Whither the Kurds?

Posted on October 22, 2014 by The Political Hat

     The Islamic State (AKA “ISIL” or “ISIS”), have well established that they are monsters who have no qualms about slaughtering innocents left and right.  Much as the Islamic State have become the modern day Khmer Rouge, Barack Obama has been the modern day version of Jimmy Carter, in that neither one seems to care about the slaughter much.

     Perhaps more freighting of a parallel are the actions of Turkey.  Not only have they allowed the Islamic State to open up its first consulate in Istanbul, but are actually helping fight against the Kurds!

     Despite this set-back, the Kurds are managing to fight back and at least hold the Islamic State temporarily at bay, saving untold numbers of women from a fate worse than death. The contribution of an all female battalion has amply demonstrated that they will not easily surrender to the Islamic State… and even to Turkey.

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Nevada Early Vote Update 2014 (3rd Day of 14)

Posted on October 21, 2014 by The Political Hat

     After three days of early voting, the Republicans have a statewide raw voter lead of 5261 votes out of 57,910 cast, including absentee ballots returned. 5% of registered voters have already voted. The voter lead of 9% for Republicans after the third day of early voting shows in increasing lead and a lead of 14% above their statewide registration deficit of 5%.

     In Clark County, the Republicans lead for the second day in a row, increasing their lead in early votes to 220 voters. With returned absentees included, that lead grows to 299 voters. The Republicans now lead in all counties. In 2010, the Democrats had a lead 8% in Clark County, while in 2012, their lead was 20%.

     The overall voter turnout in Clark County so far has been 27,897, which is 60% of the turnout in 2010. As it stands, the Republican turn-out in the thee state Senate races that will determine the control of the state Senate (SD8, SD9, SD20) show an early voter lead of between 6–12 %. The Republicans are less than 200 votes behind the Democrats in the Clark County portion of the 4th Congressional district. Since the 1/4 of the district outside of Clark County is heavily Republican, with Nye county alone having a Republican voter edge in early voting above 300, the 4th Congressional district is looking like a likely Republican pick-up. At this point, the Democrats may very lose not only every single partisan statewide office, but even the Assembly, where they currently have a majority of 27 to 15.

     In Washoe county, they have a lead of 14%. At this point, the Republicans lead in early voting and absentees in every single county in Nevada.

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Queering the Inquisition

Posted on October 21, 2014 by The Political Hat

     It has firmly been established that the Progressive Left have used laws against discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation/preference as an excuse to violate the 1st Amendment rights of others.

     Now, they are going after pastors who dare say in church that men are not men, nor men women, and that boys shouldn’t be able to use girls restrooms and visa versa:

“The city of Houston has issued subpoenas demanding a group of pastors turn over any sermons dealing with homosexuality, gender identity or Annise Parker, the city’s first openly lesbian mayor. And those ministers who fail to comply could be held in contempt of court.”

     An attorney fighting the subpoenas stated:

“The city council and its attorneys are engaging in an inquisition designed to stifle any critique of its actions”

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Nevada Early Vote Update 2014 (2nd Day of 14)

Posted on October 20, 2014 by The Political Hat

     After the second day of early voting, the Republicans have a statewide raw voter lead of 2775 votes out of 35889 cast, including absentee ballots returned. 3% of registered voters have already voted.

     The voter lead of 8% for the Republicans is 13% above than their voter registration deficit of 5%. This increase in their early vote lead is particularly surprising when one considers that the rural counties did not have early voting on Sunday.

     In Clark County, the Republican actually lead in early voting by 15 voters. In 2010 the Democrats had a 8% early voter lead of 2616 voters. In 2012 it was 16% with over 13,000 more Democrat voters than Republicans. With a registration edge of over 100,000 voters in Clark County, the turnout so far will be devastating to the Democrats

     The overall voter turnout in Clark County was 17,512. This is much lower than the 29,633 voters who turned out on the first two days of early voting in 2010. The Democrats voter lead in Clark county after the first day of early voting in 2010 was ca 9%, while it a bare Republican plurality in 2014. If this holds up through the first week of voting, the Republicans will not only sweep all partisan statewide offices and the state Senate, but may even be able to pick-up the Assembly and the 4th Congressional district.

     The Republicans currently lead in the three state Senate races (SD8, SD9, SD20) that will determine control of the chamber.

