"I get satisfaction of three kinds. One is creating something, one is being paid for it and one is the feeling that I haven't just been sitting on my ass all afternoon." WFB

193 comments:

Debrah said...

Not-So-Magic Carpet Ride

Maureen, you could have phoned this one in.

Funny....in a quote-laden, pop-culture kind of way.

Debrah said...

I'm trying to avoid discussion of that lame "address" from the president last evening.

Consequently....

The 7 Wonders of Water

Kantian said...

Ah, glad to see your new page. LIS
And yes very lame it was. I enjoy your link for the 7 Wonders of Water much better.

Hope you have a great Labor Day weekend.

Debrah said...

Hi "Kantian"--

Thanks.

Have a great weekend as well.

Although, I have such an early appointment in the morning.....and for such a non-celebratory occasion, I fear it might put a damper on things.

However, from current weather reports, the entire East Coast might be in for a real damper as well!

Debrah said...

Our Distracted Commander-in-Chief from Krauthammer

A laser-beam column.

"Unfortunately, what for Obama is a distraction is life or death for U.S. troops now on patrol in Kandahar province. Some presidents may not like being wartime leaders. But they don’t get to decide. History does. Obama needs to accept the role. It’s not just the U.S. military, as [Peter] Baker reports, that is 'worried he is not fully invested in the cause'. Our allies, too, are experiencing doubt. And our enemies are drawing sustenance."

Debrah said...

Great.

Unanswerable Prayers from Vanity Fair.

What’s an atheist to think when thousands of believers (including prominent rabbis and priests) are praying for his survival and salvation—while others believe his cancer was divinely inspired, and hope that he burns in hell? Related: The first in the series, “Topic of Cancer,” by Christopher Hitchens.

Anonymous said...

Handy Man,
Well me thinks the Diva does delete my comments because I'm so pedantic.
NoD

Anonymous said...

Handy Man,
Change pedantic to inane.
NoD

Debrah said...

The Poodle Speaks from Maureen.

"Blair did not want to be W.’s peripheral poodle. He wanted to 'stand tall internationally' with Britain’s main ally and not 'wet our knickers,' to use a Blair phrase, when the going got tough (or delusional)."

Lots of predictable hyperbole to buttress more humor; however, it was not as simple nor as superfluous as you wish to convey, Maureen.

Debrah said...

The End of Tenure? from the "Sunday Book Review" section of the Times.

Debrah said...

"NoD"--

I haven't deleted any of your comments.

How did you come up with that idea?

You must be responding to "Handy Man" from the previous thread.

Debrah said...

Hmmm......I also see that my published letter regarding the mosque in NYC is still attracting debate.

More like a regular report.

LIS!

I probably should have agreed to be a columnist when it was offered about a year ago; however, I know how it all works.

I'd be edited and reined in at the most strategic times.

IMO, more provocation needs to be entertained in order to hold interest and I know that I have a monopoly on that.

However, I would also have to use more discipline myself......

......and I don't like to do that when opining on the culture wars of the land!

Kantian said...

Hi Debrah,

I hope you are enjoying this wonderful Labor Day. Thanks for the link about The End of Tenure. Do you think that's why Kathy Rudy's article was in the N&O yesterday,that she is working on her tenure?

Debrah said...

Hi "Kantian"--

It's been a pleasant weekend for sure simply because the temps have cooled a bit.

But weather reports are calling for the 90's again this coming week.

About Duke Gang of 88 Rudy, I really don't know about the strange woman.

She is, without a doubt, Exhibit A for everything wrong with universities today.

A nutty, obnoxious, ultra-portly, flaming fur-trapper........who is, no doubt, "vehemently pro-gay marriage".

LIS!

G/d, I've had enough of these malformed, trouble-making parasites to last a lifetime.

IIRC, I read somewhere in the past during the Lacrosse Hoax that she was on the tenure track, but I have no idea if she's vying for tenure or if she already has it.

No matter.

Tenure has become a joke in many academic quarters.

Debrah said...

The Great Privacy Debate from the Cato Institute.

This is definitely worth reading.

Debrah said...

This is it.

This is the ultimate column.

The most magnificent that I've read on this issue so far.

This is the very thing that Islam will not do and THIS is the problem they create worldwide.

Christopher Hitchens at Slate

The taming and domestication of religious faith is one of the unceasing chores of civilization.

"Reactions from even 'moderate' Muslims to criticism are not uniformly reassuring."

" 'Some of what people are saying in this mosque controversy is very similar to what German media was saying about Jews in the 1920s and 1930s,' Imam Abdullah Antepli, Muslim chaplain at Duke University, told the New York Times."

How preposterous!

"There's an excellent chance of a healthy pluralist outcome, but it's very unlikely that this can happen unless, as with their predecessors on these shores, Muslims are compelled to abandon certain presumptions that are exclusive to themselves. The taming and domestication of religion is one of the unceasing chores of civilization. Those who pretend that we can skip this stage in the present case are deluding themselves and asking for trouble not just in the future but in the immediate present."

Handy Man said...

NoD there's not much difference between pedantic and inane sometimes.
I once knew an inane pedant but he was kinda quoool.

Debrah said...

Lincoln's Forgotten Fort from Maureen.

A decided departure from her usual fare.

Debrah said...

Why Do People Have Sex?

Today, sexual behaviors seem to have taken on many different psychological, social, cultural, even religious meanings. Yet, some sexologists say, at the most basic level, there is only one true reason people seek sex.

Wired for Sex

"We are programmed to do so. Asking why people have sex is akin to asking why we eat. Our brains are designed to motivate us toward that behavior," says Richard A. Carroll, PhD, a sex therapist and associate professor in the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

The idea that humans are hard-wired for sex reflects an evolutionary perspective, says Elaine Hatfield, PhD, professor of psychology at the University of Hawaii and author of that 2010 review examining sexual motives from cross-cultural, historical, and evolutionary viewpoints.

Debrah said...

Nine Years Since 9/11

Debrah said...

Mosque Notes from Leon Wieseltier at The New Republic

Debrah said...

Your Bid, Mr. Abbas

"Until Palestine is ready to offer concessions, peace talks will accomplish nothing."

Debrah said...

Imagining Islam

"We may succeed in kidding ourselves, but our enemies aren’t fooled. By 9/11, Iran had been braying 'Death to America!' and matching word with deed for over 20 years. The mullahs heard all the 'You’re with us or with the terrorists' banter, but they also saw it followed up with a policy of entreaty, appeasement, and capitulation."

"One thing never intrudes on our make-believe world: the real 9/11. Before it was Ground Zero, the World Trade Center was a real place, where flesh-and-blood Americans were slaughtered — some of them leaping over 70 stories to their grisly demise because it seemed more merciful than immolation in the fires that raged within. We try not to think about that much anymore, except for a fleeting moment or two every September 11."

Debrah said...

Ha!

Maureen uses her sister for this one.....and the sister offers quite a good example of how most of the country is feeling.

When Peggy Left Barry

"While Obama’s out in the country trying to save Congressional Democrats, he should also think about how he’s going to save himself."

Debrah said...

Very funny.

Just checking my e-mail.

I received a message from "ESDuke" who used to comment on the lacrosse blogs.

He says he's traveling now through the Philippines, Thailand, and Africa.

Well, have fun!

Debrah said...

The Great Divergence and the Death of Organized Labor by Timothy Noah at Slate.

Great analysis and I think I'll go with David Brooks over Boris Karloff shadow man Paul Krugman.

"Geoghegan's book went to press too soon to report that Germany is now experiencing a recovery that's leaving the United States in the dust. New York Times columnist David Brooks takes away the lesson that the Germans succeeded by spending less government money than the United States to stimulate its economy (a conclusion that Krugman, his fellow Times columnist, had already labeled 'foolish')."

gyro gearloose said...

who's esduke?

Debrah said...

Who's the Con Man? from Maureen.

More D'Souza and Newtie controversies.

Debrah said...

To "gyro gearloose"--

ES Duke is a Duke alumnus who participated on some of the lacrosse blogs.

I think he's since moved to the West Coast.

Debrah said...

A dramatic slide show illustrating the obvious effects of smoking.

If this doesn't turn you off cigarettes, I don't know what will.

Debrah said...

