Violated Online: How Online Slander Can Destroy Your Life & What You Must Do to Protect Yourself

Robert Stacy McCain links with, "‘Violated Online’: The Vicious Arts of Internet Character Assassination."

That's definitely something I'll be checking out.

PREVIOUSLY: "The Claims of Grievance-Bearing Identity Groups Will Always Prevail Over Fairness."

I'll tell you right now, it sure helps to have a lawyer.

Russians Pine for Old Soviet Union

At NYT, "20 Years After Soviet Fall, Some Look Back Longingly."

The article notes that "Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin, called the fall of the Soviet Union the “greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century”."

That's a wistfulness for great power status tempered by some Great Russian Nationalism. I doubt too many Russians are all that nostalgic for communism. Stability and economic security in general mean more that the stale old Soviet ideology.

Recall as well that Foreign Policy had that big 20 year retrospective on the fall of the Soviet Union, "Revolution Road." It's worth a look.

NewsBusted: 'Obama campaign will try to destroy Romney's character during campaign'

Via Theo Spark:

Sarah Palin Releases Campaign-Style Iowa Video

A report at Los Angeles Times.

Also at The Other McCain, "If Sarah Palin Isn’t Running for President, Why Is She Releasing This Iowa Video?"

Northrop Grumman Bails Out of Los Angeles, Ending Headquartered Relationship Dating From 1939

At Los Angeles Times, "Northrop execs bail out of L.A., but the firm is still grounded in the region":

Northrop Grumman Corp., the last big-name aerospace company headquartered in Southern California, is headed out of town this week.

The nation's second-largest military contractor, founded in 1939 by visionary aircraft designer Jack Northrop, is officially moving its main office to Falls Church, Va., on Monday. It is a milestone for the corporation that along the way absorbed big names like TRW Inc., Litton Industries Inc., Westinghouse Electronic Systems and Teledyne Ryan Aeronautical.

Today, the company is an industry giant with about $35 billion in annual sales, building such things as sophisticated satellites, high-flying spy drones and the ghostly B-2 stealth bomber. While 300 members of its corporate staff departs, it still will have about 30,000 jobs in the Southland and remain one of the region's largest private employers.


The company joins an exodus of military companies — including Lockheed Martin Corp., Science Applications International Corp. and Computer Sciences Corp. — that have abandoned the Southland since the mid-1990s in favor of headquarters nestled nearer to decision makers in Washington.

"This is an important move for the company, and it's one that we believe will improve the effectiveness in serving the nation and our customers," said Northrop Chief Executive Wesley G. Bush in announcing the decision to move the company back in January 2010. "The proximity to Washington enables us to be a more integrated part of the federal process."

More at that top link.

Julie Henderson Bodypainting Rule 5

She's beautiful:

More bodypainting here.

Also, at Maggie's Farm, "Friday morning links."

And from Randy's Roundtable, "Thursday Nite Tart - Carissa Rosario," and Zion's Trumpet, "Model Julia Lescova."

BONUS: From Bob Belvedere, "Rule 5 News: 19 August 2011 A.D."

Michelle Malkin: 'Smacking Down Progressives of Pallor'

A superb beating.

Head over there and read the whole thing:

Video c/o The Other McCain, "I Would Very Much Like to Say That Janeane Garofalo Has Lost Her Mind …"

Jennifer Perez and Nadege Tandoh

Those are the names of the two Widener University law students who made egregious allegations against Professor Lawrence Connell. They are identified at the Delaware Law Weekly, "Controversy Continues at Widener After Connell Suspension" (via William Jacobson).

Also at Newsworks, "Delaware law professor sues two students and Widener Law."

PREVIOUSLY: "The Claims of Grievance-Bearing Identity Groups Will Always Prevail Over Fairness," and "Charlotte Allen: 'The Mess at Widener Law School'."

