see more Funny Graphs
I predicted Carrie Prejean would be fired
I only had to spend a few minutes at a press conference with Carrie Prejean to be able to predict she would be fired as Miss California. She was in breach of her contract as Miss California in early May, as I pointed out then. Here is my comment in its entirety, which I made in response to a post at Gay Patriot — I have boldfaced my prediction:
I attended the NOM press conference yesterday and sat just a few feet away from the podium when Ms. Prejean spoke from prepared remarks. She is not in a class with Ann Coulter either for brains or beauty. My impression of her personality is that the more people get to know her, the harder it’s going to be for her to get a date or find employment.
I think it is vital to keep reminding people that Ms. Prejean’s original answer at the pageant stated gays have the choice to marry. We do not. It is important that we emphasize Prejean had her facts wrong.
My impression of the leaders of NOM is that they have worked out that we are reaching people’s hearts and sense of fairness because it is noble and good to want to be married and devote yourself to building a life with your spouse. So they are losing on those grounds. Thus they have latched onto Ms. Prejean as flame bait. They will have her do enraging things, then denounce anyone who responds to her angrily. It’s a perfect set-up.
How should we respond? What I see changing people to favor marriage equality are two things: (1) knowing someone who is gay or lesbian; and (2), loving that person enough to want them to have equal rights.
So I hope our gay and lesbian rights organizations – and bloggers – work to get as many of us as possible to come out, and to stay on the message that we have to be loving because that is that transformative power for achieving equality.
Cynthia Yockey, A Conservative Lesbian, May 1, 2009
In May, Donald Trump, owner of the Miss USA Pageant, backed Ms. Prejean’s right to her opinion on gay marriage and ruled that the semi-nude photos she failed to mention in her pageant contract were not so revealing that she should lose her crown. After being treated so generously, Ms. Prejean now is asking people to believe her spin on why she was fired instead of Donald Trump’s statement to TMZ:
Trump told us Carrie refused to appear at around 30 events on behalf of Miss California USA. He says Prejean was contractually bound to appear and she just wouldn’t do it. He doesn’t think her attitude has anything to do with her politics.
Trump said: “To me she was the sweetest thing. Everyone else — she treated like s**t.”
I doubt that the National Organization for Marriage will be interested in Ms. Prejean for very much longer since she no longer has her crown and lost it by her own actions. After posing as a martyr for her integrity, it turns out that she committed career suicide through her lack of integrity. But, if NOM does continue to work with her — and they have some serious integrity issues of their own — I predict she will make them sorry sooner rather than later. I feel certain she has no idea what she did that was wrong. The School of Hard Knocks is in session for this young woman and it is not going to be pretty.
Update: I just came across the allegation published here in the New York Daily News on May 22 that Carrie Prejean’s mother had a lesbian affair that ended shortly before Ms. Prejean won her crown as Miss California. In her famous reply to Perez Hilton, she stated her parents taught her traditional values. If it turns out her mother is a lesbian, and Ms. Prejean knew it, then she was stating she believes her own mother should not have marriage equality AND she misrepresented her own parents for personal gain. Ick.
Update, 6/11: Big Hollywood has a piece headlined as coming from Ms. Prejean’s attorney asserting she had been in compliance with her contract, but which is by-lined “Carrie Prejean.” Whoever wrote it asks:
If you need any further evidence of who is in bad faith: A radio host, Billy Bush says he is the person who informed Carrie she was fired. What kind of employer alerts the media before they speak to their employee?
Well, my guess is that it’s the kind of employer who can’t get his employee to return his calls or e-mails or show up for her job.
Update, 6/11: Fox News has a transcript of e-mails dated May 29 between Carrie Prejean and her boss, Keith Lewis, the Miss California pageant director. The time her parents and church spent training her to oppose gay marriage equality would have been better invested in teaching her some manners — see for yourself, here.
Also today at Fox News, “Pop Tarts” has these comments from Ms. Prejean’s former modeling agent, Francine Champagne, who fired Prejean before she took her controversial stand against gay marriage equality at the Miss USA pageant in April for pretty much the same reasons that Donald Trump did yesterday:
However Pop Tarts has learned that this isn’t the first time Prejean has been given the flick. Her former agent, Francine Champagne at Visions Model Management Los Angeles, released Carrie from her contract just over a year ago under claims she was “problematic.”