Rethinking George Bush?

~~~~~~~~~~~
In comparison with Obama and his gaffes, Bush no longer seems the singular clod whom his opponents endlessly ridiculed. The supposedly mellifluent Obama relies on the teleprompter as if it were his umbilical cord. His occasional word-mangling (he pronounced “corpsman” as “corpse-man”) and weird outbursts (he recently complained that opponents “talk about me like a dog”) remind us that the pressures of the presidency can make a leader sometimes seem silly.

Bush now seems cool because he has played it cool. The more Obama and Biden have trashed him, the more silent and thus magnanimous he appears. Bush’s post-presidency is not like that of Jimmy Carter or Bill Clinton — both of whom criticized their successors and hit the campaign trail — but similar to that of his father, who worked with, rather than harped about, Bill Clinton. That graciousness not only has helped George W. Bush in the polls but seems finally to be have mellowed out Obama as well.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Debrah said...

Krauthammer's The Buckley Rule

"Bill Buckley — no Mike Castle he — had a rule: Support the most conservative candidate who is electable."

The column is great....complete with Krauthammer's signature cool, biting wit.

Handy Man said...

Diva, give a shout out to esduke the next time you hear from him.
Looks like most of the 'blog hooligans' have dispersed, but it was a good time while it lasted.

Debrah said...

This is a bombshell post from You Are Not So Smart.

Forget about the metaphorical title he's used.

Just read the entire post.

The guy always comes up with such meaningful and ingenious material.

Debrah said...

Maureen's Myth and Madness is a bit hyperbolic with too many stilted characterizations in the effort to be cute.

"Obama’s bloodless rationality has helped spawn the right’s bloodletting of irrationality. His ivory tower approach to the nation’s fears and anxieties about the economy gave rise to a tower of angry babble. Tea Party is basically a big tent for anger."

I'm so tired of even hearing about the fucking Tea Party!

Debrah said...

Mark Bauerlein has a fresh and excellent column on an old topic at the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Brainstorm

Debrah said...

A pretty good recap of the new HBO series Boardwalk Empire at Vanity Fair.

I managed to catch snippets of this first episode, but haven't seen all of it yet.

Tend to agree with this critique that the show is a thumbs up.

Debrah said...

From the N-Word to Code Words from Hitchens.

The evolution of the race card in American politics.

"...the auction of demagogy is operating, and the bids are headed downward."

Debrah said...

I saw this one coming.

Maureen is at her best on such topics of bizarre alignment.

Truly Madly Purely Jimmy

"Christine O’Donnell has accomplished the impossible: She’s made Jimmy Carter look like a libertine."

Debrah said...

A heart-wrenching report and an up-close view of the daily grind in the war against terrorist carnage with Images From An Afghan War Zone......

......as the stumpy Bob Hoskins look-alike at The Daily Dish continues his jaded Jew-bashing with "Face of the Day", a gratuitous photo of a Palestinian shot by a Jewish settlement guard.

No mention of why the settlement guard shot the man.

Just that he was shot.......by a Jew.

Uh-huh.

Debrah said...

Christopher Hitchens Still Doesn't Believe in the Afterlife at Vanity Fair

hymlic maneuver said...

You have to hand it to Christopher Hitchens for sticking to his guns. Many people find religion when they're told they have a terminal illness and they're going to die.

Debrah said...

Slouching Toward Washington from Maureen.

Predictable.

Nutty Christine O'Donnell, Bill Maher, and the mention of Dr. Irving Weissman thrown in for gravitas.

Debrah said...

Very comprehensive analysis.

I'm not sure I want things to go too far to the Right.....anymore than I want so many Leftists running the show.

Both are a turn-off.

GOP's New Senate Class Could Be Conservative Vanguard from National Journal

Unless Democrats can recover lost ground, it appears likely that the 2010 elections will produce the biggest crop of freshman Republican senators since the 11 who arrived in 1994, and possibly even the 16 who were part of Ronald Reagan's landslide in 1980. Across a wide range of issues, the potential GOP Senate class of 2010 leans right even when compared with those earlier groups -- some contenders hold positions on the far frontier of modern American politics. Next year could bring to Washington the most consistently, and even militantly, conservative class of new senators in at least the past half-century.

Debrah said...

Contradictory Noises from The Economist

"It is unclear, since peace talks resumed, which tendency in Hamas is on top."

Debrah said...

God's Bigmouths from Hitchens at Slate

Debrah said...

Liberalism's Greatest Failure?

"And yet when you listen to these endless seminars and interviews on NBC and its various platforms, I never seem to hear Matt Lauer or David Gregory ask 'Isn’t the education crisis a failure of liberalism?' After all, liberals insist all social problems can be reduced to root causes. Well, they’ve been in charge of the roots for generations and look at the mess they’ve made. Look at it."

Handy Man said...

diva, God's Bigmouths by Chris Hitchens is a knee slapper.
He's right that churches need to be taxed or at least the mega ones do.
The only thing he got wrong was saying that people who call themselves preachers like Long does do damage to the legacy of the King family.
Wrong. The King family started dialing for dollars themselves a long time ago and were the ones who soiled the memory of MLK.

Debrah said...

Maureen "is off [again] today".

The Tea Kettle Movement from Tom Friedman.

"There are actually two Tea Party movements in America today: one you’ve read about that is not that important and one you’ve not read about that could become really important if the right politician understood how to tap into it."

Debrah said...

So Long, Rahm

Debrah said...

Why Is He Sending Them? from Krauthammer

"President Obama lacks the will to fight in Afghanistan."

Debrah said...

'The Social Network': The Thrilling Facebook Creation Myth

David Fincher gets director kudos along with script adaptation by Aaron Sorkin for the film on Facebook's geeky "founder" Mark Zuckerberg.

Although Zuckerberg stole the idea from his cute twin classmates.

Just goes to show that becoming a billionaire is a completely random occurrence.

Dependent upon a gloomy and pedestrian population with an equally gloomy and pedestrian "friending" urge.

LOL!

Debrah said...

LOL!!!

A recap of the Rick Sanchez rant.

This guy is so clueless.

I remember when Don Imus was fired for his loose-lipped inanities and Sanchez went into a long, self-righteous rant how "mean, nasty, and pompous" he was.

Then he spent forever recalling how Imus had condescended and disrespected him once.

Sanchez is so intellectually limited.

Too funny.

Rick has made "Rick's List".

Debrah said...

A Hug Too Far

".....with their backs against the wall in an election that is likely to inflict a shellacking on the Democrats, Team Obama has been talking a lot about reaching out to business to fill the numerous open policy slots in the White House. But they didn’t reach out to the world of business, nor to any new worlds at all."

It's just the same-old, same-old Chicago-style machine.

Anonymous said...

Rick Sanchez had a grudge against Jon Stewart for a long time. Stewart pokes fun at him regularly on his show.
Rick makes the perfect target since he thinks he's smarter than he really is.
How could he not know that CNN would fire him after publicly showing how much he can't stand Jews? That was a career suicide.

Debrah said...

Anonymous (10:18 PM)--

It certainly appeared that Sanchez didn't care about his job.

Or was he so overcome with resentment for his colleagues and employers that he couldn't help saying what he really thinks of them?

It was a swift "Bye-bye".

LOL!

Debrah said...

Here's a video with Christopher Hitchens from March of this year.

Thou Shalt Watch This Video

Debrah said...

Behind Closed Doors at The New Yorker

"...Woodward’s treatment of the arguments that took place in 2009 between the White House and the Pentagon over the Afghan war’s purpose, and over the number of American troops required to prosecute the conflict, is exceptionally sharp."

Debrah said...

Yikes!

Dim Idea---The War on the Bathroom

Now this guy knows how I felt when I lived in Tokyo.

Although, since I'm a neat freak I didn't get all upset about it.

And actually found it all quite charming!

"It’s difficult to convey, in a magazine dedicated to the higher pursuits of political philosophy and national renewal, just how fantastic the Japanese toilet was. It’s impossible, especially, within the civilized parameters set by the editors and their assistants, to describe what a revelation it was — after a few eye-popping mishaps with the electric controls and one of the smaller nozzles — to discover that there were still things to perfect about an act we’ve all come to take for granted, still improvements to be made on the entire system, and that the Japanese had done it."

LOL!

Debrah said...

The Wisdom of Pat Moyhihan from the Washington Post

~~~~~~~~~~
Moynihan -- the only person to have served in the Cabinets or subcabinets of four consecutive presidents (Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford) -- said that politics is an argument about the future: "The central conservative truth is that it is culture, not politics, that determines the success of society. The central liberal truth is that politics can change a culture and save it from itself."

