The Other McCain

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

Affirmative Action Is White Collar Welfare

Posted on | January 11, 2012 | 6 Comments

by Smitty

I don’t see the contradiction in saying that we will not discriminate, in a negative sense, while wanting the most qualified employees available, in the positive sense. These are ideas applied on a per-individual basis. Those ideas are applied in series, and the quota is far more important.

Things go pear-shaped when companies make sub-optimal hiring choices to fit that quota. “Well, we’ve gotta have a token WASP on the staff, or it looks like we’re discriminating,” said the Equal Opportunity Officer. The problem is that the WASP is an illiterate buffoon, and also a relative of the EEO, and two more people have to be hired to cover for the deadbeat. Does the company exist primarily to turn a profit, or to carry staff at the behest of the compliance gestapo?

Just because the government has found a way to enshrine the Raaaaacism Industrial Complex in law does not justify raaaaacism. Let’s drop race and gender both from all of our applications and let meritocracy reign.

Category: Racism

Going To The Political Party Meeting Was Like Eating My Vegetables

Posted on | January 11, 2012 | 5 Comments

by Smitty

I grew up thinking that political parties were mainly for nerdy, preppy people who were taking a break from chess club or something. Then I was in the military, where, while voting is a big deal, partisanship is like evangelizing: a big no-no. Which is good. The fact that the military swears fealty to the Constitution and neither a good President, nor Presidents with creepy imperial overtones, is foundational to recovering the country.

Last night was my intro to the Fairfax County GOP. I’ll likely end up joining, not out of any regard for the Republican Party as such, but the simple realization that, even if you plop a third major party into the mix, it’s going to resemble the GOP in short order. There is no magic formula for this sort of thing. Virginia, being over 400 years old, may be more baroque than other states. We have a committee here for everything except premature Mel Brooks references, but that one is coming soon. People running around with ballot petitions, like the ones all but the Paul and Romney campaigns failed to execute correctly, asking what legislative and magisterial (?) districts you are in. I sat at the Lee District table. Rest in peace, Elbridge Gerry.

Then I remembered I’m a blogger, and Stacy McCain would box my ears if I didn’t produce a post. Out comes the Samsung Galaxy II S!

Jaime Radtkewas there, in a way George Allen was not. Mrs. Allen offered a fine speech about what great service George has offered over his long career. Jaime offered a rather wonkish litany of just how pear-shaped the political situation is. Also, she remembered having read this blog. One is nearly overcome by feelings of quasi-adequacy!
Jaime is a serious contender for the Senate seat, and can succeed where Sharon Angle and Christine O’Donnell fell short, in my humble. George Allen, for all I like the guy, may have some PTSD associated with an obscure three syllable epithet; or maybe it’s just Romney-itis.
The primary will tell. Go, Jaime!
Also attending was Chris Perkins of the 11th District, whose wife my cel phone camera owes an apology. Perkins gave a rousing speech that had much better reception than his two primary contenders. I’m all for more active duty military presence in Congress, for reasons noted above.
Finally, there was the 8th District’s own Patrick Murray. Having just done this drill two years ago, he seemed significantly more relaxed than my first encounter with him, at CPAC09. Listening to his speech, one could not help but notice that he had a swagger similar to that of Patton, albeit sublimated, as he went on to note that, in a recent poll, he beat Moran by 4 points among independent voters in the district.Never mind the asphyxiated blueness of VA-8. This campaign promises to bring badly needed redness.

So, will I ever be a rabid Republican? Hope not, but I’ll join and do some of the drudge work necessary to get things going. One speaker noted that the debt is greater than 100% of GDP now, and some think the odds of a QE3 are about 50/50.

I am unashamed to admit being motivated both by fear of inaction and anger at the Progressive noose about the collective neck. Readers of this blog are encouraged to consider devoting a portion of your time and effort to supporting your local candidates.

Category: Republicans, Virginia

Is Torie Bosch Really An Idiot?

