Guess Who Reviewed ‘Game of Thrones’ Finale for Salon-dot-Com?

Posted on | May 21, 2019 | 2 Comments

Did you guess Amanda Marcotte? Yes, while everyone else was grumbling about the rushed and illogical wrap-up of the HBO medieval fantasy, everybody’s least-favorite feminist was proclaiming it “nearly perfect.” According to Ms. Marcotte, Game of Thrones was successful because it rejected the “repressive values” of “chivalric tradition,” which had previously been used by “reactionary writers and thinkers . . . to justify their hostility to social progress and change”:

These chivalric tropes, which persist in both genre stories and high literature, are what the kids these days would call problematic. They equate able-bodiedness, masculinity and having the “right” bloodline to morality, and justify a might-makes-right attitude towards leadership. It’s not a surprise that medieval fantasy and fantasies about medieval society have long had a pull on the reactionary mind and supplied images and ideas that motivate actual fascists.

Marcotte pronounces Sansa Stark “the Nancy Pelosi of Westeros,” apparently intending that as a compliment. Anyway, the reason I was checking Salon-dot-com today was that it was reported last week the left-wing site has been sold to tech entrepreneurs Chris Richmond and Drew Schoentrup for a nominal price of $5 million. I say “nominal price,” because terms of “the deal would only require a $550,000 payment at closing. It said $100,000 would go to an escrow account and $500,000 was already paid as a deposit. The remaining $3.85 million would be a promissory note payable in two installments over two years.”

When Salon-dot-com went public in 1999, it was valued at $107 million, which means the publication has been losing $5 million a year, on average, for the past two decades. In other words, it was just a charity operation, a way for rich liberals to create “journalism” jobs for otherwise unemployable writers. For many years, their biggest “name” writer was Joan Walsh, who was editor-in-chief before she exited in 2015, a couple of years before she got canned by MSNBC. But the site has never done much in the way of actual news, and its greatest notoriety was from publishing Todd Nickerson’s pro-pedophilia arguments, which it subsequently deleted about the time the Left started denouncing Milo Yiannopoulos for making similar arguments.

More recently, Salon-dot-com published a list of “25 conservatives actually worth following on Twitter,” i.e., RINOs and other worthless anti-Trump feebs like Tim Miller and Christian Vanderbrouk.

How long will Salon-dot-com continue publishing? If their “burn rate” has been $5 million a year, which also happened to be the nominal sale price, doesn’t it seem likely that whatever staff remains at the site will be cut back sharply? Will Amanda Marcotte’s byline continue appearing?

Category: Media Bias

In The Mailbox: 05.21.19

Posted on | May 21, 2019 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 05.21.19

— compiled by Wombat-socho

OVER THE TRANSOM
357 Magnum: I Suppose This Father Is An Example Of Toxic Masculinity
EBL: Comey & Lynch Accuse Each Other Of Lying
Twitchy: Ed Krassenstein Tweets Pic Comparing Women To Guns, It Backfires Badly
Louder With Crowder: Dunkin Blasts Starbucks’ Politics – We Just Want To Sell You Coffee

