in the East may have forced the Central Powers to negotiate an early peace and . . .

Well, that’s all a gigantic “what-if” scenario, because instead the Allies gave up on the Dardanelles after the Gallipoli disaster, and concentrated instead on trying futilely to score a breakthrough on the Western Front. British commanders told themselves that their offensives of 1915-1917, which never broke and only slightly penetrated the German line at the cost of many thousands of British lives, were successful because of “attrition.” Yet Churchill said at the time (in a memorandum circulated during the Somme offensive of 1916) and demonstrated conclusively after the war, when both German and Allied manpower and casualty figures were available, that the British lost nearly 3-to-1 in casualties during their attacks. German casualties 1915-1917 were never greater than the number of new recruits they added to their forces, so that the “attrition” actually worked the opposite way, weakening the British armies in comparison to the Germans, who grew steadily stronger.

It was only in 1918, when the Germans mounted their own overwhelming offensive — attempting to defeat the Allies before the addition of U.S. troop strength could tilt the balance of the war — that the “attrition” worked in favor of the Allies. Ironically, then, it was the German offensive that ultimately defeated Germany.

Only after the German army had exhausted itself on the attack and the Allies then counterattacked (employing a powerful new weapon, the tank, in whose development Churchill played a key role), did the tide on the Western Front turn decisively against Germany.

All of this is evident in hindsight, but Churchill saw it with foresight. Yet his warnings about the futility of the Allied offensive strategy, and the wrongness of the “attrition” argument that justified that strategy, fell on deaf ears at the time. Churchill was absolutely right, but the truth was unpopular, and so hundreds of thousands of British troops died in pursuit of the wrong strategy.

The “what-ifs” of politics are much the same. Looking back now, I see the presidency of George H.W. Bush (the father, that is) as the moment when the revolutionary impetus of the Reagan triumph stalled and went off track. Newt Gingrich attempted, with some success, to recapture the Reaganite spirit in the mid-1990s, but the Lewinsky episode backfired and destroyed Gingrich rather than Clinton. This was followed, in short order, by the deadlocked Florida election of 2000, and by 9/11 and the War on Terror, which led the GOP eventually to the electoral disasters of 2006 and 2008.

For the past several years, then, the Republican Party has been trying to get back to the hegemonic position of dominance it enjoyed after the 2002 and 2004 elections. Yet those were wartime elections, and even in 2004, Bush only won by a narrow majority of the popular vote, so that we see how fragile and thin was the success of the GOP in the “good years” even while Karl Rove and other Bushies were talking about a Permanent Republican Majority.

So, the shutdown strategy: Is Gabriel Malor correct that this has all been a colossal blunder and a waste of time? Perhaps. We should not rule this view out, just because we don’t agree with it, or just because it’s what spineless RINO wussie-boys are saying.

The real problem, anyway, is that Republicans aren’t winning enough elections, so that Obama is president, we have only 45 GOP senators, and John Boehner’s House Republicans control only one-half of one branch of the federal government. Holding a weak hand, Republicans must play it the best they can. We must therefore ask what is the alternative to what their actual strategy has been?

Should House Republicans just “go along to get along”? Should they rubber-stamp whatever Harry Reid’s Democrat majority in the Senate passes? Would such a strategy of collaboration really be better than the headline-making brinksmanship we’ve seen?

It is not enough to criticize what has been done, if we cannot propose a feasible alternative that would be more successful. The problem is not Gabriel Malor, however, and it doesn’t advance the conservative cause to demonize him for his arguments. He may even be right.

 

WHAT? No, hell — of course he’s completely wrong!

Made you think about it though, didn’t I?

 

Category: Ace of Spades, Budget, Health Care

Fear and Loathing in Moocher Nation

Posted on | October 1, 2013 | 97 Comments

“Swing voters.” “Independent voters.” “Low-information voters.”

President Obama’s re-election campaign engaged in a sophisticated microtargeting effort that, among other things, aimed TV ads at viewers of late-night comedy, ESPN and the TV Land network.

