The Other McCain

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

LIVE AT FIVE: 06.24.13

Posted on | June 24, 2013 | 7 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho


TOP NEWS
Presidential Sops Fail To Quell Brazil’s Protests

Protesters camp in front of the Governor’s Residence in Rio de Janeiro

Friday’s televised speech by Rousseff dismissed as “rhetoric”

Snowden Due To Quit Moscow In Ecuador Asylum Bid
Hong Kong to Moscow to Havana to ?

Nelson Mandela Reportedly In Critical Condition
Lung infection no longer responding to treatment



POLITICS
Pelosi Booed, Heckled At Netroots Conference

Rep. Nancy Pelosi

Former Speaker’s defense of NSA snooping not well received

Government Begins Education Blitz For Uninsured

Emotional Abortion Debate Continues In Texas House

Mayor Bloomberg Cuts Deal With City Council On $70 Billion Budget

Obama To Unveil Climate Plan In Tuesday Speech

New Pro-Hillary Super PAC Attracts Donors, Worries

“Dead On Arrival”: Rand Paul Predicts Immigration Bill Doomed In House

Proposed Bill Would Fire Federal Employees Who Refuse To Testify



THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Oil Trades Near Two-Week Low On Slow PRC Recovery Concerns: NYMEX $93.48, Brent $100.51
Twinkies Set To Make “Sweetest Comeback” In July
BIS Says Party’s Over For Quantitative Easing
PRC Mid-Sized Bank Shares Tumble On Liquidity Concerns
Despite Drought, Harvest Good In Parts Of Kansas
Mystique In Tow, Dunkin’ Donuts Ready To Make Splash In Utah
Facebook Reportedly Working On Mobile News Delivery Service
FTC Reportedly Set To Probe Google’s Waze Acquisition
Early Apple Computer Could Fetch $500K Or More
If The Government Can Access Our Facebook Data, What Happens When We Have Computers On Our Faces?
AOL Reader Coming Soon To Fill Google Reader Void
Facebook’s Hashtags Will Be Great For Marketers – Users, Not So Much



SPORTS
Martin Truex Jr. Snaps 218-Race Winless Streak

Martin Truex Jr. celebrates in the victory lane

Beats Jeff Gordon at Toyota/Save Mart 350 in Sonoma

Blackhawks Edge Bruins 3-1 In Game Five, Take 3-2 Series Lead Into Tonight’s Game

Garcia Roughed Up Early As Jays Thump O’s 13-5, Extend Streak To 11

Pirates Plunder Angels Again With 10-9 Win For Sweep

Harvey Stifles Phillies, Mets Win 8-0

Celtics, Clippers Cut A Deal Sending Rivers To LA

Costner Takes Batting Practice With The Tribe

Royals Rally Late, Edge White Sox To Avoid Sweep

Cubs Rout Astros 14-6

Tigers Take Advantage Of Red Sox Errors, Rally For 7-5 Win

Morales Hits Three-Run Dinger In 10th To Win It For M’s

Fish Rip Giants’ Bullpen For 7-2 Win

Struggling Nationals Keep Losing Players, Ballgames



FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
Miranda Kerr Models This Season’s Swimwear For Net-A-Porter

Miranda Kerr

Giving women severe bikini body envy


“Monsters U” Zooms To $82 Million At Box Office, “World War Z” #2 At $66 Million

NeNe Remarries Greg Leakes

Paula Deen Thanks Food Network For “Eleven Great Years” After Firing

Kelly Rutherford Files For Bankruptcy – Divorce Did Her In


“That 70s Show” Star Lisa Robin Kelly Arrested For DUI

James Gandolfini’s Body Being Flown Back To New York; Funeral Scheduled For Thursday

Paris Jackson Headed For Additional Treatment

Anna Kendrick In Talks To Play Cinderella In Disney’s “Into The Woods”

Cinemax, Frank Spotnitz Developing “Hunted” Spinoff Starring Heather George

Ashton Kutcher As Steve Jobs In “Jobs”: Watch The Trailer

Justin Bieber’s Manager Wants Him To Go To Rehab

Jennifer Lopez Gets 2,500th Star On Hollywood’s Walk Of Fame

Amanda Bynes Has Her Fake Boobs Removed

Demi Moore, Daughter Rumer Willis Bond Over Yoga

Bob Newhart Lists His Bel Air Estate For $15.5 Million

Bristol Palin, Melissa Rivers To Switch Households On “Wife Swap”



FOREIGNERS
LDP, Komeito Secure Majority In Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly
Jihadis Kill Ten Climbers In Pakistan’s Himalayas
Syrian Rebels’ Car Bomb Explodes In Aleppo Airbase
Ten Lebanese Soldiers Killed In Clashes With Anti-Hezbollah Sheikh’s Followers
Mahmoud Abbas Accepts Hamdallah’s Resignation; PM Quits After Just Three Weeks
Erdogan, Opponents Hold Mass Rallies
Kerry Looks To Strengthen Ties During India Visit



