Well, time to get going on your holiday shopping.
It's a great time of year! Tomorrow's Black Friday. There'll be all kinds of sales.
So get crackin', lol.
At Amazon, Today's Deals.
And see especially, ILIFE A4s Robot Vacuum Cleaner.
Also, GOOLOO 800A Peak 18000mAh Car Jump Starter (Up to 7.0L Gas or 5.5L Diesel Engine) Portable Power Pack Auto Battery Booster Phone Charger Built-in LED Light and Smart Protection.
More, Craftsman 9-31794 Slotted Phillips Screwdriver Set, 17 Piece, and Craftsman 56-piece Universal Mechanics Tool Set.
Plus, Pyramex Cap Style 4 Point Snap Lock Suspension Hard Hat.
And, AmazonBasics AA Performance Alkaline Batteries (48 Count) - Packaging May Vary.
Here, Samsung UN65MU6300FXZA 65" 4K Ultra HD Smart LED TV (2017 Model) Plus Terk Cut-the-Cord HD Digital TV Tuner and Recorder 16GB Hook-Up Bundle.
BONUS: Oleg V. Khlevniuk, Stalin: New Biography of a Dictator.
Thursday, November 23, 2017
Think Twice
About communism.
From Laura M. Nicolae, at the Harvard Crimson, "100 Years. 100 Million Lives. Think Twice":
From Laura M. Nicolae, at the Harvard Crimson, "100 Years. 100 Million Lives. Think Twice":
"My father left behind his parents, friends, and neighbors in the hope of finding freedom. I know his story because it is my heritage; you now know his story because I have a voice. One hundred million other people were silenced." https://t.co/qgSm47yOMZ @lauramnic pic.twitter.com/AhAhPEvgQf
— Victims of Communism (@VoCommunism) November 21, 2017
In 1988, my twenty-six-year-old father jumped off a train in the middle of Hungary with nothing but the clothes on his back. For the next two years, he fled an oppressive Romanian Communist regime that would kill him if they ever laid hands on him again.Keep reading.
My father ran from a government that beat, tortured, and brainwashed its citizens. His childhood friend disappeared after scrawling an insult about the dictator on the school bathroom wall. His neighbors starved to death from food rations designed to combat “obesity.” As the population dwindled, women were sent to the hospital every month to make sure they were getting pregnant.
My father’s escape journey eventually led him to the United States. He moved to the Midwest and married a Romanian woman who had left for America the minute the regime collapsed. Today, my parents are doctors in quiet, suburban Kansas. Both of their daughters go to Harvard. They are the lucky ones.
Roughly 100 million people died at the hands of the ideology my parents escaped. They cannot tell their story. We owe it to them to recognize that this ideology is not a fad, and their deaths are not a joke.
Last month marked 100 years since the Bolshevik Revolution, though college culture would give you precisely the opposite impression. Depictions of communism on campus paint the ideology as revolutionary or idealistic, overlooking its authoritarian violence. Instead of deepening our understanding of the world, the college experience teaches us to reduce one of the most destructive ideologies in human history to a one-dimensional, sanitized narrative.
Walk around campus, and you’re likely to spot Ché Guevara on a few shirts and button pins. A sophomore jokes that he’s declared a secondary in “communist ideology and implementation.” The new Leftist Club on campus seeks “a modern perspective” on Marx and Lenin to “alleviate the stigma around the concept of Leftism.” An author laments in these pages that it’s too difficult to meet communists here. For many students, casually endorsing communism is a cool, edgy way to gripe about the world.
After spending four years on a campus saturated with Marxist memes and jokes about communist revolutions, my classmates will graduate with the impression that communism represents a light-hearted critique of the status quo, rather than an empirically violent philosophy that destroyed millions of lives.
Statistics show that young Americans are indeed oblivious to communism’s harrowing past. According to a YouGov poll, only half of millennials believe that communism was a problem, and about a third believe that President George W. Bush killed more people than Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, who killed 20 million. If you ask millennials how many people communism killed, 75 percent will undershoot.
Perhaps before joking about communist revolutions, we should remember that Stalin’s secret police tortured “traitors” in secret prisons by sticking needles under their fingernails or beating them until their bones were broken. Lenin seized food from the poor, causing a famine in the Soviet Union that induced desperate mothers to eat their own children and peasants to dig up corpses for food. In every country that communism was tried, it resulted in massacres, starvation, and terror.
Communism cannot be separated from oppression; in fact, it depends upon it. In the communist society, the collective is supreme. Personal autonomy is nonexistent. Human beings are simply cogs in a machine tasked with producing utopia; they have no value of their own.
Many in my generation have blurred the reality of communism with the illusion of utopia. I never had that luxury...
CBS and Dish Network Failed to Reach Agreement on New Carriage Deal
My wife's bummed. She watches a lot of TV, and of course CBS has some good prime time programming. She came to me last night and said, "That's a bummer about the CBS blackout." I'm like, "What blackout?" I thought it related to Charlie Rose's firing from CBS, heh. Don't know why we'd lose access to the entire network because of that perv, lol.
At Deadline, "CBS & Its Stations Go Dark On Dish Network As Deal Deadline Passes."
I'm going to watch football today, and CBS has the Chargers on this afternoon, so I'll miss that. Oh well. I'm only now returning to watching pro football, since it looks like the league's going to crack down on the anti-flag protests. The consumer boycotts have definitely had an impact.
At Deadline, "CBS & Its Stations Go Dark On Dish Network As Deal Deadline Passes."
CBS & Its Stations Go Dark On Dish Network As Deal Deadline Passes https://t.co/48ad1RKEEF pic.twitter.com/O1PXuu6i7m— Deadline Hollywood (@DEADLINE) November 21, 2017
I'm going to watch football today, and CBS has the Chargers on this afternoon, so I'll miss that. Oh well. I'm only now returning to watching pro football, since it looks like the league's going to crack down on the anti-flag protests. The consumer boycotts have definitely had an impact.
LaVar Ball's Big Con
I feel bad for his boys, especially Lonzo, who's on the Lakers now, and a success in his own right. I wonder how long until Lonzo cuts his dad loose. LaVar's already damaged his other two sons' chances of making to the NBA, and that's not counting LiAngelo's shoplifting arrest in China. Troubles in the family, and it's too bad. Of course, it had to turn political with LaVar not thanking President Trump for his help in securing LiAngelo's release.
Here's Bill Plaschke, at the Los Angeles Times, "The big blowhard: LaVar Ball has made a living off the backs of his children":
Here's Bill Plaschke, at the Los Angeles Times, "The big blowhard: LaVar Ball has made a living off the backs of his children":
LaVar Ball has not stayed in his lane; he's become shameless huckster running a con on the backs of his children https://t.co/aw8GMQx7At
— Bill Plaschke (@BillPlaschke) November 22, 2017
Just in time for the holidays, LaVar Ball has been good enough to advise us on one way to obtain a pair of his company's odd $495 sneakers.More.
