Progressivism is Cruelty

From John Hawkins, "There’s Nothing Compassionate About Liberalism Progressivism."

Sing it brother:

Rape Charges Against Julian Assange

"Sex by Surprise." Never heard of it until last week, but the issue is roiling the feminist-left. See Naomi Wolf, "J'Accuse: Sweden, Britain, and Interpol Insult Rape Victims Worldwide," and also Jessica Valenti, "What the Assange Case Says About Rape in America."

And with all the Elizabeth Edwards attacks, I missed this other debate: "“You Buy the Ticket, You Take the Ride”: Not the Conservative View of Date Rape." That's Rob at NewsReal, who takes issue with Robert Stacy McCain's essay, "Unintentional Hilarity: Feminists Ask If Julian Assange Committed ‘Rape-Rape’."

Both debates reveal that perhaps "epistemic closure" isn't all it's cracked up to be.

RELATED: "The Unknown Blogger Who Changed WikiLeaks Coverage." It's Aaron Bady, whose full picture is not shown. It's hard out there on the net. (Via Mememorandum.) Plus, "Julian Assange's looking for love? Alleged dating profile unearthed of Wikileaks founder." And if bail is denied: "'Prepare for all-out cyber war': Government sites braced for attack by pro-WikiLeaks 'hacktivists'."

New 'Pirates of the Caribbean' Trailer

LAT's not too thrilled.

But see, "Johnny Depp Back as Capt. Jack Sparrow; New Pirates Trailer!"

And if you see the full hard-copy at the doctor's office or grocery store, it's worth a few minutes of your time. At Vanity Fair, a snippet: "Johnny Depp Talks to Patti Smith About Working with Angelina Jolie, Jack Sparrow, and His Own Musical Aspirations."

YouTube Users to 'Flag' Recruitment Videos Produced by Islamic Extremists

Yeah, that'll work.

At LAT, "YouTube is letting users decide on terrorism-related videos."

And we wouldn't want to infringe on anyone's free speech rights, or at least that's what law professor Jeffrey Rosen says at the piece.

Meanwhile, at Jawa Report, "Un:dhimmi's Google/YouTube Hall of Shame Part 2: Indonesian Beotch Hearts Terrorist Jihad Jane."

YouTube Year in Review 2010

Via Althouse:

Jesus Was a Wine-Guzzling Vagrant and Socialist?

No wonder parents are mad, conservative parents that is. Progressive parents --- and their lefist allies in the school unions --- are the ones cramming this stuff down our throats:

Are Boing Boing Trolls Flaming Adam Lambert Fans?

Who knows?

But this chick's angry tweets share some similarities with the Boing Boing demons. The screencapped tweet is dated December 12th at "ravenclawwit," although I'm not seeing the full tweet come up here at the link. No matter. The link goes to the Elizabeth Edwards nihilism post, which sent the left into paroxysms of rage.

Stockholm Suicide Bomber Explosion Captured on Security Video

Plus more details at Jawa Report:

My Students Read Boing Boing!

Well, at least one of 'em does — and to think, she never told me!

And check that thread. They love me, they really love me!

Because, you know, I'm not into that progressive indoctrination thingy. I just teach it down the middle.

And you gotta love Boing Boing. They try hard, but I don't think they're quite as demonic as the Sadly No! crusties.

WikiLeaks Blows Lid Off Sinn Féin's Dubious Past

I must admit there's been a few upsides to WikiLeaks, with one of these is that even terrorists have had their dealings cracked open. At the Irish Independent, "Wikileaks: Gerry Adams denies IRA and bank robbery claims."

Gerry Adams has denied claims on WikiLeaks that he was an IRA leader and had advance knowledge of the infamous Northern Bank raid.

According to the latest US diplomatic cable leaks, the Irish government had "rock solid evidence" on the allegations.

But Mr Adams said the claims were not new, that he had denied them at the time, and blamed Irish political rivalries with his Sinn Fein party for the allegations.

Mr Adams and Martin McGuinness were aware that the £26.5m (€31.5m) robbery at the Northern Bank in Belfast in 2004, which was blamed on the IRA, was going to be carried out, officials in Dublin told the US ambassador James Kenny.

But Mr Adams said the claims were made publicly by the then Taoiseach, and Fianna Fail, leader Bertie Ahern, and were denied by republicans at the time.

"I repudiated it then, as did Martin. It isn't true," said Mr Adams.

"I then spoke to the Taoiseach privately about this matter.

"It was my conviction at the time, because there was very intense, as there is now, electoral rivalry between Sinn Fein and Fianna Fail.

"I saw this and still see this as part of Fianna Fail's attack on or fight back against Sinn Fein at that time."

And there's more at Sydney Morning Herald, "IRA used Celtic Tiger to buy respectability, cables say."

