July 27, 2016

Maybe watching the convention on C-SPAN isn't such a good idea.

I thought that by watching on C-SPAN, I'd do more blogging, but I ended up blogging nothing, despite watching hours and hours of material.

Maybe what's on CNN and Fox and the rest is the real show, and what's going on in the hall is just the background, so if you stick with C-SPAN, it's like watching raw footage from a riot. How can you watch for hours and hours?

There was the roll call. I watched a lot of that. One lady was very old. The people from the Mariana Islands had floral headdresses. Bernie Sanders's older brother was there and said something about his parents that got Bernie very emotional. There was no outburst when Hillary crossed the line to nomination, which was puzzling, but then Bernie participated to stop the roll call and go straight to acclamation.

There was a long parade of people, mostly women, onto the stage, sometimes in great crowds. It was a big stage, so it took a long time for people to walk up to the lectern and then, after they'd said whatever, to walk back out. Lena Dunham was one of the people. Also Elizabeth Banks, a celebrity I'd never noticed before but decided was really pretty.

There were some short — great, something was short! — videos of Donald Trump, little hate nuggets. These began with a title — something like "Future Possible President" — on top of an American flag. They had these Monday night too, so those people who were saying there were no American flags to be seen failed to notice the flags that began the Trump videos. They'd have a clip of something Trump once said that was supposed to make you think a person who said that should not be President. The one I remember is: "A woman who is very flat-chested is very hard to be a 10."

The most interesting thing chez Meadhouse last night was a discussion on the subject of how bad is it for a man to have said that. It's not like he said that in a political speech or interview. He just happened to say that once. I got rather literal about it. He didn't say this woman couldn't be a 10, just that it would be "very hard." And I note he also used "very" with the "flat-chested" part. The other 2 participants in the conversation, as I recall it this morning, didn't seem to think there was anything wrong with a man saying that, though all of us recognized that the statement has an effect on those who think a man should never express opinions about the attractiveness of women's bodies — whoever these people are.

The main thing last night — other than the ritual of the roll call (the cut-short ritual) — was a speech from Bill Clinton. Bill Clinton was allowed to do his thing and talk and talk and talk. He went last and so: let Bill be Bill. Some people find him charming. But even those of us who do drift into when-will-it-end mode eventually or we've fallen asleep. Bill's idea for the speech was just to tell the story of his half century of life alongside of Hillary — tell it as if it's the most charming, beautiful tale of a guy from Arkansas who somehow got to weave his story together with the most hard-working do-gooder who ever appeared on Earth.

At Meadhouse, the feed got paused a few times to make comments about his failure to mention how he cheated on her time and again over the decades and how (we think) he's still doing it now. Was he never sexually attracted to her? Did they have an agreement about it and, if so, was it just don't let the public see what you are doing? These were topics of conversation during one of our many pauses.

You know, these pauses are only making the speech longer and longer and I'm falling asleep, the person not holding the remote control did not say, but she did fall asleep without hearing the end of The Wonderful Story of the Life and Times of Hillary and Bill Clinton. 

168 comments:

tim in vermont said...

Kate Hudson? - 10!

Men are very forgiving because it's our job to get into the gene pool, it's the woman's job to guard the gene pool.

Ann Althouse said...

Kate Hudson is not "very flat-chested." And she's also not a 10. I guess by saying that I've disqualified myself from polite society in America.

Ann Althouse said...

"it's our job to get into the gene pool"

If you look at evolution seriously and observe the nonhuman animals, you'd see that the male is also guarding the gene pool because he's trying to exclude other males. You may like the idea that the human male should just go around trying to have a lot of sex with many different women, Bill Clinton style, but part of your role -- in a brutal evolutionary vision of life -- is to block the other men or fight and struggle and be the one who is blocked because you were not brutal enough. It's not as much fun as you may imagine.

Patrick Henry was right! said...

Professor, this post is a great example of why I read (and sometimes comment) on your blog.

This post captures Bill Clinton precisely. Your way with the language and your ability to capture moments in time are real talents.

Thanks again for all the work you put into this blog. To some of us, it's a real breath of fresh air.

David Begley said...


"At Meadhouse, the feed got paused a few times to make comments about his failure to mention how he cheated on her time and again over the decades and how (we think) he's still doing it now."

The elephant in the speech. As Paul Mirengoff at Power Line put it: How could he be such a louse to her?

A boring speech. Too long. Actually three minutes longer than Trump's. I heard essentially the same "change maker" speech in Omaha and CB.

And what if Bill would have married Dolly Kyle instead of asking Hillary a third time? Historic.

Kevin said...

"There were some short — great, something was short! — videos of Donald Trump, little hate nuggets. These began with a title — something like "Future Possible President" — on top of an American flag. They had these Monday night too, so those people who were saying there were no American flags to be seen failed to notice the flags that began the Trump videos."

Yes, the flag is only associated with the little hate nuggets. It's something to be sneered at along with Trump.

Here comes the flag again, get ready to hate.

TreeJoe said...

Would it be considered totally controversial to say, "It's hard for a man to achieve a rating of physical perfection with a totally flat, absent of muscle ass." ?

No?

Pretty sure we've got thousands of years of sculptures and paintings, from every culture under the sun, and there's just a few universal "perfect attractiveness" traits in each one. One is that a woman is never(?) portrayed as "very flat chested" and the other is that a man is never (?) portrayed with no butt muscles.

Feel free to prove me wrong.

Rumpletweezer said...

I'm working on a smartphone app called Bill Clinton Go. You throw cigars and capture interns.

mesquito said...

Every time I see Chelsea I can't help but think Mrs Clinton found solace in the arms of Webb Hubbell.

PB said...

Yeah, Chelsea, the check-off baby. You can't be a politician without a family.

MayBee said...

Are we supposed to imagine Hollywood- so well represented on stage last night- never talks about the physical assets of women and their hotness?
Isn't that pretty much the whole business?

Lauderdale Vet said...

You might enjoy reading @CassandraRules as well for yet another angle/perspective. I started following her when she was an anarchist periscope protester in Ferguson. I try to look at things from as many angles as possible outside of my echo chamber. Keeps me honest, or at least I try to.

Anyway, now she works for Russian media and covered the RNC and is currently at the DNC. A Bernie supporter, she's given up on the Dems presently and is now supporting Trump. Telling, no? The short videos and tweets she makes are very different from what we see on TV.

