THIS HAS BEEN KNOWN FOR A WHILE: The true story of Matthew Shepard: it wasn’t homophobia that killed him. “I’m not going to get into the details, except to note one thing: one of the killers was not a homophobic hater, but was in fact an on-again off-again lover of Matt’s. This is hardly the stuff of a homophobic hate crime; it was a meth-fueled murder spree that was ignited because the perpetrators were trying to steal a cache of the drug from Shepard.”
Archive for 2023
October 12, 2023
NO, THE HOUSE ISN’T PARALYZED: Contrary to the Mainstream Media, the absence of a Speaker elected by the majority of the House of Representatives did not bring the lower chamber of Congress to a complete halt. As I explain in my latest Epoch Times analysis. the work continues as the deliberations and debate among GOP factions moves to an inevitable compromise.
DECLINE IS A CHOICE: Local stores get into fall spirit with pumpkin spice bacon.
DISPATCHES FROM THE MEMORY HOLE: Apparently suffering from memory loss, George Takei can’t remember the media criticizing Dan Quayle.
SPRING FASCISM PREVIEW:
"Once we have a free Palestine, a free Gaza, you can do…the same thing."
This EU envoy took to paragliding along the Gaza coast to bring focus to the blockaded Palestinian enclave ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/H04n3e7Eoe
— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) August 6, 2023
LOL: Palestinian Flag Outside Rashida Tlaib’s Office Seen Throwing Pride Flag Off The Roof.
Is the Babylon Bee even satire anymore?
THAT WAS FAST: Steve Scalise ends bid for House speaker.
IT’S IN THE BLOOD: The Blood of Exceptionally Long-Lived People Shows Key Differences.
TRUST-FUND REVOLUTIONARIES: Jo Malone’s son is an organizer for Harvard Palestine group behind anti-Israel letter.
The son of British perfume magnate Jo Malone is an organizer for the Harvard College Palestine Solidarity Committee, one of the groups behind the letter blaming Israel for Hamas’ deadly attacks that left more than 1,200 people dead and thousands wounded.
Josh Willcox, a 22-year-old senior and a member of the men’s fencing team at the Ivy League school, has penned several op-ed columns for the group published by the campus newspaper, the Harvard Crimson.
The only child of Malone, 60, and her husband, Gary Willcox — who in 1999 sold the Jo Malone London perfume company for millions of dollars to cosmetics giant Estée Lauder, whose son Ronald Lauder serves as the president of the World Jewish Congress — has denounced “the brutal oppression of Palestinians” by “an apartheid regime,” a reference to Israel.
Lol, the “apartheid regime” stuff cracks me up.
ATTEMPT NO LANDING THERE: Scientists found CO2 on Europa. Here’s why it’s important.
FLASHBACK: Thanks to someone who posted it in the comments, I ran across this 2009 piece by Bill Whittle on why Sarah Palin had to be destroyed.
Let’s wrap this up by getting to brass tacks here.
This isn’t a fight between Democrats and Republicans, or even between Liberals and Conservatives. This is a fight to the death between the populists and the elites.
Sarah Palin is the anti-Obama. He is urban; she is rural. He preaches dependency on the government and she leads a life of independence. He consistently apologizes for the sins of the country he was elected to lead, and she is unabashedly proud of it. He opposes the war in Iraq; she has skin in the game. And on and on.
And that is why she had to be destroyed, by the Democratic Party, by the New York media elites, and by many of the inside-the-beltway voices of various and sundry GOP “strategists.”
She needs to be destroyed because the one thing that can never be allowed to happen is this: you cannot have a voice in this political debate. You know who I mean. You rubes, you hicks out there in flyover country. Your job is pay taxes, vote for who they have decided over cocktails makes them feel better about themselves, and occasionally provide your inbred idiot sons and daughters for the army or police force or whatever you people without Ivy League educations do with your tawdry little lives.
Meanwhile, the Harvard-educated elitist geniuses will run the country according to their infinitely brighter intellectual and moral lights.
This week, in particular, has been a reminder of just how dim those bulbs actually are.
THE CORBYNIZATION OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY CONTINUES APACE: Here’s How a CO Dem State Rep Responded When Asked About Hamas Raping Women.
This smug loser really mocked this citizen journalist and said only “3 people will watch your bullsh*t video.”
It now has over 2M views https://t.co/vsPH50CAdk
— Chaya Raichik (@ChayaRaichik10) October 10, 2023
PROFESSOR CARRINGTON, CALL YOUR OFFICE: The Next Big Solar Storm Could Fry the Grid. “We are entering a period of peak activity for our sun–the apex of its 11-year cycle will occur in mid 2024—that has already proved to be more violent than the solar cycles of the past three decades.”
I CERTAINLY HOPE THIS IS TRUE: US Blocks Iran From Accessing $6 Billion Fund After Hamas Attack.
RIP: Walt Garrison, Dallas Cowboys legend, dies at age 79.
Exit quote:
The Texas quote of the day features the legendary Don Meredith talking about the equally legendary Walt Garrison's dependablity:
"If it was 3rd down, & you needed 4 yards, Walt would get you 5. If it was 3rd down & 20, by God, Walt would get you 5!"
