The Other McCain

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

Herbert Marcuse, Wile E. Coyote and the Auto-Beclownment of Erik Loomis, Ph.D.

Posted on | December 18, 2012 | 22 Comments

The epic saga of University of Rhode Island Assistant Professor of History Erik Loomis shall live long in blogospheric lore. Twitchy is taking a victory lap over the professor’s unfortunate metaphorical seppuku: He had to delete his Twitter account, but not before Tweeting this:

“I love teaching books on the history of sexuality. I talked about dildos in a completely appropriate way in class today.”

Yeah: The taxpayers of Rhode Island (and the parents of university students) are paying Erik Loomis to teach kids the history of dildos.

Do you need a Ph.D. to do that? Where do you get a doctoral degree in Historical Dildology? Are there federal research grants available?

Humor aside, Instapundit exposes Loomis’s pretzel logic:

The anti-NRA syllogism seems to work this way: (1) Something bad happened; (2) I hate you; so (3) It’s your fault.

This is how people “think” when the object is not to find truth, but to justify their own prejudices. This is the dangerous logic of scapegoating. The characteristic viciousness of the Left stems from a radical certainty of their own moral and intellectual superiority and, by the obverse, the inferiority of the Right:

These destructive tactics are the radical offspring of what Frankfurt School intellectual Herbert Marcuse advocated in his notorious 1965 essay “Repressive Tolerance”:

Liberating tolerance, then, would mean intolerance against movements from the Right and toleration of movements from the Left.

Elsewhere in the same essay, Marcuse denounces “pure” or “non-partisan” tolerance, which he describes as the “active, official tolerance granted to the Right as well as to the Left, to movements of aggression as well as to movements of peace, to the party of hate as well as to that of humanity.”

When you think of yourself (as Loomis most surely does) as an apostolic soldier in the Righteous Army of Peace and Humanity, doing battle against the forces of Hate, there is no such thing as “fairness,” nor any rule of conduct that can limit your action. This mentality is expressed in the radical slogan, “By Any Means Necessary.”

This necessarily involves the de-humanization of one’s antagonists, a degradation of moral standards — excusing dishonesty and malicious action, so long as it is done on behalf of the Sacred Progressive Cause — and inevitably results in thuggery on behalf of “social justice,” a movement whose actions exemplify the very opposite qualities of “peace and humanity” that progressives claims to be pursuing.

This was how the idealists of the 1960s ended up, in the 1970s, being apologists for the bloody reign of Pol Pot in Cambodia, and supporting domestic terrorists like Bill Ayers and Kathy Boudin.

Without any real moral principles, judging everything only by its political expediency, they exempt themselves from judgment, even while harshly judging the demonized Other whom they target with transparently invalid smears. The Wheelerization of Steven Crowder was one recent example of this, as is the “argument” offered by Scott Slemmons, a commenter at Erik Loomis’s blog:

Maybe if you Malkinites weren’t such anti-America McVeigh-fanboys, people wouldn’t hate you so much.

Notice the ridiculous name-calling — “Malkinites”? — and the attempt to do a guilt-by-association between (a) critics of Loomis and (b) 1990s terrorist Timothy McVeigh.

Question: When did Michelle Malkin ever endorse the 1995 Oklahama City bombing, or anything like it? The standards of acceptable discourse among Loomis’s admirers are no standards at all. You will perhaps not be surprised to learn that Scott Slemmons is a comic book blogger.

Who could possibly admire someone like Erik Loomis, Ph.D? Who could consider him an acceptable teacher of impressionable youth? His anger issues mark him as an intemperate person with a near-infinite capacity for making a fool of himself, yet see his university duties:

Courses Taught:

  • HIS 141 – History of the United States to 1877
  • HIS 339 – Emergence of Industrial America, 1877-1914
  • HIS 364 – U.S. Environmental History
  • HIS 365 – Civil War and Reconstruction
  • HIS 441 – Topics in U.S. History (U.S. West)
  • HIS 495 – Senior Seminar

This amoral monster is entrusted with instructing student from their freshmen to their senior year. Why was the second-rate intellect hired? Here’s a significant hint:

Flashback: Erik Loomis criticized
Sarah Palin for ‘violent rhetoric’

Hating Republicans is the ultimate resumé-enhancer in academia. Any dimwit can advance if he has the “correct” political views.