The father of UCLA freshman basketball player LiAngelo Ball has spent the last week telling the world his son and fellow Bruins Cody Riley and Jalen Hill didn't really do too much wrong when they were caught shoplifting in three stores during the team's recent trip to China.
They were detained, confined to the country beyond their scheduled departure, released with the help of two presidents, publicly admitted their wrongdoing and are serving an indefinite team suspension.
But according to the family patriarch, a man whose publicity-seeking craziness has been excused because he is a good father, theft isn't that big of a deal.
To ESPN recently, Ball actually said, "It ain't that big of a deal.''
On CNN Monday night, he doubled down on the ignorance, saying, "The way I look at it, OK, [LiAngelo] was shoplifting. He wasn't physical. He returned it. He fessed up to it. … Nobody got hurt.''
Nobody got hurt? Nobody except the three shops from which the kids stole the items, his son's now-depleted team and, most of all, his son's shamed university.
When LaVar Ball said nobody got hurt, he meant LaVar Ball didn't get hurt. While his son was confined by the school to his Hangzhou hotel during the investigation, his father was out hawking shoes in cities as far as two hours away. While his son was watching his team's first game against Georgia Tech while sitting in that hotel, his father was actually in the stands, because who needs the kid on the court when you can peddle a branded T-shirt on TV?
LaVar Ball once seemed like a genius salesman worthy of examination, but in recent months the curtain has been drawn to reveal a shallow and shameless huckster. He once enhanced the Los Angeles sports landscape, but now he only infects it by continuing to bleat messages filled with delusion and disrespect. For someone who once epitomized sexism by telling a female sports-talk show announcer to "Stay in your lane,'' Ball has veered far from his original lane...
Lindsay Shepherd
This is really troubling.
Best thing is, she recorded her inquisition, ha!
At Inside Higher Ed, "The Interrogation of a TA: University president apologizes after recording reveals how a graduate student was questioned over use of a video, which offended at least one student, of debate on nontraditional pronouns."
And the National Post, "Wilfrid Laurier University's president apologizes to Lindsay Shepherd for dressing-down over Jordan Peterson clip."
And watch Ezra Levant, at the Rebel, with excerpts from her recording. It's good:
And at tweet from Jordan Peterson on the abuse he's enduring. It's bad. Really bad:
Best thing is, she recorded her inquisition, ha!
At Inside Higher Ed, "The Interrogation of a TA: University president apologizes after recording reveals how a graduate student was questioned over use of a video, which offended at least one student, of debate on nontraditional pronouns."
And the National Post, "Wilfrid Laurier University's president apologizes to Lindsay Shepherd for dressing-down over Jordan Peterson clip."
And watch Ezra Levant, at the Rebel, with excerpts from her recording. It's good:
And at tweet from Jordan Peterson on the abuse he's enduring. It's bad. Really bad:
Those who consider themselves my enemies have been posting these all around my home neighbourhood. pic.twitter.com/zF3Mc7Imsy
— Jordan B Peterson (@jordanbpeterson) October 26, 2017
Leeann Tweeden
Following-up, "New Sexual Assault Allegations Against Al Franken."
Franken didn't assault this woman, Leeann Tweeden, but the photo of his mock-fondling her breasts is heavily damaging. And with more women coming forward, it doesn't look good for the guy. He was considered a 2020 prospect for the 2020 Democrat presidential nomination as well.
Heh, too bad.
Ms. Leeann posed on Playboy a while back, and other photos circulating online indicate she's got a huge rack:
Franken didn't assault this woman, Leeann Tweeden, but the photo of his mock-fondling her breasts is heavily damaging. And with more women coming forward, it doesn't look good for the guy. He was considered a 2020 prospect for the 2020 Democrat presidential nomination as well.
Heh, too bad.
Ms. Leeann posed on Playboy a while back, and other photos circulating online indicate she's got a huge rack:
New Sexual Assault Allegations Against Al Franken
He's not up for reelection until 2020, but I don't know if he's going to make that long. The pressure for his resignation is significant, and a Morning Consult poll out yesterday found half saying he should resign.
Not good for Al Franken, at Huff Post:
Not good for Al Franken, at Huff Post:
BREAKING: Two more women accuse Al Franken of inappropriate touching https://t.co/TdTJijO8LV pic.twitter.com/BIuhhadviG
— HuffPost (@HuffPost) November 23, 2017
There are some extremely depressing quotes in this story. https://t.co/S3xoM8aMAB pic.twitter.com/abGtO4OWng
— Nick Baumann (@NickBaumann) November 23, 2017
Piers Morgan Chews Out Dating Guru: ‘You Are A Repulsive Individual’
At Huff Post:
Piers Morgan chews out dating guru: "You are a repulsive individual" https://t.co/t2eRoVb5a8 pic.twitter.com/OVH6eOjtps
— HuffPost (@HuffPost) November 23, 2017
This seduction expert thinks British women are 'overweight' and 'entitled'
— Good Morning Britain (@GMB) November 22, 2017
Watch the full debate: https://t.co/vuw078VG5o @piersmorgan pic.twitter.com/Xfc21gRb6C
Republican Congressman Joe Barton Apologizes for Rude Nude Selfie
Well this kind of thing isn't so great for your career.
And, the issue for some is whether the good congressman is a victim of "revenge" porn. See this thread, "Earlier today Texas Tribune posted a story concerning Rep. Joe Barton (R-Ennis) that he issued an apology statement after it was learned a graphic image of him nude (apparently showing his penis), was circulating via social media."
And at the Texas Tribune:
And from Elise Viebeck, of the Washington Post:
And, the issue for some is whether the good congressman is a victim of "revenge" porn. See this thread, "Earlier today Texas Tribune posted a story concerning Rep. Joe Barton (R-Ennis) that he issued an apology statement after it was learned a graphic image of him nude (apparently showing his penis), was circulating via social media."
And at the Texas Tribune:
U.S. Rep. Joe Barton has apologized for a graphic nude photo of him that circulated online. https://t.co/6JuABqgUEA pic.twitter.com/mWIOYQJ7S6
— Texas Tribune (@TexasTribune) November 22, 2017
And from Elise Viebeck, of the Washington Post:
Rep. Joe Barton said he would report his lover to the Capitol Police if she exposed his secret sex life, w/ @mikedebonis: https://t.co/e4hcofGnA6
— Elise Viebeck (@eliseviebeck) November 23, 2017
Here's what @RepJoeBarton told his lover when she learned he was involved with other women. He doesn't leave much out. pic.twitter.com/xOyS5BI5qd
— Elise Viebeck (@eliseviebeck) November 23, 2017
Worth noting that the woman says she and Barton would text for hours, including when he was in committee meetings and on the House floor: pic.twitter.com/J359oRdzZY
— Elise Viebeck (@eliseviebeck) November 23, 2017
For those wondering about the revenge porn issue: good question. We listened to the tape. Barton brought up the Capitol Police because he was mad the woman learned about and was making contact with his other lovers. She was mad; he brought up the idea of an investigation.
