The Other McCain

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

MSU Gunman Got Charge Reduced to Misdemeanor on 2019 Gun Arrest

Posted on | February 14, 2023 | 1 Comment

Anthony Dwayne McRae

Although certain Internet sleuths had, by monitoring police scanners, discovered the identity of the gunman who killed three Michigan State University students and wounded five others before committing suicide, I hadn’t followed the story of Monday night’s shooting closely. So this morning, when there was a televised press conference in Lansing about the massacre, I was still waiting for them to identify the gunman. Instead, the press conference began with Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer lecturing about the need to do something about guns, and continued for another 20 minutes before police finally got around to identifying the gunman as 43-year-old Anthony Dwayne McRae. By that time, I’d figured out that the shooter probably wasn’t a Trump voter, IYKWIMAITYD.

Whenever liberals are downplaying the identity of the shooter and his motive in such a situation, intelligent people can usually guess why they’re doing this. But it turns out that there was more to be concealed:

[McRae] was arrested in Lansing and charged in June 2019 with carrying a concealed pistol without a concealed carry permit, according to Ingham County court records obtained Tuesday by The Detroit News. The initial charge was a felony that carried a potential penalty of five years in prison, according to the records.
At about 3 a.m. June 7, 2019, an officer encountered McRae in Lansing where the officer asked him if he had any weapons on him. McRae acknowledged he had a gun but he didn’t have a concealed weapons permit, according to court records. McRae also had a magazine in his right breast pocket, according to the court records. . . .
In October 2019, Ingham County prosecutors added a second charge against McRae: possession of a loaded firearm in a vehicle, a misdemeanor.
That same month, October 2019, McRae agreed to plead guilty to the lesser misdemeanor charge, and prosecutors dismissed the felony charge.
The Ingham County Prosecutor’s Office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.
McRae was sentenced in November 2019 to 12 months probation. In October 2020, six additional months were added to his probation, according to court records. The addition was meant to allow him to complete the terms of the probation order, the records said.
His probation period concluded in May 2021.

This is always how it is with liberals and gun control. They’re unwilling to enforce existing laws, because they’re against putting criminals in prison, but every time there’s a mass shooting, they demand new gun-control laws, in order to punish law-abiding citizens who had nothing to do with the atrocity. So here you have a mass murderer who could have been sent to prison for five years, but was instead given a year of probation, and Gretchen Whitmer wants to seize the occasion of this tragedy to lecture us about the need to “do something,” as if the obvious solution — putting criminals in prison — were not even an option.

By the way, it appears that McRae was suffering from mental illness — his Facebook profile seemed to show a fixated interest in demonic possession — but that just proves something I’ve been saying over and over for years: Crazy People Are Dangerous.

UPDATE: Welcome, Instapundit readers!



 

 

Category: Crime, Michigan

In The Mailbox: 02.13.23

Posted on | February 14, 2023 | 2 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Silicon Valley delenda est.

Operator-chan saves the day.

OVER THE TRANSOM
357 Magnum: The Cancel Mob Came For Larry Correia – And Failed
EBL: “Controlled” release of toxic chemicals in Ohio seems pretty scary to me, Dresden Bombed To Atoms, and  What are all these objects flying into the USA and Canada?
Twitchy: Laura Loomer’s Lame Attack On Casey DeSantis Fact-Checked Into Oblivion, also, How Bad Is The “Hogwarts Legacy” Backlash?
Louder With Crowder: Chris Stapleton crushes the National Anthem at the Super Bowl so hard, it drove grown men to tears, Rihanna grabs crotch, butt and sniffs hand before revealing she’s pregnant in bizarre halftime show, and  Tranny Influencer claims they’re now hot enough to, ahem, “steal a husband” after facial feminization surgery
Vox Popoli: The Popes of Sodom, More Sanctions on Red China, The Media Loses Narrative Control, Silver Lining, and Mailvox: The Thumb on the Scale
Stoic Observations: On Elon, also, Sorted
Glenn Reynolds: The Power Of Old Men

