The Other McCain

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

Escaped Murderer Now Armed

Posted on | September 12, 2023 | Comments Off on Escaped Murderer Now Armed

The Philadelphia suburb of Chester County is about 150 miles east of here, so I’m not too worried about it personally, but it is still alarming that murderer Danelo Cavalcante has been able to elude capture for nearly two weeks since he escaped from the county jail there:

The convicted killer who escaped from an eastern Pennsylvania prison nearly two weeks ago is considered “armed and extremely dangerous” after he stole a rifle from the garage of a local homeowner, who fired several shots at the fugitive as he fled, police said Tuesday.
Danelo Cavalcante, 34, was spotted on Monday night in Chester County’s South Coventry Township, about 20 miles north of the prison, according to an emergency alert.
At about 10:10 p.m., police received a call from a resident who said a shirtless male entered his garage and grabbed a rifle in the corner, Pennsylvania State Police Lt. Col. George Bivens said in a news conference. The homeowner fired his pistol at Cavalcante as he fled, but there is “no reason to believe” the fugitive was injured, Bivens said.
A green sweatshirt and white tee shirt were found near the homeowner’s driveway, he said.
“I think he is just trying to survive and avoid being captured right now,” he said.
Bivens later told CNN the fugitive ran into the garage while the homeowner was sitting right there. He said the gun had not been left unsecured so he did not believe the homeowner was being irresponsible.
The shooting and gun theft represent a stark escalation in the dangerous manhunt after Cavalcante escaped the county jail on August 31.
About 500 law enforcement officers – including the Pennsylvania State Police, FBI, ATF, and the US Marshals – are searching the area around the shooting, and police have set up a perimeter stretching several miles in each direction. Video from WPVI shows a massive police response in the South Coventry Township overnight, with dozens of patrol cars and an armored vehicle converging on the scene.
Danelo Cavalcante is seen in this image from surveillance footage released by Pennsylvania State Police.
A timeline of the escape and manhunt for convicted Pennsylvania killer Danelo Cavalcante
“It’s a large area, wooded, hilly terrain. It’s not something that it’s a matter of sending a few people in and searching,” Bivens said.
The .22-caliber rifle Cavalcante has in his possession has a scope and flashlight, Bivens said.
“We consider him desperate, we consider him dangerous,” he said. “I would suspect that he’s desperate enough to use that weapon.”

It is not until paragraph 27 of this CNN story that they mention what is perhaps the most important fact about Cavalcante:

Cavalcante was being held at Chester County Prison, in a rural area some 30 miles west of Philadelphia, following his conviction last month of first-degree murder for the killing of his former girlfriend, 33-year-old Deborah Brandão.
According to prosecutors, he stabbed her 38 times in front of her two young children in Pennsylvania in April 2021. He was arrested several hours later in Virginia, and authorities said he was attempting to flee to Mexico and intended to later head to Brazil, his native country.
In addition, Cavalcante is wanted in a 2017 homicide case in Brazil, a US Marshals Service official has said.

He’s an illegal immigrant, who fled Brazil as a fugitive wanted for murder and somehow made it into the United States, where he apparently went unnoticed in the suburbs of Philadelphia for more than three years before he killed his ex-girlfriend. CNN kind of casually buried that part of the story, maybe because they think you’ll become prejudiced against illegal immigrants from Brazil or whatever. So they’re not going to put “illegal alien” in the headline, and you’ll have to read through more than two dozen paragraphs before learning that he was already a murderer before he entered the country illegally, and then stabbed a woman 38 times.

Remember: Diversity is our strength!



 

Category: Crime, Immigration

No Hope in New York

Posted on | September 12, 2023 | Comments Off on No Hope in New York

Excuse me for returning so soon to the NFL theme, but what happened on Monday Night Football is dominating ESPN coverage, and also will have a direct impact on the fortunes of the New England Patriots.

