The Other McCain

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

No Man Has Ever ‘Won’ an Argument With His Wife (Change My Mind)

Posted on | April 29, 2023 | Comments Off on No Man Has Ever ‘Won’ an Argument With His Wife (Change My Mind)

Now, I heard a cryin’ man
Is half a man, with no sense of pride.
But if I have to cry to keep you,
I don’t mind weepin’, if it’ll keep you by my side.

Ain’t too proud to beg, sweet darlin’.
Please don’t leave me girl (don’t you go).
Ain’t too proud to plead, baby, baby.
Please don’t leave me girl (don’t you go).

Everything you need to know about love, you can learn from old R&B tunes, unless you’d prefer to learn it from old country-and-western songs. What the Temptations were laying down in 1966 has stood the test of time because it’s the absolute truth — however proud a man might be, love will force him to beg for mercy, because that’s how women are.

Rollo Tomassi has expounded on women’s inherent solipsism — it is no use trying to convince a woman to view any conflict or dispute from an objective or logical perspective. If she feels she has been wronged or insulted, no amount of rational argument will convince her otherwise.

Of course, men can be self-centered, emotional and stubborn, but when it comes to male/female relationships, it is the woman’s solipsistic certainty of her own rectitude — her feelings are never wrong — that so often proves the great stumbling block to happiness. No matter how irrational her anger may be, you’re not going to help the situation by telling her she’s wrong to be angry. Indeed, the two words you should never tell her in such a moment are “calm down.” Oh, that will set her off!

If she feels hurt, it doesn’t matter how many reasons you offer for why she shouldn’t feel that way. Her feelings are beyond criticism.

These meditations on the dynamics of male/female relationships are not just random or coincidental. Some readers will be aware of the situation — one which has “gone viral,” as the kids say — that has prompted me to share whatever little wisdom on this subject I can claim to have obtained after 34 years of marriage. Tim Pool is among the several YouTubers who’ve weighed in on the controversy, involving a Ring surveillance video of an unfortunate domestic situation. Tim says it looks to him as if the guy in the video has been “set up,” and that may be true. Dragging people’s dirty laundry into the public eye — leaking a video to Yashar Ali, really? — is the kind of scorched-earth tactic that connotes an irreconcilable breach and, as Tim says, it’s probably wrong to judge somebody on the basis of one (out-of-context) video clip.

“If Americans can be divorced for ‘incompatibility of temper’ I cannot conceive why they are not all divorced. I have known many happy marriages, but never a compatible one. The whole aim of marriage is to fight through and survive the instant when incompatibility becomes unquestionable. For a man and a woman, as such, are incompatible.”
— G.K. Chesterton

Perhaps not as memorable as a Motown lyric, Chesterton’s observation is nevertheless true. Men and women are different; trying to reconcile and accommodate these differences is the great challenge of marriage.

The goal of marriage is cooperation. When husband and wife begin trying to prove each other wrong, then it becomes a competition, and marital happiness becomes impossible. If love means anything — if it denotes more than mere affectionate sentiment — then it must include the willingness to lose an argument, rather than to make your beloved unhappy by a bullheaded determination to prove yourself right.

God knows that stubbornness and arrogance are among my faults. As I’ve often remarked, there are two kinds of people in the world — people who agree with me, and people who are wrong. When I was younger, I actually enjoyed arguing for the sake of argument, until it became apparent to me that I was wasting my time trying to convince wrong people of their error. If someone respected my judgment, they wouldn’t be disagreeing with me, would they? So the argument itself is evidence that they consider me unworthy of respect, and why should I indulge them as they seek to prove that I don’t deserve respect?

Perhaps (suggesting this only as a hypothetical possibility) I have been wrong about something occasionally, but if so, I’ve long since forgotten those occasions, and thus my arrogant conviction of my 100% correctness, which certainty forbids me ever to argue with anyone who disagrees with me. Don’t bother arguing with an old man who, even when he was very young, believed he already knew everything, and through the years has not become less convinced of his know-it-all wisdom.

Self-awareness requires me to confront the fact that no one could ever admire me as much as I admire myself, and to realize that this arrogance can be annoying to others. So I’ve learned to be silent, to bite my tongue when I’m tempted to correct people for being wrong. They don’t want to listen to my advice, and are therefore free to go to hell in the time and manner of their own choosing. It’s not my responsibility.

You have to pursue a type of Zen acceptance about your inability to tell other people how to live their lives, or otherwise the sense of tragedy will overwhelm you. Like, why did the Patriots miss out on the opportunity to draft tight end Tucker Kraft? He went to the Packers, alas, and instead Bill Belichick picked a linebacker from Sacramento State — an error, I’m sure, but Bill Belichick didn’t ask for my advice on the NFL draft, and there’s no point arguing about it now. Selah.

So it is with the video of the domestic trouble involving the famous YouTube personality. There are liberals trying to claim that this incident proves that “tradcon” (traditional conservative) ideas about marriage are wrong, and I’m like, “What? Are you kidding me? Because I consider myself both traditional and conservative and sure as hell would never talk to my wife like that.” But people don’t ask my advice, see?

Y’all need to listen to some old Motown records and chill out. That may not sound like “tradcon” advice, but it sure is better than getting divorced over an argument about your dog. Change my mind.



 

 

Category: Celebrities, Marriage

In The Mailbox: 04.28.23

Posted on | April 29, 2023 | 1 Comment

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Usual weekend deadlines for the usual weekend posts.
Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley esse delendam.

