Star Ledger Victim Blames And Shames In Wake Of Brussels

By William Teach March 25, 2016 – 7:17 am

The Star Ledger is one of the leading papers in New Jersey, and one of the primary sources for news and opinion at NJ.com. Obviously, they are vastly left leaning, and are very upset post-Brussels

Religious bigotry after Brussels: Still not ok.

After the horrifying attacks in Brussels, leading Republicans are rushing to advocate policies motivated by malice against Muslims and a hunger to appear tough. That’s both predictable and dangerous.

We have Ted Cruz calling for a resumption of NYPD spying on Muslim Americans, and Donald Trump talking about the need for religious tests and torture.

These ineffective, extremist solutions will only make matters worse. They will push us further in the direction of Europe, where anti-immigrant sentiment has helped terrorist recruitment to flourish.

Got that? They’re blaming the victims, who have had to put up with increases in crime, sexual assaults, demands for Islamic law to be practiced in Belgium and other EU nations, and terrorist attacks, and have been concerned over violent Muslims infiltrating the nations with all the “refugees.” The SLEB is blaming the citizens of the European countries for being concerned about the threat from radical Islam, rather than blaming those who practice and shelter radical Islam? This is known as “victim shaming.”

On Wednesday, [Trump] told Piers Morgan that there is “very little assimilation” of Muslims in European cities like Brussels. Their communities are “absolutely not reporting” suspected terrorists, he said, and need to “open up to society.”

All true. The heavily immigrant neighborhood in Brussels where the Paris attackers lay low has become a refuge for the Islamic State, made worse by a widespread distrust of law enforcement that has bred a code of silence. Think of our own inner cities, where gang members thrive because of a fear of police and snitching.

Again, blaming the victims, rather than the bad actors.

Look at the ugliness that erupted in Bridgewater and Basking Ridge, where Muslims who had lived in town for years, served on the school board or even as mayor simply tried to build a mosque where their families could worship and were rejected.

I’ve got one word for the SLEB: Rotterham. Look it up. That is what happens when misplaced Leftist diversity, multiculturalism, and tolerance go wrong.

Yes, we need to find better ways to deter terror attacks like the one in Brussels. But turning on people like them is not the solution.

It’s an interesting dynamic. Left wing rags like the Star Ledger are quick to blame all legal and responsible gun owners when there is a mass shooting (usually by someone not legally eligible to own a gun, and often by a left winger), yet, when there is a terrorist attack by someone proclaiming they are doing it in the name of Islam, well, we cannot even ask questions. We cannot say that this is being done in the name of Islam. And the victims and those concerned about the spread and threat from radical Islam must be blamed and shamed, rather than wonder what is going on with Islam, and how this can be stopped from within.

These same left wing sites are quick to complain about victim blaming and shaming on most other issues, but, they protect radical Islam. For which the Islamists thank them. They are Useful Idiots.

Read: Star Ledger Victim Blames And Shames In Wake Of Brussels »

Posted in Journalistic Malpractice, RoP | 3 Comments | Trackback URL

NY Times Very Upset Over NC Law Refusing “Transgenders” Access To Opposite Sex Bathrooms

By William Teach March 25, 2016 – 7:00 am

I was wondering if the NY Times would jump into the debate over the just passed and signed North Carolina law that restricts cities from passing laws that allow people who feel they are the opposite sex from using opposite sex bathrooms, changing rooms, and showers. They didn’t disappoint, and, they seem more upset about this than over Islamists spreading their hate through violence in an attack that killed dozens, including Americans, not too mention the hundreds hurt

Transgender Law Makes North Carolina Pioneer in Bigotry

Officials in Charlotte, N.C., spent more than a year carefully considering and debating an antidiscrimination ordinance that was passed in February to promote the city’s culture of inclusiveness. State lawmakers quashed it on Wednesday by passing an appalling, unconstitutional bill that bars transgender people from using public restrooms that match their gender identity and prohibits cities from passing antidiscrimination ordinances that protect gay and transgender people.

Citizens of Charlotte were appalled at the passage of the bill allowing men and women pretending to be the opposite sex to go into areas that would put them in contact with their children in an inappropriate manner. The editorial does forget to mention how this law is in any way constitutional, but, then, the NY Times also thinks that gun confiscation is Constitutional, so, there’s that.

That threat exists only in the imagination of bigots. Supporters of the measures have been unable to point to a single case that justifies the need to legislate where people should be allowed to use the toilet. North Carolina is the first state to pass such a provision.

