The Unreported Pervasive Pedophilia Problem In The Los Angeles School District

Will the LA diocese, I mean school district, be put into bankruptcy because of the pervasive problem? It seems to be systemic and might be due to the belief system the district espouses. Newsbusters reports:

Earlier this year we wrote how KNX reporter Steve Feldman exclusively reported that “21 teachers and administrators have been yanked from [LAUSD] schools in the past year because of allegations of inappropriate sexual contact with kids.” That was in May. What is the total number now? We also wrote of how Feldman questioned LAUSD Deputy Superintendent Ramon Cortines over the phone about the scandal. Cortines became agitated by the questioning and actually hung up on Feldman (must-hear audio). In discussing the scandal with KNBC-TV in Los Angeles, Cortines defiantly responded, “This is not out of the ordinary for school districts all over the nation. These things happen.”

“These things happen”? Where’s the outrage? Where’s the media coverage?

Related: School districts in Pennsylvania have redefined failing so no one feels bad. Awesome! Because in real life, people never fail, they are only ever 50% wrong (the minimum you can get on an assignment now is 50%).

Posted in Corrupted Culture | 1 Comment »

McCain’s Instincts–Updated

So, I spend the morning telling my friend that Barack Obama is a terrible choice for president even though I have reservations about McCain. And then I read this which quotes George Will who says:

Conservatives who insist that electing McCain is crucial usually start, and increasingly end, by saying he would make excellent judicial selections. But the more one sees of his impulsive, intensely personal reactions to people and events, the less confidence one has that he would select judges by calm reflection and clear principles, having neither patience nor aptitude for either.

It is arguable that, because of his inexperience, Obama is not ready for the presidency. It is arguable that McCain, because of his boiling moralism and bottomless reservoir of certitudes, is not suited to the presidency. Unreadiness can be corrected, although perhaps at great cost, by experience. Can a dismaying temperament be fixed?

Will’s supposition is, of course, that Obama’s only problem is inexperience, when I’d argue that his problem is as much temperament as McCain’s problem is temperament. Maybe more. Obama demonstrates an inability to make decisions and a wobbly moral center, if he even has a center. Where
McCain has “certitude”, Obama seems unsure even in the simplest difficulties. He can always confer with his advisers though.

This is a tough election for conservatives. There is never a perfect solution when it comes to politicians, but this election seems to have the least perfect solution that has been presented for a long time.

Cross-posted at Right Wing News

Updated:

I get the feeling that George Will is just one more elitist snob, holding his nose at the crass baseness of the McCain-Palin ticket.

Posted in Political Animals | 7 Comments »

“Sexist Men Make More Money”

Well, not exactly. Technically, it’s men with “traditional gender attitudes” make more money. That makes me wonder if men with those attitudes demand more money because their wives don’t work. Or, is it that employers are sexist and pay men with wives at home more because they know the family has one income?

True story: My brother’s boss gave him a raise immediately when he found out that they were pregnant with their first kid and said, “Well, you need to take care of your family now.”

Do men who bear the sole financial responsibility to support the family ask for more money?

Cross-posted at Right Wing News.

Posted in Corrupted Culture, Mind | 10 Comments »

$700 Billion With A “B” Of Your Money–UPDATED

As the stock market tanks, I ponder whether Wall Street should be allowed to crash or not. And, have you noticed oil is up $25/barrel?

UPDATED:

If you oppose the bailout, does this, from Megan McArdle, change your opinion? Have you considered what it might mean for making payroll, if your money market is no longer accessible?

No doubt some of my readers are rubbing their hands and saying “Exactly what should happen to people who carry credit card balances!” And I’m sure that among you there are people who pay cash on the barrel for everything, having never taken out any loan for a house, an automobile, an education, a personal financial crisis. These people never even use an American Express Card, which is, of course, a short-term loan. They also do not work for companies that borrow money to buy capital equipment or finance expansion, and their firms do not experience any mismatch between their payables and their receivables. Those people should stop reading now, because I’m pretty sure the Amish aren’t supposed to use the internet.

The rest of us live in a world that is created and run by institutions that amass capital from millions of people and concentrate it in areas where it (usually) makes people better off. I’m particularly confused by conservatives who claim to hate fractional reserve banking, duration mismatches in the financial system, and easy credit/bankruptcy. If you think more deeply about it, there are three reasons why this opposition is silly:

Go read the whole thing. Some form of “fix” is inevitable. Conservatives need to be thinking about rational solutions. Doing nothing might not be a rational solution.

