The Other McCain

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

A Dangerous Right-Wing Extremist

Posted on | October 24, 2018 | 1 Comment

The president I voted for said this:

“All Americans, not only in the States most heavily affected but in every place in this country, are rightly disturbed by the large numbers of illegal aliens entering our country. The jobs they hold might otherwise be held by citizens or legal immigrants. The public service they use impose burdens on our taxpayers. That’s why our administration has moved aggressively to secure our borders more by hiring a record number of new border guards, by deporting twice as many criminal aliens as ever before, by cracking down on illegal hiring, by barring welfare benefits to illegal aliens. In the budget I will present to you, we will try to do more to speed the deportation of illegal aliens who are arrested for crimes, to better identify illegal aliens in the workplace . . . We are a nation of immigrants. But we are also a nation of laws. It is wrong and ultimately self-defeating for a nation of immigrants to permit the kind of abuse of our immigration laws we have seen in recent years, and we must do more to stop it.”

Yes, I’m ashamed to admit that in 1992 I voted for . . . Bill Clinton.

 

(Hat-tip: Instapundit.)

 

Category: Immigration

Good News and Bad News

Posted on | October 24, 2018 | Comments Off on Good News and Bad News

 

The bad news is that I failed to win the MegaMillions jackpot last night, so my plan to become a billionaire philanthropist has been delayed, at least. The good news is there is now a website, StopSpeakerPelosi.com, where you can give money directly to help the most crucial 23 endangered House Republicans. This is a much-needed tool to help turn back the “blue wave,” and I endorse it enthusiastically. Take a look at the Real Clear Politics map of the key House races, and you realize that control of Congress will likely come down to a comparative handful of seats on Election Day. If you’re living in one of the districts that is a key battleground, obviously your vote will be crucial, but what if you’re living in a safe district? You can check with your county or state Republican Party to find out how to volunteer, but the main thing is money. Democrats this year are wallowing in cash like nobody’s ever seen.

The situation in Georgia is typical of what we’re seeing this year. Trump beat Hillary 50-46 in Georgia two years ago, but this year Democrats nominated a far-left candidate for governor, Stacey Abrams, who really shouldn’t stand a chance against the Republican, Brian Kemp. However, money is like magic for moonbats: “George Soros has given $1.25 million to Abrams’ political action committee, GeorgiaNEXT, since 2014. He also donated $1 million to the Georgia Democratic Party this year to support her campaign for governor.” And that means trouble up and down the ticket for every Republican candidate in the state, as Democrats are blanketing the airwaves with anti-GOP propaganda.

This is a nerve-jangling time to care about politics:

Monday morning, I made the mistake of switching the TV to CNN. As a journalist, sometimes I like to watch CNN just to see what’s happening in that alternative universe where a scion of the Cuomo dynasty is regarded as an impartial arbiter of news. But Monday morning was a bad time to check on CNN, because they were touting a new poll showing Democrat Andrew Gillum leading by 12 points in the Florida gubernatorial campaign.
“Twelve points!” I yelled, jumping off the sofa and heading upstairs to get a cup of coffee, wondering if the world had tilted off its axis overnight, grumbling to myself about this inexplicable poll number. “How the hell could that left-wing bozo be leading by 12 points? Have the people of Florida lost their minds?”
My panic over the Florida governor’s race was eventually resolved. After getting a cup of coffee and checking out Real Clear Politics, I learned that the CNN poll was badly out of line with other recent polls in the state. An examination of CNN’s sample numbers showed a preposterously high percentage of respondents (39%) identified as independent, and when I showed the CNN numbers to a friend in the polling business, he agreed: “No way the independents are that high.”
Still, even if the CNN poll was garbage, Gillum is surprisingly competitive in Florida, running slightly ahead of Republican Ron DeSantis in most polls, and this is cause for concern not only for Florida residents, but for GOP voters nationwide. The Democrats are pouring millions upon millions of dollars into the midterm campaign and, as the situation in Florida shows, Republicans are in the fight of their lives to stop the dreaded “blue wave.” . . .

Read the rest of my column at The American Spectator.



