September 25, 2018

The NYT lobs a confusing new issue into the Kavanaugh controversy: the phrase "Renate Alumni" in the yearbook at Kavanaugh's high school.

It's really hard to summarize "Kavanaugh’s Yearbook Page Is ‘Horrible, Hurtful’ to a Woman It Named." My first question is: Who wrote the words in the yearbook? If not Brett Kavanaugh, why must I understand this? And why is the NYT choosing to dilute the carefully built up allegation made by Christine Blasey Ford? Is that allegation fading somehow? Is the NYT trying to get hits after it passed up the Deborah Ramirez story that had us all reading The New Yorker last Sunday?

I don't want to quote too much of the article, but I can't paraphrase what I can't understand, so forgive me:
The word “Renate” appears at least 14 times in Georgetown Preparatory School’s 1983 yearbook, on individuals’ pages and in a group photo of nine football players, including Judge Kavanaugh, who were described as the “Renate Alumni.” It is a reference to Renate Schroeder, then a student at a nearby Catholic girls’ school.

Two of Judge Kavanaugh’s classmates say the mentions of Renate were part of the football players’ unsubstantiated boasting about their conquests. “They were very disrespectful, at least verbally, with Renate,” said Sean Hagan, a Georgetown Prep student at the time, referring to Judge Kavanaugh and his teammates. “I can’t express how disgusted I am with them, then and now.”
So Sean Hagan seems to have brought this tale to the NYT and we're handed his characterizations of what it all means. Who is he? The material seems too minimal to matter, so you have to tell us why it matters, and Sean Hagan is quoted. That's it! Well, who's he? What are his interests? And, again, did Kavanaugh write the yearbook text?!
This month, Renate Schroeder Dolphin joined 64 other women who..., signed a letter to the leaders of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which...  stated that “he has behaved honorably and treated women with respect.”
So suddenly Schroeder is Dolphin. I'll just guess that's her married name. This article is carelessly written.
“I learned about these yearbook pages only a few days ago,” Ms. Dolphin said in a statement to The New York Times. “I don’t know what ‘Renate Alumnus’ actually means. I can’t begin to comprehend what goes through the minds of 17-year-old boys who write such things, but the insinuation is horrible, hurtful and simply untrue. I pray their daughters are never treated this way. I will have no further comment.”
What was said to her that made her react like that. She can't understand it, but she's also horrified by it, and she won't talk about it anymore. Was she given the Sean Hagan interpretation and shocked and that's how the NYT got her quote? And now we the NYT readers are supposed to feel her shock, because look at what she said? And she's not saying anything more.
Alexandra Walsh, a lawyer for Judge Kavanaugh, said in a statement: “Judge Kavanaugh was friends with Renate Dolphin in high school. He admired her very much then, and he admires her to this day. “Judge Kavanaugh and Ms. Dolphin attended one high school event together and shared a brief kiss good night following that event,” the statement continued. “They had no other such encounter. The language from Judge Kavanaugh’s high school yearbook refers to the fact that he and Ms. Dolphin attended that one high school event together and nothing else.”

Ms. Dolphin said she had never kissed Judge Kavanaugh. “I think Brett must have me confused with someone else, because I never kissed him,” she said through her lawyer.
Well, there's a factual discrepancy. Kavanaugh (if his lawyer has it right) believes he kissed a girl who believes he did not. It seems someone at the yearbook collected all the names of boys who said they'd kissed the same girl and made a joke out of it. But was Kavanaugh involved in the yearbook making? And does this really matter now? Dolphin had good enough memories to have signed the letter. Now, she's mad about the yearbook, and we're supposed to hold that against him?
Four of the men who were pictured with Judge Kavanaugh in a photo captioned “Renate Alumni” said it was simply a reference to their dating or going to dances with Ms. Dolphin.... Some of Judge Kavanaugh’s high school peers said there was a widespread culture at the time of objectifying women....

Bill Barbot, who was a freshman at Georgetown Prep when Judge Kavanaugh was a senior, said Judge Kavanaugh and his clique were part of the school’s “fratty” culture.
Oh! We're going to listen to the freshman's ideas about the seniors! And why are we hearing from Bill Barbot? Who is he? How did the NYT find him? And why him and not one of 100 other possibilities among all the boys in all the years when Kavanaugh went to high school?
“There was a lot of talk and presumably a lot of action about sexual conquest with girls,” Mr. Barbot said.
Presumably!!! Such extreme dilution. A freshman remembers how seniors, in general, looked to him 35 years ago.
Ms. Dolphin was a subject of that braggadocio, according to Mr. Hagan and another classmate, who requested anonymity because he fears retribution. 
Again, who is Hagan? But, look, he's bolstered by some anonymous person. And the subject is that Dolphin was a girl boys bragged about. Not Kavanaugh, specifically, but, you know, it was the sort of thing that happened. Such a weak dilution of a hint of wrongness.
“She should be offended,” Mr. Hagan said of Ms. Dolphin. “I was completely astounded when I saw she signed that letter” on Judge Kavanaugh’s behalf.
Hagan Hagan Hagan. Who the hell is he and why is the NYT running with this? It's such a weak effort at piling on the attacks that it makes the earlier attacks seem weaker.

The NYT offers this effort at defending Kavanaugh:
“These guys weren’t any different than other boys high schools across the country,” said Suzanne Matan, a friend of Judge Kavanaugh’s from their high school days. “And I chose to hang out with those boys and many other girls did, too, because they were fun, and they were safe, and they were respectful.”
I assume many readers will interpret that first sentence to mean "boys will be boys" — a damning excuse — despite the various kind — somewhat kind — words.

Finally, an answer to my question:
The Georgetown Prep yearbook’s personal pages were designed and written by the individual students, according to alumni. A faculty adviser reviewed the pages.
If that's true, it's important. Why is this crucial fact buried in the article? I'm writing about it as I go along, so I don't know what I'd have written if that had appeared in the beginning. I note that Kavanaugh's page says "Renate Alumnius." That's a typo/misspelling isn't it, "alumnius"? Isn't that evidence that he did not write it? When I was in high school, you filled out a form offering info to the  students who made the yearbook and they used that to write what they, in the end, chose.

There's more to the article — things written on other boys' pages, a caption on a photo of the football team (including Kavanaugh), a statement by 4 boys in that photo (saying "Renate" referred to "innocent dates or dance partners" and criticizing the NYT for its "twisted and forced... shabby journalism"), etc. — and that's it for this new puff of smoke.

276 comments:

1 – 200 of 276   Newer›   Newest»
buwaya said...

Organized and timed.
The whole system is quite transparent.
Except for the command and control structure of course.
That would be an interesting thing to investigate.

mikee said...

I, myself, am listed in two years of my college yearbook under a pseudonym, along with my two "brothers" of the same last name. Such printing shenanigans are done for a host of reasons, and often mean nothing other than "We did it because we could."

As to Catholic boys showing disrespect to Catholic girls, it is such a well-known phenomenon that Billy Joel wrote a hit song about it.

Dave Begley said...

I want to see a picture of Renate from high school. She was probably beautiful; movie star beautiful.

It is quite easy to figure out that the guys at an all boys school liked to brag or imagine that they dated a movie star in high school. The idea that they all had sex with her is just a sick mind going into a gutter.

The NYT is completely sick. This is not news. This is a character assassination.

And "men for others" doesn't mean working for the government like the NYT asserted yesterday. It means not thinking and acting for yourself all the time. Be like Christ. Novel concept for the NYT.

Sydney said...

I am so sick of this shit.

Gahrie said...

I assume many readers will interpret that first sentence to mean "boys will be boys" — a damning excuse

For Christ's sake...why? Are you still denying that boys are sexually aggressive as teenagers and girls are the gatekeepers?

Biology exists!

Gahrie said...

Boys must not be boys...so we drug them and lie to them and try to turn them into girls.

mccullough said...

Ford’s allegation wasn’t “carefully built up.” She’s on Version 3 right now.

I’m going to push back on that bullshit every time.

1. 2012 marriage therapy: 4 unnamed guys attacked her in her “late teens.”

