S P E C I A L - N O T I C E S . . .
MARIZELA PEREZ IS STILL MISSING: For the latest news on the search for this young lady, please visit the special website that has been set-up: FindMarizela.com. Her cousin, Michelle Malkin has more pictures of her here.
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For The Latest News on the KIMBERLIN / RAUHAUSER SAGA: Follow John Hoge's blog HOGEWASH. He's doing one huckuva job covering the story.
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Bob Belvedere is now on Twitter! Can you dig it? @BobBelvedere
The TCOTS Six Days Of Cheesecake: Monday
It’s that time of year again!
On Tuesday 07 May, this site celebrated it’s Fifth Anniversary [thank you, thank you...thank you all...please...oh thank you...you're wonderful, thank you so much...no...no...I don't need a standing ovation, thank you...thank you...thank you...come on now, we won't have any time left if you keep this up, thank you...thank you all...thank you]. Well, that was one heckuva surprise, thank you all. Anyway…as I mentioned: last Tuesday, I decided to delay our celebration one week in order not to take any of the thunder away from Stacy McCain’s annual National Offend A Feminist Week celebration. So here we are: NOAFW ended yesterday and now it’s time for a swingin’ affair.
In celebration of this monumental occasion, I have declared and decreed that there shall be Six Days Of Rule 5 Cheesecake here at The Camp Of The Saints And The Beloved City. What better way to mark this wonderful milestone than to reward you, my dear readers, with some of the best vintage snaps of some of world’s most voluptuous gals.
This year we’re going to do something a little different.
Instead of featuring the work of various photographers across the decades, TCOTS is going to showcase the work of one of the best pin-up photographers in the business today.
Celeste Giuliano is an artist who specializes in recreating classic pin-up and glamour shots and her work has been justly praised across the world. So, without further adieu, let’s get this joint hoppin’.
Excelsior!…
More Proof @Soledad_OBrien Is An Ignoramus
From The Washington Examiner, Paul Bedard reporting, we learn:
Soledad O’Brien, recently yanked from her morning show “Starting Point” on CNN, plans to continue her focus on racial issues and is charging that whites are afraid of dealing with the nation’s black-white division.
O’Brien, just named a distinguished visiting fellow at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education, told the school’s Institute of Politics that she’s often confronted by whites who want to take issue with her documentaries on race in America.
“People would sometimes, when I give speeches, stand up and say, ‘You know, I think your black America documentaries (are) divisive. I think like, you know, listen, we shouldn’t think of ourselves as African-American. We’re Americans, and everybody should stop separating themselves out,’” she said in a new video from the institute.
She continued: “First of all, it’s only white people who ever said that — ‘if we could just see beyond race. If only people didn’t see race, it would be such a better place, and you are responsible for bringing up these icky race issues, Soledad, you should just let sleeping dogs lie.’”
O’Brien added: “I was like, again, ‘OK, white person, this is a conversation you clearly are uncomfortable with, and I have no problem seeing race, and I think we should talk about race.”
I know, I know…you’re asking yourself: ‘Soledad who?’, but, trust me, she used to be somebody.
Anyway…
I will let a distinguished gentleman respond:
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today.
This man wasn’t white, Soledud.
Bob On The DOJ Spying On The @AP [Updated]
How Does It Feel @ap ? Sucks pretty bad. huh? #ROTFLMAO
— Bob Belvedere (@BobBelvedere) May 13, 2013
Patriot Mom remarks:
@bobbelvedere @ap Welcome to our world. Hate to say we told you so. #ImpeachObama
— PatriotMom69 (@PatriotMom69) May 13, 2013
‘Til we were red in the face.
Must be rough for all you folks at the Associated Depressed [stolen from Mark Levin].
UPDATE at 2317…
Ladd Ehlinger:
Dear @ap : You get the tyranny you deserve. Congratulations.
— Film Ladd (@FilmLadd) May 14, 2013
Welcome to the Brave New World you helped create.
Darrell Vu? – @DarrellIssa Set To #FAIL Again
From NBC News, Carrie Dann reporting, we learn:
A top GOP critic pushed back Sunday on charges that Republican efforts to investigate last year’s Benghazi attack are designed to inflict political damage on former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
"Hillary Clinton’s not a target," said House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa on NBC’s Meet the Press. "President Obama is not a target."
Issa, who heads a panel probing the assault on the diplomatic outpost that killed four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens, said he will seek depositions from Benghazi review board heads Ambassador Thomas Pickering and retired Adm. Mike Mullen, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
As I Tweeted-out last night:
Issa is going to F this up…again
He’s dropped the ball on TARP and other investigations he conducted, so we shouldn’t be surprised that it looks like he’s set to FAIL again on the Benghazi investigation.
I’m sorry, but Hillary should be a target. The circumstantial evidence we have now indicates she was involved in the cover-up. Every damn political appointee in Hillary’s State Department should be a target.