In other words, the president’s campaign deliberately sought potential voters who were apathetic, disengaged from politics and current affairs, whose lack of interest in (and consequent ignorance of) the political process made them “persuadable” to Obama.

This is how you get weird exit-poll results like 18% of Ohio voters who described themselves as “conservative” voting for Obama.

Obama was re-elected with a hurricane-force tailwind of ignorance, by voters who don’t even know who Harry Reid is, which makes it rather difficult for them to blame Reid for the shutdown.

Stupid voters elect drunks to Congress — the House floor smelled like a distillery during last night’s 9 p.m. vote — and we are subjected to the pathetic spectacle of politics-by-opinion-poll:

CNN Poll: Will Obamacare help you?

Why is the media even asking questions like this? Are the people who answer polls like this fully-informed about the complex causation factors whereby government policy affects economics?

People who don’t currently have health insurance are likely to believe that ObamaCare will “help” them, if they think of it as a something-for-nothing giveaway — “Free Stuff!” — but as P.J. O’Rourke once observed about rent-control policies, the problem with something-for-nothing is that you quickly run out of something and end up with a whole lot of nothing. Demand for anything worth having will inevitably exceed the supply, and this is why we have prices. Attempts to evade the market mechanism of prices, whether through mandates or subsidies or some other government regulatory apparatus, tend to produce market distortions and shortages.

Federal and state governments have been interfering with the market mechanisms of the medical industry and health insurance for decades, and have “succeeded” in the way such interventions usually do, by making everything more complicated, and more expensive for everybody except for those who get health care “free.” Of course, someone must pay for “free” health care, and the transfer of this cost from the recipient of treatment to taxpayers has consequences.

If people need “free” health care because they are able-bodied but unemployed, wouldn’t we have more jobs and better jobs if the economy were prosperous and growing? And if we had lower taxes and fewer regulations, wouldn’t the economy be more healthy?

Furthermore, wouldn’t the economy be stronger overall — wouldn’t there be more demand for goods and services — if people had more incentive to work harder, work more efficiently and work longer hours, in order to make themselves so valuable as workers that employers would compete to hire them, offering health-insurance benefits as a bonus to secure their services? Yet if we establish a system where people receive health insurance whether they are working or unemployed, whether they are efficient and diligent or unproductive and slothful, haven’t we thereby removed a basic incentive to hard work? And, when you think about it, haven’t we removed an incentive to good health?

Have another donut, fatso! Don’t worry about the consequences, because the government will pick up the tab for your heart medicine, your diabetes treatments and therapy for your bad knees.

Also, they’ll pay for your Viagra, because fat guys need love, too.

What about malingerers and hypochondriacs? Everybody knows that some people fake illness, or use relatively minor maladies as an excuse to avoid work. And everybody knows people who are pathologically obsessed with their health, rushing to the doctor every time they get an ache or pain. Some people so enjoy the sympathy they get for being sick that they define their existence by their diseases. You meet these people and haven’t talked to them for five minutes before they start telling you about their “chronic fatigue syndrome” or bipolar disorder or whatever it is that keeps them going to the doctor every week to treat a problem that never gets better.

It would be unfair to say that all such people are suffering from psychosomatic illness or are merely too weak-minded to overcome minor difficulties, but this whiny victimhood attitude — “Feel sorry for me, I’m sick!” — seems far more commonplace now than it was 20 or 30 years ago, and excuse me for suspecting that malingerers and hypochondriacs enthusiastically support ObamaCare.

Subsidizing weaklings and whiners, by providing them “free” health care at taxpayer expense? Not just “no” — hell, no.

Not even the most conservative Republican in Congress is going to say this, because they don’t want to sound “mean-spirited,” but frankly I think we need more mean-spiritedness in Washington. We need politicians who aren’t constantly flattering the idiots who vote for them, who don’t pander to lazy moochers who look at government as if it were Santa Claus giving them Christmas presents.

