The Other McCain

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

Again, Cassone, On Newtown

Posted on | December 20, 2012 | 2 Comments

by Smitty

We need a word for that awkward point,
When one enounters art,
And says, “Da best in da flippin’ joint!
Tell, me: How’d it start?”

The artist’s face, it then grows dark,
And with a lowered eye,
Replies, “Blood down in the park,
That deserved not so to die.”

Oh that we could enjoy beauty,
But with a lower price,
For with the living lays duty,
To dodge diabiolical dice,

And honor those less fortunate,
For reasons we grasp not,
Perishing in moments turbulent,
In sudden, hellish shot.

We need a word for that awkward point. Pre-catharsis? Take in this touching tribute:

Category: Chris Cassone

Viral Video Idea, Only Minor Damage To Robert Stacy McCain Required

Posted on | December 20, 2012 | 23 Comments

by Smitty

Via Slashdot, we have a review of the new Windows:
Based upon that review (lengthy, but consistently good throughout), if we set up a camera, gave RSM a writing deadline, and a computer running Windows 8, my gut is that the resulting meltdown would be one for the ages. I guess if they wanted to shank Windows 8 any further, they would have needed Congress to code it.

While more or less good with Windows, myself, especially with VBA macro coding in MS Office (I should crank out an O’Reilly book) I really only use it on the job. It’s all Linux and OSX these days. If I haven’t got a command-line interface and some reasonable scriptability, it’s dead to me.

Category: Uncategorized

A Constitutional Right to Donkey Sex?

Posted on | December 20, 2012 | 21 Comments

Lisa Graas remembers how Rick Santorum was ridiculed for saying that the same logic that justifies gay marriage as a “right” could also justify legalized bestiality. Many at the time mocked Santorum as a bigoted yahoo. Yet the Republican presidential hopeful was merely expressing what Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia had warned of when, in dissenting from the court’s 2003 Lawrence v. Texas decision, he criticized the thin and hasty logic by which his colleagues overturned their own 1986 Bowers v. Hardwick precedent:

State laws against bigamy, same-sex marriage, adult incest, prostitution, masturbation, adultery, fornication, bestiality, and obscenity are likewise sustainable only in light of Bowers’ validation of laws based on moral choices.

Scalia’s dissent — which everyone should read — derided the court’s majority decision for creating a hitherto unknown “emerging awareness” doctrine for laws governing sexual behavior. Who can predict with any confidence where “emerging awareness” might lead?

We may be farther down the slippery slope toward legalized bestiality than most people suspect. In September, Carlos Romero was arrested in Marion County, Florida, and charged with having sex with a female miniature donkey named Doodle. His lawyers are arguing that the Florida law against sex with animals violates Romero’s rights:

In the motion filed in Marion County court on Dec. 6, the assistant public defenders handling Romero’s case — Joshua Wyatt, Scott Schmidt and Joshua Lukman — wrote that the statute infringes upon Romero’s due process rights and violates the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment in the U.S. Constitution.

Of course, the 14th Amendment — the universal solvent of judicial activism!  Tracy Clark Flory at Salon is apparently OK with that:

They’re specifically targeting the language of Florida’s anti-bestiality law, which does not require proof that an animal has been harmed or “of the sexual activity being non-consensual,” or even of penetrative sexual contact.
The attorneys write, “Therefore, the only possible rational basis for the statute is a moral objection to sexual acts considered deviant or downright ‘disgusting.’” And that, they argue, is unconstitutional: “The personal morals of the majority, whether based on religion or traditions, cannot be used as a reason to deprive a person of their personal liberties.”
If, however, “the statute were to require sexual conduct with animals to be nonconsensual or to cause injury in order to be a crime, then perhaps the State would have a rational basis and legitimate state interest in enforcement,” they write.
It may be an opportunistic defense, sure, but it also brings up some interesting, if squirm-worthy, questions: Why should bestiality be illegal? Is it because it’s socially unacceptable or because it causes harm to animals? If it’s the latter, is it OK for people to have sexual contact with animals in cases where the animal isn’t harmed?

You can say whatever you want. Just don’t say you weren’t warned.