Anyway, there you go.

MayBee said...

I'm still confused by the mission of The Mothers of the Movement.

furious_a said...

Ok, Professor, so what IS Kate Hudson, then? Don't forget to show your work.

Problem with rating women like Kate Hudson (and Gwyneth Paltrow, ftm) is those of us old enough to remember allow their mothers' beauty to influence the rankings.

damikesc said...

In the end, as "loathesome" and "vile" as Trump is --- she had no problem spending time with him for years. It wasn't courtesy as he wasn't a politician or anybody in power, really. He can say he had to give her money for access to government perks, which would be true --- what was HER excuse to pal around with him? She had plenty of money just last year.

If you look at evolution seriously and observe the nonhuman animals, you'd see that the male is also guarding the gene pool because he's trying to exclude other males.

Possibly, but as long as the man has the chance to spread his genetic material, that is usually sufficient.

gspencer said...

Ladies are supposa have curves. Not huge curves, just curves.

Tommy Duncan said...

Bill Clinton had a very difficult job last night: He was tasked with making it seem like Hillary would have been the nominee even if she wasn't Mrs. Bill Clinton, the wife of the former Governor of Arkansas and the former President of the US. Further, he had to find a way to make it seem like Mrs. Bill Clinton had an impressive list of actual positive results he could point to.

He did manage to work around her role on the Walmart board of directors and her speeches and connections on Wall Street.

Ann Althouse said...

"This post captures Bill Clinton precisely. Your way with the language and your ability to capture moments in time are real talents."

Thanks, Basil. Somehow, I couldn't bring myself to say one word about it last night, perhaps because I was too bored not to be boring. This post represents what happens when you sleep on it and then just rely on what you happen to remember and tell what is not straight straight.

David Begley said...

Regarding Chelsea, supposedly their calculation was that Hillary had to have a baby so that the Clintons would appear to be normal and thus advance Bill's career.

And I thought Bill was sterile from having mumps as a child.

Ann Althouse said...

"Yes, the flag is only associated with the little hate nuggets. It's something to be sneered at along with Trump. Here comes the flag again, get ready to hate."

Exactly. That's how I saw it.

Trump is "dark"... the flag is dark.

Brando said...

Good points. For all the problems with Donald Trump, his off the cuff remarks about women (usually taken out of context) are only convincing evidence of his unfitness if you already believe he's a disgusting pig man. But most people seeing a clip like that figure "who knows what the whole conversation was" or "if he's having a discussion with Howard Stern, he's just revealing his own stray thoughts".

And there's something galling about sanctimonious people going on about how awful it is that Trump rates women's looks (hell, he did own a beauty pageant--of COURSE he's going to have to talk about looks!) while lionizing Bill Clinton as some decent person. Bill could maybe weave a charming tale about how much he loves Hillary, but everyone knows he repeatedly cheated on her and humiliated her over decades. He might have done her more good by speaking candidly about that, rather than act like it didn't happen.

damikesc said...

And Banks is very pretty. Not a 10 by any stretch, but pretty.

dwick said...

I bet Bill Clinton never hits on flat-chested women... (not to say he hasn't hit on women who would otherwise be considered much less than a 10, mind you)

tim in vermont said...

Kate Hudson is a ten. You are wrong about that. But you have a point that natural selection isn't just a basket of kittens playing with yarn. It is very cruel to many, and rewards many in ways that our sense of "justice" simply doesn't comprehend.

I would rather live in a capitalist society where men compete for women by gathering money than a socialist society where men compete for women by gathering power over other men. Because men are going to compete for women, regardless.

damikesc said...

A boring Bill speech, also, tends to indicate he doesn't care who wins or loses. When it's on the line, he'll give a great speech.

That he didn't do so last night speaks volumes.

Kevin said...

Any guy will tel you, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. There are women that are deemed universally attractive that do nothing for me.

Trump was only expressing his opinion of what is most beautiful to him - a 10 from his particular viewpoint.

Many women say Trump is not attractive because of his hair. I don't see any outrage when they say it.

MadisonMan said...

I've been on vacation and off the grid for a week+. Highly recommended.

Bill Clinton is a total charmer. One should always ask oneself of a charmer: What is he trying to get me to overlook?

Brando said...

"In the end, as "loathesome" and "vile" as Trump is --- she had no problem spending time with him for years. It wasn't courtesy as he wasn't a politician or anybody in power, really"

They never even address it. It's like "Trump is pure evil, always has been, and never mind that the Clintons found time to honor him at his wedding."

Much as it's a knock on Trump to have long been tied to Clinton, it's also a knock on her to have been long tied to him. It's a shame they can't both be discarded thanks to our two-party system.

Ignorance is Bliss said...

A woman who is very flat-chested is very hard to be a 10.

Trump just lost my vote. Not for objectifying women ( you can't objectify something that is already an object, and women's ( as well as men's ) bodies are already objects ) but for being objectively wrong. Big boobs ( both mammaries and presidential candidates ) are highly overrated.

dreams said...

Elizabeth Banks is very pretty and has a long legged well proportioned body. She was Laura Bush in the Oliver Stone movie about Bush. I remember years ago in our bowling league we men were admiring a young pretty woman when, to our disdain, a female bowler felt obligated to point out that she was small breasted.

MayBee said...

Donald didn't take bribes and give Russia a considerable stake in our country's uranium inventory. Hillary did that. What can he offer to POSSIBLY touch that?

True.
And Obama acts as if HE weren't caught passing word on to Putin that Obama could be more flexible after his own election.
And he acts as if he scoffed at the idea Russia was a foe.

furious_a said...

Bill needs to sprinkle his speeches with reminisces of the girls he's known, go off prompter, if you know what I mean. Throw in a little PG-13 to keep audience engaged.

MayBee said...

From the hacked emails, via ABC this morning:

There are emails that describe a donor angling for seats next to President Obama at a roundtable discussion, and one in which staffers apportion seats for donors at a White House State Dinner. In one, a major contributor from Maryland who has cancer is bumped from a seat next to the president because another, more prolific giver is attending the same event.

“A lot of people unfortunately get sick,”
writes Finance Director Jordan Kaplan, who oversees DNC fundraising and is the author of hundreds of the leaked emails.