The Aaron Rodgers Era in New York lasted exactly four plays, as he limped off the field after getting sacked with 11:40 left in the first quarter. Subsequently, it was reported that Rodgers — the 39-year-old former Green Bay Packer quarterback who had been embraced by long-suffering Jets fans as the messiah who would deliver them from years of irrelevance — had suffered a torn Achilles tendon, an injury that almost certainly ends his 2023 season. All the preseason talk about the Jets potentially becoming the best team in the AFC East ended in sad fashion, even though New York somehow managed to win the game in overtime when rookie Xavier Gipson, an undrafted free agent from Stephen F. Austin University, returned a punt 65 yards for a touchdown.

And as a New England Patriots fan, I can only say, “Perfect.”

First of all, the arrival of Rodgers in New York, by making the Jets competitive, threatened to make the Patriots the fourth-best team in the division, which in the pass three years has been dominated by Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills, with Tua Tagovailoa and the Miami Dolphins a rising challenge. But with Rodgers now likely out for the season, the Jets will have Zach Wilson at quarterback — and he’s been a disaster ever since New York wasted their No. 2 draft pick on him in 2021.

Secondly, however, it’s a great boon for the Patriots that the Bills lost Monday’s game — a division loss, which could prove to be important in any tiebreaker scenario for a playoff spot — and the way Allen played certainly made Buffalo look vulnerable as defending AFC East champions. Allen threw three interceptions and also fumbled, completing 29 of 41 passes for 236 yards, with a rating of 62.7. Compare that to the numbers Mac Jones put up Sunday against the Eagles — completing 35 of 54 passes for 316 yards, with a rating of 89.2 — and you have to think there is at least hope that New England could return to their erstwhile status as the dominant team in the NFC East.

For now, the Jets sit atop the division standings, the division win over the Bills giving them the first tiebreaker against the Dolphins, with the Bills and Patriots, now both 0-1, bringing up the rear. That’s likely to change next week: Buffalo hosts the Las Vegas Raiders on Sunday — you’ve got to figure Allen and the Bills will play much better for the home crowd, going to 1-1 — while the Jets, now with the hapless Wilson as their starting QB, play at Dallas. Considering that the Cowboys opened their season by stomping the Giants 40-0, I’m going to bet the Jets will be 1-1 after their game Sunday. And in the prime time Sunday Night Football game, the Patriots will host the Dolphins, who beat the Chargers in a 36-34 shootout this past weekend. So either the Patriots win Sunday night, in which case every AFC East team is likely to have a 1-1 record, or Miami wins, in which case the Dolphins are likely to be alone atop the division at 2-0, while the Patriots sink into fourth place at 0-2.

Anyway, I just had to get this football stuff out of my system, and will shortly return to the (ultimately boring) topic of politics.



 

Category: Football

In The Mailbox: 09.11.23

Posted on | September 12, 2023 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 09.11.23

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Silicon Valley delenda est.

Firefighters search the rubble at Ground Zero, 9/11/01

OVER THE TRANSOM
EBL: Xi Jinping Answers To No One, Remember 9/11, and Biden marks 9/11 by giving Iranian Mullahs $6 Billion
Twitchy: Conservative Actor Michael Marsden Debunks “Michelle Obama Is A Man” Conspiracy Theory, Insane Florida Pre-K Teacher Brags She Teaches Students To Be Gay, and WaPoo Ranks The Seven State Flags That Have Ties To White Supremacy
Louder With Crowder: NM Gov suspends Second Amendment rights, causing… Steven Crowder to agree with David Hogg?, This can’t possibly be the WH excuse for Joe Biden being first POTUS to NOT go to NYC for the 9/11 memorial, and Wild Video Shows Cat Falling Off Rafters of Football Stadium, Gets SAVED by the American Flag
Vox Popoli: Adieu Divine Right, They Call it “Luck”, Excellence is in the Details, Manufactured, and Conservatardery
Draw  & Talk: The Failed Attack On Twitter From Baby Creator
Gab News: Patterns Of Evidence – The Moses Controversy

