The Other McCain

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

Obama’s Basic Problem: They Don’t Teach Economics at Harvard Law School

Posted on | August 18, 2011 | 16 Comments

Ace of Spades points out the obvious:

When Obama was on this supposed non-political listening tour in swing states, he actually wasn’t presenting a plan, of course.
He was promising he would have a plan.
That’s odd, isn’t it?

All Obama knows about economics is what his neo-Keynesian advisers tell him about the glorious benefits of deficit “stimulus” spending. Beyond that, he understands the politics of class warfare and scapegoating Republicans. But as far as understanding why his own policies have been the exact opposite of what was needed to put America back on a path of growth . . .

No, he doesn’t understand that at all. And likely never will.

Category: Ace of Spades, Barack Obama, Economics

Oh, Boy (and Oh, Girl): ‘Mental Health Professionals’ De-Stigmatize Pedophilia?

Posted on | August 18, 2011 | 20 Comments

They’re academic experts — what could possibly go wrong?

The August 17 Baltimore conference is sponsored by B4U-ACT, a group of pro-pedophile mental health professionals and sympathetic activists. According to the conference brochure, the event will examine “ways in which minor-attracted persons [pedophiles] can be involved in the DSM 5 revision process” and how the popular perceptions of pedophiles can be reframed to encourage tolerance.
Researchers from Harvard University, the Johns Hopkins University, the University of Louisville, and the University of Illinois will be among the panelists at the conference. . . .
“Allowing for a form of non-diagnosable minor attraction is exciting, as it creates a sexual or political identity by which activists, scholars and clinicians can better understand Minor Attracted Persons,” Breslow writes in a summary of his upcoming August 17 presentation.

Wintery Knight has more. I’m sure some of these “researchers” are funded by federal grants. If they have their way, we may suppose that in the future all girls will be like Soya Keaveney.

I first warned about the academic pro-pedophile movement in 2002.

Category: Intellectuals, Science, Sex

Fear and Loathing in the Airport Lounge: The Final Wisdom of My Iowa Journey

Posted on | August 18, 2011 | 7 Comments

The National Affairs Desk, Atlanta Airport, 8:30 p.m.

HARTSFIELD INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, Atlanta
My flight home starts boarding in about an hour, so this will have to be quick. There is no deadline quite so final as the call for final boarding, so I’ll have to jam this together without thinking about it too much.

Michelle Bachmann won the Ames Straw Poll, Tim Pawlenty quit and Rick Perry jumped in. All of this transpired in a single weekend, and so we have to ask ourselves — here in third week of August — exactly what it all means, if indeed it means anything at all. And I’m trying to think about this in a crowded airport lounge where the music is way too loud and is currently blaring Carrie Underwood’s “Before He Cheats.”

Who were those political geniuses who thought Tim Pawlenty was the man to carry the Republican Party banner in 2012? Someone needs to make a list of their names, so that henceforth, whenever these people support any other candidate, we can immediately declare that candidate doomed beyond all hope of redemption. The geniuses who assured us that America was on the verge of T-Paw Fever are now tainted and discredited by their guy’s multimillion-dollar flop.

Why has Bachmann’s Straw Poll victory made no difference to her perception by the mainstream media? She won the doggone thing, after all, and yet the media evidently believes that Rick Perry is the de facto front-runner. Why else would they be attacking him so furiously?

How will the Perry campaign deal with this laser-like scrutiny? He’s only been in the race four days and already stands accused of making up facts, to say nothing of Paulistas trolling for evidence of extra-marital hanky-panky.

Also: Guy Huntsman. WTF? This guy is an even bigger dud than Pawlenty and the only people who take him seriously are the liberal media. Huntsman represents the GOP of Arlen Specter, Charlie Crist and Dede Scozzafava. At what point will “Governor Asterisk,” as I’ve dubbed him, take the hint and stop overcrowding the stage at these televised debates, when everybody knows he will arrive at Tampa with exactly zero delegates?

Likewise: Newt Gingrich. That Titanic long ago hit its iceberg, and the only reason Newt hasn’t quit is because he knows he’ll get 10 minutes of TV time every time there’s a Republican debate.

By contrast, although they finished fourth and fifth respectively in the Ames straw-poll, it looks like Rick Santorum and Herman Cain are prepared to go the distance — win, lose or draw. Changes in the delegate-apportionment rules, which limit the winner-take-all process that has in earlier years pushed the GOP primary campaign toward an early decision, are likely to encourage Santorum and Cain to stick it out. Even if they never actually win a primary or caucus, they can pick up delegates all the way to the convention. The same is true of Ron Paul and . . .

Is it too early to float the prospect of a “brokered convention”? Yeah, I know: That’s every political journalist’s fantasy, and therefore I’m probably engaged in wishful thinking. But if none of the top-tier candidates can score an early knockout, it is entirely feasible that none of them will arrive at Tampa with enough delegates to score a first-ballot victory. And I’m not ruling it out at this point.

