Some times nothing, some times everything. I'm sure someone can do a syllogism of this, but my feeling is that a man who is harassing and violent towards women probably isn't the sort of guy who is likely to suddenly grow a conscience when it comes to cheating on his wife. But I don't think the flip is true---that a cheater is necessarily a violent man. So, I'd say that there's no reason to think Bill Clinton or Newt Gingrich harasses women because they're cheaters. But a man who harasses women is probably a cheater.
I guess the way I'd put it is that X means Y, but that doesn't mean Y means X. Such as, if it's raining, there are clouds in the sky, but that doesn't mean that because clouds are in the sky, it's raining. Just substitute cheating for "clouds in the sky" and sexual harassment for "raining".
Which leads me to Arnold Schwarzenegger and the least surprising revelation of all time, that he had a child with a servant ten years ago, and concealed it from his wife, who has taken a lot of shit on his behalf in the time they've been together. (Not that she's off the hook, which I'll get to.) This is an excellent time to remind everyone that Schwarzenegger was accused by a lot of women of sexual harassment during the 2003 campaign. These accusations carried a lot of weight, for a number of reasons:
1) The accusations were numerous, extended over 25 years, and were from women who had nothing to gain personally from accusing him, but were only coming out because they were concerned that he could get elected governor.
2) He admitted guilt: ""Those people that I have offended, I want to say to them that I am deeply sorry about that and I apologise because that's not what I'm trying to do." Yes, he made excuses for himself, but basically he admitted it.
"Bodybuilders party a lot, and once, in Gold's--the gym in Venice, California, where all the top guys train--there was a black girl who came out naked. Everybody jumped on her and took her upstairs, where we all got together." Asked by Manso if he was talking about a "gang bang," Schwarzenegger answered, "Yes, but not everybody, just the guys who can fuck in front of other guys. Not everybody can do that. Some think that they don't have a big-enough cock, so they can't get a hard-on. Having chicks around is the kind of thing that breaks up the intense training. It gives you relief, and then afterward you go back to the serious stuff."
The disclaimer is that there's always a slender chance that the woman in question was fully consenting, but if so, the way he describes the incident is strange. Was the force implied part of a game? It's hard to tell if he's leaving out the part where the woman said, "Yes please, 'take' me upstairs and 'jump' on me. Pretending to be raped by a bunch of bodybuilders gets me off." His complete indifference to her experience of the situation is what's remarkable from this passage. The presence or absence of consent is his recollection leads the reader to conclude he didn't care either way.
Needless to say, for those of us who never forgot all this crap, the fact that the woman in question was a servant of Schwarzenegger's was the least surprising aspect of this story. I am curious to hear her story and hope that if she's signed some non-disclosure agreement, the exposure of this story will make that null and void.
*****************
Here is a concern that was hashed out on Twitter, with Anthea Butler setting me straight. I noted that I feel bad---and often feel bad---for Maria Shriver, who has been publicly humilated by her douchebag husband repeatedly. Has any woman in politics had to suffer so many people wondering what she sees in him? But as Anthea pointed out to me, Shriver has her own responsibility for this mess. Not the cheating, but the fact that such a horrible man ended up the governor of California. Because when all these accusations came out about Schwarzenegger, and when he basically admitted to them, it was the presence of the well-respected Maria Shriver that allowed him to basically dodge the accusations.
Twenty-six years later it has become clear that whether she's working to land the man of her dreams—or to propel him all the way to California's governorship—Maria Owings Shriver fights for what she wants. On Oct. 7, wearing a $1,000 Dolce & Gabbana dress and her grandmother Rose's diamond engagement ring, Shriver, 47, beamed as Schwarzenegger declared victory in Los Angeles. "I know how many votes I got today because of you," he told the world. Indeed, at the end of the race Shriver was constantly by his side, helping to blunt charges of sexual harassment that threatened Schwarzenegger's candidacy. "When it comes to her husband, kids and friends, Maria is like a lioness with her cubs," says her good friend Wanda McDaniel Ruddy, who notes that Shriver shed 15 lbs. during the effort. "She didn't eat because she was too busy. She was running on adrenaline."
Here's the problem: Shriver is a prominent feminist activist. She worked with the Center for American Progress to put together a report on American women, their gains and their challenges. It was a pretty good report! She does good work, and that's what makes it all the more frustrating that she used all the good will she's garnered in order to propel a groping, lying shitbag into the governor's seat of the largest state in the country.
I'm not eager to judge anyone for who they fall in love with or marry. Love is remarkably good at blinding people to who they're in love with, and anyone who claims this hasn't happened to them is either lucky or lying.
But your moral responsibilities kick in when the man you love starts doing things that are wrong and you help him do it. Shriver could have declined to help him run for governor, and I doubt that anyone would have thought less of her for doing it. If she wanted to dodge the issue, she could have pointed out that she differs with her husband politically, and she can't bring herself to campaign for someone she wouldn't vote for. So while I do feel bad that she's getting humiliated so publicly, she played a role in this. And I hope other women that are caught up in sick relationships with hopeless cads are paying attention. Even if your emotional and sexual feelings are such that you haven't got it in you to leave yet, that doesn't mean you have to enable.
In a row played out on Twitter, Smith issued an expletive-laden series of messages aimed at the airline for ejecting him from a flight from Oakland to Burbank on Saturday because he was apparently too overweight to fit in his seat.
“Wanna tell me I’m too wide for the sky?” Smith asked on his Twitter account shortly after the incident. “Totally cool but fair warning folks: If you look like me, you may be ejected from Southwest.”
Smith had fallen victim to Southwest’s booking guidelines for a “customer of size” which say that passengers who are unable to lower both armrests when seated should book another seat because of complaints it has received from customers whose comfort has been ruined by the “encroachment of a large seatmate”.
The captain also deemed him a “safety risk” even though Smith was able to buckle up with the regular seat belt without an extender.
Now here’s where it gets insane—since Smith’s Tweets were causing a PR nightmare as other “passengers of size” chimed in on Southwest’s policy of ejecting them, the airline apologized! For what? That’s its policy!
Aware of the unfolding PR disaster, a tweet appeared on Southwest’s Twitter feed about six hours later, promising Smith he would get a call from the airline’s customer relations vice-president.
“Again, I’m very sorry for the experience you had tonight. Please let me know if there is anything else I can do,” a second tweet to Smith read.
The cover-your-fat-ass-removal-policy apology makes no sense. Either stand behind the fat-bashing policy or not. I’ll tell you why this is explicitly a fat-bashing issue—I find Southwest’s criteria for passenger ejection extremely flawed, since I’ve sat next to people, particularly broad shouldered athletic men who are not obese, who encroach into my space with their arms and shoulders, and many sit with their legs wide open as if they are relaxing on a couch. How is this not equivalent to “encroachment of a large seatmate?”
Now if Southwast want to charge someone more for a seat (or buy a second seat) because of weight, citing some sort of safety issue, that’s another matter, since balance of plane load could be floated in the realm of a legitimate policy, but that’s not what was stated to Kevin Smith. It may be weight/fat discrimination, but that’s a separate issue than the story at hand. To enforce that policy, Southwest would have to weigh its passengers at check in, or if it wants to be more proactive in its fat patrol, require passengers to send in their height, weight and body mass index at the time you book the flight so they can determine who is a safety risk, right?
Actually, if Southwest wants to ensure passenger comfort, they also need to take into consideration who has broad shoulders or wide hips and match everyone up so they fit in like puzzle pieces.
In the end, if size and seat encroachment is the issue Southwest is going to stick to, then there are a many more passengers of “size” who need to be booted from a Southwest flight besides the Clerks director.
What do you all have to say?
P.S. If an airline really wants to do something about passenger comfort, how about keeping the families with out-of-control, undisciplined children (and I’m not talking crying babies; that generally can’t be helped) into their own section of the plane or create “family friendly” flights, and eject passengers who won’t stop yammering on the cell phones after being told to shut them off.
The mother of three said she does not want to have more kids on View co-host Barbara Walters’ SIRIUS Satellite Radio show, Here’s Barbara.
Hasselbeck joked she’s avoiding her husband, ESPN analyst Tim Hasselbeck, and changing her look to make sure she sticks to her plan.
“I just find him incredibly attractive,” Hasselbeck said. “So, it’s not like I’m that disciplined, so right now, my strategy is dressing in a way that will not get me pregnant ... nothing too revealing.”
Now, I don’t usually think of myself as a literal person, far from it. Most of the time, I tend to think jokes like calling Birkenstocks “birth control” are, if cliched, at least understandable. Abstinence is a form of birth control. But this is taking it a step too much in the direction of being literal, causing you to sincerely wonder if Hasselbeck hasn’t considered the possibility of contraception. It’s not slutty if it’s your husband, Elizabeth!
I’ve often joked that it seems that the anti-choice mentality is such that you get the impression that they think that people should only have sex until they’re done having children, and then consider themselves dried up and quit. Now I’m not so sure I was missing the mark. Thinking your husband is hot and wanting to fuck him doesn’t strike me as a weakness, not even enough of one that cracking jokes about it makes a whole lot of sense. Humor thrives on incongruity—-something isn’t how it should be, something doesn’t fit, etc. Even though they’re cliched, jokes about having a sexless marriage fit the bill more, because marriage is supposed to be sexual. But this seems to rely on the assumption that it’s somehow bad to want to keep fucking your husband even after three kids. I’m forced to conclude that not only is Hasselbeck too stupid to know how to operate a condom, she is also one of those conceited people that thinks they invented sex. I always got that impression from her and the way she managed to maintain a smug expression throughout every pregnancy, but I thought she was being smug because she was pregnant. Now I see it’s because she thinks she got one up on the rest of us because she likes sex or something. Weird.
I’m not sure which is more ludicrous—the endorser or the endorsee. Right-wing fading action hero and Total Gym informercial star Chuck Norris throws his questionable weight behind the disgraced, de-benched Chief Justice of Alabama Roy Moore. The press release is keyboard spew-worthy:
Montgomery, Alabama - August 26, 2009 - Chuck Norris, internationally known martial arts expert, actor, and media personality has endorsed Judge Roy Moore for Governor of Alabama. Norris believes Judge Moore is the strongest, best qualified candidate in the race for Alabama’s gubernatorial leader, the person who can best lead the state forward in the difficult times ahead.
Judge Moore and Chuck Norris have much in common in addition to their strong conservative beliefs, including their martial arts skills and their service in our nation’s armed forces. Mr. Norris has won numerous martial arts tournaments around the world. As described in Judge Moore’s book, So Help Me God. Judge Moore fought professionally as a kick-boxer in both the U.S. and Australia, and is known for his strong leadership as a judge and as an Army company commander in Vietnam.
Judge Moore’s campaign is based on his defense of our individual rights, his plan for creating new jobs through the proven economic principles of Supply Side economics (“Reaganomics”) which brought our nation and state out of a severe recession in the 1980’s-by cutting taxes and reducing the size of government. He also has a strong plan to eliminate waste and corruption in state government. Judge Moore is well known for keeping his promises.
Defense of individual rights, wha?! Moore’s law means a two-ton slab of the Big Ten and death to members of the Homosexual Agenda. Oh that’s right, we probably don’t even register as human to this man, after all, Moore said this:
Moore, best known for installing a washing machine-size Ten Commandments monument in the entrance to the state’s judicial building, tacked a 14-page “special concurrence” onto a decision denying a lesbian mother custody of her children. In it, Alabama’s highest judicial officer declared homosexuality “abhorrent, immoral, detestable, a crime against nature.” Gay sex, he wrote, is “an act so heinous that it defies one’s ability to describe it,” an “inherent evil” that “should never be tolerated.” And if homo-bamians continued to insist on fornicating? The state might have to use force, Moore wrote, wielding a biblical “power of the sword” to root out this evil once and for all.
University of Toledo College Republicans to “reclaim the campus” with Joe the Plumber, because nothing signals a successful ideological coup like the leadership of a former political celebrity. It explains why Providence, Rhode Island is run by Jessica Cutler’s iron fist, the only interruption in the city’s otherwise peaceful, safe lives being mandatory readings of The Washingtonniene: A Novel every Wednesday at noon.
It’s a small price to pay for stability, my friends.
Have you made plans to attend or record this eye-opener? Caviezel’s making a career out of playing JC.
Internationally renowned actor Jim Caviezel, whose portrayal of Jesus in The Passion of the Christ has impacted millions of viewers around the world, will make a special guest appearance at Trinity Broadcasting Network’s Holy Land Experience August 29th.
Caviezel, who will be interviewed by TBN’s Chief of Staff Paul Crouch Jr. for an upcoming TBN special, is appearing at HLE in conjunction with the September release of The Word of Promise, a dramatic audio Bible produced by Christian publisher Thomas Nelson. Caviezel provides the voice of Jesus on the New Testament portion of the project.
In addition, the 79-CD, 90-plus hour project features portrayals of other key Bible figures by some of Hollywood’s biggest stars, including Richard Dreyfuss, Lou Gossett, Jr., Stacy Keach, John Rhys- Davies, Gary Sinise, Marisa Tomei, Jon Voight, Kimberly Williams-Paisley, John Schneider, Luke Perry, John Heard, Harry Hamlin, Lou Diamond Phillips, Joan Allen, Jason Alexander, and many, many others.
Holy Land Experience is an exclusive interactive theme park in Orlando, Florida that combines innovative music, drama, and historical exhibits to offer visitors a face to face encounter with the transforming truths of the Bible. Bringing together the sights, sounds, tastes, and feel of the Bible world, HLE is a uniquely educational and inspiring experience.
...Caviezel said the issue of truth was a key consideration in his decision to portray Jesus in The Passion as well as in The Word of Promise audio Bible. “Throughout my professional life, I have always been drawn to truth when selecting projects,” he said. “In the Scripture I find truth that has long been a source of strength and constant inspiration.”
He added that he hopes people will be transformed by the truth they encounter as they listen to The Word of Promise Bible. “People change so much when they know that they’re loved,” he said. “And I want them to know that they’re loved when they hear this.”
Visitors to Holy Land Experience are invited to join Jim Caviezel and Paul Crouch Jr. at the Temple Plaza on Saturday, August 29th, at 11:00 a.m.
This reminds me of the media coverage when JPII was on his death bed and Larry King was running out of things to say and guests to interview about JPII kicking the bucket. This was complete with Sanjay Gupta discussing the state of the Papal fluids. Anyway, King finally did a tease for the next night’s show and said he was going to interview the actor who played Jesus, Jim Caviezel. From that post as we were watching:
CNN’s coverage has been atrocious, fawning faux journalism. Wolf Blitzer was breathlessly and inappropriately failing to question the latest Vatican Press ReleaseTM that touted the Pope was conscious, serene, and “visually participating” in the day’s Mass. Just moments before, the photogenic Dr. Sanjay was doing a sentence-by-sentence “medical interpretation” of the litany of ailments that would discount the Pope had the ability to participate in anything - high fever, organ failures, septic shock and non-existent blood pressure.
...OMFG. CNN is out of control. Kate and I are sitting here now (around 9PM) with CNN on in the background as I am typing this and Larry King just came on to say he’s going to have Jim Caviezel on tonight. Of course, he just played Jesus for Mel Gibson, so I guess that would place him fewer degrees of separation from the Pope and thus a relevant guest.
Dirty secret No. 1 in Obamacare is about the government’s coming into homes and usurping parental rights over child care and development.
It’s outlined in sections 440 and 1904 of the House bill (Page 838), under the heading “home visitation programs for families with young children and families expecting children.” The programs (provided via grants to states) would educate parents on child behavior and parenting skills.
The bill says that the government agents, “well-trained and competent staff,” would “provide parents with knowledge of age-appropriate child development in cognitive, language, social, emotional, and motor domains ... modeling, consulting, and coaching on parenting practices,” and “skills to interact with their child to enhance age-appropriate development.”
Are you kidding me?! With whose parental principles and values? Their own? Certain experts’? From what field and theory of childhood development? As if there are one-size-fits-all parenting techniques! Do we really believe they would contextualize and personalize every form of parenting in their education, or would they merely universally indoctrinate with their own?
...How contrary is Obamacare’s home intrusion and indoctrination family services, in which state agents prioritize houses to enter and enforce their universal values and principles upon the hearts and minds of families across America?
Following in the heels of Dr. Phil and Rachael Ray, McCarthy has signed a deal with Harpo Productions to develop multi-platform projects, including a syndicated talk show and a blog, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
McCarthy’s blog launched Friday on Oprah.com and already features three entries from the actress.
In recent years, McCarthy has been a frequent guest on Winfrey’s talk show, discussing her efforts in helping her son, Evan, combat autism. She also appeared this past Friday as part of Winfrey’s Friday Live panel.
This is a complete disaster. For reasons I can’t quite understand, Jenny McCarthy is dedicated to fighting medical science on multiple fronts on the theory that she, as a celebrity who has given birth, understands way more about disease and biology than mere doctors and scientists, with their facts and their evidence. I know that there was some hope expressed that now that Dr. Andrew Wakefield, who published the study that supposedly showed a link between autism and vaccines, has been exposed as a fraud, the anti-vaccination movement would wither away and die. Unfortunately, I’ve been watching the anti-choice and creationist movements for a long time, so I know that cranks not only don’t care about the facts, scientific evidence against them just redoubles their enthusiasm for the cause, because now they can feel like they’re fighting reality itself. Overcoming a foe like that is a feather in your cap indeed. And McCarthy’s acquisition of a TV show demonstrates that I was right—-if they can’t win on the facts, they’ll dominate the media discourse.
Angie Harmon wants you to know that based on conversations you didn’t know she had with people you haven’t met about things she didn’t say, she’s not racist.
Angie Harmon is not afraid to come out and say she doesn’t like how President Obama is handling the job — but she’s sick of having to defend herself from being deemed a racist.
“Here’s my problem with this, I’m just going to come out and say it. If I have anything to say against Obama it’s not because I’m a racist, it’s because I don’t like what he’s doing as President and anybody should be able to feel that way, but what I find now is that if you say anything against him you’re called a racist,” Harmon told Tarts at Thursday’s Los Angeles launch of the new eyelash-growing formula, Latisse.
I’m sure the people paying her to endorse their
eye-Snuggie
revolutionary formula are glad that their spokeswoman randomly went off about not being racist to, er, “Tarts”, was it? Melissa takes Harmon a bit more seriously than I do and assumes that she’s relating an actual concern that Harmon has; I’m far more cynical and assume that Harmon, having achieved a tiny modicum of notice as a Republican celebrity spokeswoman in ‘04 has figured out that the easiest way to become a conservative hero is to say you’re being victimized by something that’s not actually happening.
It should immediately put you on notice when someone brackets their criticism of Obama with the caveat that they’re not racist and they’re sick of being called racist. Especially when they end their critique with a five minute rant about how Jesse Martin would never dance for them.
Some times nothing, some times everything. I'm sure someone can do a syllogism of this, but my feeling is that a man who is harassing and violent towards women probably isn't the sort of guy who is likely to suddenly grow a conscience when it comes to cheating on his wife. But I don't think the flip is true---that a cheater is necessarily a violent man. So, I'd say that there's no reason to think Bill Clinton or Newt Gingrich harasses women because they're cheaters. But a man who harasses women is probably a cheater. 
Actually, if Southwest wants to ensure passenger comfort, they also need to take into consideration who has broad shoulders or wide hips and match everyone up so they fit in like puzzle pieces. 
Okay, I realize that Elizabeth Hasselbeck is probably trying to be funny here, but still, 
Montgomery, Alabama - August 26, 2009 - Chuck Norris, internationally known martial arts expert, actor, and media personality has endorsed Judge Roy Moore for Governor of Alabama. Norris believes Judge Moore is the strongest, best qualified candidate in the race for Alabama’s gubernatorial leader, the person who can best lead the state forward in the difficult times ahead.
Internationally renowned actor Jim Caviezel, whose portrayal of Jesus in The Passion of the Christ has impacted millions of viewers around the world, will make a special guest appearance at Trinity Broadcasting Network’s Holy Land Experience August 29th.
Dirty secret No. 1 in Obamacare is about the government’s coming into homes and usurping parental rights over child care and development.
Anti-science warriors, who are beginning to cross ideological boundaries, have just won a major media battle.