BLOGS & STUFF
NewsBusters: Greenwald Asks, “Who Needs Government To Criminalize Journalism When You Have David Gregory To Do It?”
Ed Driscoll: Ride The David Gregory Recursion
Lonely Conservative: Ed Snowden Makes Some Odd Choices For Someone Concerned About Liberty
Power Line: Why Immigration Reform Is The Panama Canal Treaty Redux
Mickey Kaus: One More Metaphor For The Gang Of Eight
Legal Insurrection: Chuck Schumer Still Will Not Love Republicans In The Morning
Breitbart: Casino Crony Kickback – Reid, Heller Slip Las Vegas Tourism Handout Into Immigration Bill
Protein Wisdom: California Is Obama’s Tammany Hall


Rule 5 Monday will be up later today.


Category: Live at Five

Real Life Is Not a Reality TV Audition

Posted on | June 23, 2013 | 25 Comments

Maybe you saw the story via Althouse: Colorado officials have ruled that an elementary school was guilty of “discrimination” for not letting Coy Mathis use the girl’s bathroom. Coy is 6 and thinks he’s a girl. The ruling cited “evolving research on transgender development.”

Question: Does this “evolving research” say anything about the influence of a mother who’s a neurotic weirdo?

Because there’s a woman here who is familiar with Coy Mathis’ mother and says she “is a fame-seeking attention whore, who will stop at nothing to prove how edgy and non-mainstream she is.”

It seems Mrs. Mathis conceived triplets with the assistance of non-presciption fertility drugs she got from Mexico, and then had “natural childbirth” in a swimming pool in her living room. When one of her triplets got a serious respiratory disease (RSV), Mrs. Mathis sought the assistance of an alternative “healer” with the result that the child suffered brain damage and is now severely retarded. Having gained an Internet “following” first in the mothers-of-triplets community, then in the natural childbirth community and then in the “special needs” community, now it would seem that Mrs. Mathis is seeking to expand her “following” to include the mothers-of-transgendered community.

Well, you can read the whole thing and form your own opinion.

Coming soon to cable TV: Real Housewives of Kookville.

 


Category: Culture

Headline Round-Up: Snowden Flees

Posted on | June 23, 2013 | 42 Comments

Working on some stuff today while coping with a caffeine deficiency, but my first task today was the latest in the Ed Snowden story:

Charged by U.S. authorities with espionage, former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden left Hong Kong on Sunday and flew to Moscow, although it was not believed Russia would be his final destination.
Snowden is expected to continue on to Cuba and then to Venezuela, the New York Times reported, citing reports by Russian’s Interfax agency. . . .
Snowden, 29, arrived Sunday in Russia aboard an Aeroflot commercial flight shortly after 9 a.m. Eastern time (5 p.m. in Moscow). . . .
New York Sen. Chuck Schumer said Sunday that Snowden’s flight would likely harm U.S.-Russian relations. It is “almost certain” Russian President Vladimir Putin knew about the fugitive’s plan to fly to Moscow, Schumer told CNN, “and it’s likely he approved it.”
The Reuters news agency cited “a source at the Russian airline Aeroflot” as saying Snowden “would fly on within 24 hours to Cuba and then planned to go to Venezuela.” . . .
Federal officials Friday charged Snowden with three counts: theft of government property, unauthorized communication of national defense information and willful communication of classified communications intelligence information to an unauthorized person.

You can read the rest at Viral Read. I’ve become weary of arguing with friends about this story, and probably wouldn’t like it any better if I were arguing with my enemies about it. Arguing just isn’t that much fun, really, and all this surveillance stuff is boring. Anyway, we’re out of coffee at the house, and I need it because I was up late working on this story:

What ‘Big Story’ Was Michael Hastings
Working On When He Died?

The problem is we don’t know what was going on the last 15 hours of Hastings’ life. He sent an e-mail to his BuzzFeed editors, saying the FBI was snooping around with his “close associates,” and the next thing we know, he slammed his car into a tree. I don’t think it’s a conspiracy or anything. Frankly, I think Hastings just got paranoid and freaked out. But the FBI has denied that it was investigating him, which raises the question: Why did Hastings believe he was being investigated, if he wasn’t? And what the hell was he doing driving 100 mph through Los Angeles at 4 o’clock on a Tuesday morning?

Another mysterious question: What kind of freak is Bill Schmalfeldt?

Honestly, what’s become of our civil liberties, when two women can’t have sex in a McDonald’s toilet without being assaulted?

Speaking of sex in toilets, I forgot to mention here that Kaitlyn Hunt’s attorney is trying to get the judge thrown off her case, saying the judge is “prejudiced” — against having sex in toilets, maybe.