Posted on | January 11, 2012 | 12 Comments

by Smitty

Torie Bosch has deliberately, diabolically misconstrued Chris Christie, and Ann Althouse, unexpectedly, seems to want to take Bosch seriously, leading to much cognitive dissonance:

But it’s not enough here to say Bosch is an idiot or that Bosch’s idiocy exemplifies the pathetic present-day feminist web-writers and impugns the entire enterprise of feminism — which has been and should be noble.
It’s not enough, because Bosch has infected the internet with a meme, and it’s powerfully viral. There will be many, many people now who will get the idea that Chris Christie is a sexist. They just know — they feel — he’s an immense misogynist. He’s got misogyny on him — and like a blue dress kept in the back of the closet, that stain isn’t going to get washed out any time soon.
Bosch has propagated the lie, and her liberal allies — who would love to destroy a rising conservative star — are hard at work spreading it. And I do mean hard at work. These slimy little dweebs who write at places I won’t link to, but whom you can find by clicking on that last link, get obscenely excited at the prospect of wrecking a righty.

Whatever nobility feminism may have once enjoyed or may yet again, Bosch is playing to Gustave le Bon, whose main points are that shaping the mob is about being loud and being first. Pull the facts out of any orifice of convenience.

Once Postmodernism gave up on the Truth as such, or any fear of judgement for this sort of hellish distortion, the only thing remaining was raw hunger for power. Someone like a Bosch need only land a bit of stench on Christie to be effective. Even a discounted story is still a lodestone about the neck, or my name isn’t Herman Cain. Funny how these sexual abuse allegations vanished in a puff of pure pettifoggery once he departed the Presidential race. As though the allegations, and our court system in general, was merely a device for control.

May the Almighty have mercy on Bosch, and communicate her evil to her in a way that triggers repentance. The rest of us must reject this sort of behavior and strive mightily not to become like Bosch. I, for one, go after some riffs against my Congresscritter, ‘Gentleman’ Jim Moran. I put the ‘Gentleman’ in there as a frequent note to self to give Moran a jolly flogging in the blog, but not lose the twinkle in the eye while doing it.

Category: Ann Althouse

LIVE AT FIVE – 01.11.12

Posted on | January 11, 2012 | 8 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho


TOP NEWS
Romney wins New Hampshire, Ron Paul Finishes Second

Governor Asterisk Buys Third, Remaining Not-Romneys Back In The Pack

Car Bomb Kills Iranian Nuke Scientist Near Tehran University
IT’S THE JOOOOOOS, local official claims

Coast Guard Rescues Distressed Iranians In Gulf Of Hormuz
Second rescue in a week by U.S. Military



POLITICS
Federal Appeals Court Strikes Down Oklahoma Sharia Ban

Muneer Awad of the Oklahoma CAIR speaks with his lawyer

Ban on courts’ consideration of international or sharia law held a violation of the First Amendment

State Of Michigan Gives Detroit A Month To Come Up With Union Concessions

Supremes Rule For Arbitration In Credit Card Case

GOP Congressman Wally Herger To Retire

Colbert Ahead Of Governor Asterisk In SC Poll

Perry, Others Likely To Prevail In Virginia Ballot Suit

Conservative Activists Scrambling To Stop Romney



THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Europe Banks Reject Draghi Bid By Hoarding Cash
Wall Street at Five-Month High
Twinkie Maker Hostess Brands Falls Back Into Bankruptcy
Fannie Mae Chief Williams To Step Down
Kodak Sues HTC, Apple And Realigns
Fed Turns Over $77 Billion In Profits To Treasury
Pressure Builds On Obama With Looming Keystone Deadline
India Allows IKEA, Starbucks To Open Stores Without Local Partners
Intel Announces First Smartphones With Lenovo, Motorola
Oracle Makes Big Data Appliance Move With Cloudera
Ultrabooks Are Everywhere At CES, But Should You Buy One?