What we have now is a government of the moochers, by the moochers, for the moochers, with subsidies and free stuff for all.

Or, at least, we had this government, before it shut down. And the idiots chattering on cable TV news shows seem to think this shutdown is a bad idea, for which somebody deserves blame.

ZOMG! THE STATUE OF LIBERTY IS CLOSED!

If you take that kind of frantic nonsense seriously, you should seek psychiatric treatment immediately. Send the bill to ObamaCare.

 

Category: Budget, Health Care

LIVE AT FIVESIX: 10.01.13

Posted on | October 1, 2013 | 13 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho


TOP NEWS
White House Orders Government Shutdown

Feds furlough non-essential workers

Pretty sad when Xinhua has a more accurate, unbiased take on the news than ABC
Related.
800,000 Idled, Congress Still Deadlocked




Netanyahu At The UN
Throwing a wet blanket on Iran’s charm offensive

Berlusconi Calls For Vote; Key Allies Disagree
Three of five PdL ministers unwilling to resign



POLITICS
Senate Refuses To Compromise Or Negotiate On Obamacare

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid

House GOP offers several bills; Reid refuses to deal with anything but “clean” continuing resolution

Does Hillary Clinton Really Have Something To Hide? CNN/NBC Cancel Planned Clinton Documentaries


Obama Signs Bill To Ensure Military Pay During Shutdown; Calls Congress “Dysfunctional”, “Irresponsible” In Video Addressed To Troops

NC Governor, Legislature Vow To Fight DOJ Lawsuit Over Voting Law

Caroline Kennedy Confirmed As Ambassador To Japan

Phony Fatwa? Group Claims Iranian Anti-Nuke Edict Cited By Obama A Hoax

Union No-Show Jobs Cost Florida Taxpayers Millions

The One Word Missing From All Those ObamaCare Ads



THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Oil Declines In Asian Trade On US Government Shutdown: NYMEX $101.95, Brent $108.04
Wall Street Stock Futures Shrug Off Shutdown
Dollar Slides As Government Shutdown Takes Toll
Amazon To Deliver 70,000 Holiday Jobs
Port Of Chicago Privatization Talks Suspended
JC Penney Shares Sink Ahead Of Stock Sale
AT&T Brings Faster Broadband To Austin As Google Threat Looms
WinPhone Sales Share Surges In Europe To Double Digits, Close To iOS
Dropbox Now Automatically Saves Screenshots
Delta Pilots To Replace Paper Charts And Manuals With Docs On Microsoft Surface Tablets
“Grand Theft Auto Online” Lands Today



SPORTS
Rays To The Playoffs After 5-2 Win Over Rangers

Loenys Martin can’t reach Evan Longoria’s two-run dinger in the third

Price goes the distance for Tampa Bay in game #163 of the regular season

Olympics Loom Large Over NHL

Cubs Fire Manager Dale Sveum, Seek “Spark Of A Winning Culture”

Brees’ Big Game Leads Saints To Easy Win Over Dolphins

Twins To Retain Ron Gardenhire With Multi-Year Deal

Mets Reward Terry Collins With Two-Year Extension


Tony Stewart Begins Rehab On Broken Leg; Says He’s Ahead Of Schedule

Thank You, Winnipeg! Your Complete Guide To The NHL Realignment

DC To Host 2015 Winter Classic

Everybody In The BCCI Loves N. Srinivasan. But Why?

Sachin Tendulkar Defiant After Rumors Of BCCI-Induced Retirement

Yuvraj Singh Returns To India Cricket Team For Australia Series

Andrew Strauss: England Nearly Boycotted 2010 ODI Series With Pakistan

As Nationals’ Manager Search Begins, Randy Knorr’s The Players’ Choice



FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
Taylor Swift: “I’ve Never Had A Perfect Fit With Someone”

Not ruling out another celebrity boyfriend

Still waiting for her perfect man



Lindsay Lohan’s Parents Persona Non Grata On OWN Show

Weird Al Yankovic: I’m Droppin’ A NEW ALBUM!

