American and Latin American Politics, Society, and Culture
Is there a “shortage of eligible men”? Or is it more a case of a “shortage of men that women find acceptable”?
If there is, is it mostly among an age group, or generalized?
(Yes, that’s three questions, and yes, I’ve been reading Porretto, as always)
My latest post is up at the Star Ledger’s New Jersey Voices.
I also had the pleasure of talking to Congressman Rush Holt (D-NJ) , who is a very loyal supporter of many of the non-profits who participate in Communiversity every year:
Via Noel Sheppard at Newsbusters, Harrison Ford thinks that having his chest hair waxed is a metaphor for the environment. Or something.
Really: he had his chest hair removed, and now he’s Access Hollywood‘s green star of the week
In an effort to showcase the pain involved in deforestation, Harrison willingly subject himself to the painful process of stripping his chest of all its follicles.
Having worked with CI for 15 years, it was Harrison’s hope that his trip to the salon might just shock people into thinking “green.”
Like Noel, this is what I think about instead,
And now for a word of advice to the guys:
Chest waxing is a fad, and the reason it’s being promoted is that we are obsessing in a culture of eternal youth and unmanly men.
If you have chest hair, ANY woman you are after who does not like men with chest hair is probably the wrong woman for you. Think about it, can you possibly live for any length of time with anyone who is not going to be interested in sex unless you go to the waxing salon every four weeks (or more often if necessary)? If that’s the kind of demands she’s going to make from the start, what else are you going to have to put up with? Do you really want someone who is that high maintenance?
And look at Harrison: Doesn’t he look like he’s wearing a hair bra?
Does anyone really believe this can possibly save the environment?
Victor Davis Hanson has more sensible ideas for A New Environmentalism.
And he probably didn’t get his chest hair waxed.
(h/t Maria)
This is what Chavez is telling the Venezuelan public about the USA:
Here’s the translation, incoherence and all. If you use this translation, please credit me:
“This [Venezuela’s] percentage is one of the highest in the continent for health spending. Do you know where the government spends almost nothing on health? In the United States. It’s all pure capitalism, compadre. Nothing on health and nothing on social security.
“See how much poverty and misery have increased in the US in the last few years.
“That’s why today the President of the US was saying, when talking about Fidel’s decision, or was asking himself what it meant for the Cuban people, that there was hope for the Cuban people to stop suffering!
“What must be said, what must be done about, in my criteria, is to take the President of the US’s words and return them to him. Because, if something has increased in these years in the US, it’s the suffering of its people. Social crisis, violence breaking out everywhere, hunger, misery, drug trafficking, drug addiction, businesses going broke, thousands and thousands homeless, economic crisis, economic recession, unemployment!
“At least this gentleman will be leaving soon. At least, because that one’s really leaving.
“Uh, Ah, Bush si se va, (Bush is leaving).
“Hopefully there will come a government in the US that instead of spending, look, it’s millions and millions of dollars on military spending to invade peoples, to build atomic bombs; They are building weapons for a gallactic war, we don’t know against whom, against the Martians, maybe, the gallaxy war. Missile shields, and I don’t know what many other things, invisible planes.
“But it’s that they spend thousands of millions of dollars on military spending, neglecting their own people. Hopefully there will soon come a government in the US that will take care of that people, the one we also love, the one we also respect, because it’s a people which deserves respect, they are human beings same as us.”
As the Noticias 24 article notes, Chavez forgot to mention his own military spending.
What’s even funnier that this crap Chavez spewed out, is the comments section. Among the few clean comments,
Hopefully there will soon come a government in the US that will take care of that people
Take the revolution to them
leave us alone,
we’re unworthy of all this privilege!
Humor aside, every time Chavez has a chance he’s telling Venezuelans that there are severe food shortages in the US because Costco is limiting the sale of commercial sized 20 lbs bags of rice (not the retail size bags) to four per customer.
These are the bags we’re talking about:
Costco has limited the amount each customer can purchase to 4 per customer per trip to the store.
And now for a reality check:
Take a look at the lines for milk in Venezuela:
A las 7:15 de la mañana cerca del estadio de Guaraguao-Anzoategui (el Estado donde actualmente se extrae y procesa mas petroleo), la gente fue ubicada en una estructura metalica para hacer la cola que le permitiria comprar dos kilos de leche por persona. La venta estuvo a cargo de Pdvsa.
My translation:
At 7:15AM near Guaraguao-Anzoategui stadium (in the state which presently produces and processes the most oil), people were placed in a metal structure to stand in line for buying two kilos of milk per person. PDVSA was in charge of the sale.
