The Other McCain

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

‘White Nationalist Propaganda’?

Posted on | December 30, 2010 | 15 Comments

Here is the complete text of a news article I wrote that was published Dec. 3, 2002, in The Washington Times:

Vanderbilt professor outrages Confederate progeny
Says Rebel soldiers deserved gallows
By Robert Stacy McCain
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
A Vanderbilt University professor has stirred outrage in Dixie by declaring that Confederates were “cowards masquerading as civilized men” who should have been executed at the end of the Civil War.
“Every Confederate soldier … deserved not a hallowed resting place at the end of his days but a reservation at the end of the gallows,” Jonathan David Farley, an assistant professor of mathematics, wrote in a commentary in the Tennessean, Nashville’s largest newspaper. The United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC), the professor wrote, is an organization that “honors traitors.”
Vanderbilt sparked conflict over Southern heritage this year when the university said it would strip the word “Confederate” from a dormitory, Confederate Memorial Hall, built in the 1930s with donations raised by the UDC.
Mr. Farley’s Nov. 20 column in the Tennessean increased the furor. Mr. Farley has complained of threatening e-mails and phone calls, while the newspaper has received letters from across the country.
“The majority of the letters have been from out of state, because it became an Internet thing,” said John Gibson, the reader editor of the Tennessean, adding that out-of-state letters “rarely” are published in the paper.
Tim Chavez, a columnist for the Tennessean, described one 66-year-old reader’s frustration over Mr. Farley’s views: “This just burns me because I don’t know what to do about it,” the man said. “If someone compared your ancestors to mass murderers, what would you do?”
Mr. Farley called Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest “a 19th century Hitler,” called Confederate heritage groups “the new holocaust revisionists,” and said that “the race problems that wrack America to this day are due largely to the fact that the Confederacy was not thoroughly destroyed, its leaders and soldiers executed, and their lands given to the landless freed slaves.”
Allen Sullivant, chief of heritage defense for the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV), said Mr. Farley is “entitled to his opinion, even one that’s based on misinformation, ignorance and bigotry.”
In response to complaints from SCV members, Mr. Farley has posted e-mail replies that “drip venom,” Mr. Sullivant said. Replying to one SCV member, Mr. Farley vowed to “form our own armies to expose and smash you. … Very simply, we represent good and you represent evil.”
Mr. Sullivant said such “blatantly, openly hateful” messages show that Mr. Farley is “just one of these people who’s got a real chip on his shoulders.”
A native of Rochester, N.Y., Mr. Farley, 32, is a graduate of Harvard and Oxford universities. His parents are both academics. His father, an immigrant from Jamaica, holds a Ph.D. in economics, while his mother, an immigrant from Guyana, holds a Ph.D. in history.
On his university Web page (www.math.vanderbilt.edu/farley) Mr. Farley poses beside a large poster of Marxist revolutionary Ernesto “Che” Guevara, whom he calls a hero.
Mr. Farley has been politically active since moving to Nashville from Berkeley, Calif., in 1997, mounting a Green Party campaign for Congress this year, describing the two major party candidates as “two old white men with identical views.”
He challenged Rep. Jim Cooper, Tennessee Democrat, in the Nov. 5 election, placing a distant fourth with 1,205 votes. Last year, Mr. Farley wrote an article criticizing Chelsea Clinton for supporting the U.S. anti-terrorism effort.
“One of Bill Clinton’s redeeming traits is the fact that, when he studied at Oxford, he opposed America’s war,” Mr. Farley, then a visiting scholar at England’s Oxford University, wrote in a British newspaper, the Guardian. “Maybe sometime, Chelsea, you will too.”
A Vanderbilt spokesman said that Mr. Farley, who is not tenured, is protected by the university’s academic-freedom policy.
“Professor Farley is speaking as an individual, he does not represent Vanderbilt University’s policy, and his statements are neither supported nor endorsed by the university,” said Michael Schoenfeld, Vanderbilt’s vice chancellor for public affairs.

Now that you’ve read the entirety of that 632-word article, how would you characterize it?

  1. A detailed news account of a campus controvery; or
  2. “White nationalist propaganda.”

I’ll leave you to guess who chose No. 2.

Category: History, Journalism

Late Entry in the ‘Stupidest Things Liberals Said in 2010’ Sweepstakes

Posted on | December 30, 2010 | 8 Comments

Harvard-educated Ezra Klein updates Orwell’s famous maxim: “One has to work at The Washington Post to believe things like that. No ordinary man could be such a fool.”