Amanda Bynes Moved From Psych Clinic To Malibu Rehab

Kaley Cuoco: My Engagement Started With A Fight


Miley Cyrus: I Needed To Let Go Of Hannah Montana Image

Gaah. School Run. Calories (mainly leftovers) 3,482. Texts from toy boy: 0

Mark-Paul Gosselaar: It’s A Boy!

Ashley Green Dating Liam Hemsworth’s Best Friend Paul Khoury

Kate Upton, Maksim Chmerkovsky A Couple – And It’s Serious

Bieber’s Ego Out Of Control?

Alanis Morrisette Nanny Lawsuit Opens Door To Wider Debate

Eva Longoria “Miscontrued” Over Marrying Again

Weiner Campaign’s Final Bite



FOREIGNERS
Abe Orders First Sales Tax Increase For Japan Since 1997
Obama Urges Netanyahu To Speed Up Peace Talks With Palestinians
Chemical Weapons Inspectors Head To Damascus
Venezuela Expels Top US Diplomat
Politicians From Greece’s Golden Dawn Party Due In Court
Erdogan Announces Kurdish Reforms
Wave Of Car Bombs Kills 55 In Baghdad
Dates Set For Pope John XXIII, Pope John Paul II Sainthood
ROK Warns Norks With Biggest Military Parade In A Decade
Lalu Prasad’s Management Skills Failed In Political Arena
Osborne Plans To Clear Debt With Austerity Until 2020
Italy Jobless Rate Hits 12.2%, Youth Unemployment At Record 40%



BLOGS & STUFF
Dead Republican Party: The Meaning Of Socialism To Americans
Valley Of The Shadow: How To Not Win Friends
Doug Powers: Bill Clinton Claims Republicans “Begging For America To Fail”
Twitchy: Fashion Statement – Pelosi Sports Costly Hermes Scarf For Shutdown Debate
American Power: The Pro-Democracy Case For Shutdowns
American Thinker: Obama/Rouhani – Peace In Our Time
Blackmailers Don’t Shoot: This Stupid Week, Con Queso Addition
The Necropolitan Sentinel: Obamacare Watch – LET IT BURN
Don Surber: Daily Scoreboard, September 30
Jammie Wearing Fools: Former Australian PM Whines About Sexism
JustOneMinute: Stop Me Before I Leak Again
Pat Dollard: Piers Morgan – Iranians And Syrians Are Easier To Deal With Than Republicans
Protein Wisdom: Surviving A Government Shutdown – An Idiot’s Guide
Shot In The Dark: He’ll Never Do Lunch In This Town Again
The Jawa Report: How Jawas View The Government Shutdown
The Lonely Conservative: Massachusetts Weeding Out Traditional Families For Adoption, Foster Parenting
Megan McArdle: We Are Googling The New York Times To Death


Category: Live at Five

Bill Schmalfeldt: Sadism, Sodomy and Other Bizarre Mental Aberrations

Posted on | September 30, 2013 | 52 Comments

“It’s the ‘Butt Stuff.’ . . .
“Male conservatives are convinced that gay men want to put their ying yangs in THEIR BUTTS! This is a horrifying prospect to your average, stupid male. This is why a blanket recognition that being gay is a normal variant of human sexuality, to these small, frightened, uneducated men, means society is saying it’s OK for these gay men to put their willy-wallys in YOUR pooter hole!”
— Bill Schmalfeldt, “The REAL Conservative Case Against Gay Marriage,” Daily Kos, May 18, 2012

That was, of course, the post that got Schmalfeldt banned from Daily Kos, where the entire progressive community is pro-gay marriage and share his contempt for conservatives. Before getting to the question of exactly why what Schmalfeldt’s wrote about anal sodomy was so disturbingly offensive (“pooter hole”? who calls it that?),  let’s talk about his recurrent references to feces:

“Poop flakes”! That Feb. 22 Tweet, sent from Schmalfeldt’s since-deleted “Liberal Grouch” account to John Hoge, was one of the harassing messages that resulted in Schmalfeldt being slapped with a peace order at a Maryland circuit court hearing in a June. It refers to the “payment” Schmalfeldt imagines Hoge must have required to assist Lee Stranahan in pressing harassment charges against Schmalfeldt:

Bill Schmalfeldt spent months harassing Lee Stranahan and his family with disgustingly crude filth, including incessant and impertinent questions regarding the death of a child during childbirth. On Monday, 11 February, Lee came to Maryland from Texas to file a harassment charge against Schmalfeldt. I picked Lee up at BWI airport, took him to dinner, took him to the District Court Commissioner’s Office, put him up for the night at my house, and dropped him back at the airport on Tuesday morning. BWI is just off of one of the routes I take to work.

That is Hoge’s description of his own motives and actions in assisting Stranahan, but you see that Schmalfeldt imagines Hoge must have had some “payment” for this assistance. Schmalfeldt then describes Hoge as having excrement (“poop flakes”) in his beard because of some sort of degrading act of oral-anal contact. This theme — that people whom Schmalfeldt hates are unspeakable inferiors deserving of humiliation — is quite common in his discourse, as Ken White has remarked, “Schmalfeldt . . . is closest to his sweaty-palmed Happy Place when he is describing degradation of others.”

The word for this is sadism, and the very first post I wrote about Bill Schmalfeldt (in November 2012) called him a “sociopathic sadist“:

Once you know their motives and methods, these monsters aren’t nearly so scary as they’d like to be, and the real horror of their behavior is the soul-chilling realization of what sick pleasure they derive from it. Healthy minds do not delight in plotting evil against others, and wholesome spirits do not endlessly threaten others with harm they intend to inflict.

We are referring to a distinctly warped personality, a typical gesture of which is The Dire Warning of Terrible Consequences: “Dreadful things shall befall ye who offend me! Fear my wrath!”

Relishing their imagined vengeance, they seek to impress others by describing the humiliation they have in mind for their enemies:

“Just so you know, I am going to take great delight
in getting your personal identification and
punishing you to the full extent of the law.”

Schmalfeldt is “going to take great delight” in punishing @antvq16? For disputing Schmalfeldt’s account of why the Examiner fired him?

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

This December 2011 e-mail from an Examiner editor seems clear enough, eh? And Bill published this e-mail himself, so he can’t blame @antvq16 for merely describing it — “personal attacks and unprofessionalism” is an accurate synopsis — after Schmalfeldt claimed that his termination by the Examiner was because “stalkers” accused him of having “multiple accounts.”

But who cares? Bill does. He had challenged @antvq16: “Prove a lie I told.” The proof was offered, and the result was Schmalfeldt expressing his sadistic “delight” in punishing @antvq16!

Flashback to Feb. 18, a week after Stranahan had filed harassment charges against Schmalfeldt, and Schmalfeldt gloated:

It’s all horseshit. It’s all absolute horseshit. And I and my family have been put through pain and suffering because Lee Stranahan has a grudge. Because somebody, in my opinion, is paying Lee Stranahan to file these charges against me, in the hopes that I will either break or die.  I got some fucking news for you, Stranny [pause] Walker, Hoggy, Frey [pause] and Frey [pause] beware the Ides of March.

Notice, first, Schmalfeldt’s claim of “pain and suffering” inflicted by Stranahan, then go read Stranahan’s account of Schmalfeldt’s harassment. Then notice the diminutive putdowns — “Stranny” and “Hoggy” — and finally notice Schmalfeldt’s repetition of “Frey,” referring to Patrick “Patterico” Frey. Why? Frey had nothing to do with Stranahan filing harassment charges, so why does Schmalfeldt include Frey in this “beware the Ides of March” warning?