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
American Conservative: The Battle for T.J. Enters a New Phase, also, After the Towers Fell
American Greatness: The Frightened Left, The WEF and the Climate Cult, and Youngkin Pardons Loudoun County Father who was Arrested for Protesting at School Board Meeting
American Thinker: An Eyewitness on the Border, Ignoring History Means Choosing Windmills Over Whales, and Are You Better Off Today Than You Were Four Years Ago?
Animal Magnetism: Goodbye, Blue Monday
Babalu Blog: Russian Ministry of Truth attacks Cuban counterpart, denies human trafficking and recruiting Cuban mercenaries, As Cubans go hungry due to food shortages, Castro dictatorship announces gourmet food festival, Tourism to communist Cuba at its lowest point in 10 years, and We remember and honor 7 Cubans who perished on 9/11 at the World Trade Center
Baldilocks: Fear Itself, Yamasaki’s Towers, and Still Standing
BattleSwarm: Woman Goes To LAPD About Stolen Credit Card – One Of Them Stole It., Mangosuthu Buthelezi, RIP, and CEO Gets $379 Million For Money-Losing EV Company
Behind The Black: Two launches today, one by ULA and one by Red China, The actual truth behind the so-called “hidden figures” of the early space race, A galactic cloud, Ridge in Martian lowland plains, and Real pushback: Defiance from all sides to New Mexico’s unlawful suspension of the 2nd amendment
Cafe Hayek: Unseen and Unsightly Costs of the War on Drugs, also, Trump’s Trade War Was a Loser
CDR Salamander: Fading FY23 Midrats Free For All, That Day As I Saw It, 
Da Tech Guy: Else: AB 957 is Law in California, More disincentives for veterans to report mental health problems, No 20-mph default speed limit in Chicago: Stop the tyranny of the cyclists now, and Back Home Under the Fedora
Dana Loesch: Mind The GAP – Gaming & Politics,
Don Surber: America Doesn’t Need An Election – It Needs An Exorcism,
First Street Journal: New Mexico Governor Suspends Law Abiding Citizens From Carrying In Albuquerque, NY Times, Democrats Upset GOP Gets Optics Of Chicago Over-run By Illegals, and GOP Squishes Start Coming Out Of Woodwork Over Impeaching Biden
Gates Of Vienna: Sexual Crimes and Migrants, Koran: Read Chapter Nine, and New Ructions in Rosengård
The Geller Report: Japanese Doctors Denounce Covid Jabs, President Trump Gets Emotional Talking About the Deliberate Destruction of America, 9/11: ‘On this solemn anniversary of those monstrous attacks, we remember the 2,977 precious souls who were savagely taken from us’, and Biden Regime Hands $6,000,000,000 to Terror Sponsor Iran for Hostages in Deal Announced on 9/11
Glenn Reynolds: A Letter From Knoxville
Hogewash: Comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann, Sonification: Sagittarius A*/Galactic Center, Team Kimberlin Post of the Day, and 22 Years Ago Today
Hollywood In Toto: Is Joe Rogan the New Johnny Carson?, Is Hollywood’s MeToo Movement Officially Done?, How Since August Disrupts the Hollywood System, and Branagh’s Haunting in Venice Offers a Spooky Good Time
The Lid: Covering Up The Saudis’ Mass Murder
Legal Insurrection: Appeals Court: Doctors Can Sue FDA for Condemning Ivermectin as a COVID-19 Treatment, Resulting Reputational Harm, Nancy Pelosi Announces Reelection Campaign, Declares Crime in SF an ‘Isolated Situation’, Paris Strips PA Chief Abbas of City’s Top Honor, Harvard Prof Says Students in the Military Keep Silent About Service to Avoid Backlash From Classmates, Ana Navarro and ‘The View’ Go Full NIMBY Over the Illegal Immigrant Crisis in New York City, North Dakota Man Gets 5 Years for Killing Teenager He Claimed was a ‘Republican Extremist’, and Energy Sec. Granholm’s EV Road Trip Includes a Family Calling the Police on Her Entourage