OVER THE TRANSOM
357 Magnum: How Is That Bail Reform Working Out?
EBL: Charles De Gaulle Resigns, also, Keira Knightley and Rosamund Pike
Twitchy: Democrats Stopped From Cheating To “Ratify” Equal Rights Amendment, also, Megyn Kelly Slams Poser Sunny Hostin For Acting Oppressed “In Sh***y Country That She Can’t Stand
Louder With Crowder: You’re under arrest? Dylan Mulvaney wants it illegal to call she/her a he/him, Joe Rogan thinks Tucker Carlson going to Rumble would be “f*cking huge” and these numbers back him up, and CNN contributor disembowels Randi Weingarten over the “generational damage” her lockdown policies did to our kids
Vox Popoli: Never Relax the Rules, End No-Fault Divorce, and Two Years of Arktoons!
According To Hoyt: No Forgiveness Without Repentance, Halfway to Success by Thomas Kendall, and Discount Seventies
Monster Hunter Nation: WriterDojo S4 E16: Passive Voice

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
American Conservative: A Last Supper with Tucker Carlson, also, It’s Time For Congress to Ban Abortion
American Greatness: ABC News Airs ‘Hatchet Job’ RFK Jr. Interview, Biden DOJ Sues Tennessee Over Ban on Trans Surgeries, and Conservatives Lost the Culture War and the Trump Agenda Is the Only Path Forward
American Power: ‘But There Are Lawsuits Coming in the Wake of Dominion Voting…’
American Thinker:  The Ruling Class’s Stalinist Purge, Bud Light’s Demise at the Hands of Credentialed Woke Millennials, and How Conservatives Got the Trump Indictment Backwards
Animal Magnetism: Rule Five Great Divorce Friday
Babalu Blog: Cuban Catholic bishops say Castro dictatorship left door open to talks on release of political prisoners, Slide show: No amusement for you! The death of Cuba’s Lenin Park, and Reports from Cuba: Cubans with dollars also eat badly: Picadillo, sausages, and mayonnaise bought from outside
BattleSwarm: LinkSwarm for April 28
Behind The Black: Big space Raytheon shifts gears to compete in the new space market, SpaceX successfully launches Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral, Glacier layers on the border of Hellas Basin, April 28, 2023 Quick space links, and Pushback: FIRE sues school for banning students from wearing “Let’s Go Brandon” shirts
Cafe Hayek: It’s Not Just An Austrian Position, also, There Is No Saving Industrial Policy
CDR Salamander: Fullbore Friday
Da Tech Guy: It’s just incidental Data, but…
Don Surber: Media Says Voting Threatens Democracy,
First Street Journal: The Philadelphia Police Department: does sloppiness in the little things lead to sloppiness in the bigger issues?
Gates Of Vienna: The Queer War on Biology, Giorgia Meloni: Fast-Track Ukraine Into the EU, and The Muslim Brotherhood in France, Part 8
The Geller Report: FIRST TIME EVER MSNBC Is No. 1 at 8 PM, Tucker-Less Fox Time Slot Down TWO MILLION
Hogewash: Team Kimberlin Post of the Day, Through the Looking Glass, Here’s Looking at Euclid, and A Civil Rights Victory
Hollywood In Toto:  Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret Knows What a Woman Is, also, How Ilan Srulovicz Battles Back Against Intolerant Hollywood
The Lid: Why Did Biden’s EPA Choose A South Korean Corp For Its First Smart Grid Product?
Legal Insurrection: California Legislature Considering New Rules Mandating EV Bidirectional Charging Capabilities, “A full-blown Color Revolution-style attack on the US Supreme Court as an institution is now in its early stages”, Parents’ Rights Activist Andrew Gutmann Running for Congress in Florida as a Republican, 94-year-old Grandmother Fights Home Equity Theft at the U.S. Supreme Court, and Parents Outraged After Vermont School District Tells Teachers to Call Kids ‘Person Who Produces’ Sperm/Eggs
Nebraska Energy Observer: Scattershot Friday
Outkick: Report: Tom Brady Done With Models, Colts’ Owner Jim Irsay Asks Fans On Twitter If Team Should Draft Will Levis After Already Drafting Anthony Richardson, Brittney Griner Says It’s ‘A Crime’ To Ban Biological Men From Competing Against Women In Sports, Deion Sanders Shares Important Message About Egos And The Team: ‘It’s About All Of Us’, Paige Spiranac & Olivia Dunne Form Influencer Superpowers Alliance, and It’s Not Will Levis Fault That His Reps And NFL Machine Failed Him On NFL Draft Night, As He Leaves Kansas City
Power Line: Thoughts from the ammo line, A day in the life of the MSM, and The Age Issue: Biden Vs. Reagan
Protein Wisdom Reborn: A Reckoning
Shark Tank: Eskamani Celebrates Tax Breaks On Diapers
Shot In The Dark: Speaking Of Which, Aggression, and Communicating With The MN DFL Part V
STUMP: Video: U.S. Mortality Trends 2020-2022 part 5: Historical trajectories for Causes of Death 1999-2022
The Political Hat: Firing Line Friday: Corporal Punishment
This Ain’t Hell: Valor Friday, The US military is required to implement an all-electric vehicle fleet by 2030, Fort Lee Renamed, Security Long Gone, Pentagon Shuts Barn Door, and Ukraine received 98% of the promised combat vehicles ahead of its anticipated counteroffensive
Transterrestrial Musings: Randi Weingarten
Victory Girls: Democrats Have More Than Five Reasons To Worry About Biden
Volokh Conspiracy: A Judge Who Understands Firearms
Watts Up With That: Nuclear Energy is a Game Changer, But Not for Climate Reasons!, South Africa and The Green Energy Wall and George Monbiot on Eco-terrorism: “I back saboteurs … but I won’t blow up a pipeline”
Weasel Zippers: Biden Struggles To Read His Teleprompter During Biden-Harris 2024 Kickoff Event, MSNBC Claims It’s Racist for State Police to Enforce Law In Jackson, MS, and Hakeem Jeffries Claims Biden Has Made Sure “There’s Order At The Border”
The Federalist: 234 Years Ago, George Washington Became America’s First President, How Democrats’ Push For Electric Cars Endangers National Security, 8 Ways Government Shielded Joe Biden From The ‘Laptop From Hell’, Tucker Carlson’s Fox Departure Signals The End For Corporate Media, and How Far Will Corporate Media Go To Cover For And Re-Elect Joe Biden?
Mark Steyn: Live Around the Planet: Friday April 28th