2. 2018 to Washington Post in July: It was 2 Guys, now makes Judge and Kavanaugh, who attacked her. The other 2 guys were at the get together. So four guys there, but now only 2 attack. Attack probably in summer of 1982 but not sure.

3. 2018 to WaPo in August: 3 guys at get together and one girl, her friend.


All four people claimed to be at the small gathering at the Unknown House say it didn’t happen. Her girlfriend says she never knew Kavanaugh.


The reason for all the New Bulkshit is to distract from Ford’s Bullshit.

The Times is just doing its part. Ford’s Shifting Story needed a smokescreen to draw attention from it.

Dave Begley said...

A guy who was first in his class at a Jesuit school wouldn't get the Latin wrong.

Henry said...

First we have a theatre of tantrum. Then the exploitation of children in the viral video industry. And now the full-on exploitation -- the exploitation of high-schoolers to advance a political cause.

It's interesting that even Old Lady Times doesn't see the ethical problem with this exploitation. Most people would agree that an investigation into the social media interchanges at Kavanaugh's daughters school would be highly inappropriate. Yet trawling through the half-formed memes of teenagers as a means to shame those individuals as adults triggers no concern at all.

We're living through a children's crusade.

Birches said...

We've moved on from attempt rape and manslaughter to made fun of a girl in HS to keep him off of SCOTUS. I can't believe this is real.

Darrell said...

Ms Dolphin? The Salmon sisters?
Something's fishy with your posting today. . .

Lyssa said...

‘“She should be offended’ said Mr. Hagan of Ms. Dolphin.”

You know, it’s always helpful when we have a man telling us what a woman should be offended by. It’s so nice not to have to worry our pretty little heads about that sort of thing.

Henry said...

This is the first thing I thought of: Petrum, Partrum, Paradisi, Temporie, Perrie, Merrie, Dixie, Dominie.

TrespassersW said...

Considering the cesspool leftists are willing to swim through to keep it, power is one HELL of a drug.

Expat(ish) said...

I graduated about the same time as BK....

I had my picture taken in front of a Space Invaders machine. Clearly I was a conspiracy theorist.

My pockets were pulled out, like I was broke (I was). Clearly both a sexual suggestion ("ever patted a bunny on the nose?") and an indicator that I was an abused child.

It was at a donut shop. I secretly wanted to beat poor non-whites.

Near Duke University. I was an elitist.

Near Duke East Campus, formerly Trinity Woman's College. Obviously I hated women.

I guess that's all for my hopes to be a SC justice.

-XC

Amadeus 48 said...

None of this makes any sense. People at the New York Times are having a nervous breakdown. Maybe Dr. Ford can make a referral for treatment. Her therapy obviously went well.

Professional lady said...

I remember discussing the Clarence Thomas hearings with a male colleague of mine at the time. I said I was really concerned about it because you could ruin someone with unsubstantiated allegations and qualified people were going to be discouraged from public service due to this type of character assassination. I'm still working with that colleague now. If he was running for or appointed to a judicial office, I could ruin him professionally and personally if I wanted to by merely coming up with some bullshit accusations that he would not be able to disprove. Truly scary.

gilbar said...

Well, there's a factual discrepancy. Kavanaugh believes he kissed a girl who believes he did not

Isn't This THE DEFINITION of Sexual Assault? In The History of The World; has there EVER been a more egregious example of Sexual Assault than A BOY, claiming that he smooched a girl; when The Girl says he did not???

I'm not being rhetorical, i'm really asking; isn't this the definition?

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

To make an unfounded accusation most effective, there comes a point at which you just need to shut up and let the accusation do the heavy lifting. Frantically sifting trivialities in an attempt to prop up the original bogus narrative just makes you look ridiculous. The Democrats are well into the ridiculous stage but find themselves incapable of restraint.

Levi Starks said...

Sigh....

tim maguire said...

The NYT has used Renate as a warning signal to the other 64 Kavanaugh signatories--who will they be coming for next?

JPS said...

I was willing to give Judge Kavanaugh the benefit of the doubt, but this -

A hurtful comment in his high-school yearbook?

No, that tears it. The man needs to go down hard, as a message to others like him that this WILL NOT BE TOLERATED!

Congratulations, New York Times. You've clinched another Pulitzer, and the thanks of a grateful nation.

rehajm said...

It's such a weak effort at piling on the attacks that it makes the earlier attacks seem weaker.

Ann does an admirable job of unwrapping of this crappy NYT word cloud wafting. It seems now that the Ford's bluff was called and she's not going to testify it feels more like a salvage operation called 'overcoming lack of quality with quantity'. Invent a 'pattern of behavior' to smear when Anita Hilling doesn't work.

Birches said...

Source of Kavanaugh yearbook story" rapid Anti Trumper, scrubbed from story.

n.n said...

NYT, WaPo, CNN et al take turns wallowing in the muck, with interleaving human and civil-rights friendly reporting to force a perception of credibility.

rehajm said...

In my time and place the yearbook staff was responsible for those kinds of quotes. It was a subversive way to get stuff by the faculty censors. Feelings were hurt.

Amadeus 48 said...

In my college yearbook for my senior candid I wanted a mock version of the poster for The Graduate with Ben standing at the door and Mrs. Robinson's leg stretched across the frame. The editors nixed it.

Susan said...

The yearbook plot worked last time. So why the hell not?

If you are pro-abortion you can't commit an evil that won't be defended. If you are not pro-abortion you cannot be pure enough to survive annihilation by any means.

buwaya said...

The point of propaganda is not truth, but volume.
Everyone overthinks this, and indeed falls into the trap, by following the propagandists line into details.

You cannot refute propaganda, you can only propagandize in the other direction.

madAsHell said...

but I can't paraphrase what I can't understand, so forgive me:

They're parsing through his high school yearbook?? I had several people write in my yearbook, and I never read, or couldn't read what they wrote.

Next of all, don't try to understand trite phrases exchanged by testosterone fueled boys. It was likely an event witnessed by several, and distilled into a couple of words.

Renate Alumni - I'll assume that Renate is re-born. Yes, they were talking about "getting pussy", and making babies.

tim maguire said...

Brett Kavanaugh is now being held responsible for the environment in which he was raised.

Darrell said...

They already got him to admit he was a virgin. Now they make him take back a peck on the lips. He had a lock on sainthood, then, until marriage spoiled it.

Hagar said...

I do not think Ms. Blasey Ford will testify on Thursday.
Her handlers will not take a chance on this unstable woman collapsing her story on C-Span.

gilbar said...

All this shows the problem with a long nomination process.
When the hearings were done (remember? the hearings were Done), the committee should have voted that friday morning, and the Senate should have voted that afternoon.
ALL of these 'accusations' came out AFTER. What was gained by waiting around, waiting for the potshots? Bret had the votes, Grassley had the votes. This could all have been Old News, and how would that (COULD THAT) be worse for the republicans than this?

sparrow said...

None of this is substantial enough to print. The time and effort used to smear the judge is proof of bias and lack of principles at the NYTimes, although compared to the New Yorker they look pretty good. FWIW I find none of the claims credible. I would have had so much more respect for the Dems if they simply said "We oppose the judge because we believe he'll reverse Roe." Then they could pressure on the squishy middle of the road types over the real issue.

Levi Starks said...

Why would anyone choose such an unreliable news source as the NYT?
5 minutes of reading a story, and 30 minutes of unpacking their real agenda?
This isn’t reporting news, rather it’s doing everything possible to make yourself the object.
Absence of malice? HA. It’s more like 99 44/100% pure malice.

traditionalguy said...

Year Book Staff writes the photo captions and the snarky comments about the other students based on rumor. No one else writes the stuff, and the Staff is assigned to areas under one or two students, one a senior and one a junior getting ready to take over next year.

In my experience the Advisors and other older teachers recommended appointments to the Staff..You could take it or leave it since it was work. But I took it to be with certain friends and to get to drop out of ROTC, although that meant dropping Rifle Team that was fun.

They decided to make me Sports Editor. That was fun too. We had to direct the photographer on shots to take and then crop them to highlight the stars in action. And we wrote captions praising the popular guys. (My son always wondered how I got such good comments on my wrestling career).

