The Other McCain

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

Michael Hastings Conspiracy Theories: Missing the Real Mystery of His Death

Posted on | August 16, 2013 | 79 Comments

On June 19, the day Michael Hastings died, I remarked: “The conspiracy theorists have already gotten way ahead of me on this story.”

That day, I wrote a 2,000-word article for ViralRead (“The Short Career and Sudden Death of Michael Hastings“), and the next day I wrote another 500 words (“Michael Hastings Was ‘Paranoid’ About FBI Before Fatal Crash“). Then I wrote a long column for The American Spectator, “Hope, Fear and Michael Hastings”:

Scarcely had the charred remains of Michael Hastings been pried out of the wreckage of his Mercedes-Benz than conspiracy theorists began to suggest that the award-winning journalist’s fiery death was not an accident. Within 12 hours, it was reported that Hastings had told a lawyer before Tuesday’s fatal crash in Los Angeles that he was under investigation by the FBI. His friends soon confirmed that Hastings had been “paranoid … incredibly tense and very worried” about government surveillance, and the fevered imaginations of the kook fringe cooked up all sorts of wild-eyed claims: Hastings had been “murdered” or “assassinated” by a “car bomb,” perhaps by the CIA.
Welcome to America in 2013, where Hope and Change have transmogrified into Fear and Loathing, where even a liberal reporter who last year praised Obama as “one of the most talented politicians around” could not resist the pervasive paranoia inspired by what voters were once promised would be “the most transparent administration in history.” . . .

You can go read the whole thing, if you’ve never read it or if you need to remind yourself that Michael Hastings himself seems to have slipped over edge into paranoia before his death.

The idea that Michael Hastings was assassinated because he was “getting too close” to some hidden truth — the spy-thriller scenario, “The Man Who Knew Too Much” — was something I also explored in a 700-word article for ViralRead: “What ‘Big Story’ Was Michael Hastings Working On When He Died?” And the bottom line of that story is, Hastings seems to shown interest in three or four different stories, none of which looked like a motive to have him targeted for death by the Military-Industrial Complex or any other shadowy Force of Evil.

You kooks should stop using cheap tinfoil in your hats. Insist on premium Reynolds Wrap™  to block those CIA brain-control waves.

Mother Jones has an article about Examiner columnist Kimberly Dvorak’s writing on the death of Michael Hastings, “Meet the Journalist Spreading Michael Hastings Conspiracy Theories,” which stops just short of calling her a kook. Dvorak seems to be a conservative, and has actually gone to L.A. to try and report on the story, which is a hell of a lot more than some of Hastings’ liberal friends have bothered to do, but the problem is, she’s chasing the wrong story.

There is no reason to believe that the car accident was anything other than a car accident — insofar as a fatal crash is an “accident” when you’re driving a Mercedes-Benz sports coupe 100 mph down a city street at 4 o’clock in the morning.

The real story — and I’ve said this from the get-go — is why Michael Hastings was driving so fast at such an ungodly hour.

Frankly, I think Hastings had slipped back into the substance abuse that once caused him to drop out of college for a year, and I think those of his friends who know about his personal problems won’t say anything about this, out of respect for their deceased friend.

If you want to know what happened to Michael Hastings, you need to find out who he was hanging out with in the final week or so before that crash, and you especially need to look at why he was out on the streets of L.A. at 4 a.m. Had he been to a nightclub? Had he been to a party?

Had he been hooking up with call girls or strippers?

Was he abusing alcohol, amphetamines, cocaine?

Maybe I’ve missed something in the past two months. Maybe some mainstream reporter or one of Hastings’ left-wing buddies has told the story of why he was out on the streets at 4 a.m., but I don’t think so. No, I think that there is not a deliberate cover-up, but rather an embarrassed silence among the friends of Michael Hastings who know the real truth: He had a paranoid breakdown, or went off on a binge, or both.

They don’t won’t to admit their buddy freaked out, see? They want Michael Hastings to be remembered as a courageous journalistic hero, and so none of his friends are interested in telling the truth.

Conspiracy theories about Michael Hastings’ death gain traction because his liberal journalist friends are afraid to report the truth.

They should be ashamed of themselves.

 

Category: Conspiracy Theories, Fear. Loathing., Journalism

LIVE AT FIVE: 08.16.13

Posted on | August 16, 2013 | 10 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho


TOP NEWS
Egyptian Death Toll Rises To 638

Soldiers clear debris the day after security forces clear pro-Morsi protest camps

MuBros call for “Millions March Of Anger” today; Obama wrings hands, cancels joint military exercises

BJP’s Modi Needs To Be Heard, Say British MPs
Labour and Tory MPs defend House of Commons invite


NSA Internal Audit Finds Thousands Of Privacy Violations
Violations ranged from serious breaches of the law to accidental info collection due to typos



