Silence In Front Of an Atrocity Is Worse Than the Atrocity

I took the photo above in a subway station. It is right there, in our face, two lesbians having a moment. A match.com ad for gays and lesbians, right next to a run-of-the-mill ad for a bank (National Bank of Canada, to be exact). Actually, a run-of-the-mill bank ad for gays and lesbians - "Visit us and find your savings" it beckons. I sat down to contemplate this. Gays are boldly going where they've never gone before: into our daily lives, along our main streets, in schools, churches, television shows. A woman was sitting on the other side of the bench, and I said to her, "Can you believe that we have to look at this, on a subway ad?" I took a risk, but I decided that being quiet in front of this atrocity was worse than the atrocity.

Surprisingly (this is multi-culti Toronto after all) she agreed with me. "I keep my eyes averted, and try not to stand too close to the poster," she said. That looks like it could be difficult, since, unlike me, it sounded as if this was a regular subway stop for the woman.

The aggressive homosexual movement will never become mainstream. Toronto had the "Gay Pride" parade this past week-end, which takes over the whole downtown. As he had announced, Toronto's Mayor Ford did not attend. He "planned" his trip to coincide with his family holiday in the lake regions of Ontario.

Mayor Ford "homophobe." What else can he be?

Recently, the pathetic CNN "reporter" Anderson Cooper, with his adolescent giggle and "danger zone" reporting, melodramatically announced: "The fact is, I am gay." Who didn't know that? He never made a secret of his "orientation," talking about his boyfriend like a giddy girl. I think this "outing" is his paranoia, where he can sense the negative mood against homosexuals, and like a spoilt and stubborn adolescent (the mental state of all homosexuals?) insists that "this is what I am."

Anderson Cooper, Hero

The useless Main Stream Media (via the Daily Mail) puts its arm around his shoulder with:

Cooper's sexuality has long been an open secret in TV circles, but for him to state it publicly is a brave and bold move.

What chutzpah he has!

Other useless "journalists" are saying that he "came out" for the ratings. Why would he do that? It will probably bring down his ratings, since ordinary people are not sympathetic to open homosexuals, unless they are the semi-funny sitcom actors on Will and Grace (and it is not "the gays" who make that show but the two ditzy straight women Grace and Karen, with their perennial gaffes).

Grace and Karen, from the sitcom Will and Grace. Ditzy straight women,
just the right kind of female friends for gays, and the right kind of
characters to take the attention off the gays so that straight viewers,
mostly female, can watch a "gay" show.

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Fireworks Spectacular and Dismantling of a Society

Photo by: Katharine Egli/The Jersey Journal
[More photos of the fireworks here]

Whatever may be going on in America, it is still the greatest country in the world. The Fourth of July fireworks by Macy's, over the Hudson River, were the most spectacular I've ever seen. Of course I wasn't there, but NBC programmed the full hour live last night.

But one thought that came to mind as I watched the event was that in order to appease the masses, totalitarian regimes produce spectacle: through huge processions, displays of might with military marches, and various mind-numbing techniques like action packed films and streams of empty television shows. It is a strategy to wipe out people's thinking processes by a constant barrage of noise.

Perhaps Macy's planned this spectacle to quieten (however temporarily) the agitated mood in American politics, to distract the people, and to let Obama proceed with his dismantling of the fundamentals of the society.

Guy Debord, a philosopher whose book The Society of the Spectacle we studied during my film/photography studies, although a Marxist, understood this society of the spectacle, although he attributes it to capitalist societies. But socialists are even better at programming spectacles, often ignoring their bankrupt coffers to temporarily appease the masses.

George Orwell, another socialist writer, described the omnipresent telescreens in his novel Nineteen Eighty-Four which were used both for surveillance and as propaganda monitors on the citizens of Oceania.

These days, spectacle is presented through brilliantly orchestrated images right into our living rooms, via our television screens, now wider, bigger and better through High Definition technology, with cheap, made in China screens made available even for the poor proletariat.

Here is what Wikipedia writes about Orwell's telescreens:

Telescreens, in addition to being surveillance devices, are also the equivalent of televisions (hence the name), regularly broadcasting false news reports about Oceania's military victories, economic production figures, spirited renditions of the national anthem to heighten patriotism, and Two Minutes Hate, which is a two-minute film of Emmanuel Goldstein's wishes for freedom of speech and press, which the citizens have been trained to disagree with.

Home monitors as surveillance isn't so farfetched anymore. Already, it is easy to monitor the internet "history" of a computer, and to collect data on the internet user.

From World Net Daily:

The Barack Obama administration has announced plans to lift a government ban on tracking visitors to government websites, and potentially, collect their personal data through the use of "cookies" – an effort some suspect may already be in place on White House sites.

From Politico:

[A]ccording to a campaign official and former Obama staffer, the campaign’s Chicago-based headquarters has built a centralized digital database of information about millions of potential Obama voters.

More at Politico on the Obama Newspeak/Doublespeak:

"The Obama campaign has to confront the contradiction that the president talks about ‘timeless privacy values,’ and then, his campaign using contemporary digital tools to operate a stunning commercial surveillance system,” says Jeff Chester, executive director for the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Digital Democracy. “The idea that the Obama campaign can create a political dossier on you that they can act upon without asking permission first is outrageous."

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Julie Chen's Anti-White Woman, Multi-Culti Talk Show - With Attitude

L-R: Black, Jewish/Lesbian, Jewish/Brit, Black, Asian
Who has the most "black attitude?"

In my previous post The Chinese Women/White Men Epidemic, I neglected to emphasize, although it should be clear from my presentation, that Julie Chen's failing show The Talk has a panel without a straight, white, American woman. The straight, white, American women she has (or had) on her show have some Jewish ancestry. Leah Remini is half Jewish from her mother's side and both parents of Marissa Winokur are Jewish.

Remini claims that she was fired from the original The Talk panel (here are her comments on her firing). Perhaps Remini's outspoken and boisterous Jewishness was just too much for Chen to handle, as she was often in contradiction to Chen's views and beliefs. Winokur, who seemed to have left the show on relatively good terms, nevertheless complained that there was "no time" for some of the segments she had planned (how can there be no time for a "Mom in the Street" segment?). Here are Winokur's complaints.

The lesbian Sara Gilbert is Jewish from both her parents. Chen chose her, and keeps her on her show, because she is the antithesis of the straight, white woman. Whatever she says or does will have no affinity for the straight, white woman.

Sharon Osbourne traces her Jewish identity through her father, which would not technically make her Jewish since the transfer of the Jewish racial and ethnic identity is through a Jewish mother, but she provides that diluted, superficial, ethnic Jewish mix to Chen's panel.