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
Adam Piggott: The FBI know that TLM Catholics are the Real Deal, also,The Regime does indeed Fear the TLM
American Conservative: Among The ‘White Slags’, Sanctioning Syrians Under the Rubble, and Samantha Power & Color Revolution In Hungary
American Greatness: Bombshells, Landmines, and Nemesis, also, Buttigieg Bemoans Lack of Racial Diversity in Construction, Fails to Mention Ohio Train Disaster
American Thinker: So many people recently ‘died suddenly’ – What’s going on?, Let’s Pay Attention To The Experts Who Challenged The COVID Narrative, How the Administrative State Subverts the Constitution, and ‘Shaddup,’ the Government Said
Animal Magnetism: Goodbye, Blue Monday
Babalu Blog: Cuban dictator’s daughter Mariela Castro on lecture tour in Italy, Gas explosion rocks another Havana hotel, ceiling collapses at hotel in Holguin, Cuba expects Biden to look the other way as it draws closer to Iran, Cuba’s state-run airline forced to cancel flights over ‘technical issues,’ has no cash for refunds, and Foreign Ministry vetoes presence of several priests at event with Cardinal
BattleSwarm: Cronk Conked, Haley? No. Pence? No. Pompeo? No. Sununu? No, and Peter Zeihan Thinks We Won The Great Balloon War
Behind The Black: Shortly after new Progress freighter docks with ISS, older Progress loses internal pressure, SpaceX launches 55 more Starlink satellites, Trio of colliding galaxies, Cracked ash-filled Martian terrain, and A real blacklist designed to choke ad profits from conservative and legitimate news organizations
Cafe Hayek: Hipopolorum and Lopopohirum, also, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: “The sharing economy”
CDR Salamander: Sticks, Lasers, and Balloons
Chicago Boyz: Drucker’s Prescience
Da Tech Guy: Traditional Catholics and traditional terrorists, A Reminder About Those Who Call Conservatives “Nazis”, and The Bright Side of Europe, and Other Thoughts Under the Fedora
Don Surber: Lincoln Freed The Slaves, also, Latest Lies From Lefties
First Street Journal: To the left, liberal politics are far more important than Freedom of Religion, also, The utter bovine feces of ‘restorative justice’
Gates Of Vienna: The Muslim Brotherhood in Sweden, Part 14, Re-examining the Term “White Supremacy”, And Now… UFOs!, and Get Your Kid Vaxed, or Lose Your Welfare
The Geller Report: In 78 Years, Funeral Directors Who Never Had a 15 Year Old Who Died From a Heart Attack Now Have ONE A WEEK, ‘Obsessed’ Biden Quietly Waives Sanctions, Enables Iran, Russia to Resume Nuclear Work, Make BILLIONS in Profit, and ‘WE NUKED A TOWN”
Hogewash: Team Kimberlin Post of the Day, A Spiral Among Thousands, The Oldest Known Supernova, and A Note on the DoT’s Portfolio
Hollywood In Toto: Your Place or Mine – RomCom Via ChatGPT, Roseanne Barr – ‘I Cannot Let ***holes Win’, and Survey: Biden Economy Crushing Movie-Going Habits
The Lid: Biden And Israel, So Far No Good