“It gets a little sticky and there are so many things that I would rather not discuss but there are certain specifications that we have to be a model and she was not keeping her commitment,” Champagne told Tarts. “I just felt like she was a little nutty and I’d rather not represent someone with that mind frame and I just think she is a problem, and I did not feel that she was of the utmost professionalism and she did not follow through on her side of the bargain so therefore we decided to cut our losses and let her go.”
Champagne also said that Prejean failed to act her age.
“She’s definitely a handful, she needs a lot of attention, she is a little bit bossy, her mother gets involved whereas she’s an adult, and she doesn’t need her mom to be calling us. At this point in time, we’re a professional agency that deals with professionals and if they are under 18, absolutely we deal with the parents, but once they’re 18 or over, we should be dealing directly with talent, not with their parents,” Champagne added. “She definitely had the potential to work well, she’s a very beautiful girl, but her personality and her uptightness gets in the way and it’s definitely a personality conflict with this business and her. She will not really bode well in this industry because she is too controlling and uptight and bossy. There are a lot of issues there with her and she’s not really an easy person to get along with.”
Carrie did not respond to a request for comment.
Whoever gets Ms. Prejean to talk on camera for just three minutes without a script and posts the unedited tape on YouTube will give the world a first-hand experience of why she was fired. I wonder how long before NOM ditches her, too?
Update, 6/11/09: Katherine Thomson at HuffPo has a transcript of an interview today with Keith Lewis, executive director of the Miss California USA pageant; the new Miss California, Tami Farrell, who is a former Miss Teen USA and very familiar with carrying out the contractual duties of a beauty queen; and CBS’s “Early Morning” show co-anchor, Julie Chen. Lewis told Chen that he is not in direct communication with Carrie Prejean because the pageant’s attorney is communicating with her attorney. Then he added, “Her attorney is also the general counsel for the National Organization for Marriage, which was kind of what created this controversy, when she went out and began doing some public appearances for them.” So, it may be longer than I thought before NOM parts company with Prejean. But until they do, I expect they are going to feel like the kidnappers in “The Ransom of Red Chief,” which, if you don’t know how funny that will be, you can find out here. Also, I wonder — did NOM’s attorney deliberately set Prejean up to get fired?
'That's why they call it 'pro-stitution''
The U.S. Labor Department announced Friday, June 5, that the national unemployment rate hit 9.4 percent in May, the highest level since 1983.
Iowahawk has the scoop on the “Hope” and “Change” Obama’s economic policies have created for some of America’s former wage slaves, who have never in their lives experienced a major economic downtown and believed they were a thing of the past. He reports that now they are our nation’s newest, youngest, savviest entrepreneurs:
“I used to talk a lot about living a ‘greener lifestyle,’ and now I’m finally doing it,” she [Martinez] said. “I’ve given up my car and I’m spending almost all of my time outdoors, surrounded by the beauty and insects of nature. And when I haven’t eaten in four or five days, I can look up into the sun and see angels. It’s very spiritual.”
In related news, Rasmussen Reports noted on Monday, June 8, that for the first time in two years, more people now trust the Republican Party more than the Democrats to handle the nation’s economy well, with 45 percent trusting the Republicans more and 39 percent trusting the Democrats more, according to a recent national telephone survey.
Reprise of my post from April 16:
Santa’s workshop while Obama is president:
see more Fail Blog
I'm OK with the whole outing gestalt
My take is that sunshine improves the level of discourse. I came out as a lesbian at the age of 18 in 1972, when it was dangerous and even life-threatening, so I know something about it.
However, I do LOVE it that the animus against conservativism by liberals, which does force conservatives to lie about who they really are and dissimulate as homosexuals still must do, gives them (us) a taste of the bitter medicine that is so much easier to give than to receive.
On the subject of outing today, Prof. William A. Jacobson, at Legal Insurrection, deliciously skewers a Leftist blogger who favors outing his enemies and opposes outing his friends. Hmmmm. There’s a word for that, and I’m sure it will come to me. Oh, right: hypocrisy.
P.S.
I spotted this story from an e-mail from Prof. Jacobson and decided to post about it before visiting his blog for the Permalink. And what should I find when I arrive? He has honored my post, ” ‘Conservative lesbian’ breaks Wikio” as “Post of the Day.” I am blushing and very grateful for the honor. Thank you, professor! And welcome, Legal Insurrection readers!
P.P.S.
When I first posted this around noon, I was in a hurry to get my heirloom tomatoes planted today because rain is predicted tomorrow and the rest of the week. The controversy evolved while I was working in my garden. So now it’s almost midnight and I’ve read up a bit more on the controversy. I would like to clarify that Prof. Jacobson addressed the hypocrisy of one of the defenders of the outed liberal blogger, not the outed blogger himself.