 

 

Category: Congress, Election, George Soros

Late Night With In The Mailbox: 10.23.18

Posted on | October 24, 2018 | Comments Off on Late Night With In The Mailbox: 10.23.18

— compiled by Wombat-socho

OVER THE TRANSOM
EBL: Minnesota Democrats – Brother-Marrying Ilhan Omar & Girlfriend-Beating Keith Ellison
Twitchy: Inquiring Minds Want To Know – What’s The Democrat Position On The Migrant Caravan, Anyway?
Louder With Crowder: David Hogg Says Gun Control Should Have Been Addressed “Centuries Ago”

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
Adam Piggott: Feelings, Nothing More Than Feelings
American Power: President Trump Slams “Migrant Caravan” Ahead Of Midterm Elections, also, Tester’s In Trouble
American Thinker: The Dems’ October Surprise May Be On Them
Animal Magnetism: Animal’s Daily Fake Caravan News
BattleSwarm: Round Rock ISD Elections & Other Down-Ballot Races
CDR Salamander: No Nukes! also, Even Lockheed Goes Salamander On LCS
Da Tech Guy: Jamal Khashoggi – The Rest Of The Story, also, Who Started This Caravan?
Don Surber: Obama Takes Credit For Trump’s Magic Wand
Dustbury: Rules To Live By
The Geller Report: Ohio Muslim Mohammed Abdullahi Beat, Mutilated, & Burned To Death 23-Year-Old Woman, also, Judge Bars NH Proof Of Residency Requirement For New Voters
Hogewash: Still More TERF Wars Stuff, also, Team Kimberlin Post Of The Day
JustOneMinute: Don’t Bomb Anyone. Please.
Legal Insurrection: Is The End Finally Here For Former Farrakhan Activist Keith Ellison? also, Blue Sprinkle? More Republicans Showing Up In Early Voting Than Democrats
The PanAm Post: Is It Time For Spain To “Return The Favor” To Venezuela And Open Up Its Labor Market?
Power Line: Ellison Falls Behind Wardlow, also, Majority Leader’s Office Vandalized
Shark Tank: Palm Beach Post Rejects Anti-Gillum Ads
Shot In The Dark: Things I Never Thought I’d See
STUMP: Taxing Tuesday – Tax-Related Ballot Questions
The Political Hat: Mis-Gendering Robots
This Ain’t Hell: Tuesday Morning Feelgood Stories
Victory Girls: Five Reasons This “College Educated White Woman” Will Never Vote Democrat Again
Volokh Conspiracy: The Importance Of Making The Moral Case For Immigration
Weasel Zippers: SC Democrat Gubernatorial Candidate Blacklisted By VA After Selling His Disabled Vet Status, also, Creepy Porn Lawyer’s Bad Day
Megan McArdle: The Immigration Conversation We Need To Have – And Soon
Mark Steyn: Smiley’s People, also, My Ties To Tony Blair


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Category: Linkagery

Cause and Effect: Cultural Decadence

Posted on | October 23, 2018 | 1 Comment

 

One of the Bad Ideas of recent years that bothers me most — because it is both widely believed among the elite and easily demonstrable as wrong — is Richard Florida’s theory of the “Creative Class”:

While I was in Massachusetts last fall for a book event hosted by Pete Da Tech Guy, we visited a Mexican restaurant in Worcester, a somewhat run-down city that was once a major manufacturing center. Picking up the local free alternative weekly Worcester Magazine, I was thumbing through it and noticed an ad proclaiming the city’s enthusiastic devotion to LGBT rights.
I doubt that anyone in America, asked to name a city notable for its vibrant homosexual community, would name Worcester, Mass., off the top of their head, but it was obvious the local Chamber of Commerce had bought into Richard Florida’s analysis, which uses “a gay index (ranking cities by the concentration of gay couples in the population)” as one metric of urban growth potential within his “creative class” theory . . .

The problem is that this is a reversal of cause and effect. Prosperity attracts artists and intellectuals to a city, but they are not the ones who create the basis of prosperity. Ancient Athens was famed for its architecture and philosophy, but its prosperity was due to the success of the Athenians in commerce and in war. Through the Aegean port of Piraeus, the ancient Athenians developed a vast merchant empire, establishing colonies throughout the region, as far as modern-day Turkey and Italy, and the wealth obtained by trade enabled the Athenians to equip a powerful army and navy. The Athenians were an adventurous, enterprising and warlike people, and it was these qualities that made their city wealthy, thus attracting the artists and philosophers. Richard Florida’s “creative class” theory gets this causation exactly backwards, confusing certain traits of wealthy places (especially tolerance of homosexuality) as the reason those places became wealthy.