Legal Insurrection: LGBTQ+ Student Org Hosts Transgender ‘Name Change Clinic’ at U. Toledo College of Law, Clemson University Holds Town Hall Meeting to Address ‘Controversial’ Affirmative Action Bake Sale, Prof. Jonathan Turley Hits Back At Debbie Wasserman Schultz Attempt To Discredit Him at House Hearing,23 Baltimore Schools Have Zero Students Who Can Do Math at Grade Level, and Striking Temple U. Grad Students Can’t Believe School Revoked Their Free Tuition
Nebraska Energy Observer: Saturday – just for you!, Sexagesima, and Thinking vs Doing
Outkick: MLB Permanently Installs Extra Innings Automatic Baserunner On Second, Adrian Peterson Calls Out Damar Hamlin For His Super Bowl Outfit, Eagles Wife Calls Out Chiefs Fans For ‘Embarrassing’ Super Bowl Celebration, Why Was Roger Goodell Hugging Chris Jones Like They’re Dating, ESPN’s Chris Berman Tries To Relate Abraham Lincoln’s Birthday To Two Black Quarterbacks Starting In The Super Bowl, and Jalen Hurts And Patrick Mahomes Put God First On Super Bowl Sunday
Power Line: A genius for friendship, Harvard Law Student Attacks Gay Person With Baseball Bat, and The deep meaning of “no comment”
Shark Tank: DeSantis Proposes Legislation To Fight ESG
Shot In The Dark: Say No To Extremism!, also, Nothing To See Here
STUMP: Videos – Ranking Tables for 2021 Causes of Death
The Political Hat: White People Need Not Apply
This Ain’t Hell: SOTU irks Chinese, lies about vet deaths, Car sized object shot down from Alaskan airspace, Death, PTSD, and family separation, vice ‘wokeness,’ working against recruiting, French-built Flattops in the News, and Gigage Wahya aka Joel Cameron. A banner of lies.. – Stolen Valour Canada
Transterrestrial Musings: Mask Mandates, The Russian Space Program, The Retreat From Globalism, and Lunar ISRU
Victory Girls: Chest Binders – Every School Counselor Has One, Super Bowl LVII – There Is No Black National Anthem, and CDC Warns Of Teen Girls Experiencing Violence And Hopelessness
Volokh Conspiracy: In 2023, Pierson v. Post Meets Keeble v. Hickeringill, also, White Employee Suing Seattle for DEI-Based Racial Harassment, Retaliation, and Discrimination
Watts Up With That: Censoring Inconvenient Truths, The Mass Extinction Fraud, and Climate Activists Celebrate Your Utility Bill Pain
Weasel Zippers: 162 Democrats Voted To Allow Illegal Immigrants To Vote In Elections, Obama’s Ambassador To Red China Says CCP Wanted Biden To Win In 2020, and Chuck Schumer Says Red Chinese Spy Balloon Was Acceptable Because They Would’ve Gotten Intel Anyway
The Federalist: In Super Bowl Halftime Performance, Pregnant Rihanna Proved Pro-Lifers Right, Craigslist Craig Is Dumping His Billions Into Fake News To Help Democrats Win Elections, John Fetterman Is A Danger To Himself, 3 Warning Signs The FBI Might Label You A ‘Radical Traditionalist’ Christian, Democrats’ Unconstitutional Crusade To Disbar Texas AG Ken Paxton Shows How Far They’ll Go To Win Elections, and Smeared By MSNBC For Refusing To Teach Kids To Hate Each Other, Colorado School District Hits Back
Mark Steyn: Fight Another Day: Paddy Chayefsky and The Americanization of Emily, Tal Bachman – The Appliance Rebellion Starts Here, and Magic Moments with Burt and Elvis