Category: Crime, Culture, Florida, Supreme Court

The Creepy Little Weirdo’s Mom

Posted on | December 20, 2012 | 16 Comments

The Washington Post notices that most folks in Newtown, Connecticut, don’t see the murderer’s mother as a victim worth mourning:

Police said that before he attacked the schoolhouse, [the creepy little weirdo] pumped four bullets into his mother’s head as she lay in bed. . . .
“I am feeling that there is more anger toward the mother than there is toward the son,” said Lisa Sheridan, a Newtown parent.
“Why would a woman who had a son like this, who clearly had serious issues, keep assault rifles in the house and teach him how to shoot them?” she said. “To deal with that, there’s a feeling here that we’re just going to focus on the 26 innocent people who died at the school.” . . .
Nancy Lanza apparently broke no laws and suffered a violent, tragic death. People who knew her . . . see her as a victim like any of the others.
But for some, how to refer to her — and what to think of her — is a subject of much conversation. While some call her the first victim, many think she bears at least some of the blame.
“Maybe somewhere there is a deep thought that the shooter’s mother could be responsible for leaving the guns available,” said Himansu Patel, the Newtown Convenience and Deli owner, who decided to leave Nancy Lanza out of his memorial to the victims. . . .
Much remains unknown about [the creepy little weirdo] and his mother. But everyone here knows that Nancy, 52, was the legally registered owner of the powerful .223-caliber, military-style Bushmaster rifle that was used in the nation’s second-deadliest mass shooting. And they have heard that federal investigators have determined that mother and son visited numerous shooting ranges together.
It is also known that [the creepy little weirdo] had psychological or emotional problems that made the most basic elements of daily life — such as school and social settings — challenging for him. The state medical examiner said he had been advised that [the creepy little weirdo] had Asperger’s syndrome, a developmental disorder that is not associated with violence.
Those facts have left questions hanging over Newtown. Did Nancy Lanza do enough to try to keep her guns out of her son’s hands? Should she have helped a young man with psychological problems learn how to shoot?

Notice, by the way, the Post isn’t calling the Bushmaster an “assault weapon” (because it’s not), but instead — in keeping with the media’s misguided “exotic weapons” narrative — is calling it “the powerful .223-caliber, military-style Bushmaster rifle .”

Focusing on the weapons as the demonized villain of the tale, rather that looking at the complex human factors involved in this horrible atrocity, is much easier and, in terms of Democrat Party politics, certainly convenient. But the politics of convenience seldom solves problems.

Category: Connecticut, Crime

‘Candyass Blogger’ Update: Free Speech Absolutists Who Banned Mr. Althouse UPDATE: ‘These Are Historical Dildos’

Posted on | December 20, 2012 | 49 Comments

The defense of Professor Erik “I’m a Lumberjack and I’m OK” Loomis is becoming somewhat of a cause célèbre for the progressive community online and in academia. I’m actually working on a much longer piece about this ongoing controversy, based on my own vast experience in saying stupidly offensive stuff that pisses people off. Meanwhile . . .

Essential to the progressive pro-Loomis project is promoting a narrative in which (a) Loomis is the victim of deliberate misrepresentation, and (b) the full context of the controversy is obscured. This is the bogus narrative presented by Scott Jaschik at Inside Higher Education:

Critics of Loomis have been quick to describe the tweet as literal. The blog  American Thinker wrote, under the headline “Professor  Calls for Murder of NRA President,” the following: “A professor at a  taxpayer-supported state university has called for the murder of the president  of the NRA. Apparently the carnage in Newtown, Connecticut was not enough  slaughter to satisfy the blood lust of Erik Loomis….” At National Review  Online, the headline was “The  Post-Newtown Witch Hunt: Anti-gun champions of nonviolence urge violent death on  NRA members.” Other bloggers have taken to attacking  Loomis’s scholarship (which focuses on environmental and labor history).

Now, if you are aware of what Loomis actually did, you know it wasn’t just one Tweet (“head on a stick”) that got him in hot water.

As Professor Donald Douglas has explained, before Loomis deleted his Twitter account, it “was practically flooded with blood from all the violent tweets and retweets he’d been sending out.” Unless you consider Tweeting “Fuck the NRA” and re-Tweeting messages about “fuckers” deserving to be “beaten to death” to be appropriate forms of expression for an assistant professor of history, this meltdown was . . . well, arguably problematic.

When I said that the mentally ill should be in institutions, public universities weren’t the kind of institutions I had in mind.

Leaving aside whatever personal psychiatric issues may afflict The Ranting Professor — and if a nut like Loomis can legally buy a gun, maybe we do need new laws — Jaschik’s link to “attacking Loomis’s scholarship” is to the guest blog Badger Pundit wrote late Tuesday night.

To Jaschik, apparently, to “attack” someone’s scholarship is to quote their dissertation and describe its contents. Whose fault is it that Erik Loomis, Ph.D., studied the historic significance of anal sodomy in logging camps and the proletarian symbolism of “Everest’s testicles”?

It this a dissertation or a Monty Python skit?

Well, enough with the random sarcasm. It is interesting to note that the chief proprietor at Lawyers, Guns & Money, where Erik Loomis blogs when he’s not pondering the genitalia of early 20th-century I.W.W. members or gibbering like a madman on Twitter, banned Ann Althouse’s significant other in March 2011, inspiring her to brand Professor Robert Farley a “candyass blogger.”