POLITICS
Gallup Poll: Obama Approval On Economy Sinks To 35%

A job seeker fills out a contact form at a job fair

Overall approval drops to 44%

WV Judge Accused Of Framing Former Lover’s Husband

Judge Agrees To Delay Former Detroit Mayor Kilpatrick’s Sentencing

Solar Panels Finally Installed On White House, Three Years After Promised

SecDef Hagel Issues Sexual Assault Rules As Congress Weighs Action

Special Prosecutor To Be Named In Ethics Complaint Against Texas Gov. Perry

Uncle Sam’s Yard Sale: Pentagon Looks To Unload Afghanistan War Hardware



THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Oil Continues To Rise Amid Mideast Turmoil: NYMEX $107.33, Brent $111.11
US Stocks Fall Most Since June As Data Fuel Fed Concern
Consumer Prices Rise As Expected In July
Asian Shares Slip As Prospects For Fed Tapering Rise
Jobless Claims Hit 2007 Lows
Buffett Raises GM Stake By 60%
Dell Takes Big Profit Hit As Mobile Users Look Elsewhere
Facebook Testing New Mobile Payment Option
Next Media Animation Does Elon Musk’s Hyperloop
“Plants V. Zombies 2: It’s About Time” Released For iPad, iPhones
Rockstar Unveils “Grand Theft Auto Online”
“Dots” Arrives On Android With New Untimed “Moves” Mode



SPORTS
MLB Goes All In On Instant Replay

Jim Joyce’s blown call that cost Armando Galarraga a perfect game in 2010

Commissioner Selig to allow limited number of challenges

Fox Sports 1 Debuts Tomorrow, Takes Aim At ESPN

KISS Bringing Pro Football Back To LA

Russian Pole Vault Champ Condemns Homosexuality

Pacers To Face Rockets In Philippines, Taiwan

Rays’ Cobb Earns First Win Since Taking Liner To Head June 15

Cards Beat Pirates 6-5 In 12 For Key NL Central Win

Some Professional Wrestler Comes Out As Gay, Nobody Surprised

A’s Blank Astros 5-0

Prince Bashes Again, Tigers Beat Royals 4-1

Backup Catcher Saves The Game For Twins With Pinch-Hit Against White Sox

Rookie Heat Lifts Reds To 2-1 Win Against Brewers

Little League World Series Gets Underway

Soriano Coughs Up Homer And Game In 9th As Giants Avoid Sweep



FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
“That 70s Show” Actress Lisa Robin Kelly Dies, 43

Lisa Robin Kelly, 1970-2013 RIP

Died in her sleep Wednesday at a California rehab center; no cause of death announced

Laura Prepon Leaving Netflix’ “Orange Is The New Black”

Lindsay Lohan To Guest Star On “Eastbound & Down”

Amanda Seyfried And Justin Long Are Dating

Russell Simmons Apologizes, Takes Down Unfunny Harriet Tubman Sex Tape Video


Chris Brown’s Hit & Run Case Dismissed

Jana Kramer, Brantley Gilbert Split

Justin Timberlake To Perform At MTV VMAs, Accept Vanguard Award

Prosecutor Rejected Giudice Plea Bargain Before Court

Kiernan Shipka, Mason Dye Join “Flowers In The Attic”; Mena Suvari To “Chicago Fire”

The Secret To Keri Russell’s Awesome Abs? “Exhaustion”

Will Arnett Reportedly Dating Kathie Lee

Worn-Out Leathers



FOREIGNERS
Pro-Assad Hackers Hit WaPo Website
Strong Quake Shakes New Zealand
Car Bomb Kills 21 In Southern Suburbs Of Beirut
How Government Apathy Bled The Indian Navy
Ecuador To Open Amazon’s Yasuni Basin To Oil Drilling As Economy Slows
Two Koreas Reach Deal On Kaesong
Mugabe Victory Brings Wave Of Intimidation Against Women Activists
Narendra Modi Hoists Own Flag, Delivers Campaign Speech On I-Day
Lawyer For Teen Charged In Rehtaeh Parsons Case Says Client Facing “Online Lynch Mob”
SPD Faces Shaky Future As Steinbruck Sags



BLOGS & STUFF
Michelle Malkin: Ten Images Mocking George Bush That Were Far Worse Than A Harmless Rodeo Clown
Twitchy: Zing Trifecta! Dennis Miller Wants “Amnesty From This Sh*t”; Slams Oprah, Obama, Clintons
Jawa Report: Anjem Choudhary Rejects Islam, Embraces Atheism
Don Surber: Daily Scoreboard, August 15
American Power: “Abortion Barbie” Wendy Davis In Vogue
Shot In The Dark: Score Another For The Good Guys
The Necropolitan Sentinel: Obamacare Watch – The Very Hard Sell
Jammie Wearing Fools: Libtalker Thom Hartman Can’t Stand NPR – “Too Much Right-Wing Bias There”
According To Hoyt: I Am Spartacus
Allahpundit: Christie Takes Veiled Shots At Jindal, Paul During RNC Luncheon; Paul Fires Back
Legal Insurrection: For Dems In 2016, It’s Hillary Or Bust
Paul Bedard: Limbaugh, Hannity, Levin Eyed As 2016 GOP Debate Moderators
Ralph Peters: This Blood Is On The Hands Of The Muslim Brotherhood
PJ Tatler: Ideological Purge Urged At Washington Post
The Foundry: Planned Parenthood To Get $655K As “Navigators” For Obamacare
Stephen Kruiser: Robbing Peter To Pay Obamacare
Pat Dollard: Michael Savage Predicts He’ll Replace “Fake Conservative” Hannity At Cumulus
Mark Bowden: The Killing Machines
Megan McArdle: How Wonder Bread Fed The Womens’ Movement


Deadline to submit links for tomorrow’s FMJRA is midnight tonight.
DO IT.