Speaking of Florida sex offenders:

The man suspected of killing Jacksonville child Charish Perriwinkle, 8, has been charged with murder.
Members with the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office said Saturday that 56-year-old Donald Smith, a registered sex offender who has been convicted in the past of kidnapping, acted alone in the incident.
Charish’s body was found Saturday morning. She went missing while shopping with her mother Friday night.

Don’t tell this to the #FreeKate mob, but once upon a time, Donald Smith was also 18 years old. Were there warning signs that the teenage Donald Smith might become a child-killing pervert?

We don’t know, but we do know that Kaitlyn Hunt’s supporters insist she’s an innocent lamb who — aside from her penchant for having sex with 14-year-olds in the school bathroom — is a “model citizen” who is being unjustly prosecuted for a “high school romance.” Merely comparing Saint Kate of the Blessed Finger to creepy old violent sex offenders is hateful, her devotees tell us, because there is no evidence that she has any tendency toward violence. Oh, wait . . .

On May 25, I used the phrase “Sexual Anarchy” to describe the state of affairs toward which the “Free Kate” arguments are leading us. It turns out that my good friend Matt Barber of Liberty Counsel used the same phrase in 2011 to describe a weird gathering:

On Wednesday, Aug. 17 [2011], I – along with the venerable child advocate Dr. Judith Reisman – attended a conference hosted by the pedophile group B4U-ACT. Around 50 individuals were in attendance, including a number of admitted pedophiles (or “minor-attracted persons” as they euphemistically prefer), a few self-described “gay activists” and several supportive mental-health professionals. World renowned “sexologist” Dr. Fred Berlin of Johns Hopkins University gave the keynote address, saying: “I want to completely support the goal of B4U-ACT.”
Here are some highlights from the conference:

  • Pedophiles are “unfairly stigmatized and demonized” by society.
  • There was concern about “vice-laden diagnostic criteria” and “cultural baggage of wrongfulness.”
  • “We are not required to interfere with or inhibit our child’s sexuality.”
  • “Children are not inherently unable to consent” to sex with an adult. . . .

Read the rest of that and then I dare you to claim — as the “Free Kate” crowd does — that there is no danger that letting Kaitlyn Hunt go free would establish a dangerous precedent, giving aid and encouragement to these twisted perverts who want to void all age-of-consent laws. And make no mistake, perverts who want to legalize sex with kids are enthusiastically cheering for the “Free Kate” cause.

In case you had trouble reading that:

“This is what I’ve always felt. Get rid of numerical age of consent laws. If a person was too young to be able to give meaningful consent to sexual activity, put the onus on the prosecutor to demonstrate as much. …”

(Holy crap: You must prove a 9-year-old did not consent?)

“… Get rid of arbitrary numbers. No one should have to do math to love another person.”

Please tell me the NSA has that creep under surveillance.

 

Category: Crime

Perverts, Degenerates and Sociopaths

Posted on | June 22, 2013 | 163 Comments

Sue Lyon in Lolita (1962)

S.J. Reidhead has an excellent examination of the characteristic problems of pro-pedophile apologists in the “Free Kate” movement, an inevitable consequence of the arguments that the Hunt family has made in defense of the accused sex offender Kaitlyn Ashley Hunt.

From the beginning, both Kaitlyn’s parents have been dishonest about the case for the simple reason that, if they had been honest, the response would have been: “She ought to take the plea bargain.” The creation of a false narrative of victimhood was the only way for them to gain widespread sympathy. Once the truth about the case became public (the facts have been compiled at Support Honesty), the “Free Kate” movement lost mainstream support, and what was left was a hard core of fanatics, many of them evidently suffering from emotional disorders.

Meanwhile, however, S.J. Reidhead writes:

If you start surfing the internet, you will find that there are numerous articles popping up, along with sites, saying that the whole problem of pedophilia is hysteria.

This argument — that pedophiles are so rare that only “hysterics” worry about them — is often accompanied by pious lectures about the importance of understanding these pedophiles we shouldn’t worry about. And occasionally you find them citing “studies” which, upon further investigation, were authored by notorious pedophiles. Read more

Category: Culture, Kaitlyn Hunt, Sex

FMJRA 2.0: Starface

Posted on | June 22, 2013 | 15 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho


Imaginary ‘Rights’ You Don’t Have, You Sad and Disgusting Troll, Bill Schmalfeldt

FMJRA 2.0: The Planets

NSA and the Ethos of the Geek Elite

World’s Youngest Blogger: Is There Fruit At The Bottom Of This Yoga?

Rule 5 Sunday: Father’s Day

A Psychosis Called ‘Equality’

A Few Words About The FMJRA

Edward Snowden: Paranoid Goofball Or America-Hating Douchebag?