Prognostication is way above my pay-grade, of course. Those of our readers who hit the tip jar to fund this trip were paying for reporting, and I hope you got your money’s worth. In the space of a single week, I filed six articles for The American Spectator:


My unexpected Alabama detour — road-tripping down to Huntsville with Ladd Ehlinger and spending four days at the Hartselle, Ala., home of my buddy Stephen Gordon — was a function of the fact that I’d booked my flight to Iowa one-way, and had to wait for the tip-jar money to clear the bank before I could afford a plane ticket home.

And I’m damned near flat broke now, but I’ll be home in a few hours, and back in the arms of my wife and children, so I’m feeling good.

Well, time for final boarding. Wish me luck, and hit the freaking tip jar!





PREVIOUSLY:

Category: Election 2012, Fear and Loathing in Iowa

‘Violated Online’: The Vicious Arts of Internet Character Assassination

Posted on | August 18, 2011 | 6 Comments

Having previously smeared “Advice Goddess” Amy Alkon, Carl Salonen has now turned his slander machine against Professor Donald Douglas:

The allegations are that I’m (1) a child pornographer who (2) requires his students to read his postings. These are breathtaking lies. Carl Salonen submitted not a shred of evidence in support. This is pure, demented libel. But that’s typical for progressives.

Hate and Lies: It’s who the Left is and what the Left does.

Such disgusting character assassination is the subject of a new book by Steven Wyler, Violated Online: How Online Slander Can Destroy Your Life & What You Must Do to Protect Yourself:

Millions of people are attacked, exposed and violated on the Internet. A lawsuit filed against Steven Wyer’s business destroyed his company and his credibility. His reputation was ruined because of the Internet. He learned that innocent until proven guilty is a myth, especially in the digital world. The online postings hurt his family, his income and his future. Since this battle, he has talked to hundreds of people with similar stories. Their narratives would sound like fiction were it not for the fact that he has helped many of them reclaim their lives through his company, Reputation Advocate.
The American government has passed laws that leave its citizens open to be maligned with impunity by accusers-both real and fictitious. While most people use the internet, they do not know how to protect themselves against slander. Tragically, there is no one to protect us. We have to do it ourselves.
Violated Online will help any person understand the defense strategies needed to survive online exposure and how to take action now.

Category: American Power, Books

I Would Very Much Like to Say That Janeane Garofalo Has Lost Her Mind …

Posted on | August 18, 2011 | 38 Comments

. . . but there isn’t much evidence that she was ever entirely sane:

Last night, on failed MSNBC talk host Keith Olbermann’s new Current TV show (a network with less viewers than MSNBC), Janeane Garofalo said Herman Cain must be getting paid to run, has Stockholm Syndrome and that the Tea Party and Conservative movement is racist.

A few samples of Janeane’s brilliant political insights moonbat rantings:

“[Herman Cain] in this presidential race because he deflects the racism that is inherent in the Republican party, the conservative movement, the Tea Party certainly. [In] the last 30 years the Republican party has been moving more and more to the right, but also race-baiting more. Gay-baiting more. Religion-baiting more,” Garofalo said.
“But, Herman Cain, I feel like, is being paid by somebody to be involved and to run for president so that you go like ‘I love that, that can’t be racist. He’s a black guy, a black guy asking for Obama being impeached.’ Or ‘it’s a black guy whose anti-Muslim. It’s a black guy who is a Tea Party guy.'”
Garofalo also had some conspiracy theories as to who may be putting Cain up to this.
“And I feel like wouldn’t that suit the purposes of whomever astroturfs these things. Whether that be the Koch brothers or Grover Norquist or any anything. It could even be Karl Rove. ‘Let’s get Herman Cain involved so it deflects the obvious racism of our Republican party,'” Garofalo said.

Along the way, she managed to cite the Southern Poverty Law Center as a definite authority for the fact that America’s inherent racism has skyrocketed since Obama’s election. I just spent 10 days in Iowa, where Herman Cain was greeted by cheers from thousands of members of the party of “obvious racism.” Maybe all those Iowans are part of the Koch brothers/Grover Norquist/Karl Rove conspiracy.

HERMAN CAIN FOR PRESIDENT
Because Janeane Garofalo Needs a Long Stay in a
Quiet Place With Nurses and Doctors to Help Her Cope

UPDATE: Janeane Garofalo is obviously much more knowledgeable about racism than the guy in this video:

(Hat-tip: Katie Pavlich.)

Category: Celebrities, Election 2012, Herman Cain, Racism

Bikini + NASCAR = Traffic Gold!