LONDON: The IRA used the Celtic Tiger economic boom in Ireland to diversify into ''sophisticated business enterprises'' by buying up properties in London, Dublin and Spanish resorts, according to US diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks.

A senior Irish police officer told the US embassy in Dublin that the IRA used the booming Irish economy to move on from racketeering, turning to ''apparently respectable businessmen'' to raise funds.

The IRA's changing business practices are revealed in a cable by Jonathan Benton, the then deputy chief of mission at the US embassy in Dublin, which reported on meetings with senior Irish officials and police officers.

Advertisement: Story continues below Mr Benton wrote that a senior garda, or police officer, whose identity is protected by The Guardian, said IRA money was constantly moving, flowing from diversified sources into wide-ranging investments.

The cable said the new funds were being used to support Sinn Fein. ''Irish officials, more generally, remain concerned that IRA funds acquired through sophisticated investments are seeping into resources available for Sinn Fein's political activities in the Republic of Ireland.''

Also at The Guardian, "WikiLeaks cables: IRA used Irish boom to turn 'respectable'." And, "US embassy cables: Gerry Adams plays a 'double game' on criminality – future Irish PM."

Plus, an analysis at Irish Times, "WikiLeaks Blows Dust Layer Off Dubious Past of SF."

RELATED: From Simon Jenkins in 2005, "Poor Jerry Adams ... It is now convenient for everyone to regard the IRA as 'criminals' not terrorists."

The Political Economy of Profanity?

Moe Lane links out of sentimentality. I like it for the topical news interest, for example, "It’s time for Ireland to play hardball with EU and IMF."

Pork Eating Crusaders

And German pork-eaters, at that.

Otherwise, here at home, we'd be having yet another wave of progressive head explosions.

Via Theo Spark:

Facebook Wrestles With Free Speech and Civility

You think?

The story's at New York Times.

Turns out that Mark Zuckerberg and Co. are developing a "hate and harassment team" ...

...charged with taking down content that is illegal or violates Facebook’s terms of service. That puts them on the front line of the debate over free speech on the Internet.

Right.

Free speech on the Internet?

What a quaint notion. Progressives can't have that, as my comment threads indicate, repeatedly.

See, "Homocide," and "Why Progressives Read Boing Boing." And follow the links there to Boing Boing's demonic Cthulhu sex-toys and sundry other objects of nihilistic abandon.

U.S. District Court Judge Henry E. Hudson Strikes Down ObamaCare

Actually, just a part of ObamaCare.

R.S. McCain has the story, and also lots of stuff at Memeorandum. I'm reading through the debate, but Josh Marshall's shock is ticklish:

A year ago, no one took seriously the idea that a federal health care mandate was unconstitutional. And the idea that buying health care coverage does not amount to "economic activity" seems preposterous on its face. But the decision that just came down from the federal judgment in Virginia -- that the federal health care mandate is unconstitutional -- is an example that decades of Republicans packing the federal judiciary with activist judges has finally paid off.

Well, it's still a pretty close balance at The Supremes, so let's hold off a bit on all of this while the appeals process works itself out. That could take a while, but the political wheels continue to turn. (And no doubt Jimmy Carter is smiling somewhere.)

Added: Check Doug Ross on Josh Marshall, "Idiot Blogger: No One Took ObamaCare Constitutionality Question Seriously, Except for 20 State Attorneys General and Hundreds of Scholars."

Do They Owe Us a Living?

From one of the progressive Boing Boing trolls:

Cthulhu dildos will contribute to the downfall of our great civilization, whereas giving huge tax breaks to the rich and simultaneously cutting public services for the poor will save us all.

Which reminds me of the anarcho anti-Christ punk band, Crass:

PREVIOUSLY: "Homocide" and "Why Progressives Read Boing Boing."

Homocide

Over a couple of dozen comments in the queue went I logged on this morning, with most of those from the Boing Boing trolls. I thought, "Hmm ...I wonder how many of these folks want to kill me"? Hence, "Homicide" from 999. Meanwhile, for your reading pleasure (or not), the debate on "consensual" incest continues. See "The 'Ick Factor'," with links to Da Tech Guy and Volokh Conspiracy.

Sarah Palin in Haiti

Via Right Scoop:

Also, "Media Creates New Palin Scandal! Sarah Accused of Bringing Hairdresser on Haiti Trip" (via Memeorandum).

The New Revolutionaries

Below: Jesse Jackson at a Coalition of Resistance event in October. Screencap from Wobbly Turkey's photo-stream on . Jackson's not a "new revolutionary," although it's interesting how's he's marching in solidarity with the next generation of communists. See Iain Macwhirter's essay at the Sunday Herald:

It all started with a carnival atmosphere, as tens of thousands of students and sixth formers took to the streets to protest about the state of higher education and inequality in society.