And, considering the obstruction of justice moves of this Administration, why is Issa prepared to let Pickering and Mullen get away with submitting depositions instead of calling them as witnesses before his Committee, where those two career politicians can be questioned in public?
This is not some game [like Grand Theft Auto, IYKWIMAITYD], Mr. Issa.
Four Americans have been murdered and a man scapegoated by the Obama Administration rots in jail.
Stop f’ing around, Darrell. Stop being a Useful Idiot.
Message To Cryin’ John Boehner: If you decide, in your sodden munificence, to allow a Select Committee to be impaneled, you better damn well make sure Issa ain’t a member.
Section 666: Personal Identifying Health Information
We learned last week that under Obamacare each and every person filing taxes will have to provide the IRS with ‘personal identifying health information’ which ‘must contain sufficient information for taxpayers to prove that they purchased qualifying health insurance under Obamacare’.
The Lonely Conservative has the details here [the main reporting of this story came from Americans For Tax Reform — an organization run by America's Top Dhimmi Grover Norquist, which is why I will not link it].
I have no doubt that those who do not provide the information the IRS wants will find themselves audited and pursued under the powers granted the IRS under the Obamacare legislation. It will probably reach far enough down so that those citizens will be denied such things as license renewals and employers will be banned from hiring them, data-gathering technology having being quite advanced. These people could become ‘Unpersons‘. Certainly, they will be labeled ‘UNMUTUAL‘. What a Brave New World, eh?
Over at Protein Wisdom, in a post by Jeff Goldstein on the IRS’s targeting of conservative groups, commentator LBascom was put in mind of Revelation, Chapter 13. He quotes one verse, but I think a few more surrounding it should be mentioned [the verse he sighted is in bold below]:
10 He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword [BOB: We need more Sword Control!!!]. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints [BOB: You know, like in 'The Camp Of The...'].
11 And I beheld another beast [BOB: Obama?] coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.
12 And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast [BOB: Leftism?] before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.
13 And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men [BOB: Yeah, and stop the rising of the oceans...blah, blah, blah, blah...],
14 And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast [BOB: Obama Phones!]; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast [BOB: Like this?], which had the wound by a sword, and did live.
15 And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak [BOB: Using a teleprompter, of course], and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed [BOB: Death panels???].
16 And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:
17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six [BOB: Number of times Obama will have played golf before he leaves office?].
It’s, obviously, The End Times [or, perhaps, in honor of Obama we should call it 'The Rear End Times', IYKWIMAITYD?] is here.
LBascom goes on to comment:
Of course, give a government bureaucracy something, and the results are predictable.
Revelation 16:2
The first angel went and poured out his bowl on the land, and ugly, festering sores broke out on the people who had the mark of the beast and worshiped its image.
With so many people being denied treatment due to the fact that bureaucratic bean-counters will be in charge of Obamacare, methinks this is a certainty [Before it was passed, I told everyone who supported Obamacare that: 'You'll be sorey if you do'].
As to Our Little Barry being the Second Beast [some do argue that it is really Valerie Jarrett and/or Lady Michbeth], there has been much controversy.
SIDENOTE: FWIW – When it comes to interpreting Revelations, I go with the one in the Catechism Of The Catholic Church:
The Church’s ultimate trial
675 Before Christ’s second coming the Church must pass through a final trial that will shake the faith of many believers.573 The persecution that accompanies her pilgrimage on earth574 will unveil the "mystery of iniquity" in the form of a religious deception offering men an apparent solution to their problems at the price of apostasy from the truth. the supreme religious deception is that of the Antichrist, a pseudo-messianism by which man glorifies himself in place of God and of his Messiah come in the flesh.575
676 The Antichrist’s deception already begins to take shape in the world every time the claim is made to realize within history that messianic hope which can only be realized beyond history through the eschatological judgement. the Church has rejected even modified forms of this falsification of the kingdom to come under the name of millenarianism,576 especially the "intrinsically perverse" political form of a secular messianism.577
677 The Church will enter the glory of the kingdom only through this final Passover, when she will follow her Lord in his death and Resurrection.578 The kingdom will be fulfilled, then, not by a historic triumph of the Church through a progressive ascendancy, but only by God’s victory over the final unleashing of evil, which will cause his Bride to come down from heaven.579 God’s triumph over the revolt of evil will take the form of the Last Judgement after the final cosmic upheaval of this passing world.580
On The Pope’s Canonization Of The Otranto Martyrs
WHAT HAPPENED YESTERDAY
From The London Daily Mail:
Pope Francis today proclaimed hundreds of 15th-century martyrs beheaded for refusing to convert to Islam as saints of the Catholic Church, as he led his first canonization ceremony in a packed St. Peter’s Square.
The ‘Martyrs of Otranto’ were 813 Italians who were slain in the southern Italian city in 1480 for defying demands to renounce Christianity by Turkish invaders who overran the citadel.
The BBC report mentions something that The Daily Mail report only implies [tip of the fedora to Robert Spencer]:
They were beheaded in the southern Italian town of Otranto after refusing to convert to Islam.
BACKGROUND
From Wikipedia [emphasis mine]:
On 28 July 1480 an Ottoman force commanded by Gedik Ahmed Pasha, consisting of 90 galleys, 40 galiots and other ships carrying a total of around 150 crew and 18,000 troops, landed beneath the walls of Otranto. The city strongly resisted the Ottoman assaults, but the garrison was unable to resist the bombardment for long. The garrison and all the townsfolk thus abandoned the main part of the city on 29 July, retreating into the citadel whilst the Ottomans began bombarding the neighbouring houses.
When Gedik Ahmed asked the defenders to surrender, they refused, and so the Ottoman artillery resumed the bombardment. On 11 August, after a 15-day siege, Gedik Ahmed ordered the final assault, which broke through the defences and captured the citadel. In the massacre which followed, all men over 15 years old were killed and all the women and children were enslaved. According to some historical accounts, a total of 12,000 were killed and 5,000 enslaved, including victims from the territories of the Salentine peninsula around the city.
Some survivors and the city’s clergy took refuge in the cathedral to pray with their elderly archbishop Stefano Pendinelli. Gedik Ahmed ordered them to convert to Islam, but received a flat refusal and so broke into the cathedral with his men and killed all those inside. This included Pendinelli, who encouraged the survivors to turn to God at the point of death but was skewered and cut to pieces with scimitars before having his head cut off, put on a pike and carried round the city. Gedik Ahmed then turned the cathedral into a stable and sawed the garrison commander Francesco Largo to pieces whilst still alive.
The townsfolk’s leader was now the old tailor Antonio Pezzulla, known as Il Primaldo, who also refused to convert to Islam. On 14 August Gedik Ahmed tied up the survivors and transported them to the nearby Colle della Minerva, where at least 800 were beheaded, with their parents and families forced to assist in and attend the executions. Primaldo was the first to be beheaded – tradition holds that his decapitated body remained standing until the final person was beheaded, despite his executioners’ efforts to push him over. The Chronicles record that an Ottoman Turk called Bersabei saw how bravely the Otrantines were dying, converted to Christianity and was impaled by his own comrades.
The eight hundred that were beheaded are the ones who were declared Saints by Pope Francis yesterday.
Also:
…On 6 July 2007, Pope Benedict XVI issued a decree recognising that Primaldo and his fellow townsfolk were killed "out of hatred for their faith". On 20 December 2012 Benedict gave a private audience to cardinal Angelo Amato, S.D.B., prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, in which he authorised the Congregation to promulgate a decree regarding the miracle of the healing of sister Francesca Levote, attributed to the intercession of the Blessed Antonio Primaldo and his Companions Martyrs
People murdered out of hatred for the Catholic Faith are Martyrs in the eyes of The Church.
LESSONS LEARNED
-Robert Spencer quotes from a reader of his named Bob:
Otranto certainly demonstrates several things.
1. Muslim violence is not a result of poverty, Jews, Israel, or US policy and actions.
2. There is a centuries-long tradition of Muslim beheading. It didn’t start with Daniel Pearl.
3. Muslim attacks on Copts in Egypt are in keeping with centuries-long Muslim traditions
4. Christian martyrs are Christians killed by others. Muslim martyrs are Muslims who kill non-Muslims [and are killed in the process].
Beheading — it’s a Muslim thing [you wouldn't understand].
VATICAN APPEASEMENT
From The Daily Mail again [emphasis mine]:
The Vatican seemed at pains not to allow the first canonisations of Francis’ two-month-old papacy to be interpreted as anti-Islamic, saying the deaths of the ‘Otranto Martyrs’ must be understood in their historical context.
I wonder if the pains felt by those Vatican officials are as intense as those felt by the Martyrs Of Otranto? Or by the Copts in Egypt? Or Christians and Jews in any Muslim country, for that matter?
As far as I can see, the context is this: The Koran demands that Muslims offer non-Muslims a choice to either convert or die, so, when Islam conquers any group of Infidels, they murder any of those who will not convert. Now, it should be mentioned that some, shall we say, ‘less zealous’ Mohammedins do provide a third option — slavery — but that’s up to the whim of the conquering rulers.
One can slightly understand why the diplomats at The Vatican would want to be careful in this matter: Catholics across the Islamic World are been harassed and murdered for their faith. However, perhaps now is the time, Cardinals, to make a stand for Christians and Jews, to proclaim to the murderous Mohammedin bastards that their actions will not be tolerated, that the civilized world will do everything in it’s power to expose these murders and defeat those who perpetrate them.
There is a time for diplomacy and there is a point where it ends up serving the enemy. This point was reached some time ago.
If the conscience of over one billion of the faithful will not stand-up to the barbarous butchering descendants of Mohammed, then, perhaps, The West is done.
Jihad Watch commentator Jan remarks:
[BBC Report] ”There was no hint of any anti-Islamic sentiment in the homily that Pope Francis delivered before tens of thousands of worshippers gathered in St Peter’s Square … ”
No? Well there damn well *should* have been. When are we going to get some leaders, both spiritual and secular, with moral and physical courage, spine, to stand up and say what must be said? To do what must be done?
Or is it going to be left to the ordinary people in every country, again, like the murdered of Otranto?
Sadly, tragically [using it's real definition], the answer appears to be a mournful ‘Yes’.
Could This Be One Explanation?
Rule 5 Saturday
Best Analysis Of Info In Jonathan Karl’s Report
It comes from long-time Internet commentator and one of my Friends In The Ether, Adjoran…
He left the following remarks in the Comments section of Stacy McCain’s post entitled The Big Benghazi Lie: State Department Deleted Key Facts From Talking Points:
State was concerned that the original talking points might lead people to believe they had failed to respond to requests for added security, just because they had failed to respond to requests for added security, and that they ignored cries for help, just because they ignored cries for help.
It is also clear now that Carney was lying to the press corpse in every single statement he made about those talking points. I guess now we get to see if the “mighty watchdog” which acts like a lapdog has in fact been neutered. If they continue their soft and docile treatment of Carney and Obama, we’ll know they left something on the cutting room floor.
We certainly know the men in the Press Corpse left their gonads in a mason jar on The White House porch.
Two additional thoughts from me…
-We should not be surprised at any of this as, I believe, all members of the Left In America are employees of The-Big-Lies-R-Us, which, as I understand it, is owned by George Soros.
-Many on the Right are expressing the belief that the publishing of Karl’s report means the Benghazi Cover-Up story has now been blown wide-open.
I hope they’re right, but I have my doubts. The story, after all, was dropped on a Friday, along with the IRS abuse ['squirrel!'?] story.
SIDENOTE: Do check out Richard McEnroe’s spot-on clarification of the difference between the two kinds of ‘lying’.
The Left’s Disregard For Individuals – Even Their Own
As I’ve long argued in these Dispatches, the Left values their Ideology more than they do than their fellow Human Beings.
In a recent interview, Mark Steyn provides us with a perfect example of this fact:
…The L.A. Times, a dying newspaper, had a lame headline, even by its own pathetic and abysmal standards, playing up the partisan element. There isn’t actually a partisan element here. All the players involved in this are Democrats. Chris Stevens is in fact the poster boy for the Obama-Clinton view of the Arab Spring. He’s one of their guys. I mean, as chaps like me look on it, he was in large part deluded about the nature of the Arab Spring, that he was a personally courageous and brave man who was on the front line of the Obama-Clinton narrative about the Arab Spring. And they let him die, and then told lies over his coffin. And Democrats, liberals should ask themselves about that, if they are willing to, that’s, no right wingers, no Republicans, no conservatives are involved in this. They did that to one of their own….
Please remember that no Leftist can ever be a real friend to you because, when it comes down to it, they will choose their Ideology over you.
#NOAFW – Bob’s Greatest Hit: Should You Spank Your Wife?
I’ve taken part in National Offend A Feminist Week since the great Stacy McCain created it in 2009. During each annual event, I’ve posted many bits of solid and enduring wisdom on how a woman should behave for her husband, how a husband should treat a woman who knows her place and those who refuse to follow Nature, and why every single, solitary thing about the Women’s Liberation Movement is wrong and sucks rotten eggs.
The most popular non-Rule 5 specific post I’ve published in the last five years, with over 20,000 page views and counting, has been my brilliant treatise on Wife Spanking. I have to modestly admit that it is quite the tour de force of Reason, logic, prudence, and wisdom. The information presented in it is timeless and that is why I’m republishing it here, now [that and I also have to help Mrs. B. with cleaning chores].
So, without further adieu [or adon't], herewith, a brief primer on…
#NOAFW – Proper Lady’s Attire For Pleasing Your Man At Home
During last year’s National Offend A Feminist Week, I published the contents of a long-thought-lost pamphlet by Jayne Mansfield entitled: How To Take Care Of Your Man.
While sections of Miss Mansfield’s insightful work dealt with the proper attire a gal should wear at various times of the day so as to please her man, the fashions she suggested were from the early 1960′s. Now I know that Retro is in these days, but I think it important that you gals also dress for the times we live in, so what follows are a set of pictures that will go a long way to doing your duty as a woman [ie: doing whatever it takes to please your man and help ease the burden he has of (as it should be) running the world]…
What The Future Holds: Sex Offender In The City [Updated]
Lo, these past five years of my blogging career I have repeatedly urged that we should look to the United Kingdom for a glimpse of what will happen here in the future if we continue hurtling down The Road To Serfdom.
In most Socialist/Fascist polices, the Brits are ahead of us by at least a few years. This is good for us [but bad for our friends across the pond] because it can serve as a warning of the dangers of allowing Soft Totalitarianism to thrive here in America.
While I’ve cited many examples of what will happen here under Socialized Health Care, this latest area of forewarning is new…
From The London Daily Mail, Jack Doyle reporting, we learn [tip of the fedora to Dan Collins][worth quoting in full][emphasis mine]:
Police have secretly removed dozens of convicted sex offenders, including paedophiles and rapists, from the Sex Offenders’ Register, the Mail can reveal.
Following a human rights ruling, the law was changed last year to allow sex attackers to claim they no longer posed a threat and apply to be taken off the register.
Since then, 43 applications have been approved behind closed doors, at the rate of one every five days.
About half of those who apply have been successful – including eight rapists and 27 child sex attackers.
Each case was signed off by a mid-ranking police officer following a paper review of the case. With the stroke of a pen, each convict was removed from the list, and is now free to walk the streets with no monitoring of any kind.
Those who are taken off the register no longer have to tell the police where they are living, even if they move near a school, or move in with a family with young children.
Nor do they have to tell the police about any overseas travel.
Forces are refusing to name those taken off the register, citing Article 8 of the Human Rights Act – the right to a private and family life – and data protection rules. And they say it would ‘compromise the health and safety of these individuals’ to name them.
Some are even refusing to give details of the offences committed, and victims are not routinely notified if their attacker has been deemed no longer a threat.
Child protection charities said the use of the law was setting back child protection, and questioned whether sex offenders could ever be reformed.
Claude Knights, director of children’s charity Kidscape, said: ‘This step removes a number of bricks from the wall of child protection, and takes us back to the level of a number of years ago.
‘The jury is out on whether someone who has committed these crimes can ever be cured. The worry is someone could be let off the register and commit further crimes and harm more children.’
Peter Cuthbertson, director of the Centre for Crime Prevention think-tank, said: ‘The Sex Offenders’ Register exists to protect the public from people who risk committing serious crimes.
‘These decisions involve a very one-sided and backward understanding of human rights. It wrongly puts the welfare of serious sex offenders above concern for public safety.’
The Mail used the Freedom of Information Act to ask all 43 police forces in England and Wales how many sex offenders they had removed from the list between September 1, when the law came into force, and the end of March.
Of the 27 who replied, there have been 91 applications and 43 sex offenders taken off the register.
One force, South Yorkshire Police, has approved all eight of its applications, including two rapists, one of whom attacked a child.
Only one force, Norfolk, said it was contacting victims to tell them what was happening.
Ministers were forced to allow the law change after a human rights ruling in 2010 which said it was a breach of criminals’ rights under Article 8 to keep them on the register without any chance of appeal.
The case was brought by two convicted sex offenders. One, Angus Thompson, was jailed for five years for violently attacking and indecently assaulting a girl. He said the ‘stress’ of being kept indefinitely on the register had contributed to his ill health. The other was a man from Wigan who was 11 when he raped a boy of six. He said his name should be taken off because it prevented him from going on holiday.
There are about 37,000 sex offenders on the register.
A Home Office spokesman said: ‘Sex offenders who remain a risk to the public will stay on the register, for life if necessary.
‘We argued strongly that sex offenders should stay on the register for life. But the Supreme Court decided they should be able to apply for a review of their case.
‘It is for individual police forces to decide how to manage known sex offenders living in the community, but those who pose a risk to the public will remain on the register.’
Yeah, right…sure…we trust you.
Several Thoughts…
-While the Left goes around claiming that this is a ‘matter of Human Rights!!!’, it is actually another step in the decriminalizing of pedophilia. Let us not forget that one of the aims of Leftism is to destroy all traditions and customs [ie: all the things that hold our Society together] in order to build their Heaven On Earth on the rubble of The West. With no self-imposed restraints allowed on sexual behavior, no group of people can maintain a civil society.
-The fact that the government of the United Kingdom will not release the names of those Sex Offenders who have been removed from the List, shows you exactly where their priorities lie…and they don’t even come close to inhabiting the same area as decent, law-abiding citizens do.
-That this move by the Leftist government of Britain was still made despite the fact that the overwhelming evidence before us shows that Sex Offenders [excluding those who have been convicted of Statutory Rape] cannot be cured, proves that those who made it have bad [some may say, evil] intentions. Nothing good at all will come out of this; only bad acts and, in some cases, deaths will result.
-From the report above: ‘Claude Knights, director of children’s charity Kidscape, said: ‘This step removes a number of bricks from the wall of child protection…’. Actually, this action is another brick in the wall, IYKWIMAITYD.
The Battle Rages On…
UPDATE at 1941…
Dan Collins brings further proof of the Left’s intentions to my attention…
From Scriptonite Daily, we learn that a leading Barrister in Britain is calling for the age of consent to be lowered to thirteen:
Leading Barrister, Barbara Hewson has called for the age of consent to be lowered to 13 to avoid the prosecution of sex offenders like Jimmy Savile and Stuart Hall. She published these comments in Spiked Magazine. Is there a place in the legal profession for a barrister who excuses the rape and sexual assault of minors as ‘low level misdemeanours’?
…
These cases are low level misdemeanours; it’s not in the public interest to prosecute
Hewson argues that it is not in the public interest to prosecute these historic sexual crimes, and that they are ‘low level misdemeanours’. Discussing the prosecution of Stuart Hall, she argues that
‘Touching a 17 year olds breast, kissing a 13 year old, putting one’s hand up a 16 year olds skirt is not remotely comparable to…gang rape…anyone suggesting otherwise has lost touch with reality’. There are several reasons this argument is factually wrong, but morally wrong.
Firstly, this is complete logical fallacy. Touching a 17 year olds breast or putting one’s hand up a 16 year olds skirt is perfectly legal – if they consent to it. Where there is not consent, where there is force or coercion, it is sexual assault. This is a crime.
Secondly, this is a false characterisation of the abuses by Stuart Hall. Hall has been charged with, and has admitted, committing 14 acts of indecent assault and one of rape over a near 20 year period, including the sexual assault of a nine year old girl.
For Hewson to dismiss the rape and assault of children as young as nine as some sort of slap and tickle is exactly the attitude that made these assaults possible in the first place. Her belittling of such crimes as trivia is just the prevailing mood of the time in which the crimes occurred, and which meant victims and potential witnesses alike kept their mouths firmly shut.
The Age of Consent Should be Reduced to 13
Hewson argues that the prosecution of sex offenders “poses a far graver threat to society than anything Jimmy Savile ever did.” She completes her masterclass in moral vacuity with the following:
“It’s time to end this prurient charade, which has nothing to do with justice or the public interest. Adults and law-enforcement agencies must stop fetishising victimhood. Instead, we should focus on arming today’s youngsters with the savoir-faire and social skills to avoid drifting into compromising situations, and prosecute modern crime. As for law reform, now regrettably necessary, my recommendations are: remove complainant anonymity; introduce a strict statute of limitations for criminal prosecutions and civil actions; and reduce the age of consent to 13.”
Welcome to the Brave New World.
The Spot-On Quote Of The Day…
…is awarded to Protein Wisdom commentator Ironpacker [not to be confused with 'Fudgepacker', which is the nickname for our President in certain establishments in Chicago] for stating what many others have said, but doing it rather eloquently:
The facts don’t matter and have never mattered because “gun control” has never been about saving lives or reducing crime. It has always been about “people control”. Because the actual facts and data doesn’t support their position, the gun grabbers have always relied on emotions to push their agenda, this is why they are always dancing in the blood of victims and using human props.
Spot-on.
Right Reason is not on the Left’s side, and deep-down they know this, so they fall back on their low-cunning and make appeals designed to stir the emotions into a froth that overwhelms the brains of weak people — it’s who they are, it’s what they do [it's all they've got].
Add to this, that, in order to be a Leftist, one has to accept the belief that individual Human Beings are not worth as much as the goals to be reached and what you get are people who do not balk at using others, alive or dead, to achieve their ends.
Always remember: that Leftist you know is an acolyte of a belief system, an Ideology, that has no compunction about ruthlessly dealing with Human Beings if it furthers the end their system seeks. When the rubber meets the road, they will choose their Ideology over you. They are incapable of ‘friending you back’, as it were.
A Confederacy Of Pod People
In the Comments section of an excellent analysis of yesterday’s hearing on Benghazi and the MSM’s shattering silence on the event by Stacy McCain, Adjoran made the following insightful remarks on the latter issue [link in quote added by me]:
It is as if Journ-O-List disbanded the email list and just took over the editorial boards of every major media outlet except Fox.
They believe in Ace’s theory: as long as they can control the way a story is presented everywhere but Fox, they can dismiss Fox as Fox and cover up anything Obama and the Democrats do, from now on.
Of course, in the longer run, as John Maynard Keynes might have said, they are all dead. Dwindling revenues and circulation/ratings mean more cuts, and the newsroom is a diminishing resource at best.
WaPo, for instance, had a $34 million operating loss in the newspaper division for the 1st Quarter, revenue declined 4% and daily circulation fell 7.2% (up from a 7.8% loss Q1 last year!). Sooner or later some fresh-faced MBA is going to point out to his boss, "You know, we’d be making X if we just shut the news division down."
Is this control part of a conspiracy?
Well, The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition, defines the word thusly:
n.
1. An agreement to perform together an illegal, wrongful, or subversive act.
2. A group of conspirators.
3. Law An agreement between two or more persons to commit a crime or accomplish a legal purpose through illegal action.
4. A joining or acting together, as if by sinister design.
I don’t believe that the heads of the editorial boards at the MSM outlets get together now and again, like Mafia chieftains, to coordinate their nefarious activities. They don’t have to. They all are followers of the Ideology of Leftism, which is fairly rigid in it’s thinking so that it’s easy once you indoctrinate people in it, thoroughly saturate their hearts and minds with it, to unleash them on the world and rest comfortably knowing that they will all act in the same way independently.
The conspiracy does exist, but it occurs much earlier in the process and takes years to implement. Heck, you don’t come to love Big Brother overnight, you know.
One Quibble With Adj’s Comments In His Last Point: Many of the businessmen involved will ignore those naive MBA’s because what they are seeking with their investments in this area is not monetary. Whether to assuage their guilt at being rich and/or their commitment to Corporatism [aka: Fascism], they see themselves as warriors for the cause of ‘fairness, equality, and a marshmallow world, with unicorns on top’. They consider their loss-leaders their charities.
#BunniLove – Remembering Bunni
Carol Mackie’s funeral was touching. Perfect weather. She is in the arms of the Lord with her beloved mother, grandparents. #BunniLove
— soccer mom (@opus_6) May 8, 2013
Earlier today, our Bunni Buddy In The Blogosphere, Amusing Bunni [aka: Carol Mackie] was laid to rest in Calvary Cemetery in Evanston, Illinois.
She apparently had no blood relatives, but Carol did have a family: her friends.
Here are some of them…
Odie [Woodsterman]:
I Love You Bunni and I will miss you!
Opus:
She had amazing fortitude to stay at home as long as she did. She lived life as she wanted to live it….
…Bunni cannot be replaced. She was one-of-a kind. A super morale-booster.
…Bunni was great at lifting our spirits and making us laugh. I miss her already. The only comforting thought is that at least Bunni is not in excruciating pain anymore. May she be at peace in heaven.
Mare [Zilla]:
Cancer didn’t win, Bunni never let it beat her, she never lost her faith, her courage, or her kindness, so Carol was VICTORIOUS. She’s a hero.
Cinnamin M:
It’s a sign! RT @cinnaminm Wow, the yard just filled up with meadow larks singing up a storm, wish you could hear them #BunniLove — Zilla Stevenson (@ZillaStevenson) May 8, 2013
Bunni was a very special lady with a delightful sense of humor. She touched so many of our lives and captured our hearts.
Rest in Peace, Brave Bunni. My prayers for you continue as you join our Heavenly Father for your eternal high place in Heaven . . .
Bunni doesn’t want us to be sad. As Zilla has stated, Bunni said she would be our Guardian Angel.
God has blessed her with hundreds of people who are praying for her and missing her. …She was as beautiful on the outside as she was on the inside.
She wrote to me, how when a blogger was in trouble or need, fellow bloggers and readers were always the first to come through and lend a hand. How she loved them! God gave Bunni a wonderful talent and I am so happy that she shared it with us.
PattiEide:
I miss @amusing_bunni so much, but I take comfort in knowing she’s finally reunited with her mother and pain-free.#BunniLove
— Patti Eide (@PattiEide) May 8, 2013
Oh sweet Bunni you are a brave and beautiful soul who never lost your zest for life and love for others as you struggled with great physical and I’m sure personal pain. Your strong faith gives us all a high bar to strive for in our own difficulties and pain and a perspective that life is brief and eternity is lasting hence our priorities should reflect this truth… Rest well sweet Bunni! We love you!
PortiaElizabeth:
Only last week I spoke to Carol and she sounded so upbeat and positive that it was she who cheered me up.
Mare:
I love you, Carol, my beautiful Bunny Buddy! The world was nicer with you in it, and surely heaven can only be more heavenly now that you are there. I can’t say goodbye to you, so I’ll say I hope to see you when my own time in this place is through. May God and all his angels give you eternal peace and everlasting joy. I love you so much.
God bless Amusing Bunni. I will miss her way with words. There is no one who can use the expression “grifters” in conjunction with the Obamas that is more cutting and devastating.
I still can’t believe she’s gone. She was such a positive force that I half believed Carol would prove the doctors wrong. I spoke with her only a few days before she passed and she still managed to make jokes and comment with exasperation at the events in D.C. I had only known Bunni through her blog, but when I read about her plight, I couldn’t sit by and do nothing. I donated to her medical fund and she wrote back with personal anecdotes about her life with Molly and all her internet friends. From time to time I sent small gifts and Carol would reply with the sweetest, most thoughtful of notes of thanks. Over time I was fortunate to speak with her on the phone; however those conversations always left me amazed at her strength and a bit ashamed to realize how fortunate I was and how ungrateful I had been.
Bunni taught me to take a second look at all I had to be thankful for as well as all the beauty and wonder around me. She gave so much and probably never knew how much she touched peoples’ lives and made them better. I’m sure Carol went right to the head of the line where the wings are handed out. She truly was and is an angel.
The world just lost a great person.
Lucifer loses another one (hurrah!)
It’s a sad day in Robot Land.
My blogger friend Carol, who kept us all in good spirits at her blog Amusing Bunni’s Musings has graduated from this earthly realm and gone to meet her savior and redeemer in Heaven, from where she graciously offered to be a guardian angel for her friends. Thank you, Bunni, I can use all the help I can get.