SPORTS
Rockets Beat Bobcats For First Road Win

Rockets forward Chandler Parsons scores 20 with seven assists

Parsons, Hill lead Houston squad to first away win, 82-70

Wizards Finally Win One, Top Raptors 93-78

Top Freestyle Skier Sarah Burke In Coma After Injury On Superpipe


Third Test Tensions Escalate

Jaguars Hire Mularkey As Head Coach

Rangers Chip Away At Coyotes, Record 5th Straight Win

MLB To Offer Selig Contract Extension



FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
Molly Sims Expecting First Child

Molly Sims and husband Scott Stuber

Child expected to arrive at end of June

Christina Aguilera: Drop Dead Diva

Katie Holmes Goes Topless To Flog Jewelry

Marc Anthony Tells J-Lo: You Need To See A Shrink

IRS Coming Down On Lindsay For $93K Income Tax Debt

Chelsea Handler: Why I’ve Cut Back On My Drinking

Infamous Armenian Replaced By Dog In Ad


Paul Bettany Drops Out Of Showtime’s “Masters Of Sex”

No Evidence Found Of Foul Play In Natalie Wood’s Death

Carrie Fisher Loses 50 Pounds In 9 Months; Wants To Get Back In The Metal Bikini



FOREIGNERS
Ten Years Of “Gitmo” – And More To Come
UN Says Syria Undeterred By Foreign Monitors
U.S. Resumes Drone Strikes In Pakistan
Spokesman: Pakistani President Zardari Made No Offer To Resign
Norks Indignant Over Food-For-Disarmament Offer
7.3 Quake Hits Off Indonesia; Panic, No Injuries
Former Taiwan President Lee Backs Tsai, Spurning Kuomintang
Mosque, Madrassa Sacked In Benin
Scots Will Vote In 2014, Says First Minister Salmond
Turkey Clears Way For 1980 Coup Trial



BLOGS & STUFF
Hit & Run: Amazing Night – Ron Paul and The Path To A Two-Man Race
Gateway Pundit: Ron Paul To Conservative GOP Candidates – Get Out
Michelle Malkin: Romney and McCain, The GOP Frenemies Club
Rush Limbaugh: Newt Sounds Just Like Obama
Legal Insurrection: I’m Not Going To Sit Here While Critics Of Bain Badmouth The United States Of America
James Taranto: Barack Hussein Gingrich
NRO corner: New DPC Head To shape Policy “Outside Legislative Channels
Electronic Freedom Foundation: SOPA, PIPA Becoming Hot Button Issues In 2012 Election
Jawa Report: Wonder Why Gasoline Prices Are So Needlessly High?


SOTD: Dancing Fool

Category: Live at Five

NEW HAMPSHIRE PRIMARY HQ UPDATE: Romney Wins; Ron Paul Second; Huntsman Third; Gingrich, Santorum Fight for Fourth Place

Posted on | January 10, 2012 | 79 Comments

MANCHESTER, N.H.
UPDATE 10:30 p.m. ET: Rick Santorum concluded his speech here by shouting, “On to South Carolina!” Indeed. But first, I’ve got a deadline for The American Spectator, and then there are friends awaiting my arrival at the bar at the Radisson Hotel.

After that, I’ve got a 12:30 p.m. Wednesday flight out of Boston’s Logan Airport, going home for a couple of days to see my wife and kids, rest up and eat home cooking. Hit the freaking tip jar!

UPDATE 9:43 p.m. ET: In a press gaggle just now, Rick Santorum campaign manager said they are prepared to spend $1 million for TV and radio advertising in South Carolina. They are also about to announce the addition of paid staff in Florida.

With 56% of precincts reporting, Santorum just moved ahead of Newt Gingrich for 4th place.

UPDATE 9:35 p.m. ET: Jon Huntsman: “Third place is a ticket to ride! … We got it done!” He talks about doing it “the old-fashioned way,” i.e. spending Daddy’s money. No campaign is going to be more damaged than Huntsman’s by the release this weekend of the FEC reports for the fourth quarter of 2011. And yet he’s going to go on to chew up more TV debate time and collect some percentage of the vote in South Carolina and Florida.

UPDATE 9:30 p.m. ET: We’re going to have to wait for Jon Huntsman to give his third-place “victory” speech before Rick Santorum speaks here. Journalists are finding ways to fill their time:

Reporters compulsively check their Twitter feeds on their 4G phones. The lady in the black-and-white coat is Shushana Walshe of ABC News.

Danny Yadron of the Wall Street Journal interviews Santorum supporters.

