LIVE AT FIVESIX: 03.21.13

[O]n social media in recent weeks, dozens of athletes and Torrington High School students, male and female, have taunted the 13-year-old victim, calling her a “whore,” criticizing her for “snitching” and “ruining the lives” of the 18-year-old football players, and bullying students who defend her.
“Even if it was all his fault, what was a 13 year old girl doing hanging around 18 year old guys..” said a Twitter user with the handle, “@LoryyRamirez.” That was reposted 11 times and received six favorites.

Balancing the rights of victims and the rights of the accused can be difficult in such cases, and when rape accusations become national headlines, commentary is often wildly irresponsible. Lee Stranahan covered the ways in which reaction to the Steubenville case led to false accusations of a “cover-up” that impugned the entire community. Dana Pico at First Street Journal reminds us of another media-created travesty:

Many of our friends on the left immediately jumped on the guilty, guilty, guilty! bandwagon in the infamous Duke lacrosse team not-rape case, including our old friend Amanda Marcotte, who was extremely reluctant to believe that Crystal Gail Mangum might actually have lied when she made the accusations, stating that the charges were dropped against the three accused lacrosse players because the “prosecution in the Duke case fumbled the ball.” ….One of Miss Marcotte’s commenters even held that:

Rape is a crime unlike others. In any rape case, but especially in a rape case where a black woman accuses a white man, the rapist should be considered guilty until he proves his innocence. And he must prove his innocence not beyond a reasonable doubt, but beyond any possible doubt. The Durham rapists have not done so, by any means.

The rush to judgment, the irresponsible haste to comment on what happened before we actually know what happened, causes all kinds of unecessary problems in situations like these. Trying criminal cases in the media is always a bad idea, and using blog comments as a way to vent personal or political sentiments about a rape case can easily turn into a digital lynch mob mentality.

Category: Connecticut, Crime

Allen West Wonders Aloud If Cyprus Is A Hound Of Ill American Omen

Posted on | March 20, 2013 | 4 Comments

by Smitty

Category: PJTV

S.C. Primary: Will Tea Party Rally Behind Curtis Bostic Against Mark Sanford?

Posted on | March 20, 2013 | 58 Comments

Family values: Curtis Bostic with his wife and five children

Dana Loesch this morning expressed disappointment that disgraced former Gov. Mark Sanford finished first in the South Carolina GOP congressional special-election primary. But it’s a runoff state, and Sanford only got 37 percent of the vote, while former Charleston City Councilman Curtis Bostic was second with 13 percent in the 16-candidate field. There are only two weeks until the April 1 runoff and, as National Review‘s Jim Geraghty notes, the Republican establishment seems to be lining up behind Sanford, so . . .

What about Curtis Bostic? His campaign page is StopSpending.com — a basic Tea Party theme — and it seems entirely possible that the grassroots, tired of the corrupt GOP establishment’s old-boy style of politics, could rally behind Bostic.

Reading his biography page, he’s a Marine veteran of Operation Desert Storm and the father of five home-schooled children. So there’s your pro-military and pro-family “street cred.”

Two weeks isn’t a lot of time. This is a very safe Republican district — Stephen Colbert’s sister won the Democrat primary, but she’ll get stomped in the May 7 special election to fill the seat vacated by Tim Scott’s promotion to the Senate. It’s a free shot, in other words: Torpedo the establishment pick — the guy who claimed he was “hiking the Appalachian Trail” while cavorting in Buenos Aires with his Argentine mistress — and elect a strong (but unknown) conservative candidate.

Here’s the link to contribute to Curtis Bostic’s campaign. How many small donations — $25, $50, $100 — will Curtis Bostic get this week?

The RNC ignores blogs, but I see here an opportunity to remind them that the Army of Davids can still make a difference. What do you say?

CURTIS BOSTIC for CONGRESS

Category: Congress, Election, South Carolina, Tea Party

LIVE AT FIVE: 03.20.13

Posted on | March 20, 2013 | 8 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho

TOP NEWS
Obama’s Gun Control Plans Stumble In Senate

Customers view rifles on display at a gun shop in LA

Harry Reid says not enough votes to pass Feinstein assault weapon ban

ROK Broadcasters, Banks Suffer Cyberattacks
Three networks and two banks’ sites taken down; Norks suspected

Marines Halt Mortar’s Use After Training Accident Kills Seven
Harry Reid blames sequester

