[I]t is hard not to be fatalistic if you are a journalist. Every magazine I have ever worked for, and I have worked for them all, is dead or will die shortly. For another thing, Donald Trump is the one consuming subject, sucking all views and opinions into his void, and on this issue I have nothing left to say. Still, even with the collapse of so many journalistic enterprises, many of my former colleagues still go on at great and constant unpaid length on social media or, scrambling for a pay-per-appearance contract, as desperately willing pundits on cable television. Why? People are afraid, it seems, to say nothing. I’m looking forward to trying.You know what I say: Better than nothing is a high standard. It's good that (if?) Wolff realizes that the endless barrage of ranting against Trump is worse than nothing. But he can't get everyone else to stop doing it, and one man's silence can't be heard when everyone else is talking. He clearly knows that, which is why he is talking. Talking about how other people need to have the courage to shut up.
Alas, I have a four-year-old. So there will have to be some form of exchanging words for dollars in order to provide for the next 20 years of her education. But really I am not sure how, if I were doing gainful work, I would be able to perform all the duties necessary for applying to kindergarten. I have older children, all of whom have been successfully educated, but our daughter is my wife’s first and she has cast a wide net among Uptown, Downtown, public, private, traditional and progressive schools....Wolff is 66 years old and publicly whining about his current wife's spending habits and the difficulty he's having making a living in his field that has gone to hell. Retire! You're 66! But somehow, you have a 4 year old, and you're on the hook for the next 20 years — that is, until you are 86.
[My son is] a stand-up comedian... A surprising number of my contemporaries have children who are stand-up comics. Could this have something to do with the disappearance of a certain kind of journalism?...Could it have something to do with seeing your own father as some kind of joke?
ADDED: I have the feeling that Wolff really does have a writing project, and it's the story of his adventures in fatherhood, with a 4-year-old daughter and a standup comedian son. He's struggling with his own mortal decline and the decline of his profession. It's unlikely that he's honest or talented enough to write a book I'd care about reading, but if a great writer would steal this idea and write a novel titled "All My Friends' Sons Are Stand-up Comedians," I'd love to read it.
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118 comments:
Michael Wolff? Please. Isn't he a punch-line? Shouldn't he be?
If he worked as a freelancer all his life, he may not have a retirement fund. Especially if he had more than one family to support. Especially if the first family had the expensive taste of the second family. Young wives are expensive.
Telling the waiter he was allergic to the lettuce when he wasn't, and then getting stuck with the lie, that was funny because he should have realized, it's considered a problem if the same equipment is used or in the same area, it's not enough just to omit the one item. So he got stuck with the lie. Instead of just asking, can it be prepared without the lettuce because I don't especially like it.
So I see a larger lesson here for Wolff, maybe at this point in your life you should seek to simplify, don't make everything so complicated. Just be honest. Tell your wife the kid's going to the nearest public school.
The troubles of Leftwing Manhattanite journalists?
Hmm. Lemme think about that for a bit and get back to you.
It's definitely a lifestyle issue. When I was sixty-two my wife and I adopted a baby girl whose prospects were otherwise rather dreadful. She turns 9 in a couple of months and is an enduring delight in our lives.
We live modestly in a 1921 farmhouse (with no mortgage) on a productive farm (with no mortgage) even though I've always refused the USDA Farm Subsidies for which we're eligible. We cook nearly all of our meals from scratch.
The last new vehicle I bought was in 1989. In addition to farming I've long worked as a freelance agronomist, and we're gradually accumulating a modest retirement fund when work or farming is good.
My two sons are highly successful men in their mid-40s, and each worked his way through college without student loans or parental assistance -- I attribute much of their success in life to that single fact. We're not looking for some tony private pre-school for our daughter, or fancy high-end clothes, and like her brothers ... if she wants a college education she'll figure out how to pay for it.
I suspect she be rather better off -- and I don't *necessarily* mean financially -- than Wolff's unfortunate spawn, trapped in Manhattan elitism and snobbery.