The point is this comment writing of faint praise is an inside job by one or two witty writers.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

The weeds are so thick. Why can't leftiwng lies stick?

Oh please, vile leftwing gods - let the leftwing lies stick.

mccullough said...

So did Renate “attend a high school event” with Brett or not? Whether he or she misremembered a goodnight peck, that seems relevant. She said she knew him and thought he was a good guy.

The result of all the Progressive Stupidity over the last 20 years is that we’re now going through High School Yearbooks and listening to Talmudic interpretations of them.

Is the House going to impeach and the Senate remove Brett for Yearbook Captions?

Is the FBI going to get to the bottom of who write The Caption and whether Brett approved it before it went into The Yearbook or laughed at it after he saw it in The Yearbook.

I thought the Choom Gang criticisms of Obama were totally fucking stupid. He was in high school. He and his friends did dumb things but it turned out to be harmless.

The New York Times, like The Progressives, is fucking insane.

Humperdink said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
narciso said...

You note the Hilton arms yearbook didn't get mentioned except in passing

Bay Area Guy said...

36-year old high school yearbook quotes:

Repeat:

36-year old high school yearbook quotes:

Why is the NYT writing articles about 36-year old high school yearbook quotes?

We think Roe v Wade is so crucial to our physical, moral, emotional and mental state of being that we find it necessary to scour 36-year old high school yearbook quotes of this nominee, because we believe he might provide the 5th Vote to overturn Roe v Wade.

Yes, we do find it silly, but we looked everywhere else and found nothing on him. So, we resort to 36- year old high school yearbook quotes.

Laslo Spatula said...

"And why is the NYT choosing to dilute the carefully built up allegation made by Christine Blasey Ford? "

I see Mccullough pretty much wrote the response on that.

I DO believe it is "carefully built up", but not in the way I believe Althouse is meaning.

Her story is designed for maximum damage and minimal verification. And not under oath (is it that hard for her to tell her story under oath?) So, yes: "careful".

And something I wrote at the end of a previous post coincides with this:

When it comes to purported attempted rape and murder a breadth of denial does not seem necessarily suspicious.

But then it also depends on if you view her accusations as him groping her or attempting to rape/kill her.

Althouse shades her feel to the former and ignores Ford's claim of the latter, and avoids any discussion on threading that needle.


So is her "careful" allegation that of him groping her or him attempting to rape/kill her?

Because to believe she is 'closer to the truth', then you would seem to have to accept the latter.

But the former fits better with having problems with his "breadth of denial". Unless you hold him to the former and excuse her claims for the latter. But that would be disingenuous, I would think.

So: it is the fault of the yearbooks that the "carefully built up allegation" is being "diluted."

Okay.

I am Laslo.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

We are to believe a shape shifting story that's 36 years old and doesn't even include rape from an elite leftwing Trump-obsessed professor who is know to some (or many) of her students as "unstable".

But all of Bill Clinton's accusers are lying.

Rob said...

Why is the NYT piling on? Because derangement. They can't help themselves.

sinz52 said...

This mass hysteria from the Left didn't even start with *Kavanaugh*. It began from the very moment that Justice Kennedy announced his retirement last June.

The usual lefty suspects immediately rushed into print their stated opposition to Judge "fill in the blank" to replace Kennedy. (Remember? They didn't even wait to find out whom Trump would nominate.)

And toward that end, the Left has gone wild, willing to run with any rumor or wild charge, no matter how wild, no matter how unsubstantiated: Kavanaugh lied. Kavanaugh is a perjurer. Kavanaugh committed attempted rape. Kavanaugh committed gang rape.

Truly Orwellian.
Kavanaugh's big crime in the Left's eyes is his refusal to commit to upholding Roe v. Wade. That makes him so evil, so satanic, in their eyes that it justifies anything imaginable short of attempted assassination a la Scalise.

Leland said...

I'm guessing, as it seems many; but perhaps this is the HS thing of assuming people are having sex just because they are dating.

I think it is this attitude that leads to people having sex too early in life and then having bad experiences. They believe the gossip and lack the experience to know better the truth or not. So when they do have a relationship, they have sex because supposedly "that's what you do."

I grew up in the 80's, but college wasn't until the 90's. I remember various news stories along the lines of "majority of students having sex as teenagers" or other stuff normalizing sex at an earlier age, while pretending it was some epidemic they were trying to stop. My own personal experience was that most people were virgins, and didn't say so because "it wasn't cool" or more precisely it meant you were somehow unworthy of a "real relationship". A decade or two goes by, and it seems those I knew that postponed that gratification have healthier relationships with their spouses; while those that rushed to be "in the club" can't maintain a stable relationship.

Back the to the NYT story; not every one drops their pants and have sex with whomever they meet. But since the NYT thinks that maybe true, then you can understand why the Access Hollywood piece has less impact. Trump's right, some people just do that, they must, or they wouldn't believe that's what everyone else does. Billy Bush doesn't immediately correct him, because he's a believer as well. I'm willing to believe it too happens in Hollywood, otherwise Weinstein would have been outed long ago and Asia would have no better to sleep with her child former costar. The original fake news is that people have sex all the time for just pure pleasure. There's some truth, and I agree it is pleasurable thing, but I think many more people have more respect for themselves and want the same from their partners.

Etienne said...

Bottom line: they were minors.

Next!

rhhardin said...

Clarity is not the point. It's the feminine needs section of Kroger.

Shouting Thomas said...

You feminist ideology led us inexorably into this abyss, Althouse.

But, I suppose feminism is like communism. Nobody's ever done it the right way.

Or it could be the wrong people in charge.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

I knew the liberals were retarded, but must they make ALL of us have to relive our Junior High School years?

It was confusing enough to be a teenager. Most of us have grown out of it. Evidently the NYT and the rest of the Democrats (same thing) are still in the mentality of those JR High years.

GROW UP!

Ken B said...

What David Begley said. There were three stunningly beautiful women in my graduating class (of about 300 I guess). I earned kudos from friends for getting to dance with one of them at a school dance —one dance! I can imagine somebody having a Cindy list. I know we had discussions about guys lucky enough to date Jackie, but we had no real knowledge. If someone wrote the list down it would mean nothing.

Trolling yearbooks to find imagined infractions by people who knew Brett Kavanaugh is beyond mere guilt by association. Even Althouse balks.

Michael K said...

Birches, that was an interesting link.

The Democrats are well into the ridiculous stage but find themselves incapable of restraint.

"All they have to do is not act crazy and they can't even do that."

buwaya said...

Nothing here is deranged.
Many of their readers may be deranged, but not the people who chose to print this.
These people (the NYT management and editors) aren't stupid.
They can make mistakes, but that is something we can all do.
And sometimes defeat in a collective endeavor will happen regardless of ones own efforts.
But they are not deranged, or stupid.


There is a system and purpose behind all they do.

Shouting Thomas said...

Once Hillary denounces her husband, the ideology will be purified.

Party loyalty must always come before the personal.

tim in vermont said...

the insinuation that the New York Times puts on the phrase written by a boy whose brain hadn’t even fully developed is reprehensible.

Martin said...

As Dorothy Parker famously said of Oakland: "There's no there, there."

This isn't even guilt by association, it's total garbage. Just when you think they can't go any lower...

The Ronan Farrow stuff wasn't good enough for the NYT, so they go with this instead? The mind boggles.

Amadeus 48 said...

In the spirit of the times, I have chosen a new avatar.

Hobbes: Outside society, life would be solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.

tim in vermont said...

The kind of logic used to find him #GUILTY is the same kind of logic that was used to find “penumbras” in the Constitution. He is guilty for ‘all intents and purposes’ and “we all know,” to borrow one of their logical rules, what their “intents and purposes” are.

tim in vermont said...

This isn’t even guilt by association, it's total garbage.

It’s bootstrapped from the necessities of will to power, just like Roe v Wade.

Ambrose said...

I thought Kavanaugh was a bit of an egg head nerd - which is fine and all for a Supreme Court Justice, but now I must say all these rumors have really humanized him.

