Category: Piece of Work in Progress

Miss Dominican Republic Scandal: How Much Longer Can the Cover-Up Continue?

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As Smitty reported yesterday, Evi Siskos (pictured above) has claimed that she was robbed of the Miss Dominican Republic title because judges were bribed to give the crown to Dalia Fernandez. Dan Collins at Piece of Work in Progress has updated us on his ongoing investigation of this scandal. My own efforts to get to the bottom . . . er, to expose . . . to uncover the sordid truth have been hampered because no habla Espanol:

NUEVA YORK._ Esta ciudad, cuna del concurso mundial de belleza Miss Universo, fue escenario ayer miércoles de lo que parece ser el de una guerra entre mega divas y mises dominicanas, cuando en conferencia de prensa la ex candidata de Samaná –Evi Sisko – denunció que en el certamen 2011, “hubo dinero sucio”, sugiriendo que la corona fue comprada por la actual reina Delia Fernández, representante de Santiago de los Caballeros.
Se unió también a la campaña de denuncias que alegan que Fernández pagó $100.000 dólares por su corona.
Evi Sisko, que representó la península samanense pidió que debido a las acusaciones de fraude que algunas concursantes están denunciando en la prensa, se debería exigir alguna explicación a la Organización Miss Universo Internacional con sede en esta metrópolis y cuya franquicia es propiedad del magnate de bienes raíces, Donald Trump.
“Yo, lo que quiero es la verdad, exijo saber qué pasó”, expresó en la rueda de prensa celebrada en Manhattan.

Ay, caramba! Muy caliente! Uno cerveza, por favor.

Dan Collins, Beauty Pageant Truther

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by Smitty

Piece of Work in Progress, noted hotbed of all things conspiracy-related, is pointing to allegations that Dalia Fernandez may have showed the judges the money, in addition to the swimsuit, to secure victory.

Could this be a nefarious face?

Other contestants were devastated at the notion that something as grubby and sinful as money may have disturbed the platonic contemplation of the judges:

Competitor Evi Siskos, poolside, was flattened by the results, although she managed to affect a stunning pose nonetheless.

Stay glued to POWIP for updates. Dan is the dedicated sort of blogger who will work tirelessly to uncover the facts. He’s a taking-care-of-his-readers kinda guy.

Bigger Breasts: By Any Means Necessary?

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Professor Glenn Reynolds has called our attention to a New York Times story reporting that breast-enhancement surgery is becoming more and more popular — a 40% increase in the number of such surgeries during the past decade, with more than 300,000 women undergoing such procedures in 2010.

While I have not consulted my colleague Dan Collins (co-founder of the world-renowned Collins-McCain Institute for Therapeutic Breast Staring) I must say that I personally oppose this trend. Continue reading Bigger Breasts: By Any Means Necessary? →

Dan Collins Should Be Linked, And Often, And By Someone Who Knows How

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Please go visit Dan’s blog Piece of Work in Progress immediately and, if the spirit generosity should coincide with a few bucks in your account, hit that man’s tip jar.

My conscience was seared today when I recognized that I had failed to link Dan often enough. There was a blinding flash of recognition when someone sent me an e-mail with the subject line, “Best Rule 5 post ever.” Naturally, this intrigued me, and when I opened the e-mail, I saw it was a link to a post at Dan’s blog, the title of which I hesitate to repeat here.

Obviously, the state of traffic at Dan’s blog has reached crisis level — this was a cry for help, dear brothers and sisters — and we must do all we can to aid our brother in distress.

GO VISIT PIECE OF WORK IN PROGRESS NOW!

UPDATE: As always when these Rule-5-Gone-Amok cases arise, I blame myself. Grant that my own employment of the rule has sometimes crossed over the line separating Have-Another-Slice-of-Cheesecake from the realm of the Arguably Creeptastic.

That’s OK. My reputation is already so toxic anyway, there’s not really any harm left to do. But I feel bad when a genuinely good and decent person like Dan Collins finds himself in a traffic-trough and, succumbing to Blogger Mood Disorder, does a Rule 5 that offends someone I’m sure he did not mean to offend.

This would never have happened if I’d been linking Dan as often as I should. Mea culpa. Mea magna culpa.

GO VISIT PIECE OF WORK IN PROGRESS NOW!

UPDATE II: Instapundit reminds us that Dan is doing a soft-sell bleg, and you should not be put off by Dan’s protestations that he is unworthy of your generosity. Like Dan, I’ve contributed to the Japanese relief effort, and encouraged others to do the same, just as I have also called attention to the disappearance of Marizela Perez. But bloggers must also pay their bills or else they can’t keep blogging, and so I join Professor Reynolds in urging you to go feed the Kraken!

James Wolcott: ‘Those Sort of People’

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When you turn over a rock, you expect to find creepy-crawly things, but still sometimes …

“I don’t think Felker had any way of knowing what was going to happen. Christgau, Goldstein … it was those sort of people who really formed the core of politicizing the Voice and really pushing its cultural coverage to the hard left.”
— James Wolcott, interviewed by Russ Smith and John Strausbaugh, New York Press, April 24, 2001

Music critics Robert Christau and Richard Goldstein are rather curious targets for Wolcott, now a washed-up TV critic moonlighting as … well, what, exactly?

Never mind. I’m genuinely perplexed by that Wolcott interview and his out-of-sync reference to legendary magazine editor Clay Felker. While Christgau was re-hired as music editor by Felker in 1974 — after Christgau’s two-year stint at Newsday — Goldstein had been writing continuously for the Voice since 1966. Wolcott joined the Voice in 1972, the same year Christgau left for Newsday, and when Goldstein had already been writing there for more than five years.

Yet, name-out-of-the-hat, Goldstein gets lumped in with Christgau in the “those sort of people” category, responsible for “politicizing” the Voice toward the hard Left.

A couple of music critics had such tremendous influence?

People more familiar with the era may be able to explain that. At any rate, Wolcott left the Voice in 1982 — ousted by the weekly’s “politburo,” we are told — and, if this Smith/Strausbaugh interview is any indication, he was in early 2001 somewhat pro-Bush, or at least not anti-Bush.

What happened to Wolcott? I only ask this because yesterday afternoon he lashed out at Little Miss Attila and invoked my name in the process. This didn’t even make a blip on my SiteMeter, however, and it wasn’t until Attila e-mailed me her reply to Wolcott that I even knew Wolcott had mentioned me. (Attila and I had been playing blogsopheric badminton with “feminism” for a shuttlecock.) And the really strange thing is that the seeming trigger of Wolcott’s lashing-out was a post in which Attila promoted Dan Collins’ fundraiser.

Whisky Tango Foxtrot? Continue reading James Wolcott: ‘Those Sort of People’ →

You Don’t Need To Be Cynical, You Need To Be Clear

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by Smitty

Bottom Line Up Front (BLUF): If you haven’t told me what we’re doing to eradicate Fannie and Freddie, you haven’t told me much.

Dan at POWIP chides Stacy for insufficient cynicism.
Shag all that. Let us be perfectly clear: individual housing is not, nor has it ever been, a proper federal task. The sooner conservatives quit agreeing en passant with federal over-reach, the more quickly we can go after the bureaucratic cancer with pliers and a blow torch and un-frobnicate this modern Progressive mess.

My Health Secret, Revealed!

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People have often asked me, “Stacy, how is it that you eat such a horrible diet of junk food, you smoke, drink, consume vast quantities of coffee, and have never jogged or worked out, and yet you remain so slim, vigorous and full of energy at your age?”

Now my secret has been discovered:

A study says it is actually healthy to stare at a woman’s breasts. . . .
The study found the men who stared at breasts more often showed lower rates of heart problems, a lower resting heart rate and lower blood pressure.
The authors of the study recommend that men stare at breasts for 10 minutes a day.

It’s science!

UPDATE: Dan Collins is also an exemplar of cardiovascular health.

UPDATE II: After further consultation, Dan and I have decided to form the Collins-McCain Institute of Therapeutic Breast-Staring. Our motto: “Check out her rack, or you’ll have a heart attack!”

Meanwhile, some are claiming that this study is a “hoax.” But at the CMITBS, we don’t rely on mere theoretical research. Rather, we engage in extensive field studies involving the best specimens available — a hands-on approach to research.

UPDATE III: Well, enough of the introductory lecture. Now, time for some therapy! Continue reading My Health Secret, Revealed! →

The Real Deal in Madison

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Dan Collins at Piece of Work in Progress recounts the story behind the protests in Wisconsin: How Democrats, after losing the November election, called a special lame-duck session in an abortive effort to lock in sweetheart deals for government employee unions. When that didn’t work, Democrats have since tried to prevent Republicans from acting to balance the budget at the expense of government employee unions.

As Pejman Yousefzadeh points out, Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s opposition to unions was well-known, a hallmark of his political career, so that a Democrat state senator said of Walker: “Unions have always been his piñata, over and over.”

We can therefore only conclude that the Wisconsin voters who elected Walker share and endorse his anti-union views, and that his “busting” of the state employees unions is the legitimate consequence of last November’s election.

The union protests in Madison — and the flight of Democratic lawmakers — are an effort to overturn the election, to maintain the power of state employees unions in contravention of the expressed will of the majority of Wisconsin voters.