Growing up, both of my parents expressed racial egalitarianism. My parents loathed judging people on their group affiliation, and never used terms like "the n-word" or ethnically-based jokes. Even though I came to discover later that my parents and I shared racial judgments, they never voiced those judgments in my presence to avoid clouding my judgment. I will always love them for that.
A few years back, my father, one of my sisters, and myself were in New Orleans. My sister and I were there for recreation, and my father was there for business. We were eating at Desires Oyster Bar one day, and my sister (out of pure politeness) offered to pay the bill. My father would not hear of it and demanded that he pay the bill. Meanwhile, the oyster shucker (a black man) said, "Hey, man, a lady is offering to pay, let her pay." My father brushed him off.
As we were departing, my father leaned in to me and said, "That's a fucking nigger right there. No woman is ever going to pay when she eats with me."
I was shocked, obviously because I was in my mid-20s and hearing my father say "the n-word" for the very fist time, but mostly because I totally agreed with him.
I suspect she be rather better off -- and I don't *necessarily* mean financially -- than Wolff's unfortunate spawn, trapped in Manhattan elitism and snobbery.
It is so annoying the way econometric measures have become metaphors for the development of a society. Guess what? There are plenty of people who are technically "impoverished" by measures of GDP and purchasing power but who are totally content with their lives. In what way are those people "less than" richer people who are more miserable?
I have no idea, instead of measuring people's worth by their income and net worth, why don't we just ask them how content they are? If a poor person is much more content than a rich person, how can you possibly tell them that they are "less than?"
I've seen so many cases like this. Men and women who have made good salaries who have made poor life choices and reach retirement age unprepared. Having children with the second or third wife late in life. Living for the moment. A lifestyle that left nothing left for saving. Then they arrive at retirement age and find that there is nothing there to retire on.
Early in my career I had a co-worker who was a Mormon. He made a very modest salary and had four or five kids. His wife was a stay at home mom. Yet he donated 10% to his church and saved another 10% of each paycheck, some might say religiously. I have no doubt that Jay is enjoying a fine retirement now.
I learned a lesson from him and always tried to live well within my means. Luckily, i have a wife who was fine with that.
I retired when i was 57.
J. Farmer said...
I suspect she be rather better off -- and I don't *necessarily* mean financially -- than Wolff's unfortunate spawn, trapped in Manhattan elitism and snobbery.
It is so annoying the way econometric measures have become metaphors for the development of a society...
Really !
Bhutan in all its smugness declared itself superior by rejecting GDP and devised a Gross Happiness measure. It kind of backfired when Bhutan measured near the bottom compared to most other nations.
Farmer flies his freak flag.
Right. Because the only two possible options are the current system or "Bhutan." Let me ask you a basic question, do you believe it's possible for the GDP of a society to increase while quality of life simultaneously decreases?
Wolff failed start up, new york magazine scribbler then newser, courtier to steve bannon
He complains that every magazine or paper he's ever worked for is dying or dead. Made me laugh. He's why they're dying or dead and others like him
As to Wolff- first...Ew! Second Twitter liberated writing gauche political drivel to the masses. Consider it progress. Sorry about your loss in social status /sarc.
Well it is going to get worse, Michael, a whole lot worse when that young energetic wife of yours learns you are an asshole unwilling to kiss the right asses to advance your daughter to better schools, better camps better Hamptons. You can’t get Kindergarten done in the Manhattan jungle. You are so very fucked.
J. Farmer:
That is an interesting insight into the milieu in which you were raised. Your sister tried to do something polite. Your father responded according to his lights. The oyster shucker offered some unsolicited advice. Your father rejected the advice and privately expressed his opinion in vulgar terms which shocked you (but that you agreed with).
Now you offer an unsolicited opinion about the domestic arrangements at Meadehouse and expect Althouse and Meade to have a different opinion about you than your father (and you) had about the oyster shucker.
OK, boomer.
"Wolff realizes that the endless barrage of ranting against Trump is worse than nothing"
Well Ann when will realize all the camping that you do against Trump ( he is weird) is also worse than nothing and start talking policy.
