The Other McCain

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

‘Killadelphia’ Update: Amanda Marcotte Escapes Death in South Street Massacre

Posted on | June 8, 2022 | 1 Comment

Look, we don’t expect expert marksmanship from gang-bangers gunning it out on the streets of Philly, but oh, what an opportunity they missed!

After reassuring multiple people by text that my partner and I had been tucked safely in bed at 11:30 on Saturday night, I finally cracked and posted a general reassurance on Facebook. No, we had not been near the shooting on South Street in Philadelphia, where we live, that resulted in 3 deaths and 11 major injuries. But people’s concerns weren’t misplaced. We had been at a party in that neighborhood just the night before. Saturday’s was the ninth mass shooting in the city this year alone, according to the Gun Violence Archive. There have been shootings at train stations and house parties. One group of victims was going to the prom. These things really are a matter of luck in a society that’s swimming in as much gun violence as ours.

Doggone it, where’s an armed thug when you really need one?

This is mere sarcasm, of course. I do not actually wish Amanda Marcotte had been killed in an urban shootout, but it is ironic that she had been in that vicinity 24 hours earlier. Dana Pico at First Street Journal gives Marcotte’s column a thorough fisking, thus sparing me the trouble. However, to summarize her theme briefly, it seems to be Marcotte’s contention that, because a majority of U.S. shootings involve “people of color,” Republicans actually encourage criminal violence:

“It is nothing more than a new version of the Southern strategy,” [Philadelphia DA Larry] Krasner told Business Insider. “They’re saying ‘big cities, lawless,’ except all the big cities they’re talking about are very Democratic and have huge Black and brown populations.”
This race-baiting is especially gross when one considers that, despite the paranoia of the white GOP, racial minorities are more likely to be victims of gun violence. But that underscores just how nasty and cynical the Republican strategy here is. They back policies that lead to violence that harms people of color, then they blame people of color in order to get votes from racist white people. For Republicans, it’s all political upside.

Neither Marcotte nor Krasner has ever had to face any well-informed critic in debate. Liberals merely hurl the accusation of “racism” at their opponents and, believing this sufficient to discredit anyone, conduct themselves as if they possess a monopoly to discuss the underlying policy issues. In her column, Marcotte takes a jab at Arizona Republican candidate Blake Masters, who recently had the temerity to say of the current violent crime rampage in America: “It’s gangs. It’s people in Chicago, St. Louis, shooting each other very often, you know, Black people frankly.” You may say that this statement is “racist,” but that doesn’t mean it’s not also true. Let anyone consult the official data about violent crime from the Department of Justice, and you will discover that black males, who constitute about 7% of the U.S. population, perpetrate about 50% of the nation’s homicides, attempted murder, aggravated assaults, etc. Black males are also about half of the nation’s homicide victims. In 2019, the most recent year for which we have official data, there were 13,927 murder victims, of whom at least 7,484 (54%) were black, including 6,446 (46%) who were black males. (The reason I say “at least” 54% of murder victims were black is because some jurisdictions don’t officially identify victims by race, so there were an extra 1,808 homicide victims whose race was not reported to the FBI.)

Because I write about crime on a regular basis — not just when it’s political convenient because of some atrocity that gets nationwide headlines — the facts on this subject are very familiar to me. If anyone was truly shocked by what Blake Masters said, it’s because either (a) they don’t know the facts or (b) they understand that we’re not supposed to say this kind of stuff aloud, no matter how true it may be.

Since the Black Lives Matter movement grabbed the spotlight in 2020, it’s common to see activist types claim that “black-on-black crime” is a racist myth, a phrase conjured up by white supremacists, rather than the simplest way to describe about half of the crime committed in the United States. The number of young black men killed by police is an insignificant fraction of the thousands of young black men killed by other young black men every year. However, it is important to point out that black criminals are themselves but a small fraction of the U.S. black population (total 45.5 million). Inasmuch as violence perpetrated by black criminals jeopardizes the safety of law-abiding black citizens, it is not in the best interests of the black community to tolerate, ignore or excuse such crime. Yet tolerating this menace is exactly what liberals like Amanda Marcotte and Larry Krasner want to do. The real enemy of the black community is not Republicans like Blake Masters, it’s white liberals.