So, we’re to wait till there is a case? Liberals love to trot out the “won’t someone think of the children” talking point, yet, in this case, they won’t think of the children, show shouldn’t be exposed to people pretending to be the opposite sex in their bathrooms, locker rooms, and changing rooms.

Under the law, people in North Carolina are required to use public restrooms that match the gender on their birth certificate. Transgender people in the state can request to have their birth certificate changed only if they have had gender reassignment surgery. Many transgender people cannot afford surgery or choose not to have it.

Well, that’s their problem, is it not? Why should the children be exposed to Someone Else’s problem for idiotic far left patronizing beliefs?

North Carolina could face serious economic repercussions from the law. It can expect a backlash from leading employers, a potential cut in federal education funding and lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of the law. American Airlines, which has a hub in Charlotte, and PayPal, which recently announced it would create 400 jobs in the state, are among several companies that have already criticized the law.

At the end of the day, though, this kerfuffle will drop out of the public conscious, and the companies will forget their apoplexy in favor of making money. Furthermore, why no link about the constitutionality? Probably because there is nothing unconstitutional, by either the state or federal constitutions, that bars the state from restricting cities from passing laws that allow people to use the opposite sex bathrooms and such due to their beliefs.

Mr. McCrory, who is running for re-election, may have assumed the bill would help him in a tight race against Attorney General Roy Cooper, a Democrat who called the measure shameful. “Not only does this hurt North Carolina families, but it hurts our economy as well,” Mr. Cooper said in a video message. Voters should reject the candidate who made the state a pioneer in bigotry.

The law protects citizens, including children, from having to deal with opposite sex people in their bathroom. Said transgenders are a tiny, tiny, tiny minority, while there are lots of children. Oh, and we have a saying here in North Carolina: if you don’t like the way we do things, I-95 goes north and south, as does I-85. I-40 goes west. Pick a direction, and mind your own business.

Crossed at Right Wing News.

Read: NY Times Very Upset Over NC Law Refusing “Transgenders” Access To Opposite Sex Bathrooms »

Posted in NC News, Wonky Media | 11 Comments | Trackback URL

Delicate Snowflake Advises Dumbing Down STEM Course For Women

By William Teach March 24, 2016 – 5:11 pm

What is it about Liberalism that makes them think that women and minorities are incapable of meeting the standards laid out? When it comes to voter ID, Democrats think Blacks are too stupid, poor, and incompetent to obtain a proper ID. Then we have this, as found by National Review’s Katherine Timpf

Female Researcher: We Must Make STEM Courses ‘Less Competitive’ to Be More ‘Inclusive’ of Women

A doctoral candidate at the University of North Dakota published a paper suggesting that we should make Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) courses more “inclusive” of women by making then “less competitive,” which is about the most sexist thing I’ve ever heard.

“There is an opportunity for STEM courses to reduce the perception of courses as difficult and unfriendly through language use in the syllabi, and also as a guide for how to use less competitive teaching methods and grading profiles that could improve the experience of female students,” Laura Parson wrote in the paper.

In other words:

Women are so fragile that a syllabus with “unfriendly” language would be enough to scare them out of pursuing the careers they would otherwise want to pursue. Men can handle taking a course even if a syllabus makes it sound “difficult,” but women cannot because they are weaker and less confident.

Oh, and, use “less competitive teaching methods” because women, unlike men, just cannot handle the pressure of competition, which is also why we should probably stop these professors from grading on a curve, too:

The “paper” is all about feminism and wondering if STEM is gender biased. I have to wonder how all the other women who enter STEM disciplines get by. Oh, right, most are not hothouse flowers who need to be protected by the big heavy hand of Government and Liberalism to get by. Seriously, Liberals are so patronizing in thinking women cannot get by on the merits, and need everything minimized.

Read: Delicate Snowflake Advises Dumbing Down STEM Course For Women »

Posted in Liberal World | 6 Comments | Trackback URL

If All You See…

By William Teach March 24, 2016 – 1:00 pm

…is a wonderful field that should be replaced with wind turbines, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is DaTechGuy, with a post by Fausta about Obama’s speech in Cuba.