College Rape Accusations and the Presumption of Male Guilt

Oh boy, Peter Berkowitz is opening it up with this one, at Wall Street Journal, "Pressured by the Obama administration, universities abandon any pretense of due process in sexual assault cases":

Late August and early September bring recent high school graduates, bright and eager, to campuses around the country. Carefully planned orientation sessions will impress upon freshmen the paramount importance of sensitivity, of avoiding offensive words and ideas, and—notwithstanding that in recent years approximately 55% of matriculating freshmen nationally have been female—the urgency of maintaining a campus atmosphere friendly to women.

But parents who might expect this orientation to include an introduction to the moral and political purposes of liberal education—including respect for liberty of thought and discussion, and due process of law—will be sorely disappointed.

The neglect at freshmen orientation of the aim of liberal education and how it undergirds and is undergirded by the principles of freedom is not an accident. It is emblematic of college as a whole. Our universities impair liberal education not only by what they teach and do not teach in classrooms but also by the illiberal rules they promulgate to regulate speech and conduct outside of class.

The Obama administration has aggravated the problem. On April 4, Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Russlynn Ali, head of the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights (OCR), distributed a 19-page "Dear Colleague" letter to "provide recipients with information to assist them in meeting their obligations."

At the cost of losing federal funding—on which all major institutions of higher education have grown dependent—colleges and universities are obliged under Title IX of the Civil Rights Act (which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex) to thoroughly investigate all allegations of sexual harassment and sexual assault on campus, including the felony of rape. They are also obliged, according to Ms. Ali, to curtail due process rights of the accused.

Keep reading.

And following the discussion takes you right to the neo-Marxist legal and educational "reforms" of the last couple of decades, those instituting a sexual harassment regime of radical feminist ideological totalitarianism. And that's what today's "liberal" education is really all about. Isn't that sick?

Democrats Revive Works Progress Administration

I'm only half joking.

See Wall Street Journal, "Roads Bill Gets Another Look":

The White House and congressional Democrats are working on a plan to jump-start passage of a stalled highway bill as the administration reworks part of its strategy for responding to high unemployment.

President Barack Obama recently shifted from calling for a national infrastructure bank that would finance transportation projects and create jobs to saying Congress should pass a bread-and-butter road-construction bill that would rely mostly on existing programs that could get projects under way faster.

One of the ideas under discussion is expanding a government-loan program designed to spur public-private partnerships, such as one planned in Los Angeles to develop a light-rail line.

With the support of the White House, Senate Democrats are lining up support from Republican colleagues, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, other business groups and labor unions to pass a two-year, $109 billion bill that would maintain existing funding level.

*****

Mr. Obama, during a bus tour across the Midwest this past week, began calling instead for a road-construction bill.

"Tell Congress to get past their differences and send me a road-construction bill so that companies can put tens of thousands of people to work right now building our roads and bridges and airports and seaports," Mr. Obama told audiences.

Franklin Roosevelt couldn't have said it better:

The Works Progress Administration (renamed during 1939 as the Work Projects Administration; WPA) was the largest and most ambitious New Deal agency, employing millions of unskilled workers to carry out public works projects, including the construction of public buildings and roads, and operated large arts, drama, media, and literacy projects. It fed children and redistributed food, clothing, and housing. Almost every community in the United States had a park, bridge or school constructed by the agency, which especially benefited rural and Western areas.

Toto, I don't think we're in the 1930s anymore. The ObamaDems just need to do some of that unleashing Maxine Waters was talking about --- unleashing the private sector with tax cuts, deregulation, and, come to think of it, some additional economic incentives for genuinely-needed highway construction. But folks can just forget about the rest of the Democrats' socialist welfare state. It's been a pork-barrel boondoggle so far, in any case. ASFLs.

RELATED: From Jim Powell, at Daily Caller, "Obama’s New New Deal at a dead end."

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

Jerry Buell, Florida History Teacher, Suspended for Posting His Personal Gay Marriage Opinions on Facebook

The guy was Mount Dora High School's Teacher of the Year. His peers obviously consider him excellent in the classroom. And his comments on gay marriage are nothing compared to the left's foul dirtbag death chants against conservatives. Seriously. He says gay marriage makes him sick to his stomach and is an attack on God. You think? See Orlando Sentinel, "Teacher suspended, reassigned for anti-gay Facebook comments." And Hot Air, "Florida teacher suspended for Facebook entry opposing NY gay-marriage law":

Do teachers in public-school systems have a “special ethics” code that prevents them from publicly speaking on policy issues? Lake County Schools in Florida suspended Jerry Buell, a high-school teacher with a reportedly impeccable record for 22 years, for posting his opposition to New York’s new gay-marriage law, and will start termination proceedings against him. The case will test First Amendment rights and encroaching political correctness.

