The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

It’s On: White Democrat Steny Hoyer Trying to Oppress a Victimized Minority

Posted on | November 8, 2010 | 9 Comments

The victimized minority in this case being House Democrats:

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) is intensifying his push to capture the No. 2 post in the reshaped Democratic hierarchy, claiming new momentum in his clash with Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.).
“Hoyer is going to win,” a source close to the majority leader told The Hill on Sunday. . . .
The battle between Hoyer and Clyburn was created Friday when Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) announced she would run for Democratic leader despite her party’s blowout defeat in the midterm elections. Democrats will lose one leadership position in the minority, and because all of Pelosi’s top lieutenants want to keep their jobs, Hoyer is trying to avoid being squeezed out. . . .
Clyburn supporters include senior members of the Congressional Black Caucus as well as Rep. Luis Gutierrez (Ill.), the chamber’s most prominent Hispanic lawmaker. . . .
Despite the behind-the-scenes jousting, both sides are trying to keep the race from becoming bitter or negative.

No! We want it to become as bitter and negative as possible!

C’mon, Clyburn supporters: Steny is trying to keep you in the back of the bus of the Democratic caucus! Don’t let him get away with it!

You go call Al Sharpton. I’ll pop the popcorn.

Category: Democrats, Racism

‘Sexism’ in the Sexualized Society

Posted on | November 8, 2010 | 34 Comments

In 1981, KMBC-TV removed Christine Craft from her position as a news anchor, after a focus group rated her poorly, saying that the 37-year-old newswoman was “too old.”

Craft filed a sexual-discrimination suit against the Kansas City ABC affiliate under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and such lawsuits have since become rather common: Former Seattle news anchor Nadine Woodward, 48, recently filed suit against KREM-TV, for example, while CNN was sued by Marina Kolbe, 42, and Fox News reporter Catherine Herridge, 46, has complained of discrimination at the cable network.

Certainly, the plaintiffs in these cases believe that TV news discriminates against older women as on-air personalities. And thank goodness for that. Otherwise we might turn on our TVs and see the news delivered by a cast of grizzled Helen Thomas lookalikes.

Rule 5 — “Everybody loves a pretty girl” — is obviously a factor in the TV news business, and why shouldn’t that rule work in New Media? So when I titled a post “Finally, PJTV Discovers Rule 5,” this was not intended to disparage PJTV or any of its personnel, but merely an observation of the apparent application of my own dictum.

Exactly why everybody got all up in arms about this . . . well, I can’t claim to be entirely mystified. The influence of law on culture is such that, once society accommodated itself to the concept of “sexual discrimination” (a concept accidentally invented by segregationist Rep. Howard W. Smith in 1964), it was inevitable that people would find themselves accused of wrongdoing outside any legal or workplace context.

It is not surprising to find myself accused of being “sexist” (i.e., prone to engage in wrongful discrimination) for having employed the phrase “eye candy” to describe the new 25-year-old correspondent on “Kruiser Control” — even though (a) I have no role in hiring decisions at PJTV, (b) I am inarguably pro-eye candy, and (c) I’m probably not the only one who noticed that Kinsey Schofield’s publicity photo shows her with her shirt unbuttoned to display her right breast popping out of what appears to be a black lace push-up bra.

We are not supposed to notice such things nowadays or, at least, we are not supposed to publicly comment on them. And it doesn’t matter, by the way, whether we notice them favorably or unfavorably — whether we are pro-eye candy or anti-eye candy. Even as our culture has become increasingly sexualized, it has become increasingly taboo to acknowledge sexual differences. We are all supposed to be androgynously egalitarian in our attitudes, for to be otherwise is to discriminate, and everyone knows that discrimination is wrong.

To adapt a phrase from a Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, “You have to be carefully taught” such beliefs, and we have been taught quite carefully indeed. The de rigeur denunciation of sexism, like the de rigeur denunciation of racism, is a conditioned response, a Skinnerian reflex. Anyone who critically examines these reflexes — who disassembles them into their component parts and asks why we react this way — can expect to be indicted for these Deadly Sins of the Post-Christian Era merely for questioning the categories.

