Under the Fedora: A Really Bad Week

A lot has happened this week that has not been fun for a conservative.

On Monday the Senate passed the Corker Hoeven amendment and managed to get cloture on the “immigration” amnesty bill.

It amazes me that the same republicans who have complained loudly in the budget debate that we can’t have tax increases with the promise of spending cuts later are willing to allow legislation with the promise of future securing of the border.

I’m particularly disappointed with Senator Rubio & Senator Ayotte. Both had been supported by Sarah Palin and Tea Party groups and both had promised not to be supportive of amnesty.

Palin is not amused:

Palin said Rubio had promised that “border security would come first,” and he would not support “legalization of illegal immigrants” and “amnesty” before border security while running in the Florida Republican Senate primary against Charlie Crist in 2010. She said Ayotte, whom she endorsed, had on her campaign website in 2010 that there were “no excuses” not to secure the border and also said she would not support amnesty.

“I think that they should be challenged. I don’t have a problem with heated debates and contested primaries where they have to answer to constituents regarding their flip-flopping on such a fundamental position as amnesty for illegal immigrants,” she told Gibson. “I don’t have a problem at all with contested primaries. In fact, competition makes us all better and makes us be held accountable and I’d like to see them held accountable and answer as to why it is that they flip-flopped.”

On Rubio there are two possibilities that come to my mind. Rubio might have been played, he’s fairly young and occasionally such people are played. If he just came out and said so people would let it go.

As for Senator Ayotte I suspect part of this flip is out of deference to her allies McCain and Graham who she has worked closely with on Benghazi (and done yeoman work) but I suspect part of it is because she was trying to get the left off of her back over the Toomey Manchin.

If she had only waited

Nashua Mayor Donnalee Lozeau said she resigned from “Mayors Against Illegal Guns” on May 10, shortly after joining the nationwide coalition, because it went beyond its stated principles of “keeping illegal guns out of dangerous hands.”
Lozeau said she did not know when she joined the group that it would “unfairly attack” fellow Nashuan Sen. Kelly Ayotte in a $2 million barrage of ads after Ayotte opposed an amendment calling for universal background checks for gun purchases in April.

The heat might have decreased. And if this report is true

Speaker John A. Boehner reiterated to House Republicans this morning that he will not bring up the Senate’s immigration overhaul for a vote in the House. “Weeks ago, I — along with Eric, Kevin, Cathy and Bob Goodlatte — issued a statement making clear that the House is not going to just take up and vote on whatever the Senate passes,” Boehner told lawmakers, per a source in the room. “We’ll do our own bill, through regular order and it’ll be a bill that reflects the will of our majority and the people we represent.” …

As Sean Connery’s Character said in the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen “Wait, always wait”

On Tuesday in Massachusetts Ed Markey running in a special election with no other democrat on the ballot managed to only pull 60% of the vote that one of the worst candidates in US Senate History Martha Coakley.

Opposing him was Gabriel Gomez, Navy Seal, Navy Pilot, successful businessman and a 1^st Generation immigrant from Columbia. With the GOP arguing loudly that the immigration bill needed to pass to get Hispanics to be willing to vote Democrats Gomez who won the primary with over 50% despite straying from the bases position on Climate Change, Gun Control, was apparently a perfect fit since he also endorsed the gang of eight bill even before the Corker Hoeven was suggested.

And while Gomez won several towns back that Brown had lost in 2012 the appeal among Hispanic voters was apparently overstated:

So on election day they went to a city with many people from “Hispanica” and said: “Look our candidate is a child of Hispanica just like you! Come vote for him!” But the people of that city said: We’ve never heard of a country called “Hispanica” Our parents come from a country called “The Dominican Republic” and they voted for the party they always did.

Then they went to another town and said “Look our candidate is from the land of Hispanica just like you” and the people of that town said: “We’ve never heard of a land called ‘Hispanica” our fathers came from a land called “Brazil” and they voted for the party they always did.

Ok that’s not exactly how it happened but the bottom line is he drew only 45% of the vote.

I’m sorry, Gabriel Gomez is a nice guy with a great personal story but if supporting amnesty doesn’t do the trick with Spanish speaking voters when you’re running a 1^st generation Colombian with the last name “Gomez” odds are you aren’t going to do better supporting this kind of bill with the last name “Alexander” or Graham.

Then later in the evening after a long Filibuster in the Texas was finally broken the mob managed to stall long enough to block a bill that would have prevented the next Kermit Gosnell in Texas. Stopping the bill made the left absolutely giddy.

Donna Brazille compared the fight to stop that abortion bill to the civil rights era. She was right in on respect, just like in the old days the people fighting hardest for the right to kill black children were democrats.

Then came Wednesday and a pair of Supreme Court rulings, first the a section of DOMA was overturned meaning the Federal government has to treat gay married couples in state where it is legal in terms of benefits. The most amazing thing about the ruling was the impugning of the motives of all those who have opposed Gay Marriage as Rush put it:

In 1996, the Defense of Marriage Act passed the House of Representatives 342 to 67. It passed the Senate 85 to 14. What a bunch of bigots! The Supreme Court majority today said that all of those 342 in the House and those 85 in the Senate passed the Defense of Marriage Act ’cause they hated gays.

And they wanted to punish gays, and they wanted to demean gays, and they wanted to impugn gays, and they wanted to impugn homosexuality. That’s why 342 members of the House passed DOMA, and that’s why 85 Senators voted for it. Bill Clinton signed it into law, and today Bill Clinton and his lovely and gracious wife, Hillary Rodham Rodham, issue a statement hailing the decision overturning the Defense of Marriage Act which he signed into law.

Nobody was talking about this at all 20 years ago. Who knew the entire population of the country since its founding was a bunch of evil bigots all that time? No wonder the self-righteous left hates them so.

Worse than the first decision was the second that effectively repealed California’s Prop 8 which was a ballot initiative forbidding gay marriage in the California constitution.

The court rules the people appealing a lower court that cancelled out the successful referendum did not have standing. The problem the folks who DID have standing to appeal, the state had vehemently opposed the referendum (which is why the people went that route) and absolutely refused to defend it in court:

Why go through all that time and effort and expense when even if you win, all the party machine needs is a single sympathetic lower court judge to rule in their and violà you’re foiled without standing to appeal.

Fans of Gay Marriage might be cheering today, but not as loud as fans of one party autocratic government.

But the thing that hit me the hardest this week is this:

I have been banned in Britain. My crime? My principled dedication to freedom. I am a human rights activist dedicated to freedom of speech, freedom of conscience and individual rights for all before the law. I fiercely oppose violence and the persecution and oppression of minorities under supremacist law. I deplore violence and work for the preservation of freedom of speech to avoid violent conflict.

I have never been convicted of any crime. I have never been arrested. I became a writer and activist in the wake of 911.

For this I am banned. I shed no tears. I am banned from Mecca, too.

When the current queen dies England will die. There will still be a place on the map called “England” but the name will mean nothing.

And to top it all off the Bruins blew the Stanley Cup and June has been the worst month for DaTipJar all year and my brother-in-law is bad….Very Bad

Not the best of weeks.

Under the Fedora IRS, Newsworthy Protests and Dead Cats

On Wednesday 10,000 Tea party members came to the Capital on short notice to protest the IRS scandal. TEA generally stands for Taxed Enough Already but this time it stood for Targeted Enough Already. It’s my opinion that this scandal is the only one with legs due to the legalities involved, but as I watch the left continue to circle the wagons for Barack Obama and the IRS I’m reminded of an old Star Trek Episode the Enterprise Incident.

COMMANDER: But I doubt it’ll clear you of espionage.

KIRK: We were not spying, Commander.

COMMANDER: Your language has always been most difficult for me, Captain. Perhaps you have another word for it.

KIRK: You’re grossly mistaken if you think we were there…

COMMANDER: Captain, if a Romulan vessel ventured far into Federation territory without good explanation, what would a starbase commander do? You see, it works both ways.

Is there a single member of the left that would buy this administration’s explanations for the IRS scandal (or in fact any of the scandals) if they were coming from the Bush administration?

I think not.

Incidentally for my non-geek readers, the reason why the Romulans were using ” Klingon Design” for their ship was because a production assistant stepped on the Romulan model while unpacking them.