Category: Live at Five

Groundpounders

Posted on | August 15, 2013 | 47 Comments

— Wombat-socho


Last month I did a compare & contrast between John Ringo’s Legend of the Alldenata/Posleen War novels and Sandy Mitchell’s Warhammer 40K Ciaphas Cain novels. This week, I’d like to introduce some of the classic military SF novels for your consideration, starting with what is arguably the seminal military SF novel: Robert Heinlein’s, Starship Troopers, not to be confused with Paul Verhoeven’s movie of the same name. Heinlein’s novel is a combination of Bildungsroman, philosophy lecture, and hard-fought tales of combat against an implacable alien foe. The book won the Hugo Award for best novel in 1960. It has been accused of being a fascist tract by people who fail at reading comprehension, but you should be ignoring idiots like that anyway. Inspired two other great novels which I’ll touch on a little bit later.


People tend to forget that before he turned to crime, L. Ron Hubbard was one of the most popular SF writers of the Golden Age, along with Asimov, Heinlein, and van Vogt. One of the reasons why was the hugely controversial Final Blackout, a dystopian tale of infantry combat in the ruins of a Europe devastated by a centuries-long World War II in which no weapon – atomic, biological or chemical – was left unused, with the end result being orders of magnitude worse than World War I. In this continental abattoir we find The Lieutenant and his hardy platoon of survivors, recalled at last to GHQ for a nefarious purpose – but The Lieutenant has plans of his own. The novel hasn’t aged well; obviously Hubbard was completely wrong in his projection of events in Europe, and his depiction of an imperialist America seeking Lebensraum in Europe goes over no better now than it did in 1940. Needless to say, his sly depiction of the Communist government of Great Britain would be equally as unwelcome to those who’d be fine with the “un-American” tone. For all its defects, it’s still a taut little adventure tale, well worth the $2 for a used paperback copy.


People moan over Robert Jordan’s incomplete Wheel of Time series, and worry about whether George R.R. Martin will live long enough to finish A Song of Ice and Fire, but I think the field’s first and worst loss in series prematurely ended by the author’s death was Gordon R. Dickson’s Childe Cycle, of which Soldier, Ask Not was one of the more famous pieces. Unusually for the genre, this novel’s main character isn’t a soldier; he’s a news reporter on a mission of revenge. Tam Olyn has a grudge against the mercenary soldiers of the Friendly worlds, worlds rich in nothing but faith and manpower that is hired out as mercenaries to other worlds, and he thinks he’s found a way to utterly destroy them. Unfortunately for humanity, he may be right. This novel was originally a Hugo-winning short story and had other material added to extend it into a novel and make it a better fit to the rest of the Childe Cycle. Other novels in the cycle that fall into the combat SF category include Tactics of Mistake and Dorsai!.


A little over a decade after Starship Troopers won the Hugo, Analog magazine published the hugely controversial “Hero” by Vietnam War veteran Joe Haldeman. “Hero” sparked months of angry letters and equal amounts of praise, most notably from Heinlein himself; much of the controversy stemmed from the feeling that Haldeman had deliberately set out to write a story that was everything Heinlein’s wasn’t. More stories followed and eventually the stories were knit together to become the novel The Forever War. William Mandella’s war against the Taurans is very different from Johnny Rico’s against the Skinnies and Bugs, mainly due to the lack of FTL travel and the consequent effects of time dilation, which have unfortunate effects on Mandella and (from his perspective) human society, and of course his UN isn’t Rico’s Terran Federation, either. Good book -it won both the Hugo and Nebula awards, an uncommon feat- but somewhat depressing.


About a year after “Hero” came out, Jerry Pournelle introduced a mercenary officer, John Christian Falkenberg, who’d recently been cashiered from the CoDominium Marines. “The Mercenary” told the tale of Falkenberg’s hiring by the newly independent world of Hadley to train their constabulary – one that would be badly needed as the planet slid towards anarchy thanks to the masses exiled from Earth to Hadley by the CoDo Bureau of Relocation. This novella eventually expanded into several novels and a trilogy co-written with S.M. Stirling about the Helot Wars on Sparta which take place as the CoDo itself is breaking up until nationalist pressures. Often criticized for not having enough ray guns, lasers and other high tech, the stories nonetheless are entertaining tales of small colonial wars (Okay, the Helot War is actually damned sizable) and small-unit leadership. The entire series (including the Stirling collaborations) is collected in The Prince*, or you can just get the Falkenberg stories in Falkenberg’s Legion.