     In Washoe county, the Republicans are ahead by 1070 votes out of 7910 votes for absentee and early voting, with a 679 vote lead in early voting alone. Washoe has been the bellwether county in Nevada, with no one winning statewide without winning Washoe since Reid’s very narrow win over Ensign in 1998. With Clark County a tie, and the GOP comfortably ahead after the first two days, combined with the expected blowout for the GOP from the rural counties, the Republicans remain in a strong starting position.

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Separation of Church and State? Pastors Forced to Officiate Same-Sex Weddings

Posted on October 20, 2014 by The Political Hat

“What all the wise men promised has not happened, and what all the damned fools said would happen has come to pass.”

— Lord Melbourne

     Remember how proponents of Same-Sex Marriage said that even though they will force businesses to endorse and help celebrate Same-Sex Marriage, they were not going to force churches to endorse it contrary to their religious teachings?

Yup, that was a lie.

     A Minister, in Idaho of all places, it now being forced to officiate Same-Sex Weddings or go to jail:

“City officials told Donald Knapp that he and his wife Evelyn, both ordained ministers who run Hitching Post Wedding Chapel, are required to perform such ceremonies or face months in jail and/or thousands of dollars in fines. The city claims its ‘non-discrimination’ ordinance requires the Knapps to perform same-sex wedding ceremonies now that the courts have overridden Idaho’s voter-approved constitutional amendment that affirmed marriage as the union of a man and a woman.”

“‘The government should not force ordained ministers to act contrary to their faith under threat of jail time and criminal fines,’ said ADF Senior Legal Counsel Jeremy Tedesco. ‘Many have denied that pastors would ever be forced to perform ceremonies that are completely at odds with their faith, but that’s what is happening here – and it’s happened this quickly. The city is on seriously flawed legal ground, and our lawsuit intends to ensure that this couple’s freedom to adhere to their own faith as pastors is protected just as the First Amendment intended.’

“‘The government exists to protect and respect our freedoms, not attack them,’ Tedesco added. ‘The city cannot erase these fundamental freedoms and replace them with government coercion and intolerance.'”

     When the state can “balance” your rights, be they inalienable rights to made-up rights, they can “balance” them away.  In effect, you have no “right” unless the state says you do.  This is the ultimate goal of the Progressive Left.  Only the collective has rights, and the “collective” decides what those rights are.  Since the “collective” would never oppress itself, any denial of inalienable rights could never be “oppression.”

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Nevada Early Vote Update 2014 (1st Day of 14)

Posted on October 19, 2014 by The Political Hat

     After the first day of early voting, the Republicans have a statewide raw voter lead of 1413 votes out of 23637 cast, including absentee ballots returned.  2% of registered voters have already voted.  In 2010, the turnout was 65%, and if 2014 is similar, than ca 3% of the vote in Nevada has already been cast.

     The voter lead of 6% for the Republicans is 11% above than their voter registration deficit of 5%. Considering that statewide the Democrats have a 5% voter registration lead over Republicans, and 13% in Clark County (which has 70% of the states population), this is a good sign for Republicans even though it is only one day of early voting.

     In Clark County, Democrats only lead in early voting by 115 votes, despite the Democrats having a registration lead over Republicans of over 100,000 voters.  In comparison, they lead by 1589 votes on the first day in 2010, when Gov. Sandoval defeated Rory Reid by double digits and the Republicans received more voted cast for the Assembly than did the Democrats.

     This is especially ominous when one considered that every other county in Nevada, save for Mineral county, has a GOP registration plurality.  The overall voter turnout in Clark County was 10,312.  This is much lower than the 17,059 voters who turned out on the first day of early voting in 2010.  The Democrats voter lead in Clark county after the first day of early voting in 2010 was ca 10%, while it is less than 1% now (and it 14% above their voter registration deficit of 13%).  This lead is just 7% of what it was in 2010, and would extrapolate to a Democrat lead in early voting of only 2,800 voters.  Since early voting is likely to be ca 70% of the total votes cast, this would give the Democrats a lead in Clark County of only about 4000 vote on election day.  While it is too early to make a firm projection, the results from the first day of early voting are in stark contrast with the first day of early voting in 2010.