They keep giving him book contracts, fees for adapting his book to showtime
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2019/12/waiting_for_horowitz.html
I too chose a career in journalism but left for grad school in my mid 20s when it seemed the whole edifice (including my large newspaper) was about to come crashing down. Smart move on my part, one of my few such.
Journalism is over. Writers can't write, editors can't edit, and consumers can't or don't want to read. Few adults can process information that requires basic numeracy. Stories are so biased that all might as well be written is first-person advice columns. News outlets exist to provide various flavors of chum, based on what appeals to their particular tribes.
This was not a country of philosopher kings in the first place, but at the moment it is hard to see what will replace what has been lost.
Althouse
FYI this is in Spectator.us not UK.
Uptown, Downtown, public, private, traditional and progressive schools
Don't you LOVE IT, when people who can afford to live in Manhattan; complain about HOW EXPENSIVE it is?
Is it Fair to assume? That what he paid in Income Taxes this year, would have Bought My House?
Amadeus 48 MY MAN!!
Stand-up comics are first and foremost writers. Therefore writers spawning writers make sense.
He's why they're dying or dead and others like him
I caught the Fox Butterfield fallacy there, too.
...and 15 yard penalty for the half plus seven personal foul, too...
That's a heartwarming story J Farmer about your family Dynamics. Do you suppose you're father was teaching you and your sister that woman don't have to pay for a real man's meal because she has a pussy?
Amadeus 48, yes!
If mrs wolff hasnt figured this out yet.
Menopause in women exists for a reason. If you're a guy and past the age you would have gone through menopause if you were a woman, don't have a kid.
Trump did what he said he’d do: he drained the swamp. Well, he’s draining it at least. (It’s a big swamp.). With the filthy water lower we see all sorts of creatures — like Wolff — who have been living the good life incubated in toxic waters.
Obama said he’d lower the ocean levels. Trump had a more modest proposal: lower the swamp level. Of the two, Trump kept his promise. Obama moved to the seaside.
I think Meade has more money than Ann. Not that I know, not that anyone here truly knows anything about these two people except the few random reveals over the years, such as they go biking and hiking and they like Dylan and dogs. This is one of the problem with the Internet, you think you know things about people you don't actually know.
Wolff is what you scrape off your shoe, hes a loathesome animal like peter berlin half metaphorically doing what he did literally.
A trophy wife is no solution to an atrophied career. Or as the old Yiddish expression has it. "too soon old, too late schmart."
Soap opera. People like to actually live in a narrative. The fiction of "this is real" is the news genre's advantage, as they supply the soap opera. It's trading on the old reputation even if nobody believes it, which makes the entertainment of the narrative-dwellers work.
There's no market for hard news, with all the more entertaining alternatives out there competing for the narrative audience.
So news is killed by the drop in the cost of publishing. Better news is now available.
There's also the kickback market for news on the right, which is real news about what the idiot left is doing that day. The counter-outrage market.
The damage can be limited by decoupling narrative and politics, say by eliminating the women's vote. There's still narrative but it doesn't divide the country, any more than selling Cosmo divides the country. Just a different interest.
Well thats not going to happen, and deprogranming 30 years of stupidity isnt likely to.
rehajm said...
Bhutan in all its smugness declared itself superior by rejecting GDP and devised a Gross Happiness measure.
In a market economy, GDP is determined by by the market. Keynes gave us GDP=C+I+G+(X−M), or GDP = Consumer spending + Investment spending + Government spending + (eXports - iMports).
The value of a Happiness Index is assigned by the bureaucrats whose job it is to increase the Happiness Index.
This guy convinced some woman in childbearing years to have sex and marry him?
I commend a journalist who realizes when it's maybe time to just shut up and stop writing. Take a break. Think. Redo. Come back at it with a new perspective, writing about something other than...Trump. There was a time when some journalists wrote compelling articles about interesting subjects. Not Trans people getting into bathrooms of choice. Not who gets into college, but what they are actually being taught in college. Etc.