Nebraska Energy Observer: Saturday – just for you, Fourteenth Sunday After Trinity, and Hills To Die On
Outkick: Novak Djokovic Wins US Open In Ultimate Rebuke Of Vaccine Mandates That Barred Him, David Wells Still Brings Heat, Fires One By Cranky Keith Olbermann, Mike Tirico Responds To Angry Detroit Lions Fans Upset Over ‘Asterisk’ Gate, Donald Trump Spent The Day Partying At An Iowa State Frat House, Hero Alabama Fans Remind ESPN Viewers That ‘Fauci Lied’ With College GameDay Sign, Colorado Celebrating This Pathetic Stat Is Exactly Why Deion Sanders Was Hired, and ESPN Forced To Award Unvaccinated Novak Djokovic ‘Shot Of The Day’ Presented By Moderna Following US Open Victory
Power Line: Gov Abbott Reacts to Biden’s ‘Remain in Texas’ Proposal, A Huge Win For Free Speech, Wind Energy Will Never Be Affordable, and 9/11: A Memorial to FBI Failure
Protein Wisdom Reborn: Point Me In The Direction Of Albuquerque
Shark Tank: Donalds Believes Joe Biden Is Co-Conspirator In Violation Of FARA
Shot In The Dark: 22 Years, also, Retract
The Political Hat: Twenty-Two Years Ago Today – NEVER FORGET
This Ain’t Hell: Army falls short recruiting – again, Another election cycle, another politician accused of stolen valor, China targets U.S. Military and veterans for exploitation, The U.S. military to conduct exercises with the Armenian military, Overestimating Russian military strength, and September Eleventh- Perspectives from a Gold Star Mother
Transterrestrial Musings: 9/11, The “Why Not” Grand Jury, Misogyny, and AI and Leviathan
Victory Girls: Lawsuit Filed Against New Mexico Governor’s Gun Ban, also, September 11 – Two More Remains Finally Identified
Volokh Conspiracy: Federal Government Improperly “Coerced” and “Significantly Encouraged” Certain Speech Restrictions by Social Media Platforms, Challenge to N.M. Governor’s Ban on Public Gun Carry in Albuquerque and Surrounding County, and Free Speech, Social Media Firms, and the Fifth Circuit
Watts Up With That: The Climate ‘Emergency’ Is Coming for You, Biden Admin Hosted ‘Indigenous Knowledge’ Seminars That Warned Scientists About ‘Disrespecting’ Spirits, Offshore Wind Fail – The UK Government Must Make Cheap Renewables More Affordable, Wired and The Conversation are Wrong, the 2023 Burning Man Rainstorm Wasn’t Caused By Climate Change, and Yes, the “World’s Dumbest Energy Policy” Is in Fact Getting a Whole Lot Dumber
The Federalist: New York Times: Eric Adams Is A Democrat So It’s No Longer Hateful To Oppose Uncontrolled Mass Migration, Kamala Harris Won’t Say Which Abortion Limits She Supports Because Democrats Like Her Don’t Want Any, The Case Against Ken Paxton Is All Hat, No Cattle, California Lawmakers Vote To Remove Kids From Any Parents Who Don’t Support Castrating Them, Sen. Tom Cotton Grills Pentagon Over Using Nonsense Word ‘Themself’ On Military Award Citations, Biden Knows He Is Using Illegal Immigrants To Hurt His Enemies, and Georgia Grand Jury Report Exposes Fulton County Prosecutor As An Election-Integrity Denier 
Mark Steyn: For Love or Money – Corporate Raiders, the ’80s Boom and Other People’s Money, Star Dust, The Years We Wasted, and Live Around the Planet