More here.

Cross-posted at Right Wing News

Posted in America, Show Me The Money | 2 Comments »

Post-Hurricane Ike Correction Of Errors–UPDATED

Businesses, and I’m assuming the military too, assesses actions and decisions post-consequences to correct any errors. Last night, while I couldn’t sleep (damn caffeine–I had rehooked myself through the long road trips and travel–if it seems like I’m grumpy for the next couple of days, that’s why) my thoughts turned to our experience and what I plan to do differently next time we endure some sort of crisis (could be weather, pay attention to Kyle, could be terrorism, you just never know). I also assessed what worked.

First the gaps:

A back-up generator is not a luxury. When figuring a cost-benefit analysis, the food lost alone (we had a side of beef in a deep freezer), a generator pays for itself after one power outage. So, we need to get a generator. In addition, relief organizations won’t get into the area with ice for at least three days, maybe four. By that time, food is wasted.

We didn’t have enough batteries. I waited until too late to check on how many I had. By the time I figured out we needed more, they were sold out at the store.

Guns and gun training are a must. The police simply cannot be everywhere, but criminals are remarkably effective at being where the cops are not. So, we need to get both.

Don’t let someone borrow tools without supervision. Our chainsaw got damaged. A chainsaw is a precious commodity post-storm.

I ran out of bleach. Again, it was something I thought of too late. Bleach cleans. It kills germs. It’s necessary in large quantities for many reasons.

We needed a good light besides a flashlight for at night. Since we’re not campers, we don’t have a camp light, but we need one.

What we did right:

Plenty of food. We could have gone for a week, probably two with our dry-goods.

Plenty of water. We were okay with that too.

Gas stove. This was unintentional smartness. We do have a gas grill out back fueled by propane and we had extra tanks for back-up, but we used the stove. Here’s the thing though: there’s no ventilation so be careful cooking burgers. Your house will smell for quite some time. Ditto, bacon.

Hand-crank radio. I bought one from Amazon. In fact, after Hurricane Rita, I used Amazon for everything–saw, water purification tablets, bowie knife, etc.

Full tanks of gas. This is a no-brainer but I was surprised how many people were desperate for gas right after everything hit. Lack of preparation has consequences. We needed the gas because we decided to leave The Woodlands. We were at least 100 miles or so out of the area before there were working gas stations. An empty tank would have left us stuck. Also, I was using the car to charge my cell phone every night. The car is an excellent generator. I’m thinking about electric cars too. Wouldn’t get too far with one of them, would you? Trucks are mighty nice in this situation. Our Suburban could be filled to the gills with kids, dogs and stuff and had a nice big (albeit guzzling) gas tank.

Landline, AT&T and Sprint telephone carriers. At one time or another at least one was working–mostly. That was a relief. Its one thing to be without internet (and at my level of addiction that’s painful), it’s another to be without a way to communicate period.

As I think of more, I’ll update.

I’d also like to take a moment to thank the thousands of electrical, tree-cutting, and every other sort of service worker who came to Houston as soon as possible (the tree guy is from Maryland) to help. You cannot imagine the relief and excitement to see caravans of energy trucks pouring into the city.

Updated:

Reader Rorschach adds this in the comment section and I’m adding it in its entirety because it’s valuable. Also, I want to add this before I quote him. My iPhone was invaluable. I had email, text, internet access, WordPress mobile so I could blog, etc. In short, I could stay connected through this one small device. It earned it’s steep price, I assure you.

To the advice:

An addendum if you don’t mind. Not only are chain saws a necessity, but a chain saw that WORKS is a necessity. There are a number of cheap Poulan made ones (craftsman ones are Poulan ones.) that are absolute junk and will run for about an hour or two and then you’ll have to fight with them to get them started and keep them running. Repairing them costs more than a new saw. do yourself a favor and get a good commercial grade Stihl or Echo one. Make sure you store it properly and drain the fuel out of it, or you’ll be sorry.

Generators are a necessity as well. but gasoline powered ones have one major drawback: gasoline. You can’t buy it for the first 3-4 days after a storm. and you are constantly having to go out and refill the tank. You have Natural Gas. go and get yourself a NG fired permenantly installed backup genset. Northern Tool sells several in the 11KW and up range for under 3 grand delivered. The additional advantage is that NG fired engines don’t put out much CO so you should not have an issue of carbon monoxide poisoning.