Well, then: My response to the PJTV debut of Kinsey Schofield was brusquely cyncial and, when criticized for that response, I conducted my defense in a series of updates that were clearly in violation of Healey’s First Law of Holes.

Nevertheless, while Stephen Kruiser says that I have insulted him, I am prepared to argue that he has insulted me, by expecting me to accept uncritically his assertion that — out of 6 billion people on the planet — he hired a pretty girl without any regard for the fact that she is a pretty girl.

Not at all, Stephen says: “She’s a great writer.”

Fine, then: What has she written? Among other things, “How to Get Your Favorite Celebrity’s Attention via Twitter.”

I believe the word is “Heh.”

My point is not to criticize Kinsey Schofield’s writing. But there are many good writers — even arguably great writers — in Los Angeles who aren’t pretty 25-year-old girls.

With unbuttoned shirts and black lace push-up bras.

Perhaps the problem here is that Stephen Kruiser believes that I am accusing him of discrimination — and certainly I am, in the sense that it is discriminatory to believe that pretty girls fit “the McLuhanesque requirements of a visual medium.” But is it even necessary to say that I don’t consider such “discrimination” to be wrong? Does Stephen Kruiser think that I would admire and praise him for hiring a portly 50-year-old as his video sidekick?

Brusque, cynical, rude — I accept these criticisms. And to my sudden proliferation of Twitter critics, I promise to respond in detail, once I get around to hiring a pretty 25-year-old assistant to handle such things.

Now hurry up with that coffee, sweetheart. And make sure it’s fresh this time.

UPDATE: Sissy Willis got there a week ahead of me, noting some anti-Palin comments by the occupant of the Red Eye “leg chair.”

Category: Feminism, Rule 5

Good News: VotS Watches 60 Minutes
Bad News: Yes, It Is

Posted on | November 8, 2010 | 2 Comments

by Smitty

After weeks on his intrepid mission to view 60 Minutes and report on its contents to mortals of lesser fortitude, the score at the Valley of the Shadow is still ugly:

10 produced stories for the Left – 2 1/2 Ties – 1/2 point for the Right.

It’s a step. Now improve.

He gives half a point to Steve Kroft’s interview with BHO. RTWT for why, and a specific challenge to 60 Minutes that they are likely not equipped in the fortitude department to undertake.

Category: Barack Obama, Valley of the Shadow

Government Shutdown? Hold The Cheer For A Twinkling Of Fear

Posted on | November 8, 2010 | 13 Comments

by Smitty

Caffeinated Thoughts calls attention to Eric Cantor on Fox, alluding to difficult decisions the 112th Congress will have to make. Think Progress has gone sub-orbital, alluding to the 1994 shutdown of government:

It’s difficult to exaggerate just how harmful a shutdown or default would be for the United States and its economy. A “shutdown” occurs when Congress fails to appropriate money to fund the federal agencies. As a result, nearly every federal employee is sent home, including the officials who cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid checks. In other words, by threatening a shutdown, Cantor is holding the incomes of millions of American seniors hostage unless Obama complies with his petty demands.

What a stone cold crock of fertilizer. Is anyone unaware that Congress, which is supposed to hold the power of the purse, is a cuckold to the Federal Reserve. Quantitative Easing 2 may not exactly be the lethal dose, this time, but who the ____ voted for Bernanke, and why is so much power held by a shadowy organization? End the Fed, or at least audit the pusher, before the really bad dope makes the national head ‘splode.
So bring on the shutdown. The junkie is just going to have to deal with withdrawal. Sooner is better than later. We should cheer renewed sobriety and responsibility from government, and let the media wand of fear bounce off us.

Category: Republicans

LIVE AT FIVE – 11.08.10

Posted on | November 8, 2010 | Comments Off on LIVE AT FIVE – 11.08.10

TOP NEWS

Qantas Finds Anomalies In Airbus Engines, Keeps 380s Grounded

Grounded Airbus 380 sits on the tarmac at LAX.

Mechanics find oil where oil shouldn’t be.

Olbermann Suspension Ends Tuesday
Last link to msnbc.com this year



President Fields Tough Questions From Kids In Mumbai
Maybe we could outsource the White House press corps to Mumbai?



POLITICS

President May Be Open To Extending All Bush Tax Rates

Eric Cantor (R-Va.), future Majority Leader?