And since I may claim to be an expert on the subject of racism — having been conspicuously accused of it, by folks recognized as professionals in this regard — let me just say that liberals don’t understand the correlation between crime and racism. The prevalence of crime in urban black communities is often explained away by liberals who imply that the gang-bangers are somehow victims of racism. But racism doesn’t cause black crime; if anything, it’s the other way around. There are certainly genuine racists in the world, people who hate other people on the basis of mere differences in physical appearance. But much of what is condemned as “racism” in America isn’t hate, it’s fear, and it isn’t based on skin color or hair texture, but rather on behavioral differences, including differences in rates of violent crime. BLM’s anti-police crusade, and the efforts of “progressive” DAs like Krasner, are aimed at reducing or preventing the arrest and incarceration of black criminals, which will logically have the effect of increasing the perception of danger. If you want to reduce what Marcotte calls “racial paranoia,” turning loose carjackers and armed drug dealers is probably not good policy, and yet turning criminals loose is exactly what liberals advocate in the name of “social justice.”

Of course, it’s racist — “RAAAAACIST!” — to disagree with a liberal, so Marcotte will continue pretending that there’s no problem in Philadelphia that can’t be solved by electing more Democrats, and Krasner will continue turning loose criminals, and nothing I say will deter either of them. However, my advice to Marcotte (or anyone else living in Philadelphia) continues to be, “Get out, before they kill you.”

Don’t blame me if you end up as a statistic. I warned you.




 

Category: Crime

In The Mailbox: 06.07.22

Posted on | June 8, 2022 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 06.07.22

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Silicon Valley delenda est.

OVER THE TRANSOM
357 Magnum: The Institutions Of Woke Will Eventually Go…Well, You Know
EBL: Biden Hated Worse Than Trump & Carter
Twitchy: Obama Campaign Manager Calls Out Occasional Cortex Over Primary Endorsement, also, Senator Stabenow (D-MI) Drove Her Electric Car From Michigan To DC And Didn’t Care How Expensive Gas Was
Louder With Crowder: Goodbye To Acosta & Stelter? also, Kid Rock Refuses To Apologize For Drunk Anti-Oprah Rant
Vox Popoli: Tactical Attrition Warfare, The Downhill Slide, and Some Thoughts On Hitler