Kaplan told ABC News this week he has been “embarrassed” to see the internal communication exposed to the world.

“It was conversation we were having amongst our team, and again, I'm sorry people have read them, and I'm embarrassed it's out there,” Kaplan said.

In emails, Kaplan asks finance staff to compile a list of high-dollar donors who want to play golf with President Obama. A draft of the list of presidential golf partners is also among the hacked documents.

gadfly said...

Wow! What a wasted evening in Mad Town! Bernie and Bubba with conversations about Hillarity interlaced therein.

Political conventions have long outlived their usefulness. Maybe Gary and William are right - it's long past the time to do in the duopoly.

Virgil Hilts said...

Remark about breasts being a significant component of women's beauty = potentially disqualifying. Cheating on your wife with probably over 100 different women, including ones decades younger (and some likely well under 18 while you sampled the island bury of one of the most notorious pedophiles on the planet) = no big deal and in fact part of a life-long sentimental love story.

Left Bank of the Charles said...

I don't think Bernie cut short the roll call. Now that we've voted let's make it unanimous is part of the ritual. Having the defeated candidate make the motion is perhaps an innovation.

One way to take Bill's she's the real one remark is that he was admitting he's the phony. How much of what you don't like about Hillary Clinton is really attributable to Bill?

Tank said...

MadisonMan said...

I've been on vacation and off the grid for a week+. Highly recommended.

Bill Clinton is a total charmer. One should always ask oneself of a charmer: What is he trying to get me to overlook?


Bill is a player. Players are fun to hang out with. But, you can never forget that they are players. And you're right about being off the grid.

dreams said...

"If you look at evolution seriously and observe the nonhuman animals, you'd see that the male is also guarding the gene pool because he's trying to exclude other males. You may like the idea that the human male should just go around trying to have a lot of sex with many different women, Bill Clinton style, but part of your role -- in a brutal evolutionary vision of life -- is to block the other men or fight and struggle and be the one who is blocked because you were not brutal enough. It's not as much fun as you may imagine."

I would say that Bill Clinton didn't stop Webb Hubbell. Bill and Hillary were an attractive young couple who supposedly produced Chelsea Clinton.

Once written, twice... said...

The Clintons have made their marriage work and have been together as a couple for almost fifty years. Trump's current wife is only a few years older than his oldest child. But it is telling that this contrast doesn't even occur to Ann.

Anonymous said...

@MayBee,
As if the RNC conversations are any different. Of course the Russians didn't hack the RNC, did they? Why? They weren't interested in embarrassing tne RNC. Why? Because they want their man in our White House. Does it concern anyone that Russia is interfering in our elections? No? Why?

furious_a said...

See Eliz. Banks in "Walk of Shame", where she has to carry a movie on her own, and a comedy at that.

Virgil Hilts said...

Also, Nastassja Kinski is an example of the exception to Trump's observation (and I don't mean Cat People - hated that haircut; watch her other early stuff).

Original Mike said...

"Kate Hudson is a ten."

Had to look her up. I'd give her a four.

tim in vermont said...

The Clintons have made their marriage work and have been together as a couple for almost fifty years. Trump's current wife is only a few years older than his oldest child. But it is telling that this contrast doesn't even occur to Ann.

Sure, the couple that bashes the victims of the husbands sexual depredations together, stays together!

Tell me how now about Hillary's accomplishments that didn't depend on her being Bill Clinton's wife. I am waiting. I have asked this many times, the only time it was ever answered was by somebody who told me the question was sexist.

tim in vermont said...

Had to look her up. I'd give her a four

I would like to see the link to the picture where you rate her below average in looks.

Anonymous said...

I wonder why some folks who are so overly interested in other's marriage difficulties and divorces don't ruminate about what caused their own marriage failures.

furious_a said...

Unknown: Boyfriend gets angry b/c girlfriend finds sexts from floozies on his phone.

pm317 said...

Was he never sexually attracted to her? Did they have an agreement about it

She is, if not outright beautiful, quite pretty. My own theory is that they are both intellectual powerhouses and that is what keeps them together. I don't think he would get his intellect satisfied by the types of women he cheated with. If Kennedy and others, even elder Bush included were not maligned for their escapades, why Bill Clinton?

dreams said...

"Kate Hudson is a ten."

Closer to a ten than her mom but women don't have to be a ten to be attractive.

Fernandinande said...

Also Elizabeth Banks, a celebrity I'd never noticed before but decided was really pretty.

"Give me your pants!"

"A woman who is very flat-chested is very hard to be a 10."

Being outraged by someone pointing out something they don't like, and attempting to suppress them, are pretty typical of progressives. Feminists seem to think that women should be firmly attached to a pedestal.

dreams said...

"If Kennedy and others, even elder Bush included were not maligned for their escapades, why Bill Clinton?"

That's just a smear of the elder Bush.

furious_a said...

Bill and Hillary together remind me of Peter O'Toole and Katherine Hepburn together in Lion in Winter, exc. now it's Bill in the tower. Yeah, they each have their own agendas but there's also genuine feeling between them and Hillary may be the smarter of the two.

DB said...

Images of flags are not flags.

Tony said...

What Basil said. Many thanks.

pm317 said...

There is something about the media (Kenneth Starr) doggedly going after the Clintons to expose things that they never did/do with other presidents. This is one fact that keeps the public on the Clintons' side. Things happen in people's marriage that is nobody's business but their own. Media is so, so very protective of Obama, who knows what they are hiding.

Ann Althouse said...

"Ok, Professor, so what IS Kate Hudson, then? Don't forget to show your work."

She seems to be a nice enough person. I don't understand the fascination with her. She's a pale version of Goldie Hawn who had incredibly great style and a charming sexiness that transcended her actual looks.

Oh, you mean on the numerical system. Sorry, I haven't paid attention to the calibrations other than understanding that 10 is supposedly perfect. To me, something of personality is always caught up in the effect. Anyone who is actually a 10 would probably not be a 10 to me because perfect beauty would probably screw up the personality or at least fail to inspire anything exciting from within.

Movie recommendation: "Nico Icon."

dreams said...

"Also Elizabeth Banks, a celebrity I'd never noticed before but decided was really pretty.

"Give me your pants!""

Its obvious who would look the best in those pants.

Brando said...

"Tell me how now about Hillary's accomplishments that didn't depend on her being Bill Clinton's wife. I am waiting. I have asked this many times, the only time it was ever answered was by somebody who told me the question was sexist."

