The Other McCain

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

Wisconsin: Are Liberals Aborting Themselves Into Political Oblivion?

Posted on | April 21, 2011 | 15 Comments

In writing about Tricia Willoughby — the 14-year-old home-schooler who showed such poise during her speech Saturday at the Tea Party rally in Madison — James Taranto of the Wall Street Journal took note that Miss Willoughby is the daughter of Wisconsin pro-life activists. Taranto also noticed that between 1975 and 1992, there were 316,457 abortions performed in Wisconsin:

There probably are many more like Tricia Willoughby, aren’t there? After all, her parents are “pro-life activists,” which means they have a tendency to follow the biblical injunction to be fruitful and multiply. People on the other political side are more inclined toward subtraction (or as they call it, “choice”), as we explained in our 2005 paper “The Roe Effect.” . . .
Scott Walker won the governorship last year by a margin of 124,638. That may not be within the margin of abortion; after all, some of the missing 316,457 would have voted Republican had they existed, and many would not have voted.
But JoAnne Kloppenburg, the left-liberal state Supreme Court candidate who was supposed to save Wisconsin’s labor monopolies from Walker’s reforms, lost by just 7,316 votes, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel . . . It’s almost inconceivable that the Roe effect alone is insufficient to account for Justice David Prosser’s victory.
Oh, and in four years, Tricia Willoughby will be old enough to vote, while an additional 54,522 will not be.

Kinda sucks to be you, doesn’t it, progressives? Meanwhile, Instapundit tips us to Miss Willoughby’s e-mail to Ann Althouse about that union bozo who shouted ugly words during her speech: “I was thinking ‘That is what you want to say to me? Really? You’re not even listening to what I’m saying, or criticizing my actual logic. You are simply just calling me names because I am on the opposite side’.”

Professor Jacobson dubs the Wisconsin recount “Kloppenburg’s Folly.” Of course, in a state where many employees are forced to pay union dues, Big Labor has money to burn, so this recount is just a way for them to impose additional costs on their opposition.

Category: Abortion, Tea Party, Unions, Wisconsin

‘Snowbilly Grifter’? And Incest Jokes?

Posted on | April 21, 2011 | 26 Comments

Decent Americans recoil in shock at the latest eruption of Palin Derangment Syndrome in which Wonkette’s Jack Steuf wrote:

Today is the day we come together to celebrate the snowbilly grifter’s magical journey from Texas to Alaska to deliver to the America the great gentleman scholar Trig Palin. Is Palin his true mother? Or was Bristol? (And why is it that nobody questions who the father is? Because, either way, Todd definitely did it.)

As I say, I’ve met Todd Palin, and I’d love to see one of these clowns say some crap like that to his face.

UPDATE: Dana Loesch reports that advertisers are dropping Wonkette. Remarkably, in reporting that Steuf has been put on probation, Wonkette publisher Ken Layne attempts to justify the smears on the Palins, prompting Da Tech Guy to observe:

The first rule of civility for the left is this, any statement no matter how vile or misogynistic that is directed against the Palin family is OK.

Frankly, I’ve never seen anything like it. Not in all the years of Bush Derangement Syndrome did the Left unload as much concentrated hate as they’ve piled onto Sarah Palin since August 2008.

UPDATE II: There were many other things I’d intended to blog about this morning, but Ken Layne’s reaction is just so astonishing that I feel the need to extend this post. William Jacobson at Legal Insurrection quotes Layne:

I wouldn’t parade my children around in the media. What kind of mother does that?  . . . Trig is cool with us. Sarah Palin, on the other hand, is a grave danger to America.

And it is Palin’s “grave danger” that, in Layne’s demented mind, justifies the no-holds-barred anti-Palin attacks.

Let me address this from a couple of different angles. I have been known, from time to time, to make intemperate or ill-advised remarks, including jokes of questionable taste. When I loathe somebody, I don’t bother to disguise my loathing, and so I would be a hypocrite if I posed as having been a model of civility toward, inter alia, Meghan McCain.

However, Meghan has thrust herself into the public eye, tried to make herself a spokesperson for conservatism, and generally cashed in on her inherited importance, so she bought her own ticket to this dance, you see. I sure as hell don’t need a 20-something bubblehead lecturing me about political philosophy, so Meghan “Don’t You Know Who I Am?” McCain has arguably invited whatever insults I’ve thrown her way (which have been numerous, and ROTFLMAO funny, I might add).