Chen is married to white/Jewish CBS CEO Les Moonves, so her Jewish affinity is personal. Yet, these authentic (or closer to the authentic) Jews on her show probably remind her that her own race has no association with theirs, and she can never be Jewish (or white). So why does Chen "act black" on her show, rather than Asian, white, Jewish or gay? I will try to answer that below.

Chen has filled her current panel with two new blacks. This time, she made sure that they would be the kind that would toe the line, unlike the no nonsense Holly Robinson Peete from the original panel, who says she was fired (along with Remini) for her outspokenness. These new panelists are desperate, forgotten black actresses who are trying to make a comeback on television. One is Sheryl Underwood, who is a relatively unknown stand-up comedian, and the other is Aisha Tyler, a second rate T.V. personality and actress who is mainly cast in supporting roles. Tyler is married to a white man, and is less of a "militant" black, and diffuses some of Underwood's belligerence. There are now two blacks on The Talk, one up from Robinson Peete, and make 40% of the current panel.

I recently watched the excruciation show, with Chen's untalented reign (and reins) lacking any humor, style or charisma. Then Chen suddenly started talking black, shaking her head and wiggling her index figure with "black attitude." Underwood, the black comedian, had a pleased expression on her face, clearly happy that her boss shows her solidarity by "turning black" once in a while. Tyler, the other black panelist, sat clueless and unaware of Chen's antics. Osbourne cackled with approval. I turned the TV off.

I think "acting black" is the the best strategy Chen can use to undermine, if not ignore, her adversaries: straight, white women. After all, she married one of their men. By siding with blacks around the common theme of white antagonism, she gains the trust and friendship of blacks, and can thus evade having to deal with white women. But this evasion is probably affecting her show's unpromising ratings, since it is white women who drive up the ratings of afternoon shows.

Acting lesbian (those other "haters" of straight, white women) would turn the fierce homosexual lobby against her. Any mimicry of gays by straights, however much filled with good intentions, could be a recipe for homosexual wrath. Chen cleverly avoids this ugly reaction (who knows what could set it off) partly by having a token homosexual (the lesbian Gilbert) on the show, and by promoting gay-friendly programs. And I doubt that Chen, as a straight woman, would want to have her sexuality questioned ("anyone" can turn gay, but one is born into one's race), so she won't go further than having a lesbian co-host and gay-friendly programs to avoid any stir up concerning her own sexual identity. She is not going to "act lesbian."

Chen flatters blacks by having two black panelists out of five on her show. And this enables her to "act black" all she wants. But this is filled with pot holes also, since she can never predict what could set off the wrath of blacks. But someone as clever as Chen can assiduously gauge how far she can go, and put limits to her "blackness."

Unlike turning into a lesbian, Chen can never be black, so she needn't fear losing her non-black identity or have it questioned while "acting black," as she might have her sexuality questioned if she "acted gay." So she can "act black" in superficial solidarity with all those blacks out there. And, since about half her panel is made of black women, her black critics would be more lenient with her impersonations, not taking insult, and even being charmed by her attempts. She's doing all she can to appease them, after all.

A white woman's head-shaking, finger-waving antics will never be appreciated by blacks (unless she humbles and prostrates herself repeatedly and humiliatingly, and even then she might only get mixed reviews), since she comes from that line of people who enslaved, then oppressed blacks. She is, and will always be, a racist, and cannot remove that blemish no matter how much she tries. And any white woman who "acts" white would be deemed a superior elitist (and, here we go again, racist), and would be shunned, mocked or even attacked. So, white women have always to downplay their (natural) whiteness. And of course, white women have become so defeatist, that they have also stopped defending themselves, and have come to accept (and even believe) the anti-white rhetoric and sentiment that surrounds them, and they readily take on these identity-effacing roles.

Chen, the Asian, plays around with all these dynamics like a pro.

Such is the war that is being waged on the West, where its multicultural population is aggressively dismantling it at its core.

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Little Mosque on the Prairie Cancelled, For Now

The current TV ads on the Canadian sitcom Little Mosque on the Prairie are a little vague, implying that the series is going on a normal hiatus until new episodes begins next year. But the Calgary Herald calls this "hiatus" a "series finale" and even the CBC nostalgically heads a recent article with "Little Mosque says goodbye."

The Huffington Post is clearer, informing us that:

The groundbreaking CBC comedy is winding down in its sixth and last season, with the series finale set to air on Monday, April 2.

I've written several posts on this show, including this article back in 2008 in the American Thinker, where I observe:

Zarqa Nawaz' [the writer/creator of the show] goal of putting Islam and Muslims into the mainstream culture (as she puts it, although the subtle intentions of the show are to put Muslims above the mainstream culture, as I've pointed out) may be facing a setback. Ratings are down from the premier of two million viewers in January 2007 to about 500,000 in the latest poll in November 2008. But such low ratings have never stopped the CBC from maintaining ideologically appropriate programs, although they are mostly documentary, educational or news shows, like the investigative Fifth Estate, the current affairs The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos, and David Suziki's "green" The Nature of Things. But, Little Mosque on the Prairie can certainly be viewed as a documentary/educational show in sitcom clothing. It is also ideologically appropriate in the multicultural mindset of the CBC programmers.

As I wrote, it was clear that the CBC was financially maintaining an unpopular program, at least in terms of viewership numbers. There have been recent (government) funding cuts to the CBC, which will prompt program cancellations and reduce program hours. So, clearly, any show that doesn't generate the necessary funds is in trouble. And such is the case with this show which pretends to promote (multi)cultural harmony yet is determinedly Muslim, as all things Muslim are.

Still, the CBC isn't cancelling Little Mosque on the Prairie because of cultural disharmony, and the aggressive inroads of Muslims, but simply because the show is no longer generating revenue. It tried to keep the show on the air for as long as possible. I don't doubt, though, that the ingenious fabricators of multiculturalism will find a way to bring back a similar show onto our small screens some time soon.

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Posts and articles on Little Mosque on the Prairie:

- How Canada's Little Mosque on the Prairie is aiming for our souls
- Little Mosque on the Prairie Still Going Strong
- Little Mosque on the Prairie, Canadian Version
- More Evidence of "Changes to Our Landscape"
- Stealthy Islamic Inroads Into Our Culture

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Dancing With The Stars Has a Great Lineup

Simple photoshop to make Kym Johnson's costume
worthy of a Foxtrot
Top: Before,
Bottom: After
[Images from video stills]

I may seem like a TV junkie (well, if watching Jeopardy classifies me as that), which I'm not, but it's good to have Dancing With The Stars(DWTS) back again.

Part of the reason I don't watch much TV is because liberalism creeps in unexpectedly (although, who am I not to expect these things?) as in the Jeopardy "moment" I blogged about where a male contestant mentioned "my husband" during the show's "get to know the contestants" break.

