Stop Islamic Terror!

I like the raised fist.

Via Blazing Cat Fur, "Yes!"



More, "Winding down," and "Can't argue with that."

Also, "Everybody's got a cause," and "Hezbollah flags the fashion accessory."

Professor Colin McGinn Resigns After Allegations of Sexual Harassment

It's all about gender equality these days, and dolts like this philosopher sure make it easy for the shakedown feminists.

At NYT, "A Star Philosopher Falls, and a Debate Over Sexism Is Set Off":

Ever since Socrates’ wife was painted as a jealous shrew by one of his pupils, women have had it tough in philosophy.

Thinkers from Aristotle to Kant questioned whether women were fully capable of reason. Today, many in the field say, gender bias and outright sexual harassment are endemic in philosophy, where women make up less than 20 percent of university faculty members, lower than in any other humanities field, and account for a tiny fraction of citations in top scholarly journals.

While the status of women in the sciences has received broad national attention, debate about sexism in philosophy has remained mostly within the confines of academia. But the revelation this summer that Colin McGinn, a star philosopher at the University of Miami, had agreed to leave his tenured post after allegations of sexual harassment brought by a graduate student, has put an unusually famous name to the problem, exposing the field to what some see as a healthy dose of sunlight.

“People are thinking, ‘Wow, he had to resign, and we know about it,’ ” said Jennifer Saul, the chairwoman of the philosophy department at the University of Sheffield in England and the editor of the blog What Is It Like to Be a Woman in Philosophy?

“I think that’s unprecedented,” she added.

Keep reading.

And following the links, here's Feminist Philosophers, "Letter From Concerned Philosophers."

McGinn's reply is here. (Apparently he's been blogging about the whole affair for months.)

And skim over this blog for a bit, What Is It Like to Be a Woman in Philosophy?

I don't know. I see mostly men being jerks around women. It's stupid. And it should stop. But the feminist mindset is so stultifying it's ridiculous. The tiniest perceived slight is sexism, so it becomes a no-win situation. Men are jerks. Women are looking for anything that can be called "sexism" to feed their victimization psychology. There's no way out, and again, no one wins.

Added: Althouse has a longer meditation on this, "Sexual harassment in academia: It depends what the distinction between 'logical implication and conversational implicature' is."

Obama Keeps 'Phony Scandals' Alive for August 3rd Weekly Address

Not only does he keep recycling his stale "middle class recovery" garbage, he's completely disconnected from the real news on the ground, like the bombshell CNN report on the dozens of CIA operatives in Benghazi last September 11. If leftist regressives tell you the president's doing a good job they deserve to be shot.

Continued Gender Integration Will Only Exacerbate the Problem of Sexual Assault in the Military

From the letters to the editor, at the Wall Street Journal, "West Point: Duty, Honor, Country and Fairness, Too":

The politically incorrect but unassailable truth is that the increased occurrences of sexual assault are the predictable results of a military that increasingly puts teenage and 20-something men and women together in close quarters for long hours under stressful conditions. Throw in intimate familiarity, few financial expenses and the catalyst of alcohol, and there exists a situation similar to any college dormitory.

Unfortunately, the continued gender integration of the military will only exacerbate the problem of sexual assault, not to mention unit morale and overall combat effectiveness. Efforts to combat military sexual assault through periodic power-point "training" and stern lectures by military lawyers will prove impotent against hormones and alcohol.

Daniel Barbeau
Irvine, Calif.

More letters at the link.

The backstory is from James Taranto, "A Strange Sort of Justice at West Point: Trent Cromartie was cleared of sexual-assault charges. But the cadet was kicked out of school anyway."

And again here it is, the consequences of cultural Marxism working its path of destruction "through the institutions."

Homosexual Teacher at Catholic School Fired After Marrying Partner

You think?

I'm not sure why someone like this is still Catholic.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Gay teacher at Glendora Catholic school fired after marrying partner":

A gay teacher at a Catholic high school in Glendora was fired after he married his partner and photos of the wedding were published in a local newspaper last month.