Steve M. Galbraith said...

Stating the obvious: this is why they wanted the delay. I'll even state it's why Dr. Ford wanted one. They wanted to see if Democratic operatives and the liberal press could find more damaging information on Kavanaugh. I'll suggest that's not what you do if you were fully confident about your allegations.

As for this piece: this never should have been published. It's nonsense. High school boys boasting - that is lying - about their sex lives. And treating girls cruelly. And girls treating boys cruelly. And other girls even more so.

tim in vermont said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
stevew said...

And so we see why rumors, hearsay, and innuendo are considered non-factual and, in this context, purely political in motivation, especially those that are 35 years old.

-sw

tim in vermont said...

High school boys boasting - that is lying

In the ‘90s, it was “everybody lies about sex” because that’s what Democrats needed then to undergird their will to power.

rightguy said...

All these people are recognizable characters from my high school class of 1971, public school Texas. (Incidently, the exact same school that Wes Anderson was banished to, when he flunked out of Rushmore.) I won't speak for the others, but I didn't know my hole from an ass in the ground. I turned out OK, but I would be mortified to have my 17 year self scrutinized like this. And yeah, there were some really good guys like BK, who just wanted to be on the football team and get along with the other guys, but ware not really like them at all. The average, reasonable, & sentient person knows all this and is offended by the democrat's ruthless, unhinged behavior. The politics of personal destruction. Scorched earth, baby bayoneting total political war. No prisoners. Red wave in November.

campy said...

"You know, it’s always helpful when we have a man telling us what a woman should be offended by."

I'm so old I can remember when "mansplaining" was a bad thing.

n.n said...

Roe v Wade is so crucial to our physical, moral, emotional and mental state of being

It really is. Lower poverty. Reduced childhood mortality. Increased GDP. Social progress. The wicked solution has its benefits.

Incidentally, they offer the same defense for catastrophic anthropogenic immigration reform (a.k.a. refugee crises).

And then there is this bit of diversity:

Something is broken when the USA women are dominated by white girls next door
the guardian - Hope Solo

Progressives project.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Someone named Melisa Danford asks: (insty)

If a vindictive woman or ideological zealot in this polarized time decides a man must be silenced, isolated, or otherwise moved out of the way, what protections will he have? What due process will protect the innocent? Should we pretend people, both women and men, do not make false accusations for a whole host of reasons?

Fernandinande said...

The NYT's latest lobbing sure has me confused.

Oso Negro said...

So. This is the latest rotten blossom on the shrub of feminism. I want to state, for the record, that I listed after and fucked as many girls as I could in high school. I would also like to state that the girls often initiated it, and enjoyed it. We did it because we were fine young animals and fucking is fun. No one got hurt, no one got pregnant (birth control, hello), no one got an STD. That is all. American women are the most spoiled in the world and generally speaking, the more “educated” the more spoiled. They have come to believe the most preposterous things. I don’t want my son to marry one, I don’t want my grandson to marry one.

Trumpit said...
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Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

The collective corporate press(D) are on the side of the leftwing accuser.

MacMacConnell said...

Ambrose said...
"I thought Kavanaugh was a bit of an egg head nerd"

I'll say, he supposedly tried to rape a girl with his pants on.

Oso Negro said...

“Lusted”, not “listed”. Good old, red-blooded American lust.

Big Mike said...

@Althouse, as long as you're looking at old yearbooks, how about taking a look at excerpts from Christine Blasey Ford's old yearbook. Probably nothing surprising for an old hippie chick, but still ...

Here's one excerpt:
“Lastly one cannot fail to mention the climax of the junior social scene, the party. Striving to extend our educational experience beyond the confines of the classroom, we played such intellectually stimulating games as Quarters, Mexican Dice and everyone’s favorite, Pass-Out, which usually resulted from the aforementioned two.”

“Beach week culminated the year for those of us lucky enough to go. With school and our minds in temporary recess, we were able to release all those troubling inhibitions of the past year. While dancing in the middle of coastal Highway, Ann [redacted last name] and friends picked up some men who passed out in their apartment…”

1982 was a particularly wild year and Scribe 82 published multiple pictures of minors drinking heavily, beer cans stacked up, liquor repeatedly glorified, "boys, beer and “the ‘Zoo’ atmosphere”.

There's more.

narciso said...

Or you are an attractive Republican woman, a studious African American or Latino, Francisco as a Filipino will next become a two minute hate.

Birkel said...

Back to #5 from the previous post:

The Left claims it can hound you out of the public sphere for current positions.
The Left claims the Right should be hounded out of the public sphere for high school shenanigans for which there is vanishingly little proof.

If the right attempts any counter, that amounts to actual violence.

And Althouse wonders at the Right's increasing militancy.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Trumpit - eh - Left-wing women are particularity vile.

Got anything to say about Bill Clinton's accusers? Many of them WORKED FOR HIM. THEY WERE LOYAL DEMOCRATS.

Amadeus 48 said...

The New York Times has taken possession of the Philosopher's Stone. This fabled work of medieval alchemists was in legend able to turn base substances into gold. Unfortunately, the legend somewhat overstated the Stone's capabilities. In fact, the Philosopher's Stone in the possession of the New York Times turns everything it touches into shit.

Hold your heads high, Mr. and Mrs. Kavanaugh: when you wake up tomorrow, you will still be you. The New York Times and its staff will be over their heads in dog poop.

policraticus said...

I feel stupider every time I read this stuff.

The smrt is oozing out of my earballs.

What a pathetic, reprehensible performance.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

You hate women because they menstruate. They are bleedy, needy, and seedy. Their gardens are weedy and need a man to "plow through it."

Sounds like Trumpit needs to get some personal hygiene advice.

Big Mike said...

At 8:31 Gahrie asked: "Are you still denying that boys are sexually aggressive as teenagers and girls are the gatekeepers? "

At Holton-Arms the girls were aggressors, too. Just check the yearbooks.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Shorter Trumpit - false shape-shifting 36+ year old accusations by crazed unstable leftwing professors are awesome.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Poor Blasey-Fored. She'll never be able to fly to Hawaii ever again.

I hope someone is paying attention to her use of the airport.

Trumpit said...

"Clarity is not the point. It's the feminine needs section of Kroger."

So today you disparage all women instead of blacks. You mock so-call "feminine needs. You hate women because they menstruate. They are bleedy, needy, and seedy. Their gardens are weedy and need a man to "plow through it." Tomorrow, it'll be blacks who you "smear" again. There are still Mexicans, and Native Americans left to face your wicked analysis of some "test" someone took. You'd wipe out the inferiors black race if you could wave your evil wand. You don't answer the Kavanaugh Kuestions Konvincingly: Who was at the party? Where did it take place? When was this supposed to have occurred? Who bought and brought the beer? It was Mr. Mustard in the kitchen with a knife. You haven't a Clue and are cruel by birth right: white, male, Republican and control the Judicial Committee. I remind you: You can bleed, too. I hope you bleed out of here soon.

Francisco D said...

There was a girl in my class (grade and high school) whom all the boys were in love with. The girls all liked her as well. She was gorgeous, had a great personality and was smart (graduated Harvard Law and was smart and rich enough to stay out of law as a profession).

I "dated" her briefly in 8th grade by taking her for cokes and fries to a local deli. It was the highlight of my junior HS life, almost. My friends joked that I "scored" by putting my arm around her. In HS, we were terribly jealous of the football team captain (a great guy, but a lousy quarterback) who actually dated her.

Everyone knew who she ever dated, although we never referred to them as the alumni. It was a badge of honor. It was an innocent time with no trace of maliciousness. It amazes me at how jaded our sophisticates have become.

Chris N said...

There’s trouble at Our Lady Of The Global Village.

Bushman of the Kohlrabi said...

My god, high school yearbooks. Next thing you know, the NYTs will be reporting the bombshell that Brett, while in sixth grade, took a peek at his father's Playboy magazine.

tim in vermont said...

Trumpit, with your low IQ, I don’t think you would last five minutes in this new world you seem to be hoping for.

buwaya said...

