The Other McCain

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

It’s Hereditary

Posted on | November 15, 2010 | 3 Comments

My 18-year-old twin sons, Jim and Bob:

They’re high school seniors. And natural-born ladykillers, of course. You really ought to hit my tip jar for raising such fine young men.

Jim on Facebook. Bob on Facebook.

Warning, girls: Mrs. Other McCain is fiercely protective.

Category: Family, Mrs. Other McCain

EUROPE IN CRISIS: Sudden Financial Emergency Strikes EU Zone
UPDATE: Götterdämmerung?

Posted on | November 15, 2010 | 12 Comments

These headlines at the Drudge Report outline evidence of increasing stress on European economies:

IRELAND ON THE BRINK...

...TOLD TO TAKE EU BAILOUT

PORTUGAL HITS PANIC BUTTON...

GREEK DEFICIT MUCH BIGGER THAN ESTIMATE...
 
Is this it? Are we finally approaching global economic Armageddon? Give me a few minutes to sort through what this means.

UPDATE: OK, basic summary from Associated Press:

Europe’s debt crisis spread widening ripples Monday, with Irish officials denying that their talks with other eurozone governments were aimed at getting a bailout, while the Greek Prime Minister accused Germany of making things worse with talk of forcing creditors to take losses.
The flare-up in tension adds to pressure on EU finance ministers, who will be in Brussels Tuesday for their monthly meeting.
After spending their recent gatherings focusing on crisis prevention, a weeklong sell-off of Irish and Portuguese bonds has thrown them back into crisis management.

UPDATE II: Wall Street Journal:

Addressing reporters in Paris, George Papandreou said the Germans’ view — long-held, but recently reiterated — that private bondholders could suffer losses as part of a future bailout was intensifying government-debt woes.
The German position “created a spiral of higher interest rates for countries that seemed to be in a difficult position, such as Ireland or Portugal,” Mr. Papandreou said. He added that the spiral could “break backs” and “force economies toward bankruptcy.”

Read the rest. Germany is the most solvent big country this side of China, and their tough-love approach to the debt-laden PIGS (Portugal, Ireland, Greece, Spain) of the Euro zone is probably the best hope to prevent a total collapse. The “crisis” talk may therefore just be a lot of whining from the PIGS faced with the real consequences of their fiscal irresponsibility.

UPDATE III: The British Independent has some official statements:

Of the nations most at risk from contagion, Portugal has the greatest cause to close down the latest wave of instability before it turns into panic. The country’s Finance Minister, Fernando Teixeira dos Santos, warned that “the risk is high because we are not facing only a national or country problem. It is the problems of Greece, Portugal and Ireland. This is not a problem of only this country. . . . This has to do with the eurozone and the stability of the eurozone, and that is why contagion in this framework is more likely.” . . .
The Governor of the Bank of Spain Miguel Angel Fernandez Ordonez also blamed Ireland for dithering: “The situation in the markets has been negative due in some part to the lack of a decision by Ireland,” he said. “It’s not up to me to make a decision on Ireland; Ireland should take the decision at the right moment.”
“We have no reason whatsoever why Ireland should seek external support. Ireland is well-funded,” said Ireland’s Minister for European Affairs, Dick Roche.

By refusing to agree to an EU bailout, Ireland is increasing the risk of “contagion”? I’m not quite sure why this is so — if Ireland insists it has sufficient credit, what’s the problem? — and perhaps some Euro-savvy commenters can help explain.