On MSNBC, Klein was asked about plans of the 112th Congress to read the Constitution aloud:

“Yes, it’s a gimmick. I mean, you could say two things about it. One is that it has no binding power on anything. And then, two, the issue of the Constitution is not that people don’t read the text and think they’re following it. The issue of the Constitution is that the text is confusing because it was written more than a hundred years ago and what people believe it says differs from person to person, and differs depending on what they want to get done. So I wouldn’t expect too much coming out of this.”

Ezra has attempted a walk-back, but not before inspiring a devastating Iowahawk parody.

My apologies for being the last blogger on top of this particular dogpile, but somebody in the blogosphere must be assigned to keep up with Natalie Portman’s lesbian scenes and I drew the short straw.

Category: Congress, Liberals, MSNBC

Natalie Portman Explains Why Lesbian Scenes Are Like CGI Special Effects in 3-D

Posted on | December 30, 2010 | 22 Comments

Whatever it takes to sell tickets:

“Everyone was so worried about who was going to want to see this movie [The Black Swan] . . . I remember them being like, ‘How do you get guys to a ballet movie? How do you get girls to a thriller?’ And the answer is a lesbian scene. Everyone wants to see that.”

(Hat-tip: Donald Douglas at American Power.) Having recently gotten Quote of the Day from Jill Stanek for my praise of Portman’s procreative success, I’m not in a mood to argue with Princess Amidala, especially because I was the first conservative blogger to predict this phenomenon.

The question of what it takes nowadays to get people to go to the multiplex and pay $9 to see a movie they can catch a few months later on HBO or Netflix is a perplexing question for Hollywood. But when a chick says to her boyfriend, “Hey, you want to go see a ballet movie?” it’s kinda helpful if she can follow that up with, “You know, the one with the Natalie Portman lesbian scene.” Read more

Category: Celebrities, Culture, Hollywood, Movies, Rule 5, Sex

She’s More Catholic Than the Pope

Posted on | December 30, 2010 | 15 Comments

Lisa Graas wants to update the “about” page on her blog, and is looking for commendations from other bloggers, so there’s mine.

Lisa always kids me about the fact that among the top referrers to her blog, it’s a bunch of hardcore Catholics and me. Being a pro-life Protestant (and father of six) probably explains that. Anyway . . .

Lisa is not afraid to stand up for her beliefs, whatever the cost. She was leading the PalinTwibe — the Twitter posse for Sarah Palin — and advocating for Bill Johnson in the Kentucky GOP Senate primary. With Rand Paul also in the primary, her advocacy made Graas an especial target of the Paulistas, and if you’ve ever seen those guys go to work on somebody . . . well, they never heard of a “fair fight.” It got rough.

But then it got rougher: When Sarah Palin endorsed Rand Paul, Lisa had to make a choice and she decided to resign from the PalinTwibe rather than to back down from her opposition to Paul.

However much you may disagree with Lisa’s stance (and personally, I’m OK with the Paulistas, even if their online fanatics are cruel and obnoxious), you have to admire Lisa’s commitment to principle. In a political environment where “go-along-to-get-along” is the prevailing ethos, Lisa Graas stands firmly for her principles.

You don’t have to agree with her. But you’ve got to respect her.

PREVIOUSLY: “Lisa Graas Takes on the Paulistas”

UPDATE: Also, she gives good FMRJA. Speaking of which, we’re way overdue for a few inspirational words from Gunnery Sergeant Hartman:

Welcome to the Parris Island of the blogosphere.

Category: Catholics, Kentucky, Lisa Graas, Ron Paul, Rule 2, Sarah Palin

Vaguely Weird Celebrity News

Posted on | December 30, 2010 | 15 Comments

At age 63, Elton John and his, er, husband are now, er, fathers:

Levon has two daddies via a rent-a-womb deal:

Elton John is a dad!
The legendary hit maker and partner David Furnish announced they’re first-time fathers, following the Christmas-Day birth of their adopted son.
Zachary Jackson Levon Furnish-John was born to an unnamed surrogate in California and weighed 7 pounds and 15 ounces, John’s rep said. . . . .
In a joint statement released by John’s publicist, the happy parents said, “We are overwhelmed with happiness and joy at this very special moment.”