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News of the Week (October 19th, 2014)

Posted on October 19, 2014 by The Political Hat

 

News of the Week for October 19th, 2014


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The Bane of the Transgendered? The Radical Left, of Course!

Posted on October 18, 2014 by The Political Hat

     When the rabid Left runs out of straight White cis-gendered males to blame, they will turn on themselves.  Apparently, regardless of whether they consider a person who thinks they are the opposite sex to be the gender concomitant with their sex or the gender contrary to it, non-transgendered Leftists aren’t exactly praising them.

     Robert Stacy McCain has pointed out repeatedly how transgendered/transexual individuals are at odds with many radical feminists (radfem).  The former claim to be oppressed because of their “trans-ness” and also oppressed for being “women” (when they are actually a dude).  The later declare that the so-called “women” have, or were born with, a p*nis,1 and are thus still privileged.  This leads to the “stopped clock” situation where the radical feminists (of PIV = Rape infamy) are actually making sense.

     Of course, being accepted as being the opposite gender of what you are isn’t exactly a paragon of wonderfulness either.  Students at the all female Wellesley College rejected a woman who believed she was a man (i.e. a “Transgendered Man”)2 because “he” was a “White male”:

“Timothy, a white transgender student, was fully accepted by his her self-chosen male title and had found fellow students amenable to calling him her by male pronouns. But then Timothy made a fateful decision to run for student council for the position of multicultural affairs coordinator, or ‘MAC.’

“Timothy discovered that a Facebook campaign was launched calling on students to abstain from voting. If enough students refused to vote for Timothy–the only one on the ballot for the position–he she would be disqualified for the position by failing to get the minimum number of students to vote for him her.

“…

“‘It wasn’t about Timothy,’ the student behind the Abstain campaign told the paper. ‘I thought he’d do a perfectly fine job, but it just felt inappropriate to have a white man there. It’s not just about that position either. Having men in elected leadership positions undermines the idea of this being a place where women are the leaders.’

“So, despite the long-time claims of the women’s college that the transgendered are fully accepted, they really don’t want them in leadership because they identify as men. And, being white, Timothy had two strikes against him.”

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Purple Penguins and the Abolition of Gender

Posted on October 17, 2014 by The Political Hat

     The Progressive march towards a “non-gendered” world has been acceleration as of late.  The terms “Mother” and “Father” are set to be purged from California law, the pronouns “he” and “she” can now apply to anyone, and even stating a baby’s visually obvious gender is considered child abuse.

     But it is in the schools where this Gramcian march is doing the most damage.  Not only is “gender” considered separate and distinct from one’s biological sex, but a plethora of new “genders” AND “sexes” are being invented.  This divides people up into such a myriad of classifications, that it all blends together again into an androgynous lump… which the Progressive left wish to mould.

     The abolition of the notion of “gender” is now being forced on small children.  Teachers are to no longer refer to “boys” or “girls” but rather a gender neutral term like “purple penguins.”  Any distinction based on their biological sex is not only prohibited for the teacher, but for the children themselves:

“If teachers still find it ‘necessary’ to mention that genders exist at all, the document states, they must list them as ‘boy, girl, both or neither.’

“Furthermore, it instructs teachers to interfere and interrupt if they ever hear a student talking about gender in terms of ‘boys and girls’ so the student can learn that this is wrong.

“‘Point out and inquire when you hear others referencing gender in a binary manner,’ it states. ‘Ask things like . . . “What makes you say that? I think of it a little differently.” Provide counter-narratives that challenge students to think more expansively about their notions of gender.'”

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Quick Takes – Lesbian Rights, Transgender Rights, and Incest Rights

Posted on October 16, 2014 by The Political Hat

     Another “quick takes” on items where there is too little to say to make a complete article, but is still important enough to comment on.

     The focus this time: Lesbian, Trannies, and Incest, Oh My!

     First, a little mood music:

     Carrying on…

     The veritable Robert Stacy McCain points out a certain inequality when it comes to “coming out of the closet”:

“No one is ever accused of being a ‘latent heterosexual,’ nor are we permitted to believe it possible that a lesbian is confused about her sexuality or to suggest she is repressing her inner straight woman.

“Sexual confusion nowadays is always a one-way trip to Queer City.”

     Funny that, but at least radical feminists lesbians are consistent about being radical feminist lesbians…

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