None of them, except maybe the earliest part of her legal career. In fairness, it's hard to tell how her life would have gone without Bill because that's not the path she chose. But more telling is the string of disasters she's left behind (her health care initiative, defending Bill from charges of harassment and rape, her 2008 primary debacle, her tenure as Secretary of State) which show poor judgment and an inability to learn from experience. Americans should have serious concerns about this woman holding political power--not only are her instincts usually wrong, her judgment is poor and she surrounds herself with sycophants unable to check her worst instincts.

Danno said...

If Lena Dunham supports (Hillary, or pretty much anything), I don't.

furious_a said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
MayBee said...

Unknown- do you know for certain the RNC wasn't hacked?
Is it possible they were? Is it possible they had better security? Is it possible the hackers were pro-Bernie?

David Begley said...

Watching the DNC I am reminded of my attendance at the Clear Lake, Iowa "ring ding" event. Dems are completely disconnected from the reality for most people. Two entirely different worlds.

Here's an interesting fact from the chair-elect of the Nebraska Democrats, Jane Kleeb. According to her, 30% of the NE delegation is LGBTQ. Now there is nothing wrong with being LGBTQ, how could that demo account for nearly one-third of the delegation from a small state?

Drago said...

Unknown: "@MayBee, As if the RNC conversations are any different. Of course the Russians didn't hack the RNC, did they?"

There is no evidence the Russians hacked the DNC and are leaking the emails.

Classic Clinton-spin: whatever you do don't look at the emails we, the dems, undeniably wrote. Let's have a pretend and make believe conversation about something else.

Sorry Unknown, it is not 1996 anymore.

Or hadn't you noticed?

TreeJoe said...

People keep naming women in here as very flat chested who are not. Kate Hudson is not "very flat chested" - she has noticeable breasts and curves.

I dated one woman who was very flat chested. Her chest was non-gendered flat. If gender-based attractiveness if tied to the traits of the gender, then a truly flat-chested woman (I.e. no curves) is not going to be representative of the traits of that gender in that area. Can you be stunningly gorgeous and flat chested? Absolutely.

pm317 said...

Smearing Clintons is just dandy.

furious_a said...

Closer to a ten than her mom...

Did you ever see Goldie in bikini and body paint on Laugh In?

Brando said...

"There is something about the media (Kenneth Starr) doggedly going after the Clintons to expose things that they never did/do with other presidents."

Sorry, that ship sailed with Watergate. Because of that, Democrats thought they were so clever coming up with the Independent Counsel statute, until it bit their own president in his McFries eating ass. Keep in mind Starr was appointed and directed and accountable to...drumroll please...Janet Reno, Bill's own AG. He was investigating Bill's shady investment practices and Starr's investigation expanded at Reno's allowance, which she could have limited at any time.

And Clinton never had to perjure himself. Maybe it didn't mean he should have been impeached, but he did decide to lie under oath and show his true contempt for the legal system (among other things). To hell with him--he is an amoral, unworthy scumbag.

MayBee said...

"The Russians are acting on behalf of Trump" Is the same playbook as "The anti-islam movie caused the protests in Benghazi".

A scapegoat story meant to get us talking about that rather than the failures of the players in the government.

rehajm said...

Kate Hudson is one of those blondes who can leave the house without mascara and is unrecognizable. Acquaintance at the gym asked me how I knew Kate Hudson, who I'd never met. Apparently I'd been chatting with her for a month as we worked out next to each other.

traditionalguy said...

A woman President? OK, fine.

Is that all there is?

Original Mike said...

"I would like to see the link to the picture where you rate her below average in looks."

I just googled her and went to "images", so there were many tens of pictures of her. I don't think she's very attractive.

Is she"below average"? I suppose not, but I don't think the scale is linear.

MayBee said...

After each night at the RNC, the media had some side story they were just "forced" to cover rather than the speakers of the night.
The plagiarism, the fact that the speakers came on late (Prime time in non-eastern time zones!), what have you. Whatever it was, that was what they had to focus on.

I notice it is much harder to get sidetracked at the DNC.

Original Mike said...

I had never heard of Kate Hudson until this morning and now I know she's Goldie Hawn's daughter. Learn something new every day.

Swede said...

I simply gauge anything that Trump says about women with Bill Clinton shoving a cigar up an intern's vagina.

When it gets more shocking than that, call me.

Meade said...


"A woman President? OK, fine. Is that all there is?"

'Fraid so. And not even that. 1. She's not a very good woman. and 2. all of her executive decisions have sucked.

Danno said...

David Begley said,,Now there is nothing wrong with being LGBTQ, how could that demo account for nearly one-third of the delegation from a small state?"

Maybe we should re-nickname Nebraska as the Cornhole State, and give the University of Nebraska that for a team name.

Titus said...

Elizabeth Banks is very pretty. I loved her Trump entrance. She was outrageous in Hunger Games.

Sebastian said...

"all of us recognized that the statement has an effect on those who think a man should never express opinions about the attractiveness of women's bodies — whoever these people are." You mean, like, progs exploiting anything that could possibly hurt the feelings of women for political effect?

"You may like the idea that the human male should just go around trying to have a lot of sex with many different women, Bill Clinton style, but part of your role -- in a brutal evolutionary vision of life -- is to block the other men or fight and struggle and be the one who is blocked because you were not brutal enough. It's not as much fun as you may imagine." Sorry, ma'am, our imagination is more highly evolved than you imagine.

@owt: "The Clintons have made their marriage work and have been together as a couple for almost fifty years" Don't usually respond to the mindless stuff out of left field around here, but just wanted to thank the author for bringing humor to the proceedings. Still, it all depends on what the meaning of "work" and "together" is.

@pm317: "She is, if not outright beautiful, quite pretty. My own theory is that they are both intellectual powerhouses" And they say the left has no sense of humor! Hillary "often confused" Clinton: a "powerhouse"! "Quite pretty"!

dreams said...

"Smearing Clintons is just dandy."

Facts are not smears.

David Begley said...

Danno

Hey. Watch yourself there. Never, ever slander the mighty Cornhuskers. Not even slightly.

Patrick Henry was right! said...

