Here is the sixth article in our Republicans on Parade series, featuring individuals who personify what the Republican Party has become. Today’s honoree is former WND writer John Derbyshire for blaming military women for being victims of sexual assaults.
Fired former National Review writer John Derbyshire is trolling us again, this time with a remarkable essay [propagandist delinked] in Taki’s Magazine about how the military shouldn’t be concerned with rising numbers of sexual assaults because they are the fault of “eccentric” women who are “prone to behave eccentrically”…and anyway, “There is an entire continuum of consent.”
“Let’s talk about the ‘sexual harassment’ panic that is currently gripping the West,” Derbyshire implores, followed by a series of points in which he argues that the military shouldn’t be concerned about a rising incidence of assault and harassment in its ranks. (Emphases are mine)[the author's].
(3) Women are strongly attracted to higher-status men. If male officers are in command of units containing women, human nature is placed under severe strain.
(4) Men who join the military are responding to widespread, innate male urges—the urge to break things and kill people, for example. Women who join the military are, by contrast, outliers in their sex. They are eccentric and prone to behave eccentrically. As a designated victim group, they are especially susceptible to the associated pathologies, e.g., victim hoaxes for attention,spite, or cash reward…
The struggle continues into day four tomorrow. I’m writing early, I’m here.
jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 3:05 (average 5:18). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From TruthDig: You don’t need me to tell you, but it’s a whole lot tougher leading a garage band than being a superstar. What you might not have known is just how much harder.
If you want an example of growing inequality, try the rock ‘n’ roll industry. Between 1982 and 2003, the share of concert income taken home by the top 1 percent of performers more than doubled, rising from 26 percent to 56 percent. The top 5 percent collected almost 90 percent of all concert revenues…
Dang! I did not realize that I’ve been listening to InsaniTEA.
From Christian Science Monitor: At the adolescent-unfriendly hour of 7:10 on this rainy spring morning in tiny Loachapoka, Ala., classes won’t start for another half hour in the public school. But already the science lab at Loachapoka High School is coming alive with the banter of 13 teens sloughing off backpacks and settling in to learn – not about chemistry or biology, but about faith…
Click through for a comprehensive and interesting article. I have no problem with using school facilities for religious purposes on the students’ own time, if and only if, those facilities are equally available to every religion, including the atheist faith. Otherwise, this practice violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.
From Salon.com: Failed Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain warned attendees at the annual Faith and Freedom Conference that America is headed toward communism and socialism, and called for supporters to “take our country back” in 2014.
“This train is running full speed down the tracks towards socialism and towards communism,” Cain said, The Washington Post reports. “Yes, I said it. Before we stop it and reverse it, we got to slow it down. That’s what we do in 2014.”
Like most Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christians, Mr. 9-9-9 displays complete ignorance. Socialism and Communism are mutually exclusive. Under actual Communism, there is no state. It will have withered away, no longer needed. Under actual Socialism the government owns all the means of production. Neither comes even close to describing the Republican Welfare state handed down by the Bush Regime: Vulture Capitalism.
Cartoon:
Republicans celebrate the day by counting how many they can violate.
Barack Obama is making the trop to the G8 summit, where financial cooperation between the world’s largest economies will be discussed. Europe is having financial difficulties, because they are suffering the effects of austerity. Meanwhile, back on the home from, the news could not be more clear that austerity is the wrong was, as this Paul Krugman article explains.
Yesterday the IMF chided the United States for spending too little and cutting its budget deficit too fast — and most people, if they heard about it, just shrugged. To be honest, that was my initial reaction too: we’ve come to accept the sheer stupidity of our current economic policies, and the fact that apparently nothing can be done about it, as part of the “new normal”.
Still, every once in a while we should step back and consider the awesomeness of the situation. Normally, we expect governments to have trouble containing demands that they spend more and/or tax less. Normally, we expect the IMF to be a fiscal scold, telling spendthrift governments to make tough choices; the old joke is that IMF stands for It’s Mostly Fiscal.
But now we’re in a situation — a liquidity trap — in which more government spending is a good thing, because it helps put unemployed resources to work; meanwhile, the cost in terms of future debt service is minimal, because interest rates are so low. Both ends of the intellectual case for austerity — the claim that spending cuts are actually expansionary and the claim that terrible things happen when debt rises even if interest rates are low — have collapsed… [emphasis added]
What better proof could we have than Europe’s record that austerity does not work. Republicans know this and the support austerity for the 99%, but runaway spending for the 1%. I loved Bernstein’s comment that Republicans use facts liker a drunk uses a lamp post. The keys to making Republicans happy are these. Make life more austere for you and I and more excessive for the 1%. Do everything possible to make America fail, as long as we have a Democratic President.
I expect Europe to use the G8 as an opportunity to move away from austerity. Sadly, elements of austerity, that is, for the 99%, will remain in place, as long as Republicans have the power to sabotage Democrats’ attempts to grow the economy.