UPDATE IV: The New York Times:

European officials, increasingly concerned that the debt crisis will spread, are warning that any new rescue plans may need to cover Portugal as well as Ireland to contain the problem they tried to resolve six months ago. . . .
While some important details are different, the current situation feels eerily similar to what happened months ago in Greece, where the cost of borrowing rose precipitously. European authorities ultimately stepped in with a rescue package, expecting an economic recovery and the creation of new European rescue funds to fend off future panics by bond investors whose money is needed by countries to roll over their debt.
But with economic conditions weakening, markets are once again in turmoil. Rescuing Ireland may no longer be enough. . . .
While Ireland has largely impressed European officials with its commitment to austerity, Portugal has been lagging in this regard, according to European officials. One official in Europe, who asked for anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly, said that the budget recently presented by the government in Lisbon did not contain the type of far-reaching changes proposed by other countries, like Spain.
“If Ireland were to ask for aid, then you’d have to look at what’s going on in Portugal as well,” the official said, putting forward a view that to rescue Ireland alone would not keep speculators from zeroing in on other vulnerable countries.

Hmmmm. It’s almost as if officials in Portugal, where the fiscal problem is arguably worse, were trying to use Ireland to distract these “speculators.” But who could they possibly mean? I wonder . . .

UPDATE V: Speak of the devil:

Mr. Soros also touched on the unravelling European debt crisis. Although some people are surprised that Europe is still in trouble, he is not shocked. “The current situation can only be understood as a continuation of the financial crisis,” he said. “We are not out of the woods.”
But he did note there could be even more problems ahead because Germany is starting to dominate fiscal policy.
“Effectively Germany is imposing on the other countries a policy that has done very well for Germany” but not for the other governments, he said.

The Germans, however, are solvent. Since when was solvency a bad policy for anyone?

UPDATE VI: Welcome, Instapundit readers! Professor Reynolds links the ever-quotable Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, who issues dire warnings:

Unless the [European Central Bank] takes fast and dramatic action, it risks destroying the currency it is paid to manage, and allowing a political catastrophe to unfold in Europe.
It was a grave error for Germany’s Angela Merkel and France’s Nicolas Sarkozy to invoke the spectre of sovereign defaults and bondholder “haircuts” at this delicate juncture, ignoring warnings from ECB chief Jean-Claude Trichet that such talk would set off investor flight from high-debt states. . . .
If mishandled, Ireland could all too easily become a sovereign version of Credit Anstalt – the Austrian bank that brought down the central European financial system in 1931, sent tremors through London and New York, and set off the second deeper phase of the Great Depression, the phase when politics turned ugly. . . .
The eurozone’s fiscal fund (European Financial Stability Facility) is fatally flawed. Like Alpinistas roped together, an ever-reduced core of solvent states are supposed to carry the weight on an ever-widening group of insolvent states dangling beneath them. This lacks political credibility and may be tested to destruction if – as seems likely – Ireland is forced to ask for help. At which moment the chain-reaction begins in earnest, starting with Iberia [i.e., Portugal and Spain]. . . .

Read the whole thing, down to the last word, “Götterdämmerung.” Europe’s situation, as described in frightening detail by Evans-Pritchard, is really that serious.

Category: Economics, Europe, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal

‘As I Am Big-Busted and Like to Have Fun, Guys Are Instantly Interested in Me’

Posted on | November 15, 2010 | 7 Comments

Arguably the most honest sentence in the history of the English language, although the the Englishwoman who spoke it is engaged in a deceptive practice: Enticing men into one-night stands in hopes of becoming pregnant:

“All my friends have babies and I desperately want to be a mum. . . .
“I’ve had a couple of proper relationships in the past two years. But each time I have mentioned the idea of having a baby, the bloke has run a mile.
“Men my age aren’t that interested in settling down with a kid so quickly into a relationship. . . . I’ve looked into getting a sperm donation but it’s too expensive.”

Indeed. It seems that young men are now so eager to avoid paternal responsibilities that would-be young mothers like busty 25-year-old Lara Carter have been driven to desperate measures. But don’t you reckon this problem has its origins in the supply/demand situation expressed by the phrase “free milk and a cow”?

Baby, baby, baby, why you want to treat me this way?
You know I’m still your lover boy, I still feel the same way.
That’s when she told me a story
‘Bout free milk and a cow.
She said, “No huggin’, no kissin’
Until I get a wedding vow . . .”

