NRO's The Corner: Rolling Bile, Spit, and Gnash Thread

Miss USA — Using Politics to Sell Sex? [Lisa Schiffren]

I see that, for the second year in a row, politics has intruded upon the Miss USA contest. After last year's tedious debacle with Carrie Prejean and the gay-marriage question, you'd think they would have learned to steer clear of hot-button social issues.

In the final round of this year's contest, the beautiful blonde who came in second was asked what she thought of Arizona's new immigration law. This is a subject that has spurred heated and unpleasant discussions across the land, but Miss Oklahoma was up to the task. She began her answer by saying "I'm a huge believer in states rights," which means, she explained, that she thinks it was okay for Arizona to pass the law. Now, that strikes me as a singularly politic way of avoiding the parts of the issue that are upsetting to people without ducking the question.

The ultimate winner, Miss Michigan, was asked if contraception should be paid for by health insurance. She thought that it should be. She explained, "I believe that birth control is just like every other medication, even though it's a controlled substance."

Controlled substance? Missed the point? Never mind. That dark-haired beauty, Rima Fakih, who hails from Dearborn and was educated in Catholic schools, will take her place as the first Arab-American Miss USA.

As it turns out, these political provocations were simply distractions from the real story. Miss USA is no longer about lovely, wholesome girls looking for scholarships. Under "the Donald's" new rules, posing for soft-core underwear ads was part of the talent testing — presumably, he does not want to exclude any hot and sexy young woman with a few nude pictures in her past, a little porn in her portfolio, or a stint as a stripper to her name. Indeed, becoming an underwear model is now considered a perfect career aspiration for contestants — which is good, because that was the substance of the pageant.

Happily, this means that Miss Michigan's exploits as a pole dancer won't disqualify her from the title.

The decline and fall continues.

05/17 06:53 PMShare

Under "the Donald's" new rules

trump's owned miss usa for fourteen years

i actually assumed it was a trump-created knockoff off miss america, but apparently miss usa has been a thing since the 50's, with miss america going back to 192something

I love that, for these people, good use of your time = worrying about a fucking beauty pageant

good use of my time = reading half a dozen right wingers losing their shit about an arab girl winning a beauty pageant

i posted the nuttiest one to the politics thread but nobody bit :(

McCarthy's deranged posts are daily phenomena. Maybe he can cover beauty pageants...?

good use of my time = reading half a dozen right wingers losing their shit about an arab girl winning a beauty pageant

man I would say that lol'ing at people whose concern is "but what about the integrity of the beauty pageant" is 100% good use of a morning

will be using "The decline and fall continues." as my ilx signature from now on

After last year's tedious debacle with Carrie Prejean and the gay-marriage question, you'd think they would have learned to steer clear of hot-button social issues.

wow you're reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeally missing the point of donald trump, now aren't you

Miss USA is no longer about lovely, wholesome girls looking for scholarships on-air careers in local television

Remember this pearl:

Cosmo [Mona Charen]

Funny you should mention that. I was in the supermarket yesterday with my 14-year-old son who asked "What's up with Cosmopolitan? What is that?" I replied, "It's a magazine for sluts."

so much pity for Mona Charen's son

Dan's response to this still makes me laugh out loud.

Oversexed and Regretting It [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

Actress Raquel Welch on the downsides of "sexual freedom."

Oversexed and Regretting It [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

okay yes very mean but wow did I laugh at this

also Mona is going to regret her response when her son hits 16-17 and starts wearing shorts made out of Cosmos

If you need a quick primer on the birds and the bees, on how a culture has been misled, and on why Carrie and her friends from yet another Sex and the City movie have had miserable, not-so-pretty lives, the woman once declared “Most Desired Woman” by Playboy can help you out.

When the first Sex and the City movie came out a few years ago, I went to a depressing midnight showing on its opening night in New York.

Uh, why was she there?

"research"

I can't even imagine her out of the house past 8pm.

c'mon, late night taco trucks, baby!!!

anyway

What's up with Cosmopolitan?

http://chattahbox.com/images/2010/01/Jerry_Seinfeld.jpg

Please the generosity of spirit:

Buh-Bye Arlen [Jonathan Adler]

My first job in Washington, D.C., during the summer after my freshman year in college, was an internship in the office of Senator Arlen Specter. (In my defense, my political views were still developing, and he was my "hometown" Senator.) At the time Specter was a nominal Republican, though it seemed most of his staff were Democrats. His counsel for the Senate Judiciary Committee had previously worked for Senator Kennedy. I didn't see much of him, and what limited interaction I had was not particularly favorable — and I've not been a fan ever since. Good riddance.

In Case You Missed It [Jonah Goldberg]

You have 364 days to plan for the next National Asian and Pacific Islander HIV/AIDS Awareness Day.

05/20 09:30 AMShare

rot in hell you little pissant

American Idolatry [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

I’m still NR cruising (there were two cruises to Portugal and Spain, Jay was on the first — read about it here — and I’m on the second), so I can only keep up with so much of what is going on back home. And so, naturally, one of the things I’ve kept up with is…American Idol.

Please tell me that I am missing something about this Ellen DeGeneres–Crystal Bowersox controversy, because it reads like someone looking to manufacture outrage. I find it more shocking that “Hallelujah” (have you heard the words to that song? ) would be sung on a primetime show that lots of families watch than that Crystal would be asked to sing a Paul McCartney song.

"NR cruising" = hitting on Mona Charen at the martini bar.

I find it more shocking that “Hallelujah” (have you heard the words to that song? ) would be sung on a primetime show that lots of families watch

(have you heard the words to that song?)

only about 100000000 times since 1995

is she objectin to the biblical references...?

heyo! xp

uh probably the bit about getting tied to a chair or something would be my guess

In Case You Missed It [Jonah Goldberg]

You have 364 days to plan for the next National Asian and Pacific Islander HIV/AIDS Awareness Day.

05/20 09:30 AMShare

rot in hell you little pissant

love you for this goole <3

I've not been a fan ever since

Americans who say "I've not" are disgusting savages.

^^^ real talk

Lots of this going around today:

For the Record, I Would Have Voted for the Magna Carta [Daniel Foster]
There is something unusual happening in the blogosphere and the Twitterverse as I write. In response to Rand Paul's problematic take on federal authority and racial segregation, self-avowed libertarians like Washington Post’s Dave Weigel and The Atlantic’s Megan McArdle are falling all over themselves to say things like “for the record, I would have voted for the Civil Rights Act.”

Well, of course you would have. De jure racism is an evil. I would have voted for the Civil Rights Act too. And while we’re at it I would have never signed off on the Corrupt Bargain that ended Reconstruction by installing Rutherford B. Hayes in the Presidency. Better yet, I would have killed John Wilkes Booth during one of his early performances of Richard III or vacated the appointment of Roger B. Taney to the Supreme Court.

But at the end of the day, isn’t this counterfactual game sort of pointless? There is certainly a “correct” answer to all these historical questions — side with the angels on every significant civil rights debate since the founding — but that’s not the same as the thoughtful answer.

if only i could back in time to kill racists -- but that would be murder!! man, even that wouldn't be right. fuck me.

There is certainly a “correct” answer to all these historical questions — side with the angels on every significant civil rights debate since the founding — but that’s not the same as the thoughtful answer.

The Thoughtful Racist by Daniel Foster.

"if i were highlander i'd be down with wm lloyd garrison and freedom riding and all that, but dammit life is short and i want to be a racist"

there is certainly a “correct” answer to all these historical questions — side with the angels on every significant civil rights debate since the founding — but that’s not the same as the thoughtful answer.

I suppose it's unintentional that using phrases like "side with the angels" and "that's not the same as the thoughtful answer" exposes Foster as a cynical asshole.

*expose

yeah luvvit when the conservatives just get down to the "ugh you people think you're SOOO GOOOD" attack

^^^that is generally all they've got; also plays well to cretins.

Re: Mother of Michelle Obama Questioner Will Not Be Deported [Mark Krikorian]

No surprise there. In a tightly run immigration system that actually had integrity, the illegal-alien mom might have something to worry about. But given that the "kids say the darnedest things" moment happened before the TV cameras, in front of the first lady (and her Mexican counterpart), the illegal-alien mom actually won the lottery — she's as good as amnestied now.

meanwhile, Derb finds reasons to hope: "Hungry, angry people working two jobs for a handful (or wheelbarrowful) of inflated-away dollars won’t be in a mood to fuss much about the human rights of detained terrorists, or of people in unfriendly nations, or of migrants violating our borders. Nor will they bother much about global warming or spotted owls (yummy!) Smiting one’s enemies hip and thigh may even come back into fashion — a jolly good thing in my opinion."

leftists always say that the poor and desperate turn to fascism, always nice to hear someone hoping for it

In Case You Missed It [Jonah Goldberg]

You have 364 days to plan for the next National Asian and Pacific Islander HIV/AIDS Awareness Day.

05/20 09:30 AMShare

fuck this dude btw

Raquel Welch [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

My column on her awakening to the pain that the Pill has wrought seemed to strike a nerve this week. For more on the topic in the last weeks (the anniversary of the Pill) see here and here.

http://www.takimag.com/site/article/two_and_a_half_men_airs_otherwise_unpalatable_truths/#When:04:02:20Z

oh man i didn't know that Derbyshire moonlights on other websites spouting even more ridiculous creepy shit

* Inside a pretty woman there is often a slut, who can be awakened by a man with good “game.”

* Low-class white women are often obese and coarse.

Now, these aren’t the kinds of truths you’d want as up-front advertisements for a stable, harmonious society. They are truths none the less, and need an occasional airing.

the kind of fascinating part is the delusion that because society rejects a belief it is inherently noble to support it.

Palin on Rand Paul [Ramesh Ponnuru]

Pete Wehner: "Understandably scarred by the 2008 campaign, [Palin] is on a quest to clear her name by pounding the media at every turn. They are always to blame — even when, as in the case of Rand Paul, they are not actually to blame."

----------------------

re: Palin on Rand Paul [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

She may also be determined to demonstrate what political loyalty looks like, in response to the lack thereof some on the McCain campaign showed her.

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Re: Palin on Rand Paul [Ramesh Ponnuru]

Loyalty is no excuse for making false claims. Those of us who believe that the media often treats conservative points of view unfairly should be especially annoyed when that legitimate argument is used to cover for Republican mistakes and thus discredited.

----------------------

Re: Palin on Rand Paul [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

No argument here, Ramesh.

OWNED.

LKJ : 11/10/11 01:23
There's some kind of symmetry to The Band Perry taking down three CMA awards while the number three is so much crueler to Governor Perry on this evening.

Imagining what a Corner-sponsored version of EMP would be like.

it would look like the NRO cruise.

Still waiting for some heroic waiter on said cruise to persuade the crew to abandon ship one night.

The irrepressible Nordlinger reviewed his own magazine's cruise. Excerpt:

Where were we? In any case, our first panel, aboard the ship, is with Paul Johnson and David Pryce-Jones. Do two people constitute a panel? I guess not — in any case, we had a nice talk. We talked about matters artistic and architectural: Versailles, Chartres, the Eiffel Tower. We talked about the royal wedding (Wills ’n’ Kate). We talked about Syria, America, and sundry other matters.

Were P.J. and P-J brilliant and inspiring? Can you make a shoe smell? (Line from Caddyshack.)

On a peaceful afternoon, floating down the Seine, I hear a church bell in the distance. I check my BlackBerry, thinking a text has come in. (My signal, or whatever the word is, sounds rather like a bell.) Is that a bad sign — that one is too BlackBerry-oriented?

I suppose there are better ways to pass an afternoon than to float down the Seine, talking with Priscilla Buckley and Paul Johnson. But I can’t imagine there are many . . .

I meet a young woman, from the eastern side of Germany. She was born shortly before reunification. I think how lucky such people are: to have avoided a life under Communism. Good timing.

Annie G.
: 11/10/11 09:29

We stopped watching the debates at about #3. We don't get to hear EACH candidate address EACH issue, so what is the point? It's like watching the teacher pick her favorites over and over.

Are we the only ones with a DVR? As with most programs, we recorded the awards show to be able to skip through the commercials (and bands we don't like) tonight.

And Taylor Swift is tiresome, not a country musician, and all her songs sound alike.

[Approved commenter] DirkBelig
: 11/10/11 11:42

Perhaps, but she is super super cute and if she had a larger bust - nothing crazy, just a generous B-cup would break up the vertical line - she'd be one of the most beautiful women on the planet. And the fact that she's not a party girl train wreck like Lindsey Lohan is a plus.

xpost -- This all needs to shift from Ship of Fools to Lord of the Flies.

on every post i imagine nordlinger writing the sentence "oh and i murdered yet another woman as well, tra la" and then deleting it

(Line from Caddyshack.)

dirkbelig bringin it

"break up the vertical line"

what kind of surrender-monkey shit is this

oh man, i just came over here to post that comment. creepiest ever.

"If only she had bigger tits, I, DirkBelig, wouldn't have to picture her beautiful face when I beat off!"

something about (Line from Caddyshack.) is the funniest, saddest thing ever

Each of Nordlinger's bullet points is pollable.

Horrible
November 10, 2011 2:01 P.M.
By Jonah Goldberg
I’m working on a column on the mess at Penn State,

can't wait

"how can I pin this on Obama and the permissive liberal cultural?"

This explains the light posting.

Ramesh Ponnuru, Jonah Goldberg, Victor Davis Hanson, Roman Genn, Mark Steyn, David Pryce-Jones, Jay Nordlinger, Fred Thompson …
November 12, 2011 2:37 P.M.
By Kathryn Jean Lopez

They are all here — and so many more. Have already run into old friends, loyal NR cruise-goers, and some new ones, in the hallways here. — Live from the USS NR.

I finally got to meet Mr. & Mrs. @andrewklavan in person last night, after all these years …

Cannot wait for you to join us on one of these! There will be #nrcruise Twitter (@kathrynlopez) updates, connection permitting.

if I ever make a million dollars me & a few regulars of this thread are going to go on the NRO cruise, my "treat" but whoever's got a line in on heavy tranquilizers will have to hold up his or her end of the deal

Re: Re: Michele Bachmann
By Kathryn Jean Lopez
January 3, 2012 10:50 P.M. Comments0
I always have been and will remain a strong supporter of more Randy Travis, whatever venue.

An ideal world for Klo would consist of sweater vests, baked goods, and sexually ambiguous cowboys.

Shall we create a new thread? This one's almost two years old, and a new cycle's about to begin.

Go for it!

You have the honors! I'm stuck for titles this morning.

Mods...lock, please?

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