So that’s one political child who has been “paraded around in the media.” What about Chelsea Clinton? I’ve met Chelsea, who is absolutely charming in person. Is there anyone who would deny that Chelsea was, in some sense, used as a campaign prop by her parents over the years? Indeed, aren’t there many observers who have depicted Bill and Hillary’s marriage as more a political partnership than an actual marriage?

There was a time, circa 2005-07, when Republicans demonized Hillary Clinton almost as thoroughly as Democrats now demonize Sarah Palin. But if any conservative commentator dragged Chelsea through the mud the way liberals have done with the Trig-Truther stuff, I must have missed it.

And something else: By the time I started covering Hillary’s campaign in March 2008, she was already fighting for her political survival and I found myself — despite my every partisan or ideological instinct — admiring her feisty determination. When she got to Shepherdstown, W.Va., in early May, the press corps was more or less demanding that Hillary quit the race. It was painful to see Chelsea have to stand next to her mother at that press conference while reporters peppered Hillary with variations of the same question: “Why don’t you quit, loser?”

Because you see, Hillary had the temerity oppose the anointing of Obama and, just as Ken Layne says of Sarah Palin, that made Hillary a “grave danger to America” in the eyes of the Obamaphiliac press.

Liberals think we’re stupid, but we’re not too stupid to see what they’re doing or to understand why they’re doing it.

Category: Bristol Palin, Sarah Palin

Note To 2012 Candidates: A Harder Line With The UN Is A Good Thing

Posted on | April 21, 2011 | 1 Comment

by Smitty

Managing the definitions is a crucial aspect of information dominance. It comes as little surprise that, a decade on from 9/11, the Altogether Foolish United Nations (A.F.U.N.) stands there, panties wadded, unable to define terrorism:

The main hurdle, then as now, is the insistence by the bloc of Islamic states that any definition of terrorism should leave a loophole for “resistance” against foreign occupation.

The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), which was established in 1969 with “liberating” Jerusalem as its primary focus, is unwilling to give ground on the issue as many of its governments believe that doing so would be tantamount to betraying the Palestinian cause.

The “occupation” exemption is usually cited in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but it would also provide cover for the anti-Indian jihad in Kashmir, a Muslim-majority territory divided between India and Pakistan and claimed by both.

India has been a major target of terrorism, both in what some Islamic states call “Indian-occupied Kashmir” and elsewhere. Not coincidentally, New Delhi has spearheaded the push for a international terrorism convention since 1996.

Now, per Wikipedia, the U.S. and allies cough up 2/3 of the funding for the U.N., right?

United States 22.000%
Japan 12.530%
Germany 8.018%
United Kingdom 6.604%
France 6.123%
Italy 4.999%
Canada 3.207%
Spain 3.177%

The cause of peace is not advanced by these disingenuous professional victims peddling their crap. The Law of War is meant to manage the Evil That Men Do in a way that keeps things proportional and minimizes collateral damage.

Terrorism is to the Law of War as cancer cells are to healthy: unwillingness to face terrorism at the U.N. level is, itself, a watered-down act of terrorism.

It is well past high time that the United Nations either do something useful, or be replaced with something smaller that can. The U.S. alone is picking up over 1/5 of the tab. If we’re paying the band, we should be calling the tunes. Freebird!

Category: Uncategorized, United Nations

Mommy Weirdest

Posted on | April 21, 2011 | 32 Comments

“To describe [Stanley Ann] Dunham as a white woman from Kansas turns out to be about as illuminating as describing her son as a politician who likes golf. Intentionally or not, the label obscures an extraordinary story — of a girl with a boy’s name who grew up in the years before the women’s movement, the pill and the antiwar movement; who married an African at a time when nearly two dozen states still had laws against interracial marriage; who, at 24, moved to Jakarta with her son in the waning days of an anticommunist bloodbath in which hundreds of thousands of Indonesians were slaughtered; who lived more than half her adult life in a place barely known to most Americans, in the country with the largest Muslim population in the world; who spent years working in villages where a lone Western woman was a rarity; who immersed herself in the study of blacksmithing, a craft long practiced exclusively by men; who, as a working and mostly single mother, brought up two biracial children; who believed her son in particular had the potential to be great; who raised him to be, as he has put it jokingly, a combination of Albert Einstein, Mahatma Gandhi and Harry Belafonte; and then died at 52, never knowing who or what he would become.”
— Janny Scott, New York Times Sunday Magazine