Would that Moynihan were here to elevate the liberal side of the debate, as he did throughout his well-lived life.

~~~~~~~~~~

I wanted to post this one for future reference.

It's simply great.

Debrah said...

Dinesh D'Souza on the Anti-Colonial Business

D'Souza'a book has gotten lots of push-back. He shouldn't have allowed Gingrich to plow into the discussion; however, there are substantive points that should be acknowledged.

To wit:

D’SOUZA: Actually, I started with another theory about Obama, no less original. My working hypothesis was that Obama was really a civil-rights guy — shaped, that is, by the ideals of the civil-rights movement. This would explain Obama’s fierce allegiance to the federal government. After all, it was the federal government that desegregated the schools; the federal government helped to create a black middle class; to this day, blacks are much more sympathetic to the federal government than whites. So this was my theory: Obama is a civil-rights guy, but his innovation was to take the black civil-rights agenda and remove the word “black.” It was only when I began to study Obama’s own background that I realized that my theory was wrong. Obama has little or nothing to do with the civil-rights movement. His roots are in Kenya, and he is shaped far more by anti-colonialism than by anything that Martin Luther King said or did.

Debrah said...

Not So Hidden Influences from Hitchens.

Regarding the Rick Sanchez fiasco, he asks, "Is it so offensive to note the effectiveness of the Jewish lobby?"

And continues...."...I ask myself if the world in which I have worked for so many decades—the intersecting and overlapping world of the news media, publishing, the academy, and the think-tank industry—is even imaginable without the presence of liberal American Jews. The answer is plainly no. Moreover, I can't think of any other 'minority' of which this is remotely true, unless it were to be the other minority from which I can claim descent: people of British or Anglophile provenance."

Debrah said...

Onward Christian Moguls from Maureen

What a weird subject. Is this what she was doing while being "off"?

A "motivational" seminar with all the usual suspects.

YAWN.

Debrah said...

A Versatility of Convictions from Thomas Sowell.

Ha!

"Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid have come up with enough red herrings to stock an aquarium."

Debrah said...

The Two Faces of Michelle Obama

Amusing as well as revealing.

RobertG said...

I didn't think I'd be praising Maureen Dowd's drivel but the one you linked about the motivational seminars was right on the money.
They're mostly put together as a way for celebrities and former politicians and statesmen to make some easy money.
And lots of it.

Debrah said...

Hi RobertG--

Yes, Maureen often hits the mark with her meandering topics.

Debrah said...

Report: The Obama Administration Blocked Scientists From Warning Public About BP Oil Spill from Media-ite

Debrah said...

The Colbert Democrats from Krauthammer

~~~~~~~~
A president’s first midterm election is inevitably a referendum on his two years in office. The bad news for Democrats is that President Obama’s “re-elect” number is 38 percent — precisely Bill Clinton’s in October 1994, the eve of the wave election that gave Republicans control of the House for the first time in 40 years.

Yet this same poll found that 65 percent view Obama favorably “as a person.” The current Democratic crisis is not about the man — his alleged lack of empathy, ability to emote, etc., requiring remediation with backyard, shirt-sleeved shoulder rubbing with the folks — but about the policies.

~~~~~~~~

Anonymous said...

Back in the Philippines, totally jet lagged.

Surprised to hear myself referenced here! Must admit I did not think of myself as a "blog hooligan".

Had to break radio silence about this recent story.

1. Does anyone else think that it is vaguely sad that this young lady thinks that having sex while NOT drunk enough to black out or not realize she is bleeding all over the bed is an unusual occurrence?

2. Who was her thesis advisor? If this was considered an academic study, was consent from the participants solicited? I can only imagine that the legal aspects of this are being looked at...God knows the ethical aspects will not be scrutinized at what Duke has become these days..

3. The whole concept of the "Duke Hook-up culture" is ludicrous on its face. Does ANYONE think that the social scene is any different in any other college campus across the nation? If anything, the campus is kind of nerdy and probably more socially reticent than, say, big state schools. Sure the students hook up, but plenty of them date long term as well. Again, I feel sorry for this young lady who has had a lot of sex (a good thing in general), but apparently no love, affection, or intimacy (a bad thing). This concept is, I believe, a fiction of the radical "academics" who use it as a way to advance their agenda that "men are bad" and that somehow any sex on campus is rape. This is apparently the new rule of law on campus!

ES

Debrah said...

Hi ES--

Well, posting here is better than e-mailing me! Are you afraid you will reveal too many secrets and they will be hermetically sealed inside The Diva World forever?

What are you doing in the Far East?

And what were you doing in Africa?

Every time one travels halfway around the globe, a full day out of your life will be lost.

Although, when you fly back to the States, you get it back.

LOL!

Your analysis of the bizarre "Duke Fuck List" case is quite accurate.

I have no idea what the woman thought this was going to do, positively, for her life.

Yet another reminder just how decadent things have become. Such a jaded outlook on life.

It's easy to assume that this mindset with regard to relationships could have its origins in the loopy "Women's Studies" milieu; however, I have no idea if she was a part of that particular curriculum.

Although she's no beauty, she certainly isn't in the same category of some of those women.

So many of the rabid feminists/"herstory" contingent labor on the subject of world domination by men and openly express animosity for them. Many are also embedded inside the "hate anything heterosexual" ("heterosexism") lunacy.

Trouble is, if some of these women were ever actually raped by anyone, it wouldn't be a crime but a coup.

I do wonder how Owen's own parents feel about this kind of publicity....as well as knowing such details of their daughter's "horizontal" studies.

This is so bizarre.

You just know the Duke Gang of 88 and their oily mascot Tyson are salivating and would love to make this the subject of more lacrosse/athlete bashing.....

......but, alas, after being covered by Duke the first time, who paid millions because of their previous slander and libel, they know well to keep their mouths tightly shut on this one!

Debrah said...

Tumortown is Hitchens' latest installment at Vanity Fair.

Such an exhausting topic and journey for anyone so stricken.

The people in this country who are fighting stem-cell research really must be put down.

Anonymous said...

Debrah,

Yes indeed, you have brought me out of the posting closet as it were! lol

Two things I think need clarification.

First, you are wrong that this was merely horizontal studies...it is quite clear form the text that there was some vertical work as well! Nothing if not complete.

Second, I did forget to mention...if she was so well oiled in an alcoholic manner for most of her work, one wonders if she was careful in terms of birth control and spread of the kinds of diseases only transmitted in a most, ahem, intimate form of contact.

You ask me what I am doing in Africa and the Far East? I am an infectious disease doc working on public health issues...no foolin'!

ES

Debrah said...

OMG, ES!!!

You are really a serious grown-up......in the quest to serve mankind!

That's very interesting work, indeed.

How long will you be there?

Your questions regarding how "safe" Owens must have been haven't been asked enough.

She's said that she was often drunk during the sexual encounters. That would really call into question whether or not she made an effort to guard against picking up rampant STD's.

What a raw story she chose to tell. I can't believe anyone would do this on purpose.

But she apparently did just that.

Debrah said...

Interesting from Peter Wood at CHE.

From Diversity to Sustainability: How Campus Ideology Is Born

"Diversity is a story of a once-fresh ideology that swept through higher education in a spirit of triumph but that quickly seems to be losing its status as the sexiest ideology on campus. Diversiphiles would like to keep the adrenaline flowing, but it is hard. Freshmen now arrive on campus already having sucked on multicultural milkshakes from kindergarten to senior prom. Diversity for them is just the same ol' same ol'."

On to "sustainability"!

Debrah said...

Lord of the Internet Rings

Such an amusing one from Maureen. She loves this kind of topic.

"The Social Network" about the nerd Zuckerberg is woven into grand analogy with “Das Rheingold” at the Metropolitan Opera in New York.

From the title, you know she's on the Zuckerberg topic, but she begins with the Wagner feudal tale.......

.......and sets up the basic script from the beginning that is almost a duplicate of the 2010 film.

Indeed....."...the passions that drive humans stay remarkably constant, whether it’s a magic ring being forged or a magic code being written."

Debrah said...

ES--

Question.

I just noticed that I have a follower of my blog who is in the military.

This isn't you, is it?

Anonymous said...

Nope...gave up my guvvie job and .mil email account some time ago. Shoot me an email with some details and I can confirm.

Debrah said...

(OK, ES.......comprendo.)

I always get e-mail messages from WebMD which are full of articles with interesting info, but this one I don't buy.

Who needs to change their sheets twice a week unless you're a total slob and never take a bath?

This is ridiculous.

Debrah said...

An extremely candid one, The Manchurian Candidate, from David's Blog.

"Obama’s electoral success was made possible by the wide latitude he was given by the press and the public, partly because he was the first African-American with a chance to be president and partly because his campaign was deliberately crafted to convey the impression that he was a tax-cutting centrist who intended to bring Americans together to find common solutions to their problems. When confronted with his long-term associations and working partnerships with anti-American racists like Jeremiah Wright and anti-American radicals like William Ayers, he denied the obvious and successfully side-stepped its implications.

"Just eight months into his presidency, however, a new Barack Obama [had] begun to emerge."

RobertG said...

Went to see The Social Network a few nights ago and it wasn't bad.
A classic battle over whose contributions to a project should be valued. I liked that the script avoided siding with anyone in the feud.
I'm siding with the twins. Zuckerberg more than likely stole their idea.

Debrah said...

I might agree with you RobertG.

And wouldn't you know that someone has dreamed up another issue with the film?

Is the Facebook movie sexist? from Slate.

LOL!

Debrah said...

I want to mention once again that the new HBO original series "Boardwalk Empire" is most excellent.

Unique with a most vivid story line.

I highly recommend it!

Debrah said...

A fun one from Hitchens.

The Politicians We Deserve

"What normal person would consider risking their career and their family life in order to undergo the incessant barrage of intrusive questioning about every aspect of their lives since well before college? To face the constant pettifogging and chatter of Facebook and Twitter and have to boast of how many false friends they had made in a weird cyberland?"

Debrah said...

Obama's Radical Past

Wow.

Lots of detractors have always alluded to this subject, but there seems to be more truth to it than we thought.

Debrah said...

Thanks for posting that "Kantian".

LOL!!!

"The National Union Fire Insurance Co., an affiliate of insurance giant AIG, and Duke have been wrangling over whether the company should reimburse the university for costs tied to the confidential settlements of lawsuits with three former lacrosse players and the former lacrosse coach."

Handy Man said...

Duke sued to recoup settlement costs.
Hehe.

The article said Duke suspended the team, like that was all Duke did to get sued by the boys for millions.
Double hehe, hehe. :)

Debrah said...

Maureen shows her loose-goose hyperbole in The Unfair Game.

She laments this reality.......“Americans are divided over whether President Barack Obama or his predecessor has performed better in the White House" from a CNN article.

But chooses to gloss over why.

Instead going off on a tangent in defense of the overblown celeb wannabes of yore, Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame. I agree with Luskin that those two are "a little past their 'sell-by' date".

Take any view you will regarding GWB's administration, but you will not create a fantasy regarding Obama's.

Those days are gone and most of us have grown tired of it.

Debrah said...

Such a rainy, gloomy, and melancholy Diva day!

Debrah said...

This one by Conrad Black should be required reading for those who are ignorant of---by accident or by design---the issues regarding Islam and the West.