— Elise Viebeck (@eliseviebeck) November 23, 2017
Here's what Barton had to say about it: pic.twitter.com/4UtoZ4OABt
— Elise Viebeck (@eliseviebeck) November 23, 2017
Finally, to sign off: if you were inappropriately propositioned by Rep. Barton or another member of Congress, we'd like to hear your story. Email us at mike.debonis@washpost.com and elise.viebeck@washpost.com.
— Elise Viebeck (@eliseviebeck) November 23, 2017
Wednesday, November 22, 2017
Los Angeles 'Travel Crunch' (VIDEO)
Wasn't too bad driving home this afternoon from work, but these videos of the L.A. traffic are murder.
At CBS News 2 Los Angeles:
At CBS News 2 Los Angeles:
Nice Samantha Hoopes
Ms. Samantha's wishing you a Happy Thanksgiving!
We can all be thankful for this new @SamanthaHoopes video! https://t.co/V8woksEWM6 pic.twitter.com/4kmeb1Xfvx
— SI Swimsuit (@SI_Swimsuit) November 21, 2017
The Soft Bigotry of School Discipline Reform
This is an amazing piece, at the Fordham Institute:
More at the link.
Simon Whitehead, a former teacher, gives his take on why not all forms of #school #discipline reform are working: https://t.co/Kw24DiPpih
— Fordham Institute (@educationgadfly) November 22, 2017
I am here today because I am very worried about the direction some of our urban and suburban schools are taking.He's right. This is the main problem with our schools. I deal with these things all the time. I'm lucky I'm not white. Seriously. I hate to do it, but I can turn the race card around on anyone who makes any issue about race. It's too easy for progressives to scream "racism." But I'll throw it back in their faces. Ideology has taken over public education. I'm fighting a tough battle, and sometimes I find myself going too easy on my students, because I get tired of playing campus cop all the time, 24/7. But unless you keep up a unified front, things happen, and it takes a cascade of disruptive behavior to remind you you've got to maintain high standards. You have no idea sometimes. (I'd like to retire, in fact, but it's just not happening any time soon, and it's for precisely these reasons).
Over the past four to five years, there have been strong expectations to discipline students differently depending on their race. We were told that too many students of color were being suspended and this looked bad, especially in the case of African American boys. This was definitely the case in Minneapolis.
However well-intended, this policy actually disrespects a whole class of students by lowering the expectations for their behavior, their work ethic, and inevitably their academic progress. When students walk though my classroom door, I have high expectations for them—no matter what they look like.
Another great area of concern is that students are now increasingly emboldened to get together and collaborate to “get teachers in trouble.” Those teachers can lose their jobs and their entire careers. The teachers who tend to be targets are those who have a more traditional way of teaching. By this I mean holding all students to high expectations—such as punctuality, respectful behavior, teamwork, good work ethic, following school rules, politeness, meeting deadlines—and providing consequences for not reaching those high standards.
This has led, in my opinion, to a generation of teachers who are “walking on eggshells,” trying very hard to not say anything or do anything that might remotely get them reported. I believe that many teachers now turn a blind eye to school policies not popular with students: they inflate grades, ignore dress codes violations, don’t give deadlines for handing work in, and put up with bad behavior that would previously had prompted disciplinary action. It is a culmination of these “little expectations” that has led to an erosion of the overall school climate of academic rigor, as well as an erosion of student and staff safety. In addition, if there’s a student exhibiting significantly bad behavior, many teachers feel helpless because they know that a behavior referral will be fruitless; assistant principals will return that student to the same classroom that day or the next day. Order in the classroom deteriorates, and learning suffers.
When you have given twenty-five years to teaching city kids, it hurts to be called a racist, as I have been many times. It’s upsetting to be verbally abused on a daily or even hourly basis, and in some cases even physically abused.
What other profession has to tolerate this?
This is a key reason why we are losing great teachers.
I like to think I ran a pretty tight ship. I like to think that we got a lot of learning done in fifty minutes. I would teach up to two hundred students a day. I was the head varsity coach of two sports in my school. I was in the hallways every day, passing time, keeping order and greeting students. But under the current conditions, I cannot and will not teach any longer in Minneapolis.
African American students will never reach their full potential when they are getting conflicting messages from radical activists who tell them they are, and will be, victims of discrimination, who promote the ideology of white privilege (code for “you have no chance”), and who get them all riled up and angry in school so that they’re protesting at every opportunity. It is tough to learn when you are angry.
These students need to hear the same strong, uplifting, and positive message from teachers, parents, counselors, principals, and district administrators that they can achieve success with hard work, dedication, and determination...
More at the link.
Beware the Rape Allegation Bandwagon
Folks have been warning about the radical left's virtue signaling on the sexual harassment allegations train. All aboard! You too --- #MeToo --- can make bogus accusations of sexual assault, and bring down your powerful ideological enemies!
There's obviously a real problem going on right now, but just this afternoon I learned of the progressive journalist Jordan Chariton's firing by Cenk Uygur at the Young Turks. This looks like total scam, a scheme hatched to destroy this guy, with the Young Turks throwing the dude under the bus faster than you can say "perv!" (See Politico, "‘Young Turks’ reporter vows to sue over his firing.")
And this reminds me of Michelle Malkin's piece from last month, "#MeToo May Exaggerate Prevalence of Sex Crimes":
There's obviously a real problem going on right now, but just this afternoon I learned of the progressive journalist Jordan Chariton's firing by Cenk Uygur at the Young Turks. This looks like total scam, a scheme hatched to destroy this guy, with the Young Turks throwing the dude under the bus faster than you can say "perv!" (See Politico, "‘Young Turks’ reporter vows to sue over his firing.")
And this reminds me of Michelle Malkin's piece from last month, "#MeToo May Exaggerate Prevalence of Sex Crimes":
— Michelle Malkin (@michellemalkin) October 18, 2017
#MeToo" is the social media meme of the moment. In a 24-hour period, the phrase was tweeted nearly a half million times and posted on Facebook 12 million times. Spearheaded by actress Alyssa Milano in the wake of Hollyweird's Harvey Weinstein sexual harassment scandal, women have flooded social media with their own long-buried accounts of being pestered, groped or assaulted by rapacious male predators in the workplace.Keep reading.
Count me out.
It's one thing to break down cultural stigmas constructively, but the #MeToo movement is collectivist virtue signaling of a very perilous sort. The New York Times heralded the phenomenon with multiple articles "to show how commonplace sexual assault and harassment are." The Washington Post credited #MeToo with making "the scale of sexual abuse go viral." And actress Emily Ratajkowski declared at a Marie Claire magazine's women's conference on Monday:
"The most important response to #metoo is 'I believe you.'"