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Category: Linkagery

Why Nick Sirianni Cried

Posted on | February 13, 2023 | 1 Comment

Many people have commented on Philadelphia Eagles Coach Nick Sirianni, who broke down in tears during the playing of “The Star-Spangled Banner” before Sunday’s Super Bowl. Some interpreted Sirianni’s tears as evidence of his heartfelt patriotism, whereas I know what he was really crying about:

NO MORE FOOTBALL UNTIL SEPTEMBER!

Once the Super Bowl is over, we have to wait nearly seven months before there’s another football game, and even then, the early games are usually lame, especially in college football. Alabama kicks off its season Sept. 2 against Middle Tennessee State University, which isn’t a real team.

They don’t finalize the NFL schedule until spring, but in the meantime, pro football fans will have to endure weeks of blah blah blah from the pundits and commentators, with their “mock draft” scenarios and their wild speculations about possible trades and free agent signings, which is just annoying. Fans don’t want to hear a bunch of talk about football, we want to watch actual football. From September through January, there’s football every weekend — basically 20 weeks of it, including the college bowl games and the NFL playoffs. Fans develop a habit, a circadian rhythm of weekly football-watching — college games Saturday, pro games Sunday, then “Monday Night Football” and “Thursday Night Football” — and let me tell you, life is tough on Tuesday and Wednesday nights with no football to watch. You basically organize your life around watching football during the season, until January arrives and you become conscious that you’re slowly running out of games. The first week of the playoffs is all right — six wild-card games to watch — but then you get to the divisional round and there are only four games. The week after that, the conference championships — only two games! And then, finally, the Super Bowl, which is like Christmas, the Fourth of July, Mardi Gras and Halloween all rolled into one giant football holiday, as far as fans are concerned. And then, after that . . . NO MORE FOOTBALL!

So, yeah, we know why Nick Sirianni was crying. Also, perhaps, he had a premonition that Jalen Hurts would fumble for no reason at all, and give the Chiefs a free touchdown that, when all was said and done, would prove to be the decisive play of the game. Now the Eagles have to spend the next six months thinking about how close they came to getting that Super Bowl championship ring, a special kind of agony and, as Leslie Gore once sang, you’d cry, too, if it happened to you.

UPDATE: Welcome, Instapundit readers!



 

 

Category: Football

Rule 5 Sunday: Christina Ricci

Posted on | February 13, 2023 | 3 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Born on this day in 1980, Christina Ricci is probably best known for her portrayal of Wednesday Addams in The Addams Family and its sequel, Addams Family Values. She’s also appeared in a wide range of more adult roles in movies and TV.
Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley esse delendam.

Not so dark and Gothic, but still cute.

NINETY MILES FROM TYRANNY: Hot Pick of the Late Night, The 90 Miles Mystery Box Episode #1988, Morning Mistress, and Girls With Guns.

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

EBL: MAGA – A Tale Of Two Special Prosecutors, Fall, Candy, Julie Banderas Is On The Market, Horrible Histories – Queenian Rhapsody, The Remaining, Valentina Belle, and The Fall Of Carthage.

A VIEW FROM THE BEACH: Cassandra Martin, Oregon, My Oregon, Fish Pic Friday – Amber Lewis, Thursday Tanlines, The Mask is Off Masks, Wednesday Wetness, Forget It Jake, It’s Baltimore, Tattoo Tuesday, Great Moments in #MeToo, The Monday Morning Stimulus Package, Palm Sunday and Maryland, My Maryland

Thanks to everyone for all the luscious links!

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Category: Rule 5

FMJRA 2.0: On Your Feet Or On Your Knees

Posted on | February 12, 2023 | Comments Off on FMJRA 2.0: On Your Feet Or On Your Knees

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Most live albums are a waste of time and money, but one of the awesome exceptions is the first live album by Blue Öyster Cult, which I bought before seeing them in concert with four other bands at the now-demolished Capital Center because the cover art was just that cool. I can honestly say I was following them before they were famous. As I recall, the original album lacked the title; it was just the art and the band’s name.
Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley esse delendam.


Rule 5 Sunday: Heather Lee O’Keefe
Animal Magnetism
Okrahead
Ninety Miles From Tyranny
EBL
A View From The Beach

Next Media Narrative: How Joe Biden Defeated the Evil Chinese Spy Balloon
The DaleyGator
Okrahead
357 Magnum
EBL
A View From The Beach

Crazy People Are Dangerous: Canadian Child Actor Dopehead Matricide Edition 
The Pirate’s Cove
Okrahead
The DaleyGator
357 Magnum
EBL