~~~~~~~~~
Non-Muslim countries and regions should make it clear that we are not prepared to be condescended to as infidels, that the Judeo-Christian traditions of the West antedate those of Islam (we are all Abrahamists and Gabriel called on our preceptors first), and that the widespread mistreatment of Christian minorities in some Muslim countries should produce proportionate retaliation, but not at the expense of the civil rights of our own Mulsim minorities. The Muslim massacre of a million Christian blacks in the Sudan should have received a much more energetic and righteous response than it has. And the mad idea of a large mosque almost adjacent to the World Trade Center site should never have gained any traction at all. That debate makes our entire society look like idiots, with Michael Bloomberg, Maureen Dowd, Katie Couric, et al. all thoughtfully holding hands as proverbial “useful idiots.”
~~~~~~~~~

Debrah said...

ES--

When you show up you need to regale us with delightful tales of the social life where you are.

Surely it's not all work and no play!

Anonymous said...

D,

Will do. Hope a little commentary will be ok :)

I gotta tell you, the Kenyans were FANTASTIC to us. Extremely friendly. After two weeks, we were basically regulars at the Java House, and got "the usual"...it was really funny. Where else does two weeks make you like Norm in Cheers?

I can see, however, how sometimes Americans get bad raps abroad. We talked with everyone, used their first names, and all of the staff at the hotel knew us by our given names. They absolutely rolled out the red carpet for us! Unfortunately, the Westerners in the hotel were almost embarrassingly reserved to the point of appearing unfriendly and hostile. With just a little courtesy and interest in the country (of which the Kenyas were VERY proud!), learn a few words os Swahili (Jambo!), and you are their buddy for life.

Everyone smiles at you! As a warning, if you risk smiling at a single girl at the pool bar, she may well follow you back to the elevator...or as far as your room. And let me tell you, they have some of the most "I cannot believe that is real" figures! Very Diva-like...

Not so fun was the Kibera slum, home to an estimated million or so of the poor, living in the dirt with a corrugated roof (maybe) over their heads. A humanitarian and public health nightmare! Your heart goes out to them...but there are so many of them! What can you possibly do? I spend a lot of time thinking about it.

ES

D, and no, I did NOT partake! ROFL

Debrah said...

ES--

Interesting.

IMO, one thing you find when you travel to different countries is that people everywhere are basically the same.

Different cultures with different challenges, yes; however, human nature in most cases remains constant.

Good to know that amid all the serious "grown-up" work you're doing there is time for "Cheers"-like imbibing sessions.

But I can't believe you're so unadventurous in other areas.

Take a ride on the global love train!

LOL!

Debrah said...

Love is a drug as powerful as morphine and any painkiller.

Of course it is.

That's why there must be love in The Diva World!

Anonymous said...

diva, here's a chilling report on the rapid increase of STDs and HIV/AIDS among the gay male population.

http://www.bilerico.com/2010/03/us_gay_mens_astonishing_hivstd_rates.php

Debrah said...

Anonymous--

Here is the article you're talking about.

And there are so many more on that subject.

In the attempt to make the gay agenda "trendy" and teach school children that it's on par with straight couplings, the real "trend" has been a revival of the kind of promiscuity among gay men similar to the AIDS epidemic of the past.

This is one of the strange features that turns people off.

The irresponsibility of it all when the risks of the lifestyle are so high.

RobertG said...

At my kid's school there's a few gay teachers who have formed an organization which serves as a vehicle for them to discuss their lifestyle with students. I would prefer that all teachers keep their private lives to themselves regardless of their sexual orientation. The public education system is screwed up enough already. I don't see how a group of gay teachers or any other group of teachers talking about their private lives with students helps.

Debrah said...

Your Pre-Election Post-Mortem from Krauthammer.

"When the election is over, prizes and trophies and hosannas will be issued left and right. But why wait? As a public service, I present an infallibly prescient scorecard of best and worst of 2010.

"Most suicidal candidate. Carl Paladino is running in a deep-blue state with sky-high taxes, yawning deficits, and rampant corruption. The last elected Democratic governor resigned in disgrace and his successor is so tainted that he dare not run for another term. So, what does Kamikaze Carl proceed to do? Get in an angry shouting match with a reporter. Level some odd insinuation about his opponent’s 'prowess.' Figuring he hasn’t veered off-message enough, he then expounds on homosexuality — and spends three days having to explain and reaffirm, before the inevitable apology. He’s down by 19 points."


LOL!!!

Debrah said...

WebMD has this bit of information today.

Sorry to have to bring this to you guys. It's kind of brutal.

The Life Cycle of the Penis

Debrah said...

Playing All the Angles from Maureen.

This one is full of so many funny lines that I literally laughed until tears came to my eyes this morning.

A bit overboard as Maureen usually goes when she's doing the sophomoric schtick, but hilarious.

To wit:

~~~~~
" 'Man up, Harry Reid,' Sharron Angle taunted him at their Las Vegas debate here Thursday night. That’s not an idle insult, coming from a woman who campaigns at times with a .44 Magnum revolver in her 1989 GMC pickup."
~~~~~
"Reid, who cloaks his ambition and brass knuckles under a mousy facade, looked as if she had slapped him. He called her 'my friend,' but clearly did not think of her as his 'pet,' as he unfortunately dubbed Chris Coons, the Delaware opponent of the bewitching Christine O’Donnell."

Debrah said...

An Ugly Answer to Israel's Arab 'Problem' from The Atlantic.

This is a tough one and I'm not so sure it should be minimized in any way by so-called "moderate" Israelis.

"The two sides of Israel's nature--its Jewish and democratic soul--have always coexisted uneasily, and would be quickly upset by a demographic shift. Israel was founded and internationally recognized as a refuge for Jews, and it is legitimate that modern Israelis are determined to keep it so. Given the way Jews have been treated in Arab lands, moreover, they have grounds to fear life under an Arab majority."

Anonymous said...

[img]http://icons-pe.wunderground.com/data/images/wp201015_sat.jpg[/img]

Debrah said...

ES--

Is this the page you were talking about?

Don't forget to sign your initials because there are a few who sometimes comment anonymously.

What do you have to do with these people?

And yes, it is typhoon season in your part of the world.

When I was in Tokyo in the fall my umbrella would be turned inside out by strong winds and rain while walking down the street.

LOL!

Get ready for Typhoon Megi!

Debrah said...

OK, ES.

Perhaps this is the image you're talking about.

Just scroll down the page a bit.

Anonymous said...

Thanks Deb...the second link is indeed the one. We are just south of the airport, so we should miss the worst of it. I worry about the 5+ million or so folks living under corrugated steel on dirt floors NORTH of Manila...and the ensuing disease that the flooding will cause.

Hundreds if not thousands are going to die in the next 12 hours or so...and not a damned thing anyone can do about it.

Bleak.

ES

Debrah said...

That's so depressing, ES!

You're the expert on this, but I simply can't understand why there's nothing that can be done.

Until you think back to weather disasters in this country and realize that government bureaucracy and incompetence impede everything.

Debrah said...

Under Oath from Tablet.

Israel’s controversial new oath of allegiance reflects the reality of sectarian politics in the Middle East

Debrah said...

Hilarious video.

Barney Frank's boyfriend shows up to heckle his political opponent.

LOL!!!

How greasy and pathetic. The guy has a huge gut just like Barney.

"Love-making" must be a bareback dream.

Debrah said...

ES--

From this report it seems Typhoon Megi didn't cause as much damage as first thought.

I suppose you're relieved that it has now moved on.

Debrah said...

Legacy Loophole is another installment from the ridiculous Gene Nichol, who was fired from William & Mary for violating the rights of students by playing the same archaic "diversity" game that allows him to be paid well for doing close to nothing.

He then crawled back to where he was previously employed and they took him in.

Nichol should be awarded Duke Gang of 88 mascot #2. I'm sure they would gladly give him the honor, even though he's spreading his parasitic lore on a different campus.

I just had to leave a comment because this column is unusually dishonest.

Anonymous said...

Megi is now heading into the South China Sea...the counterclockwise rotation is still kicking some humid air back our way, keeping the rain going. All is pretty calm now.

The densely populated areas of S. Luzon were spared...sure the fish farming operations in the north were trashed along with the boats and a lot of housing. Sounds thankfully like the loss of life was minimal...although I am sure reporting from the hinterlands will be slow in coming.

ES

Debrah said...

ES--

Yes, I read that Megi headed toward Hong Kong.

It was certainly a luck of the draw that your area was spared heavy damage.

No doubt with all the rain and high winds, there's more damage yet to be reported.

Debrah said...

Can Parker-Spitzer Survive?

No.

A real dead-end show.

One of the most hollow spheres of nothingness I've had the bad luck to experience.

Debrah said...

Making Ignorance Chic from Maureen.

Kind of an interesting one; however, IMO, she's attempting to draw too many comparisons and some simply do not fit.

Although some of this is so very true.

In Marilyn’s America, there were aspirations. The studios tackled literary novels rather than one-liners like “He’s Just Not That Into You” and navel-gazing drivel like “Eat Pray Love.” Walt Disney’s “Fantasia” paired cartoon characters with famous composers. Even Bugs Bunny did Wagner.

Debrah said...

Revenge of the Right from Josh Kraushaar at National Journal

Debrah said...

Ten slides on what to do for healthy and beautiful skin.

Anonymous said...

The CNN show with Eliot Spitzer and Kathleen Parker is a dud.
He's a loudmouth and she sits there like a knot on a log trying to be spontaneous.

Debrah said...

Juan Williams fired by NPR

This is simply ridiculous.

As luck would have it, I happened to have been watching this segment and the fact that he has been fired for this is beyond scary.

He was even criticizing O'Reilly for painting a broad brush, not bashing anyone.

Juan Williams stated what everyone on the planet who gets on a plane is thinking before take-off.

Every American should be up in arms over this set of events.

Where is all this leading?

Debrah said...

Let NPR Pay Its Own Way

The fallout has only just begun.

Debrah said...

Ha!

A quirky animation of Thomas-Hill.

Debrah said...

Are some people totally nuts?

I just went to pick up my mail and a neighbor already has a Christmas holiday greeting on her door.

What is going on? Has the whole world gone mad?

Debrah said...

Bush Will Discuss Key Iraq, 9/11, Financial Crisis in New Book

'Decision Points' set for a Nov. 9 release.

Debrah said...

Supremely Bad Judgment

Like clockwork, Maureen shows up for a recap of the long-ago Thomas-Hill hearings and more.

As always, years later people come out of the woodwork with more to add to a particularly sensational story.

Lillian McEwen, a woman Clarence Thomas dated for a number of years is now trying to shop a "memoir" and has jumped into the fray after the bizarre call Ginni Thomas made to the creepy schoolmarmish drone Anita Hill.

Yet another cascade of tales---some true, no doubt, and many a flourish of conveniently embroidered memory---after a cascade of cable hype.

I've always thought that Mrs. Thomas was a strange woman; however, no stranger than the parade of Liberal fools who have tried to use the Thomas-Hill fiasco to destroy Clarence Thomas because of the positions he takes.

There's really nothing more nauseating than watching Far Left perverts attempt to wax indignant over assertions---some true and some fabricated, no doubt---made by a gigantic loony azzhole like Anita Hill.

One thing that I can say about Thomas. He has picked the strangest women.

As usual, Maureen ends the column with a touch of comedy.

"O.K., have a good day!"

What on earth did Ginni Thomas mean by that goofy send-off after such a phone message?

Everybody's going nuts!

Debrah said...

Lillian McEwen Breaks Her Silence at The Washington Post.

I'm sure she'd break a whole lot more if she could make a few bucks on her "memoir".

Too funny!

Debrah said...

Such comical irony.

Radical Shriek

Lefty academics convene in Berkeley to try to make sense of the Tea Party movement.

They want to know what the hell is going on. They are in Berkeley, where they are used to venerating left-wing activism and putting up sandbags against the once-a-decade conservative wave—Reagan (twice), Proposition 13 (about property taxes), Proposition 209 (about affirmative action), George W. Bush. The Tea Party, though? A bunch of people who reverse-engineer Saul Alinsky and yell "Keep the government out of Medicare" and have conservatives shouting down politicians and filling street corners?

Debrah said...

This one from Andrew Sullivan really stinks to high heaven.

Baldy Andrew has it in for anything on Fox News, it seems.

Similar to the way he reacts to the subject of Israel.

It's simply porous and nonsensical for someone like Sullivan to excoriate people like O'Reilly for having strong opinions when he remains a flaming loosy-goosy blowhard and writes like the most seasoned bigot of all when someone disagrees on anything related to the gay agenda or the Middle East.

I've become keenly aware of one thing this past year. When you have a gay journalist---and there's an inordinate number in the Liberal media---covering anything that touches a conservative topic where they have a sense that someone might not find the idea of men effing other men in the azz as an appetizing and positive human act (the smell of fecal matter ablaze!).....

.......they become almost satanic with open hatred and vitriol.

And when the subject of Clarence Thomas or Bill O'Reilly comes up, they turn into bile-laden clowns at an "I Love You Phillip Morris" low movie ratings party.

Debrah said...

It has come to my attention and it gives me great pleasure to mention that the most captivating fragrance in men's cologne currently on the market, IMO, is Bleu De Chanel.

A sensual, woody aromatic scent that's really quite something.

It's for the man who "defies convention". Just my type!

This one is so profoundly sensual that I might be compelled to thoroughly ravish the next man I encounter wearing it!

Debrah said...

The Bender is Over

This one has to be read in its entirety.

"Whatever happens on Election Day, the heroic phase of Obama’s presidency is over. It is over not simply because he will spend the rest of his term playing defense rather than conquering new ground for liberalism. It is over because the assumptions that underlay that first phase of his presidency have already been discredited."

Debrah said...

Will the Reemergence of George Bush Help or Hurt the Democrats? from The Atlantic.

Nice recap of various commentary along with a YouTube of GWB on his upcoming book.

Gyro Gearloose said...

Diva, I'll rush right out and get Bush's new book. Not!

And methinks Mrs. Clarence Thomas doth protest too much. Just because Anita Hill is strange it doesn't mean she was lying.

Debrah said...

Gyro--

Do as you wish, certainly.

I wasn't suggesting that anyone had to rush to Barnes & Noble; however, I happen to think GWB's book will be compelling if it includes the subject matter he outlines in the video.....which I have embedded on the front page, btw.

Regarding Justice Thomas and his wife, both are too conservative on a lot of issues for my taste.

And I do think that Ginni Thomas is weird.

But if you think all those acquaintances and colleagues who testified in the hearings back then---(testifying that Anita Hill had pursued Thomas and followed him from job to job)---just made up those things out of the blue, then your take on this matter is a bit weird as well.

No one really knows the whole story, obviously, and it's been so long ago.

Of course I believe that Clarence Thomas alluded to sexual topics in conversations, as a lot of people do.

But I simply have never believed that Anita Hill was harassed or bullied by him.

You'd have to be a real masochist and nuttier than she already is to follow someone through job changes and endure such an environment if you felt "harassed".

Hill's career and personal plans with Clarence Thomas didn't work out the way she wanted.....

.......so when he was in a position to be injured by her payback, she leveled it.....with lots of support and assistance from radical feminists.

In my humble, but strong, opinion.

Debrah said...

This particular week is crazy. I'll be so tied up and away from The Diva World most of the time.

I'll also be unable to check out all my usual haunts and columnists for a few days.

What will the Diva do for cerebral nexus nourishment?

I'll be so thrilled when this week is over.

Debrah said...

Listen to a fantastic discussion of the late-great Daniel Patrick Moyhihan... Between the Covers

The only way I'll be able to get all my reading/blogging done this week is to get up at 5AM!

Debrah said...

The Great Campaign of 2010 from Krauthammer.