No there there

That was Gertrude Stein.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

I know a guy who went to North Western and played football there. This was only 8 years ago. He remembers quite well how many of the females would throw themselves at the football players. The idea that lust is a one-way street at that age? Bullshit.

stevew said...

Too early to say for sure but the relentless attacks, and near daily new stories, seem to be hardening the GOP's spine in defense and favor of Kavanaugh. Is it enough to bring in Flake, Corker, Collins, and Murkowski - is their support enabled by the 'have you no shame' attacks on the good judge?

-sw

Expat(ish) said...

I can't recall who above thought that they'd be humiliated if their 17 year old self got this level of scrutiny.

Truer words.

I can think of a few people who would say very nice things about High School me, a few more who would be very negative (for good reason), and I'd guess the rest would be drawing a blank. In a class of 63 people.

Amazing that all these people remember BK.

_XC

Michael K said...

The latest letter from Blasey-Ford's handlers suggests no appearance Thursday.

She is probably not up to it and they will beat the drums for a while.

This makes it mandatory that the next nominee be female, probably Amy Barrett.

mockturtle said...

High school yearbook signatures are now going to be parsed and analyzed for cryptic evidence of evildoing? Do you have any idea how ridiculous you are sounding?

tim in vermont said...

I used to draw pictures of US fighter jets vs MIGs in my notebooks. Oh how many Russian pilots I killed! War crimes! I sunk ships too! I might have strafed the survivors, but I doubt that one, but if Kevin or Steve says I did, I am guilty and off to The Hague!

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

In reality - it's the left who hate women.

"The hate storm being leveled by the left at Ashley Kavanaugh is a good indicator of what they really think of women---or at least any women with whom they disagree. So enough already with the liberal lecturing about "respect" and "bullying."

-Kimberley Strassel

Mike Sylwester said...

A couple days ago, a commenter here quoted from an article titled
It’s like having an argument with your crazy girlfriend: the latest from Ford
, in a blog called Neo. That blog's author has a Master's Degree in Marriage and Family Therapy.

Neo describes Christine Blasey Ford so well that I want to repeat the quote here.

[quote]

Most of us have had the experience of arguing with a person like this.

Give an inch? They take a mile.

Make concessions? They want more.

They are the poor suffering victims. They don’t like your tone of voice. They don’t like the expression on your face.

If you try to be calm, you’re cold.

If you try to be sympathetic, you’re condescending.

Nothing you do is okay, and everything they do is okay.

[end quote]

Michael K said...

I remind you: You can bleed, too. I hope you bleed out of here soon.

The low IQs usually turn to threats even earlier than this

Amadeus 48 said...

Kavanaugh was obviously a straight arrow in high school. We all knew people like him, and some of us were like him. He wanted good grades, and he wanted to make the most of his athletic talents. He paid attention to his parents and tried not to embarrass them or his family.

None of the accusations floated in the news media ring true with respect to the man I saw interviewed by Martha McCallem last night.

buwaya said...

Francisco is half-Filipino.
And his dad was apparently a mestizo himself, so he is somewhat less than half Filipino. He has the eyes but not the nose. He does look like he belongs in a corner office in Makati.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Micheal K - the "poor victim" will be cast as "poor victim" by the Mass Democrat Corporate Press.

Poor victim that she is. It's hard to get the story straight when it's a fabrication.

Michael K said...

Neo is one of my daily reads. She was also a ballerina.

Bushman of the Kohlrabi said...

No wonder the NYTs has no time to investigate possible corruption at the FBI and DOJ. Too busy reading conservative's high school yearbooks.

Spiros said...

“Show me your friends and I’ll tell you who you are…” Everybody in Kavanaugh's circle are sick pervs and drunks. Mr. Kavanaugh has a dark side and we can't pretend ignorance. Gosh, what if Avenatti is right and this guy gang raped drunk, or otherwise incapacitated, teenage girls? And then the bums in the GOP approve this guy? Can you imagine an impeachment trial full of sordid tales of rape and torture? No thanks. Even if there is only a small chance that this trash is true, it is still an unacceptable risk. The Supreme Court is too important!

n.n said...

Ball one. Ball two. Ball three... Is it time for him to walk?

Ball four... Home run! Kavanaugh has been appointed Supreme Court Justice.

Spiros said...

Oh and I really hate the evil doppelganger business. Wow! Kavanaugh wasn't the culprit! Yeah right, it's like O.J. Simpson going out and saying he's going to find the real killer. Thanks, but no thanks.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

btw- the media lies about Ford being threatened. Bullshit.

It's the fascist leftwing mob who are threatening Kavanaugh and his entire family.

See Ted Cruz.


"All we’ve heard from Democrats since Feinstein threw the Senate Dems’ ‘Hail Mary’ by dropping Ford’s letter of allegations against Kavanaugh that she’d sat on for two months is that the GOP is bullying her and all survivors of sexual assault.

Seriously, if you can stand to read the timelines of Mazie Hirono, Kirsten Gillibrand, Kamala Harris, etc. you’ll see many, many tweets about how they believe women ... just not women who accuse Democrats. While trashing Kavanaugh, which has led to his family being harassed and threatened.


Vile leftwing hypocritical females. NOTHING WORSE.

Yancey Ward said...

I hear that tomorrow the NYTimes is running a story that Brett Kavanaugh bragged about repeatedly shagging his Summer girlfriend from Canada while at Georgetown Prep. The NYTimes reports that despite their best efforts, no one has been able to ever find this girlfriend leading to suspicions that Kavanaugh killed her.

tim in vermont said...

Gosh, what if Avenatti is right and this guy gang raped drunk, or otherwise incapacitated, teenage girls?

Even if there is only a small chance that this trash is true, it is still an unacceptable risk. The Supreme Court is too important!

Yes, that’s the standard, accusation. If you guys are this upset about losing the election, maybe you shouldn’t have run Hillary.

Michael K said...


Ambrose said...
"I thought Kavanaugh was a bit of an egg head nerd"

I'll say, he supposedly tried to rape a girl with his pants on.


You remind me of one of my engineer jokes. One engineering student compliments another on his bike.

The other says, "A girl was riding this bike last week and, when she saw me, she put the bike down, took off all her clothes and said "Take what you want !" So, I took the bike."

The other says, "Good choice. The clothes would probably not fit."

Steve M. Galbraith said...

Everybody in Kavanaugh's circle are sick pervs and drunks.

Sure, we're all familiar with those orgies that the Federalist Society conducts.

And him coaching a girl's basketball team is clearly a cover for white sex slave ring.

n.n said...

Neo is one of my daily reads. She was also a ballerina.

Law, family, and art. She's the whole woman. And, a citizen journalist, too.

mockturtle said...

If the confirmation fails, then every member of the Senate Judiciary Committee should be investigated all the way back to kindergarten. It would be interesting to see what turns up.

tim in vermont said...

leading to suspicions that Kavanaugh killed her.

Not just her, but her whole family and everybody who ever knew her. Rolled it up tighter than Stalin would have!

Michael K said...

Wow! Kavanaugh wasn't the culprit!

Wow ! Spiros has evidence no one else has!

Come on, Cough it up or we might have to waterboard you.

tim in vermont said...

Even if there is only a small chance that this trash is true,

I wonder if that standard applies to the presidency, because there is a lot of “trash” out there about Hillary Clinton that had a far larger chance of being true and you didn’t give a flying fuck.

M Jordan said...

This has turned into a War on Frat Culture. They failed in that war at Duke. They failed at Virginia via the Rolling Stone. They will fail with Kavanaugh. Frat culture is a bastion of maleness. I myself eschewe tthat world because I thought of frat guys as pricks. I preferred to hang out with dicks*. But today as an older male surveying the landscape, I’m suddenly a big fan of frat culture. Hope lies in the Frats!

*A prick is a rich kid whose a jerk. A dick is an asshole. Big difference.

tim in vermont said...

“Show me your friends and I’ll tell you who you are…”

I think that the quote you are looking for is “Show me the man and I will show you the crime.”

Etienne said...

The Supreme Court Justices have been completely silent on the frontal attack of their independent and equal branch of government.

This can only mean the Executive branch has been nominating the wrong people.