British columnist Judith Woods:

Please don’t let the scurrilous rumours be true that Sir Elton John’s new son was induced on December 25, in order to be The Ultimate Christmas Present, I just couldn’t bear it. I’d rather bury my head in a luxury lambskin footmuff until little Zachary Jackson Levon Furnish-John arrives in Britain to live happily ever after in his £35,000 nursery.

Like I said, vaguely weird. I’m 51 years old and (not to put any pressure on my recently married eldest daughter) just about ready to be called “Grandpa.” So what’s up with Elton John going to such expense and trouble to become “Daddy” at age 63?

What’s that going to be like for Baby Levon? Imagine being the only kid in high school with an 80-year-old gay dad.

Category: Celebrities

Herman Cain Invited to Iowa Forum

Posted on | December 30, 2010 | 7 Comments

Note the way the reporter phrases it:

Likely 2012 presidential candidates have been sniffing around Iowa for months on book tours and under-the-radar speaking engagements. But now the entire field — all dozen or so possible GOP challengers — are being invited to a megachurch on the outskirts of Des Moines for a March 7th candidates’ forum–the first of its kind for 2011.
And the question is: Who will be so bold as to come?
Steve Scheffler, president of the Iowa Faith & Freedom Coalition, says the group plans to send invitations out this week to anyone who has expressed the slightest interest in the 2012 Republican nomination. That means everyone from Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich to Mitt Romney, Tim Pawlenty and Rick Santorum. Even Atlanta radio host Herman Cain will get an invitation.
“I’d think that these potential candidates would like the chance to come have a dialogue with evangelical Christians,” said Mr. Scheffler, one of the state’s most prominent GOP organizers and a member of the Republican National Committee. . . .
Attending a prominent candidate forum in Iowa in early March could be the first overt step some of the challengers take toward a 2012 bid.

“Even Herman Cain”? What’s that “even” all about? Meanwhile, The Hill has an interview with Cain:

By his count, Cain has visited Iowa six times in the past year and has supporters making calls to key activists in the state. He’s also made three trips to New Hampshire, one to South Carolina, four to Texas and two to Florida.
In an interview, the one-time Senate candidate and former CEO of Godfather’s Pizza told The Ballot Box that he’s serious about running and thinks he can shake up the race for the 2012 GOP nomination.
“I would represent that unconventional, non-establishment candidate that a lot of people are looking for,” said Cain, a conservative black Republican who described the current field of GOP hopefuls as “the usual suspects.”
“I respect them,” he said of the Republican names in the mix. “God bless them. But the more people running, the better.”
Cain will form an exploratory committee early in 2011, but doesn’t expect to make an official decision on a run until “several months into the new year.” . . .

Read the whole thing.

Category: Election 2012, Herman Cain, Iowa

Dennis Kucinich Worried About Losing Ohio District, Sexy Redhead Wife

Posted on | December 30, 2010 | 8 Comments

But mainly his congressional district:

The state of Ohio will lose two congressional seats thanks to the latest U.S. Census figures, and liberal stalwart Dennis Kucinich is worried his seat is on the chopping block.
In an e-mail to supporters Wednesday, the seven-term Democratic congressman and two-time presidential candidate says the Republican-controlled Ohio legislature is likely to eliminate his heavily Democratic Cleveland-area district.
But Kucinich says he’s not just going to stand by while that happens.
“I will not wait until a new Ohio map is produced to begin this crucial discussion of the consequences of congressional redistricting,” writes Kucinich. “I will not wait until the Ohio Legislature produces a new map to start thinking of the options. The question will not be: Who is my opponent? The question will be: Where is my district? Seriously.”

Hey, remember when right-wingers were worried about the Census?


Category: Census, Democrats, Election 2012, Ohio

Tea Party Group Now Planning
‘Siege of DC’ for January 21, 2011

Posted on | December 30, 2010 | 8 Comments

Colorado’s T.L. Davis and other activists want citizens to come to Washington (or visit the offices of congressmen and Senators in their home districts) to pressure them to act on a constitutionalist agenda:

These peaceful sieges will remain in effect until:
Obamacare is Repealed
The Federal Reserve is Audited and Ended
Our rights are recognized by every government agency
No Compromises!
We Stop When IT Stops!

You can learn more at Guardians of Liberty.

Category: Tea Party
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