Cantor rejects decoupling rates

Democrats Inclined To Keep House Leadership Despite Midterm Slaughter

Lawyers Ready To Rumble As Corrected Vote Report Puts Altschuler Up By 400 In NY-1; NY-25 Also Unresolved

Minnesota Governor’s Race Headed For Recount; Dayton Holds Slim 8781-Vote Lead



Walsh Lead In IL-8 Shrinks As Absentee Ballot Count Continues

Steele Says GOP Needs To Chill Out On Sarah Palin; Criticizes Barbour, Rove



THE ECONOMY, STUPID

Diwali Underpins Surge In Gold to $1400

Geithner Stresses U.S. – India Trade Ties

PRC Criticism Of Fed Move Mounts In Advance Of G-20 Meet

RockMelt Promises Facebook-Linked Social Browsing With Chromium

Apple Fails To Fix DST Alarm Bug For iPhone

Queen Elizabeth II To Launch Facebook Page
Because Her Majesty is cool like that. No truth to rumor that Her page will have “We approve” and “We do not approve” buttons. 



SPORTS

Vikings Pull It Out In OT, Down Cardinals 27-24

Teammates celebrate with Vikings kicker Longwell after winning field goal

Childress: “They came expecting to see an execution and it ended up a pretty good football game at the end.”

Ducks Hang Onto First, TCU Third, Boise State Fourth

Wilbon says the man be keepin’ Boise State down.


Hamlin Wins AAA Texas 500, Takes NASCAR Lead

Packers Rout Cowboys 45-7; Redskins Fans Rejoice

Vick Leads Eagles Over Manning & The Colts



FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS

Smirnoff Hustled Off DWTS, Soon To Waltz To The Altar

Cardinals pitcher Brad Penny and some dancer he's marrying 😉

“A real Southern Gentleman,” she gushed

Lily Allen Recovering Quickly Thanks To Supportive Letters, Prompt Care

Hugh Jackman Turns Down Oscar Host Gig

Rihanna Rocks Out With Bon Jovi In Madrid

“Megamind” Beats “Due Date” At Box Office

“Zombieland” Scribes Take On “Cowboy Ninja Viking”




Carrie Nation’s Bastard Children Rip Miley For Drinking Beer (Legally) In Spain
Will no one rid us of these troublesome scolds?



FOREIGNERS

Army-Backed Parties Set To Sweep Myanmar Poll Results
Gosh, what a surprise.

Biden Underscores U.S. Commitment To Israeli Security

Anti-Nuke Kooks Turn Violent In Germany; Police Respond In Kind

Greek Socialists Win In Local Polls, Drop Election Threat



BLOGS & STUFF

Weasel Zippers: Dems Lining Up To Oppose Pelosi’s Return To Power

Outside The Beltway: Running For Office Someday? Your Facebook Page Suggests Otherwise

Mark McKinnon: How Rick Perry Got Re-elected Despite Blowing Off Every Newspaper In Texas

Althouse: Switch 2 Mitch

Israel Matzav: Lindsey Graham Says Containment “Off The Table” For Iran

Sundries Shack: Conservatives, It’s Time To Grow The Hell Up.


— compiled by Wombat-socho

Category: Live at Five

Finally, PJTV Discovers Rule 5

Posted on | November 7, 2010 | 21 Comments

Video is a visual medium. So if you want people to watch your videos, try a little eye candy. Stephen Kruiser is a great guy, but definitely not “eye candy.” Ergo, he adds a 25-year-old hottie sidekick, Kinsey Schofield. (Click the image to watch the video.)

“She’s a great writer,” says Kruiser. Yeah. She’s another freakin’ Shakespeare, I’m sure.

Cynical? Moi?

UPDATE: To, uh, disaggregate here: It has been brought to my attention that this post might be misinterpreted as a disparagement of either Stephen Kruiser or Kinsey Schofield, which is certainly not my intention.

Being misunderstood is a common hazard of gestalt logic. Sometimes I think of things as obviously connected and, not bothering to explain the connections, express myself in apparent non sequiturs that others connect in ways that seem logical to them — but which aren’t the connections I intended.