B.I.T.S.
The DaleyGator
Okrahead
357 Magnum
EBL
A View From The Beach

Brain-Damaged Democrats in the News
The DaleyGator
Okrahead
357 Magnum
EBL
A View From The Beach

Everything Is White Supremacy: Inside America’s New Maoist ‘Struggle Sessions’ 
Okrahead
The DaleyGator
First Street Journal
357 Magnum
EBL

The Grammar and Rhetoric of Media Bias
The Political Hat
Okrahead
357 Magnum
EBL

‘We May Never Learn the Full Story’
Okrahead
357 Magnum
EBL
A View From The Beach

FMJRA 2.0: The Machineries Of Joy
EBL
A View From The Beach

Crime Reduction in Polk County, Florida
Okrahead
357 Magnum
EBL

Joe Biden Versus an Army of Straw Men
Okrahead
The DaleyGator
357 Magnum
EBL

Goering’s on the phone from Freiburg
Okrahead
357 Magnum
EBL

In The Mailbox: 02.09.23 (Punditocalpyse Edition)
357 Magnum
EBL
A View From The Beach

In The Mailbox: 02.10.23
357 Magnum
EBL
A View From The Beach

Top linkers for the week ending February 10:

  1.  EBL (14)
  2. (tie) 357 Magnum & Okrahead (11)
  3.  A View From The Beach (8)
  4.  TheDaleyGator (6)

Thanks to everyone for all the links! It was a big week!

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Category: FMJRA Award

Vince Dao Wrecks Liberals by — Wait for It — Denying Genetic Determinism

Posted on | February 12, 2023 | 3 Comments

Vince Dao is a young Christian conservative college student in Florida who has a YouTube channel. He somehow got invited onto a panel discussion by Vice in which the subject was anti-Asian bias and the “model minority” stereotype. Everybody else on the panel was some kind of woke leftist, dressed like slobs, and Dao shows up in a suit and tie and starts dishing out hard truths. Video clips went viral this week.

The points that Dao is making are basically the same points that Charles Murray made in his 1984 book Losing Ground, i.e., that long-term poverty is a behavioral problem, and that if you avoid certain behaviors like out-of-wedlock births, the chances are you won’t be poor. The statistical evidence is very clear on this subject, and it shouldn’t be controversial, but the Democratic Party is dedicated to promoting the belief that poverty is a black problem caused by white racism, and so if you point out the facts — that it is behavior, and not race, which causes poverty — Democrats will accuse you of racism.

If you watch this Vice panel discussion, what you realize is that the woke liberals have bought into what can only be described as a genetic determinist view of behavior, believing that different ethnic groups behave differently because it’s programmed into their DNA, so that criticizing harmful behaviors — school failure, drug abuse, crime, etc. — associated with poverty is considered to be a “racist” attack on black people, as if (a) all black people engage in these behaviors and (b) bad behavior is inherent to being authentically black.

Well, as an Appalachian-American, am I doomed to a life of moonshine, banjos, feuding and incest? Must I become a hillbilly stereotype, because it’s programmed into my DNA? Of course not, no more than black people are helpless to resist the cultural forces that would encourage them to engage in harmful behaviors. While it may be difficult to swim against the cultural tide — up here in the hills, surrounded by banjo-picking moonshine guzzlers — ultimately individuals are responsible for their own choices, and it is an evasion of responsibility to blame your problems on social forces beyond your control. But it is now apparently considered “progressive” to believe that people are helpless victims of their circumstances, and so when Vince Dao started arguing in favor of personal responsibility, everybody else on the panel freaked out.