LED lanterns are great and last a really long time on a charge, but the problem is that the color put out by them is in a range that the human eye is not terribly sensitive to. It is too blue. Fluorescent lanterns are less efficient, but you’ll at least be able to read by them. Don’t get a propane or camp fuel one, they give of CO. You can’t use them inside, and you can’t use them to light the generator while you are filling it with gas either.

Guns: Get yourself a 12 Gauge shotgun with an 18 inch barrel and load it with 00 buckshot. Best home defense weapon ever conceived, bar none. It will not over-penetrate walls and endanger your neighbors. Is somewhat immune to aiming error. (you still need to aim, but with a shot pattern 3″ across, you’re more likely to hit something than a pattern that is 1/3 of an inch across.) They are impossible to conceal, but for home defense, concealment is not really an issue. Here is a blog with a lot of good info on that score:

http://xavierthoughts.blogspot.com/search?q=home+defense+shotgun

Handguns are ideal for protection when you are mobile, but they should be thought of as a bridge to get you to a long gun of some sort, not as a end-all be-all defense weapon.

The concept of being self sufficient for 72 hours is bogus. I don’t know where that number came from but they didn’t even bother wiping the fecal matter off of it when they pulled it out of their butt. 72 hours is at BEST a minimum number, it should really be a week to 10 days.

Posted in We're All Gonna Die | 2 Comments »

Smear YouTube Videos Made By Professionals Associated With Obama’s Campaign?–UPDATED Now, The Cover-Up

Rusty Shackleford makes a good case that that’s exactly what has happened:

Extensive research was conducted by the Jawa Report to determine the source of smears directed toward Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin. Those smears included false allegations that she belonged to a secessionist political party and that she has radical anti-American views.

Our research suggests that a subdivision of one of the largest public relations firms in the world most likely started and promulgated rumors about Sarah Palin that were known to be false. These rumors were spread in a surreptitious manner to avoid exposure.

It is also likely that the PR firm was paid by outside sources to run the smear campaign. While not conclusive, evidence suggests a link to the Barack Obama campaign. Namely:

• Evidence suggests that a YouTube video with false claims about Palin was uploaded and promoted by members of a professional PR firm.
• The family that runs the PR firm has extensive ties to the Democratic Party, the netroots, and are staunch Obama supporters.
• Evidence suggests that the firm engaged in a concerted effort to distribute the video in such a way that it would appear to have gone viral on its own. Yet this effort took place on company time.
• Evidence suggests that these distribution efforts included actions by at least one employee of the firm who is unconnected with the family running the company.
• The voice-over artist used in this supposedly amateur video is a professional.
• This same voice-over artist has worked extensively with David Axelrod’s firm, which has a history of engaging in phony grassroots efforts, otherwise known as “astroturfing.”
• David Axelrod is Barack Obama’s chief media strategist.
• The same voice-over artist has worked directly for the Barack Obama campaign.
• This suggests that false rumors and outright lies about Sarah Palin and John McCain being spread on the internet are being orchestrated by political partisans and are not an organic grassroots phenomenon led by the left wing fringe. Our findings follow.

Read the whole thing. Who knew that Andrew Sullivan is just an extension of a Leftist PR firm?

It seems to me that the Obama campaign works this way: shower the media and political “enemies” machine gun style. People will be so overwhelmed with misinformation that they cannot keep up. Never mind, that in the process, he destroys innocent families in his wake. For Obama to feign victimization is rich. He is turning out to be the most victimizing politician to roll through an American election. No wonder Bill Clinton and Barack Obama hate one another, they’ve met their tactical matches.

Whatever they accuse you of…that’s what they’re up to.

Cross-posted at Right Wing News.

UPDATED:

Patterico is following the cover-up:

Shortly after Rusty’s post appeared, the video and related YouTube videos started coming down. Winner’s YouTube profile, that of his father, and several others were closed. This began happening within an hour of the posting of Rusty’s post. Michelle Malkin has the entertaining details, complete with screenshots.

In the criminal law business, we call evidence like that “consciousness of guilt.”

There needs to be follow-up to this story. The connection to the Winners and their PR firm is solid. The evidence tying in Axelrod and Obama is circumstantial but suggestive. The lightning-quick cover-up goes a long way towards convincing me. Now the baton needs to be passed to a media organization that can demand answers from the parties involved, who are unlikely to respond to a bunch of bloggers.

And Ace has questions about the cover-up:

And now “eswinner” has decided to end his short career on YouTube, despite the fact that this was his Best. Day. Eveehhhhh.