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
Adam Piggott: The Pitfalls Of Casual Sex
American Greatness: Why Did Obama Allow Comey To Brief Trump On The Russian Prostitute Story?
American Thinker: What Promise-Keeping Looks Like
Animal Magnetism: Animal’s Daily Random Tidbits News
Babalu Blog: Cuban-American Family Names Spain’s Melia In Lawsuit Over Stolen Cuban Hotel
BattleSwarm: Illegal Alien Serial Killer Murders 11 Texans
CDR Salamander: OK, SECNAV, Show Us The Money
Da Tech Guy: Dem Rep Pramila Jayapal On Being A Democrat – No Faithful Catholic Need Apply, also, Ageism – The Forgotten Form Of Discrimination
Don Surber: Obama Empowered Pence
Dustbury: We Will Control The Horizontal
First Street Journal: Stanley Black & Decker Bringing Jobs Back To America
The Geller Report: Maryland School Fails Student For Refusing To Recite Islamic Prayer, also, SGT Derrick Miller Released From Leavenworth After Wrongful Imprisonment
Hogewash: Team Kimberlin Post of The Day, also, When Labour Doesn’t Work
Hollywood In Toto: Hollywood, Media Collude To Belittle Meghan McCain
Joe For America: Never-Trump Romney Says He Read The Whole Mueller Report, No Evidence Of Obstruction
JustOneMinute: ESPN – Back To Sports
Legal Insurrection: Loretta Lynch Denies Telling Comey To Call Hillary Investigation A “Matter”, also, Gibson’s Bakery Vs. Oberlin College Trial Day 7
The PanAm Post: Maduro Turning Oil Tankers Into Warships To Evade US Blockade, also, If A Military Intervention Happened In Venezuela, What Would Happen The Next Day?
Power Line: Comey Vs. The World, also, Emails Show Deep State Conspiring Against Trump
Shot In The Dark: Shot In The Dark – Today’s News, Five Months Ago
STUMP: Taxing Tuesday – No, Really, Surprise Money!
The Political Hat: The Irrational Animus Of Biological Reality
This Ain’t Hell: Air Guardsman Posed As CIA Agent, also, Straightening The Record
Victory Girls: AG Barr Tells Critics My Job Is To Protect The Presidency, Not The Officeholder
Volokh Conspiracy: Restrictions On Signs On Residential Property Violates First Amendment
Weasel Zippers: Pete Buttigieg Pitches Four Tax Hikes During Town Hall, also, Occasional Cortex Says Growing Cauliflower Is “Colonial Approach” To Vegetables
Mark Steyn: Cry “Treason” Again, also, Iconed Out

Amazon Warehouse Deals

Category: Linkagery

In The Mailbox: 05.20.19

Posted on | May 20, 2019 | 1 Comment

— compiled by Wombat-socho

OVER THE TRANSOM
357 Magnum: Don’t Believe The Polls – Australian Edition
EBL: Aussie Conservatives Win Election, Rejecting Climate Hysteria
Twitchy: Eric Swalwell Helps The Washington Free Beacon Make The Case Against Him Being POTUS
Louder With Crowder: Pete Buttigieg Thinks We Should Stop Honoring Thomas Jefferson

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
Adam Piggott: The Greens Sink Labor, also, Podcast #108 – The Dead Cat Episode
American Greatness: How The FBI Broke The Rules Using Christopher Steele, also, He Did It, Not Me!
American Power: Battleground Pennsylvania, also, India’s Untouchables
American Thinker: The Media At Their Lowest, also, Democrats – America’s Original Hate Group
Animal Magnetism: Goodbye, Blue Monday
Babalu Blog: After Sixty Years Of Socialism In Cuba, Once Majestic Havana Is Ruined, also, With “Alternative Foods” Running Low, Cuba’s Socialist Regime Looks For An Alternative To The Alternative
BattleSwarm: Texas Finally Bans Red Light Cameras, also, Democratic Presidential Clown Car Update
CDR Salamander: Fullbore Friday, also, The Merchant Marine Isn’t Ready For War
Da Tech Guy: The True Leaders Of The Democrat Party, also, Am I The Only Anti-Jihadi Friend Of Geller & Spencer Who Likes The SI Burkini Message?
Don Surber: Comey’s Book Implicates Obama
Dustbury: Strange Search Engine Queries, also, Mama Don’t Allow
First Street Journal: I Take #ClimateAction
The Geller Report: Hundreds Of “Black Vest” Migrants Seize Terminal In Paris Airport – “France Does Not Belong To The French!”, also, Somali Mob Armed With Hammers Attacks Minneapolis Light Rail Passengers
Hogewash: Team Kimberlin Post Of The Day, also, The Helix Nebula In 3D
Hollywood In Toto: We Need A New “Body Snatchers” For Our Woke Age
Joe For America: Occasional Cortex Mocks & Taunts Christians While Botching Scripture Over Interest Rate Cap Bill
JustOneMinute: Abortion Polling
Legal Insurrection: Federal Judge Upholds Democrat Congressional Subpoena Of Trump’s Financial Records, also, Nancy Pelosi Now Claims Democrats Never Denied Border Crisis
The PanAm Post: Venezuela – Options On The Table
Power Line: Justin Amash, A Party Of One, also, Spy Vs. Spy Euphemism
Shot In The Dark: Stomping Their Impeccably-Shod Feet
STUMP: Public Finance Roundup
The Political Hat: Derp News
This Ain’t Hell: B-52 Resurrected From The Boneyard, also, Oh, Here We Go…
Victory Girls: Democrats Vote Unanimously In Favor Of Equality Act
Volokh Conspiracy: Does The Second Amendment Secure A Right To Carry Guns In Most Public Places?
Weasel Zippers: Jihadi Attacks In Europe Up Over 700% Since 2007, also, Justin Amash Gets Primary Opponent After Attack On Trump
Megan McArdle: Maybe George R.R. Martin Wouldn’t Know How To End Game of Thrones Either (Maybe? -WS)
Mark Steyn: He Fought The Law – And He Won, Eventually, also, Toe To Toe With Doris Day