DWTS is similar in that the dancers often come out in skimpy clothing and some lewd moves (although these moves never happen with the Foxtrot, the Waltz, the Two-Step, but always with the Samba, the Rumba, the Salsa - any pattern here?). But, their dancing talents surpass their costume aberrations (or I try hard to ignore them), and some of the dances actually inspire the designers to make beautiful costumes.

Anyway, one pair danced a good, subdued Foxtrot number to Frank Sinatra's "The Way We Were." What kind of dance could "The Way We Were" inspire anyway but the Foxtrot? Kym Johnson, the pretty Australian lead dancer, was teamed with that awful nerdy Steve from "Family Matters" who looks all grown up and mature now. Kym's dress was pretty, but almost went overboard. Couldn't they have covered the "mesh" upper part with real material, perhaps with the white feathers that make up the rest of the gown?

Still, this is one of the few shows (like Jeopardy) where the contestant's skill matters. Most of these stars have gone through some kind of dance training in their younger years, trying to get into show business, so they are actually quite skilled already. There is also a big screening process that goes on to get the ones with some dancing ability. Also, they go through grueling, day-long practice sessions, worthy of athletes.

But some invited stars just can't dance, and usually they're there because of a mischievous programmer who just wants to have a little fun. Comedian Adam Carolla was such a character, although he actually took his role very seriously! Who wants to look like a fool on the dance floor, and dancing the waltz?

Also, thankfully, there are no creepy contestants this year (I think!).

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Afros For the Revolutions

Angela Davis' afro is now just a fashion statement for the unrevolutionized modern black women, who colors it red or blonde, depending on her mood
(and her song).

Left:Davis in prison in 1972 being interviewed for the Swedish documentary
The Black Power Mixtape: 1967-75
Middle: Pop/jazz singer Esperanza Spalding
Right: Beyoncé! in the movie Austin Powers

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PBS had a documentary titled: The Black Power Mixtape: 1967-1975, which I thought was on black music of this period, so I tuned in to listen to post-60s black music and instead I was viewing the Revolution Being Televized.

What I found the most fascinating about this documentary on the Black Panthers was Angela Davis. She looked beautiful with her full head of afro, and her surprisingly mild voice (even when she gets into her speeches, she seems to lament rather than yell).

Of course, she went on trial for murder and served 18 months in prison. Once out, she resumed pretty much a middle class black life, teaching in a university, which was pretty much her family's black middle class background when she was growing up in Alabama. Her parents were university graduates, and both teachers at one time. She is now a professor in a respectable university, although she can't keep away from "revolutionizing" and teaches in the "Women's and Gender Studies" department at Syracuse University.

What happens to a Black Panther at middle age? She lives a safe middle class life (albeit tinged with memories of exciting revolutions), in an all-American university town.

Davis isn't quite that bland a middle class. Her biography states that she is a lesbian. But, aren't homosexuals the most conventional of couples these days, where so many of their "rights" have been recognized, and they no longer need their exciting revolution?

Below is photo of a 68-year-old Davis taken this year. What happened to that strong, fearless face, with the bold features? And where did the fist go? So much for revolution.

Professor Angela Davis giving a lecture on
"Feminism and Activism" and "how far we have come
and how far we have not come" on February 7 2012.
The revolutionary fist thrust in the air to fight
the racist system is replaced with a gentle raise of a
hand to make a point within the safeguards of that system.
And going blonde helps?

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References:

Wikipedia biography on Davis
Review of The Black Power Mixtape: 1967-75

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"My Husband" Says Homosexual Contestant on the Jeopardy Show

Jeopardy contestant David Gard, from Jamaica Plain, MA
The "husband" of some man

Massachusetts became the sixth jurisdiction in the world (after the Netherlands, Belgium, Ontario, British Columbia, and Quebec) to legalize same-sex marriage. It was the first U.S. state to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. [Source: Wikipedia]

I like watching Jeopardy. It is a light, all-round quiz show. The contestants are usually ordinary people, teachers, businessmen, housewives, who tell us brief biographies about themselves prompted by the unrufflable host Alex Trebek.

One of the contestants last night said something with "my husband" in his commentary. This contestant happens to be a man. It threw us all for a loop. Trebeck didn't (couldn't) react, since there is no time to ask detailed questions, and to do so would be "homophobic" in our brave new modern world. The TV crew couldn't bleep it out since, like Trebek, they have to be as PC as possible. The audience, like me, was given unsolicited information about a controversial social arrangement during a normally pleasant evening show.

This creepy guy, and his movement, won hands down with no contest. I ended up turning off the TV.

I was really disturbed. We now live in a world where homosexuals will accost you with their aggressively upfront "my husband" and "my wife" information, unsolicited and disconcerting. What do you say when a man talks to you about "my husband" and a woman about "my wife"?

I have a neighbor with a cute French bulldog. I meet him in the elevator, and sometimes out in street. We were talking more than the usual "hello" the other day (which I usually direct to his dog), and he told me that he writes for an online gay magazine. I was curious and asked for the web address. His writing is nothing special, and the website is a run-of-the-mill edition of gay events around the city, gay personal stories, gay businesses, and so on. He expected a friendly, "accepting" reaction from me, and expected that things would go on as normal.

Well they didn't. I don't have any more pleasant "hellos" for him or his dog. Rather than ask what is the matter, he seems to act like someone who got found out, with a submissive, and rather pathetic, expression whenever he sees me.

I think it is time that ordinary people "upped the ante" wherever possible: not doing business with openly gay people (there aren't that many); not watching shows and movies with openly gay actors or characters; pointing out aggressive gay behavior to others (as I did here); cutting off even social niceties with openly gay friends and acquaintances, and so on. We have no choice really. Either that, or we let the homosexual wave roll over us.

But is that all that's left for us: if you don't like what you see or what your hear, then leave alone, tune out our shows, don't do business with us?

Still, one person, and one episode, at at time, will a movement make (I hope).

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Little Mosque on the Praries Still Going Strong

The Jerusalem Post's Middle Eastern Musings has recently referenced my article "How Canada's Little Mosque on the Prairie is aiming for our souls" which was published in the American Thinker a couple of years ago (December 13, 2008, to be exact). That was more than three years ago. And what I've written in the article hasn't changed one iota. Little Mosque on the Prairie is still running, now on Mondays at 8:30pm, the best of prime time right after the weekend. I'm not sure who is watching the show, since it was struggling with funds when I wrote the article. But the CBC puts on many shows by using government funds to advance its ideological (leftist) stance, as I explain in the article, and the mosque show is no exception.

The writer of the article exclaims, "we ought to consider that this show’s creators mean to conscript their viewers into the great Ummah. Scary." She continues that "the popularity of Little Mosque on the Prairie leaves me simultaneously shocked, flabbergast, uneasy, and numb."