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
Adam Piggott: The Patriarchal Man Is A Leader
American Conservative: Defund The Colleges, also, Is The Red Wave Starting In California?
American Greatness: What The J6 Committee Hearings Won’t Cover, also, Another Pro-Life Facility Firebombed; Pro-Abort Terrorist Group Jane’s Revenge Takes Credit
American Power: San Francisco DA Chesa Boudin Doomed By Rising Crime & Angry Voters
American Thinker: Brexit, Blexit, & Now Chexit, also, Why Trump Shouldn’t Run For President In 2024
Animal Magnetism: Animal’s Daily College Debt News
Babalu Blog: First We Had Fauxcahontas, Now We Have Hoaxtuey, also, Heavy Rains Collapse ~300 Buildings In Western Cuba
BattleSwarm: Five Indicted APD Officers Sue DA Garza, City, & SJW Groups, also, The Great Leveler Is Coming, Mimi
Behind The Black: The Oppressive & Ignorant Blacklisting Culture Now Dominating Politics, Spiders Galore On Mars! and New Shepard Flies Six Passengers On Suborbital Loop
Cafe Hayek: Anti-Antitrust, There Is No Good Practical Case For Price Controls, and Enough With “Greedflation”
CDR Salamander: Fullbore Friday, also, Combined Amphibious Operations In The Indo-Pacific  – On Midrats
Chicago Boyz: Anybody Surprised? also, When Juries Nullify & Comedians Comment
Da Tech Guy: Never Forget These Two Things About The Biden Economy, Chris Jacobs Discovers Pissing On Your Base Makes Re-Election Impossible, and America’s Worst Mayor Running For A Second Term
Don Surber: Why They Fear Steve Bannon, Why Biden Called For A Ban On Scary-Looking Rifles, and The Media Got Ukraine Wrong
First Street Journal: The Left Just Doesn’t Think You Want To Live Properly, also, This Is How Prosecutors Should Treat Criminals
Gates Of Vienna: Brave New Canada, “The Values We Treasure”, and Celebrate The Deviants!
The Geller Report: Doctors Sue Administration For Unlawfully Blocking Them From Treating COVID With Ivermectin, Another Democrat Op Pleads Guilty To Election Fraud In 2020 Ariz. Primary, and Largest Migrant Caravan Ever Marching To Our Southern Border
Hogewash: Team Kimberlin Post Of The Day, Joe Biden Frustrated? and Meet Your Neighbors
Hollywood In Toto: How The Passenger Shakes Up Staid Horror Formula, also, Reporters & Critics Ignore What Is A Woman?
The Lid: Naked With Gun And Hooker – Hunter Biden’s Latest, also, Occasional Cortex Says Congress Is Corrupt But Claims She’s One Of The Normal Ones
Legal Insurrection: Mayor Groot Wants A Second Term, Independent MIT Alumni Group Receives Major Donation To Promote Free Speech, and Ilya Shapiro Resigns From Georgetown, Blames Dean Treanor For Embracing Anti-Free Expression “Hostile Work Environment”
Michelle Malkin: Goofus & Gallant Go Woke
Nebraska Energy Observer: Random Observations, No Flak From Me, and Red Army
Outkick: NYT Accuses Tampa Bay Rays Of Condemning Gay Culture, LeBron James Has Gone Silent About Killing Of 17-Year-Old In His School’s Parking Lot, and New Details Paint Deshaun Watson As Possibly Horniest Client In Massage Therapy History
Power Line: The Madness Of Slow Joe – Sun King Edition, Experts (Noun) – People Who Are Wrong About Everything, and Does America Need A Queen?
Shark Tank: Former Green Beret Jerry Torres Pivots, Will Challenge Kathy Castor In FL-14
Shot In The Dark: Things Are Just Great, Thanks For Asking, also, Journalism
The Political Hat: Strength, Not Preemptive Surrender
This Ain’t Hell: Steven Eggert – Fake Special Forces Fire Starter, Reyel Simmons, Fake SEAL – Go Big Or Go Home, and Our Favorite Dancing Ghoul Is Back
Transterrestrial Musings: Matt Walsh, The Latest “Assault Weapon” Idiocy, and The Day That Saved The World
Victory Girls: Biden Shocked To Learn Presidenting Is Hard, Gerrymandering Is Only Bad When Republicans Do It, and Salon Writer Shoots At Republicans & Misfires
Volokh Conspiracy: Are Red Chinese Gamers Leaking The PRC’s Military Secrets?
Watts Up With That: Biden’s Blood Panels? also, More On Energy Fantasy Vs. Reality In Woke-Land
Weasel Zippers: Soros Spent $40 Million To Elect 75 SJW Prosecutors, Why Children Shouldn’t Be At Bars, Strip Clubs, Or Drag Shows In One Picture, and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) Catches Flak From Islamists For Celebrating Pride Month
The Federalist: Joe Biden’s Not A Victim, He’s The Aggressor, Sam Brown’s Team Silent On Candidate’s Attacks Against Adam Laxalt’s Parentage, and Why Handwritten DOJ/FBI Notes Released By The Special Counsel Are Huge
Mark Steyn: Deep State’s Revenge, The Tumult & The Shouting Dies, and Pistol Whipped – Living Up To The Legend Of The Sex Pistols

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Category: Linkagery

WaPo Suspends Dave Weigel WITHOUT PAY for a Month, in Effort to Appease Supreme Commissar Felicia Sonmez

Posted on | June 7, 2022 | Comments Off on WaPo Suspends Dave Weigel WITHOUT PAY for a Month, in Effort to Appease Supreme Commissar Felicia Sonmez

“Felicia is sure doing a great job of dispelling
that old sexist stereotype of feminists
as vindictive, humorless bitches, eh?”

That was my text message to Dave Weigel after I found out the Washington Post gave him a month’s suspension without pay for retweeting a joke. They did this, of course, in a desperate (and almost certainly futile) attempt to placate the implacable Felicia Sonmez.