Ken Bencomo, 45, of Rancho Cucamonga was fired from his teaching position at St. Lucy's Priory High School days after he married his partner of 10 years.

He and Christopher Persky, 32, were among the first couples married at the San Bernardino County assessor-recorder's office after a U.S. Supreme Court decision that allowed gay couples to marry in California.

Photos of the ceremony were published in the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin.

Officials at St. Lucy's Priory had been aware of Bencomo's sexual orientation for about 10 of the 17 years he was employed by the school, said Patrick McGarrigle, Bencomo's attorney.

School officials specifically mentioned the wedding and the publicity it received during a meeting at which Bencomo was informed that he had been fired, McGarrigle said.

Bencomo, through his attorney, declined to comment.

"Ken was one of the school's star educators and the decision to terminate him because he lawfully married a man is just heartbreaking to him — it's crushing," McGarrigle said. "It shows a terrible error of judgment and complete disregard of Ken and what he has brought to the school."

Shoot, the guy was probably one of the brightest stars on campus, but he went and got married? What a freakin' dolt.

#Dodgers Tie Club Record With 12th Straight Win on the Road

Hey, it makes me happy.

At LAT, "Dodgers keep rolling, tie club record with 12th straight road win":

RECAP: @HyunJinRyu99 fans 6 as #Dodgers win 12th straight on road, 6-2 over Cubs. http://t.co/9WrJfWSq6d pic.twitter.com/hSH5ppClQ3

— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) August 3, 2013

Say this for the Dodgers during their current hot streak -- they’ve been versatile.

They squeak out narrow victories, or clobber opponents, or use walk-off heroics. And sometimes, like Friday, they just sort of win.

Their 6-2 victory Friday over the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field unfolded without much in the way of dramatics, unless you count the ejections of Manager Don Mattingly and second baseman Mark Ellis in the fourth inning.

But it was another win, which is almost all the Dodgers know these days. It was their 12th consecutive road victory, tying the franchise record set by the Brooklyn Robins in 1924. It gave them an 11-2 mark since the All-Star break and was their 29th win in 36 games overall.

And the Dodgers pulled it off all sorts of ways.

Hyun-Jin Ryu was at less than his best Friday, which seems to be a theme for him on the road, but was good enough to earn the victory and raise his record to 10-3. He became the first Dodgers rookie to win 10 games since Kaz Ishii in 2002.

Ryu went 5 1/3 innings, allowing two runs and 11 hits. He did not walk a batter and struck out six.

But he was supported by enough offense from the Dodgers, and generally disinterested-looking play by a bad Cubs team, to make it hold up, and the Dodgers went to 59-49. It’s the first time this season the Dodgers have been 10 games over .500.

Continue reading.

Brawl Erupts in Taiwan Parliament Over Nuclear Power

Pretty amazing, actually.

We could use some of this passion in D.C., especially among the homo and metrosexual Democrats.

At WSJ, "Brawl in Taiwan Legislature Delays Vote on Nuclear Plant: Nuclear-Energy Safety Concerns Intensify After Japan's 2011 Earthquake."

Jessica Hometown Hottie

It's that time of year again, via Maxim:

Royal Baby's Birth Certificate

Sure, we have economic class stratification in this country, but you'll never see something like this.

Will & Kate list jobs as prince, princess on royal baby's birth certificate http://t.co/AboCNl9PeX pic.twitter.com/AiiN5iFa2s

— New York Post (@nypost) August 2, 2013

'Blurred Lines' Makes Robin Thicke White Soul's Leader

This song was too hot for most everybody when the video was first released.

But NYT's down with it, "Yesterday’s Style, Today’s Hits":

We first met Robin Thicke about a decade ago, zipping through the streets of Manhattan on a bicycle in his debut video, Jesus mane flowing behind him, then doing some sub-“Saturday Night Fever” moves in a freight elevator. The song was “When I Get You Alone,” and it sampled Walter Murphy’s “Fifth of Beethoven,” the 1976 disco-classical fusion, a hybrid of flash and seriousness that Mr. Thicke appeared perfectly comfortable with, even if few others were: wildly out of step with the sound of the time, his single never hit the American charts.