"Remark about breasts being a significant component of women's beauty = potentially disqualifying. Cheating on your wife with probably over 100 different women, including ones decades younger (and some likely well under 18 while you sampled the island bury of one of the most notorious pedophiles on the planet) = no big deal and in fact part of a life-long sentimental love story."

Nothing I have seen captures the insane hypocrisy of the American left more than this. How can one live with the cognitive dissonance necessary to hold these two thoughts at one time?????

Bill Clinton partied on a private jet with no Secret Service with a convicted pedophile plus he sexually harassed subordinate employees plus he allowed himself to be sexually pleasured by an intern in the Oval Office plus he is credibly accused of rape.

Yet he is a feminist icon and Donald Trump, who has done none of these things, is a threat to women.

Why do I need to share a country with these people, again??????

David Begley said...

Danno

Hillary will be lucky to break 40% in NE. Epic landslide.

Sebastian said...

Even for a jaded cynic it is just a tad remarkable that the party holding itself out as the defender of women would applaud the most notorious serial harasser in recent U.S. politics and that the party objecting to the role of big money in politics would applaud the man who collected more for his personal fortune and his foundation than anyone else.

Rick said...

Madeleine Albright says Donald Trump has damaged America's standing in the world 'just by running for president'

I think there is a sliver of truth to this comment. By "the world" Albright and other American progressives mean progressives in Europe and the handful of other places they view as their equals. And within this "world" standing is determined by progressive purity rather than by accomplishment, economic performance, or other demonstrated successes.

But to translate this view into plain language all she has said is that progressives evaluate countries based on their progressiveness. So we ought to cheer rather than see this as some sort of failure.

I'm curious though, what does it say about progressive leadership that they evaluate America based on whether we govern ourselves as the Euros desire rather than ourselves? It's no wonder Americans question progressives commitment to America.

dreams said...

"Closer to a ten than her mom...

Did you ever see Goldie in bikini and body paint on Laugh In?"

Probably before you, I was around back then. I like Goldie too but she has a longer torso and has shorter legs. I think her daughter has a better proportioned body but that is just my impression, maybe she doesn't. I do know that Elizabeth Banks is very pretty and has a great well proportioned body.

Anonymous said...

Tim in Vermont,

If you want to know her accomplishments, go to her Wiki page. It's chock full of her accomplishments. It only took me a few seconds to find it.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillary_Clinton

wildswan said...

I didn't watch the DNC Night of The Living Death but this is my conclusion based on Drudge and the Journal Sentinel.

This was Democratic National Gush night. On a scale of one to ten it was twenty. When women run things they have a tendency hoover up and hover over emotional moments and to gush. So last night. Moms, little kids, a love story. Gush, gush, gush. Even the most hardened of our fake commenters are not able to pretend even interest, let alone enthusiasm. Bill and Hillary in Love - hoover, hover, gush. Not one American adult believes the story he told but it went on and on without any expressions of disbelief by gush media. Gush, gush, gush. (But there were no kittens. Why no kittens? Donald Trump stole the kittens and sold them to Putin for cat videos but no one wants to ruin gush-night with that ghastly atrocity.) Gush, gush, gush. American flag.

But thanks for letting me know I missed nothing. Hoover, hover gush.

Anonymous said...

"Smearing Clintons is just dandy."

"Facts are not smears."

"At Meadhouse, the feed got paused a few times to make comments about his failure to mention how he cheated on her time and again over the decades and how (we think) he's still doing it now."

I Callahan said...

I like Goldie too but she has a longer torso and has shorter legs. I think her daughter has a better proportioned body but that is just my impression, maybe she doesn't. I do know that Elizabeth Banks is very pretty and has a great well proportioned body.

Blondes. They're a dime a dozen (no offense, Professor!!).

Give me a Jennifer Love Hewitt or an Angie Harmon any day of the week...

M Jordan said...

I watched a bit of the Fox News crew's post-speech analysis. Brit Hume gushed and the rest basically concurred. The night before they gushed so much over Michelle Obama's speech my TV flickered. Two completely forgettable speeches gushed over by the supposed Right alternative media. How does that happen?

Herding. Nobody herds more than the media. They find comfort in numbers. As they watch, in a group, and the first persons sighs, two more sigh. Ten minutes into the speech the herd is completely formed, the opinion fixed. Add to this herding instinct the set of correct responses they know you're supposed to have when 1) a black womannamed Michelle speaks and 2) that rascally rogue Bill Clinton speaks and you've got yourself a group assessment that is completely worthless.

My non-herded opinion of both speeches: one shade less than meh.

I Callahan said...

and how (we think) he's still doing it now.

Does the Pedo-Plane ring a bell? Of course he's still doing it now. A leopard doesn't change his spots.

Hagar said...

Whether it was the Russians who hacked the DNC, or someone pretending to be "the Russians," such as the Chinese or one of our own agencies, does not really matter - someone did and dumped it. The intent, especially if from abroad, is probably to cause chaos in our system, but if domestic may be that someone is up to here with the Democrats in power, or general malice, or just "see how clever I am!" Unless they find out who it was and furnish actual proof, we will never know.

I think we can expect more of this to come before this election is over, and Hillary!'s 33,000 "deleted" e-mails might not be all.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

There's a really strange thing going on when I watch reruns of Pushing Daisies. There are head shots of Chuck where she looks absolutely freaking adorable. I mean achingly cute.

And then there are others where she looks kind of, well, not so cute. Maybe even a little bit too close to the U-word. The disproportionately large area between her nose and upper lip has something to do with it, I suspect.

It reminds me of that episode of Seinfeld where Jerry was dating the woman whose looks depended entirely on the lighting.

Weird.

grackle said...

Hillary will be lucky to break 40% in NE. Epic landslide.

This article describes what I believe to be Trump’s stealth hole card:

The pattern is in the online surveys, even if you control for demographics, Trump does three to nine points better than in telephone surveys … also … there are many blue-collar white voters who typically don’t vote in elections who might be interested in supporting Trump’s unconventional Republican campaign.

http://tinyurl.com/j3mlf4v

The article refers to “blue-collar white voters who typically don’t vote in elections.” This points to the fact that pollsters are limited to subjects who have voted, either in the last election or sometime in the near past.

But during the primaries Trump brought in supporters who have not voted at all or have not voted recently. And they were not limited to any particular demographic, although white males were prominent. And Trump set records in GOP voter participation, getting more votes than any GOP candidate in history. I believe that the same thing will happen in the general election.