Anyway, I’d been doing the whole “Demi Lovato bikini” shtick with the MSNBC/Olbermann episode — it produced a 67% increase in traffic, BTW — and so, when Instapundit introduced an MSNBC-related PJTV episode by noting “Stephen Kruiser gets a new friend” . . . Do you see the gestalt logic here?

I had made the same Rule 5 point in August, when former Miss California contestant Brandi Milloy made her PJTV debut:

OK, anybody who ever questioned Roger Simon‘s judgment — his ability to spot top-quality video news talent — start apologizing now. . .
My advice to Roger: Change the name PJTV to “BrandiTV.”

I’m not saying that all video personalities have to look like Brandi Milloy or Kinsey Schofield. I am saying that the McLuhanesque requirements of a visual medium dictate that aesthetics must be part of the programming considerations.

Am I a cynic to assume that Kinsey Schofield was hired for her “eye candy” appeal rather than because of her writing ability? Yes, indeed, I am. And the day that PJTV hires an on-camera personality who looks like Barbara Mikulski, I will apologize for my cynicism.

But you and I both know you’re going to wait a long time for that apology — probably until hell freezes over — and I am certainly not going to apologize for explaining how the world actually works.

UPDATE II: I know we’re all grateful to learn that Katie Perry will never pose nude, but probably not as grateful as we are to know that Donald Douglas will never pose nude. At any rate, dibs on the “Kinsey Schofield nude” Google-bomb.

UPDATE III: In for a dime, in for a dollar — Kinsey Schofield’s mama hates me:

I’m obviously not going to “win” in this kind of situation. (“Why is Stacy picking on a girl?”) But here is Kinsey Schofield’s “about” page in its entirety:

Recently recognized as #25 in The 100 Greatest Women in Social Media, Kinsey Schofield was born and raised in Texas. Cart-wheeling her way into the spotlight at an early age; she proudly represented The Dallas Cowboys football team as a Jr. Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader. Kinsey homeschooled from fourth grade until college, immediately finding a calling in front of the camera and pursued entertainment while solidifying her marketing instincts in the class room.
A nationally recognized writer, social media strategist, and TV personality; Kinsey was chosen as a cast member of E!’s Party Monsters Cabo, where she won over International Superstar, P. Diddy. Party Monsters Cabo was a Survivor-esque competition based in Cabo San Lucas that featured celebrities- 50 Cent, Brody Jenner, Carmen Electra, and Lil’ Jon to name a few. Contestants were given 24 hours to throw parties for some of Hollywood’s elite using limited resources in a foreign country.
Mixing business with pleasure, the self proclaimed “Pop Culture Connoisseur” worked as a Fashion & Entertainment contributor for Arizona’s largest entertainment weekly, AZ Weekly Magazine. Through AZ Weekly, Kinsey was able to dish about fashion trends and interview some of her favorite celebrities like Hayley Williams of Paramore and designer, Ashley Paige. Additional published work includes an interview with Cindy McCain for So Scottsdale Magazine, a small write up regarding pop culture’s influence on the election in The Arizona Republic, and Celebrity Beauty Secrets on FOXNEWS.COM’s iMAG.
Kinsey has been seen multiple times on ABC 15?s Sonoran Living and Phoenix’s Fox 10 News, E! News, Reality Binge, MTV, Strategy Room on Fox News, and has become a recurring panelist on Byron Allen’s, The Gossip Queens, as well as Red Eye w/Greg Gutfeld on The Fox News Channel. She has appeared in The Phoenix New Times, AZ Weekly Magazine, Las Vegas Weekly Magazine and Runway Beauty Magazine. She was even featured on the cover of Entrepreneur Magazine discussing social media and celebrity ghost blogging.
Living in Los Angeles, CA, she continues to write, contributing to Examiner.com as their official Celebrity Social Media Expert. Kinsey also currently contributes to DailyFill, MovieFill, and AlloyTV as a host; where she has interviewed the likes of Ashton Kutcher, Jason Segel, and Kristen Stewart to name a few. Most recently Kinsey was heard filling in as “The News Girl” on The Adam Carolla Show. [Episodes 1 & 2]

You see that Kinsey’s status as a “nationally recognized writer” is asserted, rather than demonstrated.