UPDATE 9:14 p.m. ET: Results with 39% of precincts reporting:

Mitt Romney ….. 27,980 (37%)
Ron Paul ………… 17,953 (24%)
Jon Huntsman … 12,797 (17%)
Newt Gingrich …. 7,576 (11%)
Rick Santorum …. 7,522 (11%)
Rick Perry ………… 551 (1%)
Buddy Roemer ……… 292 (0%)
Michele Bachmann ….. 105 (0%)
Herman Cain ………. 57 (0%)

The margin between Gingrich and Santorum is less than the vote for Herman Cain, who quit the race more than a month ago.

UPDATE 9:03 p.m. ET: Ron Paul in his speech: “I want to thank the Union Leader for not endorsing me” — a shot at Newt Gingrich.

UPDATE 8:57 p.m. ET: Associated Press headline:

Romney wins in NH,
cements front-runner position

We expect Rick Santorum’s speech here within 10 minutes.

Don Surber is evidently ready to roll over for the RINO.

UPDATE 8:40 p.m. ET: At 8:26 p.m., Romney pre-empted all his rivals’ concession speeches by giving one of the earliest victory speeches I can recall. He took a shot at Gingrich and Perry — unnamed “desperate Republicans” — and slammed Obama repeatedly. We are still awaiting the arrival of Rick Santorum here at his primary night celebration. He’s within 70 votes of Gingrich for fourth place with 23% of precincts reporting.

Santorum supporters sport their $100 sweater vests.

UPDATE 8:10 p.m. ET: Results updating fast and furious now. With 11% of precincts reporting:

Mitt Romney ….. 8,856, (36%)
Ron Paul ………… 6,126 (25%)
Jon Huntsman … 4,207 (17%)
Newt Gingrich …. 2,658 (11%)
Rick Santorum …. 2,419 (10%)
Rick Perry ………… 167 (1%)
Buddy Roemer ……… 108 (0%)

UPDATE 8:25 p.m. ET: Da Tech Guy is here doing his own coverage. CNN just declared Romney the winner — obviously — and is interviewing Jon Huntsman, who’s running a weak third in the state where he’s been campaigning non-stop for six months. Ron Paul is running a strong second. Roxeanne de Luca just showed up to vex me. Bryan Preston of PJ Tatler fame is here, and we’re thinking of making a run to Romneyland later this evening.

** PREVIOUSLY (6:58 p.m. ET) **

Television network satellite trucks parked outside
Rick Santorum primary night party, Manchester, N.H.

We are here at the Derryfield Restaurant for the Rick Santorum Victory Maybe Fourth Place Celebration and, conveniently enough, the Media Filing Center is located right next to the bar. It’s gonna take a lot of beverages for me to be able to avoid profound depression — and perhaps an episode of “arctic hysteria” — when the votes come rolling in tonight.

Mitt Romney, the sadistic RINO flipflopper who gets his jollies by firing guys like me, is the overwhelming favorite to win here, with The Ron Paul Survival Newsletter a distant second. According to the liberal media, however, the “Hunstman Surge” might challenge Paul’s hold on second place, which would mean that the best Rick Santorum can do is to beat Newt Gingrich for fifth place.

Polls close at 8 p.m. ET, but I figure I’d better start drinking early, if I hope to withstand my Greenlandic Innuit urge to go running around naked.

The National Affairs Desk, 6:30 p.m., Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2012

UPDATE: This exit poll data might be significant:

The polling showed undeclared voters made up a significant 44 percent of voters in the Granite State on Tuesday — that’s nearly twice the number of independents that showed up in Iowa last week. In that group, 30 percent said they were supporting Romney, while 29 percent were supporting Ron Paul and 27 percent were supporting Jon Huntsman.
Among late deciders, the line-up was slightly different. The exit polls showed 29 percent breaking for Romney, while 24 percent were backing Huntsman and 20 percent were backing Rick Santorum, who finished second in the Iowa caucuses.

Hmmm. If “late deciders” among independents are breaking slightly toward Santorum, does that mean that he’s locked down fourth place and Newt Gingrich will finish no better than fifth here?

UPDATE II: Linked at Fire Andrew Mitchell and by Bob Belvedere at Camp of the Saints — thanks! Meanwhile, although Ed Morrissey is right here in Santorum HQ, Allahpundit has the big “election results open thread” at Hot Air, this being The Squishy Night of RINO Joy.