As I said Sunday, Sonmez is one of those “woke” tattletales who remind me of Stasi informers. Any organization that hires such people is inviting destruction on itself. You can’t have a team spirit in the workplace if your employees feel like they are constantly being monitored by snitches who are going to report them to Human Resources if they say something a snitch might deem “offensive.” It boggles my mind that Sonmez has already brought a bogus “discrimination” lawsuit against the Post, and yet is allowed to play the role of Internal Security Commissar by calling out any colleague who retweets a joke of which she disapproves.

This is important work, you see — no one must be allowed to laugh without prior permission from Supreme Commissar Felicia.

Ace of Spades on Weigel’s suspension:

I have a feeling this won’t be the last punishment. Once one SJW has “marked” you — like a shark nipping you — the rest of the sharks smell the blood in the water and soon the frenzy begins.
You will begin reading stories about Dave Weigel’s prior Awkward Moments with women, and within two weeks a #MeToo Docket will be anonymously constructed about him.
And I don’t really hate him, but: He did pick this side. I’m not rooting for his undoing, but I wouldn’t lift a finger to stop it, either.

Ace isn’t the only one of my conservative friends who “wouldn’t lift a finger” on Dave’s behalf, but for myself, I still count Dave as a friend. I’ve known him more than 15 years, since he was a reporter for Reason, and probably owe him a favor or two. Of course, there’s nothing I could do to help him with his situation at the Post — where he might be forced to deny he even knows me — but I feel obligated to point out that Dave is an actual honest-to-God reporter, the kind who goes out on the road, talks to real human beings and takes notes, rather than sitting in front of a laptop making up phony narratives about people on social media, which seems to be Taylor Lorenz’s job description.

It was the same way a dozen years ago, when some of Dave’s “friends” on the Left decided to get him fired from the Post because he had the audacity to defend Ron Paul. Some of my conservative friends were doing a sack dance over Dave’s firing, but I called him up and offered him some advice: Where you go next, make sure that a travel budget is part of the deal. He signed on with Slate a few weeks later and, sure enough, a travel budget was included. Because that’s what Dave does best, really — The Man on the Scene, in an era when every other “journalist” in America seems to spend most of their time ranting on Twitter.

There is still a need for basic shoe-leather reporting in America, and that’s what Dave Weigel is best at. So this suspension from the Washington Post ought to be seen as an opportunity for some other news organization to grab Weigel and put him to work with (a) a guaranteed travel budget and (b) a promise he’ll never be fired for RT’ing a joke.

Meanwhile, Commissar Felicia is still ranting on Twitter.




 

Category: Dave Weigel, Media Bias

In The Mailbox: 06.06.22

Posted on | June 7, 2022 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 06.06.22

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Silicon Valley delenda est.

“Let us not mourn that these men died; rather, let us be grateful that such men lived.” Gen. George S. Patton, Jr.

OVER THE TRANSOM
Fishersville Mike: I’m Still Standing
EBL: Happy Pride Month, also, 6 June 1944
Twitchy: Rep. Darren Soto (D-FL) Declares Victory Against Right-Wing Hispanic Radio Disinformation, also, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) Claims The J6 Committee Has Found More Evidence On Donald Trump
Louder With Crowder: Biden Having Old Man Meltdowns Over Being More Unpopular Than Trump, also, Elon Musk Living Dangerously – Asking Questions About Epstein & Maxwell
Vox Popoli: The Limited Appeal Of Clown World, Yes, The Russians Will Win, and They Devour Their Own
Stoic Observations: Do Ya Want More?
Gab News: Men Without Chests