She wrote this in response to my observations in my article that the show:

intends to introduce, as unobtrusively as possible, the Muslim presence to the Canadian public. By borrowing well-recognized and often beloved Canadian symbols [like Laura Wilder's Little House on the Prairie] to advance their show, Muslims can be portrayed as being just like any other Canadian -- in fact they are now the new pioneers of the vast, empty prairies, building their societies like Laura and her family had done.

Well, Muslims are aided and abetted by the culture at large, without whose assistance they wouldn't be able "to conscript their viewers into the great Ummah." And the CBC is the prime culprit.

I still don't know who watches the show. The last time I skimmed through it, the jokes were not funny, the storyline uninteresting, the acting was pretty bad (over-exaggeration is the method), and the town's whites are still classified as the duds while the Muslims the new, brave, smart pioneers. It is easy to write off the show as an obscure program that no-one really watches, a little like infomercials. But, this is part of the unobtrusive march that Muslims are so clever at sustaining, and then suddenly burqa and mosque (and halal) become part of our everyday vocabulary, if not practice.

We can blame overtly leftist organizations for turning our societies upside-down, but they are aided and abetted by our silence, which translates to acquiescence. So, we should stop blaming the obvious culprits, and start by denouncing their tactics. This of course requires an increased awareness and vigilance. And the times require that now. It is no longer an excuse to be uniformed and thus unaware.

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Stella!

Is this really a Stella? Maybe it's
to prepare her for stardom.

I've posted about a neighbor's French bulldog here. I wrote that despite my attempts at being a friendly neighbor, all I get from Howie is "a dour look."

Well, the New York Post agrees with me on the social skills (or rebuffs) of Frenchies.

"She had a dour expression" says the TV show Modern Family's executive producer, on Stella, a French bulldog interviewing for a spot on the show. I don't know if that is acting, I think Stella really means to have her dour expression, but it's getting her an acting gig.

On a side note, I really like dogs. I think they're funny, fun and often very sweet. But, Torontonians take dog loving to an extreme. They give them human-like importance, and often have large dogs living with them in their apartments, which they leave behind for most of the day. It must be excruciatingly boring for dogs (I think cats can handle being left behind much better). So much for dog love.

Howie, the French bulldog in my apartment, seems to react to this by "soiling" the apartment. His master comes home with loud admonishments, but then starts a long period of "good boy" trying to appease poor Howie. That's small compensation for being abandoned (it must seem like that to a dog) for a better part of the day, but dogs have big hearts. Humans are lucky.

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Why Did Charles Askegard Marry Candace Bushnell (And Vice Versa)?

Bushnell (44) and Askegard (34) at their wedding in 2002

[Note: I've re-worded some parts of this blog entry since its original entry earlier today to make it more coherent. I'm trying to sympathize with Bushnell, despite her mistakes. And I'm trying to assign traditional roles to this marriage despite it being as non-traditional as they come. I still think that people expect traditional roles in marriage, and that one of the reasons why marriages fail could be when couples pursue non-traditional roles and paths. I think Bushnell had those traditional expectations.]

Charles Askegard, recently retired New York City Ballet dancer (just this past October at forty-three), married Candace Bushnell, the writer behind the Sex and the City TV show, in 2002. They remained married for nine years, until Bushnell filed for divorce this year.

This Daily Mail article is not clear if Bushnell filed for divorce before she found out about Askegard's affair with a much younger fellow dancer, or if she found out about the affair during the divorce proceedings, and then added Askegard's mistress as "co-respondent" (equally culpable?) in the demise of her marriage.

In any case, nine years ago, when she married thirty-four-year-old Askegard, Bushnell was an attractive and young-looking forty-four-year-old, more like someone in her mid-thirties than her mid-forties. And not surprisingly, nine years later, she looks much younger than her fifty-three years, and even younger than what she looked like at forty-four (perhaps she's had cosmetic "alterations" done recently). And Askegard, when he married Bushnell at thirty-four, looked older and more mature, more like someone in his early forties than early thirties (I've posted chronological photos of the couple below).

On a side note, an April 2011 photo of the couple (below) shows a bloated and aged Bushnell. Something must have been transpiring behind her smiles for her youthful looks of 2010 to age.

So, on a on physical and appearance levels, they looked similar in age when they first met. And despite her forty-some years, Bushnell looked attractive and pretty, so it is not surprising to me that Askegard fell in love with her and married her.

Bushnell looks more attractive, youthful and pretty at fifty-three, than at forty-four (could she have had cosmetic surgery?). Does this "youthfulness" have anything to do with their marriage turning sour? Perhaps she was competing with other younger, more nubile women (especially those ballet dancers).

Perhaps Bushnell became too demanding later in their marriage. Perhaps Askegard wanted to have children, which was unlikely for Bushnell even when he married her when she was forty-four and could have had a slim chance to conceive (with all the dangers that entails).

In any case, Askegard married Bushnell. He wasn't a giddy adolescent when he married her, but a mature, professional, thirty-four-year-old, who had spent years in a grueling profession, which demands youth and vigor. He surely must have understood the fate of physiology and biology.

Now, he divorces her (or causes her to sign divorce papers), and even worse, is implicated in adultery with a much younger woman (a dancer, of course) who is even younger than his wife was when he married her.

I don't fully exonerate Bushnell and her thoughtless disregard for biology and tradition in the pursuit of a whirlwind marriage with a much younger man. But Askegard did marry her, after all. Now, he is discarding an actual human flesh, a woman he must have loved at one time, in his pursuit of a whirlwind affair.

Perhaps I'm putting too much pressure on the male, but surely the marriage bond, whether fragile or strong, is still held together by the insistence of the man. And if one isn't man enough to do that, then what good is anything else such a "man" does?

But did Bushnell want Askegard to be her protector, or was she just attracted to his youthfulness. The latter seems to be the case according to Mark Richardson, who writes:

...Candace Bushnell felt the impulse of masculine and feminine roles only with older men, rather than with younger ones. Her rejection of men older than her suggests that she is not accepting of a man expressing a masculine role as a husband and father within a marriage.

Well, she got her young man, but then she lost him I think precisely because of his youth, and his immature inability to stick through his marriage vows.

Such is the quagmire of modern liberal life, where women think they have all the power (and glory), but are in fact mostly led by their whirlwind of desires. A strong man who cannot reign in such energy cannot really be depended upon to perform duties that would require the harder, harsher, affairs of the world.