No. I do not believe every woman who is now standing up to "share her story" or "tell her truth." I owe no blind allegiance to any other woman simply because we share the same pronoun. Assertions are not truths until they are established as facts and corroborated with evidence. Timing, context, motives and manner all matter.
Because I reserve the right to vet the claims of individual sexual assault complainants instead of championing them all knee-jerk and wholesale as "victims," I've been scolded as insensitive and inhumane.
"TIMING DOES NOT MATTER," a Twitter user named Meg Yarbrough fumed. "What matters is what is best for EACH INDIVIDUAL victim. You should be ashamed of yourself."
CNN anchor Jake Tapper informed me, "People coming forward should be applauded." But applauding people for "coming forward" is not a journalistic tenet. It's an advocacy tenet. Tapper responded that he was expressing the sentiment as a "human being not as a journalist." Last time I checked, humans have brains. The Weinstein scandal is not an excuse to turn them off and abdicate a basic responsibility to assess the credibility of accusers. It's an incontrovertible fact that not all accusers' claims are equal.
Some number of harrowing encounters described by Weinstein's accusers and the #MeToo hashtag activists no doubt occurred. But experience and scientific literature show us that a significant portion of these allegations will turn out to be half-truths, exaggerations or outright fabrications. That's not victim-blaming. It's reality-checking.
It is irresponsible for news outlets to extrapolate how “commonplace” sexual abuse is based on hashtag trends spread by celebrities, anonymous claimants and bots. The role of the press should be verification, not validation. Instead of interviewing activist actresses, reporters should be interviewing bona fide experts...
“The most important response to #metoo is ‘I believe you’ 🙏” @emrata @marieclaire #powertrip pic.twitter.com/ftP7yLIF1Z— meika hollender (@missmeiks) October 17, 2017
Pre-Thanksgiving Shopping
It's that time of year again.
It'll be "Black Friday" day after tomorrow, which officially kicks off the scrambling holiday shopping season. I don't blog for money, but I'd be lying if I didn't say how much I appreciate the reader support over this last year or so of my Amazon book blogging. I'm having a lot of fun. I'm reading more these days than I have since graduate school. Reader purchases help finance my book addiction. It's healthy for me, since I don't get bogged down in all the political and ideological hatred online. I don't watch the news anymore, in any case, as I've noted many times now. So, thanks again. I hope everyone has a fabulous Thanksgiving and a relaxing weekend. Shoot, you might as well watch a little NFL football. All of those Colin Kaepernick protests have hammered the league, so the boycott message has definitely gotten through. Just enjoy. Don't watch the anthem, though, lol. Tune in after the kickoff.
In any case, at Amazon, Today's Deals.
See especially, Atlin Snorkel Mask [Full Face] for Adults, Teens and Kids, GoPro Compatible Snorkeling Swimming & Underwater Mask with 180° Panoramic View Anti-Fog, Anti-Leak with Adjustable Head Straps.
And, Buck Knives 0863BRS SELKIRK Fixed Blade Survival Knife with Fire Striker and Sheath.
More, Car Concealed Seat Back Gun Rack to Hold 3 Rifles. (In stock on November 25, 2017 - Order it now!)
Still more, AmazonBasics AA Performance Alkaline Batteries (48 Count) - Packaging May Vary.
Plus, AmazonBasics Lightning to USB A Cable - Apple MFi Certified - Black - 6 Feet /1.8 Meters.
Also, Samsung UN65MU6300FXZA 65" 4K Ultra HD Smart LED TV (2017 Model) Plus Terk Cut-the-Cord HD Digital TV Tuner and Recorder 16GB Hook-Up Bundle.
BONUS: C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity.
It'll be "Black Friday" day after tomorrow, which officially kicks off the scrambling holiday shopping season. I don't blog for money, but I'd be lying if I didn't say how much I appreciate the reader support over this last year or so of my Amazon book blogging. I'm having a lot of fun. I'm reading more these days than I have since graduate school. Reader purchases help finance my book addiction. It's healthy for me, since I don't get bogged down in all the political and ideological hatred online. I don't watch the news anymore, in any case, as I've noted many times now. So, thanks again. I hope everyone has a fabulous Thanksgiving and a relaxing weekend. Shoot, you might as well watch a little NFL football. All of those Colin Kaepernick protests have hammered the league, so the boycott message has definitely gotten through. Just enjoy. Don't watch the anthem, though, lol. Tune in after the kickoff.
In any case, at Amazon, Today's Deals.
See especially, Atlin Snorkel Mask [Full Face] for Adults, Teens and Kids, GoPro Compatible Snorkeling Swimming & Underwater Mask with 180° Panoramic View Anti-Fog, Anti-Leak with Adjustable Head Straps.
And, Buck Knives 0863BRS SELKIRK Fixed Blade Survival Knife with Fire Striker and Sheath.
More, Car Concealed Seat Back Gun Rack to Hold 3 Rifles. (In stock on November 25, 2017 - Order it now!)
Still more, AmazonBasics AA Performance Alkaline Batteries (48 Count) - Packaging May Vary.
Plus, AmazonBasics Lightning to USB A Cable - Apple MFi Certified - Black - 6 Feet /1.8 Meters.
Also, Samsung UN65MU6300FXZA 65" 4K Ultra HD Smart LED TV (2017 Model) Plus Terk Cut-the-Cord HD Digital TV Tuner and Recorder 16GB Hook-Up Bundle.
BONUS: C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity.
Masha Gessen Will See Everything Through the Prism of Authoritarianism
I don't have time right now, and will try to watch later, but I'll bet yesterday's Monday's press conference with Sarah Sanders wasn't as bad as Masha Gessen makes out. Gessen's a defector from Putin's Russia, though, and she's also a radical left-wing lesbian, so you can imagine where her ideological affinities lay.
I'll try to follow up, but read this from the perspective of someone who viscerally hates the president and his "minions."
At the New Yorker:
I'll try to follow up, but read this from the perspective of someone who viscerally hates the president and his "minions."
At the New Yorker:
In which the journalists took part in the awfulness. The Degrading Ritual of Sarah Huckabee Sanders’s Pre-Thanksgiving Press Briefing https://t.co/Z7E9xwuJlB— masha gessen (@mashagessen) November 22, 2017
Beautiful Kelly Brook
I've been neglecting this luscious lady. My bad!
On Twitter:
On Twitter:
🕵🏻👄🖤 pic.twitter.com/7ZkTN34dhL
— Kelly Brook (@IAMKELLYBROOK) November 3, 2017
Clif Bars
I've been enjoyed these bars of late. They're really tasty and satisfying!
At Amazon, Shop Clif Bars.
And especially, CLIF BAR - Energy Bar - Blueberry Crisp - (2.4-Ounce Protein Bar, 12 Count).
At Amazon, Shop Clif Bars.
And especially, CLIF BAR - Energy Bar - Blueberry Crisp - (2.4-Ounce Protein Bar, 12 Count).