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
Adam Piggott: Of Quacks & Crazy American Women
American Conservative: Ukraine’s Interests Are Not Ours, also, The Big Apple’s Rotten Core
American Greatness: The Sovietization Of American Life, also, Dismantle The DC Company Town
American Power: Why Sheryl Sandberg Quit Meta, also, The Moral Idiocy Of Gun Control
American Thinker: Who Really Killed Seth Rich? also, After Biden’s Gun Control Speech, An Inconvenient Story Surfaces
Animal Magnetism: Goodbye, Blue Monday
Babalu Blog: Soros Investment Group Funding Left-Wing Media Company Buying Up Hispanic Radio Stations, also, Remembering Red China’s “Tank Man” 33 Years Later
BattleSwarm: More Donna ISD Weirdness, LinkSwarm For June 3, and Successful Ukrainian Counterattack In Severodonetsk?
Behind The Black: SpaceX Wins More NASA Manned Flights To ISS, Today’s Blacklisted Americans, and A Rock Stows Away On Perseverence
Cafe Hayek: Stuart Kirk On The Smallness Of Climate Risks, also, Some Counterintuitive Results Of Understanding The Subjectivism Of Cost
CDR Salamander: Blockade Running Ain’t For Amateurs, also, D-Day At Sea
Chicago Boyz: When The Rule Of Law Fails, Exaggerated Automation Claim Of The Week, and Academic Malpractice
Da Tech Guy: Righteous Among The Nations, Welcome To The Democrat Left Coast, and Joe Biden Will Be Coming After Handguns
Don Surber: Coming Soon – The $1 Egg, The Best Two Words J.K. Rowling Ever Wrote, and Florida Moves To Block Puberty Blockers
First Street Journal: Larry Krasner Doesn’t Have The Philadelphia Police’s Backs, also, The Math Of School Shootings 
Gates Of Vienna: The Dying Of The Young, Feminism & Rape, and A Surge Of Cultural Enrichment In Austria
The Geller Report: Trump Nails It – The Existence Of Evil Is Why We Need The Second Amendment, also, Ft. Bragg Stateside Deaths Spike – So They Stopped Announcing Soldiers’ Deaths
Hogewash: A Diesel Fuel Pump In Westminster MD, Team Kimberlin Post of The Day, and Enforce The Gun Control Act First
Hollywood In Toto: Adam Carolla On The Corrupt MSM  – “Wake The F*** Up!”, also, Night Sky Demands & Rewards Your Patience
The Lid: Georgia School Takes Student Safety Seriously, Arms Teachers & Staff, also, Liberal Terrorist Arrested For Death Threats Against Rep. Boebert (R-CO)
Legal Insurrection: Organized Theft Rings Continue Targeting Rich California Neighborhoods, Molotov Cocktail Lawyers Plead Guilty, Likely To Get Just Two Years, and Parents Sue Virginia School Board Over Concealing Student “Gender Transitioning”
Michelle Malkin:
Nebraska Energy Observer: No Easy Answers, A Celebration Of Duty Well Performed, and The Sixth Of June
Outkick: ESPN Host Sarah Spain Calls Rays Players “Bigots” For Refusing Pride Patch, Woke Mob Tries To Cancel Cardinals Rookie Brendan Donovan, and Mike Singletary – Colin Kaepernick Deserves Another Chance
Power Line: Life Imitates Art Again, Thoughts From The Ammo Line, and A Sensible Position On Crime & Guns
Shark Tank: Rubio Criticizes Liberal Network “Trying To Wipe Out Conservative Hispanic Voices”
Shot In The Dark: Victimocracy, This Great & Noble Undertaking, and The Sun Rises In The North
STUMP: Demo On Getting Gun Death Data & Other Fun Stuff
The Political Hat: Firing Line Friday – Subversion & The Law, also, In California, Bees Identify As Fish
This Ain’t Hell: Valor Friday, Five More Russian Generals Fired, and D-Day 77 Years Ago
Transterrestrial Musings: COVID Was Liberalism’s End Game, Space, and Elections Won’t Fix This
Victory Girls: Seattle School Principal Refused To Help Police Arrest Intruder, also, Senate Race In Pennsylvania – Cardiac Doctor Vs. Cardiac Patient
Volokh Conspiracy: Second Circuit Judge Cabranes On “Deeply Troubling Aspects of Contemporary University Procedures”, also, The Colorado & Ohio Model Programs That Train Teachers To Defeat Active Shooters
Watts Up With That: Climate Madness – Prince Charles Backs Face Masks For Cows, also, Biden Considering Retroactive Cancellation Of Oil & Gas Leases
Weasel Zippers: Gas Prices Have Officially Doubled Since Biden’s Inauguration, also, Hand Count Of Votes In DeKalb County Georgia Reveals Machines Were Off By Thousands & Gave Race To Democrat 
The Federalist: The Real Loser In Depp v. Heard Is The Washington Post , Here Are Eight Lies Texas Officials Told About Uvalde That Should Get Them Fired, and Gruesome Florida Discoveries Underscore Abortion’s Serious Risks To Womens’ Bodies
Mark Steyn: Pox Populi, There’s No Silver Lining, and A Day To Remember