~~~~~~~~~~
...President Obama chided Latinos who “sit out the election instead of saying, ‘We’re gonna punish our enemies and we’re gonna reward our friends who stand with us on issues that are important to us.’” Quite a uniter, urging Hispanics to exact political revenge on their enemies — presumably, for example, the nearly 60 percent of Americans who support the new Arizona immigration law.

This from a president who won’t even use “enemies” to describe an Iranian regime that is helping kill U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan. This from a man who rose to prominence thunderously declaring that we were not blue states or red states, not black America or white America or Latino America — but the United States of America.


This is how the great post-partisan, post-racial, New Politics presidency ends — not with a bang, not with a whimper, but with a desperate election-eve plea for ethnic retribution. Nice.

~~~~~~~~~~

Debrah said...

This Gawker nonstory discussed by Jack Shafer at Slate is really, as noted in the article, "cringe-making".

First of all, I've always thought of Christine O'Donnell as kind of goofy.

Like a cherubic little brownie scout.

Not really dumb, but just silly enough to come off that way.

After reading this account, I feel sorry for anyone---especially a single woman---who decides to run for office in today's gutter-ready internet world.

This story isn't scandalous at all. In fact, it's so much of NOTHING that it screams for someone to string this little thimble-size dick up by his balls.

This guy offers up a comically slimy account of an encounter he had with O'Donnell during a night of Halloween partying.

He does all this anonymously.

Key points:

1) There was drinking and people got smashed.

2) There was making-out and removal of clothing.

3) Foreplay, but no sex...since O'Donnell has chosen to remain a virgin. (Admittedly strange at her age, but not a crime.)

4) But the most egregious act that O'Donnell had committed (in his opinion) was not keeping up with the "trend" of waxing her private parts. She had the audacity to have a bush!!!!!!!!

This idiot moron who is also a coward wrote all this crap without giving his own name. And his own performance was neatly glossed over.

The lame attempts of these awkward, would-be scandalmongers to create an actual "scandal" are really quite pathetic.

I'm certainly no fan of O'Donnell, but this brand of "journalism" is sickening.

Debrah said...

Can the Dude Abide? from Maureen.

She hits it with this one.

"At first it was exciting that Obama was the sort of brainy, cultivated Democrat who would be at home in a 'West Wing' episode.

"But now he acts like he really thinks he’s on 'West Wing,' gliding through an imaginary, amber-lit set where his righteous self-regard is bound to be rewarded by the end of the hour.

"Hey, dude, you’re a politician. Act like one."

Debrah said...

Candy-Colored Bow-Tied Redemption

Pee Wee's back! He's got a show on Broadway coming up.

I used to love the little Saturday morning show from long ago called "Pee Wee's Playhouse".

Such an avoidable shame that he had to tarnish it all by getting caught in a public place engaging in such perversion.

It's always a greater negative impact when you think someone is---or they give the impression, publicly---so above-board and harmless, only to discover that personally they are both infantile and perverted.

I really hope Paul Reubens/Pee Wee isn't as perverted as he has come off in past incidences.

And I also hope that his unusual interest in children doesn't translate into pedophilia in his personal life.

Pederasty in the gay community seems to be almost acceptable as disgusting as that is. Or if gays don't find it acceptable, they certainly try to cover for it and remain silent about it.

But heterosexuals go after pedophiles in a very public way and the offenders essentially become outcasts.

I don't know if Reubens is gay or hetero; however, I hope he has learned to control himself when he's offstage.

Pee Wee is a very endearing and sweet character.

Debrah said...

From the NY Times.....
Five Reasons Republicans Could Do Better Than Expected

Anonymous said...

Prepare for a burial in Washington tomorrow.

Debrah said...

All the Views Fit to Print......Low points from this year's dishonest, vacuous campaign season

A great one from Christopher Hitchens.

~~~~~~~~~~
Much worse...was the president's remark last week, made on a Univision radio show, in which he expressed disappointment with Spanish-speaking voters who proposed to "sit out the election instead of saying, 'We're gonna punish our enemies and we're gonna reward our friends who stand with us on issues that are important to us.' " Almost everything is wrong with this statement. The first is its awful tone: a crude appeal to ethnicity and to a spoils system of reward and punishment with which to accompany it. The second is the unspoken but highly dubious assumption that Americans (or future Americans) of Mexican and Cuban and Guatemalan and Salvadoran origin can all be collectivized under the lump headings of Hispanic or Latino. The third is the patronizing supposition that this putative bloc is somehow owned by the Democratic Party. And the fourth—to restate my objection above—is that it legitimizes any politician who couches his or her appeal in ethnic or tribal or confessional terms.
~~~~~~~~~~

Elitism and populism, as we have painfully learned this fall, are too often found in the same person. The simultaneous aggregating and dividing of people by race and ethnicity turns out to be the cheapest and easiest outcome of supposedly democratic measurement.
~~~~~~~~~~

Debrah said...

Don't forget to vote!

I voted early last week to get it over and avoid the crowds.

Yes, Anonymous (11:09PM), a few modifications are forthcoming.

Debrah said...

From Defeat to Rout

"The loudest warnings sounding now are the ones the Democrats are, remarkably, still refusing to hear. They continue to assume that the public will come to its senses and the Republican resurgence of the last two years will prove to be an aberration. For the Republicans, that fact is a better portent for 2012 than any of Tuesday’s election returns."

Debrah said...

The Bums Were Thrown Out from Conrad Black.

"To be reelected, Obama will have to throw away his absurdly obsolete liberal playbook and assimilate the lesson that polls show two-thirds of Americans think spending cuts, not more payola for the Democratic barons, is what will stimulate economic recovery.

"In nearly two years, he has provided no fiscal prospect except herniating deficits and trillion-dollar annual money-supply increases that will ruin the country. His obsessions with the quaint sideshows of an innumerate health-care reform — one that is widely thought likely to make things worse rather than better — and the sci-fi Goreite hobbyhorse of carbon footprints have proved a road map to disaster, as he and the Democratic congressional leaders were constantly warned. Now they can spend more time with their families.

"At his press conference on Wednesday, the president was certainly chastened, but gave no indication that a drastic course correction was called for or likely."

hymlic manuever said...

Diva- this New York Times photo of Obama took me by surprise. It's not like them to draw attention to anything negative about him. Looks like the shine is off "the one".

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/04/us/politics/04elect.html?_r=1&ref=politics

Debrah said...

A Return to the Norm from Krauthammer.

