#Arkhaven INFOGALACTIC #Castalia House
Weinergate expands:
BigGovernment.com and BigJournalism.com have reported throughout the morning about the emergence of new details in the Weinergate saga, after a young woman came forward with new information that tends to undermine severely the theory that Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) was the victim of a “prank” or a “hack.”
Weiner’s wife Huma could not be reached for comment, as she was fully occupied with her duties servicingserving Secretary of State Clinton.
Naomi Wolf explains that she likes herself better and is actually more attractive now that she’s in her late 40s and no one wants to have sex with her. Unsurprisingly, now that she’s gotten older, she has concluded that age, like beauty, is also a myth:
Recently, I was at a party, and a man who, like myself, was in his late 40s, arrived with a woman 20 years younger. It took only a few moments of conversation before the rest of the group realized that the two had very little in common. And yet I did not feel the frisson of envy among the men present, nor did I see a bristle of jealousy from any of the stylish, accomplished women in their 40s. In fact, the mood of both genders was tender, almost pitying. The man may have imagined that he was showing off the youth of his date the way he might show off a new Maserati; but parading her around like an acquisition seemed only to make his friends feel sorry for him….
There are many other delightful surprises about being at this stage on the journey. I don’t miss the brutal sexual harassment that young women receive from men — and I love the far gentler flirtation or civil compliments from cab drivers and park chess players my own age or older. On the street, young women are told: Give me some. Older women hear: I love your eyes.
It is certainly amusing to see a woman whose entire literary career was based on her attractive-by-New-York-writer standards try to rationalize away the fact that she is past her sell-by date. It’s also remarkable that she managed to write about the changes in women’s attitudes and bodies over the last two decades without once seeing fit to mention the enfattening of America; Naomi has clearly packed on more than a few pounds herself.
Any time you see a woman describe “magnetic and dynamic women my own age” you know perfectly well she is referring to childless women fast approaching menopause who are filled with boundless hate for the young women their male peers are dating. Wolf’s attempt at a bemused zen-like pose is about as convincing as unemployed female college graduates babbling about how “strong and independent” they are as they move home to spend a year deciding what graduate schools Daddy is going to pay for.
The punchline which reveals the entire point of the article is this pathetic attempt at a neg: “[I]n my own circles, at least, it is considered more macho for a man to have an accomplished woman his own age on his arm. His ego, it is understood, can take it.”
Right, because men pursue beautiful young women in order to be macho. It’s not sex and beauty that interests them, but female approval. This woman clearly doesn’t know the first thing about men. One of these days, someone is going to have to inform women that their endless shaming tactics only work on other women and gamma males they don’t want to have sex with in the first place.
In which I find myself in rare agreement with Megan Mcardle:
I travel a lot, and I’ve had housekeepers walk in on me in various states of undress, especially in hotels with turndown service (yes, yes, now that I’m a more seasoned traveler, I try to engage the chain or the deadbolt before I undress). Not a big deal for me, but I’m sure it could happen to a male traveler perfectly innocently. So could a wardrobe malfunction–the robes in many hotels are not exactly overgenerous, especially for the burgeoning middle-aged physique of a chairborne warrior.
Just last month, I was traveling and staying in a hotel. Despite the fact that I had not checked out yet, the door was locked, and checkout was not for another two hours, I heard housekeeping fumbling with the door as I stepped out of the bathroom fresh from a shower.
And even though I twice called out that I was in the room, the woman unlocked the door, opened it, and walked in on me, before apologizing and retreating in some disarray. I thought nothing of it at the time, but I have no doubt that had I been the one entering the locked room, many women would have considered it a case of sexual harassment and near rape. Especially since there was no “do not disturb” sign on the exterior doorknob.
“The door was locked… I even told him TWICE that the room was occupied, but he INSISTED on entering!”
I’m not attempting to defend DSK’s actions in any way, shape, or form, but it is downright ridiculous to insist that it is the women who are entering locked rooms are somehow the victims of the men they occasionally surprise. I’m not saying that there are no exhibitionists – male or female – staying at hotels whose behavior is objectionable, but I would be willing to be that the greater part of those who are surprised sans clothing are perfectly innocent hotel guests who are operating under the erroneous assumption that a locked door is sufficient to provide them with privacy.
Mark Zuckerberg is challenging himself:
When he’s not too busy connecting people across the universe, Mark Zuckerberg is pursuing a new “personal challenge,” as he calls it. “The only meat I’m eating is from animals I’ve killed myself,” says the Facebook founder and CEO.
It’s an odd dietary direction for the 27-year-old Internet billionaire, but since he has taken to killing goats, pigs and chickens, “I’m eating a lot healthier foods. And I’ve learned a lot about sustainable farming and raising of animals,” he says. “It’s easy to take the food we eat for granted when we can eat good things every day.”
Zuckerberg’s new goal came to light, not surprisingly, on Facebook. On May 4, Zuckerberg posted a note to the 847 friends on his private page: “I just killed a pig and a goat.”
I give him five years before he’s hunting humans on his private island off the coast of Africa. In the meantime, he can a) attempt to best Tiger Woods’s off-course record, b) score all 249 stars in Guitar Hero Metallica, and c) dedicate himself to becoming the Ultimate Champion.
In which Susan Walsh takes a weird little personality test. I took the same test and got the following result:
Thoughtful to the extreme, you are often obsessed with perfection and the rules governing your own personal interests. Your world is black and white. You love to work within a logical system, such as language, computer programming, or mathematics. Manipulating a system that can be completely understood is a distinct pleasure to you, because of your confidence in the underlying veracity of your belief system. Because of your appreciation for logic and order, those who speak or think in a sloppy manner are apt to generate more than their share of wrath. Although very amiable, you are not drawn to friendships out of a sense of personal need. You are just as happy by yourself with a good book or puzzle. Because you are so involved with thought, you will on occasion have difficulty dealing with the day-to-day problems of a normal life. Taking out the trash, doing the dishes, these are often left until the last possible moment, if at all.