Tuesday, November 21, 2017
Charlie Rose Fired by CBS, Dropped by PBS, After Sexual Harassment Allegations
At the San Diego Union-Tribune, "Charlie Rose fired by CBS, and PBS drops his talk show over sexual harassment allegations."
And don't miss Norah O'Donnell's comments from this morning's broadcast, below:
And don't miss Norah O'Donnell's comments from this morning's broadcast, below:
Charlie Rose fired by CBS and PBS drops his talk show over sexual harassment allegations https://t.co/POnAOxpgu6 pic.twitter.com/RXHchNyscX
— San Diego Union-Tribune (@sdut) November 21, 2017
Here is the statement I made at the top of the show on @CBSThisMorning: pic.twitter.com/uAO5yV3wV7
— Norah O'Donnell🇺🇸 (@NorahODonnell) November 21, 2017
Just....... wow. https://t.co/DwsVEFnkBC
— Liz Habib (@LizHabib) November 21, 2017
Eiza Gonzalez at Baby2Baby Gala in Los Angeles
She's a beauty!
Are we more happy Eiza Gonzalez might be the next Catwoman or that she's showing off her huge cleavage? https://t.co/OUHPGDsYpN pic.twitter.com/ER12KF4WCF
— Egotastic! (@egotastic) November 18, 2017
So utterly impressed by what @baby2baby has achieved. Thank you so much for making me part of… https://t.co/bQTvcJLbav
— Eiza Gonzalez Reyna (@eizamusica) November 12, 2017
Demi Rose in Revealing Gold Gown
At London's Daily Mail, "Demi Rose comes dangerously close to a wardrobe malfunction in VERY revealing gold gown as she hops to her second party of the night in London."
And at Drunken Stepfather, "Demi Rose - House of CB Christmas Dinner in London."
And at Drunken Stepfather, "Demi Rose - House of CB Christmas Dinner in London."
Demi Rose comes dangerously close to a wardrobe malfunction in VERY revealing gold gown https://t.co/iYscqBOt3X
— Daily Mail Celebrity (@DailyMailCeleb) November 21, 2017
NFL Owners Mull Keeping Players in Locker Room During National Anthem
Well, you'd think? At WaPo, "NFL owners could change anthem policy next season if protests continue":
NFL owners could change the league's national anthem policy for next season, by having players remain in the locker room until after the anthem, if the protests continue all this season... https://t.co/vFI2zvOYoD— MarkMaske (@MarkMaske) November 21, 2017
Some NFL owners believe there is a strong possibility they will enact an offseason change to the league’s national anthem policy if players’ protests during the anthem persist through the end of this season, reverting to a previous approach of keeping players in the locker room while the anthem is played, according to several people familiar with the league’s inner workings.More.
“I think that if players are still kneeling at the end of the year, then it could very well happen,” said one person familiar with the owners’ deliberations on anthem-related issues.
That person said it was “too early to tell” for certain if the change to the anthem policy will be made by owners and the league. The person was “not sure” if a formal vote of the owners would be required to enact such a change but said, “I think most owners would support it, particularly if players continue to kneel this season.”
Those sentiments were echoed by several others with knowledge of the owners’ thinking on the matter. They said they did not know at this point exactly how many owners would favor such an approach, and they cautioned that there have been no detailed discussions yet about leaving teams and players in the locker room for the anthem because owners did not consider it appropriate to make an in-season change to the policy...
Monday, November 20, 2017
Danielle Gersh's Monday and Tuesday Forecast
Here's the lovely Ms. Danielle from this morning. I missed the fantastic Ms. Jennifer Delacruz this weekend, for some reason. My bad.
It was chilly when I left home this morning around 7:40am, so this is accurate, for sure. Nice in the evening when I left work though.
At CBS News 2 Los Angeles:
It was chilly when I left home this morning around 7:40am, so this is accurate, for sure. Nice in the evening when I left work though.
At CBS News 2 Los Angeles:
Eight Women Accuse Charlie Rose of Sexual Harassment
I don't watch news anymore, but I'll still catch tidbits of CBS This Morning now and then, especially if my wife has it on. Charlie Rose is really one of the last on my list to suspect of predatory behavior. I don't care either way. He's pretty left-wing, and not my ideological soulmate, by any measure. Still, I'm blown away by how far and intense this sexual purge (reckoning?) has gone. It's freakin' major.
Here's the blockbuster report, at WaPo, "Eight women say Charlie Rose sexually harassed them — with nudity, groping and lewd calls":
This is major, major. Man.
Also at Memeorandum.
Here's the blockbuster report, at WaPo, "Eight women say Charlie Rose sexually harassed them — with nudity, groping and lewd calls":
Rose used the shower technique, just like Weinstein. Did these guys share stories or something? https://t.co/ZA1LOj6lWp https://t.co/Sd69TZviZ3— Kim Priestap (@kimpriestap) November 20, 2017
Eight women have told The Washington Post that longtime television host Charlie Rose made unwanted sexual advances toward them, including lewd phone calls, walking around naked in their presence, or groping their breasts, buttocks or genital areas.Keep reading.
The women were employees or aspired to work for Rose at the “Charlie Rose” show from the late 1990s to as recently as 2011. They ranged in age from 21 to 37 at the time of the alleged encounters. Rose, 75, whose show airs on PBS, also co-hosts “CBS This Morning” and is a contributing correspondent for “60 Minutes.”
There are striking commonalities in the accounts of the women, each of whom described their interactions with Rose in multiple interviews with The Post. For all of the women, reporters interviewed friends, colleagues or family members who said the women had confided in them about aspects of the incidents. Three of the eight spoke on the record.
Five of the women spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of Rose’s stature in the industry, his power over their careers or what they described as his volatile temper.
“In my 45 years in journalism, I have prided myself on being an advocate for the careers of the women with whom I have worked,” Rose said in a statement provided to The Post. “Nevertheless, in the past few days, claims have been made about my behavior toward some former female colleagues.
“It is essential that these women know I hear them and that I deeply apologize for my inappropriate behavior. I am greatly embarrassed. I have behaved insensitively at times, and I accept responsibility for that, though I do not believe that all of these allegations are accurate. I always felt that I was pursuing shared feelings, even though I now realize I was mistaken.
“I have learned a great deal as a result of these events, and I hope others will too. All of us, including me, are coming to a newer and deeper recognition of the pain caused by conduct in the past, and have come to a profound new respect for women and their lives.”
Most of the women said Rose alternated between fury and flattery in his interactions with them. Five described Rose putting his hand on their legs, sometimes their upper thigh, in what they perceived as a test to gauge their reactions. Two said that while they were working for Rose at his residences or were traveling with him on business, he emerged from the shower and walked naked in front of them. One said he groped her buttocks at a staff party.