UPDATE: He’s a Lumberjack, and He’s OK: The Wobbly Scholarship of Erik Loomis, Ph.D. — Guest Post by Badger Pundit.

 

Category: Education

Why the Creepy Little Weirdo Did It

Posted on | December 18, 2012 | 27 Comments

We now have the first clear suggestion of a motive:

NEWTOWN, Conn. –  The gunman who slaughtered 20 children and six adults at a Connecticut elementary school may have snapped  because his mother was planning to commit him to a psychiatric facility . . .
[The creepy little weirdo], targeted Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown after killing  his mother early Friday because he believed she loved the school “more than she  loved him,” said Joshua Flashman, 25 . . .
“From what I’ve been told, [the creepy little weirdo] was aware of her petitioning the court for  conservatorship and (her) plans to have him committed,” Flashman told  FoxNews.com. “[The creepy little weirdo] was apparently very upset about this. He thought she just  wanted to send him away. From what I understand, he was really, really angry. I  think this could have been it, what set him off.”
A senior law enforcement official involved in the investigation confirmed  that [the creepy little weirdo’s] anger at his mother over plans for “his future mental health treatment” is being looked at as a possible motive for the deadly shooting.

News organizations keep trying to bestow post-massacre fame on the creepy little weirdo. I’ve decided to stop cooperating with that agenda.

Category: California, Crime

Is It ‘Metaphor’ to Suggest Erik Loomis Should Be Sodomized by Orangutangs? UPDATE: Is Professor ‘Head on a Stick’ Now Under State Police Protection?

Posted on | December 18, 2012 | 46 Comments

Who knows? Maybe he’d enjoy it. At any rate, University of Rhode Island Assistant Professor of History Erik Loomis seems to consider colorful language acceptable in political discourse, so that it’s OK to say that the National Rifle Association is a “terrorist organization” and that he wants NRA chief Wayne LaPierre’s “head on a stick,” among other thought-provoking figures of speech:

A professor of history turned to Twitter over the weekend to call for the death of National Rifle Association (NRA) CEO Wayne LaPierre, branding the gun rights group he heads as a terrorist organization.
A professor used twitter over the weekend to call for the death of the NRA’s CEO.
“[I] want Wayne LaPierre’s head on a stick,” Erik Loomis, a professor at the University of Rhode Island (URI), tweeted.
It “looks like the National Rifle Association has murdered some more children,” he added.”
Can [we] define NRA membership as dues contributing to a terrorist organization?” he  asked in a separate tweet.
Loomis’ comments come on the heels of the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School, which left 20 young children and six faculty members dead.
The professor contended Democratic lawmakers should exploit the tragedy to force more restrictive gun control measures into law.
“You are goddamn right we should politicize this tragedy,” Loomis tweeted. “[F]uck the NRA.”
“Dear Republicans, do you know the definition of family values?” he continued. “It’s not having our kids FUCKING SHOT AT SCHOOL! Fuck the NRA.” …

See, the problem here is not that Erik Loomis is on Twitter. The problem is that you’re too stupid to understand academic literature:

Dear right-wing morons, saying you “want someone’s head on a stick” is a metaphor. I know metaphor is hard for you to understand.

Dear rightwingers, to be clear, I don’t want to see Wayne LaPierre dead. I want to see him in prison for the rest of his life. #nraterrorism

Erik Loomis deleted that Tweet already, and also deleted a Tweet in which he claimed to be the victim of a “right-wing intimidation campaign.” He apparently deleted his entire Twitter account. Because he’s a Ph.D., and you’re too stupid understand what a “metaphor” is.

UPDATE: Before he deleted his Twitter account, University of Rhode Island Assistant Professor of History Erik Loomis re-Tweeted this message from another blogger:

First fucker to say the solution is for elementary school teachers to carry guns needs to get beaten to death.

So we can add “needs to get beaten to death” to the repertoire of progressive metaphors that are approved by University of Rhode Island Assistant Professor of History Erik Loomis. However, if you criticize University of Rhode Island Assistant Professor of History Erik Loomis with such colorful metaphors, he might call the cops:

Being attacked by a David Horowitz wannabe for saying I wanted to see Wayne LaPierre’s head on a stick has led to a world of fun, ranging from a meeting with the Rhode Island State Police last night to people inundating the University of Rhode Island community with warnings of their murderous colleague in their midst.