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Category: Linkagery

Rule 5 Sunday: Penelope Cruz

Posted on | June 5, 2022 | 1 Comment

— compiled by Wombat-socho

It seemed appropriate after the Amber Turd trial to pick one of Johnny Depp’s leading ladies from the film series he is most famous for, and that would be Penelope Cruz from the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. Here we see her in a poster advertising On Stranger Tides, which is very loosely based on the Tim Powers novel of the same name. The book is on sale for $1.99 in its Kindle edition, and like pretty much everything Powers has written ever, it is well worth your time and money. Hurry up and grab it before Bezos’ minions realize their mistake!
Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley esse delendam.

Arrr, a toothsome pirate wench she be!

NINETY MILES FROM TYRANNY: Hot Pick of the Late Night, The Ninety Miles Mystery Box Episode #1736, Morning Mistress, and Girls With Guns. 

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

EBL: MAGA Malarkey – Monkeypox & Biden/Harris, Happy Jubilee!, Creepy Porn Lawyer/Democrat Gets Four Years, Who Killed Fawn Leibowitz?, Julie London, Let’s Go Fishing!, Queen Maeve, and National Hamburger Day.

A VIEW FROM THE BEACH: Lauryn Bocook, Politics and Donuts, Fish Pic Friday – Raissa the Saltii Mermaid, Thursday DIY Politics Post, Some Thursday Tanlines, Biden Does the Limbo, or, How Low Can He Go?, The Wednesday Wetness, Tuesday Tattoos, The Monday Morning Stimulus, Destroying the Forest to Save the Planet? and Palm Sunday

Thanks to everyone for all the luscious links!

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Category: Rule 5

Clown World in ‘Killadelphia’: DA Krasner Blames NRA for South Street Massacre

Posted on | June 5, 2022 | 1 Comment

Three people were killed and 11 wounded when a shootout erupted in Philadelphia’s South Street entertainment district Saturday night:

Officers patrolling the South Street area heard gunfire shortly before midnight and observed “several active shooters shooting into the crowd,” [Police Inspector D.F.] Pace said.
One officer was “within about 10 to 15 yards” of one of the shooters and fired at the suspect, Pace said. “We’re uncertain whether he was struck or not, but the officer was able to get that individual to drop his gun and flee.”
Two handguns were recovered at the scene, including one with an extended magazine, Pace said. But as of early Sunday, no arrests had been made.

Suspects are at large, but the media will provide no description of the suspects. Did you know the incident was captured on video?

Around 11:30 p.m., three men got into a fight on the 200 block of South Street. Video shows the encounter began as a fistfight, with one man exchanging words with two others, one of whom appears to draw a handgun.
People nearby began to panic. “They about to shoot!” a woman said in the video.
After a short brawl, a volley of gunshots rang out. Vanore said two of the three men in the fight fired at each other. One of them — the man who first drew a handgun — was killed, Vanore said. The other was hospitalized in critical condition.
But the shots in the packed nightlife district sparked chaos. Within seconds, police said, several other people began shooting into crowds gathered outside.
One shooter was a man on the 200 block of South Street, near an intersection with American Street. Police said he fired westbound on South Street. A responding officer, who has not been identified, returned fire, and Commissioner Danielle Outlaw said the officer likely struck him. The man dropped his gun and an extended magazine and ran away. He has not been apprehended.
At least two other guns were fired amid the mayhem, Vanore said, but police have not yet identified the suspected shooters. . . .
Police believe nearly all of the victims were bystanders.