Some people might uncharitably describe Barack Obama’s mother as a “weirdo” or a “flake,” but my purpose in linking this article is not to invite readers to pass judgment on Stanley Ann Dunham Obama-Sotero. Rather I would call your attention to the thumbnail biography of the writer:

Janny Scott . . . a reporter for The New York Times, went on leave in 2008 to write “A Singular Woman: The Untold Story of Barack Obama’s Mother,” from which her article in this issue is adapted.

So the Times grants extensive leave to one of its reporters to permit her to write what is (we can be sure) a glowingly laudatory word-portrait of the president’s mother, a book that is then promoted with a 6,000-word feature excerpt in the paper’s Sunday magazine.

For those unfamiliar with the newspaper business, a standard op-ed column is 750 words, so this book excerpt is the equivalent of eight columns. That’s a helluva lot of space to devote to promoting a book about the president’s late mother.

I’m just sayin’ . . .

Category: Barack Obama, Books, New York Times

LIVE AT FIVE – 04.21.11

Posted on | April 21, 2011 | 2 Comments

TOP NEWS
Two Western Photojournalists Die In Misrata

Tim Hetherington, co-director of "Restrepo"

Killed by loyalist RPG fire

Oscar-nominated Hetherington dies in Misrata

Obama Tells Facebook Friends GOP Budget Will Punish Poor
Calls Ryan’s proposal radical


LA County Supervisor Calls For O’Malleys To Return, Take Charge Of Dodgers
Suggestion follows MLB seizing control of team, ousting Frank McCourt



POLITICS
Homeland Security Scraps Color-Coded Terror Alerts

DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano announces new alert scheme

Alerts now to be posted on Facebook and Twitter

Contractors’ Political Contributions Targeted

Air Traffic Controllers Fired For Sleeping

Mitt Romney: The Anti-Trump


Wisconsin Court Election Heads For Recount

Malloy, CT Legislative Leaders Reach Budget Agreement

Oklahoma Governor Signs Late-Term Abortion Ban



THE ECONOMY, STUPID
BP Sues Transocean To Recover Billions Spent On Gulf Cleanup
Asian Markets Boosted By US Earnings
DOT To Impose New Airline Passengers Rights On Airlines
Investors Fuel Sales Jump In Existing Homes
Dollar Falls To 15-Month Low Against Euro
Wells Fargo 1Q Net Up 48% As Revenue Declines
Your IPhone Is Tracking You. Should You Care?
Amazon To Add Library Lending To Kindle
Intel CEO: x86 Soon To Be Dripping With Honeycomb Goodness



SPORTS
Commissioner Strips Dodgers From McCourt, MLB To Assume Day-to-Day Operations

Former owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers, some broke-ass schmuck

McCourt’s out of money and Selig’s out of patience after owner got prohibited loan from Fox to meet payroll

Mediation Between NFL, Players Off Until May 16

Thunder Bury Nuggets, Cruise To 2-0 Lead


Miller Shuts Out Flyers Again As Sabres Tie Series At 2

Rockies Win Big Over Giants At Coors, 10-2

Mets Fall To Astros For Ninth Loss In Ten Games

Utah Attorney General To File Suit Against BCS



FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
Weird Al Yankovic Talks About The Lady Gaga Saga

Weird Al Yankovic and his weapon of choice

“Perform This Way” greenlighted by Gaga after her manager initially refused permission

Lindsay Lohan Out As Victoria Gotti

Demi Lovato: I Have Bipolar Disorder

Lauren Bush: An American Princess

Rebecca Black Under Police Protection After Death Threats

Kanye West’s Charity Closes

Tyler Perry On His Critics: “Spike Lee Can Go Straight To Hell”

Lady Gaga Calls Madonna Plagiarism Charges “Retarded”

Ben Affleck Can’t Do “The Great Gatsby”



FOREIGNERS
Inferior Arms Hobble Libyan Rebels
France Joins UK In Sending Military Officers To Libya (Video)
Security Forces Deploy In Homs As Protests Continue
Vote Results Tap Nigeria’s Tensions
Violence Spreads In Yemen As Foreign Diplomats Try To Resolve Crisis
Asylum Seekers Torch Australian Detention Centre In Night Of Rioting
Abidjan Endures Continuing Fighting Between Rival Militias