What kind of insult metaphor does he mean by “David Horowitz wannabe,” and to whom does this phrase refer?

UPDATE II: It appears from comments at University of Rhode Island Assistant Professor of History Erik Loomis’s blog that his “meeting with the Rhode Island State Police last night” was perhaps not because he called the cops, but that someone call the cops on him.

Perhaps they were worried the professor might commit seppuku.

Metaphorically, of course.

Category: Education, Rhode Island

#Newtown: ‘Exotic Weapons’? Nope.

Posted on | December 18, 2012 | 13 Comments

Today on the Endless Gun Control Telethon that is MSNBC — I Watch, So You Don’t Have To™ — a guest on Morning Joe referred to the Newtown shooting as exemplifying the problem caused by “exotic weapons.” This demonstrates the problem caused by common ignorance.

Adam Lanza’s weapons were a Bushmaster .223-caliber semi-automatic, a type described by the New York Times as “the most popular rifle in America, according to gun dealers,” as well as two 9-mm pistols (Glock and Sig Sauer) and a shotgun of unknown make.

These are not “exotic weapons” by any definition.

It has been reported that the shotgun was found in the deranged gunman’s mother’s vehicle, which he drove to the school after shooting her in the face, and that the main weapon he used in his massacre was the Bushmaster, using 30-round magazines. Here’s a headline:

 Assault weapons in the cross hairs
— Law.com

Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-Californication) and Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Corruption) are vowing legislation to bring back the (absurdly misnamed) “assault weapons ban.”

We will leave aside the biggest aspect of the misnomer (i.e., semi-automatic rifles are not “assault weapons”) and focus instead on the “ban” part of this rhetorical delusion. The Bushmaster was NOT banned under the law Democrats want to bring back.

What we are dealing with here — amidst the chaotic cacophony of frenzied liberal noise — is another one of those “do something” episodes that occasionally afflict the media/politics nexus. The follies that result from the “do something” impulse, as politicians react to the latest headline and try to reassure voters that government can fix whatever problem concerns them, has resulted in some of the most awful stupidity in history, including Republican stupidity: Terrorists strike New York? Create a new government agency for airport security! Give the feds more wiretapping authority! Invade some foreign countries! And . . . how’d that work out for ya?

There’s Little We Can Do to Prevent Another Massacre
— Megan McArdle

Consider the possibility that we really can’t “do something” in terms of dramatic new legislation, but rather that seemingly small adjustments — in terms of policy and practice, in terms of training, enforcement and investigation — could make a significant difference. I have sarcastically referred to “The Dangerous Lunatic Incarceration Act of 2013,” meaning to suggest we re-examine how we deal with mental illness, especially in terms of the policies (and misguided court decisions) of the 1960s and ’70s that we refer to collectively as “de-institutionalization.”

Da Tech Guy offers an interesting idea: Let retired law enforcement and military personnel serve as volunteer armed “sheepdogs” in schools.

My personal favorite quote of the day:

“I refuse to dwell in the madness and melancholia
inherent in the human condition.”

Whatever you do, if you’re feeling depressed or stressed, don’t watch MSNBC. This insane crap could drive anybody nuts.




 


Category: Crime, MSNBC

I’d Always Taken ‘Valley of the Shadow’ As A Psalm 23 Reference

Posted on | December 18, 2012 | 19 Comments

by Smitty

Joe Fein has an important post up about dealing with existential issues. Go read/comment/link.

Americans come in all manner of shades, sizes and ideals.
One of the first lessons I learned in NYC was not to stereotype anyone.
All I can hope for is that we are treated as individuals, not as a group.

If I may offer a positive, non-prescriptive observation, I’ve never heard of a major atrocity committed by someone who:

  • Got decent rest,
  • Took exercise,
  • Ate reasonably, and
  • Was active in some community of faith.

The possible exception that comes to mind is Charles C. Roberts, but even the extreme case gets at my point: be engaged. The well-reflected life is not lived passively, disconnected from those in the immediate vicinity*. The social and political order of the country depends upon Americans NOT being sheep. Progressivism wants to build some Orwellian/Huxlian paradise, where Statism supersedes the Judeo-Christian emphasis upon the individual/family as the unit of societal analysis.