The kind of thinking that produces those “Worcester Pride” ads — the idea that advertising their pro-LGBT sentiments will revive their rundown industrial city — is a cargo-cult mentality. What called this to mind was the report by a traveler to Sweden in September:

You’d think, walking around Stockholm (as I recently did), that Sweden’s national flag is rainbow gay. After all, it’s more ubiquitous here right now than the Scandinavian nation’s own beautiful emblem (a bold yellow cross on a royal blue field). Everywhere you look you see the queer colors: as a pennant on top of a hotel, a sign in front of a restaurant, and even flapping as ensigns from the ships in the harbor. The waitresses are sporting the colors on their suspenders, and the waiters have rainbow ties. Rainbow sunglasses, socks, and decals abound. Why, you ask, is Stockholm afflicted with such a bad case of homophilia these days?
Why, money, of course. The Nordic capital is hosting some kind of homosexual convention, and the flags are meant to show how “gay friendly” the city is. . . .
Gay pride marches, parades, festivals, and such advertise the power of the homosexual lobby to governments and institutions that are already predisposed to be sympathetic to them. They also serve to normalize such displays in the national consciousness so that future generations will be inured to such grotesquery.

You can read the rest of that. All this rainbow-pride celebration of gay life in Sweden obscures, but cannot completely conceal, the profound demographic crisis in Sweden, where 17 percent of the population is foreign-born, and three of the top five countries of origin are Iraq, Syria and Iran. Sweden is also home to many tens of thousands of immigrants from Somalia, Turkey and Afghanistan. With what result?

Gang-related gun murders, now mainly a phenomenon among men with immigrant backgrounds in the country’s parallel societies, increased from 4 per year in the early 1990s to around 40 last year. Because of this, Sweden has gone from being a low-crime country to having homicide rates significantly above the Western European average. Social unrest, with car torchings, attacks on first responders and even riots, is a recurring phenomenon.

Let’s talk cause-and-effect in a way that Richard Florida’s “creative class” theory ignores: Population growth is correlated with economic growth. A community that becomes more prosperous will attract new residents, but what happens if conditions of prosperity lead to a declining birth rate among the people who actually created this prosperity? And what if the new arrivals can’t sustain this prosperity? This is by no means an uncommon phenomenon in history. The decline of the Roman Empire was correlated with (if not caused by) decadence and luxury among the Roman upper classes, as the empire became increasingly dependent on foreign-born soldiers to man the imperial legions.

Swedes are finally waking up to their demographic problem:

Sweden held general parliamentary elections [Sept. 9], and preliminary results confirmed a big change in the political landscape from liberal ideals toward a more nationalist, populist agenda.
The Social Democratic party, Sweden’s largest party whose ideals have dominated Swedish politics for most of the last 100 years, got their weakest result since 1908. . . .
The biggest winner of this election were the Sweden Democrats, a populist party whose program has a strong focus on nationalism and social conservatism. They have been able to rally people who fear immigrant crime and oppose a change in the national fabric of Swedish society. . . .
The rise of Sweden Democrats has not been obvious to the establishment; otherwise, the phenomenon would have been taken more seriously. After all, the rise of populist parties is old news in Europe. There is one crucial difference with Sweden: Populism is rising despite of strong economic performance and good employment. . . .
According to the most recent official survey from 2005, foreign-born Swedes are more than twice as likely to be suspects in criminal investigations.

The thing is, as the population of Muslim immigrants grows, Sweden’s tolerance toward homosexuality is endangered, because the new immigrants come from notoriously intolerant cultures.

Liberals have tut-tutted the rise of right-wing populism in Europe, but whose fault is this phenomenon? Isn’t it true that the European elite have created this problem by encouraging cultural decadence? “If you don’t want the Third Reich, don’t welcome the Weimar Republic.”



 

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Category: Culture, Gays, Immigration, Sweden

New Must-Read Book: ‘Cult City’

Posted on | October 23, 2018 | Comments Off on New Must-Read Book: ‘Cult City’

Daniel J. Flynn and his new book, ‘Cult City.’