"The tide had gone out; the tide came back. A center-right country restores the normal congressional map: a sea of interior red, bordered by blue coasts, and dotted by blue islands of urban density."

~~~~~~~

"The president, however, remains clueless. In his next-day news conference, he had the right demeanor — subdued, his closest approximation to humility — but he was uncomprehending about what just happened. The 'folks' were apparently just 'frustrated' that 'progress' is just too slow. Asked three times whether popular rejection of his policy agenda might have had something to do with the 'shellacking' he took, he looked as if he’d been asked whether the sun had risen in the West. Why, no, he said."

A-hem......

Debrah said...

hymlic maneuver--

You're right.

That was an uncharacteristic photo the Times used.

Some of the phony and glossy coverage is coming back down to earth.

RobertG said...

I thought Conrad Black summed up the Tea Party quite well with this:

"It lost the Republicans the Senate seat in Delaware, where the mainstream Republican would have won easily; the elevation of a Tea Party woman who had dabbled in exotic religion, was a militant homophobe, and inveighed against the evils of masturbation fumbled Joe Biden’s Senate seat, which Delaware longed to give the Republicans, back into the hands of the Democrats."

The single worst mistake was elevating O'Donnell who was sure to lose. That was a hapless giveaway.

Debrah said...

Miss Manners and the Big C

Oh, G/d.

Just wonderfully written.

I didn't think I could adore Christopher Hitchens any more than I already do and always have.

This one is a glaring example of his omnipotence as a writer and a human being.

Debrah said...

RobertG--

I don't think you'll get an argument from many on that.

As Krauthammer wrote and opined in panelist commentary, they should have employed the "Buckley Rule".

Debrah said...

Pelosi Unlikely to Face Challenge

How insane is this?

If we had a parliamentary system in this country Pelosi, Harry Reid, and Obama would have been wiped from the stage as a result of an election in which voters quite clearly rejected their policies.

Debrah said...

'Blindsided': A President's Story is one about GWB from Maureen this morning.....

......however, that title could just as easily fit Obama's current situation.

"Many presidents go a little loco. Others — even those who insist they want to be transformative and not play 'small ball' — fall into periods where they seem strangely disengaged during crises.

"It happened to President Obama during the interminable health care battle and intemperate birth of the Tea Party, and again when the BP well gushed.

"It happened to W. with Afghanistan, Iraq and Katrina. When they tragically spun out of control on his watch, President Bush was not engaged."

Debrah said...

Interesting.

Ran across this op-ed in which Mark Bauerlein, well-known professor at Emory, is being discussed.

Someone needs to look into this issue and do something about it. Public universities cannot operate in secrecy.

Debrah said...

Good one and well-written from Hertzberg at The New Yorker.

I certainly do not agree with all his conclusions, but it's a fine comprehensive overview.

Electoral Dissonance

Gyro Gearloose said...

7:02- Huh?
Google the German to English translation and then post.

Debrah said...

Maureen's conservative brother Kevin Rubs It In.

Debrah said...

Anonymous (7:02 PM)--

Next time you come by drop off a nice, crisp Riesling!

Nothing worse than showing up unannounced empty-handed.

I'm glad you like The Diva World.

Thanks.

Debrah said...

Drink Wine for Anti-Aging

"There is quite a lot of data on the wine and beauty connection. I was surprised at how extensive the data is on wine as an antiaging intervention."

"A glass a day and your skin will glow. As antiaging advice, this is as good as it gets."

And I thought all that partying had gone to waste.

No wonder the Diva keeps getting better and better!

Debrah said...

An Opening Volley Against the Deficit

Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson seem to be taking a very realistic approach, but they have avoided some key areas.

"Sensible health-care reform — and Obamacare is not it — will be necessary to ensure the long-term solvency of American government."

Debrah said...

Why Obama is Right About India from Krauthammer.

"And of all these countries, India, which has fought a border war with China, is the most natural anchor for such a U.S. partnership. It’s not just our inherent affinities — democratic, English-speaking, free-market, dedicated to the rule of law. It is also the coincidence of our strategic imperatives: We both face the threat of radical Islam and the longer-term challenge of a rising China.

"Which is why Obama’s dramatic call for India to be made a permanent member of the Security Council was so important. However useless and obsolete the U.N. may be, a Security Council seat carries totemic significance. It would elevate India, while helping bind it to us as our most strategic and organic Third World ally.

"China is no enemy, but it remains troublingly adversarial. Which is why India must be the center of our Asian diplomacy. And why Obama’s trip — coconuts and all — was worth every penny."

Debrah said...

Women's Top 5 Sexual Fantasies

Hmmm.......I don't know about that.

Debrah said...

This phony son-of-a-b!tch just can't help displaying who is really is.

Obama Knocks Israel in a Budding Sharia State

"It also turns out that this exemplary Islamic nation [Indonesia] has about as much tolerance for Israel as the Palestinians do. Like Hamas and Fatah, Indonesia does not recognize Israel’s right to exist. To be sure, the national motto is 'Unity in Diversity' — inducing Obama to compare it favorably with America’s E Pluribus Unum. But it ought to come with an asterisk: Israelis are not permitted to enter Indonesia, nor are Israeli aircraft permitted to fly in its airspace."

And the "President of the United States" says "Indonesia is a part of me".........

We already know that, buddy.

Debrah said...

Sirens, Egyptian and Equine

Excellent one from Maureen today....and so very true.

“It has always been preferable to attribute a woman’s success to her beauty rather than to her brains, to reduce her to the sum of her sex life,” Schiff writes, adding: “Cleopatra unsettles more as sage than as seductress; it is less threatening to believe her fatally attractive than fatally intelligent.”

Debrah said...

Israel's Shabbos Goy from Hitchens

Anonymous said...

This is hard to swallow. A Muslim group is urging Muslim women not to allow airport authorities to search them below the shoulders. And that would be those known to be most suspect. Will this be tolerated while everybody else is given full body rub downs? You can't make this stuff up.

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/muslim-group-advises-women-wearing-hijab

brett

Debrah said...

Brett--

The topic you raise is a hot-button news item right now.

This is the direct link you posted.

Legal eagles are debating the Fourth Amendment over this one and I don't see a resolution in the near future.

Debrah said...

Maureen's The Way We Were is tailor-made for a segue into an "Entertainment Tonight" segment.

Really, Maureen. So silly. So easy to conjure.

Hey, folks! Barbra Streisand and Robert Redford reunited for a first-time interview on "Oprah"......

......and that somehow relates to GWB and Cheney?

Maureen, some advice: Watch more Jon Stewart.

leisurelylawyer said...

I like your blog, Debrah.
The word unique comes to mind.

Debrah said...

Incredibly on target. Fantastic column by Hanson.

The Diva clairvoyance on this matter must have been working overtime when I predicted this.

But I didn't expect events to produce a 180 so soon!

The George W. Bush Fixation

"Recent polls reflect that Bush and Obama are now just about even in popularity. Obama’s supporters in the House have suffered the worst shellacking since 1938. The president got out of Washington on a foreign tour immediately after the election — only to be cold-shouldered by fair-weather foreign leaders who sensed weakness. Bush, meanwhile, is basking in endless media exposure as he expounds on his best-selling memoir — appearing above the partisan fray, past and present."

Debrah said...

Hi "leisurely lawyer".

Thanks.

I can only assume that you are one of extraordinary taste and unmatched wisdom!

leisurelylawyer said...

Well, I don't want to brag...but.....

Debrah said...

Don't Touch My Junk from Krauthammer.

"We pretend that we go through this nonsense as a small price paid to assure the safety of air travel. Rubbish. This has nothing to do with safety — 95 percent of these inspections, searches, shoe removals, and pat-downs are ridiculously unnecessary. The only reason we continue to do this is that people are too cowed to even question the absurd taboo against profiling — when the profile of the airline attacker is narrow, concrete, uniquely definable, and universally known. So instead of seeking out terrorists, we seek out tubes of gel in stroller pouches."

Debrah said...

Interesting video clip.

The Democratic Party Will Disappear

Debrah said...

Ha!

Are You A Sex Addict?

Debrah said...

Nuking the White House

"It would have been nice if Obama had made his tough stand earlier, on tax cuts or 'don’t ask, don’t tell.' And since he doesn’t have the votes yet, he risks losing and taking a second shellacking. Popeye pulling out the spinach too late."

Kantian said...

Just stopping by to wish you and your family a Happy Thanksgiving!

Debrah said...

Thanks, Kantian.

Happy Thanksgiving to you as well!

Debrah said...

Airport 'Security'? from Thomas Sowell.

"What do the Israeli airport-security people do that American airport-security people do not do? They profile. They question some individuals for more than half an hour, open up all their luggage, and spread the contents on the counter — and they let others go through with scarcely a word. And it works.

"Meanwhile, this administration is so hung up on political correctness that they have turned 'profiling' into a bugaboo. They would rather have electronic scanners look under the clothes of nuns than detain a jihadist imam for some questioning."

Debrah said...

5 Ideas For Fixing Airport Security

Number 3 (image distortion) is the one I mentioned earlier.

Some Scandinavian countries use a form of this method by turning body scans into cartoon figures.

You achieve the body scan to screen for hidden objects while removing the "nudity" issue that many passengers have.

Debrah said...

Why Unhappy People Become Liberals

Ha!