You can say that again.

Here's the guy's comments:

“I’m watching the news, eating dinner when the story about New York okaying same-sex unions came on and I almost threw up,” he wrote. “And now they showed two guys kissing after their announcement. If they want to call it a union, go ahead. But don’t insult a man and woman’s marriage by throwing it in the same cesspool of whatever. God will not be mocked. When did this sin become acceptable?”

*****

“By the way, if one doesn’t like the most recently posted opinion based on biblical principles and God’s laws, then go ahead and unfriend me. I’ll miss you like I miss my kidney stone from 1994. And I will never accept it because God will never accept it. Romans chapter one.”

And here come the progressive thought police totalitarians. Lauren Ritchie, for example, also at The Sentinal, "Respect between teachers, students at heart of teacher's anti-gay Facebook rant":

Buell said last week that he started the Facebook discussion after watching a news story about New York legalizing unions for same-sex partners.

In most of it, Buell simply expounded on view that homosexuality is wrong because of his religious beliefs. All that was fine.

Where the teacher of the year went wrong was in saying he "almost threw up" when the story came on the screen and in comparing gay relations to a "cesspool."

His remarks were out of line, and they were made in a public forum. As a teacher of history and government, Buell should know that responsibility comes with freedom of speech.

Students — gay, straight or otherwise — have the right to come to school expecting a fair shake from their teachers. Can a student who makes a teacher want to vomit really expect equal treatment?

Of course they can? Progressives assume that people from different backgrounds are perpetual victims who can't think for themselves. And they assume that a teacher expressing a private opinion can't act professionally in the classroom. Hello people??!! It's called debating both sides of an issue. Thousands upon thousands of teachers do it every day inside the classroom. One doesn't have to agree with a political position to be able to discuss it and offer it up to students for critical analysis. Progressives assume that a conservative can't hold two conflicting opinions at the same time and offer them for debate. It's the left that's metastasizing from monochromatic thinking. Just this week, as part of my introductory discussions, I was helping students think about the stakes of the upcoming presidential election in 2012. Since Rick Perry's been in the news I hypothesized a presidential match-up between the Texas Governor and President Obama. I discussed the likely policy platforms the candidates might have, and especially how they would differ on the question of creating more jobs and getting the nation back to work. I don't agree with the Democrats' program, but I laid it out there and said that Obama inherited a collapsing economy and that so far his stimulus program hasn't had the desired effect of creating more jobs. He'll argue that he needs four more years to continue his work in generating economic growth. Then I mentioned that Rick Perry's been propelled to the top ranks of the GOP field because of Texas's record of job creation. I then suggested how both Obama and Perry might criticize the other. After that, I opened up the classroom for discussion, and students were able to raise additional points, not only about that hypothetical contest but anything else they thought relevant. Duh. That's called open inquiry and critical discussion. I'm not making my students agree with one program or another. And I'm not attacking President Obama as an Alynskite community organizer communist attempting to turn the U.S. into a corrupt bureaucratic European welfare regime. He is that. But we can get to whether progressive programs are productive without the more polarizing language. In other words, I don't teach my ideology. I teach based on critical thinking and helping students think for themselves. Shoot, sometimes my student evaluations criticize me as a bleeding heart liberal, which I find hilarious, since I'm one of the most outspoken conservative blogging professors in the United States.

Anyway, progressives are losers. They're ASFL totalitarian dicks. (And stupid too, like Racist Idiot W. James Casper.) If Jerry Buell posts about how gay marriage makes him sick on Facebook, so fucking what? No doubt he'd be reported for saying so much inside the classroom, and that's when school officials would be warranted in taking action. Outside of that, Buell's First Amendment rights are being violated. Basically, he's getting reamed up the you-know-what harder than two New York rim-station freaks overdosing on erection enhancement pills. (And hey, W. James Casper's down with that!)