At Examiner.com, her most recent contribution was “10 HILARIOUS Jersey Shore tweets” — soon to eclipse Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France among the most influential conservative treatises in history.

To clarify: I’m 100% in favor of pretty girls being TV stars. I’m also 100% in favor of pretty girls being writers. But a career as a TV star does not entitle a pretty girl to acclaim as a writer.

However, I was pleased to see that Kinsey shares my contempt for Cousin Meg. Unfortunately, she also takes a shot at Bristol Palin:

Meghan McCain sucks. The daughter of John McCain, Meggie spends her time writing books with words like “dirty” and “sexy” in the title (when there is absolutely nothing dirty or sexy within), TwitPic’ing web-cam shots of her rack and hanging out with fame-whore Tila Tequila. Rumer Willis, Sean Stewart, Ashley Hamilton, Bristol Palin – go away. Most celebrities’ children who go into the entertainment industry have absolutely no redeeming qualities nor an ounce of talent.

Also, from the same interview:

If you are currently in high school, or even college, and Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’” is your ringtone, I hope you get your ass kicked. Your parents probably conceived you to that song and, frankly, that is gross. This move is not retro or cool–and it pretty much signifies to the world that you’re still a virgin.

Where does the gestalt logic lead there?

UPDATE IV: The comic opera continues:

But I have no basis to judge her as a writer. For all I know, she may be capable of composing essays as incisive as anything ever penned by Bill Buckley, and was just slumming as a reality-TV personality.

What I was saying is that she was hired to be on camera because she looks good on camera — which is, I think it fair to say, a big part of how people get jobs on TV.

Also: She’s 25. When I was 25, I was driving a forklift. Perhaps I ought to go back to that.

Category: Rule 5

Approaching 5 Million Hits

Posted on | November 7, 2010 | 5 Comments

Smitty has pointed out that this blog will pass the 5-million-hit mark sometime this week — probably Tuesday — and we must consider how to celebrate this occasion in appropriate fashion. I’m thinking about compiling a “greatest hits” post. If readers have any classic moments they’d like to nominate for such a compilation, feel free to do so in the comments.

Category: Blogging

MSNBC Self-Immolation Watch UPDATE: Olbermann’s ‘Indefinite’ Suspension? Yeah, One Entire Show

Posted on | November 7, 2010 | 5 Comments

The Keith Olbermann suspension evidently provoked former Obama administration official Susan Crawford’s paranoid streak:

Crawford, whose Twitter handle is @scrawford, tweeted on Saturday: “someone should find out whether any comcast connection to olbermann fracas – and remember Quiz Show plot line.” . . .
She has previously raised concern that the merger might give Comcast the ability to tamper with MSNBC . . .
“What happens to MSNBC post-merger?” she wrote in a blog post last month. “Right now, it’s providing the only response to Fox News.

(Via Jammie Wearing Fool.) Meanwhile, it appears that Lee Fang of Think Progress libelously suggested that Comcast chief operating officer (and Bush fundraiser) Steve Burke was involved in Olbermann’s suspension.

Ed Driscoll has much more about the ongoing beclownment of MSNBC, including Lachlan Markay’s Newsbusters post about MSNBC’s Election Night fear-mongering. 

Liberals so routinely employ this Dark Night of Fascism motif — the idea that Republicans are totalitarian Christianist theocrats, etc. — that after a while they forget that it is merely partisan propaganda and begin to take it seriously. That’s why we like it when liberals lose, and we can laugh at their lunacy, rather than suffer when they win and impose their lunacy as policy.

BTW, you should congratulate me on resisting the temptation to reference Demi Lovato bikini pics in the headline.

UPDATE: The millionaire cradle-robber will only miss one episode of his show. (Hat-tip: The Rhetorican.)

UPDATE II: Drew M:

I wonder if there will be a Special Comment™ about this. If there is, I’m sure he’ll identify the real culprit here . . . Fox News.

Be assured, Olbermann will cast himself as the victim. Because $7 million a year is total victimhood.

Category: MSNBC
« go back — keep looking »

    About

    This is an area on your website where you can add text. This will serve as an informative location on your website, where you can talk about your site.

    Subscribe to our feed

    Search

    Admin