Amazon Warehouse Deals

Category: Linkagery

A Politically Incorrect Journey

Posted on | May 20, 2019 | Comments Off on A Politically Incorrect Journey

Portrait of R. Emmett Tyrrell in The American Spectator office.

ALEXANDRIA, Virginia
Because I have a story to cover tonight in D.C., I decided to beat Washington’s notorious rush-hour traffic and drove down to the offices of The American Spectator in the historic Old Town section of Alexandria. Along the way, it occurred to me how much political incorrectness I encountered along my route. I drove down George Washington Parkway — named for a slave owner — and past CIA headquarters, a notorious bastion of American imperialist hegemony. Then down past Arlington, once home of Robert E. Lee and now site of the Marine Corps Memorial, another celebration of militant nationalism. I passed the Pentagon and then Ronald Reagan Airport — how right-wing can you get? But as I entered Alexandria, the landmarks became downright reactionary, as monuments to the British colonial era were embodied in the names of Princess Street, Queen Street, King Street and Royal Street. How is it that Antifa mobs aren’t demanding that these historic tributes to hereditary monarchy be renamed? If the memory of slavery is hateful enough to make General Lee persona non grata in the 21st century, why is it still acceptable to memorialize British royalty?

Well, let’s not give the Left any ideas, eh? These thoughts occurred to me as I walked two blocks to purchase beverages, as the young Spectator staffers had not been warned of my arrival and had thus not prepared for a thirsty political correspondent. Selecting a pale ale from Flying Dog, my official brand, I returned to the office to file this brief update.

The National Affairs Desk in the Spectator office.

The New York Times is miffed because President Trump pardoned California Republican Patrick Nolan after “The American Spectator, a right-leaning publication . . . last year published an article that urged Mr. Trump to pardon him.” What? We’re merely “right-leaning”? We lean so far we’re nearly perpendicular! If the Spectator wasn’t pissing off the New York Times, we’d consider ourselves a discredit to our legacy.