Read: If All You See… »

Posted in If All You See | 2 Comments | Trackback URL

Man With Largest Carbon Footprint In World Says ISIS Not A Big Threat, But Climate Change Is

By William Teach March 24, 2016 – 10:30 am

This comes from a guy who just took a long fossil fueled flight to Cuba, with all the extra planes, then all the fossil fueled vehicles, followed by one to Argentina

(CNS News) “Groups like ISIL can’t destroy us, they can’t defeat us,” President Obama told reporters in Argentina on Wednesday. “They’re not an existential threat to us,” he said.

But a few sentences later, he described climate change as a “major” problem.

On a day when morgues and hospitals in Brussels were still trying to identify the dead and the grievously injured, Americans among them, Obama described the terrorists as “vicious killers and murderers who have perverted one of the world’s great religions, and their primary power, in addition to killing lives, is to strike fear in our societies, to disrupt our societies.”

He went on to say that we should “not respond with fear.” This from a guy whose voter base feels “unsafe” from things like speakers who have different viewpoints, chalk drawings, mean words, and certain flags, among others. They freak out about people clapping. And they’re uber-afraid of a tiny 1.4 degree F increase in global temperatures over a period of 160 years.

The president told people to remember that terrorists “do no have power over us” because they “offer nothing except death.”

In the next sentence, he mentioned climate change:

“And so it’s important for the U.S. president and the U.S. government to be able to work with people who are building and who are creating things and creating jobs and trying to solve major problems like climate change…”

Strange, coming from a man surrounded by tons of security, who also uses lots and lots of fossil fueled travel.

Perhaps people wouldn’t be so concerned if we had any confidence that the President gave a damn about stopping Islamic radicals, rather than telling us we need to accommodate them while also attempting to disarm the citizens of this country.

Read: Man With Largest Carbon Footprint In World Says ISIS Not A Big Threat, But Climate Change Is »

Posted in AGW Idiocy, Barry Obama, Global Warming | 6 Comments | Trackback URL

North Carolina Bans Cities From Pulling “Transgender” Bathroom Shenanigans

By William Teach March 24, 2016 – 8:32 am

There aren’t any opinion pieces thundering in Outrage from the major national news sources yet, but, it has given the NY Times and others a sad

North Carolina legislators, in a whirlwind special session on Wednesday, passed a wide-ranging bill barring transgender people from bathrooms and locker rooms that do not match the gender on their birth certificates.

Republicans unanimously supported the bill, while in the Senate, Democrats walked out in protest. “This is a direct affront to equality, civil rights and local autonomy,” the Senate Democratic leader, Dan Blue, said in a statement.

North Carolina’s governor, Pat McCrory, a Republican, signed the bill late Wednesday night.

The session, which was abruptly convened by Republican lawmakers on Tuesday, came in response to an antidiscrimination ordinance approved by the state’s largest city, Charlotte, last month. That ordinance provided protections based on sexual orientation, gender expression and gender identity, including letting transgender people use the public bathrooms that correspond with their gender identity, not gender at birth.

Parents all over Charlotte were livid that someone who is of a different biological sex than their child would be able to enter the bathroom with their child. The bill puts an end to this idiocy.

Republicans stressed that the bill was passed not just to protect women and children from unwanted and potentially dangerous intrusions by biological males, but also to clarify legislative authority. On the House floor, Representative Dan Bishop, a Republican who sponsored the bill, described Charlotte’s decision to enact an antidiscrimination measure as an “egregious overreach.” With the state bill, he said, “What we are doing is preserving a sense of privacy people have long expected.”

The state does have primacy of law. For instance, I remember back to my college days in Greenville, NC, where the city stated there couldn’t be more than 3 unrelated people living in a domicile. State law said 5. This rarely came up, because it was mostly ignored, as many rented homes and apartments would have 4 people, but, some people we sorta knew from having good parties got busted, and the city was telling them “no more than 3.” State law takes precedence. Isn’t this similar to what liberals were saying in regards to Arizona’s illegal immigrants law, as well with a few other states? Yes, yes it is.

Some large firms in the state, many having policies that allow transgender access to bathrooms by identity, opposed the new bill. Dow Chemical, a major employer in the state, called the bill an “attempt to undermine equality.”

Those companies are welcome to have their own policies which they can force on their employees who can get a different job. This law says that it cannot be forced on citizens by Government.

Let’s switch to WRAL, a major Raleigh news organization

A proposal that codifies a statewide nondiscrimination policy in employment and public accommodations and prohibits North Carolina cities or towns from enacting stricter guidelines was signed into law by Gov. Pat McCrory late Wednesday after clearing the General Assembly in less than nine hours.