 

 

Category: Liberals, Racism

James Baker’s Amnesia Problem

Posted on | February 11, 2023 | 1 Comment

James Baker testifies on Tuesday

My podcast partner John Hoge calls attention to the Nixonian quality of the FBI-turned-Twitter-lawyer’s testimony this week:

Rep. Jim Jordan asked James Baker, the former FBI general counsel who moved to work at Twitter, whether he communicated with the FBI about the Hunter Biden laptop story before the New York Post was censored on Twitter for reporting about it.
“To the best of my recollection, I did not talk to the FBI about the Hunter Biden story before that day,” Baker said.
Jordan followed up: “Did you talk to them after? Your response was real specific… I assume ‘that day’ is October 14. I want to know if you talked to them on the 13th or before, or the 15th and after.”
“I don’t recall speaking to the FBI, sitting here today, I don’t recall speaking to the FBI at all about the Hunter Biden matter,” Baker replied. “The laptop.”

Something about being required to testify under oath seems to induce a strange type of amnesia among big-shot lawyers. The things they “cannot recall” are very specific, and they never deny anything without preceding their denial with the qualifying phrase “to the best of my recollection.”



 

 

Category: Congress

Don’t Bet on the Super Bowl

Posted on | February 11, 2023 | 1 Comment

Gambling is a bad habit, and I hate to see TV advertisements for gambling apps like Draft Kings, which portray this habit as harmless. And frankly, I’ve started to suspect that pro football is as rigged as pro wrestling. If you don’t believe me, ask any fan of the Cincinnati Bengals about the AFC championship game. The Kansas City Chiefs “won” that game about as convincingly as Joe Biden “won” the 2020 election, and Bengals fans are convinced the refs were in the tank for the Chiefs.

On paper, the Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles are almost exactly even. Both of them finished the regular season 14-3, both were No. 1 seeds in the playoffs, and their team statistics on offense and defense are so close to being identical that it’s difficult to say that either team has an advantage. Probably the only reason the Eagles are 1.5-point favorites is because Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes is still recovering from an ankle injury, and may be less mobile than usual.

My brother Kirby thinks the Chiefs are going to win the Super Bowl, probably because Kirby is a big Joe Burrow fan, and figures that if Mahomes and the Chiefs could beat Burrow and the Bengals, then they’re good enough to beat anybody. And you’ve got to admit, Mahomes is a wizard. There is no such thing as a “broken play” so broken that Mahomes can’t find a way to rescue it with a mad scramble and an off-balance sidearm pass with two tacklers hanging off him. Also, the Chiefs have a fearsome defense that sacked Burrow five times.

However, Philadelphia is not a bad team, and if Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts doesn’t perform the kind of wizardry that has made Mahomes famous, he’s still pretty doggone spectacular. Hurts completed nearly 67% of his passes for 3,701 yards and 22 touchdowns this season, and added 760 yards rushing on 165 carries with 13 TDs. If there’s any knock on Hurts, it’s that perhaps he’s a bit of a ball-hog, so that on run-pass option (RPO) plays, he runs the ball himself too often. But this is nitpicking, really — how can you criticize the way he plays, when the results are so successful? And the Eagles also have a very tough defense that shut down the New York Giants in the divisional playoffs, then in the NFC championship knocked both San Francisco QBs out of the game.

All things considered, Super Bowl LVII should be a close game, and relatively high-scoring. The over/under is 50 and, if there were such a thing as a safe bet, I’d put my money on over, because I could see this game turning into a back-and-forth shootout, with a final score somewhere around 31-28 — a real down-to-the-wire thriller, decided by a last-minute field goal. But let me quote Sky Masterson:

“One of these days in your travels, a guy is going to show you a brand-new deck of cards on which the seal is not yet broken. Then this guy is going to offer to bet you that he can make the jack of spades jump out of this brand-new deck of cards and squirt cider in your ear. But, son, do not accept this bet, because as sure as you stand there, you’re going to wind up with an ear full of cider.”

Indeed, and as sure as you bet the “over” in the Super Bowl, I guarantee you it will be a defensive struggle, with both teams fumbling away scoring chances and getting flagged for false-start penalties. There is no such thing as a safe bet, and if you bet on the Super Bowl, chances are you’ll regret your wager. I’ve just got a hunch about this game.



 

 

Category: Football
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