RELATED VIDEO: "School Suspends Teacher After Gay Marriage Facebook Comment."

Black Flash Mobs

Some news agencies refuse to report the racial identity of those committing flash mob violence around the country, and political correctness prohibits a frank discussion of the issue among civic leaders and national policy makers. Seriously. Roland Martin on CNN's bumbling and blathering about "no matter if it's black or white," blah, blah. Freakin' asshat black criminal apologist. These are black mobs dick! Yet another example of how progressivism is kicking this country to the curb. See Ward Connerly, "Flash Mob Racism":

Earlier this year, the Justice Department of the Obama administration announced its objective to aggressively monitor the police departments of major urban cities. The purpose of this effort is to determine whether such departments are involved in racial profiling of blacks and Latinos and whether they are engaged in police brutality. Since that announcement, events have unfolded in some of those cities that reveal how misplaced that policy initiative actually is.

In Chicago, the District of Columbia, Milwaukee and Philadelphia, a group of “flash mobs” have unmercifully terrorized residents of those communities – attacking citizens, breaking windows of business establishments and stealing merchandise, and committing other random acts of violence. In each instance, the mobs have been overwhelmingly, if not exclusively, black youth. This fact has accounted for the failure of most of the news media to report either the events themselves or the racial background of the perpetrators. Several news sources have readily admitted that it is their practice not to mention the racial identity of those involved in criminal activity. Jim Stingl, a columnist for the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, recently wrote, “This newspaper normally avoids mentioning the race of people involved in crimes, unless it’s part of a description to help apprehend someone at large.”

Philadelphia Mayor Michael A. Nutter is not afflicted with the same disease of political correctness as many in the media. In a recent 30-minute sermon delivered from the pulpit of his Baptist church, Nutter confronted the culture that many of us believe drives the behavior of these individuals when he said, “You have damaged your own race…Take those God-darn hoodies down, especially in the summer. Pull your pants up and buy a belt ‘cause no one wants to see your underwear or the crack of your butt.’’

“If you walk into somebody’s office with your hair uncombed and a pick in the back, and your shoes untied, and your pants half down, tattoos up and down your arms and on your neck, and you wonder why somebody won’t hire you? They don’t hire you ‘cause you look like you’re crazy,” the mayor said.

Mayor Nutter is correct. When we have young people burglarizing stores and neighborhoods and beating up bystanders without provocation, there is obviously a widespread cultural problem in the group committing these acts. That reality must be faced and the thugs responsible for these acts should not be ignored or coddled. They and their parents, if there are parents in the households, should be held accountable for their behavior.

It's racist violence. Black racist mobs attacking whites. See, "Teen girl gang assaults woman in brazen daylight attack outside Philadelphia City Hall." (At Memeorandum.) And also, "More flash mob mayhem for DC-area as band of female looters storms convenience store."

Homosexuality Is Not a Civil Right

Well, the gay extremists have Tony Perkins in the crosshairs. Bunch of ASFLs.

Turns out that the Family Research Council issued a press release hammering the Obama White House for promoting childhood homosexuality. I especially like the point about Dan Savage, who is identified as "a homosexual extremist who built a career on hatred of Christians and our values." Word.

And see this from FRC, "Homosexuality Is Not a Civil Right":

Because of our national shame at the historic legacy of racial discrimination against blacks, many people have come to think of “discrimination” as inherently evil. However, the basic meaning of “discriminate” is simply “to make a distinction.” To compare and evaluate candidates based on their education, experience, intelligence, and competence is inherently “discrimination.” The question, therefore, is not whether “discrimination” will take place—it can, it will and it must. The question for public policy is: which forms of “discrimination” are so profoundly offensive to the national conscience that they justify government action that interferes with the rights of employers and other private entities and gives special protections to certain classes of people?

In the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Congress answered that question by including only five categories of protection. As noted above, those categories were: “race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.” For instance, a banker could deny an applicant a loan because the applicant was not credit-worthy, but not because he or she was Jewish or black. What do these protected categories have in common?