Reah Bravo was an intern and then associate producer for Rose’s PBS show beginning in 2007. In interviews, she described unwanted sexual advances while working for Rose at his private waterfront estate in Bellport, N.Y., and while traveling with him in cars, in a hotel suite and on a private plane.
“It has taken 10 years and a fierce moment of cultural reckoning for me to understand these moments for what they were,” she told The Post. “He was a sexual predator, and I was his victim.”
Kyle Godfrey-Ryan, one of Rose’s assistants in the mid-2000s, recalled at least a dozen instances where Rose walked nude in front of her while she worked in one of his New York City homes. He also repeatedly called the then-21-year-old late at night or early in the morning to describe his fantasies of her swimming naked in the Bellport pool as he watched from his bedroom, she said.
“It feels branded into me, the details of it,” Godfrey-Ryan said.
She said she told Yvette Vega, Rose’s longtime executive producer, about the calls.
“I explained how he inappropriately spoke to me during those times,” Godfrey-Ryan said. “She would just shrug and just say, ‘That’s just Charlie being Charlie.’ ”
In a statement to The Post, Vega said she should have done more to protect the young women on the show.
“I should have stood up for them,” said Vega, 52, who has worked with Rose since the show was created in 1991. “I failed. It is crushing. I deeply regret not helping them.”
Godfrey-Ryan said that when Rose learned she had confided to a mutual friend about his conduct, he fired her...
This is major, major. Man.
Also at Memeorandum.
Today's Deals
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Jeffrey Tambor Exits 'Transparent' Amid Sexual Harassment Allegations
More from the never-ending story, at Deadline, "Jeffrey Tambor Exits ‘Transparent’ After Sexual Harassment Allegations."
Actually, I thought this show revolved almost entirely around Tambor's character? How's it going to go on without him?
Actually, I thought this show revolved almost entirely around Tambor's character? How's it going to go on without him?
Jeffrey Tambor Exits ‘Transparent’ After Sexual Harassment Allegations https://t.co/RWsxXDreSz pic.twitter.com/anwD7T6oiD— Deadline Hollywood (@DEADLINE) November 19, 2017
G.W. Bush: 'The fact that there was any doubt in anyone’s mind about who the president was blows my mind,' adding that Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld 'didn’t make one fucking decision...'
At Politico:
George W. Bush on his presidency: "The fact that there was any doubt in anyone’s mind about who the president was blows my mind,” adding that Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld “didn’t make one fucking decision.” https://t.co/8KmHQEwQvP pic.twitter.com/TX0EOqlMo4
— POLITICO (@politico) November 20, 2017
Migrants Being Auctioned as Slaves in Libya
Well, I blame Obama for regime change Libya.
At the New York Times:
At the New York Times:
Protests in Paris seem to be getting officials' attention to end slave auctions of migrants in Libya https://t.co/zg9ZJte1wB
— Dionne Searcey (@dionnesearcey) November 20, 2017
Sunday, November 19, 2017
Shop Today
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Sanctimonious and Self-Righteous Al Franken (VIDEO)
Allie Stuckey's one of those pundits who can talk a mile a minute, and she has a quick and large vocabulary.
She's like what, 25-years-old at most? Not bad.
She's like what, 25-years-old at most? Not bad.
.@conservmillen on Franken: We see that he's engaging in the very same demeaning behavior that he has been speaking out so adamantly against pic.twitter.com/dHlgmwgknS
— FOX Business (@FoxBusiness) November 19, 2017
The Long Crisis of New York City's Subways
I first saw Byron York's tweet. I prolly would've ignored this story, but those salary figures are astonishing.
At NYT, "How Politics and Bad Decisions Starved New York’s Subways."
At NYT, "How Politics and Bad Decisions Starved New York’s Subways."
Working for NYC subway pays well. Really well. From NYT: Average compensation for subway worker: $170k. Average for subway manager (2500 of them): $280k. https://t.co/Qv0vaWz1PO pic.twitter.com/UdorS8iE0Z
— Byron York (@ByronYork) November 18, 2017
NEW: The New York subway used to be an international treasure. Now it's the most frequently delayed mass transit system in the world. We investigated what happened and who is to blame. Here's what we found: https://t.co/VgjuBhYgtx … (with @emmagf/@laforgia_)
— Brian M. Rosenthal (@brianmrosenthal) November 18, 2017
The Fall of Robert Mugabe
This is excellent, from Robyn Dixon, at the Los Angeles Times, "The Shakespearean excesses and political intrigues that drove Africa's oldest strongman out of power":
The story of hubris and arrogance that drove Robert Mugabe's epic fall. This story is African opera, and there are few true heroes in it--other than the courageous people of Zimbabwe, who insisted on better from their leaders. https://t.co/7TdMENbBPn— Kim Murphy, LA Times (@kimmurphy) November 19, 2017
In a glitzy Johannesburg nightclub earlier this month, a wealthy young playboy poured an entire $660 bottle of Ace of Spades Armand de Brignac Champagne over his diamond-studded watch: It was Bellarmine Chatunga, the youngest son of President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe.RTWT.
He had bragged about the watch and chunky gold bracelet on an earlier social media post: “$60,000 on the wrist when your daddy run the whole country ya know!!!”
As Zimbabweans struggle to afford food, when many find themselves sleeping outside banks in the hope of withdrawing $10 in cash, the video drew outrage, even among the ruling elite that had propped up the 93-year-old Mugabe for 37 years.
It hadn’t been an isolated incident. Mugabe’s wife, Grace, and her son from a previous marriage, Russell Goreraza, recently imported two Rolls-Royces, and she was caught up in a legal battle over a $1.35-million diamond ring.
Members of the ruling ZANU-PF party were furious that the first lady had seized majority control of a $1-billion government road contract. Then there was the incident involving a model who had been partying with her sons in South Africa: Grace Mugabe left an ugly gash when she hit her with a power cord and, facing charges of assault, she claimed diplomatic immunity and high-tailed it out of the country.
“It angered people. There have always been reports of the high living by these boys, high living by the mother, the father looking aside. They became arrogant and thought ‘No one can do anything to us,’ ” confided one ruling party figure, who wouldn’t be named for fear of reprisals. “There’s palpable anger in the military.”
The alarm over Grace Mugabe was magnified by her escalating power. When she attacked, government ministers fell. She said she could be president. “Give me the job and see if I fail!” she declared recently.
Zimbabwe’s fate came to a head this fall, according to numerous interviews with those close to the political intrigue, when Grace Mugabe turned her sights on former Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa and his close allies among military commanders. At that point, sources say, those with any power to stop what was happening knew they would be finished — unless they toppled her. That meant removing Robert Mugabe.
Mugabe’s slow-motion downfall — planned for months by the military — is a story of his own hubris and arrogance, and his conviction that he was Africa’s last great liberation hero, with no living peers. For decades he chipped away at democracy and crafted the militaristic state that kept him in power, but he forgot that he was there at the military’s whim, not the other way around.
