There is One Man Who Can Challenge the Gun Lobby

Jon Stewart doesn't challenge gun ownership per se, but rather the sh%$ storm freakout accompanying Bob Costas' comments on gun violence in the context of the Jovan Belcher murder/suicide.

He made the rather unremarkable observation that absent Belcher's (legally owned) firearms, he and Kasandra Perkins might still be alive today.

The NRA, and its inadequately endowed paranoid ilk, want to make discussions of gun violence, and gun culture literally unspeakable in the media.

We Have Met the Enemy and He is Us

Our Military is now objectively pro bombing children:

“It kind of opens our aperture,” said Army Lt. Col. Marion “Ced” Carrington, whose unit, 1st Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment, was assisting the Afghan police. “In addition to looking for military-age males, it’s looking for children with potential hostile intent.”

So targeting children, "Opens our aperture?"

So not only are you going to target children, you are going to be ecstatic about it.  It's like the original Deathrace 2000 movie, the one with David Carradine, where points were awarded not for skill, but for the helplessness of the victim and the brutality of the killing.

Colonel Carrington, you had better hope that there is no God, and no afterlife, because if there is either, your eternity is not going to be pleasant.

Wanker of the Day

Brendan Nyhan, who seems to think that fact checkers should put their thumbs on the scale so they can condemn the standard political fibbers and the pathological liars in equal numbers.

Read the exchange in the comments between him and Dan Froomkin, where the latter eviscerates Nyhan for his dumb-ass "a pox on both their houses" bullsh%$.

Shame on the Columbia Journalism review for publishing this crap.

Can They Both Lose? Please?

Ku Klux Klan protests Westboro Baptist Church

Worst Marketing Decsion Ever

Worst Marketing Decision Ever: Drycleaner Puts "Pro-life" Message on Their Hangers



Yes, this is real.

Conviction in Satmar Sex Abuse Case

Notwithstanding a systematic pattern of harassment and coercion by the Satmar Hasidic community, the mother and daughter stood firm, and so-called counsellor Nechemya Weberman was convicted of sexual abuse over 3 years of a girl starting when she was twelve"

Sexual abuse in the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community has long been hidden. Victims who came forward were intimidated into silence; their families were shunned; cases were dropped for a lack of cooperation.

But on Monday, a State Supreme Court jury in Brooklyn delivered a stunning victory to prosecutors and victims’ advocates, convicting a 54-year-old unlicensed therapist who is a prominent member of the Satmar Hasidic community of Williamsburg of repeatedly sexually abusing a young girl who had been sent to him for help.

“The veil of secrecy has been lifted,” said Charles J. Hynes, the Brooklyn district attorney. “The wall that has existed in parts of these communities has now been broken through. And as far as I’m concerned, it is very clear to me that it is only going to get better for people who are victimized in these various communities.”

The case against the therapist, Nechemya Weberman, was a significant milestone for Mr. Hynes, whose office has been criticized for not acting aggressively enough against sexual abusers in the borough’s large and politically connected ultra-Orthodox community.

The verdict represented the first time Mr. Hynes’ office has won a conviction of a prominent member of the Satmar Hasidic community of Williamsburg for child sexual abuse.

The case also offered a glimpse of the Satmar community’s shadowy efforts to enforce rigid codes of behavior — particularly for young girls — by allowing so-called modesty committees to intimidate girls for wearing revealing clothing or using cellphones, and requiring parents to send children judged to be breaking rules to religious counselors, many of whom are not licensed and charge high fees.

Perhaps even more significant than the Brooklyn DA managing to crack the ultra-orthodox Omertà (code of silence) in order to get a conviction, but that he also issued an informal warning against any further harassment of the victim or her family by the community.

BTW, the halacha (Jewish law) is clear here:  It is required that these allegations be taken to civil courts, because a Beit Din (religious court) has no authority beyond moral persuasion in the US.

Nicholas Kristof is an Evil Person

I'm not sure what I can say about a man who says this (No link, not ever, he is on my "do not link" list after this):

This is painful for a liberal to admit, but conservatives have a point when they suggest that America's safety net can sometimes entangle people in a soul-crushing dependency. Our poverty programs do rescue many people, but other times they backfire. Some young people here don't join the military (a traditional escape route for poor, rural Americans) because it's easier to rely on food stamps and disability payments.

You have to understand that he came to this conclusion after talking to ONE guy from Kentucky, and an American Enterprise Institute "Scholar" who believes that all social welfare programs should be block granted to the states, so the money can be given to rich people.

You see, he thinks that the money spent on kids who get SSI, most of whom actually need the support, should instead be spent on should be spent on early childhood development.^*

Somehow Mr. Kristof thinks that overpaid people with cushy jobs, like New York Times OP/ED columnists, shouldn't pay a bit more in taxes, or pay a bit more to have their lawns manicured, or their tables bussed, or their clothes cleaned, or their floors swept.  Somehow, that suggestion is simply gauche.

I do not have the words to express my level of contempt for Kristof as a failed human being.

Fortunately, Charlie Pierce does have the words.

Go read/

H/t Atrios.

^*BTW, when Michelle Rhee went to war with the teachers' unions in Washington, DC, she never had a plan for early childhood development. This is typical of people like Rhee and Kristoff. They are less interested in finding solutions than they are in demonizing the least amongst us.