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

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Freaky Chaz Bono kicked off Dancing With The Stars

Hope Solo, the athlete-turned-dancer

I don't mean this blog to be a Dancing With The Stars news feed, but ever since I heard that the transexual/transgendered/lesbian/freak Chaz Bono was going to be on the show, I've waited for it to be eliminated. I think the audience freak factor votes kept it going for this many weeks, but FINALLY, IT'S GONE! But of course, this boot off the floor became the perfect moment for Bono to make a pitch. "I wanted to show America a different kind of man." was its exit line.

Now I can watch with admiration the truly talented professional dancers, and the long and arduous training the stars endure, making those that get to the top five almost on a par with their teachers/dance partners.

Of course, some professionals are better than others, but Lacey Schwimmer (who regularly dances with her brother Benji), Chelsea Hightower, Julianne Hough (who's brother - DWTS is a family affair - I wrote is a modern version of Fred Astaire) and Kym Johnson are really great dancers (links are to videos). Their graceful waltzes and energetic quicksteps bring ballroom dance to its artistically beautiful level. Some dances are a little racy, and some of the costumes a little too revealing, but this is television (and showbiz).

Now that I've watched the show for so long, I'm getting better at comparing the good dance moves (and the good dancers) with those that somehow wing it. I don't know how this "professional" has made it on the roster for all these seasons.

According to this "judge" it is Hope Solo who dances like a man. I disagree. Admittedly, Hope has stronger muscles than the other women, she is after all an athlete, but she looks pretty and feminine on DWTS, and she's nothing like Bono, who receives accolades from this judge despite ending up at the bottom almost every week. It is, of course, the usual politically correct, pseudo solidarity with the different, "a different kind of man." To judge the Bono's creepiness would be to discriminate. And we just can't do that, can we?

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Chaz Bono Still on DWTS

Rocky, this ain't

I'm surprised that a show such as Dancing With the Stars exists, with traditional dances like the waltz, and couple's dances like the foxtrot and the quickstep, and other intricate dances like the jive and the jitterbug. Hip-hop has not made it on the list. I keep getting optimistic that our contemporary culture yearns for beautiful things. The fact that young dancers like the Hough siblings (see below) are dedicating their dance careers to such types of dances, and that a show like DWTS exists, is perhaps proof of this optimism.

Still, this season's DWTS seems to be a repository of personalities we might shun under normal circumstances, but who now receive our weekly attention. That is of course true of most TV programs.

I've already written about Chaz Bono on DWTS, who keeps making it to another week of competition, and who made it through to next week by punching into the air to the theme song of Rocky.

I neglected to mention two other personalities.

The first, although it is hardly his fault, is Iraq war veteran J.R. Martinez who received burns to 40% of his body (including his face) when his truck went over a landmine. Cosmetic surgery and make-up does improve his facial scars, but I'm sure at one point wounded soldiers were more modest, and more retiring, about their injuries.

The other is the homosexual presenter of the fashion makeover show "Queer Eyes for the Straight Guy" Carson Kressley. There seems to be a common agreement that gay men are natural aesthetes. The history of aesthetics (art) is filled with straight men. Perhaps the few homosexuals we encounter are given unusual publicity, perhaps by gay art historians and the like, for their homosexuality.

Kressley's "gay flair" is so noticeable, and ever-present, that it overshadows (and cancels out) his other positive abilities.

On another note, half (of the twelve) professional dancers are Eastern European. This week, I noticed that two, Tony Dovolani and Maksim Chmerkovsky, were unduly harsh on their all-American partners, Chynna Phillips and Hope Solo (their bios are here). These are normally confident and outspoken women. They expected to participate in the dance creations and routines, rather than simply follow instructions. The men made it clear that they were the bosses, at times even walking out of rehearsals when they felt the women weren't allowing that to happen.

In a desperate bid, the women appealed to the men's "pride" by buttressing their egos with admiring words and self-effacing attitudes. It was awkward, and embarrassing to watch. Chynna Phillips got low scores and was sent home last night anyway. At her exit, a glint of regret escaped from her hardened face, as though she was angry at having succumbed to her partner's bully tactics. Next time, she'll know what to do when "culture" gets in the way.

On a positive note, there are the talented siblings Derek and Julianne Hough, who are the real stars of DWTS. I've written about Derek before, comparing him to Fred Astair. Julianne could be his Ginger Rogers. This video is of Derek and Julianne dancing together.

Now, let's just all vote next time and get rid of the "Chaz Bono factor" (i.e. the "freak show factor").

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RE: FYI, Chaz on DWTS

Chaz Bono all butched up for Dancing With the Stars

The ugly, creepy Chaz Bono is still in the running for Dancing With the Stars (DWTS). I've written here that it keeps getting voted back on the show for the freak factor. Teary-eyed Cher was watching, and applauding, in the audience last night. Like I said before, the emotional Cher, after angrily rejecting her daughter's sex change, embraced the new Chaz, preferring to have something to nothing. "Sex change" is actually a false description, since the procedure is incomplete. Chaz has informed us that if it has a penis, there is no guarantee that it will have enjoyable sex, so better to leave its female parts below. Sorry for the sordid details, but like I've said before, it is better to know our enemies since the day of reckoning is surely not far off.

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Chaz Bono Still On Prime Time TV

From Chas to Chaz, Bono's Journey:
Chastity Bono turns to Chaz Bono.
That means she no longer has to be a lesbian
with her girlfriend (pictured above right)
she met before turning trans.

I wrote about Chaz Bono's participation in Dancing With the Stars, and how it remained in the competition for another week, which I concluded was due to the "freak show" factor.

Well, Chaz is back again, despite a weird, creepy dance routine, and actually being the worst in the competition. I'm pretty sure it is still the freak factor that keeps it on the show for another week.

The good thing is that all the other celebrity dancers are really quite good, as was the one eliminated (an Italian actress, and probably the reason she was voted off is because not many people would know her). So, the trick is to keep an eye on Chaz and study its behavior and actions, as a reference for other "trans" freaks in our brave new society. Their aggression can really only be countered by our aggression, but we have to know what we're fighting against first.

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Lesbian Freaks on Prime Time TV

Jane Lynch (right) with her "wife" Embry
and "daughters" Haden (left) and Chase

In my previous post, I wrote on Glee actress Jane Lynch who "married" her female partner.

Here is more sordid information on the lives of these lesbians.

Lynch's "wife" Embry had a lesbian relationship with another woman, Kimberly Ryan. During this period, Embry and Ryan both underwent in vitro fertilization, and had a daughter each: Chase (Ryan's IVF daughter) and Haden (Embry's IVF daughter).

Embry adopted Ryan's IVF daughter Chase.

The "family" split up when Ryan converted to Christianity. Ryan is now married to a man. She decided to stop Embry's visitation rights to her IVF daughter Chase (and Embry's adopted daughter). But Embry won the court battles, and can visit with her adopted daughter Chase.

The story is sordid, ugly and depressing. The details are here.