The pollsters cannot poll these folks and that limitation assures that Trump’s real support will be un-polled and underreported throughout the campaign. Couple this with the fact that Trump and Hillary are tied in the battleground states after massive spending on ads by Hillary and no paid ads by Trump. If the political situation continues as is Trump will win in a landslide. Stealth.

If I am right it is going to be fun watching the talking heads the day after Trump is elected.

The Clintons have made their marriage work and have been together as a couple for almost fifty years.

Isn’t it obvious that the “marriage” is a political arrangement and probably has been since the Arkansas days? I’ll bet Bill hasn’t screwed Hillary in decades. It’s a marriage in name only. She couldn’t divorce him, he was her ticket to politics.

There are women that are deemed universally attractive that do nothing for me.

Same here. I’ve never liked the fashion model look – it seems too hard-edged. I would prefer Ivanka’s soft looks over Melania’s harsh(to me) fashion model image. But sexy is as sexy does. I’ve found that you can never tell who might be good in the sack from looks alone. The best sex I ever had was with a woman who looked very ordinary.

Big Mike said...

The one I remember is: "A woman who is very flat-chested is very hard to be a 10."

The most interesting thing chez Meadhouse last night was a discussion on the subject of how bad is it for a man to have said that.


Perhaps it's a bad thing to say from some feminist theory perspective, but really it's kind of like a sixty-something woman opining that men shouldn't wear shorts.

Swede said...

What happens on Pedo Island, stays on Pedo Island!

Laslo Spatula said...

Kate Hudson a 'flat-chested' Ten?

What the Fuck?

Keira Knightley is as close to flat-chested as Hollywood gets. Flat-chested gets sexier with a British accent.

I am Laslo.

Roughcoat said...

Kate Hudson is no 10. A 6.5 at best, and she's too old now anyway to be rated.

Kate Upton is a 10 going on 11. She goes to 11. And she isn't flat-chested, in case you haven't noticed.

Roughcoat said...

I would rather live in a capitalist society where men compete for women by gathering money than a socialist society where men compete for women by gathering power over other men.

Money is power, and the accumulation of it is the accumulation of power.

Laslo Spatula said...

I posit that there are no Tens in current Hollywood.

Lots of Eights, some Nines, but no True Ten.

I am Laslo.

narciso said...

what was actually happening last night,


http://reason.com/blog/2016/07/27/green-partys-jill-stein-crashes

Original Mike said...

"Kate Upton is a 10 going on 11. She goes to 11. And she isn't flat-chested, in case you haven't noticed."

Nope. Points start coming off when boobs get too big.

rehajm said...

Money is power, and the accumulation of it is the accumulation of power.


...then, what is time again?

Roughcoat said...

Original Mike:

Good. More for me.

Paul Snively said...

As long as there are secondary sexual characteristics, there will be attempts to compare them.

Unsurprisingly, I'm with Laslo: Keira Knightley is, as far as I can tell, flat as a board. She's ridiculously beautiful.

I'm also with Roughcoat: Kate Upton is... something else. Beautiful and curvy. But I have no idea whether I could carry on a conversation with her, or would even want to.

There are Althouse regulars who are brainy and hot. You know who you are.

Laslo Spatula said...

The 'Ten Scale' does not proceed linearly; rather, it is akin to the Richter Scale. The distance between a Six and a Seven is a lot less than the difference between a Nine and Ten.

Even Bo Derek was not a Ten, despite the name of the movie.

And Gwyneth Paltrow steaming her vagina does not get her from Six to Seven: sorry.

I am Laslo.

Known Unknown said...

Kate Hudson Seinfeld effect

Known Unknown said...

Even Bo Derek was not a Ten, despite the name of the movie

Bullshit. Go watch Bolero.

Karen of Texas said...

Did anyone else note the not-so-subtle use of Trump hate married to the American flag? While not subliminal, it serves a somewhat Pavlovian purpose, yes? Mind programming at its finest.

damikesc said...

Much as it's a knock on Trump to have long been tied to Clinton, it's also a knock on her to have been long tied to him. It's a shame they can't both be discarded thanks to our two-party system.

Trump could argue he was greasing government wheels for his businesses. What was Hillary's excuse? That she was nakedly on the take to that degree? If she claims that, how many other donors weddings did she attend?

As if the RNC conversations are any different. Of course the Russians didn't hack the RNC, did they? Why? They weren't interested in embarrassing tne RNC. Why? Because they want their man in our White House. Does it concern anyone that Russia is interfering in our elections? No? Why?

HILLARY. SOLD. THEM. US. URANIUM.

Nothing Trump has considered will touch that.

And your party told us that Russia wasn't a foe just four years ago. How bad did Obama screw the pooch to make them hate us now?

Meade said...

Michelle Obama is a 10.

Rick said...

I Callahan said...
Blondes. They're a dime a dozen.


Blondes are less good looking on average largely because so many unattractive women dye their hair blond.

rhhardin said...

According to my DVD log I've watched six Elizabeth Banks films and I don't remember her except as a generic Hollywood actress, the female lead.

I'd run the 1-10 scale on smiles not breasts.

Rumpletweezer said...

Meade said: Michelle Obama is a 10.

I assume you're counting her weight in stones. My guess is that she's closer to 11 and a half.

Bad Lieutenant said...

Christina Hendricks vs. Kate Moss. Drop mic.

Bad Lieutenant said...

Or hardness on the Mohs scale.

Big Mike said...

@Althouse, if Meade thinks Michelle Obama is a ten, you need to buy some hip padding.

damikesc said...

Michelle a 10?

Well,.you don't want an angry wookie

Martha said...

Hillary and Michelle are both sort of flat chested.

Wellesley circa Hillary was filled with extraordinarily bright, attractive in an intellectual way, flat chested women.

A Donald Trump would have been laughed off campus.


Paul Snively said...

Unknown: Christina Hendricks vs. Kate Moss. Drop mic.

This. It's funny because it's true.

rhhardin said...

I don't offhand know how chesty the actresses I know on sight are.

It's just a generic female feature, like long hair.

cubanbob said...

Unknown said...
@MayBee,
As if the RNC conversations are any different. Of course the Russians didn't hack the RNC, did they? Why? They weren't interested in embarrassing tne RNC. Why? Because they want their man in our White House. Does it concern anyone that Russia is interfering in our elections? No? Why?