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Category: Linkagery

Disappointed, But Not Discouraged

Posted on | September 11, 2023 | Comments Off on Disappointed, But Not Discouraged

The New England Patriots lost their season-opener to the Philadelphia Eagles, 25-20, and this result was in many ways discouraging. As in several close games over the psst couple of years, the Patriots made stupid mistakes and failed in crucial situations late in the game. A loss is a loss, and any effort to find a “moral victory” in Sunday’s result does not change the fact that New England is now 0-1 and lost on their home field.

However (and you knew this was coming), as a Patriots fan, I’m actually encouraged by the team’s first regular-season performance. Several questions that had arisen about the team were answered Sunday in a manner that inspires hope that New England could make a run at the playoffs this year. Other observers shared that opinion, including Patriot Nation Podcast co-host Pat Lane, whose takeaways from the Philly game included these points:

1. The New England defense is legit . . .
2. Mac Jones looks fine …

and

6. The offensive line holds up surprisingly well . . .

Exactly so. Taking these in reverse order, New England fans have spent the past six months fretting about the offensive line, especially the question of who would play right tackle, opposite of veteran Trent Brown at left tackle (who has been widely criticized himself). The Patriots didn’t draft a tackle, instead adding three guards in the later rounds of the draft, and then acquiring some “journeyman” type tackles through trades and free agency. The thing you have to understand about the NFL is that top-quality offensive tackles are highly valued, so that it’s hard to acquire one except by drafting them in the first or second round.

My brother angered me during Sunday’s game when he remarked that Bill Belichick has assembled a “Gucci defense and a Dollar General offense.” After the game, however, I laughed at the uncanny accuracy of this description. A former defensive back who made his bones as a coach when he was defensive coordinator for the New York Giants under Bill Parcells, Belichick has always prioritized defense, an attitude that didn’t really hurt the Patriots’ chances when they had the miracle worker Tom Brady at quarterback. But that preference for drafting defensive players in the early rounds (and refusing to pay top dollar for free-agent talent on offense) has created problems for New England in the post-Brady years.

Rather than go into a detailed discussion of this — which I’m sure most of my readers don’t care about — the No. 1 question I had going into Sunday’s game was whether the Patriots’ makeshift assemblage of offensive linemen would be able to protect Jones, or whether he’d spend the day running for his life or getting pounded into the turf by Philadelphia’s phenomenal pass rushers. New England started two rookies, Atonio Mafi and Sidy Sow, at left and right guard, because the regular starting guards (Cole Strange and Michael Onwenu) were both injured. Calvin Anderson (acquired through free agency from the Broncos) got the start at right tackle, with veteran center David Andrews anchoring the resulting patchwork line and . . .

They weren’t really bad at all. Mac Jones came under pressure many times, but he was only sacked twice. Much credit for that no doubt belongs to New England’s offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien, who schemed up a lot of plays where Jones could make quick-release passes before the Eagles defense could get to him. And that was the defense, mind you, that got Philadelphia all the way to the Super Bowl last season.

After an early interception — tipped off the hands of receiver Kendrick Bourne into the hands of Eagles cornerback Darius Slay, who returned it for a touchdown — Jones was excellent at quarterback, completing 35 of 54 passing attempts (64.8%) for 316 yards and three TDs. He also ran for a first down during a touchdown drive late in the first half, and also scrambled for 7 yards (and got out of bounds to stop the clock) during the fourth-quarter drive that ended when rookie wide receiver Kayshon Boutte failed to get both feet inbounds on a catch that otherwise would have given the Patriots a first-and-goal at the Philadelphia 8-yard-line.

While the pessimist would point out that Jones wasn’t quite good enough to win the game for New England, he can’t really be blamed for the loss, either. And, as I say, they were playing against the defending NFC champions, with two rookies starting on the offensive line. For Mac to have done as well as he did under such circumstances, certainly Patriots fans can hope to see a highly competitive offense going forward, especially once the veteran guards get healthy and return to the lineup.

Finally, yes, the Patriots defense is legit. They were able to hold Philly’s dual-threat QB Jalen Hurts to just 170 yards passing and 37 yards running, limiting the Eagles to barely 250 yards total offense, and making several big plays, including a hard-hitting tackle by safety Jabrill Peppers that forced a fumble, and a sack by rookie cornerback Christian Gonzales.

