Are fans of the December issue correct when they say that those of us who find some of these images disturbing are just dirty-minded ourselves? . . . Could I be — how you say? — prudish or naïf to find the pictures unsettling? . . .
Fashion designer Tom Ford was the guest editor and designed the controversial issue . . . Is it relevant that Ford is a close friend to photographer Terry Richardson (whose work is featured elsewhere in the December/January issue), and that Richardson has been accused of preying on child models and has written and gleefully performed a song called “Child Molester’s Coming For You”?
I think so.
He takes girls who are young, manipulates them to take their clothes off and takes pictures of them they will be ashamed of. They are too afraid to say no because their agency booked them on the job and are too young to stand up for themselves.
“This terrorist act bears the fingerprints of Zionists who keep on targeting religious sights and are working to . . . sow discord between Muslims and Christians,” Kabalan said in a statement.
“The Mossad carried out the the operation in a natural reaction to the latest uncovering of an Israeli espionage network,” the lawyers accused at a rally in memory of the victims, organized by the Egyptian Bar Association, according to the report.
UPDATE: Video from inside the church at the time of the blast:
Thanks to the commenter who point out that Sully, who manages to denouce “disgusting anti-Semitism,” nevertheless points the finger at “neo-cons” for anti-Christian violence in Iraq:
Who among the neocons would have thought that one of George W. Bush’s final legacies would be bringing pogroms, bombings and genocide to Christians in his new zone of freedom?
This complete non sequitur is the kind of delusion typical of terminal-stage Bush Derangement Syndrome.
While the Newsweek/Daily Beast merger was expected to be wrapped up by late November or early December, it has been delayed and is not closing until later this month. . . .
That means Tina Brown, the Daily Beast editor-in-chief and former editor of The New Yorker and the much-hyped failure Talk Magazine, will have longer to wait before she can put her stamp on the newsweekly when she takes over the combined operations. . . .
One insider said the longer it takes for the NewsBeast deal to close, the greater the attrition among demoralized Newsweek staffers, who increasingly regard the deal not so much as a merger of equals but as a takeover. “Morale at Newsweek? There is no morale because there is no one left,” said one source. “The purge is complete.”
Tina Brown wants staffers whose only loyalty is to her. Embittered veterans of Newsweek don’t fit that category.
Of course, I’m a Protestant and have no stake in defending Catholicism against Andrew Sullivan’s efforts to discredit that faith, but couldn’t some influential Catholic say a word to the Pope and get Sully officially ex-communicated?
Being pro-life is different than merely saying you’re pro-life. Pundette has an excellent post pointing out the Baby Boom generation’s failure to reproduce. The embrace of the Contraceptive Culture is more seriously implicated in that failure — a sinful disobedience to the commandment, “Be fruitful and multiply” — than such alternative lifestyles as practiced by Sully. Neverthless, pills and condoms sometimes fail to prevent conception, resulting in “happy accidents,” whereas no child has ever been conceived by sodomy.
The “I can’t carry to term then allow someone else to raise the baby” notion is a fundamentally flawed bit of moral reasoning–one that flourishes because, in this age of moral relativism we are discouraged from teaching sound moral reasoning. The dictatorship of relativism must be defeated.
It is not merely relativism, but also narcissism that’s involved: What young woman wants to get fat, sustain stretch-marks, possibly a C-section scar, etc., and then not have something to show for all that damage to her physique?
I was 14 years old when I conceived my son. I was in a relationship with a 16 year old guy who had already had one son who he didn’t see much. I figured since he already had a child, he was mature.
(Hello? 16-year-old baby daddies are presumed “mature”?)
It turned out he was very controlling and abusive, so I decided to leave him. Two days after my 15th birthday, I found out I was pregnant. I was so scared and confused but he said he’d be there and take care of everything.
Just three weeks later, he told me he wanted nothing to do with me and I haven’t seen him since. . . .
(How do boys like this expect to get away with such behavior? Why isn’t this boy locked up in juvenile hall? Never mind: The girl’s sister drove her to the abortion clinic, but the girl decided against it.)
On November 3rd, I had my beautiful baby boy via c-section and am living with my dad with his support, and returning to school next year. I am so in love with my baby. I cry at the thought of ever even thinking about ending his life. I thank God everyday for helping me see the light through the darkness.
Well, OK. That’s good. But don’t we see in this story how disastrously far astray our culture has gone? Here’s a boy, 16 years old, having already fathered and abandoned one child, now getting a 14-year-old girl pregnant — and he’s not behind bars? He’s “abusive,” and yet seemingly has no fear that the girl’s male relatives will seek to avenge her?
Just as being pro-life is more than being anti-abortion, traditional values is more than being anti-fornication. Here is an excellent example of a traditional values response when somebody is “abusive” to your sister:
A man who fought to get the Vietnam Veterans Memorial built and served in two Bush administrations was murdered, Delaware police say. John P. Wheeler III, 66, was found dead in a Delaware landfill, and his death has been ruled a homicide by Newark, Del., police. They are asking the public for leads in the case.
Wheeler’s body was found in Wilmington on Friday after a disposal truck containing his body made pickups in Newark.
Wheeler, who lived in New Castle, was chairman of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund during the Ronald Reagan era. He also held many high-profile government positions after graduating from West Point in 1966.
No reason to speculate about this crime. Just let the police do their work. Nevertheless, we can expect that conspiracy theorists will offer all kinds of arcane explanations.
Friends and neighbors were shocked to learn Wheeler had been murdered.
“This is just not the kind of guy who gets murdered,” said Bayard Marin, a Wilmington attorney who represented Wheeler. “This is not the kind of guy you find in a landfill.”
Wheeler worked in Washington, D.C. and investigators have determined he was on an Amtrak train from Washington to Wilmington on Tuesday, said Newark police Lt. Mark Farrall. “The last place they can put him is getting off the Amtrak train in Wilmington,” Farrall said.
Our “Full Metal Jacket Reach-Around” (Rule 2) is named in honor of a memorable remark by the Marine drill instructor in the 1987 Kubrick classic. An actual Marine, R. Lee Ermey, was perfectly cast in that role. At a Toys for Tots event last month, Ermey spoke out against the Obama administration:
“The economy really sucks. Now, I hate to point fingers at anybody, but the present administration probably has a lot to do with that. And the way I see it, they’re not going to quit doing it until they bring this country to its knees. So I think we should all rise up, and we should stop this administration from what they’re doing, because they’re destroying this country. They’re driving us into bankruptcy so they can impose socialism on us. That’s exactly what they’re doing and I’m sick and damned tired of it, and I know you are, too.”
Semper Fi, Sarge. John Nolte at Big Hollywood predicts this will result in efforts to blacklist Ermey, who is currently starring in a funny GEICO commercial.
Let’s hope not. And now, for the Best Motivational Speech Evah!