Posted on | August 18, 2011 | 9 Comments

Canadian beauty Maryeve Dufault will make her NASCAR debut Saturday in Quebec . . . 

NASCAR in Quebec? Comment voulez-vous dire “redneck” en français?

Never mind. The point is that I learned this after blog traffic spiked because there were a lot of Google searches that led to my July 28 post about Mlle. Dufault. Then I realized I had not maximized the Rule 5 traffic value of that post, because I had not included a bikini photo of the lovely Maryeve. But I’m sure none of our readers would want to see her bikini-clad body sitting in the surf, right? Read more

Category: Canada, NASCAR, Rule 5

Attention, ‘Young Hotties’ Who Have Had Sex With a Certain Texas Governor

Posted on | August 18, 2011 | 39 Comments

Ron Paul supporter Robert Morrow took out a newspaper ad seeking women who can expose Gov. Rick Perry as a hypocrite:

HAVE YOU EVER HAD
SEX WITH RICK PERRY?
Are you a stripper, an escort, or just a “young hottie”
impressed by an arrogant, entitled governor of Texas? . . .
[W]e will help you publicize your direct dealings
with a Christian buzzword-spouting “family values”
hypocrite and fraud.

It should be noted that Morrow is a resident of Austin. Have there been any rumors in the Texas capital of gubernatorial hanky-panky? Why would Morrow be so specific about the types of women he was seeking? If Perry were indeed prone to extramarital affairs, doesn’t it make more sense that he’d be involved with, say, staffers or lobbyists — women he knew via politics, and who would thus have an incentive to be discreet — than to assume he’d be tapping strippers and escorts? But Morrow says the wording of his ad reflects more than a wild guess:

Morrow claims that he knows strippers in Austin who have stories about Perry, but none of them are willing to come forward to the press; hence, the need for an ad in the Chronicle. “I think it’s only a matter of time until somebody credible comes forward,” he told me.
At the bottom of the ad is a nod to the longtime (and equally unsubstantiated) rumors that Perry, who has pursued sundry anti-gay policies, is himself gay. “Note to gay people: If you know the truth about Rick, please QUIT covering for him,” it reads.

So the governor is either a reckless womanizer or a closeted homosexual, at least according to this Ron Paul supporter in Austin. That’s the great thing about unsubstantiated rumors: They can be completely contradictory, and still be damaging.

How long until Will Folks claims to have had sex with Rick Perry?

Category: Election 2012, Rick Perry, Texas

Wall Street Panic: European Woes, Inflation, Weak Data Tank Market

Posted on | August 18, 2011 | 1 Comment

L.A. Times:

Global stock markets plunged anew Thursday amid intensifying concerns about Europe’s debt crisis and a batch of disheartening economic reports in the United States.
The Dow Jones industrial average tumbled more than 470 points, and other indexes followed suit. . . .
In addition to the European sell-off, U.S. traders were hit by a variety of bad economic news as they arrived at their desks this morning.
First-time jobless claims rose a more-than-expected 408,000 last week. Consumer prices jumped 0.5% in June from May, more than double the 0.2% increase economists had estimated. Core inflation, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, rose 0.2%.
Traders also were spooked by Morgan Stanley’s lowering of its forecast for global growth.

When the market hits a sharp drop like that, automatic “breakers” kick in to prevent a wholesale panic. As of 11:30 ET, the DJIA was off about 450. But the signs of economic trouble ahead are everywhere. Housing data also point toward a double-dip recession:

The number of people who bought previously occupied homes dropped in July. The third decline in four months suggests the depressed housing market won’t help the U.S. economy recover this year.
Home sales fell 3.5 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.67 million homes, the National Association of Realtors said Thursday. That’s far below the 6 million that economists say must be sold to sustain a healthy housing market.
And this year’s pace is lagging behind last year’s total sales. The 4.91 million last year were the weakest sales figures in 13 years.

Amid all this woe, what’s the safe investment?

Gold rallied to its second record high in a week. Spot gold hit a record $1,825.99, although it is still off its inflation-adjusted peak above $2,000 struck in 1980.

Gold was at $1,607.90 July 18, so prices increased more than $200 an ounce (13.6%) in one month. You should have listened to Glenn Beck!

UPDATE 12:20 p.m. ET: One of the “breakers” explained:

The New York Stock Exchange early Thursday put into effect its “Rule 48,” aiming to smooth the opening of trading in a session that is expected to get volatile. Rule 48 allows designated market makers on the NYSE to refrain from disseminating price indications ahead of the opening bell. The procedure makes it easier and faster to open stocks on days when trading could be rough.

The DJIA has now bounced off the bottom, and is down about 350 points at this hour.


Category: Economics
« go back — keep looking »

    About

    This is an area on your website where you can add text. This will serve as an informative location on your website, where you can talk about your site.

    Subscribe to our feed

    Search

    Admin