Michael K said...

every member of the Senate Judiciary Committee should be investigated all the way back to kindergarten. It would be interesting to see what turns up.

Have you read the list of wife beater Democrat Senators ? Pretty long list. Saw it yesterday.

Carper.

Brown.

Then, of course, there is Grayson but he was only a Congressman.

William said...

There's a reason juvenile records are sealed. Can't we all just agree that delving into high school gossip is scurrilous......I remember the Dems dug up some dirt on Romney and Jeb Bush from middle school. Is such behavior during adolescence a true indicator of who the man is? I'm inclined to think that it's a true indicator of how scummy the press is............What are the chances Obama or some other Dem made an unwanted advance on some girl at some time in his life? Pretty high, I'd guess. What are the chances that this girl would cone forward Years later to report it? Small. What are the chances the press would actively seek out such a woman and/or report sympathetically on her plight? Vanishingly small.........Ben Bradley took active steps to cover up JFK's sexual transgressions . Democracy dues in darkness.

tim in vermont said...

Not to mention Menendez - D New Jersey who has been credibly accused by “child prostitutes” of using trafficked underage girls for sex. But he doesn’t get a moment in the spotlight because racism!

whatthedickens said...

Ann, Hope you have read Mollie Hemingway's piece in The Federalist": she points out a few matters relevant to the sourcing of this story.

Lance said...

It's such a weak effort at piling on the attacks that it makes the earlier attacks seem weaker.

By earlier attacks you mean Ford? Or do you include Ramirez and Avenatti?

What evidence did those earlier attacks provide that's not being provided by this NYT/Hagan attack? Put another way, what specifically about the earlier attacks is being weakened?

Yancey Ward said...

Restraint in all things is one of the first things you lose when you are angry, and the Left is so very angry right now. I think organs like the NYTimes have lost all ability to understand how what they are doing looks everyone outside the choir in which they are singing. Yes, the piling on is counterproductive, but you will never get them to understand that.

narciso said...

Also there is a ahia candidate who has a wicked back hand, if you get my drift.

Mike Sylwester said...

Meanwhile, the murder of Seth Rich still has not been explained.

Mike Sylwester said...

... why is the NYT choosing to dilute the carefully built up allegation made by Christine Blasey Ford?

You're supposed to put the word Doctor in front of her name.

HoodlumDoodlum said...

Well yeah this seems like a silly attack, Professor Althouse, but as you reminded us just yesterday we all have to take into account "the stakes" involved.
Remember? Because the stakes are so high it's OK for stuff like this to run. Because the stakes are so high the standards we use to evaluate likely guilt can be much much lower than we'd otherwise tolerate and we can safely ignore any injustice that might be done to an individual or group.
The stakes! Don't forget the stakes.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

We all know that HS boys never brag about real of imagined sex with girls. no never.
It's cool when leftists pursue females.. but no one else!

Media Snowflakes Now Triggered by High School Yearbooks

Howard said...

This type of bullshit reporting helps Bart O'K like the restaurant hysteria helps Cruz. The democrats like to shoot themselves in the foot rather than compete

HoodlumDoodlum said...

Nina Burleigh on Bill Clinton: "I think American women should be lining up with their Presidential kneepads on to show their gratitude for keeping the theocracy off our backs"

Ann Althouse on Kavanaugh (paraphrase): We have to consider more than just the effect of injustice to this one guy and his family--in order to keep the theocracy off our backs we must use different standards of evaluation when assessing accusations.

What was your objection to pro-Clinton distortions of feminism, Professor? Hard to remember.

Howard said...

It interesting tho what juveniles the ideologues on the right choose to persecute as adults and who to exsponge

Big Mike said...

I assume many readers will interpret that first sentence to mean "boys will be boys" — a damning excuse

So how did you raise your sons, Althouse?

Howard said...


Blogger Yancey Ward said...

Restraint in all things is one of the first things you lose when you are angry, and the Left is so very angry right now. I think organs like the NYTimes have lost all ability to understand how what they are doing looks everyone outside the choir in which they are singing. Yes, the piling on is counterproductive, but you will never get them to understand that.


Exactly so

Howard said...

Anger is counterproductive. revenge best delivered ice cold

tim in vermont said...

t interesting tho what juveniles the ideologues on the right choose to persecute as adults and who to exsponge

So are you going to expand on that? Or just leave it is slimy insinuation?

Jess said...

The solution is to stop subscribing, linking, or reading the New York Times. After time, the rodent droppings of the media will disappear forever.

henge2243 said...

I am disappointed. Where is the slow moving coverage as Ms. Ford drives across the US to her hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee?

She probably hasn't left yet as it seems unlikely that she will testify.

tim in vermont said...

After time, the rodent droppings of the media will disappear forever.

The purpose of owning a newspaper like the NYT is for wealthy people to have a way to do favors for the powerful, which is why billionaires like Mexican national, Carlos Slim, buy them. They can waste a lot of money getting what they want.

tim in vermont said...

Remember all of the ink the New York Times spilled getting Condoleezza Rice a membership at Augusta?

Lewis Wetzel said...

So now the NY Times is slut-shaming this Renate woman?

tim in vermont said...

BTW, it’s not “confusing” if you “know” he’s guilty, it’s clarifying. It’s further proof, because there is a way to interpret it that goes along with your pre-existing belief that he’s guilty. It’s all about bootstrapping the truth for “all intents and purposes.”

To Althouse’s credit, she does recognize that it isn’t the droid she’s looking for, but still, it’s “confusing” because, dammit! It needs to be true to get her way!

tim in vermont said...

So now the NY Times is slut-shaming this Renate woman?

She vouched for BK, so she’s fair game!

PM said...

Next up, masturbation, bed-wetting and torching ants with a magnifying glass.

Howard said...

Blogger Lewis Wetzel said...

So now the NY Times is slut-shaming this Renate woman?

The Aztec-run NYT cut out Renate's beating heart and flung it down the steps of the pyramid.

Bill said...

I've long thought that ours is an adolescent culture, but I never thought it would come to this.

Howard said...

Good morning triggered tim, is it a Ben & Jerry's day?

wildswan said...

Show me a man and I will show you a crime.

n.n said...

we might have to waterboard you

That's a weak threat. Planned would be more effective. Go through the process. The steps of the procedure. Stop short of the wicked solution.

Lewis Wetzel said...

Blogger Francisco D said...
It amazes me at how jaded our sophisticates have become.

Don't confuse being jaded with being stupid.

tim in vermont said...

Good morning triggered tim, is it a Ben & Jerry's day?

When you throw up bait for ridicule, I take it, I admit it. Not the same as being “triggered.” It’s more a fun sport. I would enjoy out badinage a bit more if you were better at it though.

Boxty said...

Renate means "reborn," as in "born again Christian." It will be funny if it turns out these kids were baptized as young adults (credobaptism or beliver's baptism) in a river by an Evangelical preacher since Catholics are usually baptized at birth.

That would make the young Kavanaugh born again AND a virgin. How much whiter than white can you get?

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Things written by other boys in a High School yearbook are now considered evidence by the leftwing mob.

got it.

exhelodrvr1 said...

"the stakes" is not the seat on the Supreme Court; the stakes is our justice system and the damage to it being done by the acceptance of these types of attacks by a significant portion of our political leadership.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

OK leftists - time to vanish your old year books. We witnessed the vanishing of Blasey Ford's old year book. Lots of partying. oooo - can you imagine>?

Michael K said...

I would say, given the last letter to Grassley from the new high priced handler, that it is now 90-10 against Ford showing up Thursday.

The nastier the language of the letters, the less likely they will risk a public viewing of their nutty client.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Hillary set the standard for Slut-shaming.

The NYT follows their leader.

Etienne said...

The press seems to be bracketing the attempted rape accusation with Juvenile Delinquent behavior.

If your team misses the basket, the real sports can attempt a rebound.

Michael K said...

the stakes is our justice system and the damage to it being done by the acceptance of these types of attacks by a significant portion of our political leadership.

The only solution I see is reversing Roe v Wade and getting the Supreme Court out of the abortion business. Let the state legislatures handle it.

wildswan said...