7/27/16, 7:48 AM

Maybe the Russians hacked Hillary's homebrew servers. Maybe that really is important and not your stupid false equivocation. Maybe Hillary should be prosecuted for her criminal conduct instead of the transparent corruption that passes as Democrat governance. Maybe the Russians are pissed that after buying the Clinton's they are getting hit up again. Doesn't concern you that someone as transparently criminal and incompetent is the Democrat nominee?

HoodlumDoodlum said...

Elizabeth Banks is very pretty but also fairly flat-chested--just to tie two threads together.

Walk of Shame was ok (Gillian Jacobs was quite good), but Banks is very funny in Wet Hot American Summer.

HoodlumDoodlum said...

I thought Michelle Obama looked very good in the clips of her DNC speech--better than I remembered.

I wondered about her hair, though. I mean, we all give D. Trump a hard time about having weird/fake hair...
Nevermind, probably racist.

tim in vermont said...

I knew that objection was coming Roughcoat, I should have said "carrot power"/money vs "stick power"/the state.

Both get chicks.

And I am thinking now that Althouse is declaring that women don't have complete evolutionary agency, they are not the sole guardians of the gene pool, but they have a lion's share. Through the millions of years of human evolution, I don't think that harems kept by powerful men keeping other men from mating, are that big an issue. But men do have agency in human evolution, just not as much as women do. Except maybe in Islamic cultures where women's ultimate power, their attractiveness (carrot power) is taken from them and given to the men who control them with stick power, and where powerful men get multiple wives while powerless men are awarded suicide packs. We need more of these because our homophobic Christian troglodytes are not a big enough problem for liberals.

People are not wolves though, where the alpha male prevents the betas from breeding, or lions, where the male kills the offspring of a defeated rival. Nor are we chimpanzees where life in the troop is basically one big orgy, or gorillas, where the alpha male with a dick the size of a chapstick, and great physical power, keeps his harem in line and fights off other males like one of Lazlo's pimps on a freeloader. We are humans and animal models of behavior tell us little.

rhhardin said...

Most memorable role, Frances McDormand in Burn after Reading, though I had to look up who the actress was, and could not guess at her chesty particulars. I'm sure she had some at the time but it's not remembered.

mccullough said...

Elizabeth Banks is close to a 10

Curious George said...

"Meade said...
Michelle Obama is a 10."

Yeah, if the question is "On a scale from one to ten, how big is Michelle Obama's Adam's Apple?"

cubanbob said...

As for the one to ten scale every man has one. But the scales are adjusted for individual taste. Still Trump has a point that most men do like some amount of boobage so that does enter into the calculation. Kate Upton wouldn't be considered so hot if she had Keira Knightley's body and Keira might well be considered a ten or beyond if she had Kate's body. For what it's worth I find Elizabeth Banks to have a ridiculously pretty face.

tim in vermont said...

As if the RNC conversations are any different. Of course the Russians didn't hack the RNC, did they? Why? They weren't interested in embarrassing tne RNC. Why? Because they want their man in our White House. Does it concern anyone that Russia is interfering in our elections? No? Why? - Unknown.

Well maybe if you go back to your premise that the Russians hacked the DNC, you might find that there is no evidence of it. But then you are just following the DNC strategy to "muddy the water around HRC's ethics," and to plant stories with no fingerprints.

Has any actual evidence come out that the Russians hacked the DNC? Other that Comey, the partisan shill who runs the FBI says he is going to investigate it in support of this distraction operation?

Maybe some Democrat who was disgusted by the ACTUAL CONTENT OF THE EMAILS leaked them? Naaah!

tim in vermont said...

Burn After Reading was great. But it painted women in a harsh light. Accurate, but harsh.

Ignorance is Bliss said...

Paul Snively said...

There are Althouse regulars who are brainy and hot. You know who you are.

Thanks! It's nice to be noticed.

tim in vermont said...

Elizabeth Banks is a hottie, but a 10? Naah. But she is very funny, and I will take that over looks any day. I am disappointed that she has gone all in partisan though, as it makes the flaws in her face suddenly show.

Laslo Spatula said...

Even Bo Derek was not a Ten, despite the name of the movie
EMD said...
"Bullshit. Go watch Bolero."

Body, yes. Face is an 8+.

I am Laslo.

Nichevo said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Curious George said...

"Laslo Spatula said...
Even Bo Derek was not a Ten, despite the name of the movie."

No ones a ten after John Derek's hit it.

Ignorance is Bliss said...

tim in vermont said...

...I should have said "carrot power"/money vs "stick power"/the state.

I thought the pairing should be "carrot power" vs "onion ring power", but maybe I'm thinking of something else...

HoodlumDoodlum said...

pm137 said...My own theory is that they are both intellectual powerhouses and that is what keeps them together.

Bump that perception up against evidence from her emails--where she doesn't understand basic tech functions (like how to send email from anything other than a Blackberry, how to work a fax machine, etc)--and tell me how comfortable you feel having this hip, with-it older lady using her judgement to make decisions regarding modern tech-type problems.

michaele said...

I kept getting images of Hillary manning a cash register at Walmart every time Bill touted her as such a great "change maker". His dependence on that phrasing as one of her strong points seemed odd.

Rick.T. said...

I'll give Bobby Bare the last word on this one. Was it here that someone observed that men grade on pass/fail and women on the curve?

"I was sittin' in Friday's suckin' on a glass of wine
When in walked a chick who almost struck me blind
Had wet blue eyes and her legs were long and fine
On a scale of one to ten, I'd give her a nine.

"Now on my scale there ain't no ten's, you know
Nine is about as far as any chick can go
So I flashed her a smile, but she didn't even look at me
So for brains and good judgement, I'd give her a three.

"I said, "Hey sweet thing, you look like a possible eight
You and me could, uh! make eighteen, if your head's on straight."
She looked up and down my perfect frame
And said these words that burned into my perfect brain.

"She said, well, another one of those macho-matician men
Kind who grade all women on scales of one to ten
And, you give me an eight, well, that's a generous thing to do
Now, let's just see, just how much I give you.

"She said you comin' on to me with that phony numbers jive
Your style makes me smile, I give it a five
When you walked up I noticed that suit of (yores)
It's last year's double-knit frayed-cuffs, give it a four.