Daniel J. Flynn is one of my favorite authors. His 2008 book, A Conservative History of the American Left, is a classic, and now he’s published an important new history, Cult City: Jim Jones, Harvey Milk, and 10 Days That Shook San Francisco:

I toiled over my sixth book, off and on, for the last decade. . . .
The writing came mostly in my attic. The research primarily took place at the California Historical Society, San Francisco Public Library, and Library of Congress. I interviewed about 30 eyewitnesses to history, including one of three people still with us — and one of just nine total 40 years ago — in Jonestown when the killing began to live to tell the tale, Dan White’s chief of staff who detailed a startling confession of violence that his boss made to him, and former friends and rivals of Harvey Milk who shared his homosexuality but not always a fondness for him. It got really interesting for me. . . .
The basic theme is this: before the poor drank the Kool-Aid in South America, the powerful in San Francisco did. The same people who made Jim Jones unmade him, at least his associations with politicians, journalists, and celebrities. Many took pains to obscure the truth, which helps explain why this book comes out all these years later. The truth is never too late, and, for me at least, was never so interesting.

What was the connection between the Left in San Francisco, including gay-rights radicals like Harvey Milk, and the cult that died in Jonestown? Anyone who lived through the 1970s — I was a sophomore in college the year Jonestown happened — remembers the reckless hedonism of that era. Even though I was in the Deep South, and far from San Francisco, the carnival of drugs, sex and disco was really everywhere then. Count on Daniel Flynn to connect the dots in this cultural pattern.

 

Category: Books, History

Late Night With In The Mailbox: 10.22.18

Posted on | October 23, 2018 | 1 Comment

— compiled by Wombat-socho

OVER THE TRANSOM
EBL: Nick Kristof Has GOP Daddy Issues
Twitchy: Trump Administration To Render 1.4 Million Trans People Nonexistent?
Louder With Crowder: Crowder Closes – Why The Left Hates Successful People

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
Adam Piggott: The Ex-Good Wife, also, The Great Danger Of Losing Your Frame Overseas
American Power: The Truth About Jamal Khashoggi, also, The Nightmare Of The Democrats’ Leftist Agenda
American Thinker: Migrant Caravan Points Way To GOP Midterm Success
Animal Magnetism: Goodbye, Blue Monday
BattleSwarm: How Many Illegal Aliens Can Fit In A Car?, also, Texas Early Voting Starts Today
Camp Of The Saints: “Heralding Angels Of The Anti-World”
CDR Salamander: Crimes Of Command With Michael Junge On Midrats
Da Tech Guy: That Time When Capitalism Beat Racism’s Butt, also, The Trump Economy Makes Criminal Justice Reform Possible
Don Surber: Press Ignores The Fizzling Of Mueller’s Indictments
Dustbury: Strange Search Engine Queries, also, Tales Of The Deformation
The Geller Report: Man Steps Forward With Sexual Assault Allegations Against Sen. Booker, also, Jewish Journalist Killed By Racist Black Man, But No Media Will Report It
Hogewash: More TERF Wars Stuff, also, Team Kimberlin Post Of The Day
JustOneMinute: Don’t Shoot!
Legal Insurrection: Hillary Smiles & Nods When Introduced As “The Real President”, also, “Conservatives Are Using Identity Politics To Destroy Liberalism From Within”
The PanAm Post: Venezuela Is What Happens When “Democratic Socialism” Runs Its Course
Power Line: Farewell, Gay Patriot, also, Bar Complaint Filed Against Blasey Ford’s Lawyer
Shark Tank: Shalala Won’t Return Money From Castro Sympathizer
Shot In The Dark: Image To Remember
The Political Hat: Nevada Early Vote (First Weekend)
This Ain’t Hell: A Congregation Of Bigoted Cretins Endorsed By The Pentagon, Says Mikey Weinstein, also, Amendment The 1st Says…
Victory Girls: Beto’s YMCA Flash Mob Follies, also, PETA Claims Milk Drinkers Are White Supremacists
Volokh Conspiracy: Heritage Foundation’s Clerkship Boot Camp
Weasel Zippers: Migrant Caravan Estimated At 7000 With Mexicans Joining – Mostly Young Single Men, also, AZ Moonbat Arrested In Southern Mexico While Participating In Caravan
Megan McArdle: Reducing Partisan Rancor Is Going To Require The Human Touch
Mark Steyn: Perfumes Of Arabia, also, Sagebrush Troubadour


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Category: Linkagery

Sincere Opinion, Epic Troll, Or Both?

Posted on | October 22, 2018 | Comments Off on Sincere Opinion, Epic Troll, Or Both?

by Smitty

SQLite (“sequel light”) is used all over the place, for example, within the FireFox web browser to hold configuration settings. It is “Small. Fast. Reliable. Choose any three.” It’s also public domain. Truly a wonder of our day. The author, D. Richard Hipp, apparently does just fine by offering support for the product.