Translation: INTJ. I expect this result will not be uncommon among the Dread Ilk.
A new biography of Gandhi tends to confirm Winston Churchill’s view of the man:
Mahatma Gandhi was bisexual and left his wife to live with a German-Jewish bodybuilder, a controversial biography has claimed. The leader of the Indian independence movement is said to have been deeply in love with Hermann Kallenbach…. Kallenbach was born in Germany but emigrated to South Africa where he became a wealthy architect.
Gandhi was working there and Kallenbach became one of his closest disciples. The pair lived together for two years in a house Kallenbach built in South Africa and pledged to give one another ‘more love, and yet more love . . . such love as they hope the world has not yet seen.’
A love story involving Gandhi, Jews, and gays… no doubt we can expect to see at least three major Hollywood movies made out of this. As NRO’s Andrew Stuttaford points out, Gandhi was actually an irrelevant failure, for the most part. Of his four primary goals, the only one in which he succeeded was the Indian independence movement. Of course, the British were clearly going to withdraw from India anyhow with or without pressure from Gandhi’s movement.
And it shouldn’t be too surprising that like many who profess to love humanity in general, Gandhi tended to despise individuals with whom he came into contact. In other words, he was somewhat of a proto-Hillary Clinton.
Roissy provides a reason why men should never date vegetarian women… as if it wasn’t already a priori apparent:
I have a theory that the reason grazers react so violently to bacon aroma is because it smells SO GOOD it might tempt them to betray the Gaianist religion for which they have sacrificed so many years in penitential devotion. Bacon is the gateway meat to apostasy.
I don’t have a problem with most freak dieters, having been one myself in the past. But I absolutely loathe vegetarians. As Roissy observes, it’s not a diet, it’s a religion. And a particularly stupid religion at that. Vegetarians are among the only people on the planet who make Scientologists look rational and reasonable.
I think he’s onto something with regards to the bacon thing, however. I was seated next to a vegetarian who hadn’t eaten any meat for five years, but the excellent jambon negra on the start plate provided too much of a temptation for her and after “just trying a bite”, she ended up helping polish the whole thing off.
The epic wit and wisdom of Charlie Sheen:
“I’m not bi-polar, I’m bi-winning. I win here and I win there.”
“I’m gonna say this. It’s a polygamy story. All my guy friends are gonna like throw tomatoes at me. It’s like an organic union of the hearts. Together, it’s like, it’s on.”
“I’m different. I have a different constitution, I have a different brain, I have a different heart. I got tiger blood, man. Dying’s for fools, dying’s for amateurs.”
“I’m tired of pretending I’m not special. I’m tired of pretending I’m not a total bitchin’ rock star from Mars.”
“I have a disease? Bullshitt. I cured it… with my mind.”
“I have defeated this earthworm with my words – imagine what I would have done with my fire-breathing fists.”
“My fangs are dripping tiger blood.”
I have to say, I am totally with him on the tedium of false modesty. And forget Two-and-a-half Men. In these latter days of Survivor: Dancing with the Teen Mom Idol Chef, how in the name of all that is pure win does Charlie Sheen not have a reality show?
It’s a crime, it’s a tragedy. Not a single tiger’s blood pearl that drops from those cocaine-encrusted lips should be lost to posterity.
This may be the best NFL scandal yet. I don’t dare think about this too much or I might hurt myself from laughing… F-E-E-T, Feet, Feet, FEET!:
Just when it appeared that one of the craziest NFL seasons in NFL history could get no crazier, one of the craziest stories we can ever recall has emerged. On Tuesday, I was rendered speechless (a rare occurrence for me) when I saw the Deadspin item about the eerie similarities between the wife of Jets coach Rex Ryan and someone who previously posted a series of foot-fetish videos on YouTube.
My only regret is that it was Rex Ryan’s wife and not Deanna Favre. That would have served as the perfect capstone on #4’s career. People are so awesome, they really are. And to think some people still can’t figure out why God created Man and gave him free will.
One of the hallmarks of the incompetent individual is that he doesn’t realize his own incompetence; he tends to significantly overrate his own capabilities. In his piece entitled “American Narcissus“, Jonathan Last provides an interesting quote taken from a New Yorker article about Obama/Soetoro/Soebarkah:
Obama said that he liked being surrounded by people who expressed strong opinions, but he also said, “I think that I’m a better speechwriter than my speechwriters. I know more about policies on any particular issue than my policy directors. And I’ll tell you right now that I’m gonna think I’m a better political director than my political director.” After Obama’s first debate with McCain, on September 26th, [campaign political director Patrick] Gaspard sent him an e-mail. “You are more clutch than Michael Jordan,” he wrote. Obama replied, “Just give me the ball.”
We are informed that Valerie Jarret thinks Obama has never really been challenged intellectually and he has been bored to death his whole life. But that doesn’t indicate what she believes it does, that he’s extraordinarily intelligent. It actually tends to indicate that his intelligence is only moderately above average and he has been permitted to skate completely unchallenged by those around him his entire life. Malcolm Gladwell asserts that expertise of the highest level can only be developed by thousands of hours of practice; while the assertion is, like so many of Gladwell’s other ideas, almost surely incorrect, it must be admitted that Obama possesses an exceptional expertise in selling himself to the gullible. This is not only something he has spent his entire life doing, it appears to be the only thing he actually knows how to do.
No wonder the man is so bored. Even as president, he’s still doing exactly the same thing he was doing as a pompous law student. And the combination of his clueless narcissim with his incompetence is what makes his presidency and its inevitable fallout so damned entertaining.