The offspring of these unnatural unions, and conceptions, look weird. Haden looks like Michael Jackson's IVF kid Blanket - with those bewildered-looking eyes.

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Lesbians and Other Sexual Freaks on Prime Time TV:Jane Lynch and Chaz Bono

From Chas to Chaz: Bono's Journey:
Chastity Bono turns to Chaz Bono.
That means she no longer has to be a lesbian
with her girlfriend (pictured above right)
she met before turning trans.

Right: Family photo with Jane on the right
Left: Jane with her "wife"
Jane Lynch, the ebullient lesbian, doesn't need (want?) a sex
change, and wears pants or dresses, depending on
the occasion. She still calls her "partner" her "wife" though,
seeing as they recently got "married"
[Photos from Jane Lynch's new book "Happy Accidents"]
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I wonder what set off the triggers that eventually changed these young girls? They weren't particularly attractive as young girls. Could it be that they're rebelling against, angry at, the taunts and rejections they got in the school yard? Young friends teasing them that they looked different? That they were too tall, too fat? Bullies who took advantage of their shyness? Mothers who didn't come to the rescue, but told them to "go out and fight back?"

I always wonder what turns people into lesbians or homosexuals. Camille Paglia, the famous anti-lesbian lesbian thinks that it is the relationship with a cold and distant mother which triggers off lesbians, and a close and cloying one which sets off homosexuals.

Here's what Paglia writes in her book "Vamps and Tramps" about lesbians:

A once lesbian-friend, now married, declared to me that lesbians suffer from "buried rage, with a desperate need for consolation. I see a persistent pattern among white middle-class lesbians: they often have a decorous, passive-aggressive mother, who uses her daughter as a proxy to act out her secret ambivalence towards men, in the person of the never directly confronted husband. Caretakers on the surface, lesbians are seething with unacknowledged hostility...

Well, these photos seem to show that. Although the Cher photo somewhat belies that. But Chastity was part of a show business family, and I would think that Cher really had no time for her except when she was on stage and performing with her. But Cher was genuinely shocked, upset and hurt at her daughter's change of, well, person. I think in a normal family, she would have been more the pestering, ever-present mother (would Chas have turned Chaz too, then?). Chaz, as an adult, could have figured that out, and forgiven her mother. But revenge is sweeter than forgiveness, I would think. Revenge to pay back that absent mother, irrelevant of the reasonable reasons. So, Chastity went the self-destructive route. Some revenge. If life was so unbearable, she could have just left. But true to her narcissism, she preferred to stay in the limelight, and shock her mother with her public, exhibitionist act.

Here's Cher's account of her reaction to the sex change:

"I was hysterical one day because I was calling Chaz's answering machine and I realized it was her old voice, and then I said, 'Chaz is there a way I can save it because I will never hear that voice again?' And there wasn't, it was gone.

"That's the most traumatic thing that has happened to me in this whole thing - hearing her voice and knowing I'll never hear it again."

[S]he avoided seeing Chaz - whose father is the singer's late husband Sonny Bono - for a long time after he began treatment because she was so nervous.

..."I was so nervous...I hadn't seen her and I was putting it off...If I don't recognize her, what will happen?"

Cher also admitted she still doesn't feel "comfortable" referring to her offspring as "him" rather than "her".

..."At some point, I'm gonna have to start calling her 'him'. It doesn't seem comfortable to me yet. Actually I just can't remember and I guess I'll start forcing myself but I'm not sure she cares."

The "transgendered" "Chaz" Bono, "daughter" of Cher (who herself has transformed her face and looks very different from her original looks) is a contestant on Dancing with the Stars. I think DWTS is one of the few good shows out there where contestants have to fight for their position as the best Celebrity Ballroom Dancer through about twelve weeks of hard competitions (some actually have to withdraw because of injuries). The professional dancers have dedicated most of their lives to ballroom dancing, and are graceful dancers, humble individuals, and good teachers. They know showmanship isn't all, and talent and hard work are also part of their success.

So, how did "Chaz" Bono, the "transgendered" freak (Bono is a guy on top, but female at the bottom) make it so high up in popular culture to get invited to do a show like DWTS, and to stay on for another week of competition (the contestant with lowest number of audience votes is sent home, and Bono made it through the first week)?

I think that people are just interested in the freak factor, and the spectacle another week with Bono will bring.

Still, I'm not sure if "transgendered" freaks are more acceptable in our current society, as much as they attract attention and curiosity. I think society has always been like this (think of circus freaks) where such creatures are inspected and viewed within confined areas apart from society, but don't participate in normal society. Today's freaks appear to be more accepted (they walk our streets like ordinary members), but they're not quite there yet. Anyone who sees Bono, and knows about its transformations, will not help gawking. And Bono received death threats when its participation in DWTS became known, and the DWTS set has had to hire bodyguards.

Lesbians are another story these days. I suppose it could be that they haven't altered any anatomical parts that society is more lenient towards them. Or because there have been some in the spotlight (Ellen DeGeneres, Rosie O'Donnell) who have been aggressively using their platform to tell their audience that they are just like them (they want love and family, only that they have a slightly different version of what family is).

Actress Jane Lynch, a lesbian who recently "married" her "partner," got the hosting job for this year's Emmys. She made a joke about her "marriage" at the Emmys with co-presenter Elizabeth Moss, another actress:

[Lynch quips]: "A lot has changed since 1955, women can marry other women. Hi Peggy [a character in the 1960s TV show Mad Men]"... Moss replied: "Does that mean that women don’t have to sleep with men anymore to make it to the top?" To which Lynch dryly replied: “They still have to do that."

But that is obviously changing, or has even probably changed, if we look at high-placed public figures like DeGeneres and O'Donnell. And lesbians (and homosexuals) have managed to convince contemporary society that their way of life belongs in the mainstream, marriage and all. If we've come so far with lesbians, I don't see why the transgendered cannot come out of their viewing cages, and live unaffected lives in normal society. It is just a matter of time.

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Melanie Moore at So You Think You Can Dance: Beauty vs. Expression

"New Moon: Meadows" was choreographed by Katie Carroll and
Tonya Hughes, faculty at the Rhythm Dance Center in Georgia,
with music by Alexandre Desplat.

This is the dance that Melanie Moore performed at her audition for the television dance competition show So You Think You Can Dance. The actual audition video is full of interruptions by the "judges" who feel compelled to "express themselves" by talking loudly during this quiet performance. They were clearly moved by something, and I think there were some beautiful moments, which I discuss below. The Youtube video above is of Melanie performing at the National Jump Dance Convention in 2010 where she won the National Senior Female VIP scholarship which includes:

- $400 scholarship to a future Break The Floor Productions' Intensive within one year of issue
- One JUMP Tour Scholarship, to be used at any JUMP regional workshop
- One JUMP National Finale Workshop Scholarship.
- Eligibility to compete to be the National JUMP VIP at JUMP's National Finale in NYC.
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I've been watching the dance competition show So You Think You Can Dance almost from the start of its programing, and hardly missed an episode this season. I'm trying to see if dance, classical, artistic, dance can make a comeback. I think it can.