If he was just some ordinary schnook who wanted people to check out his rad smear-videos about Sarah Palin, shouldn’t he be happy he was getting so many hits all of a sudden? Isn’t that the dream of every basement-dwelling wannabe Murrow of the Internet? Attention? Fame? Hits?

Why is he suddenly so shy to have his work seen? Why does he feel compelled now to delete his account entirely? To erase any and all evidence of his YouTube presence?

Why, just a week ago, he was so psyched that “FINALLY THE TRUTH COMES OUT!” Doesn’t he want the truth to come out any longer?

If none of this is shadowy, as they will all claim tomorrow, why did they so quickly retreat from sunlight?

They don’t even want you to see the video they were once so proud of anymore. What changed, exactly?

Questions, questions.

Why, you’d almost think that perhaps these videos were intended to fly completely under the radar or something. And that now that they’re very much above the radar, they’re embarrassing “eswinner.” Or the client who has hired “eswinner” to peddle vicious smears under the radar so that the client himself could pretend he doesn’t traffic in viciously dishonest advertisements.

*****

Here’s a story:

Obama thinks you’re fucking stupid. And furthermore, he thinks the only way he can win your vote is to lie to you.

On that last score, he’s probably right.

Ace has so much more and you need to read both his and Michelle Malkin’s contributions.

By the way, the nutroots will LOVE this story. They will be impressed with Obama’s conniving viciousness because they have felt that Democrats have been too nice. This is, of course, laughable. It was a good ride while it lasted, they’ll be disappointed that Obama’s team got caught. Just have to change tactics. And they will.

More here.

Posted in Political Animals | 4 Comments »

Obama’s Distracting Refraction

Yes, indeed. This election is filled with distractions. For those who support Obama, please share one thing that he’s accomplished that should impress me enough to vote for him, because right now, I’m feeling like Thomas Sowell:

Barack Obama is truly a phenomenon of our time – a presidential candidate who cannot cite a single serious accomplishment in his entire career, besides advancing his own career with rhetoric.

He has a rhetorical answer for everything. Those of us who talk about the threat of Iran are just engaging in “the politics of fear” according to Mr. Obama, something to distract us from “the real issues,” such as raising taxes and handing out largesse with the proceeds.

The Obama phenomenon reminds me of God’s promise to Lot–he’d spare Sodom if Lot could find one righteous man. If an Obama follower could please find just one solid accomplishment of Obama’s, perhaps I could feel better about things should he get elected.

But I don’t feel better about things. The world is a nasty place and even Obama’s radiance cannot illuminate the dark corners of the world. For example, here is what is happening in Iran:

According to Baidatz, the Iranian centrifuges have so far produced between one-third to one-half of the enriched material needed to build a bomb.

“The time when they will have crossed the nuclear point-of-no-return is fast approaching,” he said, though he stopped short of giving a firm deadline. Last week in the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, however, he put the date at 2011.

In addition to their nuclear efforts, the Iranians were also deepening their influence in the region through cooperation with Syria and the Palestinian terrorist organizations, as well as being the main arms supplier to Hizbullah and a source of constant attacks on American troops in Iraq. All of this, he said, was part of Iran’s efforts to stand at the head of the region’s extremist front.

As if that isn’t enough:

Hamas and the other terrorist organizations have taken advantage of the cease-fire to rearm and prepare for the next round of fighting, increasing training and continuing to smuggle in raw materials that allow it to increase its rocket arsenal. As a result of of the cease-fire, he said, the threat to the home front and the IDF had increased.

Baidatz said the smuggling from Egypt was continuing, although the Egyptians – with the help of US technology – were also showing better results in detecting the smuggling tunnels. At the same time, the Egyptians were still not dealing with the root of the problem, which was the need to go after Beduin smugglers in Sinai, he said.

So serious world issues exist and Barack Obama’s reaction is rhetoric. Talk. Talk. Talk. He’s talking about nothing, but it doesn’t matter. Big, gilded promises of vague happy outcomes that have no substance pour out of him like bubbly champagne. Intoxicated by his charm and words, no one seeks answers about him and his lack of accomplishment seems to not matter.

Obama followers seem dazzled and dazed. And worse, duped. Where is Obama’s history? What happened after he graduated from college? Why must he disown every acquaintance? Does the man even have a true friend? And why does it seem unimportant to his followers that he manages to share next to nothing while ostensibly revealing himself? Where is his self?

