« The AP Debunks Another Reich Wing Myth | Main | Where Is "Ask Cassandra"? »
October 07, 2006
Coffee Snorters
The question is, how do I keep the Spousal Unit from seeing this?
And you thought the Foley scandal was overblown? This is what passes for scandal in Fredneck:
Two volunteer cheerleadering coaches were summarily dismissed for painting a smiley face on one of their stomachs and showing it to their 7- and 8- year old charges to cheer them up.Head cheerleading coach Debbie Wheaton and assistant coach Christine Smith were sent packing by Kathy Carey, president of the Frederick Youth Sports Association, after Ms. Wheaton helped paint the smiley face on Ms. Smith, who then periodically "flashed" the kids with it -- to the cheerleaders' delight, according to Ms. Smith.
The tummy... America's new erogenous zone. Who knew? Not that we are excusing Mark Foley's regrettable lapse of judgment, but somehow we are not entirely certain how equating sending racy IM messages to a page who is above the legal age of consent equates to predatory behavior or pedophilia, or better yet, is worse than having actual sex with a Congressional page.
Was it dumb and wrong? Absolutely. And that's why he's gone. Quite possibly the scariest thing to come out of this is that we find ourselves in complete agreement with Andrew Sullivan:
The most infuriating aspect of the Mark Foley fiasco is that we're still unclear on what exactly it is we're infuriated about. This was not pedophilia: The pages involved were all above the legal age of consent in Washington, D.C. It wasn't exactly pederasty either, given that we have no evidence (at least not yet) of any actual sexual contact between two live human beings. Sexual harassment? It doesn't appear that, at the time of the now-infamous instant messages, the pages were in Foley's employ. The best phrase I have been able to come up with for Foley's transgression is "virtual pederasty," with a large dose of extremely creepy and abusive behavior toward younger, vulnerable people whose trust he clearly betrayed....
Exactly. We don't care whether he was goaded. His responsibility as an adult was to behave correctly regardless of the provocation. However, the calls for various people in Congress to resign and the casting of a vote for Republicans this Fall as a vote for pedophilia are just beyond cretinous. We've already seen one man ruined because he failed to act like an adult.
Apparently the lesson was lost on the rest of Congress.
More whining from Bill Clinton: "...but we rely on the media to defend us!"
Wunderbar: another "disease" -- Desire discrepancy. Interesting article, but it occurs to us that if American couples spent half the effort on their sex lives that they devote to other pursuits which could be thought of as less central to their overall happiness, there would be no problem. Whatever happened to the notion that a good marriage takes effort?
This isn't that complicated - if you care about something, invest some time and effort in it, or it will go away.
Speaking of which, tired of the same old, same old? Here's a refreshing change of pace (though definitely NSFW): The Sarcastic Sex Toy Blog, wherein Jennifer snidely reviews amazingly bad sex toys. A relatively clean sample:
Are you troubled by lingering class resentment? Does every episode of Sex and the City make you want to beat Carrie with her Manolos, and then hate yourself because you know who Carrie is and what Manolos are? Do you furtively pleasure yourself to Fashion Week press coverage, all while feeling that you are betraying the blue-collar values of your unionized brethren?If so, perhaps you could take out your class-based aggression (or just your resentment against women in general!) on the Rich Bitch Doll and her "three bitchin' holes!"
According to the packaging: "She has uptown tastes but downtown needs!" Downtown needs? This leads me to either of two possible responses:
1. Aren't most people's needs (ahem) "downtown"?
or, possibly,
2. What are people doing down in Battery Park City that I don't know about?!
Here I am, of course, reminded of the immortal words of Billy Joel:
Uptown girl
She’s been living in her uptown world
I bet she never had a back street guy
I bet her mama never told her whyI'm not sure the phrase "back street guy" still means what Billy Joel thinks it does.
We won't even get into the reader mail from sexually frustrated dolphins... Funny, but not for the easily offended.
