No, not that one. The other one. The Boston Herald has the initial reaction of Senator John Kerry (D-MA) to the disappearance of Gov. Mark Sanford.
“Too bad,” Kerry said, “if a governor had to go missing it couldn’t have been the governor of Alaska. You know, Sarah Palin.”
The Democratic-centric crowd laughed.
Calvin Klein has pulled its orgy billboard (see prior post) and replaced it with one depicting a lone female wading through the surf in a skimpy bikini. Reaction from local residents was positive.
Adolfa Arena, 48, a dog walker in the area, said the ad was effective without being provocative.
“I think this one is brilliant,” he said. “It’s the beginning of summer, so it works out perfectly.”
Brilliant? Well, maybe not quite, and not very original either. But not offending the public gets more original every day.
Told of the complaints last week, Calvin Klein officials had defended the ad, saying the intent was to create “a very sexy” campaign.
Calvin Klein apparently doesn’t understand the basic fact that “sexy” and “sex” are not necessarily synonymous. Here’s a lesson. The lone female on the beach looks unavailable, but she is potentially available. She looks preoccupied with thoughts that have nothing to do with you. If you approached her and offered your best line, she would probably keep walking without giving you the slightest nod. But if she were to acknowledge you, or give the slightest smile, . . .
The female in the orgy ad looks very available, but she is presently occupied with a group of guys that doesn’t include you. You could get in line behind guy No. 3 who seems to have fallen off the too-crowded couch. Before you could even offer your best line, she would say, “Take a number.” And her acknowledgment of you, or the slightest smile, would mean nothing.
But let’s give Calvin Klein credit for not offering the nonsense that they were just trying to sell blue jeans.
“Billboard Features Four Partially Clothed Models In Sexually Suggestive Positions.”
“Suggestive”? That’s what the local news in New York calls this latest Calvin Klein billboard. Does this billboard suggest sex to you? Or does it scream it? Perhaps you see some other, non-sexual message that is being conveyed, like – oh, I don’t know – how those rugged Calvin Klein jeans sure do hold up at orgies.
The news report goes on to say that the billboard “creates controversy.” The controversy though is not about Calvin Klein. The only controversy left to discuss is whether anybody cares.
Charles Krauthammer analyzes Obama’s overseas speeches and his misguided approach to repairing relations between Islam and the West. The theme running through this effort is that we all fall short. Islam stones women and we deny them equal funding under Title IX. Islam executes homosexuals and some states refuse to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. The column deserves to be read in full because it provides ample support for this conclusion:
Obama undoubtedly thinks he is demonstrating historical magnanimity with all these moral equivalencies and self-flagellating apologetics. On the contrary. He’s showing cheap condescension, an unseemly hunger for applause and a willingness to distort history for political effect.
Distorting history is not truth-telling, but the telling of soft lies. Creating false equivalencies is not moral leadership, but moral abdication. And hovering above it all, above country and history, is a sign not of transcendence but of a disturbing ambivalence toward one’s own country.
Via Melanie Phillips:
In his devastating study Heaven and Earth. Global Warming: The Missing Science (Quartet) Ian Plimer, Professor of Mining Geology at the University of Adelaide and previously Professor of Earth Sciences at the Universities of Melbourne and Newcastle systematically shreds the theory [of anthropormorphic global warming] and the hallucinatory propaganda industry it has spawned.
Quoting Plimer:
When science was born, the consensus at that time was driven by religion, politics, prejudice, mysticism and self-interested power. From Galileo to Newton and through the centuries, science debunked the consensus by experiment, calculation, observation, measurement, repeated validation, falsification and reason… Scientific fact now no longer seems to be necessary. Human-induced global warming is one such example, where one camp attempts to demolish the basic principles of science and install a new order based on political and sociological collectivism…There has been an uncritical, unthinking acceptance by the community of the media barrage about catastrophic climate change. For many, critical thinking is an anathema.
The belief that someone would make a better Supreme Court Justice because of his race or gender is seriously flawed. If it were true, adherents of that belief would have to be fans of Clarence Thomas. But they’re not, and they defeat their own argument by failing to credit Thomas with the very qualities they claim to be seeking. Thomas, who grew up dirt poor and black in the segregated South, brings everything to the bench the liberals say they want in the next nominee.
But the whole identity thing breaks down when Thomas fails to decide cases according to liberal dogma. Coming from a disadvantaged background is not really supposed to make you a better judge, just a more liberal one. Thomas disproves the theory.
Rather than admit the theory is flawed, liberals insist instead that Thomas is flawed. In their minds, he must forfeit the attributes of being black and disadvantaged so that they won’t have to admit their theory is wrong.
Today we find a little human interest story that will probably get little attention, because it too suggests that Thomas might not be playing his assigned role. It seems that Thomas is . . . well, empathetic? Impossible.
Professor Carol now offers a complete self-study course covering 300 years of music.
This romp through music history (and many other historical topics) combines 13 hours of DVD video with a 3-disc listening set from Naxos and a 236-page course book.
From the birth of opera to the Leipzig coffeehouses frequented by Bach and Schumann, from the Orthodox cathedrals of Moscow to Tin Pan Alley, from scientific discoveries to bloody revolutions, spooky dramas and shoe styles, Carol chronicles it all with her unique commentary.