“I have signed legislation passed by a bipartisan majority to stop this breach of basic privacy and etiquette which was to go into effect April 1,” McCrory said in a statement. “Although other items included in this bill should have waited until regular session, this bill does not change existing rights under state or federal law.

“It is now time for the city of Charlotte elected officials and state elected officials to get back to working on the issues most important to our citizens.”

I like how McCrory pulled out the “do some real work” card.

The bill excludes gays and lesbians from discrimination protections, however, prompting an outcry from LGBT advocates, some corporations and Attorney General Roy Cooper, the Democratic candidate for governor.

No, it doesn’t, it provides for protections for all citizens, regardless of sex, make believe sex, religion, creed, or color. It treats all the same, as the law should. No one should be placed on a higher pedestal than another citizen.

The biggest part of the Public Facilities Privacy & Security Act is about making sure that local governments, agencies, and school boards do not allow people of a different biological sex to use a bathroom and/or changing facility that is not of their biological sex. They can make a single person bathroom/changing room as multi-sex to accommodate. If liberals want to pull these types of shenanigans, perhaps they should go back to their northern towns and states which they’ve ruined with their leftist policies, and stop bringing their insanity down here.

Read: North Carolina Bans Cities From Pulling “Transgender” Bathroom Shenanigans »

Posted in NC News | 22 Comments | Trackback URL

NY Times: Brussels Survived Terrorism, But May Not Survive Climate Change Or Something

By William Teach March 24, 2016 – 8:09 am

For anyone who follows the issue of anthropogenic climate change, ie, Hotcoldwetdry because Someone Else refuses to allow government to force them to change their behavior as well as tax them into a much higher cost of living, you just knew that someone would link Brussels and climate change at some point. It was inevitable. The winner of Climate Derangement Syndrome is the NY Times’ Nicholas Kristoff, which features a tag line on the main opinion page listing “Brussels survived this week’s terror attacks, but it may not survive climate change.”

Terrorists, Bathtubs, and Snakes

(Kristoff starts out by noting that more Americans have died from falling in bathtubs, how America spends a ton on counter-terrorism, and how the human brain misjudges risk)

On the same day as the attacks, a paper by James E. Hansen and other climate experts was released arguing that carbon emissions are transforming our world far more quickly than expected, in ways that may inundate coastal cities and cause storms more horrendous than any in modern history. The response? A yawn.

Hansen is an eminent former NASA scientist, but he’s also an outlier in his timing forecasts, and I’m not qualified to judge whether he’s correct. Yet whatever the disagreement about the timeline, there is scientific consensus that emissions on our watch are transforming our globe for 10,000 years to come. As an important analysis in Nature Climate Change put it, “The next few decades offer a brief window of opportunity to minimize large-scale and potentially catastrophic climate change that will extend longer than the entire history of human civilization thus far.”

To put it another way, this year’s election choices may shape coastlines 10,000 years from now. Donald Trump and Ted Cruz have both mocked the idea of human-caused climate change, with Trump suggesting that it is a hoax invented by China to harm the American economy (he now says that last point was a joke).

The upshot is that Brussels survived this week’s terrorist attacks, but it may not survive climate change (much of the city is less than 100 feet above sea level).

The minimum height above sea level is around 43 feet. The average is 91 feet. Is Kristof seriously suggesting that the sea will rise this much within a few decades, as Hansen’s paper is about doom in a few decades? This is the worst kind of alarmism.

Oh, and not all survived this week’s terrorist attacks in Brussels. There were at least 34 killed, and the death toll my rise, not too mention all those who lost limbs. Rather uncaring of Nicholas, but, then, that’s leftism, prioritizing Things That Matter.

Doesn’t it seem prudent to invest in efforts to avert not only shoe bombers but also the drowning of the world’s low-lying countries?

Humanity should have stopped the great floodwater melt starting 20,000 years ago, which raised sea levels well over 400 feet over thousands of years. And actual sea level data suggests that the sea rise is exactly average for the Holocene, meaning it is much less than should be happening during this warm period, regardless of causation.

Unfortunately, our brains are not well adapted to most of the biggest threats we actually face in the 21st century. Warn us that climate change is destroying our planet, and only a small part of our prefrontal cortex (which worries about the future) will glimmer; then we’ll go back to worrying about snakes or their modern equivalent — terrorists.

Tiny increases in average global temperatures, regardless of causation, will not destroy the planet. It’s done fine at higher temperatures, such as during the Medieval Warm Period and the Roman Warm Period. This opinion piece has devolved into true Cult of Climastrology derangement.

And this is a disgraceful piece, blowing off the deaths of fellow human beings as being inconsequential in light of Hotcoldwetdry.

Crossed at Right Wing News.

Read: NY Times: Brussels Survived Terrorism, But May Not Survive Climate Change Or Something »

Posted in Global Warming, Unhinged Tools | 15 Comments | Trackback URL

Questions: Is The Site Running Better Than It Was? Anyone See Any Issues?

By William Teach March 23, 2016 – 7:08 pm

The Virtual Private Server I use has been having problems for awhile now, but, it has gotten much worse over the last few months. You may have noticed some downtimes, for which I will either notice and reset the server, or it will automatically reset. But, one big problem was that the CPU usage would go and spike at 100% and not come down, while the RAM would barely be used. That’s a big deal, because RAM is unlimited, while the CPU causes problems for others.

Last week, there was a big spike, and it was causing major problems, so Dreamhost shut the site down by changing the folder name (they also sent me the wrong email, which made some threats about cutting me off permanently, which, as you can imagine, sent me into apoplexy). I got everything working again, and then went to check into a few things.

I cleaned out a whole bunch of deactivated plugins that I will never use again. I cleaned out the backup folder. Apparently, the plugin was saving all the backups in the server folder, when it was supposed to email them to me. At least 1GB going back to 2013. I have a new plugin to replace it, just have to set it up.

Bigger, I found a few possible issues. One is the Shareaholic plugin, which has some really negative reviews as of late. Turning it off seemed to seriously reduce the CPU load. Deleting it totally did even more. Notice that the sharing buttons at the end of posts are different. I’m using the Jetpack included ones (Jetpack is something that comes with WordPress).

I also whacked W3 Total Cache, which had been giving me some issues for a bit, namely that it wouldn’t ever let me clear the cache, and went back to WP Super Cache. It is very powerful, but, sometimes it will make it seem as if nothing has changed.

So, does the site seem more stable, load at a decent speed? Anything weird you’ve noticed?

Read: Questions: Is The Site Running Better Than It Was? Anyone See Any Issues? »

Posted in Web/Tech | 10 Comments | Trackback URL

Catching And Using Rainwater In Colorado Is A Criminal Offense

By William Teach March 23, 2016 – 3:59 pm

It’s rare that I will an article at Joe Romm’s George Soros funded Climate Progress that makes me bob my head in agreement, but, they usually avoid discussing real environmentalism, not too mention silly government laws

In a state where recreational marijuana was legalized two years ago and extreme weather has caused serious concerns, one mundane drought-fighting tool remains illegal: using rain barrels to catch rainwater from roofs for use in gardens.

Despite the fact that the American West is facing serious water shortages — Lake Mead, for example, is at its lowest recorded levels since the 1930s — recent proposals to legalize rain barrels in Colorado have been stalled or defeated.

But this could soon change. A bill to legalize rain barrels is making its way through the Colorado state legislature, which would allow homeowners to possess two 55-gallon rain barrels to be used to collect and store rainwater for use in gardens and yards. The bill overwhelmingly passed the Colorado state House two weeks ago on a 61-3 vote, but faces an uncertain future in the Republican-controlled Senate later this week.

It’s a silly law, and Republicans would be fools to stand against in the Colorado Senate, and some plan to block it, along with some ranchers and others, because, what should be a very simple issue, namely, rain falls on your property and you catch it for later usage, has become all sorts of complicated when Government gets involved. Quite frankly, limiting people to two barrels is silly. Most people do not need that many. My neighbors have one, for their nice little garden.

And this, water advocates believe, is key to making real, lasting change when it comes to water conservation measures: make environmentally-friendly policies available for consumers to choose to use them.

I’ll agree with that, rather than implementing top down, Big Government, domineering rules and laws.

Read: Catching And Using Rainwater In Colorado Is A Criminal Offense »

Posted in Environment | 6 Comments | Trackback URL

If All You See…

By William Teach March 23, 2016 – 1:00 pm

…is a sea that is rising to make tens of millions refugees, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Michelle Malkin, with a post (written by Doug Powers) about safe spacers at Emory University.

Read: If All You See… »

Posted in If All You See | 1 Comment | Trackback URL
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