Anyway, the reason I’m in the D.C. area tonight is because Democratic presidential candidate Marianne Williamson is having a townhall event in Washington. Recall that, when I traveled to South Carolina to cover her campaign visit there two months ago, I was the only reporter covering her campaign. Since then, however, she’s hit the 65,000-donor threshold necessary to qualify for the DNC debates next month in Miami, and continues attracting media attention, e.g., “Marianne Williamson Is a Lefty With Soul” (New York magazine) and “‘I’m for Capitalism with a Conscience,’ Says Williamson” (Bloomberg News). Meanwhile, by contrast, New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand still hasn’t hit the 65,000-donor mark, and shook up her campaign staff last week to try to catch up with Williamson, whose claim to fame is being known as “Oprah’s spiritual guru.” Can I pick ’em, or what? Williamson’s event in Northwest D.C. starts at 7 p.m., so I’ll have to pack up and get rolling, which means there’s only enough time to remind you that the Five Most Important Words in the English Language are:

HIT THE FREAKING TIP JAR!

Category: American Spectator

Ben Hill and the New South

Posted on | May 20, 2019 | Comments Off on Ben Hill and the New South

As a boy growing up in Douglas County, Georgia, I did not realize that Ben Hill Road, which ran by our family’s house, was named for a historic figure. Benjamin Harvey Hill was a brilliant statesman, hailed as a “peerless orator,” who was so widely admired in Georgia that, although he had eloquently spoken in opposition secession in the crisis of 1860-61, he was nevertheless elected to the Confederate Senate. After the war, he spoke out against radical Reconstruction, and was subsequently elected first to the U.S. House and then to the Senate.

Of all he accomplished in his long career, however, perhaps Ben Hill’s most lasting achievement was his role in inspiring the New South. In a commencement speech at the University of Georgia in 1871, Hill bemoaned the lack of industrial development in the state, and encouraged Georgians to embark on a program to educate their sons to undertake this work. The question, Hill said, was not whether the abundant resources of the South would be developed, but instead by whom these resources would be developed. Would this work be done (and the rewards be reaped) by Georgians, or would her native sons be replaced by others who were more willing and able to take up the mechanical and commercial trades necessary to industrial development?

We must establish schools of science and educate our children. Others will come in and supplant us, and we shall perish truly from slavery. Our own sons must be taught to build and operate all machinery. We must build up schools of science. Our duty towards the negro is plain — we must educate and elevate him.
We must have educated labor, acquire a knowledge of mining operations, and skill in the manipulation of all metals . . . and the prosecution of every craft that will tend to contribute to the material interests of the country, or to develop its wonderful resources. Our children must take the lead and point the way.

This speech proved a pivotal turn in Georgia’s history, because one of those who heard Ben Hill speak that day was a young alumnus of the university named Henry Grady, who as a journalist became the most famous proponent of the “New South.” Grady made his case to the North, urging Yankees to invest in Southern industries, and the result was that soon every good-sized town in the South had a textile mill, and a pro-business attitude came to define the region’s leading cities, most particularly my hometown of Atlanta. My father, who grew up on a farm in Alabama, left home at 16 to work in a textile mill in West Point, Georgia, then after the war attended the University of Alabama on the G.I. Bill. After graduation, he moved to Atlanta, where he first worked a year for the Southern Railroad before hiring on at the Lockheed Aircraft plant in Marietta, where he worked the next 37 years. Growing up in the suburbs of Atlanta, I witnessed the booming prosperity of “The City Too Busy to Hate,” and as a young journalist saw how communities competed to attract business and encourage economic growth. And what remarkable success! In 1970, when I was in fifth grade, the population of Georgia was 4.6 million; by 2010, the population was 9.7 million — more than doubled. By comparison, during the same 40-year span when Georgia’s population increased by more than 5 million (110% growth), the state of New York’s population increased by just 1.1. million (6%). The result has been that Georgia has increased its influence in national affairs, while New York has waned. Whereas in the 1940s, New York had 45 House seats and Georgia had 10, now New York’s representation has dwindled to 27 House seats, while Georgia has increased to 14.