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Category: Linkagery

‘Generational Wealth’ and the NFL Draft

Posted on | April 28, 2023 | Comments Off on ‘Generational Wealth’ and the NFL Draft

South Dakota State tight end Tucker Kraft

Thursday night, my brother Kirby and I went out to Chili’s, where all the TVs were on the NFL Draft. Being a Patriots fan, of course, I was most interested in who New England would draft in the first round, and was very pleased by their moves. They traded down (from 14th overall to 17th overall), picking up an extra fourth-round pick in the process, and chose Oregon cornerback Christian Gonzales — a steal at 17, because many had Gonzales ranked as the top cornerback in the 2023 class. Meanwhile, of course, the University of Alabama was well-represented in the draft, with quarterback Bryce Young going as the No. 1 pick to the Carolina Panthers, linebacker Will Anderson Jr. going at No. 3 to the Houston Texans, and running back Jahmyr Gibbs going to the Detroit Lions at No. 12.

As soon as I woke up, I began searching for inklings of what the Patriots might do in the second round of the draft, and was skimming over Alex Barth’s “big board” choices when I noticed the name Tucker Kraft.

Six-foor-five, 254 pounds, tight end who caught 65 passes for 780 yards and six touchdowns with the South Dakota State Jackrabbits his sophomore season. He suffered an ankle injury that limited his playing time last season, but is still one of the best tight ends in the country.

The guy’s name is Kraft, OK? The owner of the New England Patriots is Robert Kraft, so how in the world could they not draft this guy?

He hails from the tiny town of Timber Lake, South Dakota (population 513), and has a keen sense of what’s at stake in his professional career. His father Doug, a standout college athlete who never made it to the pros, was killed in a small plane crash in 2013. Doug Kraft was a self-described “proud redneck” and, among his several endeavors in a farming region, flew planes as part of his crop dusting business. His father’s death affected Tucker Kraft deeply, and something he has said in interviews illustrates what a thoughtful young man he is:

“I’ve never like really thought about doing football and taking my skills to the next level as doing it for me. I’ve always thought about doing it for other people. Setting my family up for generational wealth.”

The phrase you’re looking for is servant leader or, to use another analogy, he is a work horse who knows why he’s pulling the plow.

The chance to play in the NFL is a rare opportunity. There are 32 teams, each of which has a 53-player active roster, so at any given time there are only 1,696 active players in the league, not counting practice squads, and most players who are drafted don’t last more than five years in the NFL.

However good you were in college, you enter the league as a rookie, and have to earn your roster spot through competition, a competition that never ends. Every player is working to get better all the time — lifting weights and running drills in the off-season, studying game videos to improve their technique, etc. — and ultimately no player is guaranteed a roster spot. To obtain “generational wealth” in an NFL career, a player has to make it past his four- or five-year rookie contract, and do so as a bona fide starter, to get that big free-agent contract worth many millions of dollars. Just this week, Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson signed a five-year, $260 million contract with the Baltimore Ravens, including $185 million guaranteed, and an average annual salary of $52 million. That’s MVP quarterback money, and there’s no way even the best tight end in the league is ever going to get paid that much, but it gives you an idea of what “generational wealth” can mean in the NFL.

On the other hand, things can go badly. Alabama fans were shocked and heartbroken in 2021 when Henry Ruggs, a star wide receiver for the Crimson Tide who was drafted in the first round by the Oakland Las Vegas Raiders in 2020, was arrested in a vehicular manslaughter case, where he was driving his Corvette drunk at more than 120 mph in a wreck that killed a woman. Good-bye, “generational wealth.”

Then there was the case of former Ohio State quarterback Dwayne Haskins, drafted in the first round by the Washington Redskins “Commanders” in 2019. Haskins was later traded to Pittsburgh, but on an April morning in 2022, Haskins was drunk (with a .20 blood alcohol level) in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, when his rental car ran out of gas on I-595, and he tried to cross the expressway on foot. Haskins got run over by a dump truck, then hit by an SUV, and died on the scene. No “generational wealth” for the Haskins family.

Some of the most elite athletes, chosen in the first round of the NFL draft, never succeed as pros for one reason or another, while others who are much less highly touted go onto Hall of Fame careers. Certainly every Patriots fan knows that Tom Brady was a sixth-round pick (199th overall) in the 2000 draft, while Julian Edelman was a seventh-round pick (232nd overall) in the 2009 draft. And you can guarantee that, as a tight end, Tucker Kraft knows that Rob Gronkowski — arguably the best tight end in NFL history — was a second-round pick (42nd overall) in 2010.

Earlier this month, the newspaper in Brookings, S.D. — home of South Dakota State — did a feature story about Tucker Kraft:

Tucker Kraft participated in South Dakota State’s pro day on Friday morning and the tight end who is hoping to get drafted at the end of April improved his numbers in the 40-yard dash and his standing vertical.
At the NFL Combine in the beginning of March, Kraft ran the 40-yard dash in 4.69 seconds. On Friday, he ran it in around 4.5 seconds, which is not official because there was not an official clock. Kraft jumped 34 inches in the vertical jump at the combine and on Friday he measured out at 36.5 inches.
Kraft said he didn’t like the way he performed at the combine, so he wanted to make sure he improved his numbers on Friday.
“I was not happy with my results at the combine. The combine is glamorized, but after doing it and competing, I understand why some people want to do away with it. It’s hard. It’s hard on the athletes. You know, we consider ourselves high performance athletes and the combine makes me feel a little less like that. But no, I had a good time. I was incredibly grateful to be there. But I knew when I got back to Brookings, I had to turn it up a notch. I had to get more into football shape,” Kraft said.
The 40-yard dash and the vertical were the only things that Kraft participated in on Friday. He said he only wanted to do those two things because he knew he could put up better numbers and those two things are what scouts pay attention to the most.
“Well, I wanted to run a faster 40 because that’s where the money is made. I feel like I made myself a little bit of money today. And then I wanted to jump higher because I know I can,” Kraft said.
After the combine, Kraft came back to Brookings and has been working out every day on campus. He said he’s had a number of teams reach out to him in the past month and he said it’s been fun being able to just talk football with coaches.
“It’s really been pretty easy [talking to teams]. I enjoy it. A lot of guys that had [prepared for the draft] in the past said, hey man, this time sucks, you don’t feel like any of your time is yours. But you know, the coaches contact you and they ask what times work for you. So, I do like one or two meetings every single day from 4:30 to dinner. All we do is talk about my life before college, talk about my college career. They install some plays and play some highlight clips of my blocking and passing. … It’s really just talking football,” Kraft said
Although he said the interview process has been pretty easy, Kraft did have one team make it tough on him. The New England Patriots met with Kraft at the combine and all they did was show mistakes that he made.
“I feel like personally I’ve aced every single interview that I’ve been a part of. One that went otherwise was I was at the combine and I had 15 formal interviews, I think that’s the most you can have at the combine. I was with the Patriots and it was pretty chill, we were talking about Pierre [Strong Jr., who was drafted by the Patriots last year], it was laid back, we were just chatting, and then all of the sudden they just put on instead of a highlight tape, it was a lowlight tape. Just clips of me not executing and just asking me what was going on,” Kraft said. . . .

(Wow — testing his mental toughness? Shrewd!)

Kraft, who caught 99 passes for 1,211 yards and nine touchdowns in his four years at SDSU, is projected to go in the second or third round in many mock drafts. He said he will be spending draft weekend, which is April 27-29 in Kansas City, in his hometown of Timber Lake with his family and friends.
“I’ll be back home in Timber Lake, South Dakota. I’ll have a decent gathering of friends and family. Hopefully people don’t feel too bad if they’re not invited. I want the people that have really been a part of my football journey [there]. … Close friends and family [will be there],” Kraft said.
Kraft is looking to become the 24th Jackrabbit to be drafted and the fifth since 2018. Fellow tight end Dallas Goedert 49th pick in the 2018 draft by the Philadelphia Eagles. Kraft said all of the work that he’s put in so far is so that he can provide for his family.
“Come draft day, I want my name to be called early. That’s my priority. That’s why I tried to execute as well as I did during pro day. I’m not really doing any of this for me. I’m doing this to set my family up, my future kids, their kids, generational wealth. I’m trying to create something here and establish a legacy in my name to take care of my friends, my family and my community,” Kraft said.

This guy’s got “Patriot” written all over him. Round Two and Round Three of the NFL draft are tonight. We’ll see if the Patriots give Kraft his chance at “generational wealth.”



 

 

Category: Football

In The Mailbox: 04.27.23 (Evening Edition)

Posted on | April 27, 2023 | 1 Comment

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Silicon Valley delenda est.

OVER THE TRANSOM
EBL: When did Nikki Haley become Mike Pence?, Yum Yum Swalwell, and Witold Pilecki and Auschwitz
Twitchy: White House Tries Scolding House GOP & Twitter Goes Scorched Earth, also, #TuckerTwitterFiles – Carlson Censored For Complaining About Big Tech Censorship?
Louder With Crowder: Al Sharpton Demands Answers Over CNN’s Firing Of Don Lemon, also, Tucker Carlson broadcasts for first time since firing, sends strong hint on what his future plans are
Vox Popoli: Enjoy Being Poor
Gab News: DeSantis Flies To Israel To Destroy Free Speech In Florida