There's a large world out there. It's time for many journalists to turn in their degrees, and find other paths. The great shake-out is coming.
Soon they'll be able to go to dinner parties and say things like, "I used to be a journalist. (snigger), but I left that field to do something real with my life." "Oh...what do you do now?". "Now I run a socially conscious dog park."
Men are expendable, so probably age doesn't matter. The woman has to be able to replace one that dies with another one though. There are tricks like a good personality that would have to be learned.
I think, J. Farmer, you are making a category error.
The purpose of wealth is not to make you content. The purpose of wealth is to provide you with the resources to allow you to become content.
Nations that push the "Happiness Index" or the "Human Development Index" are nations that consistently fail to achieve robust GDP growth. That want to call poverty wealth.
"I coulda been a contender...instead of a bum...which is what I am."
@Howard:
That's a heartwarming story J Farmer about your family Dynamics. Do you suppose you're father was teaching you and your sister that woman don't have to pay for a real man's meal because she has a pussy?
Beats me. But I've never cared one iota about pussy.
@Lewis Wetzel:
Nations that push the "Happiness Index" or the "Human Development Index" are nations that consistently fail to achieve robust GDP growth. That want to call poverty wealth.
Let me ask you a simple question. Do you think it's possible for GDP to go up and the overall health of a society to go down? If so, why?
Tom Wolfe covered this in Mauve Gloves and Madmen, Clutter and Vine. Esquire, 1975, the year I graduated high school.
@Amadeus 48:
Now you offer an unsolicited opinion about the domestic arrangements at Meadehouse and expect Althouse and Meade to have a different opinion about you than your father (and you) had about the oyster shucker.
I don't "expect" anything of Althouse and Meade. I don't even know them. But I do suspect they are both self-obsessed narcissists.
"Let me ask you a simple question. Do you think it's possible for GDP to go up and the overall health of a society to go down? If so, why?"
It's not a simple question. Who decides how you measure "overall health of a society?"
See the problem?
To get right to the heart of the matter, Islamists would measure "overall health of a society" by implementation of Sharia. Is that how you would measure it?
The purpose of wealth is not to make you content. The purpose of wealth is to provide you with the resources to allow you to become content.
Says who?
@Lewis:
It's not a simple question. Who decides how you measure "overall health of a society?"
See the problem?
The guy that invented the GDP measure said that it should not be used as a proxy for judging a society. So, what do you know about GDP growth that he doesn't know?
The purpose of wealth is not to make you content. The purpose of wealth is to provide you with the resources to allow you to become content.
Says who?
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
People with money have more choices than people without money. That why people want money, isn't it?
If he worked as a freelancer all his life, he may not have a retirement fund.
Oh Jesus Christ self-employed can still have a retirement fund if you get your head outta your ass. It's part of the cost of doing business.
He burned through 9 million withhis start up, before he turned to punditry.
@Lewis Wetzel:
People with money have more choices than people without money. That why people want money, isn't it?
'
Not necessarily. Money is often a byproduct of what people are really after: status, power, recognition, etc. So, for example, for Donald Trump, I don't think money was the primary motivating factor. I think it was primarily a means by which a fat, balding guy can fuck supermodel bimbos who would otherwise be a mile out of his league. Melaania's mom and dad must've been so proud!
In the UN's model of an HDI (Human Development Index) as an alternative to GDP as a measure of a successful economy, points are awarded for access to reproductive services. Kill babies == higher HDI. That is an example of why it is stupid to replace GDP with HDI. You get bureaucrats deciding what the values of a nation are, not the choices of consumers.
@Lewis Wetzel:
That is an example of why it is stupid to replace GDP with HDI
Who here actually proposed replacing GDP with HDI? I am guessing that you are not advocating the economic system of whatever countries happen to be on top of the list of GDP per capita, right?
GDP went up during Obama's presidency. So what? Does that mean that Obama's policies were correct?