I was surprised to see that the outed blogger, Publius, blogs at Obsidian Wings, which I recently linked for a post from another blogger there, Edward (no last name), about Virginia’s recent law aimed at barring homosexual couples from making contracts with one another that would duplicate rights associated with marriage, such as a durable medical power-of-attorney. I just found this, from Publius himself on Iowa’s decision to allow gay marriage, and I am pleasantly surprised that he is a straight man calling for equality for homosexuals even if it is gained through the courts.
Although I despise attacking others from the safety of anonymity — except for critics of Islam, who could be murdered — upon mature consideration, while I do not feel any outrage on behalf of Publius, it does seem that Ed Whelan needs to toughen up and if National Review Online fires him for this breach I won’t feel any outrage on his behalf, either.
For more on this story, I recommend:
Joy McCann, Little Miss Attila, “More on the Anonymity Issue”
Robert Stacy McCain, The Other McCain, “Will Publius/Blevins be ‘Dooced’?”
Prof. Glenn Reynolds, Instapundit, “Is it wrong to ‘out’ anonymous bloggers?”
Dan Riehl, Riehl World View, “Anonymous Blogging”
Ed Morrissey, Hot Air, “Poll: When is it OK to ‘out’ anonymous bloggers?“
How liberals construct incentives to succeed
see more Fail Blog
Update: Little Miss Attila has the story on an example from San Francisco. Moe Lane has the update.
'Conservative lesbian' breaks Wikio
The phrase “conservative lesbian” isn’t exactly an oxymoron, but it does describe a very rare bird. Even at CPAC, when a libertarian radio host whose name I can’t remember wanted to prove to me that I was really a libertarian instead of a conservative and walked me over to the libertarian booth personally so I could take their test, was visibly astonished when my test showed I was smack dab in the center of their conservative bull’s eye along with only one other person. In fact, the guy who marked my test said as he put my dot in the bull’s eye, “You’re a rare bird.”
Tell me about it.
When I was starting this blog in January and I checked the number of searches in a month for the word “lesbian” versus “conservative lesbian,” I found that for a term that is searched over 22 million times a month, I had targeted a niche searched 140 times a month. (Gloom.) I tell you, gentle readers, it’s a gift. After a lifetime as a liberal Democrat, pining and praying for a return to the happy days of a Democrat president with a majority Democrat Congress, didn’t I convert to being a fiscally conservative Republican just when all of that was within my grasp?
Whatever, as a new blogger I am still discovering ways to promote “A Conservative Lesbian” and today I found Wikio and immediately broke it:
Since Wikio helpfully suggested I myself could publish a story on this subject — well, now I have.
You’re welcome.
P.S.
Oh, for heaven’s sake, now my new Wikio vote button shows up on my other posts, but not this one. Well, the sun just came out after three days of rain, so I am going to work in my heirloom tomato garden because I can fix this after dark.
Update, 6/7/2009:
Mixed success — “A Conservative Lesbian” is now on Wikio, but Wikio is not entirely on “A Conservative Lesbian,” since the Wikio vote button still is not loading consistently.
Update, 6/7/2009: Welcome, Legal Insurrection readers, and thank you, Prof. William A. Jacobson, for selecting this as your post of the day. Since the Wikio vote button now is working on this post, anyway, I hope y’all will vote for this post, and I thank you in advance, if you do.
Now YOU can write Obama's speeches in the comfort of your own home!
moar funny pictures
I find listening to Obama’s speeches excruciating because the disconnect between what he says and what he does annoys me. During the election, I also found fault with my liberal friends’ method of researching his qualifications for the presidency — or any full-time job — which was to listen to Obama talk and believe every word he said.
I also am flabbergasted that more people don’t see through one of Obama’s principle techniques for bullying people when they are upset with his contradictions and broken promises and outright callous disregard for everyone except himself. He uses his frowny face and most superior manner and scornful voice — all of which reliably cow self-doubting idealists — then he firmly states short, declarative sentences that are true and relevant to the general topic, but which avoid the actual problem altogether. However, because he is so forceful in declaring his evasion to be THE answer — which it never is — too many people think, “Wow! That must have been the answer.” When it was not.