POLITICS
Sanford Advances To Runoff In SC-1 GOP Primary

Former SC governor Mark Sanford

Gets 37% of primary vote; will face either Bostic or Grooms on April 2

ICE Says 28 Illegals Sprung In Sequestration Kabuki Back In Jail

Senate Nears Passage Of Continuing Resolution

Senate Committee Approves White For SEC 21-1

Former Abortionist Gosnell’s Employee Offers Disturbing Testimony

Supremes Nix Publishers’ Prohibition On Foreign Edition Sales In US

Statue Of Liberty To Reopen By July 4

THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Oil Prices Up In Asia Despite Cyprus Kerfluffle: NYMEX $93.77, Brent $109.33
German Bund Near 11-Year Low After Cyprus Rejects Deposit Levy
Dell Shares Up As Blackstone Rumors Surface
Lululemon Pulls Yoga Pants For “Sheerness” (Video); Supplier Insists Recalled Pants Made To Spec
Walgreen Signs 10-Year Deal With AmerisourceBergen, Takes 7% Stake With AllianceBoots
Dow Jones Investigates Bribery Allegations Against WSJ China
Adobe Shares Rise As Profit Tops Estimates
L.A. To Go Coal-Free By 2025
Civil Engineers Give American Infrastructure D+ In Latest Report
Google Adds Another City To Fiber Service Rollout
Jawbone UP Fitness Bracelet Makes Jump To Android
Over 500 Million Devices Connected To Internet In U.S.
HTC One Smartphone Release Delayed
DARPA Seeks More Reliable Wireless For Troops
Reborn Detroit Electric Announces Plans For Battery-Powered Sports Car

SPORTS
Penguins Top Capitals, Extend Winning Streak To 10

Pens’ Crosby upended by Capitals defender

Fleury makes 28 saves in 2-1 win

Robert Morris Stuns Kentucky In NIT 59-57

Bruins Lose Another Third-Period Lead, Fall To Jets 3-1

Nuggets Beat Thunder For 13th Win In Row

Senators Rally To Beat Islanders 5-3

St. Mary’s Routs Middle Tennessee 67-54

Blue Jackets Edge Predators 4-3

Smith Lifts Short-Handed Knicks Past Jazz, 90-83

Habs Fall To Sabres In OT, 3-2

The Shark Returns To Camp After Netherlands Eliminated In WBC

FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
Katy Perry, John Mayer Split Up For Second Time

Katy & John

Both focused on work

Brad Cooper Robs Cradle Again With Model Suki Waterhouse, 20

Lindsey Mocked Tiger During Cheating Scandal

Seth MacFarlane Splits From “Game Of Thrones” GF Emilia Clarke

Lindsay Lohan Trolls Nightclubs After Latest Rehab Deal

Bruno Mars: Why I Lied To Police After My Coke Bust

Gisele Bundchen Wears Tiny String Bikini With Daughter In Baby Carrier

Hugh Jackman To Star In “Six Years” For Paramount

FOREIGNERS
UK Tourist Jumps From Agra Hotel Balcony To Escape Unwanted Massage
French Budget Minister Resigns After Tax Evasion Allegations
Malala Yousafzai Back At School For First Time Since Taliban Shooting
NATO Agrees To Withdraw Special Forces From Afghanistan’s Wardak Province
Russians Drop Investigation Into Magnitsky’s Death
American Convicted Of Murdering Irish Student In Tokyo
Canadian Finance Minister Previews Budget Themes In Letter To MPs
Bolshoi Theatre Mulls Response To Pimping Claims

BLOGS & STUFF
Weasel Zippers: DiFi Says She’s Not Done With Gun Grab Attempts
Shark Tank: Hary Reid Kills Feinstein’s “Assault Weapon” Ban, Piers Morgan Hardest Hit
Jim Geraghty: Apparently The Assault Weapon Ban Didn’t Deserve A Vote After All
Allahpundit: Harry Reid Hints Seven Marines Killed In Explosion Actually Died From Sequestration
Power Line: Harry Reid Politicizes Lethal Marine Training Accident
The Blaze: WaPo Editor Doesn’t Want Poor Folks Buying “Cheetos Puffs” And The Like With Food Stamps
Bryan Preston: Do The Democrats Have A Realistic Shot At The House In 2014?
Rush Limbaugh: The GOP’s Real Problem Is Simple
Conservatives4Palin: Michael Steele Calls Reince Priebus “Numbnuts”
Gateway Pundit: Rand Paul Rejects AP’s Sloppy Reporting On “Citizenship” For Illegals
FishbowlDC: Washington Examiner Folds Print Edition, Reportedly Lays Off 30
Protein Wisdom: NJ CPS Raids Home Over Facebook Photo Of Gun
Professor Bainbridge: Democrats And The Road To Becoming Greece
American Power: The Progressive Shift – To The Expropriation Of Capital!