J. Farmer-
Some people -- usually leftists and social democrats -- have come to the conclusion that their policies will cripple GDP growth. Therefore they want to replace GDP growth as the the measure of the success and wealth of a nation with a "Happiness Index" or a "Human Development Index." That is what Bhutan tried to do. Is this not what you are talking about?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Happiness_Report
Finland & Belgium top the UN's world happiness report, both Finland and Belgium have high suicide rates (the highest in Europe).
http://hdr.undp.org/en/content/human-development-index-hdi
Funny J Farmer. You were on a roll last week lamenting on the power of the pussy... Almost implying that drove you to play for the homo team
Therefore they want to replace GDP growth as the the measure of the success and wealth of a nation with a "Happiness Index" or a "Human Development Index." That is what Bhutan tried to do. Is this not what you are talking about?
Nope
@Howard:
Funny J Farmer. You were on a roll last week lamenting on the power of the pussy... Almost implying that drove you to play for the homo team
Almost. But not quite. Please try again.
p.s. Not sure so much as "lamenting" as describing.
Society happiness and productivity directly correlated to women access to birth control. Cucks hardest hit. In US obesity and oxy addiction are highest in the anti planned Parenthood counties.
The elites are elite for that reason.
Finland & Belgium top the UN's world happiness report, both Finland and Belgium have high suicide rates (the highest in Europe).
Similarly, Japan has a very high GDP and a very high rate of suicide. So does that tell you anything about GDP?
I wouldn't be surprised if the UN rigged the "happiness index" so that countries got a higher bonus when more of their citizens availed themselves of state-provided euthanasia services to "treat" their depression.
I think your father's action describes how you came to believe in the power of the pussy.
Society happiness and productivity directly correlated to women access to birth control. Cucks hardest hit. In US obesity and oxy addiction are highest in the anti planned Parenthood counties.
The elites are elite for that reason.
That is exactly what elites have thought as they have been the country to their will over the last several decades. But I'm guessing you are not happy with the country where it is. So what does that tell you about current elites?
I think your father's action describes how you came to believe in the power of the pussy.
Yeah, that or believing in biology. Or is it your argument that humans are set aside from creation as a special case?
Wolff has said nothing for a long, long time.
@Lewis Wetzel:
I wouldn't be surprised if the UN rigged the "happiness index" so that countries got a higher bonus when more of their citizens availed themselves of state-provided euthanasia services to "treat" their depression.
As soon as you find the person advocating making the UN Human Development Index (the UN doesn't have a "happiness index") the sole measure of a society's health, by all means attack them. It isn't what anyone here has said.
Oh good grief. Finland is number 1 on the UN's Happiness list, Japan is 58. Both have high rates of depression that lead to high rates of suicide.
Tell me again how GDP doesn't measure happiness? The @#$%^ happiness index doesn't measure happiness!
He can't retire, he's 66 years old and still having to work to earn a living. I guess this is what happens to those who don't have the foresight or discipline to plan for their retirement. Just another liberal loser.
Farmer, Is "been" above supposed to be bended?
@Danno:
Farmer, Is "been" above supposed to be bended?
Bent, yes. Sorry, I almost never read what I type before posting it ;)
J Farmer you are implying that your sister wanting to pay was an act of defying evolutionary biology and your old man merely set the universe straight by keeping her in her place.
@Howard:
I implied no such thing. Though that is obviously what you inferred. So I would suggest your inference says much more about you than it does about me.
Farmer wrote: I think it was primarily a means by which a fat, balding guy can fuck supermodel bimbos who would otherwise be a mile out of his league.
Right. And having Barron must have been her idea -- sort of an insurance policy in case he wanted to trade up again. It's all so simple when you're ruled by resentment.
Right. And having Barron must have been her idea -- sort of an insurance policy in case he wanted to trade up again. It's all so simple when you're ruled by resentment.
Or realism. But by all means, please identify the blue collar salt of the earth types who are married to supermodels.
But yeah, it's totally cynical of me to assume that Melania is in it for the money. After all, she could just have a fetish for fat, bloated sexagenarians a quarter century her senior.
Or realism. But by all means, please identify the blue collar salt of the earth types who are married to supermodels.