Isn’t the irrationality of Schmalfeldt’s reaction self-evident? Doesn’t this Dire Warning of Terrible Consequences seem to be coming from Schmalfeldt’s “sweaty-palmed Happy Place” where he imagines the degradation of others? And so we return full-circle to our previous consideration of that weird May 2012 article about anal sex that got Schmalfeldt banned from Daily Kos:

Most stupid men, married or otherwise, enjoy pornography.  They enjoy watching men with their throbbing, erect whatchamacallits do degrading thing to women with them.  Slapping them on the face with it.  Spanking them with it. There is no orifice on a woman’s body that is safe from the probing, pulsating prongs on the popular pornos.  And that includes the pooter hole.  There’s a whole SUBSET of pornography DEVOTED to anal sex.  They give an AWARD at the ADULT VIDEO AWARDS each year to the actress involved in the most erotic Anal Sex scene.
So, it’s not anal sex (as a practice) to which these small, frightened men object.
Heck, if you’re a man and you’re honest with yourself, you LIKE being on the “doling it out”end of anal sex.  How many heterosexual men reading this diary right now have never asked their wife or girlfriend to just take a deep breath, relax, “I’ll just put in the tip and we’ll see how it goes,” and then you ram it home like Captain Kidd jamming his sword back into his scabbard while she hollers “takeitouttakeitouttakeitout” and you tell her to just relax and it won’t hurt so bad and she starts kicking and screaming “takeitOUTtakeitOUTtakeitOUT youfuckingbastardpieceofshit“ and you finally do (because the walls are thin and your neighbors just LOVE calling the cops) and you tell her she should have at least given herself a chance to relax and enjoy it and she (if she’s your wife) doesn’t let you anywhere near her with “that thing” for weeks and if she’s your girlfriend she stops returning your calls?

Is this . . . objective journalism?

Or do you think that Bill Schmalfeldt’s commentary is personal, irrational, another product of his “sweaty-palmed Happy Place”?

Please, go read the rest of that Daily Kos item, including the comments, and tell me if you think Bill Schmalfeldt’s problem is what “stalkers” or “cybertrolls” are saying about Bill Schmalfeldt.

Or is the problem simply Bill Schmalfeldt himself?

 

Category: Bill Schmalfeldt

The Latest Bill Schmalfeldt Meltdown

Posted on | September 30, 2013 | 53 Comments

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

An entire week has passed since Bill Schmalfeldt’s previous meltdown. He tried to sneak back into the Examiner (where he had been fired twice before) under the alias “Lester Klemper” and, when this ended badly, vowed vengeance on the enemies he blamed for his misfortune.

This blame-game mentality is essential to understanding the Schmalfeldtian worldview. No matter what Bill may have done wrong, when bad things happen to Bill, this cannot be Bill’s fault. No — scapegoats must bear the blame, which explains why Schmalfeldt sent a bizarre e-mail to the publisher of Digital Journal:

You can click to enlarge the image:

Hey there, David.
The people you didn’t want me to write about are likely going to be swarming you with reasons why should not have rehired me and why you should fire me instantly.
One of my stalkers just learned that my old profiles at DJ still exist, posted them on Twitter, and is accusing me of having “multiple accounts” which is how they got me fired at Examiner.
if they get to be too much for you, let me know and I will resign. I don’t want to, but neither do I want the fact that I am being stalked by cybertrolls (I have a case against their leader in the Maryland Supreme Court that will be decided on Oct . 17) be a source of bother for you.
I understand why you didn’t want me to write that story about my involvement with these people. But now, I fear, you are about to learn how they’ve made my life miserable since February, worsening my Parkinson’s symptoms, charging me with 18 crimes (all of which were dismissed) and getting a restaining order (after five failed attempts) that will be overturned by the court when it decided later this month.
Just a heads up. Let me know if you require my resignation.
Thanks again for the opportunity.
Bill

There are several falsehoods here, the most glaring of which is Schmalfeldt’s assertion that he is a victim of “cybertrolls” who have “made [his] life miserable since February.” In fact, what happened in February was that Lee Stranahan flew to Maryland and filed harassment charges against Schmalfeldt. (Stranahan has described the harassment here.) The state’s attorney decided against prosecuting that case. However, Schmalfeldt’s harassment of John Hoge (“leader” of the “cybertrolls”) resulted in Hoge’s request for a peace order being granted against Schmalfeldt by a circuit court judge in June.