Watch the videos:

Yeah, these guys don’t look like Trump voters to me, but the reaction from Democratic officials in “Killadelphia” was classic:

“The surge in gun violence that we’ve seen across the nation — and here in Philadelphia — makes me not just heartbroken, but angry,” Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney said Sunday.
“Once again, we see lives senselessly lost and those injured in yet another horrendous, brazen and despicable act of gun violence.” . . .
The mayor said he’s fed up with senseless gun violence and called for stronger laws to help prevent violent people from getting guns.
“We cannot accept continued violence as a way of life in our country. Until we address the availability and ease of access to firearms, we will always be fighting an uphill battle,” said Kenney.
“I will continue to fight to protect our communities and urge others to advocate for stronger laws that keep guns out of the hands of violent individuals.” . . .
Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner called for boycotting National Rifle Association donations and lobbyists.
After the “terrible crimes last night on South Street tell our Pennsylvania legislators it’s time for real action,” Krasner tweeted Sunday.
“Boycott NRA lobbyists, boycott NRA donations, and bring real common sense gun regulation to Pennsylvania. Now.”

Guess how much “senseless gun violence” there was in my neighborhood this weekend? Zero, despite the fact that gun ownership in this vicinity is a lot higher than it is in Philadelphia, which has strict gun control laws.

This is directly related to why the media won’t describe the shooters in this incident, even though these dangerous suspects are still at large. As for Krasner’s comment about the need “for real action” and “common sense gun regulation,” his office is on the record as being against prosecuting cases of illegal gun possession. After shootings increased in 2020, the Philadelphia city council authorized “the Committee on Public Safety and the Special Committee on Gun Violence Prevention” to investigate and prepare a report, which was ultimately issued in January 2022. In that report, the District Attorney’s office said that it was unfair to enforce the city’s gun control laws:

The Police Department . . . noted that the District Attorney’s Office has increasingly failed to win convictions for illegal gun possession, a crime police say must be addressed to curb gunfire in the city.
But prosecutors said there was “little research supporting the approach.” And they noted that one category of gun possession — carrying without a license — was a felony in Philadelphia but a misdemeanor in the rest of the state. They called that legislative decision “inequitable and obviously racist” and said they believe the Police Department’s focus on arresting people for that crime “is having no effect on the gun violence crisis.”
“We do not believe that arresting people and convicting them for illegal gun possession is a viable strategy to reduce shootings,” the DA’s Office wrote.

Incredible! The city, which is plagued by violence, makes it a felony to carry a firearm without a license, but the DA says it’s “obviously racist” to enforce this law, because it’s only a misdemeanor in the rest of the state. So instead you let armed criminals go free and then you’re shocked — shocked! — that they routinely shoot each other in the streets? And then you’re going to blame the NRA for this situation? Like the NRA is to blame for these gun-toting thugs you turned loose?




 

Category: Crime, Pennsylvania

Felicia Sonmez Strikes Again

Posted on | June 5, 2022 | 1 Comment

You may recognize the name Felicia Sonmez because she is the Washington Post reporter who got suspended two years ago after deciding that the death of NBA star Kobe Bryant was an excellent occasion to remind the world that Bryant was accused of rape in 2003.

Sonmez was quickly reinstated because, well, facts are facts, even if it’s tasteless to mention them when nine people have just died in a helicopter crash. Probably the reason the Post rushed to suspend Sonmez was because it might have seemed racist — “RAAAAACIST!” — for this white woman to be highlighting a rape accusation against a black man. “Thou Shalt Not Offend the Black Community” is sacred writ in much of the media establishment, and I could cite a thousand examples of the bend-over-backwards compliance to that commandment. Sometimes it’s silly, sometimes it’s actually dangerous, as when a violent criminal suspect is at large and newspapers refuse to mention the race of the suspect.