Read a comment somewhere else that said "Facebook is the new yearbook". When that gets around Facebook will lose what - 50 % of its clients and 90% of its content among the under thirty?

MayBee said...

Does this make Ms Dolphin a survivor?

Rick said...

High school boys boasting - that is lying - about their sex lives.

Maybe. Maybe it was a reference to people who had crushes on her. Not everything is about sex, left wingers merely assume so because it fits their purpose.

Yancey Ward said...

Tim in Vermont gets near the truth, I think:

"BTW, it’s not “confusing” if you “know” he’s guilty, it’s clarifying. It’s further proof, because there is a way to interpret it that goes along with your pre-existing belief that he’s guilty. It’s all about bootstrapping the truth for “all intents and purposes."

It does seem to be the case that the anti-Kavanaugh faction is losing the sense of what is actually helpful in making their case to the undecided because they are only trying to convince themselves. One of the reasons the lies one tells spiral out of control is that the liar loses that sense of credibleness- one is stuck defending the indefensible, and one knows it deep down, but one can't help ones self, the the next lie is less credible to everyone else than the last one. If this confirmation battle is still going on a month from now, the NYTimes will be reporting testimony from people who claimed they saw Kavanaugh literally eating the heart of a woman he killed in college.

gerry said...

mike at 8:29: As to Catholic boys showing disrespect to Catholic girls, it is such a well-known phenomenon that Billy Joel wrote a hit song about it.

And now, as a result, Billy Joel must be declared a disgusting piece of cultural filth because that song attempts to pressure young women to fornicate (holy Jezebel!)! He must be hounded whenever he appears in public! His family, his agents, his friends, must be soundly condemned! Make his grandchildren cower in fear!

Sebastian said...

Appreciate the Althouse fisking and the comments.

But we should attack the smear campaign at its premise: that the doings of high-school students, short of criminal conviction, should have any relevance to adult appointments.

rhhardin said...

One of the reasons the lies one tells spiral out of control is that the liar loses that sense of credibleness- one is stuck defending the indefensible, and one knows it deep down, but one can't help ones self, the the next lie is less credible to everyone else than the last one.

Thurber: The chief objection to a consistent, or "cross-country" use of "one" is that it tends to make a sentence sound like a trombone solo...

Ladies' and Gentlemen's Guide to Modern English Usage

Yancey Ward said...

I also suspect that Ms. Schroeder was a truly beautiful high school student, and that was the explanation of the yearbook page. Was the inscription an allusion to sexual conquest of the young lady? I don't know- it was most likely linked to braggadocio from that time. I grew up and went to school with a girl who finished in the top 3 at a Miss America pageant in the early 90s, and myself and all my friends lusted after her from about 7th grade until we all graduated- I am quite sure we all made fools of ourselves in trying to talk to and be near her. I suspect Ms. Schroeder is in that same class of high school icon.

Yancey Ward said...

rhardin,

I know- try not to overdo it, but is probably best to use "you" instead of "one". I don't do it because sometimes the person I am addressing misinterprets it as some sort of accusation.

MB said...

They are just trying to put pressure on all his acquaintances, from kindergarten to adulthood, until one of them says something incriminating or gives a bad character testimony. At that point, the negative testimony will be relentlessly promoted through every possible channel, while evidence to the contrary will be ignored.
They also want to see some crack in Kavanaugh's public facade, one bad statement or facial expression that goes counter to his carefully cultivated public image, one sign that he is giving in to pressure. At least they got him to admit that he was a virgin in high school and college. This is as good as anything else. The allegations will switch from his being too macho to his being too weak and insufficiently manly. Any "confession" that puts him at a disadvantage or any sign of weakness can be exploited.
The next step is to persuade one or several Republican senators to say something bad about Kavanaugh and vote against him. That person will pick up Senator McCain's maverick mantle and his reputation for bravery and plain speaking, for as long as it's useful.

Sebastian said...

The prog smears and character assassination and degrading of the appointment process and all-out culture war will continue just as long as liberal women like Althouse put "women's bodies" over everything.

The Dems gamble they can get away with it, stirring women's feelings of "subordination" and counting on sisterhood to override even minimal decency and common sense.

So the fundamental political question remains: do Alhouse and her sisters, from the Paglias to the suburban soccer moms, have a red line? Is there any point at which they will tell the Dems, loud and clear, that enough is enough?

So far, the answer appears to be, no.

Hence, we are f**ed.

rhhardin said...

Althouse's position is that a lifetime supreme court appointment is too much power to give to a man.

rhhardin said...

I suppose the man might want to reduce the power of the supreme court, which might be a counteraction of the Althouse feeling.

Matt Sablan said...

Yearbook cryptography should be a new science.

Unknown said...

We are so beyond Peak Stupid™ in journalism that it takes one's breath away.

Bay Area Guy said...

We need more strong, non-woke women, to courageously speak up and resist this leftwing pogrom.

I'm thinking Senators Ernst, Murkowski, Fischer, Capito, Collins and a few Governors like Falin and Martinez to get up there, express their support for women in general, express their support for due process in general, and hammer these particular charges as specious and likely fraudulent.

buwaya said...

As above, and again and again, this piece and all others like it is simply ammunition.
You do NOT have to take it seriously, in itself. Its more effective, perhaps, if you do, no matter what you think of it.

The people who published it certainly didn't take it seriously. What matters from their point of view, as officers of a unit on one side of a near-open conflict, is mass, to use a physical analogy. Effect is mass x velocity. The quality of what is being flung doesn't matter to its kinetic energy - it could be gold or dung, and dung is cheaper.

Tim says -
"The purpose of owning a newspaper like the NYT is for wealthy people to have a way to do favors for the powerful, which is why billionaires like Mexican national, Carlos Slim, buy them. They can waste a lot of money getting what they want."

Precisely. The NYT and the MSM as a whole now exists only as a political tool. It is not a business in itself, but as an auxiliary to businesses that are deeply concerned with public policy, as that is where their real money comes from. As for Carlos Slim, he is an excellent case, an appropriate investor in the NYT, as that's exactly how he operates in Mexico.

Jeff said...

We think Roe v Wade is so crucial to our physical, moral, emotional and mental state of being that we find it necessary to scour 36-year old high school yearbook quotes of this nominee, because we believe he might provide the 5th Vote to overturn Roe v Wade.

Does anyone actually believe John Roberts will vote to overturn Roe? Since 1974, Republican presidents have put on the Court pro-choice Justices Stevens, O'Connor, Kennedy, and Souter. Thomas and Scalia in their dissent from Gonzales v Carhart stated their belief that Roe had no basis in the Constitution. Neither Roberts nor Alito would join that dissent.

I think many professional Republican politicians really don't want to see Roe overturned: they'd rather have it as a campaign issue. If it were overturned, some pro-lifers would no longer be as motivated to vote by the issue, while the opposite would happen among pro-choicers.

Freeman Hunt said...

We have actual papers reporting on the high school yearbooks of middle aged people now?! We have actual articles about who went out with who and who kissed who goodnight over thirty years ago?! What absurdity. Vote and end this debacle.

Freeman Hunt said...

Where are the adults!

Michael K said...

They have now found a San Francisco guy who says he was Kavanaugh's roommate as a freshman.

He didn't know about any incident with Ramirez at the time but thinks "Kavanaugh could have done it"

Do we know any more about Mr San Francisco Roche ?

Francisco D said...

Kavanaugh has hired Beth Wilkinson as his lawyer.

She has a very impressive resume and seems well connected in DC. She is a Democrat who defended Hillary Clinton's aides in the server case. She does not seem unreasonably partisan, but then she is married to David Gregory - yes. That David Gregory.

Michael K said...

The NYT and the MSM as a whole now exists only as a political tool.

Their business model went away. Advertising used to pay the bills. Now political organizations do so.

buwaya said...

"Where are the adults!"

This piece was put out by adults, for entirely rational reasons, that is, to fight a war.

As to its readers, that is another matter.

cubanbob said...

Gosh, what if Avenatti is right and this guy gang raped drunk, or otherwise incapacitated, teenage girls?