Melanie Moore seemed the likely winner from the start of this season, as she glided through into each consecutive week, until she made the finals. Despite the tension, and her modesty, she made it as the winner.

Her style is a mixture of avant-garde modern and classical ballet. She seems to be channeling a Swan Lake swan, despite the non-aquatic name of the piece, in her audition dance "New Moon: Meadows." She is also very strong, so there is a bit of gymnastic athleticism in her movements. With her ballet movements, she is expansive and extroverted, although she is only 5'4". When she reverts to the modern style, she pulls in and appears even smaller than her already small size.

Her dance "New Moon: Meadows" was choreographed by Katie Carroll and Tonya Hughes, faculty at the Rhythm Dance Center in Georgia, where Melanie studied before she left for Fordahm University in New York. The music to "New Moon: Meadows" is by Alexandre Desplat, a well known composer for film, including The King's Speech and Roman Polanski's The Ghost Writer. I review the soundtracks for both films here (The King's Speech, at Camera Lucida) and here (Ghostwriter, at Frontpage Magazine).

Her audition dance (see the above video) appears in many other performances, so I think it is her signature piece.

Using these (slim) pieces of evidence, I think that she loves ballet, the beauty of ballet, yet she gets compelled to put in her "quirky" personality into her pieces. "New Moon: Meadows" was choreographed by her teachers at dance school, and I presume that they created this piece for her, to fit her personality.

This is the modern artist's worship of self-expression and individualism, which becomes "quirky" at its lowest denominator, and when fully expressed is simply ugly. I think the rejection of beauty is a modern phenomenon, and I've written about this in several posts (see the subject "Beauty" on the side panel). Beauty has standards, irrespective of the individual. Not many can attain the rigors of beauty (although beauty is there to be enjoyed by all). Artists are at the forefront of beauty. They create it, they maintain it, and they propagate it. When they have nothing to say about beauty (or with beauty), the world gets that much poorer.

A young dancer (artist) like Melanie is stuck in this world which understands beauty, yet undermines it at the same time. Her instincts, and artistic abilities, tell her to aim for beauty. Yet everyone around her encourages her self-expression, which doesn't have the beauty of ballet (I am reluctant to call her movements ugly, since she is really a very good dancer). Thus, this modern style of dance is advanced by her mentors and teachers.

Perhaps the only recourse for talented and sensitive dancers like Melanie is to break away from these teachers, and to study how dance contributed to history and civilization, and to recreate those traditions and ideas. I don't see a long life for modern dance.

The interesting thing is that Melanie is not studying dance at Fordham, but painting (art). I wonder why she chose this? Could it be that dance, or the dance instruction she received, has left her bereft, and she channeled her talents in the arts into painting and drawing instead?

Perhaps as she gets older, she might construct her own dance method and theory. After all, that is the tradition in America. It is great that she auditioned for So You Think You Can Dance, even as she attends Fordham as a painting student. That means she's still enthusiastic about dance. The national recognition through winning the competition will surely help her to develop independently the dance language and ideas she is searching for.

Last season's winner was also a young woman, Lauren Froderman, and she had a similar style to Melanie's: part athletic, part graceful, part inelegant. Her audition tape again show that her style was formed before she came on the program. And now, a year later, she has started a dance company which tours and teaches young dancers.

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Joyless Behar

Joy Behar married Steve Janowitz, her
boyfriend of 26 years, in August (2011)

Here is a commenter (#31) and his observations:

"Who is he? Can't find anything about him except
that he is her boyfriend. No occupation, no history.
Strange. Reminds me of the old lady in
'Young Frankenstein' when she screams out...
"He vas my boyfriend!!'"

He's a retired school teacher.

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The heinous Joy Behar of The View takes the prize for heinousness even over Whoopi Goldberg. Every time I hear Behar speak, I cannot believe the venom with which she smears all things beautiful, good and true. I think she is truly a messenger of evil. At first, I thought that Barbara Walters, the show's director, took that lead. But Behar has come into her own.

I had mentioned The View only recently. I had found a couple of episodes of the show with the wedding dress designer Amsale Aberra as a guest, and was surprised at how quiet and non-threatening, and hospitable, Behar and Goldberg were towards her. After all, they are vocally anti-marriage.

Part of it could be that Behar was planning her own wedding (at the tender age of sixty-eight). Or more like a City-Hall-style non-religious-paper-signing (and a party afterwards) with the man she's been living with for more than a quarter of a century.

But so what if Behar is changing her mind getting "married?" She has so infected the institution, and probably influenced many young (and not-so-young) brides-to-be with her hateful and venomous injunctions against marriage over the years, that she is simply exposed as a hypocrite. I've already written about the hypocrisy of the liberal elite, who will mandate all kinds of society destroying injunctions, but will remain in the back as they push the lowly, low class citizens to act as foot soldiers at the front lines.

This late in her life, and having lived with her boyfriend for so long, her "marriage" really means nothing. Plus, her she is not expiating her sin, but is "marrying" for some private, and irrelevant, reasons.

I keep thinking that Barbara Walters is the poison in the group (or Whoopi Goldberg), but whenever I watch the show, I am struck by how terrible (evil) Behar is. Her comedic nature at times shows a lighter side, but even with that, she is hard and unyielding. She is a strange, joyless person.

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Sluts and Crybabies

"Proud to be a slut" marchers protest through
downtown Toronto, yet glance disapprovingly
at the girl who is dressed like a slut holding
a poster which says "Proud Slut" (video here)

The ever-industrious Steve Paiken of the current affairs/news program The Agenda (broadcast on Television Ontario) brought together a panel of women (men were notably absent) to discuss the recent Slut Walks, which I blogged about here.

Here is his panel:

- Susannah Breslin is a freelance journalist and blogger from Texas.

- Jaclyn Friedman is the executive director of WAM! (Women, Action and the Media) from Cambridge Massachusetts, and according to web sources a "Queer Jewish writer." Friedman had a weird coy demeanor during the panel discussion, as though she were trying to seduce the viewers. I didn't realize she had the other demographic in mind.

- Gail Dines is a professor of sociology and women's studies at Wheelock College, in Boston and author of Pornland.

- Heather Jarvis is co-founder of The Slut Walk in Toronto.

- Kate McPherson is a professor of history and women's studies at York University, Toronto.