BLOGS & STUFF
LifeNews: Papa John’s, Huggies & Vanguard Pull Ads From Wonkette In Wake Of Post Attacking Trig Palin
Riehl World News: Wonkette’s Ken Layne Can’t Stop Digging, Ups The Ante
Kevin Williamson: Paul Ryan, Hypocrite?
Protein Wisdom: Obama Officials Tried To Convince S&P Not To Issue Credit Warning
Rightwing Nuthouse: Deficit Ghost Riders
Power Line: Communicating With Employees? The Horror!
Newsbusters: Breitbart – “You’re Insinuating I’m Racist, Which Is What MSNBC Does To Conservatives Every Day”
Mudville Gazette: Hearing The Dogs (Of War) That Don’t Bark

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Category: Live at Five

French Will Send Military Advisers to Teach Libyan Rebels How to Surrender

Posted on | April 20, 2011 | 4 Comments

And once they’ve learned proper French surrender techniques, then it’s time for Lesson Two: Collaborating with the enemy!

Category: France, Libya, Military, Video

His and/or Her Equal Rights

Posted on | April 20, 2011 | 10 Comments

One of my favorite subjects is the inexorable logic of “social justice.” I have suffered many slings and arrows (hello, Little Miss Attila) for arguing that once you embrace equality as a principle, this principle must inevitably lead you places you had not originally intended to go:

Lyralisa Stevens, who was born male but lives as a female, is serving 50 years to life in a California prison for killing a San Bernardino County woman with a shotgun in a dispute over clothes.
Stevens is one of more than 300 inmates in the state prison system diagnosed with Gender Identity Disorder, a psychiatric condition addressed in free society with hormone replacement therapy and, in some cases, sex reassignment surgery.
Prison officials have provided female hormones for Stevens since her incarceration in 2003. But now she is asking the 1st District Court of Appeal in San Francisco to require the state to pay for a sex-change operation. . . .
A ruling in Stevens’ favor would make California the first place in the country required to provide reassignment surgery for an inmate, according to lawyers for the receiver appointed to oversee California’s troubled prison health system. They argue that the state should be required to provide only “minimally adequate care,” not sex-change operations that cost $15,000 to $50,000.

(Hat-tip: Weasel Zippers.) To believe that a convicted murderer has a right to sex-change treatment at taxpayer expense, you must have first traveled a long way down the slippery slope of egalitarian social-justice logic. But having traveled this far (and let’s face it, California has been sliding in that direction for decades), how can you refuse to grant this latest demand? Once this demand is granted, something further will be demanded, because until you reach the Utopia of perfect equality, there will always be some injustice to form the basis of new grievances.

And so there is never an end to it because, as F.A. Hayek explained, “social justice” is a mirage.

Category: California

Charlie Sheen Agrees With Smitty

Posted on | April 20, 2011 | 12 Comments

“I would disband the Fed, like now. Shut that motherf****r down now, and send the I.R.S. to prison.”
— Charlie Sheen, in his “Violent Torpedo of Truth” show Tuesday in Washington, D.C.

While I’d have a hard time picturing Smitty banging seven-gram rocks of cocaine and cohabiting with two porn “goddesses,” when it comes to abolishing the Federal Reserve system, I’m pretty sure Smitty and the Warlock are on the same page. “Winning!”

UPDATE: Linked by Mr. G. — thanks! Charlie Sheen’s visit to D.C. caused a minor scandal that didn’t involve coke or hookers, Kerry Picket reports:

DC’s Metropolitan Police Department rolled out the red carpet for Mr. Sheen by providing a high speed police escort from Dulles airport to the show’s venue downtown. . . .
Mr. Sheen arrived almost an hour late to his show due to a child custody hearing in Los Angeles with his ex-wife Brooke Mueller.
According to the Daily Caller, the TV actor said upon his arrival at the show, “I just landed.” He added, “We had a police escort and we ran more red lights than Brooke Mueller heading to a pawn shop.”

More than half of D.C.’s homicides go unsolved, but the police can make sure Charlie Sheen isn’t late for his show.

Category: Celebrities, End The Fed, Video
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