As a card-carrying, knuckle-dragging ReichThuglican with a well articulated Denunciation Policy on file, the half vast editorial staff feels it really ought to condemn this.
But frankly, we were laughing too hard. SHAME! SHAME ON YOU, WOMAN! Everyone knows conservative women are thin-lipped, frigid, joyless harridans whose only purpose in life is to force their primitive belief in a punitive and authoritarian Deity down the throats of an unwilling nation. Why do we get the disturbing feeling this is only the beginning of a long series of belated confessions?
I guess all we can do at this point is hope that she doesn't confess to enjoying alcohol next. Because as we all know, that can only lead to one thing.
You've gotta love it. Tony Snow, on FoleyGate:
“I know a lot of you are going to want to hear all sorts of comments about what’s going on on Capitol Hill,” said Snow. “I will tell you what we have to say, and then you can ask whatever questions you want, and I will be maddeningly but consistently non-responsive beyond what you are about to hear, which is that the president’s made it absolutely clear that the behavior that has been reported on the part of former Representative Mark Foley is disgusting and unacceptable.”
And finally, thank Gaia the Left still heroically rises above the temptation to leverage demeaning and divisive racial stereotypes. And they're so good at keeping the historical record straight, too!
Rice is famously sharp and has an awesome memory. Considering the trauma of 9/11 and its effects, it is inconceivable that Rice would not recall such an ominous and prescient briefing by Tenet and Black, especially after the 9/11 Commission forced her to document and review her actions in those crucial months.
It is, however, as she stated Monday, “incomprehensible” that she, then the national security advisor to the president and the person most clearly charged with sounding the alarm, would have ignored the threat. But ignore it the administration did, and then later tried to lay the blame on the Clinton administration, which, Rice claimed at the 9/11 Commission hearings, lied when it said it had given the incoming White House team an action plan for fighting Al Qaeda.
That is, unless you believe Richard Clarke, whom we all know would never lie:
Actually, I've got about seven points, let me just go through them quickly. Um, the first point, I think the overall point is, there was no plan on Al Qaeda that was passed from the Clinton administration to the Bush administration.
Why can't these horrid reich-wingers just let it go? Who is to say what a "lie" is, anyway? Sandy Berger swears his boss never turned down an offer to extradite bin Laden from Sudan. Bill Clinton, on the otter heiny, admits turning the offer down on tape, and mean spirited reichies insist on shamelessly politicizing the debate by applying perjorative terms like "lie" to a completely understandable confusion about an incident which is, unlike whether Rice remembers seeing a single memo saying essentially the same thing bin Laden did in his 1998 fatwa ("Bin Laden determined to attack US" - there's a news flash for ya), best forgotten.
The half vast editorial staff has had it up to here with lying liars who lie and their non-stop attempts to rewrite history. Shame. SHAME!!!!!
Posted by Cassandra at October 7, 2006 09:20 AM
Comments
I would like to take this opportunity to thank you Cassandra. I have been trying to teach my wife about western culture (and her role in it).
I find vidoes like your first link to be most helpful.
Very instructive.
Anyway, thanks again.
Posted by: Pile On® at October 7, 2006 10:13 AM
Yeah :p
Do let us know how that conversation turns out, Pile darlin'.
Heh....
Posted by: Cassandra at October 7, 2006 10:42 AM
Well, my little cultural assimilation project has not always gone as planned, but in this case she said something about spanking my butt.
So I would call this lesson a success.
Posted by: Pile On® at October 7, 2006 11:38 AM
It must just kill the Dumb-ocrats that they lose more of the Black vote each election...
Posted by: camojack at October 7, 2006 07:47 PM
Who is that on the cake box? It looks like Mr. T in a babushka.
Posted by: Tony at October 8, 2006 09:57 PM
Sadly, it is supposed to be Secretary Rice.
Posted by: Cassandra at October 8, 2006 09:59 PM