The struggle to be who we are and carry out or individual destinies is really where life is located, at least from a temporal sense. So be about that. Sorry, I can’t pull a “Just do what I did.” My own path was unique to an introverted Navy brat. Though, to divulge a secret, taking a prayerful read through the Bible was life-changing. Especially Ecclesiastes, for whatever odd reason.

The alternative is to permit these political creeps to sell your liberty short on the market for political power, and then use that power to beat you down.

Fight the good fight, Joe.

*Significant medical barrier notwithstanding, obviously.

Category: Valley of the Shadow

LIVE AT FIVE: 12.18.12

Posted on | December 18, 2012 | 1 Comment

— compiled by Wombat-socho


TOP NEWS
President Makes New Proposal To Narrow Gap On Cliff

Speaker Boehner walks back to his office after a meeting with the President

Obama’s proposal calls for $1.2 trillion in increased revenue, $1.2 trillion in spending cuts

Chief Nanny Bloomberg Appeals Again For More Gun Control
No indication Obama is listening

South Africa’s Zuma Faces Challenge For ANC Leadership
Deputy President Motlanthe aspires to Chairman’s post



POLITICS
Medal Of Honor-Winning Hero, Senator: Daniel Inouye Dies, 88

Senator Daniel K. Inouye, 1924-2012, RIP

Won Medal of Honor with legendary 442nd Regimental Combat Team during WW2; became Hawaii’s first Congressman and senior Senator

Former Massachusetts State Chemist Indicted

Pennsylvania, NJ Dems Call For Stricter Gun Control

Governor Haley Picks Rep. Tim Scott To Fill DeMint Seat In Senate

Obama Expected To Nominate Kerry To Succeed Clinton As SecState

Fort Hood Suspect To Appear In Court For Hearing

Hagel Draws Fire For His Position On Israel



THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Oil Remains Below $87 As US Fiscal Concerns Drag On; NYMEX $86.66, Brent $107.82
Stocks Advance With Commodities On Signs Of US Budget Progress
Morgan Stanley Fined $5 Million Over Facebook IPO
Farmers Worry About Dairy Prices As Deadline Nears, And Obsolete 1949 Ag Act Provisions May Be Revived
McDonald’s Might Be Open This Christmas
Clearwire Accepts Sprint Bid At $2.97/Share
Too Big To Jail? Critics Question Why Bank Execs Don’t Face Money Laundering Charges
Judge Denies Apple Request To Ban Samsung Phones
Celebrity Hacker Gets Ten Years For E-Mail Hack
Facebook Takes On Foursquare And Yelp With “Nearby”
IBM Predicts Computers That Embrace The Five Senses
Google, FTC Near Deal To End Probe
If Hulu’s Still For Sale, The Price Just Went Up



SPORTS
Titans’ Defense Delivers In 14-10 Win Over Jets

Jets QB Tim Tebow gets sacked by Titans LB Zach Brown

Tennessee’s defense forces five turnovers from Sanchez, sacks Tebow once

Linsanity Returns To The Garden

Cy Ya Later: Mets Trade R.A. Dickey To The Blue Jays

Red Wings’ Cleary: Nearly Everyone Will Vote To Disband NHLPA

Red Sox Sign Stephen Drew To One-Year Deal

Grizzlies Overcome Slow Start To Beat Bulls

Giants Sign Reliever Casilla To Three-Year Extension

Australian Quicks Secure Dramatic Test Win



FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
It’s Official: Zooey Deschanel Divorced

Zooey Deschanel and ex-husband Ben Gibbard

Both waived claims for spousal support

Brooke Mueller Out Of Rehab

NBC Honchos Considering Jimmy Fallon To Take Over “Tonight Show”

Channing And Jenna Dewan-Tatum Expecting First Child

New Questions Surrounding Amy Winehouse’s Death

Ricky Gervais In Talks To Star In “Muppets” Sequel

TLC Delays “Best Funeral Ever” In Wake Of School Shootings

Britney To Bow Out Of “X Factor”?