While I don’t think Sonmez should have been sacrificed to the cancel culture mob, it turns out that she is a problematic employee quite generally, who unsuccessfully sued the Post last year:

Sonmez in her suit alleged that the Post illegally discriminated against her when it temporarily banned her from covering stories related to sexual harassment or misconduct after she publicly identified herself as a sexual assault victim. But D.C. Superior Court Judge Anthony Epstein on Friday ruled that Sonmez had failed to make “a plausible claim that The Post took adverse employment actions, or created a hostile work environment, because of her sex or status as a victim of sexual assault.”
Sundeep Hora, Sonmez’s lawyer, told the New York Times that they planned to appeal the decision, which they are “disappointed in” and “strongly disagree with.”
Sonmez failed to demonstrate that the paper showed “discriminatory motive” in temporarily blocking her from reporting on issues of sexual misconduct, Epstein said in a 28-page decision, restrictions that the Post’s editors had attributed to Sonmez’s public statements, not her victim status or gender. Sonmez’s own account of what happened, the ruling notes, was that “the Post did not want the external perception that it had an advocate covering an issue she experienced.” Sonmez’s suit was dismissed with prejudice, meaning it cannot be filed again.

Somnez destroyed the career of a former male coworker by claiming she was “pressured into having sex after a night of drinking.” The colleague denied wrongdoing and it doesn’t matter whether you think he was guilty or innocent. The point is that after that incident and then Sonmez’s attack on the recently deceased Kobe Bryant, her bosses at the Post seemed to conclude that Somnez was an ax-grinder whose reputation might damage the newspaper’s credibility. That she then sued the newspaper claiming discrimination ought to have been sufficient cause for termination. I’m sorry, but why would anyone expect to continue getting paid to work for a company after you dragged them into court?

So now this happened:

A Washington Post reporter has apologized after he was called out by a female colleague at the newspaper for retweeting a sexist joke.
David Weigel, who covers politics for the Jeff Bezos-owned daily broadsheet, tweeted on Friday that he had removed a post that he retweeted earlier in the day.\
Weigel retweeted a post by a Twitter user who wrote: “Every girl is bi. You just have to figure out if it’s polar or sexual.”
Felicia Sonmez, who also covers politics for the Washington Post, was angered by Weigel’s retweet, writing: “Fantastic to work at a news outlet where retweets like this are allowed!”
Weigel later tweeted: “I just removed a retweet of an offensive joke. I apologize and did not mean to cause any harm.”
Washington Post COO Kris Coratti Kelly told the New York Post: “Editors have made clear to the staff that the tweet was reprehensible and demeaning language or actions like that will not be tolerated.”
Weigel, 40, is a veteran politics reporter who has worked at Slate and Bloomberg. He joined the Washington Post in 2015.

(Hat-tip: Ed Driscoll at Instapundit.) The joke was “sexist” and “reprehensible”? No, I’m pretty sure it was inspired by Amber Heard, who is bisexual and afflicted with either bipolar or borderline personality disorder, depending on which expert you ask. The comedian whose joke Weigel RT’d, Cam Harless, says no one should be punished for retweeting his jokes. The people who really should be punished are “woke” tattletales like Felicia Sonmez, who remind me of Stasi informers, and certainly shouldn’t be employed as journalists in a free country.




 

Category: Media Bias

Cleanup On Aisle Blogroll

Posted on | June 5, 2022 | Comments Off on Cleanup On Aisle Blogroll

— by Wombat-socho


Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley esse delendam.

mfw I see just how many blogs we have on the blogroll



One of the things that happened while I was out east in the suburbs of Mordor-On-The-Potomac* was that I got to consult with Smitty. John Hoge, and Loyal Reader Brian E., all of whom Know Stuff about computers & software in general and WordPress specifically. Since Smitty is pretty busy with kids & family, and John has his own blog plus a full-time job, it means I need to cowboy up and take care of some of the housekeeping around here, especially with respect to the blogroll. I have already made some changes; the dearly departed Charles Hill’s Dustbury and Kathy Shaidle’s Five Feet of Fury have been deleted, and I have updated the links to Don Surber, The DaleyGator, and Geller Report (f/k/a Atlas Shrugs).

I’ll be going through the rest of the blogroll over the coming month in between dental and VA appointments and working on my continuing education requirements for next tax season. If you’re listed on the blogroll and you know the link is bad, or you’ve gotten out of the blogging habit, please contact me in the comments or via e-mail. Your help in this tedious but necessary effort is very much appreciated.

*Or Washington DC, as it is known in the Common Tongue.


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Category: Blogging
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