Hat-tip: Instapundit. I’m sure the heartbreaking tale of Miss Carter has prompted a debate between Professor Reynolds and Dr. Helen Smith as to whether the professor should seek fair-market value for his Ivy League gametes, or begin engaging in philanthropic charitable donations. From a capitalist perspective, the professor has a proprietary interest in maximizing his market share, although Dr. Smith might develop a sudden Marxist urge to seize control of the means of production.

Category: Economics, Family, Great Britain, Marriage, Sex

Wait Until Glenn Beck Sees This!

Posted on | November 15, 2010 | 14 Comments

“Spooky Dude” by Chris Cassone. Video by Mr. Pinko of IOwnTheWorld.com.

UPDATE: Dude! Re-Tweeted by Glenn Beck!

How does this compare to getting Tweeted by Alyssa Milano? Don’t be divisive!

Category: Chris Cassone, Glenn Beck, Music, Video

FMJRA Dénouement: Forsythia, Marigolds, Jasmine, Roses to All

Posted on | November 15, 2010 | 15 Comments

by Smitty

Thank you for the outpouring of well-wishing concerning the deployment. My mother called, and broke down at the sight of the volume and character of the well-wishings from the dextrosphere. If my departure was not the most-linked post in the blog’s history, it was easily Top 5:
Cogadh No Sìth

I’m hanging out in a local coffee shop, showing the boring technical aspects of doing this kind of blogging to Wombat Socho,

who will bring his unique approach to the problem.
Pray for peace. In the meantime, via Miss Cellania,

Category: Uncategorized

Sarah Palin and ‘Feminism’

Posted on | November 15, 2010 | 7 Comments

“Certainly, no feminist can be expected to defend a conservative woman. To quote Palin-hating feminist Jessica Valenti, feminism is ‘a social justice movement,’ a radical ideology akin to Marxism.”
— Robert Stacy McCain, June 3, 2010

As the originator of “National Offend a Feminist Week” — our motto: Equality Is For Ugly Losers — I have often protested against the adoption of the term “feminism” by conservative women.

“Conservative feminist” is as oxymoronic as “moderate Obama supporter.” To be a feminist is to believe in — to advocate, litigate and legislate for — a sort of equality that does not exist, that has never existed and that will never exist. Men and women are not equal in the sense that feminists believe. They are not identical and interchangeable. Attempts to bring about such a false equality are misguided and harmful.

This is not an assertion of “male supremacy,” nor does anti-feminism entail the patriarchal dystopia of Margaret Atwood’s vicious imaginings. To oppose feminism is not to disparage women’s abilities, nor relegate them to kinder, kuche, kirche.

Misunderstandings about the meaning of “feminism” have been fostered by feminists themselves, who have tried to claim credit for all professional accomplishment by women. Ergo, if you are a college-educated woman with a successful career, the feminists say, this is only because of the courageous efforts of the radical Sisterhood.

Had it not been for Gloria Steinem et al., you would have no career opportunity at all, but would instead be weak and ignorant, doomed to toiling over a hot stove and washing socks with a screaming baby on your hip.

Or so they would have you believe, and therefore many otherwise intelligent conservative women feel obliged to call themselves “feminists.” Alas, Sarah Palin is among them:

“I’m a feminist who, uh, believes in equal rights and I believe that women certainly today have every opportunity that a man has to succeed, and to try to do it all, anyway. And I’m very, very thankful that I’ve been brought up in a family where gender hasn’t been an issue. You know, I’ve been expected to do everything growing up that the boys were doing. We were out chopping wood and you’re out hunting and fishing and filling our freezer with good wild Alaskan game to feed our family. So it kinda started with that.”
— Sarah Palin, interview with Katie Couric, CBS News, September 2008

David Shedlock at Caffeinated Thoughts:

[T]he thrust of feminism is not equal rights. It is the overthrow of God’s natural order. The reason the killing of unborn children and the promotion of contraception is so central to feminism is because it is a rejection of the differences between men and women.