Jump forward to “Blurred Lines,” the song that has topped the Billboard Hot 100 for eight weeks now, and that has elevated Mr. Thicke from white-soul curio to pop certainty. There he is in the crisp video, chipper and smug, in a beautifully cut suit, frolicking with barely clothed models (in the version where they’re wearing clothes at all, that is). He has the look of a man finally coming into the privilege he was sure was his all along.

But don’t let the video’s modernism fool you: white-soul conservatism is the order of the day, and this hit is just as nostalgic as Mr. Thicke’s first single was, under a much cooler cover. “Blurred Lines” is influenced heavily by Marvin Gaye’s “Got to Give It Up,” and even with the producer Pharrell Williams’s clean, large drums and a sizzling, naughty guest rap by T.I., Mr. Thicke can’t help himself — he loves yesterday way more than today. That’s also clear from the bulk of his new album, also called “Blurred Lines” (Star Trak/Interscope), on which his hit is one of several songs that sound helicoptered in from three or four decades ago. Mr. Thicke may be the sound of now, but he’s only passing for contemporary.

With its full-band soul arrangements that hark back to disco and before, “Blurred Lines” is a loud reminder of the fundamental conservatism of white soul. Nostalgia is a frequent hallmark of white participation in black genres, a way of signaling respect and knowledge without presuming to reshape the art form’s present. It’s a safe space, guaranteeing an audience of nostalgists and that-white-boy-can-sing true-schoolers.

Hey, if it's conservative I can dig.

Plus, those hot nude wenches at the "unrated" version are to die for, mf.

More at the link.

Hungry Bear Goes Dumpster-Diving for Some German Food

This clip has been getting some play.

And see the Washington Post, "Hungry bear nimbly helps himself to leftovers in dumpster behind German restaurant in Colorado."

Leftists Freak Out as GOP 'Flips the Script' with Democrats' War on Women

The introduction to this clip is hilarious in how aggressively Chris Matthews asserts a conservative "war on women" --- which everyone knows only exists in the minds of Democrats. And now that we've got marquee Democrat headlines of disgusting Democrat dehumanization of women, Matthews is twisting in his seat at MSNBC, worrying about how the left's sexist women-groping, dick-exposing entitlement culture is somehow an aberration.

It's not. This is how leftists roll.



It turns out the RNC has been doing double-time getting the word out on all the disgusting Democrats sexism, and folks in D.C. are looking to tamp it down. See WaPo, "GOP finds its own ‘War on Women’."

And far-left extremist Katrina vanden Heuvel is not pleased, "The GOP misunderstands the ‘war on women’."

Nyjah Huston Tops Prelims at Street League Series — X Games Los Angeles

At Street League, "STREET LEAGUE AT X GAMES LA: PRELIMS RESULTS."



And at ESPN, "NYJAH HUSTON TOPS STREET LEAGUE PRELIMS."

Obama's Foreign Policy in Shambles

From the inimitable Charles Krauthammer, at this afternoon's Fox News All-Stars.



More at CNN, "U.S. issues global travel alert, to close embassies due to al Qaeda threat," and Pajamas Media, "Dozens of US Embassasies to Close Sunday Due to ‘Credible’ Terror Threat (Update: Worldwide Travel Warning)" (via Memeorandum).

'Can't a guy just go get a haircut without a bunch of femi-queer-Nazis bugging the f*** out of him?'

From my comment at Blazing Cat Fur, "Woman who identifies as queer feminist activist denied haircut at Westdale barbershop."

What Neocon Revival?

Here's a key passage from David Brooks at the New York Time, "The Neocon Revival":

Neocons put values at the center of their governing philosophy, but their social policy was neither morally laissez-faire like the libertarians nor explicitly religious like some social conservatives. Neocons mostly sought policies that would encourage self-discipline. “In almost every area of public concern, we are seeking to induce persons to act virtuously, whether as schoolchildren, applicants for public assistance, would-be lawbreakers, or voters and public officials,” James Q. Wilson wrote.