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
American Conservative: A Theological Conflict
American Greatness: Nearly 700 Professors Sign Letter in Opposition to Teaching About America’s Founding, Constitution, also, Kansas Legislature Overrides Democrat Governor’s Veto of Bill Defining a Woman as ‘a Human Female’
Animal Magnetism: Animal’s Daily Blackout News
Babalu Blog: Communist Cuba ranked poorest nation in Latin America, Cuban Catholic Bishops meet with Castro regime’s sock puppet president, Cuban man spends 7 days waiting in line for gasoline only to be told fuel is only for tourists, and Cuba inflation crisis: 75% increase in food prices while salaries and pensions remain stagnant
BattleSwarm: Fundraiser Convicted Of Funneling Foreign Money To Obama Campaign
Behind The Black: SpaceX successfully launched 46 upgraded Starlink satellites, Engineers extend Voyager-2’s life by tapping into reserve power supply, If global warming doesn’t kill us the fog will!, SpaceX and Canadian phone company Rogers sign deal, and With the federal bureaucracy gleefully sharpening its knives to shut down Boca Chica, SpaceX should quickly shift Starship/Superheavy operations to Florida
Cafe Hayek: Protectionism Is Indeed Economic Parasitism, Some Thoughts on A Twitter Thread, and Ian Fillmore on Industrial Policyists
CDR Salamander: Diversity Thursday
Da Tech Guy: God’s Mysterious Ways and Man Having a Lot to Answer For, also, Joe Biden is using Environmental Justice Executive Orders to fundamentally transform the US into a Marxist hellhole
Don Surber: Fight The Devil For Francis Eaton’s Sake,
First Street Journal: Danielle Outlaw and the Peter Principle
Gates Of Vienna: All in the Family, German Version
The Geller Report: Fox Ratings WIPEOUT! Tucker’s Time Slot Loses Another Million Viewers, While Tucker’s Twitter Video is Viewed 43 MILLION TIMES, also, Ex-Tucker Carlson Producer Suing Tucker Carlson Has Never Even Met Tucker Carlson
Hollywood In Toto: Black Demon-izes Big Oil, Lacks Shark Terror, What Everyone Missed About Spielberg’s Anti-Woke Decree, and City of Angels Showed a Side of Nicolas Cage We Rarely See
The Lid: Three New Wrinkles In the Hunter Case
Legal Insurrection: Nikki Haley Sides With Disney Against DeSantis, Urges Move To South Carolina, Appeals Court Upholds Key Provisions of 2021 Florida Election Integrity Law, Reversing Same Judge Handling Disney Case, University of Utah Scrubs ‘Anti-Racist Code of Conduct’ After FIRE Sends Them a Letter, Syracuse U. Students Object to Talk by North Korea Defector Yeonmi Park, Calling Her a Liar, and Biden Admin Says It’s Too Dangerous to Evacuate Americans From Sudan
Nebraska Energy Observer: Consider
Outkick: Lamar Jackson Pulls Off Brilliant Move, Ravens, Lamar Jackson Finally End Soap Opera, Agree To Five-Year Contract Extension, Nebraska Volleyball Will Hold Match Inside Football’s Memorial Stadium, Has Already Sold-Out 85,000 Tickets, Atlanta Braves Forced To Change Popular Home Run Celebration, and Ben Roethlisberger Shuts Down Robert Griffin For Spinning Honest Comments About Lamar Jackson Into Overblown Negative
Power Line: Geraldine Tyler’s day in court, Trapped In the Public Schools, and The Times Says Senility Is A-OK
Protein Wisdom Reborn: In The Beginning Was The Word
Shark Tank: Rep. Mast Slams Biden Administration’s Plan To Redistribute Wealth Via Credit Scores
Shot In The Dark: The Show Trial, Remember, All You Paranoid Wingnuts, and Communicating With The MN DFL Part IV
STUMP: Video: U.S. Mortality Trends 2020-2022 part 4: COVID, also, Choices Have Consequences: Funding (or, rather NOT funding) Public Pensions
The Political Hat: Leviathan And The Hidden Transgendering Of Children – The Navy, The Mother In Maine, and Bullying The Parent
This Ain’t Hell: Sexual assault investigation related to Colonel Meghann Sullivan, “We will not tolerate intolerance here”, and Military’s Ongoing Recruiting Woes
Victory Girls: The GOP Is No More, If It Can’t Beat Old Joe
Volokh Conspiracy: “State Regulation of Online Behavior: The Dormant Commerce Clause and Geolocation”
Watts Up With That: Biden to Veto Tariff Rises on Forced Labor Chinese Solar Imports, also, Dr Richard Lindzen exposes climate change as a politicised power play motivated by malice and profit
Weasel Zippers: Biden Gives Nonsensical Answer On His Refusal To Negotiate With Republicans On Debt Limit, also, U.S. Economic Growth Slows To 1.1% In Q1 2023 Amid Sky-High Bidenflation
The Federalist: Conservatives Need To Be Producers, Not Just Consumers, Texas Board Of Education Refuses To Adopt American Library Association’s Anti-Parent Policies, Leftist Invaders Will Soon Be In Your Corner Of Red America — If They Haven’t Colonized It Already, No, Gun Violence Isn’t The Leading Cause Of Death Among Children, and Thanks To 21st-Century Snobs, Classic Literature Is ‘Gone With The Wind’
Mark Steyn: You Go Girl!

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Category: Linkagery

Why Are the Media Playing Along With Biden’s Make-Believe Presidency?

Posted on | April 27, 2023 | 2 Comments

That’s what we call a “rhetorical question,” because everybody knows the answer: Most journalists are Democratic Party Operatives With Bylines, and will do whatever they believe in the best interests of the party, even when it’s obvious that the Biden presidency is fraudulent:

President Joe Biden brought a cheat sheet with him to a Wednesday press conference that showed he had advance knowledge of a journalist’s question.
The cheat sheet showed a photo of Los Angeles Times reporter Courtney Subramanian, a guide on how to pronounce her name, and her question for the president.
“How are YOU squaring YOUR domestic priorities — like reshoring semiconductors manufacturing — with alliance-based foreign policy?” The question read.
Biden’s use of the cheat sheet came during a joint press conference with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, while the two leaders discussed nuclear threats from North Korea.

EIGHTY-ONE MILLION VOTES!

The doddering old fool can’t speak two consecutive sentences without becoming a confused puddle of babbling incoherence, and most of the scripted words he reads off his teleprompter are blatant falsehoods, but nobody in the mainstream media ever complains because EIGHTY-ONE MILLION VOTES! Anyone who expresses doubt that Biden was elected by a historic landslide is automatically denounced as engaging in “disinformation” — A THREAT TO OUR DEMOCRACY! — and so the White House press corps are now accustomed to acting as propaganda agents, de facto operatives for the Biden/Harris 2024 campaign team.

Thus a White House “press conference” is now a scripted theatrical production, with Our Alleged President being handed pre-approved questions that, for all we know, were actually written by Biden’s staffers and distributed to the compliant “reporters” participating in this bogus political charade. These dishonest journalists are about as independent as Pravda staffers during the height of Stalin’s terror.



 

 

Category: Joe Biden, Media Bias

In The Mailbox: 04.27.23 (Early Morning Edition)

Posted on | April 27, 2023 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 04.27.23 (Early Morning Edition)

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Silicon Valley delenda est.