Category: Election, Fear and Loathing in New Hampshire, New Hampshire

Maybe This Explains My Problem

Posted on | January 10, 2012 | 25 Comments

“Anyone who follows psychiatry has noticed that the field is now in the midst of a debate that galvanizes its members every 10 to 20 years. At the center of the hubbub is psychiatry’s most sacred text: the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. . . .
“If you turn to page 898 of the current edition — past the glossary and the alphabetical index of diagnoses — you’ll find a list of 25 little-known illnesses. These are the ‘culture-bound syndromes’: mental illnesses that psychiatrists officially acknowledge occur only within a particular society. Take, for instance . . . pibloktoq, also known as ‘arctic hysteria,’ in which Greenlandic Inuit strip off all their clothes and run out into the subzero Arctic tundra.”
— Latif Nasser, Boston Globe, “Do some cultures have their own ways of going mad?”

HOLLIS, N.H.
When I left home the day after Christmas, leaving before dawn to fly off to Iowa, I was in a cheerful mood, and I remained optimistic even when I was forced to return the black Mustang to the rental agency.

But the past few days in New Hampshire, I’ve begun feeling increasingly glum, and uncharacteristic mood-swing that I at first attributed to being forced to take the Jon Huntsman campaign seriously. Later, I thought maybe I was bummed out by hanging around with those squishy RINOs from National Review during Saturday night’s debate.

It wasn’t until I picked up Sunday’s Boston Globe and saw that story about “arctic hysteria” that I realized I must be suffering from the same problem that affects the Greenlandic Inuit.

Perhaps this “culture-bound syndrome” known as pibloktoq has seized hold of me here in this gloomy northern climate. Perhaps there was an overlooked Inuit somewhere in my family tree whose hereditary influence is now causing me to suffer bizarre mood swings involving strange impulses.

All of this is to explain that I’m now about to hit the road to Manchester, where I’ll be covering the Primary Night excitement in New Hampshire. And if anyone sees me running around Manchester naked . . .

Well, that’s just the Inuit in me.

Category: Fear and Loathing in New Hampshire

Ron Paul and the ‘Not Romneys’

Posted on | January 10, 2012 | 46 Comments

“There are many mysteries to the phenomenon that is Ron Paul. How is it, for example, that a 76-year-old with a reedy voice — his appearance and manner not remotely “presidential” by the usual standards of the TV age — is an idol to so many youth? Polls in Iowa showed that Paul got 48 percent among caucus voters under 30, which might suggest that his libertarian-tinged anti-war message represents the future of the Republican Party. But that youth vote was only good enough for 21.4 percent of the total, because fully 60 percent of Iowa GOP caucus-goers were 50 or older. So the oldest candidate in the race, dismissed as a crackpot by most mainstream Republicans, is almost uniquely capable of attracting young voters to a party dominated by the gray-hair-and-bifocals set. However one attempts to explain this situation, it does not bode well for the GOP. And perhaps it doesn’t bode well for America, either.”
— Robert Stacy McCain, “Ron Paul Haunts New Hampshire,” The American Spectator, Jan.  10, 2012″

HOLLIS, N.H.
After spending a couple of hours among the Paulistas yesterday, I felt obligated to write my Spectator column about this phenomenon, and I think that difficult experience explains a lot of my bleak mood today.

It wasn’t just that I was distracted by the Alabama football game or trying to file a story in a hotel bar. No, I kept thinking about what the Ron Paul phenomenon, and what “the abysmal incompetence of the non-Romneys,” signifies for the future of the GOP and the future of the country.

Contrast the pathetic joke that is the Rick Perry campaign — which now has exactly as many supporters as it can afford to hire — with the amazing grassroots enthusiasm exhibited by the young supporterfs of Ron Paul. Just to remind you, here is the video of them packed inside an aircraft hanger in Nashua on Friday:

Are we ever going to see any such display of genuine excitement for Romney, Gingrich, Huntsman or Perry? I still dare hope that Santorum’s underdog crusade might eventually inspire something similar, although there have been only glimmers of it so far.

Where are the Christian youth who say they believe in the right to life? Why aren’t conservative Christians showing up at Santorum’s campaign headquarters in such overwhelming numbers that the campaign staff is shocked by the influx of volunteers? Why aren’t pro-life, pro-family evangelical ministers and Catholic clergy urging their congregations to board the next flight to South Carolina and start doing everything they can to help Rick Santorum win on Jan. 21?