It was grand opera crossed with “The Sopranos,” full of scandal and treacherous turns, entertaining and dangerous. Accusations flew of poisoning, plotting, CIA espionage, military desertion and the theft of $15 billion in diamonds.
As the economy shriveled without foreign investment and a hard currency crisis sent prices of staples soaring 30% in a single week, many in the rank-and-file government felt hopeless at the prospect of going into elections in 2018 led by a president who could hardly stay awake in public meetings.
As Mugabe grew frail, he turned to promoting and protecting Grace, repeatedly warning the generals to stay out of politics, even as armed forces leaders were beginning to talk darkly of intervention.
*****
One of the ironies of the unfolding drama is the extent to which the army now confronting Mugabe has been one of the president’s chief weapons of terror over the years.
The military carried out massacres in Matabeleland in the 1980s on Robert Mugabe’s orders to eliminate opposition. Some 20,000 people were reportedly killed.
The army and war veterans evicted white farmers from their land soon after 2000 and got farms in return. Mugabe used the military to violently crush the opposition in successive elections and in Operation Murambatsvina in 2005, when up to a million people were displaced in opposition areas, their homes bulldozed.
Mugabe, say those who know him best, has always had an instinctive manipulative cunning and an acute understanding of how to wield force to break an opponent. When he saw a threat, he either crushed it or consumed it whole.
But as he aged, he grew more remote, stubborn and out of touch, and was loath to trust or consult his generals.
“He forgot the nature of the state that he himself helped to create, which is a militaristic, securocratic state,” said opposition figure Tendai Biti, a former finance minister. “He forgot that the militaristic state could just dump him when he stopped serving their interests. He could be fired, like anyone.”
Independent analyst Earnest Mudzengi said the closed, oppressive state Mugabe created likely will outlast him.
“He was made by the same guys who now want to do away with him. He made them, and he was made by them. Big people tend to overreach themselves,” he said.
“Basically what they [the generals] want is a return to the status quo,” he added. “People are celebrating, but it’s premature.”
Saturday, November 18, 2017
Gold Box Deals
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Elizabeth Hurley Sunbathing
She's 52 and fabulous.
Elizabeth Hurley Sunbathing in See Through Sun Shirt - https://t.co/JcqDnoqtG8 - pic.twitter.com/Nl6WVuWUh7
— Taxi Driver (@TaxiDriverMovie) November 15, 2017
Beautiful Nude Actresses
I just love Natalie Portman, heh.
At Maxim, "15 Beautiful Actresses Who Always Get Naked."
At Maxim, "15 Beautiful Actresses Who Always Get Naked."
We appreciate the dedication to their craft. https://t.co/dMJaI4Dz7J
— Maxim (@MaximMag) October 26, 2017
Trick Dodge Challengers
This Jerry D. on Twitter is really cool, lol.
Perfect DNA twins! #Dodge #MoparLogic #Mopar #MoparOrNoCar #Challenger #Hellcat #Hemi #Srt8 #DodgeDemon #RaceCar #TransAM pic.twitter.com/AW4ol5uSKM
— Jerry D (@Mopar_Logic) November 3, 2017
Ethical Movies
Well, before I see any film I'll check in advance if Harvey Weinstein, or any of the Mirimax people, had anything to do with it. We just saw "Thor: Ragnarok" last week, and I can't believe Weinstein was a part of the production, but who knows these days?
I'm not planning a lot of trips to the movie house, in any case. I'm disgusted by these people, all of them.
At the Atlantic:
I'm not planning a lot of trips to the movie house, in any case. I'm disgusted by these people, all of them.
At the Atlantic:
Is there any way to be an ethical moviegoer in the post-Weinstein era? @christinebader considers https://t.co/I4s50hq2LR pic.twitter.com/JKGVa8OA8e
— The Atlantic (@TheAtlantic) November 15, 2017
We're All Are Implicated in the Post-Weinstein Reckoning
From Rebecca Traister, a very radical feminist, at the New Yorker's "The Cut," "Your Reckoning. And Mine":
This essay by Rebecca Traister is very good: https://t.co/rHykoF2G44— Lindsey Adler (@lindseyadler) November 13, 2017
The anger window is open. For decades, centuries, it was closed: Something bad happened to you, you shoved it down, you maybe told someone but probably didn’t get much satisfaction — emotional or practical — from the confession. Maybe you even got blowback. No one really cared, and certainly no one was going to do anything about it.Keep reading.
But for the past six weeks, since reports of one movie producer’s serial predation blew a Harvey-size hole in the news cycle, there is suddenly space, air, for women to talk. To yell, in fact. To make dangerous lists and call reporters and text with their friends about everything that’s been suppressed.
This is not feminism as we’ve known it in its contemporary rebirth — packaged into think pieces or nonprofits or Eve Ensler plays or Beyoncé VMA performances. That stuff has its place and is necessary in its own way. This is different. This is ’70s-style, organic, mass, radical rage, exploding in unpredictable directions. It is loud, thanks to the human megaphone that is social media and the “whisper networks” that are now less about speaking sotto voce than about frantically typed texts and all-caps group chats.
Really powerful white men are losing jobs — that never happens. Women (and some men) are breaking their silence and telling painful and intimate stories to reporters, who in turn are putting them on the front pages of major newspapers.
It’s wild and not entirely fun. Because the stories are awful, yes. And because the conditions that created this perfect storm of female rage — the suffocating ubiquity of harassment and abuse; the election of a multiply accused predator who now controls the courts and the agencies that are supposed to protect us from criminal and discriminatory acts — are so grim.
But it’s also harrowing because it’s confusing; because the wrath may be fierce, but it is not uncomplicated. In the shock of the house lights having been suddenly brought up — of being forced to stare at the ugly scaffolding on which so much of our professional lives has been built — we’ve had scant chance to parse what exactly is inflaming us and who. It’s our tormentors, obviously, but sometimes also our friends, our mentors, ourselves.
Since the reports of Weinstein’s malevolence began to gush, I’ve received somewhere between five and 20 emails every day from women wanting to tell me their experiences: of being groped or leered at or rubbed up against in their workplaces. They tell me about all kinds of men — actors and publishers; judges and philanthropists; store managers and social-justice advocates; my own colleagues, past and present — who’ve hurt them or someone they know. It happened yesterday or two years ago or 20. Few can speak on the record, but they all want to recount how the events changed their lives, shaped their careers; some wish to confess their guilt for not reporting the behavior and thus endangering those who came after them. There are also women who do want to go on the record, women who’ve summoned armies of brave colleagues ready to finally out their repellent bosses. To many of them I must say that their guy isn’t well known enough, that the stories are now so plentiful that offenders must meet a certain bar of notoriety, or power, or villainy, before they’re considered newsworthy.