This historical background is necessary to understanding my indignation at a Yankee journalist’s recent display of ignorance. Ginia Bellafante of the New York Times wrote an article with the headline “Abortion and the Future of the New South,” implying that the recent passage of legislation restricting abortion in Alabama, Georgia and other states was somehow a threat to the region’s progress. The problem, of course, is that Ms. Bellafante considers liberalism as a synonym for progress, and misinterprets contrary evidence:

At the end of last year, LinkedIn, which regularly mines its database of 150 million worker profiles to analyze patterns in American employment and migration, reported that Atlanta had received more workers from New York City than any other place in the country during the preceding 12 months. That development has continued for most of this year.

Ms. Bellafante cites this data after invoking “the system of afflictions that places like New York and San Francisco impose on their young” — i.e., the heavily regulated social-welfare nightmares that degrade the quality of life. It does not seem to occur to her that this “system of afflictions” is yoked to the pro-abortion politics of the Left, for in turning their cities into places where no sane person would want to raise a child, Democrats thereby incentivize abortion. Rod Dreher has taken Ms. Bellafante to the woodshed, but I thought it important to point out how her concept of the New South was at odds with its historic origins. Certainly, we cannot imagine Ben Hill advocating abortion, because his vision of the New South was rooted in a spirit of pragmatic optimism, a hopeful promise that Southerners could adapt to the challenges of an industrial future, so that their descendants might inherit a better life. The advocates of abortion, by contrast, are possessed by an evil spirit, telling young women that there is no such hope for the future, that children are a curse, and that the life of their offspring is without value.

Not only Southerners, but all Americans with a sense of pride in our nation’s history, must reject these wicked voices of the Culture of Death.

If the godless liberals of New York wish to abort themselves into oblivion, I am powerless to stop them, but I hope Southerners will not be persuaded to follow the foolish example of Yankees. The future belongs to those who show up for it, as Mark Stein has observed. Let us do all we can to make America great again for our descendants. Selah.

(Hat-tip: Ed Driscoll at Instapundit.)

Category: Abortion, Georgia, History, New York Times

Rule 5 Sunday: I Like ‘Em Dumb And Busty

Posted on | May 19, 2019 | 2 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho

This week we were treated to the edifying spectacle of supermodel Emily Ratajkowski punishing old white men for passing Alabama’s anti-abortion law by removing all her clothes and tweeting about it. Many responded to this brave statement by demanding more such punishment. I merely chuckled, for it’s long been known that these women aren’t being hired because they have all this and brains too; nay, the wisdom of supermodels has been a subject of public derision for years. So since we really don’t care what these people have to say on matters of public import, here’s Ms. Ratajkowski doing what she does best, which is to say, filling out a swimsuit in an attractive manner.

Emily as we like her best – with her mouth closed.

Ninety Miles From Tyranny leads off with Hot Pick of the Late Night, The 90 Miles Mystery Box Episode #622, Morning Mistress, and Girls With Guns. At Animal Magnetism, it’s Rule Five Liar Or Incompetent Friday, also, the Saturday Gingermageddon. Plus, Bacon Time with Rule Five Redheads!

EBL brings us Daenerys Targaryen, Doris Day, Peggy Lipton, Chiling Lin, Ali McGraw, more Game of Thrones, and Nicole Harrison.

A View From The Beach has The Welsh Wonder, Jess Davies, I Eagerly Await Watching Her Season as a Greenhorn on the Wizard, Having Solved All Its Bigger Problems . . ., UNC SJW Shocked to Find Law Applies to Her, She’s Not Wrong, “River”, RIP: Doris Day, WTF Tuesday, Gone Fishin’ Russiagate, A Dog’s Life, RIP: Peggy Lipton and Another Great Moment in Climate Hypocrisy.

Proof Positive’s Friday Night Babe is Vanessa Ferlito, and his Vintage Babe is the late Doris Day. At Dustbury, it’s Condoleeza Rice and Madhu Shalini.

Thanks to everyone for the luscious linkagery!