Are you suggesting that Althouse and Meade do not qualify?
"But by all means, please identify the blue collar salt of the earth types who are married to supermodels."
It may surprise you to find out but there are a lot of very pretty girls out there who would NEVER want to put themselves on display like a supermodel. Quite a few of those girls are married to "blue collar salt of the earth types." Of course, those girls can't afford to spend ridiculous amounts of time and money on their physical appearance so by the time they hit their 30s and 40s they look like normal people and not supermodels
Mike
"After all, she could just have a fetish for fat, bloated sexagenarians a quarter century her senior."
Who also happen to be so incredibly smart, industrious, and talented they're not only world famous billionaire celebrities but are able to pull off the most astonishing political upset in modern history.
Mike
Or realism. But by all means, please identify the blue collar salt of the earth types who are married to supermodels.
What does that have to do with Trump's appeal?
Who the hell is Michael Wolff anyway? [googles] Oh yeah, the incredible Mr. Limpet...the loser who made the talk show rounds. He's hurting now? Boo hoo.
What would be funny is if Adam Schiff lost his next election and wound up "hurting."
Sadly I have run out of free articles and cannot read about Michael's brave struggle to put food on the plate for his little girl. They did post his picture. He looks like an eyesore. Is his wife good looking? Was she a trophy wife? Under what circumstances did he leave his last wife? There's a book in there somewhere. He should get cracking. The plight of an aging, not quite wealthy male in a marriage with a much younger female needs to be told from the male point of view. His liberal readers would enjoy such a book.
His profession is lying. Stiff competition there.
They did post his picture. He looks like an eyesore.
Micheal's piscine good looks must have been a factor in attracting a much younger wife. It couldn't have been wealth.
J. Farmer said...
“But yeah, it's totally cynical of me to assume that Melania is in it for the money. After all, she could just have a fetish for fat, bloated sexagenarians a quarter century her senior.”
Not cynical, just blind to evidence.
@Francisco D:
Are you suggesting that Althouse and Meade do not qualify?
Well, Ann does not qualify because her biological clock has run out.
@MBunge:
It may surprise you to find out but there are a lot of very pretty girls out there who would NEVER want to put themselves on display like a supermodel
It does not surprise me. I live in the real world. But the "girls out there who would NEVER want to put themselves on display like a supermodel" are not what I was talking about.
"Obsolescence" is a big word word that I learned very young from Mad Magazine. They slipped the phrase "planned obsolescence" regarding shoddy manufactured goods in somewhere. The word stuck with me.
@Ken B:
Not cynical, just blind to evidence.
By all means, if you have "evidence" for why Melania married Trump, provide it.
Well, Ann does not qualify because her biological clock has run out.
Not from my perspective, kid. My biological clock (a year or so behind Althouse) will run out when I take my dirt nap.
I thought during Obama the way GDP was calculated or what was included was changed?
——
Are there jobs where there aren’t PP clinics?
@chickelit:
What does that have to do with Trump's appeal?
Nothing. When did I ever say it did?
While being interviewed during Fire and Fury's publicity tour Wolff said he was "absolutely sure" President Trump was having an affair and his partner was Nikki Haley
i guess, we'd file this under: "We Choose TRUTH Over Facts"
@Francisco D:
Not from my perspective, kid. My biological clock (a year or so behind Althouse) will run out when I take my dirt nap.
Ever hear of menopause? A woman can produce one egg once a month for a determined period of time. A man can produce hundreds of millions of sperm every day until either the day he dies or the day the machinery simply stops working. Considering how divergent male and female sexual interests are, it's actually quite remarkable that it's worked out as well as it has.
Dude was banging super hot chicks probably from his teens.
Lewis Wetzel: It's not a simple question.
No, it's not - it's certainly more complex than simplistic "quality of life in theocratic Shitholistan vs. quality of life in wealthy secular country" that you want to reduce it to. I think we can assert without too much fussing that poverty = "poor quality of life". But once a certain level of wealth is achieved, higher GDP does not necessarily equal higher quality of life.