OVER THE TRANSOM
357 Magnum: A Tale Of Two Six-Year-Olds
Ninety Miles From Tyranny: The 90 Miles Mystery Box Episode #2061
EBL: Pablo Picasso and his women, also, How is Rupert Murdoch doing?
Twitchy: Tucker Carlson Has Some Things To Say, HHS Whistleblower Says Feds Are Middleman In Child Trafficking, and Teachers Union Thug Randi Weingarten Locks Down Replies To Her Tweet Claiming Innocence Of School Lockdowns
Louder With Crowder: Grown adult discovers the car LEASE he’s paying means he doesn’t own the car, shares his moment of derp for our entertainment, Bikini babe Bri Teresi shoots up cases of Bud Light and Tampax. , and “No one would marry you”: Megyn Kelly utterly desecrates Keith Olbermann in brutal response video
Vox Popoli: Rethinking History, Color Revolution in Sudan, Debt-Cancellation in Ancient Greece, and Et tu, Argentina?
Gab News: It’s Time To Burn The Ships

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
American Conservative: Ukraine and Russia: The Endgame
American Greatness: Multiple Corporations Begin Simultaneously Attacking Mother’s Day, also, Whistleblower Says U.S. Govt. is ‘Middleman’ in Massive Migrant Child Trafficking Ring
American Thinker: What is a Democrat?, A Test Case to Expose the Tyranny of the Administrative State, and Christians, The Victims That Must Never Be Named
Animal Magnetism: Animal’s Hump Day News
Babalu Blog: Fuel shortages forces Cuban dictatorship to cancel May Day parade, Biden admin involved in Colombia’s forced expulsion of Venezuelan opposition leader, and I saw the old man on the reelection video
BattleSwarm: Russia Finally Sends T-14 Armata Tanks to Ukraine
Behind The Black: Rocket engine company Ursa Major raises $100 million in private investment capital, SpaceX leases second launchpad at Vandenberg, The inexplicable tail of the asteroid Phaethon is from sodium, not dust, Frozen waves of lava on Mars, and Pushback – Student’s lawsuit against college officials for suppressing her First Amendment rights moves forward
Cafe Hayek: No, Industrial Subsidies Do Not Benefit the Country As a Whole, also, All They Can Think Of Is Centralized Control
CDR Salamander: The False Choice Of Ukraine Or Taiwan
Da Tech Guy: I’ll Bet Real Money That This Video From Tucker Carlson
Dana Loesch: Nikki Haley Invites Disney To Move From “Sanctimonious” Florida To SC
Don Surber: Die, DEI, Die
First Street Journal: The Philadelphia Inquirer gives us another fluff article about “Lia” Thomas, also, Even The Philadelphia Inquirer are calling out Helen Gym Flaherty!
Gates Of Vienna: The Bear and the Panda Join Forces also, Prof. Sucharit Bhakdi: “Now the Hour of the Reformation 2.0 Strikes”
The Geller Report: Israel Rings in 75th Independence Day, Fox Loses Close to a Million Viewers in Tucker-Less Time Slot, and Tucker Speaks
Hogewash: How Big is a Supernova’s Danger Zone?, Civil Rights in the “Free State”, and Team Kimberlin Post of the Day
Hollywood In Toto: Eco-Terrorist Pipeline Bombs at Box Office, Theater Owners – Biden Economy Is Crushing Us, and Comedy Under Attack – Stand-Up in the Age of Woke Mobs
The Lid: Justice Roberts Tells Senators To Pound Sand Over Inquiry Into SCOTUS Members
Legal Insurrection: The New York Times Allows Fauci to Escape Ownership for Covid Policy Catastrophes, Energy Sec. Granholm Supports Requiring Military to Adopt All-Electric Vehicle Fleet by 2030, New Student Group at U. Pittsburgh Promotes Anarchy and Anti-Police Sentiment, Hundreds of UNC-Chapel Hill Profs Sign Letter Opposing Required Courses on U.S. Constitution, and Fauxcahontas Still Pushing Dems to Pack the U.S. Supreme Court
Nebraska Energy Observer: F*ckwits All the Way Down
Outkick: Martina Navratilova Slams Lia Thomas For Saying Feminists Are ‘Transphobes’, Titans New Stadium Deal Gets Final Approval With Record $1.2 Billion In Public Money; Super Bowls, Wrestlemania Next?, ESPN Fires MLB Reporter Marly Rivera For Dropping C-Bomb On Fellow Reporter, New Jersey Little League’s Rule For Parents Who Argue With Umps Is Brilliant, and Parent Of Former Colorado Player Slams Deion Sanders
Power Line: Environmentalists Want to Make Their Religion Official, The Biden-Press Alliance, and RFK Jr. Might Do Some Good
Protein Wisdom Reborn: Maybe I’ll Be There To Shake Your Hand…
Shark Tank: Bilirakis Blames Biden’s Border Buffoonery For Pasco County Murder
Shot In The Dark: The Usual Suspects, also, Communicating With The MN DFL Part III
STUMP: Choices Have Consequences: Retirement Benefit Design – COLAs, Replacement Rate, Indexing, and More
The Political Hat: Home Loan Equity…To Each According To Their Low Credit Rating
This Ain’t Hell: Three More Accounted For, Vietnam veterans welcome home commemoration, Imported Valor Thieves, The military is top heavy with too many generals and admirals, and Kabul bomber killed – by the Taliban
Transterrestrial Musings: Metal-Ceramic Alloys, Developing Space, and Stakeholder Capitalism
Victory Girls: School Union Boss Randi Weingarten Doesn’t Remember Much Of Anything
Volokh Conspiracy: Oral Argument Indicates Property Rights Likely to Prevail in Home Equity Theft Takings Case
Watts Up With That: SCOTUS to allow junk climate lawsuits in State courts, also, Claim: Anti-ESG Investment State Leaders Have Conflicts of Interest
Weasel Zippers: Wow! 70% Of Voters Say They Don’t Want Joe Biden To Run For Re Election In 2024, Islamist Antisemitism In U.S. Masked By Alliance With Far-Left, and Biden ATF Director Once Again Unable To Define What An “Assault Weapon” Is
The Federalist: Crisis Of Enslaved Migrant Kids Should Disqualify Biden From A Second Term, The Russia Hoax Orbiting Hunter Biden’s Laptop Is So Much Bigger Than Blinken, Tucker Carlson’s Ability To Break Through Calcified Conservatism With Fresh Ideas Is Indispensable, Here’s What Corporate Media Won’t Tell You About Lifelong Communist Harry Belafonte, and Montana Democrat Banned From House Floor After Transgender Insurrection
Mark Steyn: Outfoxed

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Category: Linkagery

News From Zimbabwe, U.S.A.