H. Beam Piper never won any awards, but he was one of the most entertaining SF writers of the 1950s, and Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen is one of the reasons why. State Trooper Calvin Morrison gets accidentally sucked into a cross-time transporter while hunting a criminal in the Pennsylvania forest, and thanks to quick reflexes and a good memory, manages to land on his feet in the feudal principality of Hostigos, which is about to be crushed for want of gunpowder…and Morrison remembers the formula. The combat is mostly Thirty Years War style, as the newly ennobled Lord Kalvan tries to save Hostigos and its gorgeous Princess Rylla from the forces of Styphon, the Gunpowder God while avoiding the attentions of the Paratime Police. Also available in the The Complete Paratime collection with the rest of Piper’s Paratime Police stories; the loose ends are tied up in Great Kings War by Roland Green and John F. Carr.


I’ve talked about David Drake’s Hammer’s Slammers previously; but I also want to put in a plug for another coming of age story, Ranks of Bronze, which tells the tale of a Roman legion that survives Crassus’ defeat by the Parthians and is sold to new owners…non-human owners. Many years later, Jim Baen pressured Drake into a sequel, which became the anthology Foreign Legions. Both very much worth reading.


John Perry is an old man of seventy-five when he decides to enlist in the Colonial Defense Forces. Fortunately for him, the CDF is going to grow him a spiffy new body with a BrainPal implant and upgrades to strength, dexterity and durability. He’ll also get nanotech weaponry – and he’s going to need all those things to survive in a very hostile universe. And that’s how John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War begins. In a lot of ways, Scalzi’s book is a lot closer to Starship Troopers than to The Forever War, advances in technology aside. The book is tightly written with brutally realistic depictions of combat against all manner of hostile aliens; despite this, Scalzi’s book is neither the morass of existential depression that Haldeman’s book often is, nor does it lapse into classroom lectures as Heinlein’s does. There are three sequels (not counting the chapbook The Sagan Diaries) of which I think The Ghost Brigades is the best.


Last but certainly not least, there are Keith Laumer’s Bolos. Introduced in the 1960 short story “Combat Unit”, these cybernetic supertanks have as much in common with the panzers of Hammer’s Slammers as a contemporary M-1 Abrams has with a Renault FT-17. Initially, the first Bolos are just bigger, heavier and nastier main battle tanks, but as computer technology (and weapons technology with it) advances and AIs are developed, it’s not long before Bolos don’t need much more than a human commander on board to backstop the computer that’s running the show. All six of Laumer’s original stories are included in the anthology The Compleat Bolo; but wait, there’s more! In the year of Laumer’s death (1993) Baen Books began publishing collections of new Bolo stories by David Drake, J. Andrew Keith, Barry Malzberg and others. The first of these, Honor of the Regiment:, was followed by eleven others along with separate novels by David Weber, William H. Keith, and John Ringo. The novels and most of the stories are excellent, and there aren’t really any bad ones. Good brain candy, at the very least.


*Also available as an e-book From Baen.


Category: Books

Prosecutors: Kaitlyn Hunt Violated Order, Sent Messages, ‘Lewd’ Photos to Victim UPDATE: Hunt Accused of Sending Masturbation Video to Teenage Victim UPDATE: Lesbian and Victim Had ‘Intimate Contact’ Until Two Weeks Ago

Posted on | August 15, 2013 | 289 Comments

Accused sex offender Kaitlyn Hunt “violated a pretrial order to have no contact with the victim in her teen-sex case,” the Palm Beach Post reported Thursday, citing a court motion by prosecutors that may end the 19-year-old lesbian’s release on bond.

According to the document cited in an article by Elliott Jones of the Post, “Hunt has been in almost daily contact” with the underage victim, and has secretly sent more than 20,000 text messages to the younger girl. Prosecutors say they have “over 25 lewd and lascivious photographs the defendant sent to the child victim.”

Hunt, who graduated from Sebastian River High School in June, was arrested in February and charged with having sex with a 14-year-old girl who was a freshman teammate on the school’s basketball team.

In May, Hunt’s case made headlines when she rejected a plea bargain offered by Florida prosecutors, and her parents launched the online “Free Kate” movement on her behalf.

Wednesday, prosecutors offered a second plea deal to Hunt, but her mother, Kelley Hunt Smith, denounced the offer in several message sent to the “Free Kate” Facebook group.

UPDATE: From the London Daily Mail:

Kaitlyn Hunt is being urged to accept the new deal which would keep her out of jail and prevent her from being registered as a sex offender — if she pleads no contest to two misdemeanor battery counts and one felony count for interference of child custody. . . .
Hunt . . . is facing felony charges of lewd and lascivious activity. If she goes to trial, she faces 15 years in prison if convicted.

 Click here to see all our coverage of this controversy.

UPDATE II: Oh, my goodness: Just saw the document filed with the court, and it is absolutely devastating to Kaitlyn Hunt. “These photographs are explicit and depict the defendant [i.e., Hunt] nude, sometimes engaged in sex acts such as placing her fingers inside her vagina.” According to the document, Hunt also sent the younger girl at least one video that “explicitly depicts the defendant [i.e., Hunt] masturbating by rubbing her vagina with her fingers while moaning.”