While this is going on, this article at Nueva Prensa talks about how many people in Cambalache are living off what they can scavenge at the local dump,
Ortiz indicó que pese a que la venta de cartón, el papel y el vidrio se ha reducido, otros productos como el plástico de las botellas, equipos de música, sillas y poncheras se ha incrementado, generando ganancias monetarias para sus recolectores.
Ortiz stated that even when the sale of cardboard, paper and glass has decreased, other items, such as plastic bottles, musical instruments, and chairs, has increased generating income for the scavengers.
Rest assured, sandalistas everywhere will spin this as an exemplary ecologically aware miracle brought about by the Bolivarian Revolution.
Welcome, Instapundit readers. Here are my other posts on Latin America this week:
Expect more food shortages and black markets in Bolivia, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Cuba
Paraguay: Fernando Lugo, Hugo’s latest buddy
The Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean
and The Puerto Rican Pre-Raphaelites.
And on a different subject, this week we talked to Expelled producer Mark Matthis in our podcast.
Ed Morrissey has it right: the Dems have no sense of humor left in them.
One of their guys (DNC director of research Mike Gehrke) has been reprimanded for twittering this:
“Mike is twittering: You know what you call someone who digs up dirt on John McCain? An archeologist.”
Someone in the DNC repeats a Leno joke and gets reprimanded. Unbelievable.
TigerHawk gets to the root of the problem:
The problem, of course, is the hideous identity war going on within the Democrats. With each of the Obama and Clinton campaigns applying the unnatural standards of corporate diversity training to the other while spinning furiously to induce people to vote on the basis of the color of their skin or the contours of the genitalia, any joke that can be contorted into grounds for outrage has been. The Democrats have become even more anti-humor than they are anti-war, which tells you what we are in for if they capture the White House. If you think our “national conversation” is stilted and hyper-sensitive now, just wait until the donks control every branch.
Let’s add to that the groaning and gnashing of teeth we’re going to get once their economic policies and global warming hairshirts get handed out.
UPDATE
Check out Porretto’s excellent screed, Cause people.
There are a lot of Leonard Cohen‘s videos on YouTube which can not be embedded. I particularly like First We Take Manhattan with its upbeat tempo. Here are the lyrics:
(Radio announcer’s voice)
Was die Attentäter betrifft, die in Berlin den Anschlag auf die Deutsch-Arabische Gesellschaft verübt haben, ist die Polizei einen Schritt weiter gekommen. Die jetzt nach dem Anschlag…They sentenced me to twenty years of boredom
For trying to change the system from within
I’m coming now, I’m coming to reward them
First we take Manhattan, then we take BerlinI’m guided by a signal in the heavens
I’m guided by this birthmark on my skin
I’m guided by the beauty of our weapons
First we take Manhattan, then we take BerlinI’d really like to live beside you, baby
I love your body and your spirit and your clothes
But you see that line there moving through the station?
I told you, I told you, told you, I was one of thoseAh you loved me as a loser, but now you’re worried that I just might win
You know the way to stop me, but you don’t have the discipline
How many nights I prayed for this, to let my work begin
First we take Manhattan, then we take BerlinI don’t like your fashion business mister
And I don’t like these drugs that keep you thin
I don’t like what happened to my sister
First we take Manhattan, then we take BerlinI’d really like to live beside you, baby …
And I thank you for those items that you sent me
The monkey and the plywood violin
I practiced every night, now I’m ready
First we take Manhattan, then we take BerlinI am guided
Ah remember me, I used to live for music
Remember me, I brought your groceries in
Well it’s Father’s Day and everybody’s wounded
First we take Manhattan, then we take Berlin
What does it mean?
The upbeat tempo belies the threatening words.
But I don’t even know what the German words at the beginning mean.
Unlike most pop songs, Cohen’s lyrics always have meaning.
Do the lyrics mean that the man singing the song is a killer who went to prison the first time for an attempted act of violence and is now coming back to try again? Why all the references to family, i.e., “I don’t like what happened to my sister”, “Well it’s Father’s Day and everybody’s wounded”? Who is the “mister” from the fashion business?
Go read Jeremayakovka’s post – he’s created some verses inspired by LC. While you do that I’ll ponder the lyrics of First We Take Manhattan.
Here’s two other versions, one by REM, another one by Joe Cocker
UPDATE
I bothered a few people canvassed a few friends and EuropeNews kindly explained that
There was an assassination at the Deutsch-Arabische Gesellschaft Berlin 29. March 1986.
in front of the Deutsch-Arabischen Gesellschaft office in Berlin-Kreuzberg detonated on march 29 an explosive charge. eleven persons were hurt
A terririst attack, twenty-one years ago.