“Where’s the spirit? Where’s the guts, huh?”

Many of my conservative friends are so busy denouncing Ron Paul and his supporters that they can’t be bothered to ask themselves, “Why don’t we have that kind of wild-eyed fanaticism among our supporters?”

And I fear that the answer would be, selfishness.

But I don’t have time or patience to explain that remark now, and I suspect any attempt to explain it would annoy and offend people. So I’ll leave it there for the time being, rather that bother you with my depressing contemplations. A few discouraging headlines may suffice:

Majority of Conservatives
See Romney as “Acceptable”
— Gallup

New Hampshire polls open
in Dixville Notch — with nine votes
— Washington Post

Perry: Mitt’s company ‘just vultures’
who ‘eat the carcass’ of companies
— Politico

And as the final insult, there’s this:

Crowd boos mentioning
of McCain’s name at Santorum event
— The Hill

Oh, wait, they weren’t booing the mention of my name. It was that other guy. But it’s still depressing to think about how Cousin Maverick has disgraced the family name. Hit the freaking tip jar.

RECENTLY:


Category: American Spectator, Election 2012, Fear and Loathing in New Hampshire, New Hampshire, Ron Paul

Dammit, Smitty! How Many Times Must I Tell You, ‘No Quarter to Feminists’?

Posted on | January 10, 2012 | 31 Comments

HOLLIS, N.H.
The sun is shining this morning in New Hampshire, but the shadows of gloom still threaten to swallow my soul. First, I couldn’t get a “Roll Tide” from Rick Santorum and now . . . Et tu, Smitty?

“Roxeanne gets me thinking with this one,” indeed!

The redheaded temptress has evidently beguiled and confused you by asserting that it is “downright sexist” to assume “that men can do things competently but women cannot.”

Obviously so, and this is exactly the point: What Roxeanne pejoratively styles “sexism” is the only possible resistance to the deceitful strategic attempt at gynocentric hegemony commonly known as “feminism.”

Don’t you see, Admiral Smith, that feminists are lying when they claim to want mere equality? Do you suppose that the Fair Sex shall be content to get 51% of everything and leave us with a respectable remainder? Hell, no, sir.

They want it all or, at least, they want everything worth having — every position of prestige and influence — and if their ruthless power-grab is not strenuously resisted, we shall be left only the most ignoble duties of society. Men will be hewing wood and drawing water for Our Omnipotent Feminist Overlords, tugging the forelock to beg crumbs from the distaff banquet table.

It’s a zero-sum game, you see, as any Womyn’s Studies major would be happy to inform you. Any power exercised by any man over any woman under any circumstance is, according to feminist doctrine, the Unjust Misogynistic Oppression of the Patriarchy.

Call a waitress a “waitress”? SEXIST!

Glance twice at a long-legged beauty? MISOGYNIST!

Ask your wife to wash your socks? OPPRESSOR!

This endless hectoring — the constant accusatory finger-pointing intended to shame men for their natural masculine impulses — is part and parcel of feminism’s totalitarian quest for complete dominance. And the fact that feminism, as an ideology, represents only the selfish hatefulness of a relatively small number of embittered hags does not make this totalitarianism less dangerous.

Remember that the Bolsheviks were but a tiny fraction of the Russian populace at the time of the October Revolution, and yet their radical ruthlessness enabled them to seize power. In much the same way as the Bolsheviks claimed to speak for the workers and peasants, feminists nowadays claim to represent the interests of all women. On the basis of that usurped authority, feminists wield the awful fury of revolutionary terror against their enemies, so that even Jeff Goldstein seems afraid to openly oppose them.

Am I alone in seeing this? Is there no one else who recognizes the dictatorial ambitions of feminism, the steel fist inside the velvet glove? Do you not understand, Smitty, that you can no more placate these would-be tyrants with soft words of reasonable compromise than you can negotiate with a ravenous shark?

Rebuke them! Expose them! Defy them! Denounce them!

Never show fear in the presence of feminists, because your fear is their second most powerful weapon, and nearly as dangerous as the first.

IYKWIMAITYD.

Category: Feminism, Protein Wisdom, Roxeanne de Luca
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