If We ‘Create Education Better,’ People Might Learn the Wage Gap Is a Myth

Has Bill Schmalfeldt Forgotten?

The World’s Youngest Blogger Gets His Mac Daddy On

LIVE AT FIVE: 06.18.13

World Leaders Pondering Hospitals

Raped and Killed by the Sequester?

Speaking of (Alleged) Perverts …

LIVE AT FIVE: 06.19.13

Weirdos, Freaks And Degenerates

Leaders: Some Shake, Others Quiver

Turbocharged Luxury Death

If Ed Markey Were Any More Of A 1%er, He’d Be ‘Gentleman’ Jim Moran

LIVE AT FIVE: 06.20.13

Michael Hastings ‘Was Hauling Irish Ass’

Obama’s Berlin Speech Was Really Just An Alice In Chains Reference

‘Fire Can’t Melt Crazy!’

It Hasn’t Been As Much Fun Since The Bear Up And Died

The Unlubricated Truth

LIVE AT FIVE: 06.21.13

Stereotype: Neurobiology Majors Just Can’t Resist Those Sexy Seventh-Graders

The Eliminationist Rhetoric Of @QueerSpring 2013, Twitter Psychopath

Slow week for links. Maybe posting the FMJRA rules wasn’t such a good plan…

Top linkers this week:

  1. Rick’s Rants (23 the hard way)
  2. EBL (9, ditto)

Thanks to everyone for their linkagery! Deadline to submit links for next week’s FMJRA is Friday, June 28; special thanks to all the folks that did!


Category: FMJRA Award

Crony Journalism at Think Progress?

Posted on | June 22, 2013 | 28 Comments

Aleister at American Glob publishes “An Illustrated Guide To The Dishonesty Of Think Progress” with a link to an intriguing article at The Nation (of all places) which describes “a secret group of corporate donors” that would appear to function as a nexus between (a) businesses reliant on funding from the federal government’s “green energy” programs, and (b) the Center for the American Progress, which does not disclose the conflicts of interest behind its advocacy on behalf of “green energy.”

I used to know a guy who focused on the Center for American Progress as a key element of what he called “the institutional Left.”

Damn, I miss that guy.

 

Category: Corruption, Journalism

Props To Sen. McConnell For Giving Ornstein A Boot To The Head

Posted on | June 21, 2013 | 32 Comments

by Smitty

Also striking in this clip is a politician admitting he was wrong. Good stuff:

Category: Politics, Republicans

The Eliminationist Rhetoric of @QueerSpring2013, Twitter Psychopath UPDATE: The ‘Pomosexual’ Mandela?

Posted on | June 21, 2013 | 94 Comments

If you recall the reaction to passage of Proposition 8 (see my 2008 article “Gay Rights, Gay Rage”), you know that the more militant members of the gay rights movement are some of the most hate-filled lunatics in human history. Pol Pot looks reasonable by comparison.

One such deranged monster uses the Twitter handle @QueerSpring2013, whose profile announces a radical agenda:

REFUSE TO ACCEPT AUTHORITY OF
HETEROSUPREMACIST APARTHEID LAWS
DENYING LGBTIQ HUMAN RIGHTS

Right: All hitherto existing human society has been an unjust and oppressive tyranny of “heterosupremacist apatheid,” of which this pseudonymous online ranter is the enraged victim. From this sense of victimhood is derived a self-righteousness that “liberates” the radical from all social norms, empowering them to attack any opponent By Any Means Necessary. A few samples of the resulting discourse:

QS2013 first showed up in my timeline attacking critics of the “Free Kate” movement (because if you don’t believe in the right to have sex in school toilet stalls with 14-year-olds, you’re a hater). And the goal of QS2013 is not to engage these critics in debate, but rather to silence them, to abolish dissent, to shut down the online voices of anyone who thinks Kaitlyn Hunt should stand trial in Florida.


The essence of QS2013’s argument: Decent law-abiding people have no rights, as “rights” are reserved entirely for criminal perverts.

Have a friendly chat with @QueerSpring2013 on Twitter.

UPDATE: Nothing is more predictable than that radicals will costume themselves in the “civil rights” wardrobe, without any thought to the appropriateness of the comparisons they invoke:

“Pornosexual”? Yeah. While advocating legal sex with 14-year-olds, it’s important to declare your enthusiasm for pornography.

UPDATE II: Thanks to the reader who scrutinized this and realized that the word is actually “pomosexual” — “pomo” being the ancient Greek word for lunatic. No, I’m kidding: “Pomo” is shorthand for postmodern, but most postmodernists are lunatics who spend a lot of time jacking off to porn, so it really means the same thing.

UPDATE III: Rather appropriate:

 

Category: Gays, Kaitlyn Hunt
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