How would they know if programs induced virtue? Empirically. “Neoconservatives, accordingly, place a lot of stock in applied social science research, especially the sort that evaluates old programs and tests new ones,” Wilson added.

Nobody would call George F. Will a neocon, but, in 1983, he published a superb book called “Statecraft as Soulcraft.” It championed the sort of governing conservatism that was common then and is impermissible now. “It is generally considered obvious that government should not, indeed cannot, legislate morality. But, in fact, it does so, frequently; it should do so more often,” Will wrote.

He was not calling for a theocracy. He was calling for “strong government conservatism,” for a limited but energetic government that could cultivate the best in persons by educating the passions. “American conservatives are caught in the web of their careless antigovernment rhetoric,” he concluded.

Brooks reiterates a key point about neoconservatism: that its essence is a domestic policy movement, despite the rise of the foreign policy Vulcans during the George W. Bush administration.

But what Brooks doesn't do is examine how the so-called neocon support for "strong government" in fact erodes the values of personal responsibility and self-sufficiency that are central to a conservative creed. Also neglected is the notion that some Republicans thought of as neocons, John McCain comes to mind, have become the biggest enablers of dependency-state Democrats in recent years, and have thus tarnished the brand nearly beyond redemption. Indeed, McCain's now saying he'd more likely back Hillary Clinton over Rand Paul in 2016, which raises the question: When will McRINO be switching parties? (See IBD, "Why Does John McCain Keep Running as a Republican?")

The problem for neoconservatism is not to surrender to laissez-faire libertarianism, it's simply to stand up for the very values that it purports to champion. Pushing for a "strong government" conservatism at this point simply empowers Democrat big government. Neocons need to reconnect with the mediating institutions that help families free themselves from government dependency. This doesn't mean becoming a 100 percent small-g conservative. It means standing up for values by reining in out-of-control Democrat-collectivist entitlement statism. Without that, there is no "neocon revival."

RELATED: From Reihan Salam, at National Review, "Searching for Irving Kristol" (via Memeorandum).

Millennial Moochers: A Record 21.6 Million Young Adults Lived at Parents' Home in 2012

The detritus of the Obama economy.

Here's the report at Pew Research, "A Rising Share of Young Adults Live in Their Parents’ Home: A Record 21.6 Million In 2012."

And at the clip, I'm going to credit Christy Setzer with making some decent points, but there's no doubt the current administration's policies are severely hampering the life chances of younger people. It's pretty sad, too, since these are the same people who were hoodwinked by the despicable Hopenchange lies.

F. Scott Fitzgerald's Recommended Reading List

I consider myself widely-read, but I only score with "War and Peace" on this list.

At London's Daily Mail, "The 22 books everyone should read… according to F. Scott Fitzgerald: List of novels he dictated to nurse is revealed."

Sister Carrie: Theodore Dreiser
The Life of Jesus: Ernest Renan
A Doll’s House: Henrik Ibsen
Winesburg, Ohio: Sherwood Anderson
The Old Wives’ Tale: Arnold Bennett
The Maltese Falcon: Dashiel Hammett
The Red and the Black: Stendahl
The Short Stories of Guy De Maupassant
An Outline of Abnormal Psychology: edited by Gardner Murphy
The Stories of Anton Chekhov
The Best American Humorous Short Stories
Victory: Joseph Conrad
The Revolt of the Angels: Anatole France
The Plays of Oscar Wilde
Sanctuary: William Faulkner
Within a Budding Grove: Marcel Proust
The Guermantes Way: Marcel Proust
Swann’s Way: Marcel Proust
South Wind: Norman Douglas
The Garden Party: Katherine Mansfield
War and Peace: Leo Tolstoy
John Keats and Percy Bysshe Shelley: Complete Poetical Works

I do have Conrad, Dreiser, Faulkner, and Stendhal on my paperback bookshelf, so perhaps I can get back up to speed on my classical reading?

