(no subject)

I begin to wonder if, where the troupe is concerned, Alyne was the only thing that was keeping some seriously overinflated egos from being exposed to the rest of us. It's unfortunate that I'm starting to see the troupe as several people I really enjoy spending time with and several others that I'd rather not have to talk to on a weekly basis. :(

Stayed up too late last night watching (and recording) the wonderful "The Thin Man" with William Powell and Myrna Loy. I've been haunting TMC lately recording up a storm, got "The King and I" the other night and I'll be catching "All This, And Heaven Too" this morning. It's one of my 3 favorite Bette Davis films (on a short list with "Now, Voyager" and "Dark Victory") and I'm delighted to finally have it available to watch any old time. Monday before I had to leave for class I caught part of "Sayonara" with Marlon Brando, which has to have one of the most bizarre casting decisions I've ever seen, Ricardo Montalban playing a Japanese kubuki actor. Yes, you read that correctly. I expect it had a lot to do with the fact that his character courts a white woman and at the time it was filmed you could have a Latino actor do that, but no way in hell it could be an actual Asian actor.

Family values

via Pandagon:

Reader Kim wrote me about this horrorshow, where two men pleaded guilty Monday to one count of aggravated assault — for shoving broomsticks and flashlights up the rectums of 18 young boys last year, according to the AP.

A little detail - one of these creatures, Clifton Bennett, is the son of Arizona’s Senate president.

The kicker is this quote from the article:

Yavapai County prosecutor James Landis said his office never considered the “broomings” as sexual in nature. Rather, he described what happened as a form of punishment or discipline.

He has said his office could not prove Bennett and Wheeler had any sexual intent.

He said the case likely would have been treated differently if the victims were girls or if there was evidence that the defendants were homosexual.

As randomliberal comments:

Good to know that it’s now sexual orientation that determines whether or not forced penetration is rape…

And speaking of rape, you just have to check this out:

Guilty 'Til Proven Innocent
By David Yeagley

It’s racism at Duke, all right. Racism against white students. Members of the Duke University Lacrosse team may have abused a black party girl, but, without any proof or trial, the Duke Lacrosse team was punished by the university, suspended from further games.

Brad R. responds:

To sum up: the lacrosse team hires exotic dancers for a party. Three team members allegedly rape one of the dancers. The cops find her allegations credible enough to open an investigation, and the whole case becomes a national incident. Now imagine you're Duke's administration. Would you honestly allow your lacrosse team to continue playing when three of its members are under investigation for rape? Really, David. Fucking think about it.

Oh but David has so much more to offer:

Two weeks later, the team was suspended from games. The team captains say that the DNA testing will prove that all the members are innocent. This, of course, if true, will mean that it was either an easy set up for the women, or else the fervor of youthful hormones blinded everyone. In the heat of passion, well-ignited before the girls even showed up, there may have been some rough-housing. That should have been a serious tip-off. Of course, a 27-year-old mother of two certainly must have more sense than a drunken 19-year-old, no? However, our nameless victim showed less maturity than a six-year-old.

All the racial issues in this story are moot. This is a tale of stupidity on the part of two women, particularly the black woman.

If you're in need of an emetic I recommend reading the rest, or just check out the comments, here's a sample:

These "ho's" are just looking for a free check from these rich whitey's....that's all there is to it. Race has nothing to do with it (although blacks do look favorably on suing somebody as a means to add to their net income more than the rest of us). I wonder when the press will concentrate on the tens of thousands of rapes blacks commit on whites?

And hey, while we're on the subject of "ho's", did you catch Rush Limbaugh's take on the Duke incident?

From the March 31 edition of The Rush Limbaugh Show:

CALLER 1: Why is it, do you think, that you haven't heard hardly anything from Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton about the whole immigration thing? I mean, the silence is deafening from --

LIMBAUGH: Well, they're busy.

CALLER 1: -- the NAACP [National Association for the Advancement of Colored People] and the --

LIMBAUGH: They're -- they're busy. They're busy. The Reverend Jackson is in New Orleans. He's leading a big march there tomorrow. The march is -- what is it called? The -- the march for the right to return a protected vote and reconstruction. He's trying to -- they got problems down in New Orleans. They don't have voter base, and Sharpton's working on a New Orleans deal, too. He's trying to figure out how he can get involved in the deal down there at Duke where the lacrosse team --

CALLER 1: Yeah.

LIMBAUGH: -- uh, supposedly, you know, raped, some, uh, hos.

A little good old fashioned sexism

Oh this is just too precious, Chris Matthews and Tom DeLay (sittin' in a tree):

MATTHEWS: Have you seen this new focus group stuff on the candidates?

DELAY: No I haven’t

MATTHEWS: It’s great stuff. I’ll send it to you — it’s great — yeah it’s great stuff. Hillary, John Kerry. All these guys, all these democrats, and how they do. And, uh, Frank Luntz did it…

DELAY: who I like

CM: …and Hillary did not do well. Kerry did well.

DELAY: You’re kidding.

MATTHEWS: I am NOT kidding. They didn’t like Edwards — they thought he was a rich lawyer, pretending to care about poor people…

DELAY: Too slick. Too slick.

MATTHEWS: …and Hillary was a know-it-all.

DELAY: Nothing worse than a woman know-it-all.

Oh, I dunno', I'd say a corrupt, washed up misogynistic pig of a politician might be just a teensy bit worse, but then I have significantly different priorities than the GOP nutsacks and their mouthpieces. Maybe that's just me, though.