Students carried placards with witty and sometimes obscure slogans such as “Be realistic, ask the impossible” and “Under the paving stones, the beach”. But it turned violent as groups of anarchists seized buildings and confronted the police. Pretty soon, there was an atmosphere of revolution.

No, that wasn’t a report from last week’s student demonstrations in London. It was from Paris, May 1968, when students seized the city in the spirit of the Paris Commune. The 1968 students fought running battles with the police, threw cobble stones, wrecked cars. Their actions struck a chord with the trades unions, and within days 10 million French workers went out on strike. “Les evenements” nearly toppled the French government and Charles De Gaulle, the president, put the military on alert for a violent revolution then scurried off to Germany. His government was forced to concede an early general election.

The current student intifada in Britain against tuition fees may not be quite in the same revolutionary league; there’s no sign yet of any general strike following the Battle of Westminster. But it is important nevertheless, if only because of the timing. As in 1968, 2010 has been a year of protest throughout Europe. We saw general strikes in Spain and France, riots in Greece, mass demonstrations in Ireland as EU governments sought to deal with the financial crisis by driving down living standards and cutting public services. Students have invariably been in the thick of the action. There has been an increase also in less orthodox, internet- based protest, such as the hackers of “Anonymous” who have attacked firms like Amazon and Paypal in defence of the WikiLeaks leader, Julian Assange. Protest has gone digital.

More at the link.

I fail to see the romanticism in all of this.

RELATED: "Progressives Cheer Mark Madoff Suicide as 'Revolutionary Justice'."

Millionaire in New York? You're Not Rich

But don't tell that to the arsonist up the coast a bit, "Message from Cape Cod Arsonist – F the Rich," and "Arsonist Strikes on Cape Cod, Leaves Calling Card: 'F--k the Rich'."

From LAT:

Reporting from New York - It's just not the same on this island as anywhere else.

In Manhattan, a monthly parking space goes for $550. A magician for a children's party asks $650 an hour. (A rookie will take $400.) The nanny gets $600 a week. Breakfast for four at a corner diner is $40; a dog walker is $10,000 a year; a plumber who makes emergency calls won't lift the toilet lid for less than $250.

Occasional spa treatments?

"Did you have to ask?" said Ricky Metz, a Manhattan hairdresser who boasted about the combined $310,000 she and her husband earn a year but became embarrassed trying to explain how it is spent. "I know, I know I shouldn't whine, but in New York unless you're a millionaire you don't feel rich. We feel middle-class."

Really, they're not. They're among the 2.5% of Americans — couples who annually earn more than $250,000 and individuals who earn $200,000-plus — whom the Obama administration and the Democrats have considered wealthy enough to pay higher taxes starting next month.

Last week President Obama reluctantly accepted a two-year extension of the Bush-era tax cuts for all income levels, including those at $250,000 and above, but the fragile compromise remains the subject of debate in Congress — and elsewhere.

Certainly, many citizens of this expensive city, run by a billionaire mayor, could make a case for taxpayers in the lower end of the higher-income bracket continuing to get tax relief.

Metz and others said they liked New York Democratic Sen. Charles E. Schumer's suggestion that only people who earn more than $1 million should have to ante up.

"Millionaires, now — they're the people who should pay more, not the likes of us raising a family in a crazy city where everything goes up but our incomes," Metz said. She is a hairdresser at a fancy salon who charges $150 a cut, and her husband is a lawyer at a beleaguered bank. Neither has had a raise in years.

Waiting at Grand Central Station to meet a friend for Christmas shopping, Metz, 45, detailed the family's growing expenses: taxes consume about half their income, leaving the rest to cover mortgage payments and fees for a two-bedroom East Side condominium and college savings for two sons, ages 11 and 13. The boys attend public schools, but sometimes have tutors and coaching.

"Did I mention the six grand for each kid to have braces?" she asked. "I can't even discuss this with my parents.... The 310K we live on in Manhattan is like the 70K they raised me and my brother on in Queens. Shouldn't each generation do better?"

She needn't ask. When it comes to evaluating where she stands in the pecking order among her deep-pocketed neighbors, Metz is probably as good a judge as academics or politicians.

"There is nothing in sociology or economics that defines what income you need to be rich," said Joel Slemrod, a University of Michigan economics professor and tax policy expert.

Survey data have helped economists understand popular views — and perceptions vary widely. Slemrod cited one survey showing that Americans, on average, believe an income of $122,000 is enough to be rich. "The higher your income," he said, "the more money you think you need to be rich."

$122,000?

I guess I'm rich?

And I don't doubt some crazed progressive wants to burn my house down.

Hip Hop Cupcakes

Are racist.

Surprised?

Hardly: "Duncan Hines Pulls Offensive 'Hip-Hop Cupcakes' Commercial."

The offensive commercial. The horrors: