Don't Douthat, Feminists -- You Wouldn't Like Us When We're Angry

You knew Ross Douthat would pipe up about the recent kllings in Isla Vista, and you knew his conclusion would be that Sex Ruined Everything.  The tubby schlub admits Rodger's mindset -- without acknowledging that he shares it -- but then fingers the real problem:

But feminism, too, is often a prisoner of Hefnerism, in the sense that it tends to prescribe more and more “sex positivity,” insisting that the only problem with contemporary sexual culture is that it’s imperfectly egalitarian, insufficiently celebratory of female agency and desire.

This means that the feminist prescription doesn’t supply what men slipping down into the darkness of misogyny most immediately need: not lectures on how they need to respect women as sexual beings, but reasons, despite their lack of sexual experience, to first respect themselves as men.

Yeah, that's exactly what Rodger needed -- a lot more self-regard "as a man." He could've even made a video on the subject.

Men who hate women have plenty of respect for themselves as men. They think they're entitled to respect because they're men, and that women are entitled to less or none because they're not.  They're not sex positive; they're violence/abuse positive.  Sex positivity is about respect, a concept foreign to Douthat and the parts of that book he's forever humping.

Happy 10th Anniversary to Lawyers, Guns and Money

LGM started back in the heady days of Nader/Camejo Fever, but never succumbed.  The days when Mickey Kaus was a "rockstar" to some, and Nick Kristoff was a decade younger twit.

We shall never see those days again, my friend.

TNR DNR

Michael Kinsley really fucked this one up.  Reviewing Glenn Greenwald's new book, he writes:

Through all the bombast, Greenwald makes no serious effort to defend as a matter of law the leaking of official secrets to reporters. He merely asserts that “there are both formal and unwritten legal protections offered to journalists that are unavailable to anyone else. While it is considered generally legitimate for a journalist to publish government secrets, for example, that’s not the case for someone acting in any other capacity.”

Here at last, I thought, is something Greenwald and I can agree on. The Constitution is for everyone. There shouldn’t be a special class of people called “journalists” with privileges like publishing secret government documents.

I absolutely agree with Kinsley on this.  Journalists should not get special dispensation for reciept and/or reporting of offical secrets.  The faulty premise of that dispensation is that journalists aren't receiving state secrets for their own benefit, but rather so they can report them to the public.  If so, the dispensation should be for those who disclose secrets for a public good, regardless of their profession.  

Here's where Kinsley goes off the rails:

The trouble is this: Greenwald says that Snowden told him to “use your journalistic judgment to only publish those documents that the public should see and that can be revealed without harm to any innocent people.” Once again, this testimony proves the opposite of what Greenwald and Snowden seem to think. Snowden may be willing to trust Greenwald to make this judgment correctly — but are you? And even if you do trust Greenwald’s judgment, which on the evidence might be unwise, how can we be sure the next leaker will be so scrupulous?
...
The question is who decides. It seems clear, at least to me, that the private companies that own newspapers, and their employees, should not have the final say over the release of government secrets, and a free pass to make them public with no legal consequences. In a democracy (which, pace Greenwald, we still are), that decision must ultimately be made by the government. No doubt the government will usually be overprotective of its secrets, and so the process of decision-making — whatever it turns out to be — should openly tilt in favor of publication with minimal delay. But ultimately you can’t square this circle. Someone gets to decide, and that someone cannot be Glenn Greenwald.

Well why not?(1)  Is it not concievably possible that someone in the govermment, acting under the enabling protections of the Official Secrets Act(2), is a bigger dick than Glenn Greenwald?  And might cause greater harm than GG could, in the exercise of that dickishness?

How about: Someone gets to decide, but that someone cannot be the someone (or the Administration) who benefits from deciding in favor of secrecy.  As Kinsley might say -- the Constitution is for everyone.  There shouldn't be a special class of people called "the government" with privileges like making their violations of the constitution secret.

(1) I see Erik Wemple asks the same question.
(2) The Offical Secrets Act is not an actual U.S. law, but then again, Kinsley's "secret government documents" isn't an actual legal concept either.

Grand Old Police Blotter: Guilty, Guilty, Guilty Edition

Update:  Convicted criminal Dinesh D'Souza is guilty.

Update II:  D'Souza says he deeply regrets getting caught.

Update III:  10 to 16 months sounds about right. Expect D'Souza to postpone his World Victimization Tour until after sentencing.

Update IV: PoliticHO/AP are claiming that "His plea agreement calls for a sentence of 10 to 16 months in prison." That's almost certainly incorrect. That's a possible sentence, but not an agreed one.

Update V: Wingnut wankers are whimpering that the law D'Souza violated was unconstitutional. Maybe they should should have tipped Brafman off to that brilliant defense before his client entered his plea. [/sarcasm]

D'Souza's Going D'own

Judgment day has arrived for D'Bag D'Souza, and signs are he's looking to d'eal:

A federal court hearing has been scheduled for Tuesday morning in which the conservative author and filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza is expected to plead guilty to a charge stemming from campaign finance violations, according to a notice sent out by the government....

Decisions to plead guilty are subject to change at the last minute, and a defendant like Mr. D’Souza could decide instead to go to trial. The judge, Richard M. Berman, was to oversee jury selection on Tuesday morning, and opening arguments were expected to take place that day.

I hate it when the Feds coddle criminals like D'Bag. He has no defense. Literally. (Repeat: Literally. His own shyster said so.)

The judge also denied a request by D'Souza, a prominent critic of President Barack Obama, to seek the production of evidence that would support his claim the prosecution was in retaliation for his political activities.

"The court concludes the defendant has respectfully submitted no evidence he was selectively prosecuted," Berman said.

Any deal by which D'Souza avoids prison time is a miscarriage of justice. 

(For a laughable and poorly written counterpoint, see Rev. Moon's shriveled organ.)

The Benghazi Beer Koozie Collection

Collect all eight!  Trade them with your friends!

Featuring lifelike portraits of the Heroes of Benghazi -- Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, Reince Priebus, Lara Logan, Larry Klayman, Lindsey Graham, Dylan Davies and Jon Karl -- each handsome "kooz" is insulated from criticism and holds a 12 ounce can of Pale Fail or Boehner Beer.

And coming soon: The Heroes(tm) will appear on beanbag ashtrays, crocheted toilet roll koozies, and all-weather lawn jockeys.

Lame Change

Having lost all credibility with the hiring of Megan McArdle, Bloomberg Media has decided to double down on the crapitude with its latest hires:

John Heilemann and Mark Halperin, political journalists known for their detailed, gossip-filled books on the past two presidential campaigns, will join Bloomberg in the coming days to start a new site that will focus on American politics and policy.

The new project, Bloomberg Politics, is part of a broader strategy put in place by Justin B. Smith, who was appointed chief executive of Bloomberg Media Group last summer after serving as president of Atlantic Media.

Mr. Heilemann and Mr. Halperin, who are the authors of the best sellers “Game Change” and “Double Down,” are the “epitome of the type of quality journalistic talent that moves seamlessly between different kinds of platforms,” Mr. Smith said in an interview.

They will anchor a daily television program that will also stream online, as well as write news articles and take part in live events. A start date for the site has yet to be set, but will most likely be months away.

I thought these clowns existed to make Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski appear less cretinous, and Mike Allen and Howie Kurtz less conflicted.  To complete the loaf-rolling, BM is also hiring "Jonathan Allen, a former White House bureau chief for Politico, ... as the new Washington bureau chief."

L'Chaim

Remember last December, when I was bitching about some medical problems in an extremely vague manner?

That was some riveting blogging.  I'm not going to do that again, so continue reading!

The good news is that my condition has improved considerably.  The procedure I had was successful, and the condition which necessitated the procedure has been beaten back to a draw.  In the long run, we're all fucked.  But not today.

For everyone who offered their good wishes and/or advice, I remain grateful. Thank you again.