The Edward Snowden story becomes odder and odder, I haven’t decided if he’s just a traitor trying to bring the country down or a fanatic who thinks it was necessary to stop government overreach but Bob Schieffer made an excellent point on the subject:

Some of the people I admire most took on the government — men and women who led the civil rights movement: Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr. They are true heroes.

I’m not ready to put Edward Snowden in that category.

For one thing, I don’t remember Martin Luther King Jr. or Rosa Parks running off and hiding in China. The people who led the civil rights movement were willing to break the law AND suffer the consequences. That’s a little different than putting the nation’s security at risk and running away.

The case reminds me a bit of the Kate Hunt case there was a real rush to turn him into a hero by some and I suspect they will regret it as more information comes out.

I really dislike Glenn Greenwald as a rule. He was one of the “It’s America’s fault just after 9/11” and frankly I wouldn’t doubt for one moment that the injury to security of the country is to his liking but I’ll give him this. He has been no hypocrite. He has been just as hard on the Obama administration as he was on the Bushes.

None of the other scandals were able to get bring the president’s numbers down with youth but this one has and my oldest believes he knows the reason:

while the youth might not care about the implications of silencing the Tea Party or dead navy seals but they know that industry and they how much they want stiff penalties for illegal downloads.

My son told me he has friends who have been downloading movies and songs for years who literally are afraid of using their computers since the NSA scandal broke.

You want to get people excited hit them where they live and today youth live online.

The tea party protest in Washington wasn’t the only protest that took place recently. There was an Anti-gun protest in San Bernedino that I found interesting.

Exactly six months after 20 children and six adults were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., a small group from Organizing for Action stood here Friday with 26 flags and signs calling for stricter gun control.

What’s significant about this protest was that the San Bernadino Sun sent a staff writer to cover this protest and devoted almost 200 words to the story of a protest that drew only three people.

Mind you this same paper when the March for life took place and 500,000 showed up in Washington DC and over 50,000 showed up in San Francisco didn’t find it newsworthy enough for an entry.

People wonder why the left is so afraid of the Koch brothers possibility buying the LA Times. This is why.

Senator Ted Cruz is on a roll, first he goes after the Immigration bill (nobody has yet explained why people unwilling to enforce immigration laws before amnesty would be willing to do so afterward. He then came up with this tweet concerning the white House arming Syrian Rebels:

Anyone know if President Obama intends to perform background checks on the Syrian rebels before providing them weapons?

— Senator Ted Cruz (@SenTedCruz) June 18, 2013

The Word you’re looking for is “Bazinga!”

Matt Smith’s upcoming departure as the Doctor has led me to begin reviewing his episodes in order. The first three are here here and here.

This week is the best sports week of the year, you have Baseball, and you have the Stanley Cup Finals and the NBA finals all at once. One might argue for a different time but unless baseball is in the mix it doesn’t count.

So far the NBA finals and the NHL finals have really lived up to the hype. Some of the best Hockey and Basketball of the year continues to be played right now.

Some TV? Burn Notice is in its final season, I’ve never understood of announcing at the star of a season that a popular series is about to end, I can understand a actor wanting to move on but considering how many actors never find another series I’d stick with what works. Then again if a writer is bored and new writers are brought in, the quality almost always suffers.

Speaking of TV did MeTv pick the perfect time to bring back Hogan’s Heroes or what, consider this promo:

Doesn’t Sgt.Schultz sound like the president when being asked about various scandals?

Finally had to kill the cat this week, we’ve had it for a dozen years and got her at age 5. I was struck that the vet was still affected emotionally given that they kill animals on a daily basis.

You might notice that I use “kill” rather than “put down” or “put to sleep” because that is what was done. My wife is very angry at me for using those words instead of euphemisms.

I’m reminded of a scene from the Movie: The Fighting Kentuckian. Breen (John Wayne) has been captured by the bad guys who are preparing to kill him.

Hayden: Good night Mr Breen

Breen: You mean I can go

Hayden: Anytime

Breen: What makes you think I will?

Hayden: Because that way you’ve got a chance, a small one but a chance

Breen: Well, never let it be said I didn’t take it.

As a Catholic the #1 imperative for a human is salvation but as a cat like all animals has no soul the #1 imperative is survival. Given that the cat had a 0% of survival going to the vet to be drugged to death I can’t see how that’s kinder that giving her fighting chance to live another day, week or month.

But that’s me.

Later all.

Under the Fedora: Is it Nixon Yet (again)

Edward Snowden is the big news of the week. I have some advice for all concerned, consider the basic facts in evidence that are not in dispute:

Edward Snowden violated federal law and his oath.

Edward Snowden leaked a highly classified security program

Edward Snowden fled to a Communist Country our single biggest rival/enemy

No matter what you think of the NSA Prism programs, Mr. Snowden’s motivations or even the necessity of the exposure of this scandal, these facts are not in dispute and I suggest people be very careful before declaring him Horatius at the Bridge.

Meanwhile is other longstanding scandal news…

More and more calls have been coming for Eric Holder’s resignation, it’s been suggested that Obama is keeping his as a lightning rod but this is a foolish move.

The professional media left (read the MSM) is indifferent to the IRS, scandal and Benghazi as much as they were about Fast and Furious but the AP/Fox story hits them where they live. As long as Holder is there the Obama scandals will get coverage, but once Holder is gone the media will portray this as the president taking action and move along.

I’m really surprised the White House hasn’t figured that out yet.

For a while the defenders of the administration have been running around in circles coming up with every possible explanation as to why each and every scandal is no big deal. Via Mark Steyn at NRO we see Senator Mark Kirk has managed to get down to the nitty gritty.

Here’s another congressional-subcommittee transcript highlight of the week. Senator Mark Kirk of Illinois asks the attorney general if he’s spying on members of Congress and thereby giving the executive branch leverage over the legislative branch. Eric Holder answers:

“With all due respect, senator, I don’t think this is an appropriate setting for me to discuss that issue.”

Senator Kirk responded that “the correct answer would be, ‘No, we stayed within our lane and I’m assuring you we did not spy on members of Congress.’” For some reason, the attorney general felt unable to say that. So I think we all know what the answer to the original question really is.

That’s what it comes down to, if the administration could answer these questions in an honest and straightforward way they would.

That they can’t continues to speak volumes, the question becomes are American’s listening.

I’ve been amazed at the reliable playing of the Race card by defenders of the president as well, a card that many people believed would be the Obama administration would be the end of this kind of thing. (I’m even more amazed that people actually believed this would be the case)

Politically it’s not foolish, this card continues to resonate with the black community who has been made to believe that the only reason the right opposes Obama is because of his skin color.

No matter where the evidence leads this community is not going to believe there is cause to blame this president. I suspect if we had Obama on film wearing a White Hood and burning a cross the black community would stand behind him.

***************************

Speaking of the Race card we are seeing it being played AGAINST Gabriel Gomez by a Spanish language newspaper in Boston. They suggest that Gomez is Latino in Name only.

Think about that, what about Gabriel Gomez is insufficiently Hispanic, his command of English, his success as a Navy pilot, as a Navy Seal, his success in business.

Perhaps if he was on EBT he would be acceptable?

If that article and that argument had been made by a conservative publication that media organ would have been accused of racism,…and they’d be right.

I’m also convinced that my friend Michael Graham is dead wrong concerning this election, he is planning on staying home as are a lot of his listeners rather than vote for Gabriel Gomez.

Gabriel Gomez is not running against Michael Sullivan anymore, he’s not running against Ted Cruz or Sarah Palin, he’s running against Ed Markey.

If conservatives willing to stay home and allow Ed Markey to be elected then we deserve what we get, just like the millions of conservatives that stayed home are to blame for Barack Obama.

How’s that working out for ya?

Unemployment is up to 7.6%. The left is blaming Sequester for this and the poor economy.

For four years George Bush was to blame for the Obama Economy and now Sequester is being blamed in year five.

Barack Obama is the ultimate affirmative action hire, he will never be held responsible for anything as long as he is in the white house.

The Boston Bruins have swept the Pittsburgh Penguins to advance to the Stanley Cup Finals where they will face the Chicago Black Hawks.

It’s important to remember that the Bruins were down 4-1 early in the 3rd period of game seven vs Toronto and down two goals with 1:45 to play and tied it with two empty net goals..

When people say it’s not worth fighting in situations it’s something worth remembering.