To give an example, a lot of mid- and low-SES Westerners are of the opinion that mass Third World immigration into their countries in recent decades has decreased their quality of life, even though they have more money, and GDP is higher (partly juiced, at least in the short term, by influx of cheap labor). Why would they think that? Because they're all a bunch of dumb commies who don't understand economics? Or because material wealth is a necessary component, but far from sole determinant, of "high quality of life"?
Who decides how you measure "overall health of a society?"
Who indeed? There's no getting around the fact that some set of somebodies is going to impose their notion of the correct metric(s) on the rest of us. If you argue (as you seem to be doing) that econometrics should be supreme over any other consideration, and you manage to impose this preference, you've made a decision on what contributes most to "the overall health of society" for everybody else, including all the people with different priorities - say, people who'd trade the higher GDP points that come with mass immigration, for improvements in more nebulous quality-of-life factors such as living in a higher-trust, more coherent culture.
See the problem? As somebody said.
But by all means, please identify the blue collar salt of the earth types who are married to supermodels.
Robin Givhan would say: "Barack Obama."
Ever hear of menopause? A woman can produce one egg once a month for a determined period of time. A man can produce hundreds of millions of sperm every day until either the day he dies or the day the machinery simply stops working. Considering how divergent male and female sexual interests are, it's actually quite remarkable that it's worked out as well as it has.
Life is not all about procreation, as you well know, Farmer.
My wife (10 years younger than Althouse) also hit menopause. Our sex life is much better now than it was 10 years ago, when we were married to different people. Age has not been an issue. In fact, the experience helps.
In that and most other senses, our biological clocks, like the old Timex watches, have takin' a lickin' but keep on tickin'.
How I became the ‘femme fatale’ of New York gossip
"The circumstances of my disgrace? I had a low-level job at Vanity Fair — so in scandal parlance I was an ‘intern’, although, actually, I was a freelance researcher on an hourly wage; my romance with Michael, a married man, was, in the telling, a torrid office affair (although in my short tenure he never came into the office, as he worked at home); and to boot, I’d had another beau before him, uncovered by the gossips, with a problematic marriage. (This in a city of men with problematic marriages.)
Much to my surprise, a rather ordinarily complicated New York romantic life turned out to be newsworthy. I was a ‘femme fatale’; I was sleeping my way to the top (Michael is one of the founders of Newser.com, a web aggregator, which paid me $12 an hour to do some writing); I was, well …a girl who had sex."
<<
"I knew what I needed to do: swear off interesting (e.g. older) men, buy a ticket back to Atlanta, and have two tow-headed children with a tow-headed southern boy (emphasis on boy) asap."
The Onion’s wicked take on Althouse’s dopey commenters would be word-for-word verbatim. Why do self-satire of your own crazy racial and sexual hangups when the real world is so ripe for mockery? Here’s Michael Wolff’s child bride Victoria Floethe shopping for bras, offering advice on how to get what you want in bed,describing her gold-digging technique, and lamenting how she became the femme fatale of New York gossip.
Vicki's 7 tips to Michael's reluctant to divorce wife
Femme fatale link didn't take in my comment above, but I see the comment above mine anticipated that.
so like david brooks he was into projections,
re Althouse's addendum to the post: it could work as a sitcom.
Many a comedian have said their fucked up home life enabled their craft.
Angle-Dyne, Samurai Buzzard said...
Lewis Wetzel: It's not a simple question.
No, it's not - it's certainly more complex than simplistic "quality of life in theocratic Shitholistan vs. quality of life in wealthy secular country" that you want to reduce it to. I think we can assert without too much fussing that poverty = "poor quality of life". But once a certain level of wealth is achieved, higher GDP does not necessarily equal higher quality of life.
To give an example, a lot of mid- and low-SES Westerners are of the opinion that mass Third World immigration into their countries in recent decades has decreased their quality of life, even though they have more money, and GDP is higher (partly juiced, at least in the short term, by influx of cheap labor). Why would they think that? Because they're all a bunch of dumb commies who don't understand economics? Or because material wealth is a necessary component, but far from sole determinant, of "high quality of life"?