Back to the original request: one solid accomplishment. Name. One.

Posted in Political Animals | 2 Comments »

Abandoning Land Lines For Cell Phones–A Lesson From Ike

Many people give up land lines in favor of cell phones. I have friends who have done just that. They’re in their twenties, though. And even though they’ve settled down with a house and a kid, they still have no land line. Well. I haven’t spoken with them about their decision since the hurricane, but Ike confirmed one thing for me: it’s good to have a land line.

Cell towers, I found out, lose power too. When that happens communications come to a screeching halt. For a couple days, the only communication came via a land line. To me, it’s just a good security back-up and important in emergencies.

Our next door neighbors got stuck because they only have digital cord-less phones. Guess what happened when the power was gone? My husband laughs at me, but I keep two boring old phones around that require no batteries for just this purpose–one for upstairs and one for downstairs. And every time we’ve lost power, we’ve used them. In this case, we could let our neighbors borrow a phone.

Conclusion: Yes to land lines. Yes to old phones. It’s just good back up.

Posted in Nerd Stuff, We're All Gonna Die | 6 Comments »

Tennessee Democratic Congressman’s Son Hacked Sarah Palin’s Email–UPDATED AGAIN: Connection with Obama’s Campaign Manager?

Confederate Yankee extends mercy to the kid with a depressive disorder who hacked Sarah Palin’s Yahoo account. That is overly kind. Were this miscreant a Republican, he’d be tarred and feathered and we’d be hearing about how it’s no wonder a Republican had problems with depression, but put him in jail with the same law used to oppress minorities and the disabled.

No. Throw the book at this rotten Democratic apple. It matters not that he’s unstable. That’s pretty much a given when you go hacking into a government official’s private email. His father is in the government, surely he knows it’s a no-no to monkey around in a government official’s email. He had enough sense to pick out emails he perceived as most damaging to Sarah Palin, his frontal lobe is obviously functioning fine. It’s his moral center that isn’t working. Perhaps some time in jail will fix it.

But Confederate Yankee brings up a more important point:

In the concerted effort to destroy Sarah Palin, her husband, and her children, we’ve seen the progressive blogosphere and professional media adopt the no-holds barred, street-fight viciousness of a community organizer fighting for scraps. The petty brutality has trickled down from the man they idolize, a man cool enough to befriend and use aging terrorists and racist ministers as they can help him, and callous enough to discard friendships decades old if it suits him, without a backward glance.

For all his eloquence behind a teleprompter, Barack Obama is still at heart a thug, and his disciples learned well from their master.

In Wasilla, Alaska, two Democratic National Committee “opposition researchers” are scouring the archives of the Palin’s hometown paper for any hint of a scandal.

It will never stop.

Until it stops working.

Hope! Change!

Updated:

Glenn Reynolds says:

UPDATE: Reader Walter Boxx emails: “I can’t vote in your Palin email account poll because you left off the only sensible answer. It is a serious issue (not Watergate though) but it will be treated like a juvenile prank by the press. In a day or two it will be off the news.” Yeah, if Obama’s mail had been hacked it would be treated as an outrage and a sign of the growing thuggishness of political discourse, with demands for heads to roll — and, notwithstanding his representations otherwise, I don’t think Nick Denton would have run it, because he would have feared the consequences. But this is different, because Sarah Palin is a Republican.

UPDATED AGAIN:

This is huge. Via Jim Hoft aka Gateway Pundit:

** MORE…. There is a connection between David Kernell and David Plouffe— Barack Obama’s Campaign Manager!
From a commenter at Terry Frank (who has screengrabs of David Kernell’s Facebook page):

There is an apparent connection between David Kernell and David Plouffe. If you do a Technorati search for “david kernell” (http://www.technorati.com/search/%22david+kernell%22?authority=a4&language=en) and then click on Videos about David Kernell, the first video you see if of David Plouffe (Campaign manager for Obaman). He probably did the video for Plouffe.

This is not a casual connection.

Wow. Just wow.

And how did the hacker come by the information? Thanks Washington Post!

AP not cooperating with the Feds. It’s like Watergate all over again! Not.
Cross-posted at RightWingNews

Posted in Nerd Stuff, Political Animals | 6 Comments »

Hurricane Ike In Pictures

It is difficult to comprehend the devastation. Even seeing the aftermath, it is so overwhelming to take it all in. Boston.com has some pictures that might help you at least get a feel for it. Amazing, really.

Posted in America, We're All Gonna Die | 1 Comment »