Red:
.God bless you Carol Mackie. My time knowing you was short but I am grateful for your friendship and sweet nature. Rest in peace. #BunniLove
— Red (@R8D_Red) May 8, 2013
She’s been such a good, gentle, kind and thoughtful friend over the years and, as you know, I grew to love her dearly even though we lived so far apart – I’m going to miss her so very much……. I already do. I truly hope she’s with her mother again – that was her dearest wish – it was that one thought that gave her the strength to carry on these last few months. She certainly deserves to be with her again after all these years, (she lost her mum when she was only five years old), and that she’s once again, surrounded by love, warmth, completely free of pain and at total peace.
I hope Bunni and I get to meet again someday – and, of course, when we do meet, I also hope that her mom actually approves of me as being suitable company for her darling daughter.
I hope that Bunni’s web site stays up forever. So much joy there!
Last December, Opus visited Bunni for a few days and reported:
I return home with my head held high because I have a closer relationship with a wonderful friend named Bunni.
And I return home with my heart dragging low, because Bunni is gravely ill.
On the bright side, Bunni is a beautiful woman, physically beautiful, with long red hair, clear pale skin, bright intelligent eyes and chiseled cheekbones. She would still have a girlish figure, too, if her stomach were not heavy and distended with tumors. I hope the doctors can clear up the leg infection that leaves one foot redder and more swollen/painful than the other.
I expected to have the opportunity to help Bunni by getting things for her in the house and maybe even cleaning her house. Ha! Did she show me! Bunni is a consummate hostess. Her house was already immaculately clean when I arrived. She then waited on me, bringing delicious hot tea while I lounged on her comfortable couch. And Bunni is a wonderful cook. She made a gourmet omelet for breakfast. I teased her that if she takes such good care of guests, she would have bloggers lined up down the sidewalk!
Kitteh kept an eye on me too, accompanying me around the house, and keeping watch over me as I fell asleep. After she saw me settled for the night, she went to Bunni to keep her company.
The picture and video she took of Kitteh may be found here.
Bunni, it broke our hearts to lose you, but you didn’t go alone. A part of us went with you the day God called you home. From this day forward we’ll look for you in rainbows high up in the sky.
Mare:
#BunniLove Do not stand at my grave and weep I am not there, I do not sleep youtu.be/GrChu2FVxHw — Zilla Stevenson (@ZillaStevenson) May 8, 2013
According to my sources, this is a picture of Bunni being born:
[TECHNICAL NOTE: I'm experiencing some problems retrieving certain remarks I wanted to feature in this post; I will post them tomorrow, so please come back tomorrow evening. Apologies.]
Best #Benghazi Hearing Coverage = @ViralRead
It’s over at Viral Read, where the gang is live blogging the hearings.
They’re not only keeping you informed as to what’s happening live, but they’re linking relevant articles, reports, and videos.
The Naked Face Of Leftism: Slip Of The Red Tongue
One of the low-level apparatchiks of the Left In America has apparently suffered a momentarty loss of self-control and revealed exactly how the Left views freedom and liberty…
From Warner Todd Huston, we learn [tip of the fedora to John Palmer (aka: @mistere777)]:
In the interview, [Illinois State Representative Sara] Feigenholtz, a Chicago Democrat in the 12th District, announced her intention to “give rights” to the gay community in Illinois and felt that this “giving” of rights was one of the most important jobs of elected officials.
“For me, the most precious thing I do as a lawmaker is giving people rights,” Feigenholtz said. “We have a powerful opportunity as elected officials to do this.”
Oooo….she’ll have to spend some quality time over at The Ministry Of Love for that slip.
Actually…now that I think about it, we should probably take pity on this obtuse toady. I’m mean, Sara’s a Leftist, which means she is suffering from Ideological Dyslexia.
The Oxford Shoe English Dictionary defines this malady thusly:
n. A learning disorder marked by impairment of the ability to recognize and comprehend Reality; an impairment of the ability to grasp Truth because of a brain defect. Also called alecxia when speaking of one of the Baldwin Brothers.
Let me give you an example…
What we read as…
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. —That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, —That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
…the Leftist reads as…
We hold these relative truths to be self-imposed, that all men, women, and transgendereds are created equal, that they are endowed by their State with certain malleable Rights, that among these are Freedom From Want, Free Medical Care, and the guarantee of Happiness. —That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted as overlords of Men, Women, and Transgendereds, deriving their just powers from the whims and Utopian visions of the Masterminds, —That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it using muskets only, and to then be institutionalized by the Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to the State shall seem most likely to effect the Safety and Happiness of the bureaucrats and The Illuminated Ones.
You see now, I think, just how devastating Ideological Dyslexia can be.
I pity the fools.
Thought For The Day
By The Reverend David R. Graham, A.M.D.G.
This “ruling class” is right to hate and dissemble Christianity.
Christ ianity came to crucify its salient characteristic: snobbery, prudery.
Brethren, hang on to that which is good, and fulfill your mission.