The Santa Monica shooting is going to lead to another attempt to grab guns.

Yeah after the IRS scandal and the NSA and PRISM people are really going to be anxious to be disarmed by their government.

The upcoming gas tax increase in Massachusetts along with it being indexed to inflation gives yet another reason for the business minded to flee the state. I’m surprised Rick Perry hasn’t sent a thank you card to Deval Patrick. You can’t buy that kind of publicity.

I’m still upset at Matt Smith leaving as the Doctor after 3 seasons (and four years). When it comes down to it I think he needed at least one more year, but in fairness this is about average for people who have held the role.

Actors seems to be afraid to take the role for being typecast and identified as the Doctor. I think that’s foolish. Being the Doctor means you bring a ready made audience with you to whatever future role you have.

If you are trying to make a living in the entertainment business that is a GOOD thing..

I’d like to see an actor willing to take the role for at least 5 years the next time around. I think an older established actor would be more willing to do so.

A lot of conservatives are crowing over Fox’s RedEye at 3 AM outdrawing Morning Joe at 6-9 in key demographics .

The problem is Morning Joe isn’t competing with Fox, they’re not interesting in beating them. They’re playing to be the show of choice along the coasts from DC to Boston and from SF to LA.

Anyone who pretends otherwise is deluding themselves.

Finally I’m still amazed at the number of posts Instapundit gets up in one day. What’s more amazing is he’s pretty much done this every single day for a decade.

If or shall I say when this ends it will be interesting to see who replaces him, if anyone. He has a lot of blogchildren but none have risen to his level.

What will we do when he’s gone?

See you next week

Under the Fedora: Entering Nixonland

Last Wednesday before a house committee Lois Lerner stated that she did nothing wrong, and then proceeded to invoke her 5^th amendment right against Self incrimination.

Ms. Lerner’s lawyer suggested she should have not been called as a witness today, saying that as she has already informed the committee she would not be testifying it would only serve to embarrass her.

I’m sorry I don’t think it’s possible to embarrass a person who is willing to publicly declare their innocence to the American People and then almost in the same breath invoke the 5^th.

The IRS scandal was already the most dangerous of the new Obama scandals to this administration, because it is so easy for even low information Obama voters to understand. Unfortunately for the Democrats in 2014 someone pleading the 5^th when declaring they’ve done nothing wrong is something the average person can understand.

I was not in front of the TV when Ms. Lerner took the 5^th. I had promised my wife a day in Maine to check out Fabric Stores for her quilting hobby. I am in fact sitting on a folding chair in Sanford Maine at a local chain called Mardens typing this as she checks out the large fabric section before we hit our next quilting store.

I’m sorry I missed the sight as I was driving and I suspect thanks to the continuing coverage of the Disaster in Moore OK the media will have an excuse to bury this a bit if they so choose. Luckily for me and every single other person in America who did not see it camera were rolling and as we get closer to the midterm elections GOP candidates nationwide will be kind enough to show that replay over and over again.

The People at Outside the Beltway made a point to stress that taking the 5^th is not Evidence of Wrongdoing. Before a court of law that is entirely correct, taking the fifth is not evidence of wrongdoing and can not be used as such before a court prosecuting her for crimes as the lawyers for any of the Five Families in NY would have remind you.

In every other setting than a court of law an unwillingness to answer such questions is evidence of something to hide and in the court of public opinion, political belief and common sense this screams “coverup”.

Even people on the left are now calling for the resignation of Eric Holder can anyone explain why they think he is any different than he ever was?

The DCCC used Michelle Bachmann’s announcement that she was not seeking another term as a fundraising pitch. While she was in office they used her presence in congress as a fundraising pitch.

When will people figure out that the parties have basically become charities that support hacks?

It’s why I’ve never given a penny to a political campaign.

**************

Rep Steven Lynch seems generally outraged, by what is going on at the IRS and is demanding action. That might explain why Massachusetts Democrats didn’t support him in the Primary for senate and instead choose a man who can’t remember a tax increase he opposed in 36 years.

As Michael Graham said, the perfect senator for Massachusetts

***

Stacy McCain has been writing a bit about the Kaitlyn Hunt case out of Florida. For those of you who don’t know she is the 18 year old girl who seduced a 14 year old and has become a cause celeb in the gay community and beyond. Stacy has made the point

See? You deviant weirdos thought Jailbait Lesbian School Girls was just a popular DVD title, but now it’s a civil right.

And the only people who disagree are bigoted religious zealots — including the authorities in Indian River County, Florida:

What’s even more amazing? This is getting sympathetic coverage on MSNBC and on the Today show.

Oddly enough if instead of having set with the underage girl, if she had filmed her in a state of undress she would be guilty of a federal crime and perhaps wouldn’t have 140,000 people signing petitions on her behalf and $25K plus donated.

And if you don’t’ think Kaitlyn Hunt is the 2^nd coming of Rosa Parks the Gay Rights mafia will get you no matter who you are:

A gay couple on the Treasure Coast is afraid to show their faces because they say they’ve been attacked personally for their opinions opposing Kaitlyn Hunt. They fear backlash from the “Free Kate” campaign that is 52,000 members strong on Facebook as of Tuesday night.

“I’ve already been vilified for my opinion on social media.”

But this isn’t a low profile gay couple, up until a few days ago, both men held high ranking positions in a Treasure Coast LGBT advocacy group.

This is where the country has gone in only five years.

BTW I think this whole thing is a trap for the LGBT movement that they would be well advised to avoid

**************************************

Riots have shaken Sweden this week and nobody seems to want to say the word “Islam” in connection to them.

This is a huge mistake, because what happens when you don’t take care of this kind of thing with civil authority sooner or later people take the law into their own hands like in Myanmar:

More than 1,000 Muslims who fled Myanmar’s latest bout of sectarian violence huddled Thursday in a Buddhist monastery guarded by army soldiers as calm returned to this northeastern city, though burnt out buildings leveled by Buddhist rioters still smoldered.

Buddhists? You don’t hear the words “Buddhist rioters” often, what set them off?

The rioting began Tuesday after a Muslim man splashed gasoline on a Buddhist woman and set her on fire. Buddhist mobs responded by burning down several Muslim-owned shops, a mosque and an Islamic orphanage. Roving motorcyclists continued the violence on Wednesday, leaving one person dead and four injured.

I say thug is a thug is a thug no matter if they are Buddhist, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Jewish or secular. Perhaps if the authorities saw it that way it wouldn’t reach this point.

*********************************************

In my last column I mentioned the St. Louis browns, if you had to name a Basketball team with a compatible history of failure it would be the LA Clippers From their first season in 1970 through the 2009-2010 season they had managed 6 playoff appearances till 2011 they managed only six winning seasons an average of just better than one every six years.

For the 2011 season they hired Vinny Del Negro as their head coach and the team improved every year going from 29 wins to 32 in his first year, from 32 to 40 in his second and their first playoff appearance since 2006 and then this year to 56 wins not only the most wins in the franchises entire history but their first ever division championship.

So naturally the Clippers fired him:

Following one of the best seasons in franchise history, the Clippers said Tuesday that Del Negro won’t be offered a new contract when his current one expires at the end of June.

Del Negro is just the second coach to leave the team with a winning record, following Larry Brown in 1993.

“This was a difficult decision, but we feel this is the best decision for our franchise moving forward,” said Gary Sacks, the Clippers’ vice president of basketball operations.

Say what? This is how you reward the guy who turned your team from a joke to a contender? This doesn’t come to the level of the Yankees firing Yogi Berra after losing to the St. Louis Cardinals in seven games but it’s still a shock.

BTW after firing Berra the Yankees would not return to the playoffs for 11 years the longest playoff drought for the team at the time since their first World Series in 1921.

To continue the Orioles comparison at least Baltimore waited till Hank Bauer team dropped to 6^th the next season and was sitting in 3^rd before firing him in July of 1968 less than two years after winning the Series.

Then again, Bauer was replaced by Earl Weaver who would lead the team to their glory years. Maybe the Clippers can do the same.

***********************

At the top of the post I mentioned taking DaWife to quit shops. It’s actually quite interesting as evidenced by this video recorded at Kathie’s Quit Shoppe in Sanford Maine:

Guys take note, little things like this are the best marriage insurance you can buy.