But SQLite didn’t have a Code of Conduct. The code offers a BSD license, which is kind of a step up. I seem to recall that he used to offer a blessing instead.

Apparently, because even the Linux kernel has adopted a Code of Conduct, SQLite decided to, as well. Again, those who have been around a while sort of inferred that Hipp is a man of deep faith. So, when Hipp adopted the Rule of Benedict for his CoC (with a huge prefatory disclaimer about not enforcing any of the “more introspective aspects”) one should not be too surprised.

What also shouldn’t be surprising, but still is, that in the Age of Outrage some would start demanding we quit using some great code due to Ancient ThoughtCrime:

“Well, it looks like it may be time to stop using SQLite as it’s readily apparent that my kind is not welcome there,” sighed programmer James Hollingshead.

Oh, bless your heart James.

A Twitter search on “sqlite” revealed a river of bile as well. The idea that people reject the Orwellian foolishness of Progress and adhere to wisdom is the ultimate heresy of our day.

Category: Uncategorized

Nationwide Manhunt for Ga. Cop Killer

Posted on | October 22, 2018 | Comments Off on Nationwide Manhunt for Ga. Cop Killer

Left to right: Tafahree Maynard and Isaiah Pretlow; Officer Antwan Toney.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports:

With the search for Gwinnett County Police Officer Antwan Toney’s alleged killer about to shift from a localized manhunt into a nationwide fugitive investigation early Sunday night, word came that a SWAT team was serving a search warrant on a residence just down the street from where the fatal shooting occurred.
But the shooting suspect, 18-year-old Tafarhee Maynard, was not there. Gwinnett Police spokesman Sgt. Jake Smith said it was “50/50” that Maynard was still in Snellville.
“It’s equally possible he got in a car and is in Arizona now,” Smith said.
James Joyner, acting commander of the U.S. Marshals Southeast Regional Fugitive Task Force, echoed the uncertainty over Maynard’s whereabouts.
“I can’t say he’s not in the area. I can’t say he is in the area,” he said Sunday afternoon. “But we have to broaden our search.” . . .
[Saturday night] Toney and another officer approached a vehicle reported as suspicious by a resident on Crump’s Landing in unincorporated Snellville. Investigators believe there were three others in the car, though only one has been identified: 19-year-old Isaiah Pretlow, 19, who was arrested late Saturday night and charged with aggravated assault. Bond was denied.
Several shots were fired, but Smith said police are confident Maynard fired the the bullet that felled Toney. . . .
Neighbors who heard the gunfire were stunned by the violent reaction after an incident that had all the trappings of a routine traffic stop.
Police initially suspected the suspects were smoking marijuana, but could not confirm that as of Sunday evening.
“For an 18-year-old to go from smoking a joint to just start shooting is insanity,” said Scott Elzy, whose friend, Rick Green, lives just a few doors away on Crumps Landing Road, where the incident occurred.
Green said that corner of the neighborhood, with scattered vacant homes, has become a popular, and somewhat threatening, hangout for area teens.
“I don’t get out of my truck without my gun in my pocket,” Green said. “I got my pistol on me right now.”
The suspects sped away in their car before crashing nearby. Pretlow, Maynard and the vehicle’s other occupants fled on foot. . . .
Maynard’s capture may bring closure but no solace for those who knew Toney best.
“He was a warrior,” said friend Reginald Pierre of Snellville. Toney always wanted to be the first man on the scene, Pierre said, but it wasn’t a macho thing.
“He believed in justice,” he said. “He thought of himself as the guy who could defuse a tense situation. To protect and serve meant something to him.”

Talk about a bad neighborhood! If the law-abiding citizens are afraid to leave their homes without a pistol, it must be rough.

Why did this teenage dopehead decide to kill a cop? Notice that police already had a mugshot on file for Maynard. That would indicate he had a prior record, perhaps as a juvenile. It’s possible Maynard was on probation and/or wanted on an outstanding warrant, and to be caught with marijuana and a pistol? Yeah, he was going to prison if the cops got him, so he decided to put that pistol to use. Stupid dopehead. Georgia is a death penalty state. Maynard killed a cop. Pray for the officers searching for this armed and dangerous suspect, who has nothing to lose.

 

 

Category: Crime, Georgia
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