Memo to young conservative women: Do not buy into “feminism” as an alternative to a nightmarishly oppressive past (or future) that exists only in feminist propaganda. Do not allow the collectivist philosophy of “feminism” to coopt credit for your achievements as an individual. There were high-achieving women in the workplace prior to 1964 or 1969 or 1973 or whatever other date the feminists would assign as the beginning or triumph of the “Women’s Movement.”

And Betty Friedan was a Commie.

If you wish to disabuse yourself of the feminist mythos, I strongly recommend three excellent books:

Get those books, study them carefully, and understand that a concern for the rightful dignity of women is incompatible with the feminist crusade for the fictitious “equality” of women.

UPDATE: Amanda Read offers thoughts on “righteous women.”

Category: Feminism, Sarah Palin

Team Obama: No Moderates Allowed

Posted on | November 15, 2010 | 3 Comments

Democrat pollsters Doug Schoen and Patrick Caddell raised eyebrows by arguing that President Obama could end gridlock by announcing he would not seek re-election in 2012. This argument was premised on taking at face value Obama’s 2008 campaign message that he wanted to unite the country and transcend partisanship. My friend Seton Motley is not so naive:

Obama ran as the Great Uniter – a post-partisan, post-racial, post-political Wunderkind that would end the Washington, D.C. drama forever and always.
This was of course a lie – sold by a Team Obama that intended all along to govern from the radical left but knew the electorate would never vote for that agenda.
And slavishly resold by an Old Media who either knew of then-candidate Obama’s leftist intent and wanted to aid in its emplacement, or were too blinkered by History and bought into the gassy hype.
Obama’s Administrative retinue is uber-leftist, with nary a moderate in the bunch. Personnel is policy; Obama’s staff decisions clearly demonstrate Obama is a left-winger, not the moderate he played on campaign TV for electoral benefit – and for whom Schoen and Caddell wistfully wish for. . . .

Read the whole thing. I’ve got little use for “good government” types who are perpetually bemoaning “partisan gridlock” and wringing their hands about the “decline of civility.” Partisanship is necessary, gridlock is good, and calls for “civility” may generally be translated as the expression of a desire that one’s opponents shut up.

Category: Barack Obama

Keith Olbermann and Sam Francis

Posted on | November 15, 2010 | 3 Comments

When it was revealed that Keith Olbermann had donated to Democratic candidates he had interviewed, I was not outraged:

Being strictly a neutral, objective journalist myself — “Ethics, shmethics!” — I don’t think Olbermann should be fired from NBC, which is as about as neutral and objective as Pravda or the Daily Worker.

No one paying attention to NBC’s recent operations — e.g., the elevation of Bush-hater David Gregory to Meet the Press host, Chris Matthews’s tingly gushing about Obama, MSNBC’s hiring of Rachel Maddow and Ed Schultz — could miss their tilt toward Democrats.

If NBC News has made a programming decision to appeal to Democratic viewers, this is their own business and my libertarian impulse is to let them do as they pleased. Looking at the situation as a journalist, all that “ethics” required was some honesty about what they were doing. Objectivity is not the same thing as neutrality.

Alas for Olbermann, Howard Kurtz finds that some of his colleagues are more outraged than I was:

From the moment Olbermann was found to have donated money to three Democratic candidates, there has been a deepening sense of anger and frustration among his colleagues . . . [S]everal of NBC’s front-line stars, including Tom Brokaw, have expressed concern to management that Olbermann has badly damaged MSNBC’s reputation for independence. . . .
Network staffers use phrases like “scorched-earth policy” and “totally narcissistic response” to describe how Olbermann has dealt with criticism of his political donations. A recurring theme is that he has made it impossible for MSNBC to argue that it is journalistically different from Fox News, which has no prohibition against political donations by such commentators and talk-show hosts as Sean Hannity and Karl Rove. The word hypocrisy has frequently been aimed at Olbermann.

(Hat tip: Ed Morrissey.) Let me try to explain Olbermann’s situation by an analogy that he would find outrageous: Sam Francis. Read more

Category: MSNBC
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