"That must be your car parked out on the curb
That sixty-nine homemade convertible, a three and a third
Now, as for your build, I guess (yore) less than five
Except, for your pot belly, I'd give that a ten for size.

"That wine you're pourin' might be fine to you
But I'm used to fine champagne, I give it a two
It's hard to tell what your flashin' smile is worth
I give it a six, you could use some dental work.

"But, It's your struttin' rooster act that really makes me laugh
It may be a ten to these country hens, but to me a three and a half
And there really ain't much to add once the subtractin's done
Since there ain't no zeroes, I give you a one!.

"She walked out, while up and down the line
The whole bar was laughin', said' Bare, what happened to your nine
Nine says I, hell soon as she started to talk I knew
She didn't have no class, I barely gave her a two."

mockturtle said...

You can Google some great NFL player butt rankings. We females have our standards, too. ;-)

mockturtle said...

And Kristin Chirico of Buzzfeed ranked a lot of the Seattle Seahawks' butts very high on the scale. Earl Thomas was #1.

mockturtle said...

Kam Chancellor is a 10 in my book.

FullMoon said...

Any woman who displays obvious intelligence and good judgement by finding me interesting starts off with an eight. Attractiveness factored in after that.

Roughcoat said...

Mary Queen of Scots was famously hot. Six feet tall, long red hair, long legs--and, reportedly, quite a dancer, enjoyed doing un-ladylike Highland flings. I don't know if she had a good rack but I want to believe she did. A ginger with a good rack is killer hot.

FullMoon said...

"The Clintons have made their marriage work and have been together as a couple for almost fifty years. Trump's current wife is only a few years older than his oldest child. But it is telling that this contrast doesn't even occur to Ann."

Assumes facts not in evidence.

Being a common, poorly educated, lif voter, the contrast is evident to me. Trump attracts women with his charm, looks, and sense of humor.

Bill forces himself upon women. Trump fathers intelligent children from each mate, Bill hires a surrogate. Trump sets his exes up in a life of luxury, Bill and Hillary stay together so they can appear "normal" When common statistics say 50% of marriages ed in divorce, and many parents do not marry at all, Trump does not seem especially immoral.






Just_Mike_S said...

"Kate Upton is a 10 going on 11. She goes to 11. And she isn't flat-chested, in case you haven't noticed"
I'd say she bounces between 10 and 11

FullMoon said...

Unknown said

@MayBee,
As if the RNC conversations are any different. Of course the Russians didn't hack the RNC, did they? Why? They weren't interested in embarrassing tne RNC. Why? Because they want their man in our White House. Does it concern anyone that Russia is interfering in our elections? No? Why?


Whoever hacked the emails obviously feels Trump is more trustful than Clinton.
Whoever hacked the emails believes Trump is interested in world peace, while Hillary starts wars.
Whoever hacked the emails sees value in an honest, trustworthy American President

Pretty simple, actually.

Why have the Dems not accused Trump personally? Because they do not want to further advance the perception of the majority of Americans that Trump is capable of hiring the best and brightest IT guys,or maybe he hacked them himself, in between twitter rants, while Hillary is technically illiterate.

Hillary Clinton is less proficient than your average eight year old kid. Anybody here with a pre-teen child or grandchild knows that to be true.

FullMoon said...

Martha says:
Wellesley circa Hillary was filled with extraordinarily bright, attractive in an intellectual way, flat chested women.

A Donald Trump would have been laughed off campus.


You are aware Wellesey is a woman's college, right? Donalds not allowed.

Most likely filled with intelligent, non flat chested women also.

BTW. I think we can agree double a cup is flat chested. Anything else is not.

Roughcoat said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Roughcoat said...

I'm so glad we have a thread in which the subject of Kate Upton and her boobalicious body is appropriate to the discussion.

mockturtle said...

It is safe to say that, outside of an Ayn Rand novel, men aren't typically attracted first by a woman's intellect.

Brando said...

"Mary Queen of Scots was famously hot. Six feet tall, long red hair, long legs--and, reportedly, quite a dancer, enjoyed doing un-ladylike Highland flings. I don't know if she had a good rack but I want to believe she did. A ginger with a good rack is killer hot."

History porn...it may already be a thing, but maybe it should be more of a thing.

Fritz said...

Blondes. They're a dime a dozen (no offense, Professor!!).

I believe she once confessed to being a ginger in disguise. The soulless do well as lawyers.

mockturtle said...

History porn...it may already be a thing, but maybe it should be more of a thing.

What's behind that codpiece, Sir Henry?

Roughcoat said...

I believe Brooklyn Decker would also be appropriate to this discussion, but I'll stick with Kate Upton. I'm nothing if not loyal.

Brando said...

"What's behind that codpiece, Sir Henry?"

Maybe we could use a fancy title for it, like "Songs of Ribaldry" to fancy up all the hard core historical smut.

Too bad there's no real money in porn these days....

rhhardin said...

I don't get the popularity of Kate Upton.

Another generic actress. A search shows I've seen one of her films, The Other Woman, and which one she was I could not say.

mockturtle said...

Rabelais wrote hilariously bawdy stuff in the early 16th century. First reading The Adventures of Gargantuan and Pantagruel on a flight from London to Seattle, I was laughing so hard I thought they were going to throw me off the plane.

David said...

Audrey Hepburn was not a 10? Heresy.

David said...

"Too bad there's no real money in porn these days...."

I think you err in that statement.

Meade said...

Audrey Hepburn reminds me of my daughter who is also a 10. Just like her mother is.

My current wife goes all the way to 11.

Meade said...

I know -- bragging. But hey it's not bragging if you can do it, right? :-)

Rusty said...

David said...
Audrey Hepburn was not a 10? Heresy.

No, but Katherine was.

hombre said...

CSPAN was great for the RNC because the substance was the content and character of the convention itself. The commentators just blathered.

The DNC, OTOH, derives its content and character from the spin offered up by the Party's consorts. The convention is incomplete until the mediaswine have spoken.

Francisco D said...

"My current wife goes all the way to 11."

That's the spirit!

Original Mike said...

Audrey Hepburn was absolutely a 10.

google is evil said...

Althouse said: "Kate Hudson is not "very flat-chested."" This is a very female comment. I personally don't care. But 75% of men would say she is. Sorry.