Finally the 5^th of the 10 Doctor Who specials have aired on BBC America. The remaining 5 will be the only original Doctor Who we will see until the 50^th anniversary special.

This was the first special that every companion of the doctor who appeared with the lead (Peter Davison) took part. The next three specials should be interesting there were only two companions for the 6^th & 7^th Doctors and only the Movie for the 8^th Doctor ever shown. I’m hoping they will start to bring up the Big Finish Productions which are still being produced today.

We’ll see.

Under the Fedora IRS Orioles and it ain’t over

Ok NOW I understand why so many business’ that seemed to sympathize with what my blog and Radio Show were hesitant to advertise in 2011 & 2012.

This week reminds me of the 1966 World Series between the Baltimore Orioles & the LA Dodgers.

The Dodgers had made the trip to the post season in those pre-playoff days regularly 1947 & featured one of the greatest 1-2 punches in Baseball history with Sandy Koufax & Don Drysdale.

The Orioles on the other hand had never played in a world series. Their one trip as the St. Louis Browns was at the height of World War 2 when the best players were absent.

Conventional wisdom was the Dodgers would take the Orioles apart and when journeyman Moe Draboskey came in to relieve Dave McNally with the bases loaded and nobody out in the 3^rd things looked grim.

Six innings later Draboskey & the O’s won Game 1 on their way to a sweep of the vaunted Dodgers but were about to start their period as one of the dominant teams of the American League.

The GOP must be feeling like the 66 O’s right now. Last week at this time President Obama was riding high, Kelly Ayotte was under constant attack for her vote on Manchin/Toomey, Mark Sanford had just won election on sc-1 ensuring a flock of stories hurting the GOP and talk of the immigration bill was not IF one would pass, but what type of bill would finally make it through congress and how much it would hurt the GOP when it did.

Meanwhile the press was uninterested in Benghazi, the IRS scandal was considered the paranoid ravings of tea party fanatics, and the press knew that their love for Obama was returned.

A lot of things can happen in a week, and there is every chance the media will pivot to something else if they can find an excuse to do so.

One of the things people forget about the IRS scandal is the multiplier effect. How many people didn’t join the tea party, or give , or talk to other people about the tea party because of fear of audits? This is the real scandal, the intimidation of those opposed to this administration.

I wonder if the press that is upset about the chilling effect of the AP being tapped understands this, or are they thinking: Serves you right.

The outrage of the press and congress on the targeting of the right is rather amusing to me. For the last three years they have called the tea party every name in the book, implied they were violent astroturf (unlike occupy everwhere that was supposedly a wholly organic peaceful movement that never did a violent thing in their lives). Let’s not forget the moment the Bombs went off in Boston the media was speculating that it was the fault of right wing extremists.

If the press wants to blame someone over this they should look in the mirror.

BTW do you think for one minute the IRS scandal happens if the people involved thought for one moment the press would report on it before the election?

Speaking of the Boston Bomber also known as the young heartthrob of thousands of women. Jahar apparently left a note behind in the Boat where he was taken detailing his grievances against the United States for its crimes against islam and calling the innocents killed “collateral damage”

I’d be angrier about those girls in denial over Jahar, if the MSM wasn’t so much in denial about Islam.

Oh and speaking of another odd coincidence:

Massachusetts state police say they and the FBI are investigating a trespassing incident at the Quabbin Reservoir but have no evidence of terrorism.

The central Massachusetts reservoir supplies drinking water to Boston.

Why would Terrorism even be suspected?

Procopio said they are from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Singapore with addresses in Amherst, Cambridge, Sunderland and Northampton, and New York City.

And the explanation for being there at 12:30 AM?

The men told police they are recently graduated chemical engineers curious about the reservoir.

Oh I’m sure there is absolutely nothing going on that has anything to do with any religion that doesn’t have anything to do with terrorism, or even Cigarette Smuggling.

Bob Woodward was on Morning Joe this week. We haven’t seen much of him lately since his last clash with the administration. When asked about Benghazi Woodward went off the reservation again:

“You were talking earlier about kind of dismissing the Benghazi issue as one that’s just political and the president recently said it’s a sideshow,” said Woodward. “But if you read through all these e-mails, you see that everyone in the government is saying, ‘Oh, let’s not tell the public that terrorists were involved, people connected to al Qaeda. Let’s not tell the public that there were warnings.’ I hate to show, this is one of the documents with the editing that one of the people in the state department said, ‘Oh, let’s not let these things out.’ And I have to go back 40 years to Watergate when Nixon put out his edited transcripts to the conversations, and he personally went through them and said, ‘Oh, let’s not tell this, let’s not show this.’ I would not dismiss Benghazi. It’s a very serious issue. As people keep saying, four people were killed. You look at the hydraulic pressure that was in the system to not tell the truth, and, you know, we use this term and the government uses this term, talking points. Talking points, as we know, are like legal briefs. They’re an argument on one side. What we need to get rid of talking point and they need to put out statements or papers that are truth documents. Okay, this is all we know.”

Woodward got a lot of grief over hitting this administration earlier this year. I wonder how much payback was involved there.

Last week we had Dr. Paul Byrne on DaTechGuy on DaRadio talking about Brain Death & Organ donation. If you only listen to one of my shows. Listen to this one.

A little more sports, How bad are the Houston Astros? As of May 16^th just 41 games into the season they are 4 ½ games behind the LA Angels.

That doesn’t sound so bad, until you realize the Angels are 11 ½ games out of first. Teams all over the American League are just dying for the Astros to come to town, they’re a winning streak just waiting to happen.

The same thing must be going on in the NL when Miami comes to town.

The Boston Bruins made an almost impossible comeback against the Toronto Maple Leafs to finish the first round of the NHL Stanly cup playoffs. Down 4-1 in the 3^rd period they managed three goals to tie, two of them while playing with an empty net , then eventually win in overtime.

Paying with an empty net when you are down is usually an act of desperation. It’s rare that it works to score once, it’s almost unheard of to have it work twice in one game.

That photo spread of Emma Watson made me feel VERY old.

Some Doctor Who news. According to reports the season finale was accidentally leaked to fans in America when Blu Ray sets of 7^th season were shipped early.

I tend to disbelieve it as during the week not a single spoiler managed to make it on the net. In this internet age that’s practically unheard of.

Me If I was a hacker wanting to take control of computers I’d have had an infected torrent with the preview spliced into it as soon as the news came out. I’d have control of half of England’s internet by now.

See you next week.

Under the Fedora On and On and On

It just a few weeks out from Boston but Bill Ayers continues to defend his time in the Weather Underground and hasn’t changed his views on America at all:

The United States is the most violent country that has ever been created, Ayers said.

U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., committed daily war crimes in Vietnam “and I get asked about violence when what I did was some destruction of property to issue a scream and cry against an illegal war in which 6,000 people a week are being killed,” Ayers said. “Six thousand a week being killed and I destroyed some property. Show me the equivalence. You should ask John McCain that question … I’m against violence.”

Only a generation as ignorant as ours could fall for someone like this.

Ever wonder how Anthony Weiner manages to finance his comeback? Wonder no more

Weiner touted Parabel as one of his clients in a recent news article outlining his success as a business consultant. Weiner and his wife, Huma Abedin, reported earning $496,000 last year, mostly from his earnings.

What Weiner failed to mention was that on Jan. 13, Parabel transferred nearly all of its assets to a subsidiary in the Cayman Islands — on the same day a United Arab Emirates firm pumped $15 million into Parabel, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission document.

It really comes in handy to have a wife involved in the Female side of the Muslim Brotherhood. They tend to support their own.

I wonder if any of that money found its way to any of Weiner’s defenders online?

I saw a story at the Orange County Register that really appealed to me:

Of course, some immigrants still come for venerable reasons, such as the freedom to worship. Christians, who make up some 42 percent of Asian-Americans, face surveillance and repression, particularly, in China, where religion is tightly regulated, and dissent from the party line can land adherents in jail. Over half of Asian immigrants, Pew notes, cite freedom of religion as a key advantage of living in America. New faith-based migration could also be seen soon among Christians fleeing increasingly Islamic regimes in Egypt, Syria and other Middle Eastern countries.

This was a primary reason for many of the first settlers of the Americas from Europe. Some things never change over time.