Who decides how you measure "overall health of a society?"
Who indeed? There's no getting around the fact that some set of somebodies is going to impose their notion of the correct metric(s) on the rest of us. If you argue (as you seem to be doing) that econometrics should be supreme over any other consideration, and you manage to impose this preference, you've made a decision on what contributes most to "the overall health of society" for everybody else, including all the people with different priorities - say, people who'd trade the higher GDP points that come with mass immigration, for improvements in more nebulous quality-of-life factors such as living in a higher-trust, more coherent culture.
See the problem? As somebody said.
12/1/19, 11:58 AM
Angel-dyne, I am agnostic on what the "best" measure of a nation's wealth is. But GDP is different than the UN's happiness index or its human development index. These are the creations of bureaucrats and were created to satisfy bureaucratic imperatives. The bureaucrats literally decide what social values are good and what weight they carry (values such as "reproductive freedom" and "equality of the sexes").
Keynes formula for GDP is entirely market driven. No one controls it. It measures values in one thing, dollars, and the more of them, the better.
GDP is not the best measure of human happiness or a society's worth. A large plantation worked by slaves is a more efficient way to produce wealth than a small family farm.
But the problem of alternate measures of value has been taken up and the results are horrible.
I
These are the creations of bureaucrats and were created to satisfy bureaucratic imperatives. The bureaucrats literally decide what social values are good and what weight they carry (values such as "reproductive freedom" and "equality of the sexes").
Bingo. This is also a feature of the indexes put out by busybody NGO's. Always carefully curated and weighted to put the United States in the least flattering possible light.
"Infant mortality" is a famous example. In Europe and most of the rest of the world, a premature infant born in the second trimester is immediately declared "stillborn" and put in a utility sink to die. In the US, enormous public and private resources are expended to save even the tiniest preemies, often to no avail. These are counted as live births in our statistics, and have the dual effect of raising our infant mortality rate and lowering our life expectancy at birth. The Left has gotten a lot of mileage out of this discrepancy over the years.
Skookum John decries the more skookum standards Americans hold over the Eurotrashians... unexpectedly
Lewis: But GDP is different than the UN's happiness index or its human development index.
Where was I talking about either of the above?
I'll refrain from calling you a "fucking moron" as Farmer did, out of exasperation at the same thing, but honestly, the ability of people to spit out ready-made responses that have no relation to the comment they're ostensibly responding to really amazes me sometimes.
@Howard: Reasonable people can disagree whether the American way or the European way is the best use of our limited health care resources.
But it's indisputable that the way these statistics are presented by Democratic politicians, the one-party news media, and the NGO establishment is malevolently deceptive. There is never any discussion of these statistical nuances, and the artifactual discrepancies they induce are typically portrayed as an especially good reason to hate America.
I should also note the high likelihood that the public-health statistics in left-wing shitholes like Cuba are complete fiction, but swallowed uncritically by the kind of people who love Cuba more than America-- notably many of the same Democratic politicians, media mavens, and NGO busybodies who take orgiastic glee in pointing out our own failings.
Ever hear of menopause? A woman can produce one egg once a month for a determined period of time. A man can produce hundreds of millions of sperm every day until either the day he dies or the day the machinery simply stops working. Considering how divergent male and female sexual interests are, it's actually quite remarkable that it's worked out as well as it has.
Yes it is. However, all that — while true as a statement of how things have always been — is now on the cusp of utterly changing.
Stem cells have been discovered which can grow into new (young!) eggs and sperm — for either sex. We've even found that stem cells can be coaxed into growing directly into embryos without there ever being an egg and a sperm, uniting, to make each embryo.
We're probably a handful of years to a decade at most from this technology starting to be available for the public to use.
Thanks for the posts to Victoria's pieces. She's an entertaining writer, and quite cute. They both suffer from a severe case of status-income disequilibrium, but it's more pathetic coming from an older man whose been as successful as Wolff has been.
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