We'll see...

Timeline of 'Horndog' Simon Cowell's Women

This is pretty good, via the New York Post, "'Baby mama' seeking to tame horndog Simon Cowell, making 'X-Factor' judge keep promise to marry her." (Via WeSmirch.)

#TheyFeelPain: New York Times Attacks 'Theory of Pain-Based Abortion Limits'

The New York Times is obviously still smarting from the pro-aborts' debacle in Texas.

See, "Theory on Pain Is Driving Rules for Abortions":

It challenges four decades of constitutional doctrine and is based on disputed scientific theories.

Yet a push to ban abortion at 20 weeks after conception, on the theory that the fetus can feel pain at that point, has emerged as a potent new tactic of the anti-abortion movement. Advocates saw the potential of such a measure because it taps into public concern about late-stage abortions, appears to alter the rules only incrementally, and claims to be rooted in science.

“Any time we talk about developmental landmarks of the unborn child, anything showing that the unborn child is a member of the human family — that gets the public to take a closer look at abortion,” said Mary Spaulding Balch, the state policy director of the National Right to Life Committee, who is widely seen as the architect of 20-week legislation.

The 20-week ban was first adopted in 2010 in Nebraska, where conservatives aimed to rein in one well-known abortion doctor. A pain-based abortion limit has now been enacted in a dozen states, most recently in Texas, and a bill to impose one nationally passed the Republican-controlled House in June. One recent poll, while affirming public support for legal abortion over all, suggested that a majority of people would draw the line at 20 weeks of pregnancy.

Abortion rights advocates call the pain argument duplicitous and say the laws will be declared unconstitutional, arguing that they are a reflection of Republican gains in state legislatures and not a shift in public opinion. But they have also been forced to mobilize against 20-week bills in state after state, and they credit their opponents with effective marketing.

“These laws are cloaked in the language of two-week increments, rather than banning abortion at conception or other more radical measures,” said Suzanne B. Goldberg, the director of the Center for Gender and Sexuality Law at Columbia University. “They are cutting back on women’s constitutional rights, but less dramatically, so they trigger less alarm across society.”

In the three states where the bans have been legally challenged, the courts blocked them. In the standard laid out by the Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade in 1973 and elaborated on in later decisions, women have a right to an abortion until the fetus is viable outside the womb, around 24 weeks into pregnancy.

But proponents of 20-week bans hope that one of the cases will be accepted by the Supreme Court. Reading into opinions by Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, the likely swing voter, they are hoping for a legal upheaval.

With these bills, the anti-abortion movement is tapping into a powerful strand in the complex tangle of public opinion on abortion. Support for legal abortion drops when people are asked about the later stages of pregnancy.

In a Gallup poll last December, 61 percent of Americans said abortion should be legal in the first three months of pregnancy, but 27 percent said it should be legal in the second three months, and 14 percent in the final three.

Since then, other pollsters have started asking about a 20-week limit — evidence that opponents of abortion have injected the proposed cutoff into the public discourse, said Michael Dimock, the director of the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press.

By any measure, the practical impact of a 20-week ban is small compared with the potential legal and symbolic effects. In all cases but one, in Arizona, the laws ban abortions at the 20th week after fertilization, which is the 22nd week after the last menstrual period, the most common way of describing pregnancy. The estimate of fetal viability at around 24 weeks is also timed from the last menstrual period, so the actual gap between the two approaches is about two weeks, involving several thousand abortions, at most, out of an estimated 1.2 million performed every year.

Only "several thousand abortions" out of over a million each year in the left's genocide of the unborn.

Regressive leftists are evil baby killers. They're despicable people. Just disgusting.

There's still more at that top link, but again notice how the baby killers are "abortion rights activists" while the protectors of the unborn are "anti-abortion," to make it seem as if that's something shameful.

Killing the unborn is the ultimate shame. That's why I can never ever condone the ideology of the left. The have a romance with death. Leftism is an ideology of death and destruction of human decency. I never support these people. Never.