UPDATE III: More from the document filed today: “The defendant [i.e., Hunt] coordinated secret meetings with the child victim [who is now 15] where the child would leave her home and get picked up by the defendant. The defendant would drive the child to a remote location where they would have intimate contact. . . . The child victim has stated to Detective Jeremy Shepherd that these meetings have taken place as recently as two weeks ago.”

UPDATE IV: Here is the document:

Kaitlyn Hunt Violation by Ali A. Akbar

 

UPDATE V: Headline at ViralRead:

‘Lewd’ Photos, Video in Lesbian Teen
Sex-Crime Case, Prosecutors Say

 


Category: Crime, Florida, Gays, Kaitlyn Hunt, Sex

Perversion for Breakfast

Posted on | August 15, 2013 | 35 Comments

Last week, ABC decided to advertise its primetime soap opera Betrayal during its Good Morning America program, and publicist Rebecca Seitz was shocked that her 8-year-old son was exposed to steamy sex scenes at 8 a.m.:

What HELL just ascended into my living room and burned itself into my precious boy’s brain? . . .
Really? This is what we’ve come to? Show titles like, Deception, Scandal, Pretty Little Liars, Betrayal, and Revenge? Simulated sex scenes at 8am?

She followed up to report that she had filed charges with the FCC: “How do we justify seeing evil and walking away?” Her story got picked up by The Blaze, and thanks to Moneyrunner for calling it to my attention, This should be a no-brainer for the networks: Whatever the standards are at 10 p.m. — and, frankly, those standards seem to be very low — you can’t be broadcasting that stuff at 8 a.m.

By all rights, Rebeca Seitz should win this fight. And then maybe she can do something about all those Viagra and Cialis ads, and after that? Joe Theisman’s prostate problems. I really don’t want to hear about anyone’s prostate, or their colon, for that matter.

 

 

Category: Culture

Special Snowflake Syndrome

Posted on | August 15, 2013 | 50 Comments

‘Troubled starlet’ Amanda Bynes, weeks before she got sent to the psych ward.

Last month, Amanda Bynes went crazy — no, wait, let me re-phrase that: Last month, it was recognized as an official fact by the state of California, that Amanda Bynes had been going crazy for a long time, and had finally reached her destination, Crazytown. Kookville. Nutsburg.

Her original 72-hour involuntary commitment was extended to 30 days, and the diagnosis is . . . Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder?

Last week a California judge granted permission, at the request of doctors from the Hillman Psychiatric Center in Ventura County, to extend Amanda Bynes’s psychiatric hold for another 30 days. According to state law, such an order can only be approved if the patient is “gravely disabled as a result of a mental disorder” or “is a danger to others, or him or herself.”
But a source very close to the 27-year-old former child star tells us her prognosis is not all doom and gloom.
“Amanda has made significant improvements, she is doing better than she was,” an insider told FOX411’s Pop Tarts column. “There are no drug problems involved, it’s all mental. She has deep anger and PTSD, which tripped a psychotic episode. … She is very ill, but manageable. Amanda genuinely wants to get better and has wanted to get better for some time.”
We’re told the PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) stems in part from the pressures of her Hollywood career, in which she shot to Nickelodeon stardom as a child, before declaring that she was “retiring” a few years ago. Bynes also has very deep-seated conflict issues with her parents, with whom we’re told she’s not particularly close.

Uh, no, she doesn’t have Post-Traumatic Street Disorder, unless maybe she went to Iraq and watched her friends bleed to death after their Humvee got blown up by insurgents. And I’m pretty sure I don’t remember the “Amanda in Fallujah” episode on Nickelodeon.

Having your show-business career fizzle out in your mid-20s is kinda bad, but it’s not the kind of trauma that causes PTSD.

Maybe she had some stress, but trauma? I don’t think so.

Here’s my diagnosis: Special Snowflake Syndrome.

Since she was about 10 years old, Amanda’s life was nothing but success — All That,  The Amanda Show, What I Like About You — and she got used to thinking she was special because, really, she was.

Then, without warning or explanation, it stopped cold. She hasn’t done anything since 2009 — a washed-up has-been at an age where most other young people are just beginning their careers.

During the dozen or so years when she was a little celebrity, however, she never acquired any useful life skills or had to deal with anything more difficult than saying her lines and hitting her marks in order to be treated like a Special Snowflake.

And the loss of that status, while perhaps probably was traumatic from her perspective, but it was a status that most people never enjoy, so she wasn’t really worse off than most other people and, at least financially, was a lot better off than 90-plus percent of everybody.

Some people are emotionally strong and some people are emotionally weak, and Amanda Bynes wasn’t one of the strong ones.

So, over the course of the past three years, bit by bit, step by step, Amanda Bynes gradually went crazy, and by the time her craziness started causing serious problems — in April 2012, she got her first DUI — there was apparently nobody around who had a serious interest in helping her cope with her various issues.

What does “conflict issues with her parents” mean? I don’t know, but the fact that she got so far off the rails with nobody to stop her tells you that there weren’t any grown-ups around Amanda Bynes who were doing anything to help her solve her problems.