So the operative principle is clear: (A) it would be a crime against human liberty for Erik Loomis to be denied tenure at the University of Rhode Island merely because he’s a demented kook, and (B) no fair trying to talk back to Commissar Farley and the LG&M politburo.

“Intimidation,” anyone?

UPDATE: From comments on Dr. Loomis’s latest opus:

RedWood says:
December 20, 2012 at 10:42 am
Again LOOMIS was the one going on and on (and on) about anal sex in his dissertation, and tweeted that he gets very excited talking about dildos to his teenage students. Who is the one with issues again?

Erik Loomis says:
December 20, 2012 at 10:44 am
To be clear, these are historical dildos we talked about. Actually read about to be specific. I can provide you some readings if you’d like to learn.

Uh, spare us the footnote citations, Professor . . .

(Hat-tip: Badger Pundit on Twitter.)

Category: Ann Althouse, Education

Unexpectedly, Last Year’s Super Committee Is This Year’s Coal In The Stocking

Posted on | December 20, 2012 | 13 Comments

by Smitty

Grand Old Partisan, aka Michael Zak, was pointing out on Twitter a post of his from September of last year:

Republicans may assume that the role of the Joint Committee will be limited and subordinate to Congress as a whole, but Democrats are planning otherwise. In her press conference yesterday, Nancy Pelosi gave a glimpse of the horrors to come:
“[President Obama’s $447 billion job] bill is paid for. How it will ultimately be paid for will be up to the Table of 12.” That’s right, the Democrat leadership says that this decision will be up to just twelve people. not the entire Congress. Democrats intend to use the Committee to bypass Congress, just as Obama has said many times that he would like to do.
The Democrats play hardball, all the time.

Read it all, and his book, as well.

I’ve not been blogging as much, working on a bit of prose myself. But if you’ve followed my Twitter feed at all, you’ve probably figured out that:

  • I’m not enthusiastic about trying to build any of the other fringe parties into a national level outfit to compete with the Progressives,
  • rather, a hostile takeover from within the GOP wing of the Progressives by truly reform-minded patriots has the greatest likelihood of eventual success.

Dean Clancy gives the John Boehner efforts two cheers:

Mr. Boehner’s “Plan B” is to move a bill through the House that extends all current income-tax rates for everyone except those earning more than $1,000,000 a year, plus some other provisions listed below. Amendments are also likely to be made in order. The votes could come as early as tomorrow.

That’s all swell and spiffy, Mr. Speaker. But What. Is. The. Real. Reform. Plan?

If not the Ryan Budget, then, what? It’s fine do sport a salmon tie an drop Plan B like a dead fish on the President’s doorstep, but so, what? We need more leadership from the Republicans than just coloring within the Progressive lines.

Screw all this noise. Show up at CPAC in March with a comprehensive reform package that gives me something to cheer for. Comprehensive reform across the board, of the sort that makes Progressives, entrenched federal bureaucrats and crony capitalists weep and gnash their teeth. Give us a different course for the ship of state to steer, and the sad results of last month won’t be repeated.

Category: Uncategorized

LIVE AT FIVESIX: 12.20.12

Posted on | December 20, 2012 | Comments Off on LIVE AT FIVESIX: 12.20.12

— compiled by Wombat-socho


TOP NEWS
House GOP Plans Vote On Fiscal Cliff Plan B

President Obama and Speaker Boehner

Reid already committed to defeat bill in Senate; Obama promises veto


Park Geun-Hye Becomes ROK’s First Female President
Calls for reconciliation after tight race

Obama Names Philly Police Commissioner To Gun Violence Discussion Group
Commissioner Ramsey a long-time proponent of tighter gun-control laws



POLITICS
The Case For Colleen Hanabusa

Rep. Colleen Hanabusa (D-HI)

Probably the most important being that she was the late Senator Inouye’s pick as his successor

Porked-Up Sandy Relief Bill Storms Into Senate

Obama Vows Fast Action In Push For Gun Control

Judge Robert Bork Dead At 85

Texas School District Attracts Attention For Armed Teacher Policy


Another Key Apple Patent Gets The Kibosh From Patent Office

Some Jerk From Chicago Named “Time” Person of The Year

Lame Duck Scott Brown Reverses Stance On Assault Weapon Ban

Senators Feinstein And McCain Condemn “Zero Dark Thirty”



THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Oil Rises On Diesel, Heating Oil Demand, Baseless Optimism Over Budget Talks: NYMEX $89.98, Brent $110.36
Bank Of Japan Loosens With Pledge To Address Inflation
Strike Looms At East Coast, Gulf Ports
Wall Street Falls As Budget Talks Sour, But Hope Remains
LIBOR Scandal May Have Cost Fannie And Freddie $3 Billion
GM To Buy Back 200 Million Shares From Treasury, Taxpayers Hosed Again
Fedex Earnings Fail To Deliver
IRS Commissioner Warns AMT Will Hit 100 Million Taxpayers If Not Patched
Videogame Maker THQ Files For Bankruptcy
US Expands Child Online Privacy Law To Cover Apps, Social Networks
Instagram, Facebook Stir Online Protests Over Privacy Policy Change
UK 4G Bidders Revealed
Tweet Archives Now Available On Twitter
Now Get Foursquare Recommendations From Facebook Friends
Windows 8, Blackberry 10 Won’t Win Any Smartphone Wars
Game Over: Thousands Of Sex Offenders Booted From Online Gaming Platforms



SPORTS
Clippers Thrash Hornets 93-77

Hornets center Robin Lopez, right, pulls in a rebound as the Clippers’ DeAndre Jordan watches

Victory over New Orleans extends Clippers’ win streak to 11

Angels Trade Kendrys Morales To M’s For Left-Hander Jason Vargas

Paul Pierce Scores 40 To Snap Celtics’ Skid

Hawks Cough Up 41 To Durant As Thunder Rolls

Knicks Bury Nyets In Garden, 100-86

Jets Ready To Rid Themselves Of Sanchez; Could Vick Be His Replacement?

Harden Leads Rockets To Blowout Of Sixers

Rendon, Giolito Headline “Baseball America” Top Ten Nats Prospects List



FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
Snooki Says Her Wild Past “Isn’t Such A Big Deal”

Snooki Pollizzi and son Lorenzo

Settling happily into life as mom

Tim Tebow, Camilla Belle Break Up

Miley Cyrus Grabs Stripper’s Butt During Raunchy Birthday Celebration

Sam Donaldson Busted For Drunk Driving

Taylor Swift & Mom Stock Up On Holiday Munchies

LiLo Blames Clogged Trailer Toilet On “Scary Movie 5” Producers

Ben Affleck Falls Out Of “Focus”

“Pumped Up Kicks” Yanked From LA Airwaves After Newtown Massacre

Rose MacGowan Cast In “Once Upon A Time” As Young Cora

Jessica Simpson Reveals Her Weight Watchers Body

Joss Whedon’s “S.H.I.E.L.D.” Pilot Enlists “Nashville” Actress Chloe Bennet



FOREIGNERS
PRC Arrests Almost 1000 Doomsday Cult Members
Narendra Modi Set For Record Third Term In Gujarat, Bolsters PM Prospects
Banghazi Report Forces Resignation Of Four State Dept. Officials
Russia Moves Forward On Law To Ban US Adoption Of Russian Children
It’s The Beginning Of The End For Al Assad
UN Halts Vaccine Work In Pakistan After Two More Killings
Politics, Laws Weigh On Islamic Finance In India
Entwistle Payout Raises Questions About Judgment Of BBC Trust, Says MP
Angry Protests Continue In Delhi Over Gang Rape



BLOGS & STUFF
The Looking Spoon: The Boehner/Obama Joint Christmas Card
Allahpundit: Oh Well, Boehner’s Plan B Already DOA In The Senate
NRO Corner: Boehner’s Gambit
Power Line: The Real Hagel Record
Washington Free Beacon: Rejecting Chuck Hagel
NRO: Newtown Answers
American Power: The Post-Newtown Witch Hunt
Legal Insurrection: It Being Necessary To Cut Through The Second Amendment Blather Before We Lose Our Rights…
Moe Lane: Market Reacts Predictably To Gun Control Threats
Gateway Pundit: Wal-Mart Runs Out Of Semi-Automatic Rifles
Weasel Zippers: Obama Says Climate Change Will Be Among Top Three Second-Term Priorities
Protein Wisdom: Barber Shop Conversation About Newtown Shootings Ends In Shots Fired At Customer
Clayton Cramer: Nice Collection Of Videos About The Problem Of Mental Health Care
Twitchy: Gun Rights Advocates Furious As Dick’s Sporting Goods Suspends Gun Sales
NewsBusters: NYT Editorial Celebrates Sole Black Senator As “Token”, Human Equivalent Of Poll Tax
Lonely Conservative: NYT Calls Senator Tim Scott “Token”

Category: Live at Five

#PiersMorganMovies The Fool Monty

Posted on | December 19, 2012 | 8 Comments

by Smitty

Minor typo:

My ‘winner’:

Category: humor
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