So, in a panel of five women, two are professors of women's studies, one is a director of a clearly feminist agency, one has written a pornographic book (as well as holding a professorship in women's studies), one is the co-founder of The Slut Walk. And finally, one is "queer."

Also, two of the women, Heather Jarvis and the lesbian Jaclyn Friedman, said that they were "sexually assaulted" which in today's scenario could mean anything from a boyfriend thinking "no is yes" after his girlfriend takes him up to her room late at night

The only one who is not defined by her "womanness" according to TVO's biographies, is Susannah Breslin, who is presented as a freelance journalist and blogger (and I would assume - no I will conclude - that she is the least stable financially and "career" wise) although she's now a Forbes blogger (which is no professorship).

And guess who was the one holding the fort against these formidable r-e-s-p-e-c-t (as Hugh Grant would put it) feminists? Yes, the lowly blogger.

The discussion around the feminists revolves around "taking back the word 'slut'" as in those years when women were "taking back the night", and homosexuals "reclaiming queer." Of course, at Breslin's push, the women started to redefine what they meant by "reclaiming" the word "slut." It goes something like this: If some women are called sluts because of the way they dress (and what triggered the whole march in the first place is a police officer's observation that if women wanted to be free from sexual assault, they shouldn't dress like sluts), and if this causes them to be raped, then all women are in solidarity with these sluts, and are sluts themselves, in protest against men raping women who are dressed like sluts.

The funny thing is that none of these women were dressed like sluts on Paiken's show, even Friedman, who does don the attire at her queer/feminist protests. But they have no qualms about naïve, young girls in the avant-garde parading their flesh while holding "slut" signs. So, what part of "slut" are they reclaiming, as Breslin challenges them?

Just before this panel, Paiken held an interview with Anne Kreamer who is the author of the book It's Always Personal: Emotions in the New Workplace. The whole interview was funny (in an embarrassing way) to watch. Kreamer advocates crying in the workplace, and that stiff upper lips are no good. Of course, the majority of work-place-emoters are women, but Kreamer also talks about men who cry, and who felt "cleansed" after the experience. She didn't bother to delineate (at least in the interview, and Paiken never pressed her) what is the incidence of men crying. The reality, of course, is that, women cry more often, and in public. All I can say is that the work place is a kind of a war zone - money, projects, prestige, success - are on the line. The nice guy does finish last. What this translates to, which these women would never admit to, is that women are less suited to this cut-throat environment. There are two solutions to their problem: one is to have fewer women in high-stake positions; the other is to regulate the work force to make it more conducive (nicer) for women workers. So far, the latter is winning.

Kreamer's interview was the perfect introduction to the panel. Despite "rewriting" the word "victim" during the panel, what the women are really saying is that women are victims (weaker, more vulnerable) when it comes to rape, which is often performed by men because they are women. Like the career women, these feminist experts want society to rewrite the reality of the world, make it soft and gentle, so that women can do what they want including dress as sluts (and not be raped).

To catch all the nuances, expressions, vocabulary, explanations and other fascinating aspects of both the panel discussion and the interview, I recommend the two videos from TVO's site:

- Anne Kreamer: Emotions in the New Work Place
- "Slut Walks" and Modern Feminism

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I Like Americans

Flags, Fifth Avenue
Childe Hassam, 1918

The funny Colbert of the Colbert Report had on Caroline Kennedy the other night in his episode Colbert with Caroline. The show is a little late for me, but I wanted to see what Kennedy was up to.

So, I tuned in. Kennedy was promoting her book of poetry, an anthology titled: She Walks in Beauty. She was giggling like a school girl throughout Colbert's antics. They read a couple of poems together from her books (she has a another book, A Patriot's Handbook: Songs, Poems, Stories and Speeches Celebrating the Land We Love, which was published in 2003). Kennedy has a strange monotonous voice (that was criticized during her bid for a seat in the U.S. senate in 2008). One would think she would add more emotion in her voice at least for poetry, especially since she says during the interview (which I've posted in a more complete form below): "I think that women grow up...living in the world of emotions." Still, she can't go wrong with an anthology. But here is what Kennedy says about women's "relationship" with poetry:

Colbert: Do women have a different approach to poetry?
Kennedy: Women have a special relationship with poetry. I think it's something that's passed down much more often by mothers to grandmothers to children. And I think that women grow up...living in the world of emotions. And men write about women, which is really the greatest poetry of all.
Colbert: This is mostly men writing about women?
Kennedy: This is men celebrating women. And women celebrating themselves...What could be better than that?
Colbert: O.K. (Then Colbert suggests they read: "Leap Before You Look" by W.H. Auden)

Does she mean that women write poetry, then pass it on down a matriarchal line? Or do they pass on poetry in general, most of which is written by men, and that women are the guardians of poetry in families and societies? I'm afraid, in her jumbled and incoherent way, she means more the former than the latter. This is similar to homosexuals, and homosexual supporters, saying that any male in the arts is (naturally) a homosexual, as I've briefly written about here. Through Kennedy's feminist-tinted lens, women have that special, mysterious, ability for poetry - both in understanding it and producing it, and even exalting themselves through it. So, no full-blooded, heterosexual white male need apply when it comes to poetry.

I thought it would be interesting to see how many male and female poets she has in her latest anthology. The numbers are pretty much skewed towards the male: Fifty-five male to thirty female. But, it looks like many of her choices are from the 19th and 20th century, when there was a surge of female poets. And I've heard many more of the male than the female poets. I think her selection of poets was designed to include an "equal" number of male and female writers, although even in that search, she came up short (30 and 55 are not equal).

Here is a poem Colbert and Kennedy read together:

I like Americans^[1]

By Edna St. Vincent Millay, 1924

You may say what you will, they are the nicest people in the world.
They sleep with their windows open.
Their bathtubs are never dry.
They are not grown up yet. They still believe in Santa Claus.

They are terribly in earnest.
But they laugh at everything…

I like Americans.
They give the matches free…

I like Americans.
They are the only men in the world, the sight of whom in their shirt-sleeves is not rumpled, embryonic and agonizing…

I like Americans.
They carry such pretty umbrellas.
The Avenue de l’Opera on a rainy day is just an avenue on a rainy day.
But Fifth Avenue on a rainy day is an old-fashioned garden under a shower…

They are always rocking the boat.
I like Americans.
They either shoot the whole nickel, or give up the bones.
You may say what you will, they are the nicest people in the world.

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I have a feeling that Kennedy is lightly, in her liberal elitist fashion, mocking the Americans that, like those in the poem, are naive and genuine instead of adopting the European sophistication and flickers of cynicism that is present even on the grand and beautiful Avenue de l'Opera.


1. The poem is from Kennedy's: A Patriot's Handbook: Songs, Poems, Stories and Speeches Celebrating the Land We Love

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