I rejoice, therefore, that Benjamin Sarlin, a liberal blogger at a liberal blog has spotted a different, but related, pattern in Obama’s speeches. I hope this is a harbinger that liberals finally are starting to see the disconnect between everything Obama says and everything Obama does: first he says what he thinks people who oppose his real plans want to hear, then as soon as they have relaxed and stopped paying attention, he does whatever he wants, which is usually the opposite of what he said he’d do.
Anyway, here it is, your own DIY Obama Speech Toolkit, so now YOU, too, can write Obama’s speeches in the comfort of your own home!
(Teleprompter sold separately, batteries not included.)
Update: Prof. William A. Jacobson of Legal Insurrection also de-constructed Obama’s rhetorical flim-flammery today:
Obama loves strawman arguments. His favorite form of argument is to set up false choices, and false equivalencies to make his point. Frequently, Obama uses the device of what “some say” or similar words to accomplish his phony set-up.
The blow job equivalency
Jenny Lawson, aka The Bloggess, is one of my favorite writers and I got sucked into the comment vortex on her most recent post for a totally innocent reason — yesterday, I vowed, come hell or high water, I would find out why CommentLuv was showing links to the blogs of other commenters at her blog, but not mine, dagnabbit! As it happens, I picked the exact time when the CommentLuv developer is moving and has switched off new registrations for a few days, so the fast and easy solution was not available.
So I had to keep returning to the comments for The Bloggess’s Thursday post, which will probably crash Twitter later today. See if you can guess why:
You know how when everyone is on twitter and you can’t get off and your husband is yelling at you that you’ve been on the internet for four straight hours and you’re all “I’ll get off as soon as everyone else gets off” … then your husband threatens to put you in rehab because you have “some sort of an addiction” …
That sucks. for. everybody. And that’s why I propose that all of us get off the internet this Friday at 8 pm Central for one hour to give our husbands/boyfriends/roommates blow-jobs.
The whole post is here.
Anyhoo, a couple of other lesbians and I did feel a bit left out of the proposed festivities, which we mentioned in the comments, which I would not have paid so much attention to if it weren’t for @/#%^&* CommentLuv’s capriciousness in finding, and mostly not finding, my Feedburner feed.
However, The Bloggess really is thoughtful and inclusive toward her lesbian readers and explained in her reply that she had always used “blow job” as a universal expression for oral sex regardless of whether it was applied to male or female private parts. Also, as she points out, “blow job” is funny and the other words are not.
I concur and promised The Bloggess that I would back her up on this with her lesbian readers from now on. So, I hereby proclaim The Blow Job Equivalency for Oral Sex Whether Performed on a Male or Female.
However, as I told The Bloggess, if or when you are listing the parties eligible, it is preferable to cast a wide net, like so: “our husbands/boyfriends/life partners/girlfriends/lovers/significant others/roommates.”
Amen.
P.S.
I am citing as my precedent the following sentence my father had me memorize in the 1960’s, when all pronouns were masculine, in order to make sure I always knew I was included as a female: “The masculine includes the feminine and the singular the plural by decision of the Supreme Court.”
P.P.S.
Noticing that The Bloggess referred to the deed as both “blow job” and “blow-job” made me smile and reminded me of my dinner at CPAC with Little Miss Attila, since we are both finical about copy editing and style details. I regaled her with an account of a cartoon from the City Paper I saw over a copy editor’s desk at one of my freelance jobs long, long ago. It featured a trio of copy editors each arguing the correct style for the term for a male who performs fellatio: cocksucker vs. cock-sucker vs. cock sucker.
My e-book on navigating the health care system and making end-of-life care choices
After my life partner of over 20 years, Margaret Ardussi, died of complications of multiple sclerosis in 2004, I realized I had a lot to tell people about how to navigate the health care system and how to make end-of-life care choices. Since then I have cared for my mother when she was dying in 2006 and I have have spent most of the last three years living with and caring for my father, who is now 93.
If you are interested in being notified when my e-book is published later this month, please leave a comment and I will use your e-mail address to send you an announcement and three follow-ups. Don’t worry — your e-mail address is not displayed publicly. I will only send four e-mails announcing my e-book and I will not share your e-mail address with anyone.
P.S.
Today is Margaret’s birthday. She would have been 68.
Cuban Diva BFF on Sotomayor's nomination to the Supreme Court
“Meh.”
P.S.
Cuban Diva BFF’s father is home from the hospital and on the mend. (He was hospitalized Easter Sunday when a family member realized he had an inflammation that was spreading very fast and got him to the emergency room, where he was diagnosed with necrotizing fasciitis.)