Going into the season opener, even with home-field advantage, I think I was not alone in fearing that the Patriots would get blown out by the Eagles, and when New England quickly fell behind 16-0, it was heartbreaking, but not entirely unexpected. To see the Patriots claw their way back into contention, with two TD drives before halftime, gave me a lot of hope, and for New England to be playing with a chance to win in the final seconds was better than most sober observed had expected.

All in all, I think Patriots fans can be proud of how their team played Sunday, which you can’t say for fans of the Bengals (who lost 24-3 to the rival Browns), the Steelers (who got stomped 30-7 by the 49ers), the Bears (who were defeated 38-20 by the Packers) or the Giants, who were humiliated 40-0 in prime time Sunday night. Losing a close game to the Eagles was discouraging, but it wasn’t embarrassing — hang your head in shame, Giants fans — and I feel good about the rest of the season.



 

Category: Football

Rule 5 Sunday: Swimwear, very nice.

Posted on | September 11, 2023 | Comments Off on Rule 5 Sunday: Swimwear, very nice.

— compiled by Wombat-socho

And since this isn’t the Soviet Union, the swimwear is indeed very nice, and so are the babes wearing it. H/T to kbdabear on Twitter for this particular gal.
Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley esse delendam.

ANIMAL MAGNETISM: Rule Five Postal Service Friday, and the Saturday Gingermageddon. 

EBL: Saturday Night Girls With Guns, AntiMAGA Fixing Elections. Gracie Hunt, American Masters – Wyeth, Debbie Reynolds, Jupiter, The Equalizer 3, Breathless, No White After Labor Day, Burning Man ca. 1963, Jimmy Buffett, Summer Tomatoes, Egg & Cheese

A VIEW FROM THE BEACH: Morgan Ketzner, Fish Pic Friday – Sara Burk, Free, Taylor Swift is the Root of All Evil, The Wednesday Wetness, Tuesday Tanlines, Flotsam and Jetsam – Labor Day Edition, The Monday Morning Stimulus, Random Celebrity News and Palm Sunday

FLAPPR: T.I.T.S. For September 8

Thanks to everyone for all the luscious links!

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Category: Rule 5

FMJRA 2.0: Night Owls

Posted on | September 9, 2023 | Comments Off on FMJRA 2.0: Night Owls

— compiled by Wombat-socho

I am embarrassed that I forgot (until now) to pimp Hans Schantz’ Based Book Sale. Everything’s 99 cents or free, and written by authors who don’t hate you and the principles you believe in! What a concept, right? Head on over and take a look at the hundreds of books on offer!
A much better week for the Senators. Took two out of three from the O’s, and then swept all three games with the Pirates. The bullpen bailed us out in the two wins against Baltimore (and one of the Pittsburgh games), while Jim Kaat and Juan Marichal went the distance against the Pirates for their seventh and twelfth wins respectively. Fly the Curly W flag!
The twelfth volume of Klaus Schulze’s La Vie Electronique showed up in my PO box this week, though weirdly enough buying the CD enabled me to download the MP3 files and enjoy them last weekend. The reason I say it’s weird is that if you buy the MP3 files and skip the CD box, it costs you $1 more and you have no physical backup in case something happens. I don’t understand it either.
Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley esse delendam.

‘Debunked Conspiracy Theories’
The DaleyGator
The Pirate’s Cove
Flappr
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum

‘Coach Prime’ Silences Critics as Colorado Upsets TCU in Season-Opening Shocker
Flappr
EBL
357 Magnum

FMJRA 2.0: Run Through The Jungle
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum

Rule 5 Sunday: Salma Hayek
Animal Magnetism
Flappr
A View From The Beach
EBL

In The Mailbox: 09.05.23
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum

Crime Wave Now Reaches Hospitals
The DaleyGator
Flappr
EBL
357 Magnum

In The Mailbox: 09.06.23
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum

It Has Been 207 Days
EBL

In The Mailbox: 09.07.23
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum

Is President Kamala Harris Inevitable?
EBL
357 Magnum
A View From The Beach

In The Mailbox: 09.08.23
EBL
357 Magnum
A View From The Beach

Top linkers for the week ending September 8: 

  1.  EBL (11)
  2.  357 Magnum (9)
  3.  A View From The Beach (8)

Honorable mention: Flappr, who fell one link short of making the leaderboard this week. 