 

Category: Celebrities

LIVE AT FIVE: 08.15.13

Posted on | August 15, 2013 | 10 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho


TOP NEWS
Cairo Quiet After Deadly Crackdown

Curfew imposed on Cairo, other cities overnight

At least 278 dead as security forces clear pro-Morsi protest camps


Entire Crew Of Stricken Indian Sub Feared Dead
Divers find no signs of life


Wikileaker Apologizes For Hurting US
“I’m sorry that my actions hurt people. I’m sorry that they hurt the United States.”



POLITICS
Jesse Jackson Jr. Gets 30 Months In Federal Prison

Former congressman pleads guilty

Stole campaign money to support extravagant lifestyle

New Fallout Over Rodeo Act That Mocked Obama
#phonyscandals

Former Chairman Of JCS David Jones Dies, 92

Immigration Activists Descend On House GOP Whip

NJ Judge Under Pressure To Allow Gay Marriage

Clinton Charity Under Fire For Business Links

Tribe Votes To End Alcohol Ban On Pine Ridge Reservation

Seattle Police To Deal Doritos, Information At Hempfest

ACLU Irate Over Kansas Proof Of Citizenship Law

New ICE Nominee’s Background As Defense Attorney for Pedophiles, Murderers Raises Questions About Credentials

Federal Appeals Court Blocks Vermont Effort To Close Nuke Plant



THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Crude Oil Prices Rise In Asia After Egyptian Bloodbath: NYMEX $107.17, Brent $110.59
AMR Bankruptcy Plan Goes To Judge After Merger Suit
Cisco To Cut 4000 Jobs Despite Profit
Nikkei Leads Asia Lower By 2% As Yen Rises
Wall Street Falls On Uncertainty Over Fed Bond Buying
UK Unemployment Stays At 7.8% As Investors Eye New Rate Signal
Smartphones Top Feature Phones In Sales
NYT Denies Website Failure Due To Cyberattack
Is The Surface RT A Turkey Or Not?
Google Under Fire Over GMail Privacy Remarks
“Call Of Duty: Ghosts” Multiplayer Unveiled



SPORTS
Mets Blow Four-Run Lead, Lose To Dodgers In 12th

Dillon Gee’s fine start wasted

Bullpen can’t hold Dodgers

Patriots QB Tom Brady Sprains Knee, Injury Not Seen As Serious

Soriano Carries Yankees To Win With Two Dingers, Seven Ribbies

Sixers Owner Expected To Buy NHL’s Jersey Devils

Tribe Tops Twins In Twelfth, 9-8

Timbermutts Sign Pekovic To Five Year Deal

O’s Lose To Snakes Again, 5-4 In 14

Blue Jays Rally In 10th, Edge Red Sox 4-3

Span Saves The Day, Seals Nationals’ Fifth Straight Win



FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
“Bachelor” Star Gia Allemand Dies, 29

Declared dead at New Orleans’ University Hospital

Hanged herself in apparent suicide attempt Monday

Simon Cowell’s Baby Mama Settles Divorce

Jennifer Garner Joins Halle Berry In Fight For Tougher Anti-Paparazzi Laws

E.L. James Named World’s Highest-Paid Author With $95 Million For Fifty Shades Of Grey

Jennifer Aniston Sued – Actress Allegedly Stiffed Contractor

Hard-Partying David Arquette Dumped From New Movie

“True Blood”‘s Sam Trammell Joins Shailene Woodley In Fox’s “The Fault In Our Stars”

Vin Diesel Teams With “Grace Of Monaco” Writer For “Soldiers Of The Sun”

Joel Edgerton To Play Ramses In Ridley Scott’s “Exodus”

NBC Nabs Comedy Produced by “30 Rock”‘s Tina Fey, Robert Carlock

Foster Flees Own Film Debut

Boy Drama: Taylor Hates Bieber

Kate Bosworth Tying The Knot



FOREIGNERS
PM Singh: Need To Improve Quality Of Education
Egypt’s Violent Crackdown Shows Limits Of US Influence
Turkish PM Erdogan Says Egypt Democracy Test For The West
PRC Butthurt Over Japanese Ministers’ Visit To Yasukuni Shrine On VJ Day
Car Bombs Kill 26 In Baghdad
Indians Worldwide Celebrate I Day With Gusto
Paraguay’s New President Was Targeted By DEA
MSF Withdraws From Somalia; Accuses Government Of Complicity In Attacks
Jewish Agency Secretly Brings 17 Yemeni Jews To Safety In Israel
Angela Merkel Supports Tories’ Plan To Devolve EU Powers To Member States