While there is no definitive legal answer, the most logical answer would seem to be that the case for granting legal protection against “discrimination” is strongest when based on a personal characteristic that is:

* Inborn, involuntary, and immutable (like race and color);
* Innocuous (because it does no harm to the employer, to the individual, or to society as a whole); and/or
* In the Constitution.

Is “sexual orientation,” like race and sex, a characteristic that is inborn, involuntary, immutable, innocuous, and in the Constitution? Is it, like religion (which is not inborn, involuntary, immutable, or necessarily innocuous, but is in the Constitution), a characteristic that meets even one of these criteria?

The only truthful answer is no.

RTWT.

PREVIOUSLY: "Gay Marriage is Not a Civil Right."

Israeli Blood Runs in the Streets

From Caroline Glick, at Jerusalem Post:

Israeli military preparedness follows a depressing pattern. The IDF does not change its assessments of the strategic environment until Israeli blood runs in the streets.

In Judea and Samaria, from 1994 through 2000, the army closed its eyes to the Palestinian security forces’ open, warm and mutually supportive ties to terror groups.

The military only began to reconsider its assessment of the US- and European-trained and Israeli-armed Palestinian forces after Border Police Cpl. Mahdat Youssef bled to death at Joseph’s Tomb in October 2000. Youssef died because the Palestinian security chiefs on whom Israel had relied for cooperation refused to coordinate the evacuation of the wounded policeman.

Youssef was wounded when a Palestinian mob, supported by Palestinian security forces, attacked the sacred Jewish shrine. They shot at worshipers and the IDF soldiers who were stationed at Joseph’s Tomb in accordance with the agreements Israel has signed with the Palestinians.


In Lebanon, the IDF only reconsidered its policy of ignoring Hezbollah’s massive arms build-up in the south after the Shi’ite group launched its war against Israel in July 2006.

In Gaza, the IDF only reconsidered its willingness to allow Hamas to massively arm itself with missiles and rockets after the terror group running the Strip massively escalated the scale of its missile war against Israel in December 2008.

It is to be hoped that Thursday’s sophisticated, deadly, multi-pronged, combined arms assault by as yet unidentified enemy forces along the border with Egypt will suffice to force the IDF to alter its view of Egypt.

By Thursday afternoon, seven Israelis had been killed and 26 had been wounded by unidentified attackers who entered Israel from Egyptian-ruled Sinai and staged a four-pronged attack. The attack included two assaults on civilian passenger buses and private cars. The assailants used automatic rifles in the first attack, and rifles as well as either anti-tank missiles or rocket-propelled grenades in the second attack.

The assault also involved the use of missiles and roadside bombs against an IDF border patrol, and open combat between the attackers and police SWAT teams.

There can be little doubt of the sophisticated planning and training required to carry out this attack. The competence of the assailants indicates that their organizations are highly professional, well-trained and in possession of accurate intelligence about Israeli civilian traffic and military operations along the border with Egypt.

Without the benefit of surprise, Thursday’s attackers will be hard pressed to maintain their offensive in the coming days. But the possibility that the assault was just the opening round of a new irregular war emanating from Sinai cannot be ruled out. Unfortunately, due to the IDF’s institutional opposition to confronting emerging threats before they become deadly, Israel faces the prospect of escalated aggression from Sinai with no clear strategy for contending with the enemy actors operating in the peninsula.

This enemy system includes Hamas, Muslim Brotherhood, and al-Qaida-affiliated Islamic terror cells. It also includes the Egyptian military and security forces operating in the area, whose intentions towards Israel are at best unclear.

Previously: "Terror Attacks Near Eilat Mark New Phase in Arab-Israeli conflict."

Terror Attacks Near Eilat Mark New Phase in Arab-Israeli conflict

Background at LAT, "Attacks in southern Israel kill 8, wound 40."

