The Other McCain

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

Slouching Toward Cougartown

From fame to shame: NFL cheerleader (left) in her police mug shot (right) Jeff Gurner at Viral Read reports the disturbing story of the woman who was arrested for making advances on a 12-year-old boy: Elizabeth Leigh Garner, a former Tennessee Titans cheerleader, was indicted last week on charges of aggravated sexual battery and solicitation […]

Narcissism and the Self-Esteem Cult

Amelia Hamilton has some interesting reflections on the rampant gooey egalitarianism that inspires Generation Whiner: [I]n St. Mary’s County, Maryland . . . birthday party invitations have been banned from all schools. “If there are 20 individuals in the class and someone brings in seven birthday invitations, it was creating an academic disruption,” Hall said. “People […]

Left-Handed Family Conservativism

by Smitty We may not return to the notion of one job, one family as superior yet, but could drift back that direction. Lisa DePasquale reviews Lisa Millier in New York magazine on “The Retro Wife”, about feminists surveying the labor force and finding equally forceful labor at home. As though, in addition to decrying […]

Props To Pope Francis!

by Smitty This unabashedly heretic blog* salutes the traditional election of the new Pontifex Maximus, Francis I, after Francis of Assisi. As I was explaining on Twitter to Jimmie Bise: .@jimmiebjr As a heretic Baptist, I’ve no skin in the game, except to admit that the Roman Church is a blast shield for all Christendom. […]

Just in Case New York Times Readers Don’t Feel Enough White Guilt Yet …

. . . Ta-Nehisi Coates is there on the op-ed pages with a stern sermonette for them. It involves the fact that an employee of a New York deli didn’t recognize the actor Forest Whitaker and accused him of shoplifting. Coates offers a few more examples — including from before he was born — of […]

Is Progress A Bonfire?

by Smitty Ace blogged about this latest stage of bovine spongiform in-search-of-emphathy: Feeling anxious about your labia? Just stick a cellphone camera between your legs, post the photo to the Internet, and invite strangers to discuss what you’re working with. That’s the theory behind the Large Labia Project, a submission-based Tumblr that encourages women to […]

Women: Can’t Live With Them, Can’t Live With ‘Em

by Smitty The title is about as negative as I ever get about women while having a conversation. It’s symmetric about the gender line, and I hope the ladies appropriate it as well. It relieves the very real tension about the gender divide in a joking way that doesn’t widen the gap. All that is […]

Teenage Sex in the News (Also: Questions the SPLC Doesn’t Want You to Ask)

Item One: A judge in England refused to impose a prison sentence for statutory rape on an 18-year-old man who had sex with “a 13-year-old girl he groomed on Facebook” because Adil Rashid “went to an Islamic faith school where he was taught that women are worthless.” So, basically, if you’re a Muslim guy in […]

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