I was surprised to see the Washington Post make an argument that I made weeks ago concerning Mark Sanford in SC-1:

A Sanford victory puts that guy in the House Republican Conference. That means that not only do the late-night jokes start again but, more importantly, every GOPer in the House and Senate will be asked whether they support Sanford and what they think of serving with him.

That reality is why the National Republican Congressional Committee essentially washed its collective hands of Sanford once the trespassing revelations went public. The party establishment wanted (and wants) to make clear that they have nothing to do with Sanford. It won’t matter. The narrative that Republicans have a woman problem will have new life — with little the GOP leadership can do about it.

Vodka Pundit has an interesting take on the Euro’s trouble and what will be it’s eventual failure:

In America, our regional differences are surprisingly enduring, given our labor mobility. But, let’s face it, our differences are cute and quaint and, in the end, not very important. A Californian can make himself into a Texan just fine. In the end, we’re all Americans. There are plenty of Yankees in the South and lots of Southerners in the West and Westerners are heading back East. It’s a mixed-up, muddled-up, shook-up country — but it works.

But a Greek can’t become a German can’t become and Irishman can’t become a Spaniard can’t become a Finn. There’s no such thing as “a European.” Regional differences matter in Europe, in ways they never mattered here, not even during the Civil War.

Whenever I think of Germany and the Euro I think of the Doctor Who episode The Sunmakers and the line from the Collector to the Doctor when he complains about economic imperialism:

We’ve tried war but the use of economic power is far more effective.

I’ve never stopped thinking the Euro was Germany’s way of conquering Europe without all the earth shattering KaBooms. The real question to ask is, given the Germans are busting their butts to support everyone else, why would they want it?

Bishop McManus of Worcester is having a bad year, first there was the Robert Spencer issue and now he’s been picked up for DUI:

McManus was arrested at 10:32 p.m. Saturday on charges of drunken driving, leaving the scene of an accident, and refusing a chemical test, Narragansett Police Captain Sean Coorigan said. McManus is to be arraigned Tuesday in district court in Wakefield, R.I.

“I made a terrible error in judgment by driving after having consumed alcohol with dinner,” McManus said in the statement. “There is no excuse for the mistake I made, only a commitment to make amends and accept the consequences of my action.”

Robert is a big man and I doubt he is taking glee from the Bishops troubles but I suspect he is taking immense satisfaction from this story concerning a blogger who had hit him and Pam very hard over some of their Rick Perry stuff:

And then we saw Texas public schoolchildren made to dress in burqas and declare that “Allah is the Almighty God.” Yet no retractions, no apologies came from any of the Perry cult members who denounced us in 2011. And they won’t come after this, either:

“Hollywood conservative unmasked as notorious Holocaust revisionist,” by Rory Carroll in The Guardian, May 3 (thanks to all who sent this in):

You don’t get a story like that every day

Pamela Geller weighs in here; Big Fur Hat has a terrific takedown of Ace and Weasel here, and Zilla has another here. Big Fur Hat gets right to the heart of the matter: “Ace and Zip pointed and laughed at Pamela’s vetting of Perry while heavily relying on the work of a guy they never vetted. The work of some closeted neo-nazi jerkwad was ‘good enough’ in order to smear Geller.”

Pam also takes a victory lap

After I wrote extensively on the Islamic Texas curriculum, the right wing blogos went nuts. Vicious and unhinged, they attacked me for exposing their dream candidate, Rick Perry. Their sole source for refutation was David Stein. This man from out of nowhere — with no history or blog cred or anything was the club they attempted to use. David Stein, who today was exposed as Holocaust Denier David Cole (more here).

And Zilla notes something I’ve seen a lot of:

I’ve noticed a pattern with the attacks against Geller and Spencer over the years that others would do well to remember next time they think they have some big ‘gotcha’ that’s going to take my friends down: while those attacks may inflict some damage and be a temporary needless hassle to Pamela, Robert, and others in the counterjihad, time has a funny way of bringing out the truth and that truth is invariably on the side of the truth tellers. Over and over again the attackers implode and their enablers are left with egg on their faces and a steaming hot plate of crow to eat – and they can choke on it, along with their lies.

Speaking of Confessing things I confess I don’t understand why people continue to doubt Pam Geller and Robert Spencer. A supporter of the pair once told me he could never do what they do as he couldn’t deal with the death threats & the need for security. People forget Pam & Robert could have a much easier life and be able to lose the bodyguards if they only shut up and I’m sure the Saudi’s would make them rich if they did.

If you want to know why I don’t give a lot of weight to psychics here is one reason:

She wants answers. “Can you tell me…Is she out there?” Berry’s mother Louwana Miller asked. “I hate when they’re in the water,” Browne said. “She’s not alive honey.” It was bad news from the world-renowned psychic. It’s what Miller didn’t want to hear. “So you don’t think I’ll ever see her again,” Miller said. “Yeah in Heaven on the other side,” Browne responded. “I’m sorry.”

I’ll believe in Psychics when people walk through their door and they instantly say something like: “Yes he’s cheating on you $20 please.”

Some sports, If you took my advice and took a bunch of bets on the Red Sox at 100-1 odd in Boston in March, you’re sweating a bit now aren’t you?

This Article on Tim Tebow inability to find a team caught my attention

Since playing in a pair of playoff games 16 months ago, Tebow, whose only off-the-field baggage comes in the form of his cult-like following and the media frenzy it provokes, hasn’t been afforded the opportunity to show that he sucks.

It’s certainly possible that he’s simply not up to NFL standards, and never will be, but wouldn’t it be nice to get some conclusive proof before this story comes to a meek and unfulfilling close?

If you’re a franchise like the Seattle Seahawks, San Francisco 49ers or Carolina Panthers — teams with young, athletic quarterbacks who should absolutely feel secure in their starting roles — wouldn’t you think about bringing in Tebow as a similarly mobile backup?

The article suggests the reason temas are passing is the “circus” Tebow would bring. That never seemed to stop teams from signing all kinds of miscreants before.

I’m running pretty long this week so I’ll close with a quick Doctor Who remark.

This week’s episode the Crimson Horror may be the best of this season and easily make the top 10 episodes of the revived series. Along with great writing and the usual fine performance of Matt Smith this episode featurs Diana Rigg & her Daughter was a joy. Both were superb and the characters of Madame Vastra, Jenny, and Strax were never better used then they were in this episode.

Make sure you see it.

Catch you on DaTechGuy on DaRadio Noon till 2 PM EST Saturdays on the Money Matters Radio Network & FTR Radio

Under the Fedora: Quick Takes

User the Fedora Quick takes

Does anyone actually believe that seeing their friend on TV prompted three kids to go to his dorm and suddenly decide, “let’s take laptops & explosives from his apartment because we had nothing to do with it and no knowledge of it?”

Hitler’s last remaining food taster has outed herself at 95.

Imagine being offered that job, how quickly would you be shot if you said: “No!”?

Pundit & Pundette names names:

Attorneys Mark Greenwald, Charles Hartwell, David Grubb, Andrew Kramer, William Newport, Juan Ruiz, and Kerry Maloney were confronted with a growing pile of disquieting facts about Gosnell, including a detailed, inside account from a former employee, and a 22-year-old dead woman. Every time, though, they managed to dismiss the evidence as immaterial. Every time, that is, until the facts hit the fan.

And asks the question

Have they been held accountable in any way? Have they at least lost their jobs? Let me know if you have any information.

Don’t hold your breath.

Hezbollah says they aren’t going to sit back and let Assad fall Their statement is here

So we have the potential of Hezbollah terrorists, fighting Al Qaeda Terrorists, fighting the Syrian Government and killing each other?

As a Catholic I say it’s a shame, but the American at war with terror says: “Pass the popcorn”

It’s May and as I type this the oil truck came down to my house and made a delivery costing $492

My weekly pay from writing is $300 and that’s totally dependent on readers. Two thoughts:

This same oil bill was half the price when George Bush was president.

Global warming my ***

I found an interesting quote at Viral Read concerning yet another liberal fake hate crime:

Even after the threat was exposed as a hoax, a University of Wyoming spokesman cited the “progress” resulting from the “discussion” Lanker-Simons’s fraud had provoked.