BLOGS & STUFF
Michelle Malkin: The Illegal Alien Murderer Of Vanessa Pham
Twitchy: MSNBC Misplaces Four Out Of Four Cities On Map
American Thinker: A Functional Psychosis
Blackmailers Don’t Shoot: Feminist Says Something Sensible, Other Feminists Go Insane
Jawa Report: Hammertime!
Don Surber: Daily Scoreboard For August 14
JustOneMinute: The Times Vs. The Clintons
Shot In The Dark: Minnesota Political Haikus
American Power: Sick – “The Nation” Denies Harry Dexter White’s Soviet Espionage
Jammie Wearing Fools: Facing Steep Decline in Union Membership, AFL-CIO Seeks Partnership with NAACP and Sierra Club
The Necropolitan Sentinel: Obamacare Watch – State Exchanges Falling Short
Rep. Steve Stockman: Invites Missouri Rodeo Clowns Down To Perform In Texas
Rush Limbaugh: UK Telegraph Wonders If I’m Editing The New York Times
George Will: Obama’s Unconstitutional Steps Worse Than Nixon’s
James Pethokoukis: Is This the Chart That Proves The US Has A Structural Unemployment Problem?
Reihan Salam: Explaining The Openings-Hiring Gap
Ruth Simon: Student Loan Load Kills Startup Dreams
National Review: No Conference


Category: Live at Five

VIDEO: Sex-Positive Feminist Tearfully Explains: ‘You’re All the Man I Want’

Posted on | August 14, 2013 | 124 Comments

Earlier today, while researching male feminist Professor Hugo Schwyzer, I ran across a video in which a young woman read one of Schwyer’s columns and she had such a purty mouth that when I’d finished writing about Schwyzer I wondered, “Who is that girl?”

People sometimes ask me, “Stacy, where do you find all these kooks you write about?” And the answer is, random curiosity. So I checked this chick’s YouTube channel and found that she is a fairly popular personality, with more than 1,000 subscribers to her videos, although if she has a blog presence or a Twitter account, it’s separate from what she does on YouTube. Anyway, here’s how she describes herself:

Equality and liberation, no matter who or what you are.
Sex-positivity and much, much more!
Yes, I am a feminist. No, I don’t hate men. No, I don’t think sex is evil. No, I don’t hate girly things.

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner.

Last September, she posted a video entitled, “Why I Might Be Gone From YouTube For A While,” during which she went through a box of Kleenex in a 38-minute explanation of why she and her longtime boyfriend had recently decided to break up:

So I’ve been with the most amazing man ever for the past three years and that’s since I was 18. I’m 21 now. I just turned 21. I met him when I was 17, and we began dating about four or five months later. . . .
I fell madly, madly in love. And I still am. I still am madly, madly in love with this man. He’s about three years older than me, so he’s 24 right now. But recently, we decided to take what I guess some people would call “a break,” for our relationship’s own good, and I’m really conflicted about it, but I know it’s going to be best for us. . . .

Can I pick ’em, or what? If you thought being a “feminist” was about independence, let Little Miss Boohoo correct your misperceptions:

He feels like, these past three years, I’ve been tied down to him and . . . being in college, I should be free to go and explore and have all these experiences that I might not otherwise be able to have, you know, when I have a boyfriend. . . . He’s been saying this for a while, but after something that happened a couple of days ago, we’ve decided officially that this should happen. . . . I’ve been like this all day. I’m a mess. . . .
[She told him] “I like being tied down and I love you,” and he always thought that was weird, but I always told him . . . “You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me. You’re the most amazing guy in the world. I’m so lucky. I can’t think of anyone better.” . . .  He’s just absolutely perfect for me. . . .

He’s “the most amazing man ever”! She’s “madly, madly in love”! He’s “absolutely perfect “! And so, being on the receiving end of her worshipful adoration, Mr. Amazing is doing that passive-aggressive thing, avoiding commitment by saying that she needs to “go and explore and have all these experiences” because otherwise, she’s being “tied down to him,” see? She continues:

But he always felt like I’d never dated enough people. I haven’t seen enough people. And I always kind of just laughed that off and said, “What are you talking about? You’re all the man I want. Why would I go looking for something that, you know, I already have?”

Good Lord, man! Don’t you understand? She craves your seed.

A woman like this, she may call herself a “feminist,” but one look at her — crying her eyes out, pleading to the camera — and you can practically hear the sublimated urges of her inner hausfrau screaming: “Make me pregnant! Let me have your babies and suckle them to my breasts! Let me cook you bratwurst and sauerkraut!” Damn all this modern nonsense about sexism, this woman’s natural destiny is to be the mother of a large brood of nice young Lutheran children, fixing Jello salads for church potluck, and the truly cruel thing — what this guy’s doing — is denying her the fulfillment of her destiny. She continues:

But recently, I was presented with some temptation, and I didn’t cheat on him – I didn’t – but the fact that I wanted to was enough. . . .
I always told him like, the fact that I’ve never had, you know — I’ve never gone as far with girls as I wanted to, or explored enough of my sexuality with other women as I have always wanted to, but I didn’t care, because I had him. . . .

(WHOA! Is this getting good, or what?)

Last semester . . . I work at the Writing Center . . . and there’s this girl who works there. Her name is Maria and she’s an international student and she’s bisexual and she’s really pretty. . . . She and some of the other tutors . . . they invited me out — and I wasn’t 21 at the time, but they invited me out for drinks — after work one day. . . . I couldn’t drink . . . It was fun to see them get drunk, but Maria got really drunk, really drunk, and somehow we got on the subject of sexuality.