This is part of what makes me, and them, angry: this replication of hierarchies — hierarchies of harm and privilege — even now. “It’s a ‘seeing the matrix’ moment,” says one woman whom I didn’t know personally before last week, some of whose deepest secrets and sharpest fears and most animating furies I’m now privy to. “It’s an absolutely bizarre thing to go through, and it’s fucking exhausting and horrible, and I hate it. And I’m glad. I’m so glad we’re doing it. And I’m in hell.”
Part of the challenge, for me, has been in my exchanges with men — the friends and colleagues self-aware enough to be uneasy, to know they’re on a list somewhere or imagine that they might be. They text and call, not quite saying why, but leaving no doubt: They once cheated with a colleague; they once made a pass they suspect was wrong; they aren’t sure if they got consent that one time. Are they condemned? What is the nature and severity of their crime? The anxiety of this — how to speak to guys who seek feminist absolution but whom I suspect to be compromised — is real. Some of my friends have no patience for men’s sudden penchant for introspection, but I’m a sucker; I feel for them. When they reach out, my impulse is to comfort. But reason — and a determination not to placate, not now — drives me to be direct, colder than usual: Yes, this is a problem. In fact, it’s your problem. Seek to address it.
Then there are the men who are looking at the world with fresh eyes, who are startled by the unseemly parade of sexual molesters and manipulators — the cascading allegations against Louis C.K., the conservative former judge and Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore, and so many more. These men have begun to understand my journalistic beat for the first time: They didn’t know it was this bad. They didn’t see how systemic, architectural, it was — how they were part of it even if they didn’t paw anyone, didn’t rape anyone. This faction includes my husband, a criminal-defense attorney who’s definitely not ignorant of the pervasiveness of sexual assault, yet reads the endless stream of reports with furrowed brow. “Who does this?” he asks. “Who does this?” Then one night, with genuine feeling: “How can you even want to have sex with me at this point?”
At elementary-school drop-off, a friend who’s a theater director tells me he’s been sorting through his own memories. “There’s this one woman, and I did ask her out, but only after she’d auditioned and hadn’t gotten the part. I wrote her, like I write to all actors who I don’t cast, to explain why. And then in that email, I asked if she wanted to go to a Holocaust puppet show with me. She said yes, and we went out a few times. This was probably 2004. Do you think that was bad?”
I laugh, put my hand on his arm, and tell him no, it doesn’t sound bad, but in fact I don’t know: Maybe it was bad or maybe it was human and they really liked each other. We are turning over incidents that don’t fall into the categories that have been established — a spectrum that runs from Weinstein-level brutality to non-rapey but creepy massages to lurid-but-risible pickup lines — and wondering whether or how any of it relates to actual desire for another person.
Still, I’m half-frustrated by men who can’t differentiate between harmless flirtation and harassment, because I believe that most women can. The other half of me is glad that these guys are doing this accounting, reflecting on the instances in which they wielded power. Maybe some didn’t realize at the time that they were putting the objects of their attention at a disadvantage, but I must acknowledge that some, even my friends, surely did....
*****
When I thought about my #metoo moments, I first recalled the restaurant manager who instructed me to keep my blouse unbuttoned as I served pizzas with fried eggs on top, about the manager at Bruegger’s Bagels who’d rub his dick against my ass as he passed me setting out the cream cheeses in the morning. I’ve never had a job in which there wasn’t a resident harasser, but in my post-college life, I believed I’d stayed out of his crosshairs.
Perhaps, in the story I’ve told myself, it was because I was never wowed by powerful men, sensing on some visceral level that they were mostly full of shit. I gravitated toward female mentors instead. But even given my wariness of Important Men, as a young woman I could never truly believe that members of the opposite sex could be as cartoonishly grotesque as they sometimes were.
I once heard that a choking person reflexively leaves the room, embarrassed for others to see her gasping for breath. I have no idea if that’s true, but it’s how I’ve dealt with harassment. One time on the subway, the man next to me wound his hand under my thigh and between my legs, as I sat there debating whether or not to stand up or scream because I didn’t want to embarrass him on a full train. That’s why, when an important writer took me to coffee, offering to help me find a new job, and asked if I’d ever fantasized about fucking a married man, I simply laughed maniacally, as if he’d just made a joke about a 65-year-old man who suggests to a 25-year-old woman that she fuck him during a professional coffee...
Vanity Fair Editors Unimpressed with Radhika Jones' Sense of Style
Oh brother. She's a hot chick, with a Ph.D. from Columbia to boot!
Planning to read every single word of @radhikajones’ Vanity Fair. https://t.co/twGaDiVJWn
— jodikantor (@jodikantor) November 11, 2017
So this is the way our brilliant colleague who just shot the moon gets written about. https://t.co/WMq3NdgLt6
— jodikantor (@jodikantor) November 17, 2017
Welcome to Condé Nast!Still more at that Twitter link above.
Radhika Jones is learning the ways of One World Trade. Having been named the new editor in chief of Vanity Fair only this week, Jones, 44, headed to downtown Manhattan to get acquainted with the magazine’s staff.
But while Jones may have been editorial director of the books department at The New York Times, an alum of Time magazine and The Paris Review, a graduate of Harvard and holds a doctorate in English and comparative literature from Columbia — none of this impressed Condé Nast-ers. They, instead, were aghast over her sense of style.
WWD observed one of the company’s fashion editors in candid conversation with industry peers remarking not on the context of Jones’ first visit, but rather the outfit she wore.
“She seemed nervous. The outfit was interesting,” the staffer noted. According to the fashion editor — who omitted Jones’ admirable literary accomplishments from conversation — the incoming editor wore a navy shiftdress strewn with zippers, a garment deemed as “iffy” at best.
Jones’ choice of hosiery proved most offensive, according to the editor. For the occasion, Jones had chosen a pair of tights — not in a neutral black or gray as is common in the halls of Vogue — but rather a pair covered with illustrated, cartoon foxes.
The animal caricatures may have also been too much for Vogue editor in chief and Condé Nast artistic director Anna Wintour, who is said to have fixed one of her trademark stoic glares upon Jones’ hosiery throughout the duration of the staff meeting.
Unnerved by Jones’ choice of legwear — and Wintour’s reaction — the fashion editor proclaimed to her friends: “I’m not sure if I should include a new pair of tights in her welcome basket.” Jones is said to begin her new role on Dec. 11.
Friday, November 17, 2017
Jesmyn Ward Wins National Book Award for the Second Time
She's on the top of my list for next reads. In fact, I have her first novel, Salvage the Bones, on the table nearby here.
She won for that book, and then this week for her second novel, Sing, Unburied, Sing.
That's quite a set of accomplishments, no matter your ideology.
She won for that book, and then this week for her second novel, Sing, Unburied, Sing.
That's quite a set of accomplishments, no matter your ideology.
National Book Awards Fiction Prize: Jesmyn Ward's 'Sing, Unburied, Sing'https://t.co/U33zExNCbv
— Michiko Kakutani (@michikokakutani) November 16, 2017
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