The song was copyrighted on 1987, so it appears that yes, the song refers to an assasin who left prison and is now back on the prowl. Terrorism in our times.
I joined Sen. McCain’s bloggers’ call this morning, which he did while waiting to board an airplane.
He first started by talking about his recent speeches, and restating his proposed tax cuts while contrasting them to Obama’s proposed increases in capital gains tax rate and the cap on wages subject to social security taxes: “Anybody who wants to raise taxes during hard times is lacking in understanding of economics.”
He also praised Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal, who he visited yesterday. I didn’t have a chance to ask questions (as it turns out both Michael Goldfarb and Jim Geraghty asked the question I had) so I’m linking to the posts of the bloggers who did. most of the comments had to do with the North Carolina ad, and Bill Ayers.
Hugh Hewitt asked what obligation does Obama have
to address the details of his association with Ayers/Dohrn, and what obligations the media had to push for that explanation.
McCain responded by again blasting Obama’s comparison of Ayers and Coburn, and said an apology from Obama was necessary as Coburn actually works to save lives and Ayers had worked to take them. He repeatedly referred to Ayers as an unrepentant terrorist, and expressed surprise that there hasn’t been more discussion about the comparison, or about what an unrepentant terrorist which is what Ayers is. McCain said that Obama had to repudiate Ayers and apologize for ever having had anything to do with an unrepentant terroist. McCain noted that Ayers brags about his organization and is unrepentant about his past, so that Obama can try and persuade the American people or perhaps he can make a case that Mr. Ayers made some contribution, but it was a terrorist organization, and that the media ought to be discussing it.
Michael Goldfarbasked McCain about the North Carolina ad. Jim Geraghty posted the conversation:
“It’s just not the tenor of the kind of campaign I want to run. I understand the discussion of Rev. Wright, and he has brought this up by doing media appearances, but there are differences that are mad… There are many differences between our parties and differences between myself and Senator Obama, and I want this race to be about those differences.
McCain mentions Cunningham, and how that too wasn’t in keeping with the kind of campaign he wants to run.
Q: Competing hard in California? Strategy for that?
“I intend to compete in California. I’m a western senator. I understand the issues in a state like that – land, water, the environment. I’m going to travel the state extensively. It cannot be written off again. Gov. Schwarzenegger has proven that as a Republican, even if you have different views, you can win that state.”
Q: Your thoughts on Maliki’s operations in Basra.
McCain notes that Maliki went down there himself. “They had setbacks and had desertions, and we had to provide support. But in last several days, with limited American support, the Iraqi army has taken over whole city of Basra. [Maliki’s] actions seem to have united the government more… The entire Iraqi government said that any group that bears arms against government – and that’s basically Sadr and his army — will not be allowed to partake in next elections… I’m rather pleased. This incident exposed some weaknesses, but they sent a new general and established government control.”
Geraghty’s own question, also on the North Carolina ad,
I asked a follow-up on the North Carolina ad, asking the senator whether his position was that voters could take Obama’s relationship with Jeremiah Wright into account in their voting decision, but that he didn’t feel it was an appropriate issue to run ads on.
McCain: Voters can take into account any issue they feel Is relevant to themselves; I certainly have no control over that. But I have my agenda, and I think this ad is offensive to some and I would like it taken down. I want the best kind of campaign and most positive kind of campaign.
McCain reiterated that he can’t control the N.C. GOP, but he can ask them to take it down.
I asked about Hamas’s endorsement of Barack Obama. McCain bluntly responded, “It’s clear who Hamas wants to be the next President of the United States.” He continued “” will be Hamas’ worst nightmare” and said that he “ever expects” to hear a Hamas official say they want him as President. On the subject of Bill Ayers, McCain displayed none of the hesitancy he has shown about discussing Reverend Wright. He said he was “a bit surprised” the media had not made more of Obama’s association with “an unrepentant terrorist” and Obama’s equation of his relationship with Ayers to his friendship with Senator Tom Coburn. McCain said he was “offended” by the latter and that a “repudiation and apology” are due from Obama to the American people.
Ed Morrissey posts,
Obama withdrew from a debate in North Carolina. Would he be willing to have a “conversation” with Hillary instead? McCain says it’s inappropriate until the Dems have a nominee.
Sen. McCain is going to visit with Huckabee in Arkansas, then travels to Florida, and will get on the bus with the media.
Sean Hackbarth and Ace also posted on the call.