(We’re so surprised by this, aren’t we?)

I don’t remember how, but I mentioned the fact that I have a boyfriend, but I’m bisexual. And Maria was like, “Really? That’s so cool! So am I, and my boyfriend and I have an open relationship!” . . . At that point, when she realized I was interested in women, she became interested in me.

Isn’t it just amazing how this happens? Little Miss Boohoo just casually mentions her got-a-boyfrind-but-bisexual status to drunk Maria, and suddenly — surprise! surprise! — Maria’s really into her. So, the situation then comes up that Maria needs to go to the restroom, but is so drunk that her friends deem it necessary for Little Miss Boohoo to escort her, and guess what happens next?

She hit on me in the bathroom, and I had to turn her down — it was a moment of temptation, it definitely was – but I turned her down and I said, “You know what? We need to go back to the table, because you’re trying to kiss me and you’re telling me I’m really pretty, And you’re really pretty, too, and you know, if I didn’t have a boyfriend, this would totally be an option.” But I told her no. . . . And her boyfriend was with us, too, and he was totally cool with it, if anything was going to happen, but I just said like, “Dude, I have a boyfriend who wouldn’t be OK with this, and I wouldn’t feel right.”

See what’s going on here? Little Miss Boohoo isn’t really a lesbian, and her “bisexuality” is merely notional.

It’s just something she’s curious about, because with the way the gay thing gets pounded into kids’ heads nowadays — school, pop culture, peer pressure — unless you want to be regarded as a hateful weirdo, you’re supposed to at least experiment with the gay thing. And blondie here has indicated she’s messed around with girls a little bit, but not as much as she feels like she should, so she’s still . . . curious.

On the other hand, it seems, her friend Maria is enthusiastically into girls, especially when she’s drunk, and Maria’s boyfriend is cool with that, because maybe they could do a threesome and he could get some new amateur videos to share with his buddies.

However, while Little Miss Boohoo has this unsatisfied curiosity (really, you almost wish some hard-core diesel dyke would make a move on her, just to help her get over that ambiguity, one way or another) yet on the other hand, she still has this quaint old-fashioned sense of loyalty to Mr. Amazing, her passive-aggressive boyfriend.

So her reply to Maria is not, “Leave me alone, you pervert!” Instead, she turns Maria down almost apologetically, and yet feels guilty merely to have been tempted to stray from Mr. Amazing:

So that was, I guess, one of those opportunities that my boyfriend was talking about that he feels bad that he’s holding me back from experiencing, you know, thinks that I’ve always been curious about — all these “what ifs.” And so, yeah, that was the first time that I kind of thought, maybe there’s something to what he’s saying. Maybe I don’t know what I want. . . .

OK, is it just me, or has the decline of traditional “family values” left young people hopelessly confused, pondering existential complexities that Grandma never had to worry about? You don’t have to be Pat Robertson to deplore this poor woman’s situation.

No fire and brimstone sermons about lust and fornication and sin are necessary here. It’s more like one of those “21st-century relationship” problems that Instapundit is always noticing: Without the simple and predictable pathways of religion or custom to guide them, these kids just drift along in a fog of uncertainty. “Gosh, Maria is really pretty and I’ve always been curious about this, but . . .”

Meanwhile, there’s Mr. Amazing, toward whom Little Miss Boohoo feels this profound loyalty and almost comical adoration: “You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me. . . . I’m so lucky. I can’t think of anyone better. . . . You’re all the man I want.”

Having heaped so much ridicule on this silly girl — only because she’s a Sex Positive Feminist who thinks Hugo Schwyzer is profound — I’m tired of transcribing her pathetic rant and, honestly, I feel sorry for her. Not because she posted this video for our sarcastic amusement, but because Mr. Amazing refuses to let her fulfill her Teutonic peasant destiny of kinder, küche, kirche.

Dammit, son, take charge! Have her make you a nice dinner of bratwurst and sauerkraut, and then tell her, “Me Tarzan, you Jane.”

Get in touch with your inner patriarch, tell her to get rid of those silly birth-control pills, and as soon as she gets pregnant, take her down to the courthouse and get married. None of that expensive romantic Disney Princess Dream Wedding nonsense, with all the bridesmaids and rehearsals and stuff, just marry the girl and make babies.

Meanwhile, in case anyone wants to see the whole video, let me warn you about the scene where she goes to the male strip show with her girlfriends, and gets a free lap dance from the dancer with tattoos and piercings. (Turns out she’s curious about that, too.)

Not to spoil the denouement, but there’s kind of a happy ending: Her break-up with Mr. Amazing only lasted a week.

They can’t live without each other, and she returned to YouTube all smiley about it. But he still needs to let her do the kinder, küche, kirche thing. It’s her destiny — trust me on this — and I bet she cooks a wonderful bratwurst and sauerkraut casserole. Also, Jello salad.

 

Category: Feminism
« go back — keep looking »

    About

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

    Subscribe to our feed

    Search

    Admin