Universal Sets “Skyfall” Scribes To Work On “Kojak” For Vin Diesel



FOREIGNERS
Reform-Minded PRC Shuns Stimulus
Speculation On Bashar Assad Exit Grows As VP Says Loyalists Can’t Win
Overwhelming Majority Of Diet Members Support Amending Japan’s Constitution To Allow Collective Defense
Park Geun-Hye On Verge Of Becoming ROK’s First Female President
PRC Detains 101 For Spreading Mayan Doomsday Rumors
Israel Approves East Jerusalem Settlement Construction
Cleanup Begins After Tornado Devastates Fiji
Berlusconi’s Love Life Lost In Translation



BLOGS & STUFF
Valley Of The Shadow: In The Crosshairs Of Stereotypes – Mental Illness, Being Goth, And Being Republican
Allahpundit: Obama Concedes On New, Higher Income Thresholds For Tax Hikes
Weasel Zippers: Obama Makes Fiscal Cliff Counteroffer
NRO Corner: Obama’s Counteroffer
Megan McArdle: There’s Little We Can Do To Prevent Another Massacre
Joanne Jacobs: “I Am Adam Lanza’s Mother”
Doug Powers: Senator Dukakis? That’s A No
Twitchy: University Of North Alabama Boots Football Player For Racist Tweet About Obama
Gateway Pundit: St. Louis County Police Chief Says Arm The Teachers
Protein Wisdom: Going On The Offensive
Atlas Shrugs: US Ambassador Tells Georgia To Vote For A “Palestinian” State
Jawa Report: Fate Of Hostage Journalist In Syria Unknown
Larry Pratt: Eliminate “Gun-Free Zone” Regulations

Category: Live at Five

Dan Collins and His Son

Posted on | December 17, 2012 | 6 Comments

Childhood Onset Schizophrenia — a condition rare enough that the doctor had never seen it. Guess somebody had to draw the short straw.

Damn. Hard luck, Dan. Did I ever tell you about the time I went all-in with a full house, and the other guy turned over four of a kind?

When I was talking to Cynthia Yockey earlier she offered a suggestion that perhaps Adam Lanza was misdiagnosed, and that he had another personality disorder that was mistaken for (or hidden by) Asperger’s syndrome. It was an interesting theory.

All six of our children have been healthy so far, and for this we should be grateful. Dan Collins and his family should be in everybody’s prayers.

Category: Dan Collins

Patterico on Tommy Christopher and the ‘Wheelerization’ of Steven Crowder

Posted on | December 17, 2012 | 11 Comments

You really need to read the article that Patterico put up about how Mediaite’s Tommy Christopher went “all-in” on the claim that a Michigan union thug’s assault of Steven Crowder was a hoax:

I would love to know where Tommy Christopher got the idea that Lee Stranahan and Breitbart.com had something to do with the Crowder video. Just who are the “[p]eople familiar with Breitbart ‘News’ videographers’ penchant for misleading edits” who “immediately smelled a rat” due to the (non)involvement of [Lee] Stranahan with this video?

How curious a coincidence, and how amazing that Patterico — while the rest of us spent the past four days all up in the Connecticut shooting and aftermath — maintained his focus on the Michigan story. But I don’t think it’s entirely a coincidence. Remember what I wrote last week:

After yesterday’s incident in which labor union activists tore down an Americans for Prosperity tent in Lansing and sucker-punched Stephen Crowder, this headline zoomed up the Memorandum aggregation:
Breitbart Folks Appear to Fake Violence in Lansing
Huh? This was a decidedly odd piece of blogging: The claim that somehow the union thug clobbering Crowder was part of a right-wing hoax, based on such “evidence” as the event having been reported by “James O’Keefe’s buddy” Lee Stranahan — because, hey, if anybody at Breitbart thinks it’s actually news, that means it must be phony, right?
Also, the video was edited. Anybody who edits a video is obviously engaged in some kind of evil conspiracy.
What the hell is this silly gibberish? Are these people crazy?

Marcy Wheeler — who is Marcy Wheeler? And how was it that she got this same Stranahan/Breitbart meme about “deceptively edited” video that was ballyhooed by Tommy Christopher? Isn’t it interesting that Tommy also Wheelerized the Patrick Moran story?

Go read Ron Brynaert’s Pastebin file (which I found via Google by searching “Marcy + Wheeler + Rauhauser”) and notice that the names of Tommy Christopher (9 references) and Lee Stranahan (11 references) also occur in connection with the search for the still-mysterious “Jennifer George” angle on the Anthony Weiner scandal. “Alicia Pain” is also an element, along with the SWATtings of Patterico and Mike Stack.

Now go read Patterico’s post, which he projects as the first of a five-part series. Did somebody hit the “SMITE” button on his keyboard?

Category: Patterico
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