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Category: Rule 5

Dweeb World Update

Posted on | May 19, 2019 | Comments Off on Dweeb World Update

If there’s anything that should cause parents to take away their teenage daughter’s cellphone, it’s the thought that somewhere, in his mother’s basement, covered in Cheeto dust, a loser with zero social skills is dreaming about getting his hands on your daughter. There are millions of these antisocial weirdos with nothing better to do than play videogames all day, and all these sick freaks want to get with your daughter. The Wall Street Journal doesn’t seem bothered by this:

If we’re looking for an explanation of why today’s teens are having less sex than previous generations, there’s this: Many of them spend months or even years dating without ever meeting face to face. . . .
While there is little or no research on the phenomenon of long-distance-only relationships among young people, it’s not surprising that it’s happening, say experts. . . .

(The experts are all probably creepy perverts, too.)

“The way me and my boyfriend met was very strange,” says Katelyn Bobbitt, 20 years old and living in Providence, R.I. “We originally met through a YouTuber who was streaming Minecraft.” . . .
“I started getting more and more out of my shell, which is something I did not do in real life,” says Ms. Bobbitt. “I became closer to these people online than I did with my friends I had in high school.” Eight months into their online friendship, Ms. Bobbitt and Jacob Ribeiro declared themselves boyfriend and girlfriend, though they still had yet to meet.
A year after they first struck up a conversation in a YouTube chat thread, Ms. Bobbitt, then 19, told her parents she was in love and that she was getting on a plane to meet a boyfriend they didn’t know existed.
“I just straight up told them I’m doing this and you can’t tell me no,” says Ms. Bobbitt, who had saved money to pay for airfare. “But my dad was just like, ‘You better call me… You better tell me where this boy lives.’”
Now Ms. Bobbitt and Mr. Ribeiro live together. . . .

(Congratulations, Mr. and Mrs. Bobbitt. Your daughter is shacking up with some freak she met on a YouTube channel. You must be so proud.)

The online environments that allow some people to cultivate more intimate relationships can also become a burden, however. Expectations of that eventual physical encounter can become so great, the couple fears their first in-person meeting could be a disappointment.
That’s what kept Seyar Tahib, a 21-year-old college student living in Fremont, Calif., from meeting up with his girlfriend, he says, even though they’d talked online on and off for a year, and had even begun “dating” without even hearing one another’s voices. Finally, they worked up the courage to meet, and everything turned out fine.
“We were just scared we wouldn’t feel the same after we met each other,” Mr. Tahib says.
Fear that people we know only through the internet might not be who they seem—or even claim—is perfectly rational. In the most extreme cases, people will create fake online personas, known as “catfishing,” to defraud the lonely.
In Ms. Nguyen’s case, both of the online-only relationships she had from age 14 until she was 16 ended when she discovered that the attentive, always-online boys she was dating were busy also dating other girls, online… and in real life.
Tiffany Zhong is chief executive of Zebra IQ, which gathers insights on the behavior and tastes of Generation Z, usually defined as people born since 1995. She runs an app and online community, of which Ms. Nguyen, Ms. Bobbitt and Mr. Tahib have been participants. Another respondent told Ms. Zhong that when she was 16, she had a brief online-only relationship with a boy two years her senior. Two years later, after she had ended the relationship, she discovered that he was in jail for assaulting a female relative. . . .

This is when every father in the world becomes Liam Neeson.

How many times do I have to repeat myself? Online dating is for losers. And it’s also dangerous, because you don’t know who’s on the other side of the screen, hidden behind an online persona. Even if you can authenticate the other person’s identity, however, it should be obvious there’s something wrong with them, because they wouldn’t be on a dating app or trawling the Internet to meet people if they could get a date with anyone who actually knows them in real life. You will never meet anybody nice via online dating, because all the nice people already have real-life relationships with other nice people. What you find via online dating is discarded trash — the substandard losers who weren’t good enough to have relationships with nice people — and also, dangerous creeps who get arrested after locking up a teenager girl in a dog cage.

(Hat-tip: Instapundit.)