Notice that Schmalfeldt’s email discloses how he wanted to use the Digital Journal as a platform to lash out at his enemies, a proposal that the publisher rejected for obvious reasons. Anyway, today Schmalfeldt went on a Twitter spree, accusing everyone of lying about him:

Notice what’s happening here: I remark that Schmalfeldt is “in my timeline” (i.e., sending messages to @rsmccain, so that I see them in my “mentions” queue), but in remarking this, I do not reply to Schmalfeldt: I don’t include his Twitter handle in my message. The only way he could be aware that I have mentioned his name is either (a) by constantly monitoring my timeline, or (b) by searching Twitter for his name. Either one is indicative of obsessive behavior.

Here, I quoted Lee Stranahan’s November 2012 article, “Bill Schmalfeldt: Too Disgusting For Daily Kos,” which is important to understanding what is so false about Schmalfeldt’s claim of victimhood. He was banned from the popular blog Daily Kos in May 2012 — before I ever heard of him — after writing an article about anal sex so grossly disturbing  that even his fellow progressives were shocked.

So this is the sterling reputation Bill alleges I “ruined.” But notice how Schmalfeldt reacted to my Tweet:

Schmalfeldt attacks Lee Stranahan, repeating a cruel falsehood, blaming Stranahan for the death of his own child. In February, Stranahan summarized this vicious pattern in an article entitled, “Bill Schmalfeldt: The Stranger Who Harassed My Family“:

  • Made repeated, direct contact with me and members of my family via email & Twitter, demanding I answer his questions about his ‘investigation’ in me and my family
  • Continued this direct contact after being asked not to ; sometimes directed over 100 messages a day directly at us with questions for his ‘investigation’
  • Posted our personal information, including making a video of our address after a rape threat had been made by an associate of Mr. Schmalfeldt’s
  • Made constant sexual references about both my wife and I, including frequent mentions of our genitalia and fantasies about selling my wife and raping me
  • Tormented us about the death of our newborn daughter Collette
  • Posted photos of our children and contacted child protective services
  • Contacted over half a dozen law enforcement agencies when I wouldn’t answer the bizarre personal questions he would ask for his ‘investigations’
  • Attempted to get me fired, arrested & have my children taken from me
  • Contacted friends, family, business associates and even total strangers who spoke to me online

Why would Bill Schmalfeldt do such horrible things? Can he explain, defend or justify this vicious activity? Of course not. It was just evil, sadistic madness. As with the offensive obscenity that got him banished from Daily Kos, whatever damage resulted to Bill Schmalfeldt’s reputation from this hateful harassment of Stranahan was entirely self-inflicted — and yet Bill can’t help himself. His habits of mind are such that, as soon as he saw me tweet that link to Lee Stranahan’s blog, Schmalfeldt started ranting about Stranahan’s dead child.

What the hell is this? Is it “defamation” to quote Bill Schmalfeldt? Or is it “defamation”  merely to describe Bill Schmalfeldt’s behavior? And notice, again: Bill is obsessively searching for his own name on Twitter and then jumping into other people’s conversations.

This is just the tip of this vile creep’s enormous iceberg of craziness, and Schmalfeldt’s attempts to blame other people for his problems will deceive no one who pays attention. As I’ve said before, “All that is necessary to discredit Bill Schmalfeldt is to quote Bill Schmalfeldt.”

Stay classy, Bill Schmalfeldt. Good luck explaining why it’s always somebody else’s fault when you do disgusting things, you sick freak.




 

 


Category: Bill Schmalfeldt
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