Category: Live at Five

Missing Word in RNC Report: ‘Blog’

Posted on | March 19, 2013 | 23 Comments

William Jacobson at Legal Insurrection spots the omission:

Even when the report does mention “social media,” it’s in the context of getting out the vote or having the party apparatus find a better way to reach voters.
I would not be surprised if the RNC spoke with some of the salaried conservative media class who share the Washington professional circuit. But did they reach out to the Army of Davids who are the anti-thesis of the consultant model because we mostly don’t get paid or make much money blogging, we do this in our “spare” time, and we are outside D.C.?
Did the RNC get any input from the great unwashed conservative blogosphere? You wouldn’t know it from the report if it did . . .

Read the whole thing. The idea of “citizen-journalism” is quite nearly alien to the consultant class. The teamwork concept of voluntary collaboration mystifies people for whom politics is a paid gig. Take away their consulting fees, and these guys wouldn’t have anything to do with politics.

There is nothing wrong with applying the entrepreneurial spirit to politics — “Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn” — so long as the rewards bear some relation to results. As I’ve often said about the hindsight criticisms leveled at the Romney campaign, nobody would have cared what they got paid, if only they had won the election.

The massive stumbling clusterf–k of the Romney campaign’s “Project ORCA” exposed the fact that greedy incompetents were being paid ginormous fees to do jobs they didn’t actually know how to do. There is a difference between making a living and making a killing, you see.

Category: Legal Insurrection, Republicans

Left-Handed Family Conservativism

Posted on | March 19, 2013 | 14 Comments

by Smitty

We may not return to the notion of one job, one family as superior yet, but could drift back that direction. Lisa DePasquale reviews Lisa Millier in New York magazine on “The Retro Wife”, about feminists surveying the labor force and finding equally forceful labor at home. As though, in addition to decrying “slut shaming,” feminists may eventually back off of “wife shaming,” too. Go figure.

In the nearly 20 months that the World’s Youngest Blogger has been my joy, I’ve actually spent five of those months at home, on a sabbatical after deployment, and then the last two months laid off. Thus, I’ve grown to admire the undeniable fact that motherhood IS a full-on job, and feminists have been as false in attacking mothers who treat motherhood as a full-time job as the feminists have been diabolical in supporting abortion.

DePasquale notes:

Feminists always put a higher premium on what women miss in their careers — advancement, fulfillment, salary — while ignoring what they miss in their home life — time with children and spouse, hobbies, greater connection with what their children are doing. They were able to sell this bill of goods to women in the 60s, 70s and 80s because those women were less likely to be the children of working mothers. Women my generation and younger know what’s missing when living in a single parent or dual-working parents homes. Every generation wants their children to have better. For many mothers, that means being at home during the development years.

The other point here is that our progressive tax code really starts to crush and punish a second salary in the home. In the DC market, you really want $40K to pay a nanny to watch the little dears, by the time all of the pay and tax and overtime issues are sorted. Suddenly, the cost avoidance of sticking around the house and homeschooling the next generation seems much less of a hassle than dealing with the Great Wall of Traffic every day.

The Democrats’ anti-capitalist taxation ideas, ultimately, could help heal some of the cultural damage they’ve inflicted. Almost ironic, there in the rubble.

Category: Culture

Like Ferris Bueller’s Sister

Posted on | March 19, 2013 | 74 Comments

“Why should he get to do whatever he wants, whenever he wants? Why should everything work out for him? What makes him so goddamn special?”

Never mind why I’m quoting this. But when you see the vindictiveness — the backstabbing and vicious deceit — inspired by envy and ambition, and when you see your friends made to suffer because your other “friends” are psychologically consumed by selfish jealousy . . .

Damn. Just . . . damn.

Category: Politics

« 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.

The Other McCain

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

LIVE AT FIVESIX: 03.21.13

The Rush to Judgment: Is Torrington Destined to Be the Next Steubenville?

Allen West Wonders Aloud If Cyprus Is A Hound Of Ill American Omen

S.C. Primary: Will Tea Party Rally Behind Curtis Bostic Against Mark Sanford?

LIVE AT FIVE: 03.20.13

Missing Word in RNC Report: ‘Blog’

Left-Handed Family Conservativism

Like Ferris Bueller’s Sister

THE FULL METAL JACKET REACH-AROUND AWARD

HIT THE FREAKING TIP JAR!

Search

Recent Posts

RSS reader subscription

MEMEORANDUM

Recent Comments

THE AMAZING GONZO FEED

Major Leagues

Archives

Free Agents

SHAMELESS CAPITALISM

Triple-A Franchises

Blogroll

About

Subscribe to our feed

Search

Admin