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Category: FMJRA Award

Asking The Important Questions

Posted on | September 9, 2023 | Comments Off on Asking The Important Questions

Category: Uncategorized

The Destructive Force of ‘Equality’

Posted on | September 9, 2023 | Comments Off on The Destructive Force of ‘Equality’

Many Americans were shocked when it was recently reported that the principal of John Glenn Elementary School in Oklahoma City, Shane Murnan, is a drag queen who performs as “Shantel Mandalay.” Furthermore, the fact that Murnan had previously been arrested on child pornography charges might have been a red flag, even if the charges were dropped on the grounds that it could not be proved that the material depicted minors. We might have expected this in some left-wing bastion like San Francisco, but Oklahoma City? Shocking. The state school superintendent called it “outrageous” and “completely inappropriate.”

How did this happen? Let our older readers think back to their childhood and ask whether any such person could have been hired as the principal of an elementary school back in those days. The explanation for this — Weimar-style decadence in public schools, even in Trump-voting “red” states — can be summarized in a single word: “Equality.”

This problem didn’t start with drag queens, nor is it of recent origin. Rather, if we want to point the finger at the most direct cause of our descent in degeneracy, the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution must be critically examined. Liberals have interpreted the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to mean things that those who drafted and ratified that amendment certainly never intended it to mean. The chief purpose of the Fourteenth Amendment was to establish the citizenship of former slaves, and to guarantee their protection under “due process of law.” The amendment was sufficiently controversial at the time that some of the ratifying states, including New Jersey and Ohio, voted to rescind their ratification after Republican supporters of the amendment lost control of the state legislature.

Given the mischief subsequently unleashed — the Fourteen Amendment has become the Pandora’s Box of constitutional chaos — we must wonder what those old-time Republican abolitionists would think of such consequences as Shantel Mandalay, the draq queen school principal.

In an 1880 Supreme Court decision — issued when knowledge of the Fourteenth Amendment’s purpose was still fresh in memory — it was declared that the Equal Protection Clause was “designed to assure to the colored race the enjoyment of all the civil rights that under the law are enjoyed by white persons, and to give to that race the protection of the general government, in that enjoyment, whenever it should be denied by the States.” Enforcement of that federal protection proved problematic in the post-Reconstruction era, giving rise to the 90-year tenure of Jim Crow, which finally ended in the mid-1960s with the passage of the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act. The triumph of the civil rights movement occurred (perhaps not coincidentally) at a time of social unrest and liberal domination of the federal court system, and it was from the tumult of the 1960s — riots and protests, “hippies” and “free love” — that new radical movements emerged.

Feminism was the first of these movements, asserting that social inequality between men and women was the product of unjust discrimination that deprived women of “equal protection,” resulting in a series of legal cases which, among other things, established sexual harassment as a civil rights violation (Meritor Saving Bank v. Vinson, 1986). Meanwhile, what was called the “gay rights” movement began to argue that discrimination against homosexuals likewise constituted a deprivation of “equal protection,” and one of the most notable early controversies to arise from this claim was in Miami, Florida, where the Dade County Commission passed a gay-rights ordinance that met with a protest led by Anita Bryant. At the heart of Bryant’s “Save Our Children” campaign was the argument that a policy of non-discrimination would require schools to employ homosexuals. Here is how the result of Bryan’s campaign was reported by the New York Times in 1977:

MIAMI, June 7 — In a decision almost certain to have national impact, residents of the Miami area voted by a margin of more than 2-to-1 today to repeal a law that protects homosexuals from discrimination in employment, housing and public accommodation.
The vote, a referendum on an ordinance enacted more than four months ago by the Dade County Commission, was the first of its kind in a major United States city. It came at the end of a heated campaign that focused national attention on the long-smoldering question of what legal and social status should be given the 5 to 10 percent of the nation’s population that practices homosexuality.
Both the winners and the losers in the campaign vowed to continue their struggles elsewhere in the country.
Anita Bryant, the pop singer and television personality who led the repeal forces, celebrated the victory by dancing a jig at her Miami Beach home. Later, she told newsmen that she was establishing a national committee to fight homosexuality and added:
“All America and all the world will hear what the people have said, and with God’s continued help, we will prevail in our fight to repeal similar laws throughout the nation which attempt to legitimize a life style that is both perverse and dangerous.”

You may disagree with Bryant’s opinions, but the voters of Dade County supported her position by a 2-to-1 margin. What is remarkable is how rapidly liberals had transferred the concept of “equality” from the matter of race — the Civil Rights Act of 1964 — to the matter of sexual “life style,” as Bryant called it in 1977. The logic of this transfer has never been subjected to the kind of critical scrutiny it deserves.

Why is it that the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, enacted in the immediate aftermath of the Civil War, when the legal status of freedmen was clearly a matter of national concern, metamorphosized more than a century later to become the basis of legitimizing homosexual behavior? What seems to me to be the unifying factor was the liberal celebration of victimhood. Black people were viewed by liberals as “mascots,” to borrow Thomas Sowell’s term from The Vision of the Anointed. Because black people were victims of unjust discrimination, their cause was championed by liberals, who derived a sense of personal heroism from the civil rights crusade. Subsequently, when homosexuals claimed that they, too, were the victims of unjust discrimination, liberal endorsement of their cause was automatic.

This logic was always a non sequitur. Homosexuality is a matter of behavior. The distinction between gay and straight is not analogous to the visible hereditary differences between black and white people, for the simple reason that you can’t judge a book by its cover. Most people never would have suspected, for example, that Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky was sexually attracted to young boys. Nothing about Sandusky’s appearance or behavior suggested such an interest. Sandusky was very much “in the closet,” and I suppose most gay-rights advocates would even deny that he was a member of the “LGBTQ community,” as it is now called. But my point is that nobody ever discriminated against Sandusky on the basis of his sexual preference because nobody had any inkling what his preference was.

By contrast, no investigation is required to recognize black people — a matter of visible hereditary traits, genotype producing phenotype — so that anyone wishing to discriminate against black people easily knows whom to target. In order to discriminate against gay people, however, you must obtain information beyond mere appearance, unless the gay person makes a point of announcing their sexual orientation.

Here we come to a weird aspect of the gay-rights argument, namely that being “out” is necessary to their happiness, so that they are victimized in any situation where they can’t proclaim their homosexuality (and be applauded for doing so). This is part of what I’ve called the Compulsory Approval Doctrine of the gay-rights movement, the unspoken premise that no one can be permitted to express disapproval of homosexuality (as a behavioral phenomenon), a belief that tends toward a policy of exempting gay people from any criticism whatsoever, so that to be gay is to possess carte blanche — do whatever you want, without consequences.

Now, there are many gay people who vote Republican and who embrace conservatism quite generally. Peter Thiel is both gay and “far right,” and he is certainly not the only example of this phenomenon. In discussing the metamorphosis of “equality,” its transference from civil rights for black people to an all-purpose weapon now wielded by LGBTQ activists, it is not my intention to insult any of my fellow conservatives. But when we behold a situation like this one in Oklahoma City, with the drag queen “Shantel Mandalay” as elementary school principal, it’s important to ask the question: “How did we get here?” My contention is that by an uncritical acceptance of “equality” as a core value — indeed, a moral imperative — Americans have opened the door not only to such glaringly obvious wrongs, but to a thousand other problems that make life worse and are contributing to the destruction of our country.



 

Category: Education, The Transgender Cult
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