Posted on | April 26, 2023 | 1 Comment

Nearly 15 years ago, I began comparing California to the kleptocratic regime of Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe. No matter how prosperous any place might ever have been, once its government is taken over by thievish, corrupt parasites, its future will become a tale of misery, chaos and despair. Such is the sadly predictable fate of California, where the Democratic Party’s stranglehold on power has produced a lawless nightmare wasteland from which honest people are fleeing. The state’s population has seen a net decline of more than 800,000 people in the past three years, an exodus that was accelerated by Gov. Gavin Newsom’s “maximum lockdown” response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

It is certainly no accident that California has become the “epicenter” of homelessness in the United States, with more than a third of the nation’s homeless population. Every major city in the state is blighted by shabby encampments full of drug addicts, psychotics and criminals.

Homeless living under an overpass in Los Angeles

The politicians in charge of California have no interest in actually solving the state’s problems. The worse it gets, the more law-abiding and productive people leave California, the greater grows the power of the state’s Democratic Party. Honest, sober people don’t elect Democrats, and by destroying the quality of life in California — turning the state into a place where no sane people would choose to live — Democrats chase away anyone who might be inclined to oppose them. It’s the same as Baltimore or Detroit, except on a statewide level.

Drugs, crime, budget shortfalls, failing schools — if politicians in California wanted to solve problems, there’s plenty of work to be done, but guess what they’re doing instead?

After 30-year-dispute, San Jose to remove
statue in victory for Native American
and Mexican communities
After more than 30 years of controversy, the Thomas Fallon statue in San Jose, California is being removed. The bronze sculpture, which was commissioned in 1988 and stored until its installation in 2002 without public input, depicts Captain Thomas Fallon raising an American flag during the 1846 Bear Flag Revolt — a symbol that to members of the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe represents a brutal time in Native American and Mexican history. While the removal comes at a hefty $450,000 price tag, it marks a big victory for Muwekma Ohlone and other affected communities. With no plans for a replacement statue, a traffic median will be installed following the removal, which is set to be completed by May 4.
“It’s like having a statue of a tyrant in the middle of San Jose. We’re trying to move forward from this, not move back,” a member of the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe told NBC Bay Area. …
“The Fallon statue represents a time in our history that was brutal for us Native Americans and the Mexican communities that were living here along with us. I think history needs to be told right, so I wouldn’t want this statue to be removed and forgotten. That statue needs to be placed somewhere where that history is shared, both histories are shared, right? A symbol that reflects all of the people in the Bay Area ought to be put in its place,” Charlene Nijmeh, Chairwoman of the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe, told ABC7.

Oh, a “victory for Native American and Mexican communities”? The taxpayers of San Jose are on the hook for more than $400,000 to pay for this “victory,” and it’s far from obvious how members of the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe (or anyone else) is benefited by the displacement of Captain Fallon’s statue. Well, who exactly are the Muwekma Ohlone and who is this Captain Fallon against whom they harbor such a grievance?

By the time of the California uprising in 1846, there were scarcely more than 1,000 Ohlone living in the coastal region around San Francisco Bay, most of whom were what was known as “Mission Indians,” having settled in the vicinity of the various Spanish Catholic mission in the area. The idea that life was wonderful for the Ohlone under the Spaniards and Mexicans — well, you can believe what you want to believe, but don’t expect me to believe that. Do the Ohlone seriously contend their conditions were worsened by the American takeover of California?

Well, being insufficiently familiar with California history to judge of such matters, I can’t flatly deny that things got worse for the Ohlone after California joined the Union, but I am doubtful, and suspect that this “victory” — the removal of the Fallon statue in San Jose — was mostly about placating a noisy handful of “activist” types, rather than addressing any legitimate grievance of the Ohlone tribe. And, of all people, why are they blaming Thomas Fallon?

Thomas Fallon (1825–1885) an Irish-born Californian politician, best known for serving as 10th Mayor of San Jose. . . .
At age 18, he was in St. Louis and joined the third expedition of John C. Frémont to California. Early in 1846, Fallon stayed in Santa Cruz after Frémont visited the area. In June 1846, he raised a group of 22 Santa Cruz-area volunteers to join Fremont, appointing himself captain. When the Mexican–American War began in California with Commodore John D. Sloat’s capture of Monterey on July 7, Fallon’s force crossed the Santa Cruz Mountains to capture El Pueblo de San José de Guadalupe (now the City of San José) without bloodshed, on July 11. On July 14, 1846 he received an American Flag from Sloat, which he raised over the juzgado of San Jose, the pueblo’s administrative building. Fallon’s volunteers then joined Fremont’s California Battalion for the remainder of the war.

And . . . ? Where’s the grievance here? Is there any claim that Fallon did any harm to the Ohlone, or to anyone else for that matter?

It is noted that Fallon served under Fremont, who perpetrated various massacres against the natives, but (a) the Ohlone are not named among Fremont’s victims and (b) there is no suggestion that Fallon took part in these massacres. I’ve never had a high estimation of Fremont, knowing him from Civil War history mainly as a politically connected bumbler who got beat by Jackson in the Valley. But as for why Fremont’s subordinate, Captain Fallon, should be considered so controversial, I confess myself mystified. When “activist” types began tearing down Confederate statues, I was among many who warned that this irrational iconoclasm wouldn’t stop there, and so now they’ve taken down Captain Fallon’s statue in San Jose for no reason at all, except that he was a white man and, in the 21st century, no statues of white men can be tolerated, especially in California. Just give the whole state back to the Ohlones, as far as I’m concerned. They can’t ruin it worse than Democrats.