And from Barry Rubin, "News Flash: New Phase in War as Terrorists Cross Egypt-Israel Border, Many Dead":

This isn’t just another terrorist attack — it’s a major escalation, a new phase in the Arab-Israeli conflict in two ways. First, it is the bitter fruit of the U.S-backed downfall of the government of President Husni Mubarak in Egypt, opening the Egypt-Israel border as a new front in the war. Second, it is probably the first successful al-Qaida attack on Israel. (The Palestinian Popular Committees, a Gaza-based al-Qaida affiliate is the prime suspect.)

A group of up to 20 terrorists from the Gaza Strip travelled through Egypt using vehicles, then went through the Egyptian border area without any apparent difficulty. Approaching the Egypt-Israel border they fired at a regularly scheduled public bus and cars on highway 12 — a road between Beersheva and Eilat, then entered Israeli territory. Their armaments included mortars and an RPG, as well as handguns. Soldiers engaged the terrorists in a firefight. Several soldiers were wounded; seven terrorists were killed.

According to several eyewitnesses, the attackers were wearing Egyptian army uniforms, a detail which if true is going to be a major issue. Stolen or sold or provided by low-level sympathizers in the Egyptian army? And the site of the attack was near an Egyptian army outpost which — so far as we know now –didn’t do anything about it. One eyewitness said a terrorist was firing from an Egyptian army position. Again, these details will have to be checked by an investigation.

More at the link.

Rubin predicted such a thing would happen. And it's likely to continue.

Stock Selloff Hammers Blue Chips

At WSJ, "Slowdown Fears Slam U.S. Stocks."

Stocks tumbled amid growing fears of a global recession, as investors confronted a grim mix of U.S. economic data and fresh concerns about Europe's banks.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended down 419.63 points, or 3.7%, to 10990.58. The Standard & Poor's 500-stock index dropped 53.24 points, or 4.5%, to 1140.65, while the Nasdaq Composite lost 131.05 points, or 5.2%, to 2380.43.

In the flight to safety, investors piled into gold, which jumped to a new record of $1,818.90 a troy ounce, up 1.55%. In the Treasurys market, the yield on the benchmark 10-year note briefly dipped below 2% in intraday trading for the first time since at least 1954, as investors sought refuge in U.S. debt.

"If it's not a recession, it sure feels like one. And if it feels like one, it doesn't matter if you can prove it with statistics or not," said John Hailer, president and CEO of Natixis Global Asset Management in the U.S. and Asia.

RTWT.

The Left's Escalating Union Violence

See IBD, "Union Thugs? No Kidding."

An Ohio contractor was wounded by gunfire Wednesday by a shadowy man vandalizing his SUV with union threats. Where's Washington's outrage at such lawlessness?

Had King Electrical Services owner John King been shot by, say, a Tea Partyer, there'd be no end to the public pontificating from Washington's politicians and media commentators about their rhetoric or protests inciting violence.

It's quite a different story for the Lambertville, Mich., contractor who woke up in the dead of night a week ago found a silhouetted figure on his driveway spraying "SCAB" on the side of his vehicle. The figure fired a gun at him before fleeing.

King runs a small business employing 40 people at high wages with good benefits. His success at a time when unionized contractors are failing made him the target of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), which has unsuccessfully sought to unionize his workers.

Now it's come down to guns, and Washington's chattering classes are strangely silent.

RTWT.

To say these developments are troubling is putting it mildly.

And from John Hinderaker, "DOES ANYONE CARE ABOUT ACTUAL POLITICAL VIOLENCE?" Well, yeah. They care enough to cheer it on and deny that progressive ideology is the cancer of American politics. ASFLs.

And video at Breitbart TV: "OHIO BUSINESS OWNER SHOT FOR BEING NON-UNION."

Robert Stacy McCain: Final Thoughts on Ames Straw Poll Politics

That was one hella journalistic trek. See: "Fear and Loathing in the Airport Lounge: The Final Wisdom of My Iowa Journey."

Denise Milani Rule 5

She's like one of the seven wonders of the world, or something:

Maxine Waters: Y'all 'Unleash Us' on Obama

This is the black mofos' "let my Congress-people go" moment, from James Taranto, "'Unleash Us'" (via Memeorandum).