Quite a provocative title. I agree with some of this; however, it's impossible to arrive at one set conclusion on such a subject.

For example, I'm a very emotional humanoid for the most part and am always informed by "feelings", but I don't allow that to totally impede intelligent decisions on significant matters.

And I regret having to break it to the ultra-liberal-loosey-goosey set, but the only reason the majority of teens and 20-somethings are so outwardly supportive of Far Left social issues is because they have yet to experience enough life to have the information to arrive at a valid opinion on much of anything.

When you are that age, you usually have few financial obligations.

You haven't had enough personal/sexual relationships to even know the consequences of your choices.......which will only occur with the passage of time.

Consequently, liberals work feverishly to court the student vote on university campuses. Students live in their university towns or cities only part of the year and are not even residents......yet their uninformed vote impacts who is elected to represent authentic residents who pay the taxes.

Very irregular, IMO.

I don't care what your ideological leanings are, you end up going with what works for your own life and so much of the parasitic liberal agenda only makes sense for the individual in the earlier and irresponsible part of their lives.

Or for those who maintain a career whose existence is dependent on and funded by the public (taxpayers).

Debrah said...

A very, very important column by Krauthammer.

If Obama doesn't soon take off the blinders his presidency will descend into the abyss of the Jimmy Carter era.

The Irrelevance of START

"President Obama insists that New START is important as a step toward his dream of a nuclear-free world. Where does one begin? A world without nukes would be the ultimate nightmare. We voluntarily disarm while the world’s rogues and psychopaths develop nukes in secret. Just last week we found out about a hidden, unknown, highly advanced North Korean uranium-enrichment facility. An ostensibly nuclear-free world would place these weapons in the hands of radical regimes that would not hesitate to use them — against a civilized world that would have given up its deterrent."

Debrah said...

Secondhand smoke kills 600,000 people annually.

Debrah said...

This one from Andrew Sullivan is primly called Sarah and the Kids.

Neat and trim.

Strait-laced and prudish dialogue from such a supposedly open-minded and "cosmopolitan" transplant.

Ha! What a joke.

Big Andy hasn't tasted "cosmopolitan" since the last time he wiped the Santorum froth from his bed sheets.

A frequent domestic exercise, no doubt.

Which begs the question: Why does such a man who purports to be a professional journalist spend so much time following, examining, and writing about someone like Palin?

What is the obsession?

This type of catty and b!tchy fare has gone on forever.....and it seems there is no end.

Debrah said...

Well......

.....I was just about to put a fine point on the aforementioned topic when Prissy showed up!

Prissy is the lovely kitty who began showing up this year when Mister comes to the veranda for his daily snack.

Except now Mister comes only once a day in the evening, and Prissy comes in the early morning and again in the late afternoon.

I think she might be a part of Mister's colony, but I have no way of knowing for sure.

In any case, she is so sweet and doesn't have the wild and unpredictable streak of Mister. Both of them are so beautiful and they both rely on me as a food source.

Mister doesn't exhibit hostility or belligerence, but he won't allow Prissy to come inside the veranda and sleep on the kitty chaise lounge that belonged to Kitty Diva.

Only he does that.

It's a territorial thing and I don't interfere. Although, I always make sure that she has as many special snacks as he and that she never feels slighted.

More wild kitty madness!

Debrah said...

Getting back to the issue of Andrew Sullivan's obsession with Sarah Palin....it's even worse than Joe McGinniss, who moved next door to Palin as he was writing about her.

How strange and creepy is that?

And anyone wonders why she might think she's a celebrity and even presidential material?

The press and the bird-brain Lefties continue to create a stir. If they really think that Palin is a superfluous wannabe, then why don't they stop discussing her?

I know people who can't stand her and I also know people who like her a lot.

I'm kind of indifferent....which is why I rarely discuss topics related to Palin.

It's refreshing to see a female in the world of politics who is naturally attractive instead of the usual stodgy fare; however, I literally can't stand to listen to her nasal, over-exercised speech patterns.

She's not dumb at all and can deliver for her audience; however, she's not even close to being as smart as she thinks she is.

I always get turned off by the heavy push for "traditional family values, Mom, and apple pie" schtick and I certainly don't care for Palin's smarmy way of dealing with the fact that her fat and awkward daughter Bristol got knocked-up by the willing idiot Levi Johnston.

Who enjoys reading about that crapola?

If you want that type of story, just go down to your nearest Social Services office.

Palin should have taken her daughter to have an abortion as soon as she knew she was pregnant. During the very early weeks the procedure is essentially a "menstrual extraction".

But everyone wants to be in the family way!

Please.

Between this idiocy and the constant yelping and whining of gay men salivating for manholes while walking down the aisle, it's an episode of "Star Trek" every day.

Kantian said...

LOL! It was a waste of time to even look at them last week. After I saw Bannon sitting there reading papers trying to look important, I had enough and turned it off.

It all looked staged and fake.Only difference in them and the Three Stooges was there was four.

Handy Man said...

Some bloggers didn't have rose colored glasses on during the case. There was no way that a group of liberal democrats were going to rock the boat more than they absolutely had to.
And the stupid idea that KC and others tried to sell about Obama calling for an investigation into the handling of the case was ridiculous. I always had a good laugh about that.
My grandma used to say "everything always comes out in the wash", and it sure has.

Debrah said...

Top 100 Global Thinkers from Slate.

A debatable list to be sure.

Debrah said...

Kantian and Handy Man--

What we are seeing now is a reality that was always simmering beneath the top layers of the case.

It should be noted for the reality-based world that the actual "case" is over and has long been over.

When is the last time you saw Stuart Taylor reliving it in print?

If you're going to continue discussing it, then to maintain your credibility and not have people laughing at you for being stuck on one case for the rest of your life.....

......you must, necessarily, update and discuss everyone who took part in it and what they're up to now.

KC can't do that because he is a "friend" to Bannon and company and that side of the story was the one told.

For the purposes of the innocent lacrosse players that was quite necessary during the case; however, so many facets of the prism were excluded.

Now that the innocent have long been released from the mob of injustice, it's certainly time to highlight the REAL environment that would have allowed such a railroading in the first place......if you want to discuss the case at all.

All it would have taken from the start is for the legal team to have confronted the Leftist and racist, race-baiting mob in an honest way.

But they were self-serving like most in this case.

They and their fellow Leftist politicians in the area didn't want their particular constituency molested.

So Mangum and everyone supporting her criminality were allowed to fully exploit non-issues because the people defending the lacrosse players are housed inside the very same ideological and destructive community as they.

It was always an idiotic tap dance to even put up with the obfuscation and the bullsh!t story line.

Liberals like Jim Coleman at the law school were given "hero" status for simply doing what was logical and decent.

And that's the way everything was portrayed......as if a Liberal should get a medal for something that a normal person would do just as a matter of course.

Stuart didn't get involved with the local-yokals and hasn't tried to live off the case.

As a seasoned attorney and legal expert, he knew the game that Cheshire and company were playing; however, now that the case has long been over and all of the bloggers---none more than the centrist and more conservative ones---went along with the game for the sake of Reade, Collin, and David......

.......it's time to discuss the issues with purity.

And no, Obama didn't really do anything substantive to help. It was the beginning of his campaign and he needed to look like a "fair and impartial" centrist.

We all know how that turned out.

As for me, I wanted nothing posted inside Wonderland to taint KC's work at the time.

Consequently, I took the optimistic view that perhaps Obama was trying to show that he was capable of transcending race and ideology. Ha!

That's also why I chose to support him in 2008. I would have been delighted if he had been authentic and capable of bringing the people in this country together. In my view, it was worth taking a chance.

His horrific past close associations with Bill Ayers and the racist, anti-Semitic Reverend Wright, notwithstanding.

There were so many bloggers who suspended their ideologies to lend support in the lacrosse case and they are to be commended.

Can anyone imagine---in your wildest dreams---ultra-Liberals suspending their politics in the same way in order to assist a greater cause?

No, really.

That's a serious question. LOL!

Debrah said...

'I'll Be Home For Hannakuh': The State of the Jewish Holiday Song from The Atlantic

OMG!

This one is from Hampton Stevens.

I can't believe it after all this time. Hampton used to be the moderator for the NYTimes op-ed fora.

What memories that brings to the Diva!

Perhaps I should say hello after all this time.

Debrah said...

Jerry Brown's Last Hurrah

M. Simon said...

Janice Meyerson is my cousin. Contact me (my blog is Power and Control - addy on the sidebar) if you would care to discuss.

Debrah said...

Hi M. Simon--

Just now saw your comment.

Why didn't you leave it on the current thread?

Are you the same guy who used to comment on the lacrosse blogs? Wow. That was certainly some time ago.

I'm not familiar with Meyerson, but I'm sure she's excellent.

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