 

 

Category: Uncategorized

Crazy Furries Are Dangerous

Posted on | April 26, 2023 | Comments Off on Crazy Furries Are Dangerous

Aaron Michael Zeman, a/k/a ‘Tadashi Kura Kojima’

Have we reached the bottom of the slippy slope yet? As someone who has spent years staring into the abyss, I’m rarely surprised by the depths of depravity in our increasingly insane culture, but the case of Aaron Zeman is a whole ’nother level of dangerous craziness. Zeman, 26, was arrested in December after police caught him in Nebraska with a 13-year-old boy he had kidnapped from Utah. Andy Ngo was the first to report that Zeman — who seems to have legally changed his name to “Tadashi Kura Kojima” — is a self-declared “MAP” (minor-attracted person, or what most people would call a pedophile) who was into role-playing as a dog in the “furry” fetish scene. Ngo reported that Zeman used a variety of online aliases, including “Hunter Fox” and “Sadiq Wolfe,” to pursue his victim.

The Daily Mail also reported about Zeman’s disgusting “furry” behavior. Ultimately that behavior culminated in Zeman’s arrest:

An Amber Alert for a 13-year-old boy out of Layton was canceled early Wednesday [Dec. 28] after he was found safe in Nebraska. The suspect was taken into custody.
According to police, [the boy] was communicating with an adult on the internet and left his home late Monday night [Dec. 26] to meet with him. Police said the suspect was Aaron Zeman, 26, of Arizona, and said he may have been on his way back to Arizona or Texas with the teen.
Layton police originally identified Zeman as “Hunter Fox” but later confirmed that is an alias he was using online. Zeman also goes by the name Tadashi Kojima, they said.
[The boy] and Zeman were found in a car at a gas station in Grand Island, Nebraska, at about 1:15 a.m., Layton Police Sgt. Glenn Johnson told KSL Wednesday morning.

The bland phrase “communicating with an adult on the internet” is insufficient to describe just how bizarre Zeman’s behavior was.

As I have previously remarked in other contexts, there is a reason why some things are called “sexual fantasies,” because if you try to pursue such desires in real life, bad things happen. Perhaps your fantasy is to become a “charismatic” polygamous cult leader with a harem of nubile women as your devoted followers. Well, best of luck with that fantasy, but when you die in a shootout with the cops or get sent to federal prison, don’t blame me — I warned you. Of course, it’s easy for me to say this, as I lack sufficient “charisma” to gather a harem of devoted followers, and Keith Raniere never asked me for advice, but the point is still valid: Pursuing your kinky fantasy is generally a bad idea, even if it doesn’t end in a hail of police gunfire or a 120-year prison sentence.

From the DOJ website, Feb. 6:

A federal grand jury in Utah returned an indictment charging a Tucson, Arizona man with kidnapping a Utah teen and taking the victim across state lines with the intent to engage in illegal sexual activity.
According to court documents, Tadashi Kura Kojima, 26, also known as Aaron Michael Zeman, willfully and unlawfully kidnapped a 13-year-old, who he was not related to, or had legal custody of, and took the minor across state lines with the intent to engage in illegal sexual activity. The criminal conduct resulted in an Amber Alert and the arrest of Kojima in Nebraska. Kojima has been provided notice of the intent to seek forfeiture of property, including a cell phone, gaming devices, and a 1998 White Toyota Avalon, which were used or intended to be used to commit or to facilitate the commission of the violation.
The indictment charges Kojima with kidnapping and transportation with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity. The defendant appeared in a U.S. federal court in Nebraska and is in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service, who will transfer Kojima to Utah. Upon his arrival in Utah, Kojima will appear on his indictment at the Orrin G. Hatch United States District Courthouse in Salt Lake City, Utah.
U.S. Attorney Trina A. Higgins for the District of Utah made the announcement.
Assistant U.S. Attorney, Carol A. Dain, is prosecuting the case. The investigation is being worked jointly by the FBI, Layton Police Department and Grand Island Police Department.

In addition to the federal charges, there’s also the state rape case:

A June trial in Grand Island is set for an Arizona man accused of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old Utah boy.
Tadashi Kojima, 26, Tucson, Arizona, [March 7] pleaded not guilty to three counts of first-degree sexual assault on a child, one count of third-degree sexual assault on a child and one count of resisting arrest. State statutes define first-degree sexual assault as involving penetration, while third-degree sexual assault involves sexual contact. . . .
The max penalty for a conviction of first-degree sexual assault on a child is life in prison.

Did I forget to use the word “allegedly”? Never mind. This guy’s got too many problems to be worried about filing a spurious defamation suit against a blogger, and so if I omitted the customary “innocent until proven guilty” disclaimer, who cares? Odds are that Zeman will either be murdered by other inmates or hang himself in his cell, and dead men can’t sue for libel. Meanwhile, however, John Sexton has a post at Hot Air addressing the Zeman case, reacting to a weird article from NBC News implying that somehow this crime is to be blamed on . . . Elon Musk?

The angle is that there were some difficulties in providing police with information about Zeman’s Twitter account and therefore it’s all Musk’s fault, an assertion that is . . . What’s the word I’m looking for here?

Oh, yes: CRAZY.

The liberal media’s bias is at least as dangerous as “furries,” because journalists habitually mislead the public about the scope and nature of the threats facing us. According to NBC News, we have more to fear from Elon Musk than we do from deranged pedophiles: “Never mind this demented pervert — beware of South African tech billionaires!”

Wait a minute, let me check the word count. Wow, did I go more than 1,000 words into this post without once using the phrase “doggy style”? Must be slipping in my old age, but despite these occasional lapses in my customary excellence in sarcasm, my point is still the same: “Furries” are crazy and, of course, Crazy People Are Dangerous.



 

 

Category: Crime
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