“This episode has sparked an important discussion reaffirming that the UW community has no tolerance for sexual violence or violence of any type,” university spokesman Chad Baldwin said in a statement. “The fact that the Facebook post apparently was a fabrication does not change the necessity for continued vigilance in reassuring that we have a campus where everyone feels safe. It’s important that this event does not undermine the progress that has been made in this area.”

Remember this is a university spokesman. I wonder if a Gay Group, or a Black Group or a Muslim Group had been implicated in a criminal hoax if the university would say the reaction “sparked an important discussion”

Maybe they can give a list of who we can accuse falsely to advance our agenda?

This story has gotten a lot of play this week (except in the MSM)

So President Barack Obama’s civilian appointees who lead the Pentagon are confirming that the military will make it a crime–possibly resulting in imprisonment–for those in uniform to share their faith. This would include chaplains—military officers who are ordained clergymen of their faith (mostly Christian pastors or priests, or Jewish rabbis)–whose duty since the founding of the U.S. military under George Washington is to teach their faith and minister to the spiritual needs of troops who come to them for counsel, instruction, or comfort.

Remember the quote from Cardinal Francis George :

I expect to die in bed, my successor will die in prison and his successor will die a martyr in the public square.

Still doubt it?

Was there anything more disingenuous than the stacked town hall with MSNBC there to bring the Newtown girl to hit Kelly Ayotte?

There is a term for the threat of half the staff of the LA Times threatening to quit if the Koch brothers buy the paper, it’s called “incentive”.

Grief does things to people I would like to think she is being used, instead of using her mother’s murder to advance her agenda.

There was a funny post at YouTango giving advice to women on how they lose men. It wasn’t the post that was so funny as was the description of the author as a “certified sex coach”?

What does a sex coach do. Do she sit and watch and then stop you in the midst of intimacy saying: No you do it THIS way?

Is it like a baseball manager, if you just don’t have it do they call to the bullpen for a replacement?

And what about Certification? Who certifies such a person?

How do they DO the certification? Do you have a board of 5 people in a room, have the coach sit down, bring in a couple of porn stars to work for 10 minutes and have the coach list what they did wrong?

Unless your state has crime, budgets and a first rate education system I don’t think It should be spending money on certifying Sex Coaches.

Jason Collins the 34 year unsigned backup center late of the Washington wizards is still getting all kinds of Accolades for coming out as gay. I think it’s pretty wise financial move, he doesn’t want to be thenancial move, he doesn’ there is no next Larry Doby after all.

What you’ve never heard of Larry Doby? That’s odd he is a member of the Baseball Hall of fame. He played 13 seasons in the Majors with the Indians White Sox and Tigers, led the league in runs and Home Runs in 1952, Homers & RBIs Runs in 1952, Homers & Rbi’s in 1954 slugging and in 1948 played on the last Cleveland Indian team to win a world series beating the Boston (now Atlanta) braves in 6 games.

But he was the 2^nd Black player in the Majors (Although the 1^st in the AL) and even though he won a World Series 7 years before Jackie Robinson .

There is no percentage in being #2 and being the first at a time when the entire media was simply begging for a gay player to come out is the best meal ticket a man could buy.

One more thing now that Collins has come out as gay I wonder if NBA teams will be making sure the work environment is not uncomfortable in NBA offices & locker rooms? I don’t mean for Gays, I mean for Christians.

I wonder how things would be different if Christians started making those complaints and suing? Could be interesting.

The 4^th Doctor special premiered last weekend and it was simply delightful. Tom Baker, Louise Jameson and John Leeson the voice of K-9 all were interviewed. It actually had some information I had not previously known. It was a real pleasure.

On the minus side we now have news about 50^th Anniversary special that apparently will not be as special as we all thought.

After months of speculation about which, if any, previous Doctor Who actors would return for the show’s 50th anniversary episode, David Tennant alone has been confirmed.

The new issue of Doctor Who Magazine, out today, states: “Although David Tennant has returned to his role of the Tenth Doctor, the other old Doctors will not be taking part.”

It’s not as if the old doctors don’t want to appear either:

“All of us want to do it, just for the fans – because that’s what they want,” he explained. “But we’ve heard nothing – Tom Baker’s heard nothing, Colin Baker, Peter Davison, Paul McGann… none of us have heard anything.”

Apparently what does it matter what the old fans who kept things going for 50 years.

“I remember [former Who showrunner] Russell T Davies saying something to a fan once – the fan was saying, ‘You should bring back the Brigadier and you should bring back Leela and you should bring back all these different characters’.

“Russell said, ‘No, it’s not appropriate sometimes. It’s not always about the uber-fan… it’s about the viewer and the new audience who are watching’.”

Yeah it’s not appropriate sometimes but for the 50^th Anniversary, Yeah it’s pretty damn appropriate. As I’ve said before, what’s the point of having a 50^th anniversary special and not have any of the living Doctor’s in it except for the new series. That makes it a 9^th anniversary special not a 50^th big whoop.

That’s the real shame of it all, normally a multi Doctor Story with the 10^th & 11^th doctors would be a cause for celebration and excitement, instead it a cause for disappointment.

Cripes is the BBC taking lessons on disappointing the base from the GOP?

Later

Under the Fedora Boston, Nudity & Tom Baker as the 4th Doctor

The Debate is still going on about the “causes” of the Boston attacks but at the UN there is someone who knows what’s going on :

UN Human Rights Council “expert” Richard Falk has published a statement saying Bostonians got what they deserved in last week’s terror attack. He quotes W.H. Auden to make his point: “to whom evil is done/do evil in return.”

Richard Falk is the UN’s “Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967.” He has held the post since 2008, despite exposure as a 9/11 conspiracy theorist.

Yid with lid is not surprised:

Falk is a big believer in “human rights”, who called the Ayatollah Khomeini a liberator. He blames Islamofacist terror on the fact that much of Islam “finds itself under the heels of U.S. economic, military, cultural, and diplomatic power.” (Well at least that is cleared up). Falk is also a member of a lawyers organization that the CIA once called a “front” for the Soviet Union and just like Rosie O’Donnell is a member of groups who are still waiting for the “real” story of 9/11.

Me I think if this is all the US’s fault, and the Palestinians believe this, after all their special rapporteur is saying this publicly, they certainly don’t want any of our dirty money. In fact if the UN feels the same, we should be duty bound to keep the cash so they aren’t contaminated by it.

It’s a big sacrifice but we’ll do it for them.

We are still hearing about the Poem for Dzhokhar from the once completely unknown Amander Plummer. People are outraged over empathy for the bomber.

I’ve read the poem, I think the only connection to the bomber is the title. I think this woman was looking for attention and suckered a lot of people into giving it to her.

Welcome to the world of Twitter.

Yesterday the AP was hacked and a fake headline stating a bombing took place at the White House injuring the president was tweeted out. This confirms a basic lesson that is the same anywhere. Your passwords are only as secure as the most careless person who knows them.

The stock market briefly tanked before this was caught. I’ve never understood this, let’s say this was true, who calls there broker in a panic saying: The White House has been bombed! Sell 10,000 shares of Gerber baby foods!

I wonder how much of this is programmed.

Here is a story that is getting no play at all:

 

Iraq carried out its first election since the U.S. military withdrawal without major bloodshed on Saturday in a major test for Iraqi security forces as they face a reviving al-Qaida insurgency.

Granted there has been a lot of stuff in the news this last week but I’d think the first election in Iraq without us going without a hitch is a big deal.

If Iraq continues to normalize it will continue to be a non-story, after all who wants to blame George Bush for a successful state as opposed to a basket case like Egypt?

Bush is clearly the best president of the 21^st century, granted there are only two choices unless you count Bill Clinton’s 19 lame duck days. I suspect as time passes he will be harder to dislodge that people think.

In West Virginia a teen has decided to fight over an NRA T-Shirt

Marcum has said that he was arrested on charges of disrupting an educational process and obstructing an officer, though White said Monday that the Logan County prosecutor’s office is reviewing the case to decide whether to proceed.

Marcum wore the same shirt to school Monday. It displays the NRA logo and a hunting rifle.

Other students across Logan County wore similar shirts, which display the NRA logo and a hunting rifle, to school in a show of support for 14-year-old Jared Marcum, said his lawyer Ben White.