—— Don Meredith talks… pic.twitter.com/8RXzKJiy2L
— Traces of Texas (@TracesofTexas) October 12, 2023
QUESTION ASKED AND (PARTLY) ANSWERED [VIP]: What the Hell Is Wrong with the People of Gaza? “Even if I were a Gazan in good standing, dedicated to the destruction of Israel, I imagine I’d be pretty upset if my local officials were tearing up the neighborhood’s water pipes to make weapons. Sure, ‘Kill the Jews’ and all that but I’d still like some fresh water for taking showers and cooking meals for my kids. Admittedly, I weigh these options as a bourgeois 21st-century man from middle America, and so I lack the fine moral perceptions of a Rashida Tlaib or a Hamas freedom fighter hacking the head off a Filipino guest worker with a garden hoe.”
THE KIDS ARE RUNNING THE CLASSROOM:
Representative Ilhan Omar is notorious for equivocating between Hamas, Israel and the Taliban. Her Squadmate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called inconceivably for “ceasefire and de-escalation” (which would amount, of course, to surrender) in Israel. Their colleague Rashida Tlaib has taken the opportunity to demand that the US stop funding the Jewish nation, which she regards as an “apartheid” state. Venomous delusion of this caliber might be unsurprising if it were found scratched on a bathroom stall somewhere at a sleazy meet-up for skinheads. Issuing forth as it does in the form of press releases from high-profile young congresswomen, it represents a serious problem for the Democrats’ old guard. In a Gallup poll taken before the latest attack, significantly more Democrats supported Palestine (49 percent) than Israel (38 percent). Elder statesmen such as Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton have typically courted Jewish support and at least equivocally defended Israel. But their voters increasingly wish they wouldn’t. Perhaps that’s why former president Obama, ever the careful reader of trends, has taken so long to say anything at all about the latest war.
In In the Loop, satirist Armando Iannucci’s send-up of hapless government officialdom, parliamentary advisor Judy Molloy observes that “they’re all kids in Washington. It’s like Bugsy Malone but with real guns.” By recklessly indulging the childish arrogance and flattering the confident ignorance of their drastically miseducated base, the American left has created a situation in which the kids really might soon be running the roost. That is what the Biden presidency has revealed. Aren’t you glad the adults are back in charge?
As Matthew Continetti of the Washington Free Beacon asked last year: Who’s In Charge?
Every time I speak to a conservative audience, I am asked who is really in charge in the White House. My answer has been that the president is in command. After all, institutions take on the character of their leaders. If all the White House has to offer is excuses, if decisions are made either slowly or randomly, if the communications team and the president and vice president seem to live on different planets, if incompetence and mismanagement appear throughout the government, it is because the chief executive allows it. No conspiracy is required to explain the ineptitude. This is Joe Biden we are talking about.
Lately, though, I have been having second thoughts. Not that Barack Obama or Ron Klain or Dr. Jill are running the show in secret. What I have been wondering, instead, is whether anyone is leading the government at all. There is no power, either overt or covert, in or behind the throne. The throne is empty.
Think of the economy, the border, and Ukraine. From time to time, Biden addresses these issues. He may even answer questions about them. The White House sends out press releases describing its latest initiatives. Vice President Harris or the second gentleman pops up somewhere to talk about all the good she and he are doing.
Yet each of these elements—the president, his staff, his spokesperson, his vice president, his policy—comes across as disconnected, discombobulated, as if each inhabits a separate sphere of activity. Whether because of Biden’s age, or his weekend trips to Delaware, or years of remote work, or lower-level staff turnover, or a painstakingly slow decision-making process, or ideological stubbornness, or a lack of a strategic plan, this administration drifts from crisis to crisis, and from one bad headline to the next. And nothing improves.
Ultimately though, we sorta-kinda know who is in charge: Obama’s Coming Fourth Term.
THAT’S CRAZY TALK: Treat Men Like They Matter. “In my WSJ op-ed on why men turn to online influencers instead of traditional authorities, I noted that one reason is that online influencers treat men as ends in themselves, not just means by which to achieve some other goal. . . . Another very common approach in secular society is to describe the problems facing men in terms of the negative consequences that has for women. For example, the conservative New York Post ran a piece saying that broke men are hurting American women’s marriage prospects. . . . For the most part society is only interested in severe life challenges faced by men insomuch as they are affecting women. Men here again are a purely instrumental good that exist to enable women to fulfill their life ambitions.”
STRATEGYPAGE’S LATEST UPDATE ON TURKEY: Erdogan’s government retaliates against Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) terror attacks. Turkey is retaliating for terror attacks launched in Ankara on October 1. The counter-attacks include airstrikes. PKK base camps are often in or near villages. This is relevant knowledge when you hear critics condemn Israeli airstrikes against terrorists. The update also discusses the Turkey-Israel diplomatic rapprochement that has been in the works for over a year (see Sept. 27 entry). Hamas terror attacks have scotched that, at least temporarily. Tehran’s ayatollahs fear Turkish and Israeli cooperation, and fear is not too dramatic a word. Actually, Israel and Turkey have been discussing several economic projects for quite some time, including major energy-related projects.