Even if there is only a small chance that this trash is true, it is still an unacceptable risk. The Supreme Court is too important!"

We already have had three Democrat presidents (not to mention Democrat senators and congressmen) far worse in office and I rather doubt that one supreme court judge is more important than one president. Considering the Democrat Party is a hive of perverts, criminals and grifters no Democrat should be allowed in any government position. The risk is unacceptable.

Grasley and McConnel stop farting around. Hold the vote today. Advice for Trump: next justice that dies or resign nominate someone who out and loud will state if presented with the right case they will vote to overrule Roe v Wade and revert the matter back to the states and the political process to decide.

Etienne said...

In other news Constance Queniaux has been identified in Gustave Courbet's painting "L'Origine du monde" with 99% accuracy.

This disgusting painting of maidenhair insinuates the world was derived from a birth canal.

readering said...

Sometimes Althouse tries to parse a daily news article written under deadline like it was a George Herbert poem studied in HS English class. It didn't cause me any reading comprehension difficulty. It's all part of the effort to figure out something that happened 35 years ago to teenagers. To the extent the Kavanaugh defense is based on testimonials as to his general character with women the yearbook is evidence. Okay, let's wait Thursday, if it ever happens. (Sounding doubtful.)

FullMoon said...

Text from Birches link at 8:47 regarding sources

A New York Times article scrutinizing inside jokes in the 1983 yearbook of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s Georgetown Preparatory School hid multiple problems with its claims, including that it was sourced to a rabidly anti-Trump politician in Maryland and his associate.

The article reveals inside jokes about a friend of Kavanaugh and his classmates named Renate Schroeder Dolphin. The classmates are featured in a picture with a caption “Renate Alumnius,” which the Times’ named and anonymous sources argue is bragging about sex. The classmates strenuously insist that the reference was nothing of the kind and that none of the men had sexual relations with the friend. They say that they attended each other’s dances and prep school functions and maintained the friendship throughout the next several decades.

The original article published online on Monday night was quickly scrubbed of a reference to a “Mr. Madaleno.” The Times uses full names on first references to sources and titles on second references, though it was the first time his name was mentioned in the article. The claim of sexual braggadocio is sourced earlier in the article to one named and one anonymous individual who claims to fear retribution. NewsDiffs, a site that tracks changes to articles at the New York Times, caught the rapid deletion of his name. Reporters Kate Kelly and David Enrich did not explain why it was removed.

Richard S. Madaleno Jr., a classmate of Kavanaugh’s at Georgetown Prep, is a state senator in Maryland who recently lost a bid for the Democratic nomination for governor. He garnered headlines for a campaign ad that featured him kissing his male spouse as a rebuke of Trump. The 30-second spot has him telling viewers he seeks to “deliver progressive results and stand up to Donald Trump” before listing things he’s done “that already infuriate” Trump.

As he announces his progressive results — protecting the country’s largest abortion corporation, fighting gun rights, and opposing vouchers for schools — people he’s pictured with say “Take that, Trump!” Madaleno ends with a video of him and his partner Mark Hodge. “What’s the number one way I piss off Donald Trump and the Republicans?” Madaleno asks. After kissing his partner, he says “Take that, Trump!” The Madaleno campaign said it hoped Trump himself would view the ad and that it would set him off.

Another source for the article, Georgetown Prep classmate William Fishburne, was a campaign surrogate for Madaleno. He implored classmates to vote in the June 26 primary. The “staunch liberal” finished fifth in a crowded primary.

Yet another source for the article who condemned the jokes that were printed in the yearbook was himself an editor at the yearbook, although that was not mentioned in the article. He and a source who supposedly “requested anonymity because he fears retribution” said that the the inside jokes were bragging about sexual conquests with the female student. Kavanaugh and several of his classmates denied the charge. Several of the men say sources the Times used weren’t close enough to the group to speak knowledgeably about their jokes.

The last line of the article is “[Dolphin] and a second friend of Ms. Dolphin’s denied that there was any sexual contact between Ms. Dolphin and Judge Kavanaugh or anyone else in his circle.” A similar denial was the first line of a statement to the New York Times from some of the men mentioned in the article, but it was not printed. It began, “None of us has ever taken part in any kind of verbal conduct or physical actions described by the Times and never bragged about or suggested any such thing.”

The Times, which allowed anonymous sources to make the claim of sexual bragging that forms the basis of the story, would not allow anonymous sources to dispute that claim or defend the group of classmates.

FullMoon said...

When a reporter from the New York Times called one of the men a few days ago, the reporter said, “I understand that you and other friends used to brag about having had sex with” Dolphin and that a story saying as much was about to be published. It is unclear whether the reporter made similar presentations to Dolphin to elicit comments from her. The friends’ claims to the contrary, including denials of any sexual contact, were downplayed or ignored by the New York Times.

“The New York Times’ callous treatment of the yearbook references to our friend have now destroyed relationships that span four decades. These friendships can’t be recovered and will never be replaced. The anguish caused to our friend is immeasurable; the loss of her trust and respect is devastating,” said one member of the group portrayed by the article, who requested anonymity both because he worries about causing further distress and for fear the New York Times will continue to target him.
Mollie Ziegler Hemingway is a senior editor at The Federalist. Follow her on Twitter at @mzhemingway

Gospace said...

We've been married 40 years. There are many things I remember doing together that she doesn't and vice-versa. And there's no pictures or video to prove either of us is remembering wrong. It's something you learn to live with.

I've been involved with the local Scout troop for 20+ years now. They have a scrapbook with pictures. And I'm in many of the pictures at events I don't remember doing activities I don't remember. And I have a pretty good memory. (Except for names...)

Unless someone documented at the time exactly why they wrote something 40 years ago, the only thing the writing shows is that something was written 40 years ago. If it has ambiguous meaning, well, it's ambiguous. Trusting anyone's memory on the meaning is foolish.

Darrell said...

Do we know any more about Mr San Francisco Roche ?

Yeah. He could have done it, too.

cubanbob said...

Precisely. The NYT and the MSM as a whole now exists only as a political tool. It is not a business in itself, but as an auxiliary to businesses that are deeply concerned with public policy, as that is where their real money comes from. As for Carlos Slim, he is an excellent case, an appropriate investor in the NYT, as that's exactly how he operates in Mexico."

The irony that these very same people and organizations were all against the Citizens United ruling.

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

I don't care if Kavanaugh wrote that or not. I don't even care if he raped and murdered a thousand people if there's no proof and no way to prove it after 35 to 20 years.

tcrosse said...

I think many professional Republican politicians really don't want to see Roe overturned: they'd rather have it as a campaign issue.

Likewise it's in the Democrats' interest to have Roe constantly under threat, as it has been since 1973, to keep the pro-choice voters in line.

Michael K said...

Okay, let's wait Thursday, if it ever happens. (Sounding doubtful.)

I'm saying 90-10 no show.

The next nominee will be Amy Barrett when RBG takes her dirt nap.

Mass hysteria with Catholics replacing teen aged boys as the enemy.

iowan2 said...

Those in the Acela corridor or way wrong on this. They have no idea what real people that spend 18 hours of the day living life, and none of their life includes immersing themselves in the main stream media political drival.

I just got done getting my teeth cleaned and a cavity filled. So I had two hours to listen to the office chatter. All women, from 60, the female dentist, her assistant, who was 50ish and a half a dozen other women, the youngest I saw was thirty something. All married with families. Every single one of them expressed disgust with the Dems obvious coordinated smearing and a universal opinion that the two accusers are lying and get paid for it. The whole process is too staged managed for any other conclusion. (They refused to give Avinutty anything but a dissmissive snort) All of these women were at one time supporters of Clintons wife, as what all little girls could achieve. Until her crash and burn after the election, they all thought her real failure is her actions after the election, not losing the election.

The DC bubble crowd are living 180 degrees out of phase with real people.

Darrell said...

I got ahold of Brett Kavanaugh's fingerpaintings from his kindergarten class. They're a match with
Gustave Courbet's "L'Origine du monde." An EXACT match. Explain that, gavel man.

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