There are two sex scandal stories out there this week the first has a political angle:

According to the affidavit, from May 2012 through February 2013, Adam Paul Savader sent anonymous text messages using Google Voice numbers to 15 women stating that he had nude photographs of the women and threatening to distribute the nude photographs to the women’s friends and family members unless the women sent him more nude photographs of themselves. Savader sent some of the victims links to a photo-sharing website where nude pictures of the victims had been posted.

This guy is a former intern to Paul Ryan, personally I wouldn’t have thought people would have fallen for this but apparently this stuff is more common than you think.

Stacy McCain put it well:

There is a lesson here about the perils of the digital age: Anything you put on the Web — even uploaded to private accounts — can be accessed, if someone with enough skills really wants to get to it bad enough. And naked pictures? Yeah, don’t do those. Ever. Because that boyfriend you’re sending them to may not be your boyfriend forever.

The second comes from Lowell and involves a Buddhist Monk

The woman shown having sex with a Buddhist monk in a video recently circulated in the Cambodian community has filed a civil lawsuit against five individuals she alleges illegally distributed the tape.

Taping of the voice and actions of a private person without permission in Massachusetts and distributing them is illegal, which Maya Men highlights in her suit.

Among those Men has sued following the release of the tape of her sexually engaging with the Venerable Nhem Kimteng are another local monk and a former member of the executive committee for the $10 million Lowell temple project Men is helping lead.

Kimteng and Men were filmed in the Trairatanaram Temple in North Chelmsford.

Why do I have the feeling that if this involved a Catholic Priests instead of Buddhist monks it would be a front page headline in the Globe and all over the MSM?

Some sports? Remember before the Baseball season began everyone was picking the Redsox & Yankees to finish 4^th & 5^th in the AL East? As of this morning The Red Sox are in a 1^st place tie & the Yankees are a whole ½ game out.

As they say, that’s why they actually play the games.

I’m still not used to the Houston Astros in the AL but I’m sure the 4 other teams in the AL West currently ahead of them are happy to see them there.

This is THE best time of the year for sports, Baseball, Hockey & Basketball all being played at once. One might make the point that Nov & Dec you have three major sports played at once too but if one of them isn’t Baseball it doesn’t count.

I’ve talked about the number of Electoral votes Massachusetts has lost in my lifetime (5) if you want to get a good idea where all those votes went, check the attendance figures when the Red Sox come to town when they play in Red States.

People say: Don’t you wish New England folk would elect more conservatives, I answer New England folk DO, we just do so in the states they’ve moved to.

————————————-

Watched High Noon Yesterday it really holds up over time and the cast is simply out of this world. While Gary Cooper & Grace Kelly get top billing to me the most interesting moments are the scenes between Lloyd Bridges & Katy Jurado.

Until I looked it up I would have never known that Juardo was only 28 at the time. She carries herself much older and you would never guess Lloyd Bridges was a full 9 years older than her.

Movies are all about the art of illusion.

Shakespeare’s birthday was this week. It’s become fashionable to devalue his plays but let’s face it, how many playwrights still have their plays performed regularly 400+ years after their birth. In fact I don’t think you can find a day in the last 50 years when a play of Shakespeare was not performed in some theater somewhere in the world.

That’s immortality!

Finally This week’s is the 4^th of the Doctor Who 50th anniversary specials on BBC America. The subject is 4^th Doctor Tom Baker the Doctor Who most familiar to Americans before the revival of the series.

Tom Baker’s complete with 12’-18’ scarf is THE definitive Doctor. He held the role for 7 years got the show it’s best ratings and is regularly voted the best Doctor ever by the fans (losing only a few time in the last 30 years).

37 years ago I accidentally discovered the show and him on Channel 12 Rhode Island on a Saturday afternoon and have been hooked ever since. In 1981 I got my first credit card in college and used it to buy a VCR for $500, as much as a semester of college at the time, to tape the show regularly off of public TV. I still have the tapes and on occasion my sons & I watch them together on a $20 VCR.

If you watch only one of the specials, watch this one.

See you next week.

Under the Fedora: Boston Gosnell & Doctors

The topic of the day is the Boston Marathon Massacre.

When I started writing this we didn’t know who had done this.

With the level of camera and smart phones it was highly unlikely that the placement of the bombing wouldn’t have been caught on camera, When it comes down to it we actually found out who did this pretty quick.

Things continue to be happening fast, the best thing we can do right now is:

1. If there is anything we know or can do to help contact authorities & do so
2. If we can’t be of help to the authorities then stay the hell out of their way

As for the Chris Matthews, Alex Jones and Michael Moore and Jansing & Co and NPR who have all made allusions to nonsense without evidence I’d like to say I’m surprised, but I don’t think I should be lying to you.

Instapundit linked to a piece in the NY Post from last year by Gabriel Malor about the media trying to blame the right seven times in the last 3 years

The media’s habitual blaming of the political right is endemic and incurable. Media figures sincerely believe the right wing is violent, so naturally assume that violent people must be right-wing. This won’t be the last time they make that mistake.

Sooner or later a person on the right is actually going to do something like this and when it happens the left will never let us forget it. It will be the exception that proves the rule, that’s why they’re called Exceptions.

The Senate Campaigns Democrat & Republican have been suspended in the wake of the Bombing of Boston but oddly enough the Senate Campaign of Gabriel Gomez was almost permanently suspended.

Gomez ran the Boston Marathon finishing before the bombs went off but not by much

Republican U.S. Senate hopeful Gabriel Gomez is reflecting on yesterday’s explosions at the Boston Marathon, giving thanks for the safety of his family and staff and offering condolences for the injured and deceased

Think for a second if he had chosen to wade into the crowd and shake a few hands near the finish line we might be reading about the dead or maimed GOP candidate for senate.

Life and death can be a very arbitrary thing.

Speaking of life and death there was an awful lot of death going on in Philly at the practice of Kermit Gosnell but the mainstream media didn’t really care.

NBC-10 Philadelphia reported that, Stephen Massof, a former Gosnell worker, “described how he snipped the spinal cords of babies, calling it, ‘literally a beheading. It is separating the brain from the body.” One former worker, Adrienne Moton, testified that Gosnell taught her his “snipping” technique to use on infants born alive.

Massof, who, like other witnesses, has himself pleaded guilty to serious crimes, testified “It would rain fetuses. Fetuses and blood all over the place.”

The media was dragged screaming and kicking to the story:

The grisly details drew mainly local attention. But after an online furor that the case was being ignored by the national news media because of troubling accounts of late-term abortions, reporters from major newspapers and television networks descended Monday on the Court of Common Pleas

James Tarento at the WSJ was amazed

What an amazing headline that is. The editors of the New York Times declare that they’re covering the trial under protest, yielding their news judgment to an angry online mob. It’s probably the most honest thing they’ve ever published.

I’m not, the MSM absolutely hates the Gosnell story but they certainly don’t want to BE the story.

On the bright side for the MSM thanks to the Boston Bombing they now have an excuse to put something else on the front page.

What a difference a couple of weeks make, a few weeks ago the gun control debate was all about how nothing was going to happen, then last week it was all about how suddenly it had all the momentum and this week suddenly the Same Senators who won a vote to advance the bill as saying it’s doomed.

The MSM would like to continue their full court press for gun control that has been going on since Newtown after all it keeps the press away from the economy but just as the Boston bombing gave the press a reason to keep Gosnell off the front page it also prevents them from keeping gun control ON the front page.

Pressure cooker control, well that’s a different debate.

This was tax week and I got my taxes in Friday. I still do them myself, it’s a bit of a pain in the neck but it saves me at least hundreds and when money is tight that counts. I still send in Paper copies on my federal return but on the state version due to current laws and the nature of my return I’m required to file them online.

I generally don’t have a lot good to say about the Massachusetts tax system but I have to say their free online filing system is one of the most user friendly programs I’ve ever used.

It’s nice when state government does something right.

——————————————————-

There are all kinds of tricks you find when money is tight, here is one story out of DC:

The Panel Crasher lost his job at a nonprofit organization at the end of March when a federal grant that was funding his position expired. He suspects it might have been hacked off because of the mandatory budget cuts that went into effect because of sequestration.

After losing his job, the Panel Crasher says he started joking with his friends about how to fill his time between now and the fall, when he enters grad school. Finding a full-time job for just a few months seemed unlikely. But with the loss of income, he needed to figure out how to feed himself, and remembered all the lunch events he attended.