Fortunately for me, I have one addiction even greater than tobacco and that is to the First Church of the Ellipsoid Orb. In addition to being a die hard Denver fan, I also play fantasy football, and Politics Plus sponsors the a fantasy football league: Lefty Blog Friends. My team, Tomcat’s Teabag Trashers won the regular season, but came in last in the playoffs. We currently have six teams, and one of those did not shop up last year, and can be replaced. I’d like to expand it to ten giving us five openings, so I’m inviting you to join on a first come first serve basis. I can visualize such teams as BigFoot’s Blasters, Critter’s Crunchers, or Monster’s Mashers. (hint)
If you’d like to play, here’s what to do:
First, register for fantasy games at NFL.com. The registration link is here.
Second, go to the left column of this page and find the ‘Contact me’ link and use it to send me an email. Give me the email address use used to register for fantasy football. I will send you an invitation from within the league.
We will be having a live draft on Sunday, July 28 at 11 AM PDT (12 Noon MDT, 1 PM CDT, 2 PM EDT). Because this is a “keeper league” returning players may keep two members of their previous year’s roster, but if they do, they do not get picks in the first two rounds. If you cannot attend, you will receive auto-pick choices. All things considered, it’s great fun and I hope you join in. It’s a great break from fighting right wing InsaniTEA one day at a time!
I’m writing early, as usual. Day two is proving more difficult. In spite of the Chantix and a 21 mg. patch, I’m Jonesing big time. nevertheless, I remain committed.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 3:20 (average 4:47). To do it. click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From Alternet: Military contractor Booz Allen Hamilton of McLean, Virginia, has shot into the news recently over two of its former employees: Edward Snowden, the whistleblower who has just revealed the extent of US global spying on electronic data of ordinary citizens around the world, and James Clapper, US director of national intelligence.
Clapper has come out vocally to condemn Snowden as a traitor to the public interest and the country, yet a review of Booz Allen’s own history suggests that the government should be investigating his former employer, rather than the whistleblower.
Clapper worked as vice-president at Booz Allen from 1997 to 1998, while Snowden did a three-month stint at their offices in Hawaii in spring 2013 as a low-level contract employee. Both worked on intelligence contracts, which are estimated to make up almost a quarter of the company’s $5.86bn in annual income. This past weekend, Clapper condemned Snowden’s leak…
I’m going to disagree with this author, in part. Because Snowden, by his own admission has leaked US sources and methods to China regarding electronic surveillance of that nation, he should certainly be investigated, and in all probability prosecuted. However, I agree with the author that Booze Allen Hamilton should be investigated for criminal negligence, and Clapper should be fired and criminally investigated for corruption.
From Common Dreams: An interactive database allowing users to search more than 100,000 secret companies, trusts and funds created in offshore tax havens including the British Virgin Islands has gone online.
The data, part of a cache of 2.5m leaked files that has already led to a series of exposes of the offshore financial sector by the Guardian and other global media organisations, has been launched by the Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).
The ICIJ, a non-profit organisation that has analysed the files with more than 100 journalists in dozens of countries and is continuing to do so, hopes the Offshore Leaks web app will trigger further investigations and revelations by making the information more widely available.
This resource may be difficult to use, but I consider it an extremely valuable tool to ferret out the 1% vulture capitalists that the Republican Party represent exclusively. Major kudos to the ICIJ!!
From Huffington Post: Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) criticized President Barack Obama while speaking at the annual meeting of the Faith and Freedom Coalition Saturday, saying the United States should not intervene in Syria while he’s in office.
“Until we have a commander in chief who knows what he is doing… let Allah sort it out!” Palin told the conservative crowd, according to The Hill.
God forbid that I I should ever be perceived as agreeing with Blood Libel Barbie, aka Drill Baby Dingbat, aka Mooseolini. I think intervention in Syria is a mistake for different reasons, and it should be noted, the ones who are pushing hardest for it are Republicans, but Obama painted himself into a corner when he threatened increased US involvement if Assad was proven to have used chemical weapons.
Cartoon:
Don’t tell Republicans it’s from France, or they’ll send it back!!
Ever since the Republican Party scurried to goose-step in lock step behind Wayne LaPierre and the gun industry, I have predicted that Republicans in Washington D.C. would pass no firearms legislation. I was wrong. House Republicans actually have passed a firearms related bill. They want to restrict ammunition purchases by the US government, so nut cases can have more.
The Republican-led House of Representatives managed to pass a piece of gun-related legislation in time for Friday, the six-month anniversary of the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. According to Rachel Maddow, however, the law is a conspiracy theory-inspired piece of right-wing fantasy come to life…
…This particular conservative freakout was born, as Maddow said, “in the usual conspiracy clearinghouses,” World Net Daily, TheBlaze.com and InfoWars.com.
The trouble is that these kinds of right-wing extremist ideas are getting traction in Congress. Republican politicians are legislating against their own straw men…
If the supply is gone, I can tell you who has it. See the picture above. The republican’s main goal where mass shootings is concerned seems to be to preserve their ability to perpetrate them in threatened attempts to overthrow the US government. That is sedition!
Fired former National Review writer John Derbyshire is trolling us again, this time with a remarkable essay [propagandist delinked] in Taki’s Magazine about how the military shouldn’t be concerned with rising numbers of sexual assaults because they are the fault of “eccentric” women who are “prone to behave eccentrically”…and anyway, “There is an entire continuum of consent.”