“I said, ‘Oh, I won’t have to worry about feeding myself because I can go to all these panels around town’,

He goes on to critique the various meals.

A while back I did a piece on The Good Wife and liberal propaganda, we saw another example of this from this week’s episode trying to turn Anonymous into heroes.

The problem with noticing this stuff is that once you learn to see it you see it everywhere. The trick is to make sure you aren’t creating it in your mind.

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar but you general y aren’t going to lose if you bet on media bias.

I’ve been following the Doctor Who 50^th anniversary stuff with great interest. So far the only former Doctor who has been confirmed is the 10^th Doctor David Tennant

I understand that historically the Doctor Who staff wants to keep details secret but if you have none of the living doctors (Doctors 4-8) then it’s not a 50^th anniversary of Doctor Who, it’s the 9^th anniversary of the new series.

Additionally everyone EXPECTS the past doctors to be in the show, it wouldn’t be a huge spoiler if the team announced they would be there and if they are not including them what’s the point?

I’d really appreciate it if they didn’t yank us around.

Finally on Friday while Boston was locked down I took my wife to the Golden Geese Quit shop up in Concord NH, I don’t like the idea of being locked down on principle, especially by a terrorist but forget that for a second, there is always a big story to cover, an internet discussion to have or something so important that you just have to say something, but in the end you only have one wife and so much time in a life to spend with her.

There are a lot of people who recommend investments, but the investment of a half day with the wife or husband, even if it’s shopping for fabric or at a Doctor Who convention, is the best investment you can make in your life

See you all next week.

Under the Fedora: Showers, Culture & Ebert

An amazing thing happened at the Supermarket yesterday.

I was in the 12 items or less line when a family of three were behind me started talking to the cashier. I tend to hear all kinds of things that I store away but when the young lady named Catlin told her friend about her father talking about putting a TV in the shower for her it stopped me cold.

I had to turn and inquire:

“What about water on the set”

“It would be high”

“The water is going to splash off of you and up”

“We’re going to put plexiglass over the screen.”

As my head continued to spin I finally turned to this young 15 year old girl standing with her parents and asked the following question:

“Young lady, can you tell me one thing that is going to be on your television set that is so important, so critical and so unavailable in repeats that it can’t wait for a time when you are not wet and naked in the shower?”

She silenced me in three words:

“Red Sox Games”

How does any New Englander answer that?

It is totally impossible to explain Red Sox fandom to a person from outside New England but let’s put it this way…

When you’ve lived in New England in General and Massachusetts in particular there is one fact that is incontrovertible.

No matter how bad things get in Massachusetts and their pretty bad, when the Red Sox open with two wins in Yankee stadium all is right in the world.

—————————

Totally unrelated, next time you feel sorry for a career minor leaguer just remember if they have at least one day of MLB experience the minimum wage is $67,300.

Don’t tell Elizabeth Warren

Weasel Zippers reports on a new FATWA out of Saudi Arabia:

a Saudi cleric, Sheikh Abdullah Da ‘ud, took it a step further on live Arabic TV by insisting that “it is forbidden to be around handsome youth, those beardless boys who have a touch of temptation in them [fitna].”

No word on if this is going to be extended to homely teen boys. I can imagine the teen insults now:

You’re so ugly the ban on “handsome” beardless boys doesn’t apply

April Fools day I only tweeted out jokes or things I considered funny.

——————————————————

Michael Graham had an event this week to try to figure out what the GOP should do in the state.

The thing is the GOP voter has already figured it out, they left and became powerful elsewhere. Why do you think Massachusetts has lost 5 electoral votes since they took control of the state legislature and never lost it?

Maryland has decided they want to pass tough guns laws even though Baretta may have reached their limit and is thinking of pulling a magpull on them.

Who Knew Maryland was doing so well they could spare the jobs? Then again they abut DC so since Obamaconomy is all about growing government they might have a few extra jobs to spare

I wonder if CPAC will consider moving as well?

Speaking of CPAC it’s been two weeks since CPAC and I’m still posting video, boy I shot a lot down there.

The sudden re-definition of acceptable belief concerning Gay Marriage is putting a defacto religious test on all sorts of walks of life. That nobody in the media seems to have a problem with this tells you how disconnected the media has become with the other have of US culture.

In fact we’re already seeing it:

Two homosexual students at George Washington University have announced a coordinated campaign to try to rid the campus of its Catholic chaplain, the GW Hatchet, the school’s independent newspaper reports.

Seniors Damian Legacy and Blake Bergen said they can no longer tolerate what they describe as Father Greg Shaffer’s anti-homosexual and anti-abortion beliefs. They say they are upset that Fr. Shaffer counsels homosexual students to lead a celibate lifestyle.

As this IS the official belief and doctrine of the Catholic Church this complaint if upheld would effective bar Catholic teaching and Catholic chaplains at George Washington University

Well at least Catholic Universities aren’t doing this, I mean you wouldn’t see a Catholic University like Gonzaga for example refuse to recognize the Knights of Columbus or something:

“The Knights of Columbus, by their very nature, is a men’s organization in which only Catholics may participate via membership,” says a letter obtained by The Cardinal Newman Society written by Sue Weitz, Vice President for Student Life. “These criteria are inconsistent with the policy and practice of student organization recognition at Gonzaga University, as well as the University’s commitment to non-discrimination based on certain characteristics, one of which is religion.”

I wonder how much money Gonzaga gets from endowments and donations from Catholics who think it is a Catholic University?

————————————-

There are two ways to look at this story, the first is the idea that political correctness has gone crazy

There’s a good reason the city is hiring lifeguards that can’t swim. Public pools are largely used by Latino and African-American kids, but most of the lifeguards are white and this creates a huge problem. “The kids in the pool are all either Hispanic or black or whatever, and every lifeguard is white and we don’t like that,” says a Phoenix official quoted in the story. She added that “the kids don’t relate; there’s language issues.”

The second is more incredible, the idea that officials care so little about the lives of their own citizens they are willing to put Latino and black children in danger of death in order to shut them up.

Words can’t adequately describe this.

Finally film critic Roger Ebert has died. There are three movie reviews he did that should be read by everyone. The first is his review of the Passion of the Christ:

This isn’t a movie about performances, although it has powerful ones, or about technique, although it is awesome, or about cinematography (although Caleb Deschanel paints with an artist’s eye), or music (although John Debney supports the content without distracting from it).

It is a film about an idea. An idea that it is necessary to fully comprehend the Passion if Christianity is to make any sense. Gibson has communicated his idea with a singleminded urgency. Many will disagree. Some will agree, but be horrified by the graphic treatment. I myself am no longer religious in the sense that a long-ago altar boy thought he should be, but I can respond to the power of belief whether I agree or not, and when I find it in a film, I must respect it.

The Brown Bunny (the re-cut version):

Chambers might in fairness have explained that I was responding to Gallo calling me a “fat pig” — and, for that matter, since I made that statement I have lost 86 pounds and Gallo is indeed still the director of “The Brown Bunny.”

But he is not the director of the same “Brown Bunny” I saw at Cannes, and the film now plays so differently that I suggest the original Cannes cut be included as part of the eventual DVD, so that viewers can see for themselves how 26 minutes of aggressively pointless and empty footage can sink a potentially successful film.

And Birth of a Nation:

Some of the film’s most objectionable scenes show the Ku Klux Klan riding to the rescue of a white family trapped in a cabin by sexually predatory blacks and their white manipulators. These scenes are credited with the revival of the popularity of the Klan, which was all but extinct when the movie appeared. Watching them today, we are appalled. But audiences in 1915 were witnessing the invention of intercutting in a chase scene. Nothing like it had ever been seen before: Parallel action building to a suspense climax. Do you think they were thinking about blackface? They were thrilled out of their minds.

Today, what they saw for the first time, we cannot see at all. Griffith assembled and perfected the early discoveries of film language, and his cinematic techniques that have influenced the visual strategies of virtually every film made since; they have become so familiar we are not even aware of them. We, on the other hand, are astonished by racist attitudes that were equally invisible to most white audiences in 1915

Politically I disagreed with Ebert a LOT, but in his field, which was movie reviews and analysis he was a master and no amount of disagreements on other subjects will ever change that.

Rest in peace.

There will be no Under the Fedora next week in honor of my 25^th Anniversary. Thanks Val.