Not an Onion Headline

From The New Yorker blog:

God Caught Backing Multiple GOP Candidates for President

Herman Cain, Rick Santorum, and Michelle Bachmann (let's not forget Sarah Palin) have all received God's tap on the shoulder (or, in Cain's case, a text message) to run for President. Which tells me only one thing: Whatever God's been huffing lately, I don't want any of it.

On the Evolution of Marriage

Jessica Bennett at The Daily Beast has a fascinating piece on monogamy and marriage. Money quote:

[M]onogamy is still the deeply ingrained—or delusional—rule to living happily ever after, and our views toward infidelity are comically naïve. "We cheat—and we also roundly disapprove of cheating," [author of Marriage Confidential Pamela] Haag writes—to the extent that we find the action more reprehensible than human cloning (really). It's the ultimate hypocrisy—lodged into every corner of our social existence, leading to the downfall of politicians, executives, religious clerics, athletes… the list goes on. It depends on what survey you examine, but more than half of Americans cheat, and yet 70 to 85 percent of adults think cheating is wrong. "We are fooling ourselves if we think people are as against cheating as they say they are,” says Jenny Block. “Jude Law cheated on Sienna Miller, for God's sake. JFK cheated on Jackie. Have we learned nothing from these scandals?”

What I loved best about this piece, however, were the comments that were posted afterward. One satirical comment in particular is from someone who identifies himself as DexterVanDango:

Most of you women say that monogamy is preferable because it emphasises loyalty. That monogamy protects our children better. But many of my married male friends complain bitterly that you women are nothing but sperm vampires. As soon as you have squeezed some children out of us your interest in sex with us dies.... And absurd as it sounds, we men are more truly loyal than you women are. For no matter how much we men want to have sex with hundreds of other women, it is rare indeed that we lose all interest in sex with our wives (provided of course that she has not developed into a cruel personality). In other words we men want our cake and want to eat it too, while you women want to hang on to your piece of cake long after you've lost interest in eating it.. but you don´t want anyone else to sample it, either....Sadly, for the most part you women´s attitude is still, "Concentrate exclusively on me for as long as I'm interested in you.. Then you can live like a celibate until I can replace you."

Delicious! But there is a sad truth to this comment. We can't possibly imagine why Tiger Woods would cheat on his lovely wife, or why Erik Benet would do the same to Halle Berry, or why Jesse James would cheat on Sandra Bullock with the tatted skank he chose. It's too easy to dismiss it as sex addiction or sexually compulsive behavior, or else nearly every cheating husband would be sexually compulsive or addicted. It's just not that widespread a disease.

I think the answer boils down to trust. A husband or wife who engages in extramarital sex does so to a great degree because there has been an erosion of trust, which is the foundation of any long-term committed relationship (LTCR). With that erosion comes a communication breakdown where, no matter what is discussed, there is no connection, no empathy/sympathy, no listening. Then it becomes too difficult for one person to say, "I'm feeling neglected, or scared, or shut out." It becomes easier just to turn to pornography, or internet relationships (recall that Weiner states he'd never met any of the six women who had received his pictures over the years), or actual extramarital sex. I think it takes real courage for couples in LTCRs to have that discussion openly, with no fear, because if you can't talk about the most difficult of subjects then, really, how strong is the relationship?

A wise man once advised that men, when they agree to enter into a LTCR, need to be ready to give up short-term thinking. By that, he meant short-term, recreational relationships. But, in light of how marriage appears to be undergoing a redefinition, I think for some this advice may need revisiting.

"The Other is...a Carnival Pygmy"

The Daily Beast's Alex Massie fires a hollow point into the idea of a proposed meeting between Palin and Margaret Thatcher.

As one Thatcherite ally told The Guardian, "Lady Thatcher will not be seeing Sarah Palin. That would be belittling Margaret. Sarah Palin is nuts."

Massie's got quite a few choice lines in his piece:

There is something loathsome about this attempt to use a frail 86-year-old stroke victim (who has largely retired from public life) as fodder to enhance your own domestic political agenda. It is vulgar and it is vainglorious and therefore entirely typical of Palin's political style.

...

What, assuming the former prime minister were in the habit of receiving guests (which she is not), could they possibly talk about? One is a giant figure; the other, politically speaking, a carnival pygmy better suited to life on a second-rate reality
television show.

I'm just waiting for the inevitable Palin tweet at being told Thatcher won't be meeting with her:

So glad #Iron Lady Thatcher couldn’t clear sched to meet me during my UK visit. She was nothing without Reagan anyway! No mooseburger for her next time she’s in AK!

Good Point

A commenter to Bob Cesca's post about Anthony Weiner and Andrew Breitbart, roxsteady, makes a very good point:

I see no need for Weiner to resign until DAVID VITTER DOES! ... Soliciting prostitutes is AGAINST THE LAW! What Weiner did was just stupid.

Unless, of course, Weiner can no longer do his job because he's consumed by an ethics investigation. You don't think the GOP will do everything it can to prove that he used government resources to do this? Not that it's so big a deal, but the COVER-UP makes it much worse!

And I agree that Vitter should resign first, but one can't help that he got elected by mouth-breathing southerners.

Weiner's Wiener

Yep, that was his underwear-covered member in that tweeted photo that has caused such a stir. Weiner admitted it today, saying, "I have made some terrible mistakes." Those mistakes include having inappropriate email conversations with six people he believes were adult women (but admits he has no way of knowing).

Weiner said he won't resign, as these are "personal failings" that don't alter his record, but House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and fellow NY Democrat Steve Israel have called for an Ethics investigation into the matter. I'd say Weiner's days are numbered.

How stupid of Weiner. How many Congressmen have to resign in disgrace before they realize that they have no privacy whatsoever? And his misdeed isn't even that bad a thing to do. What makes it bad is that he didn't just come right out and say it was his dick in that picture! As anyone knows, it's not the deed, it's the cover-up. Ask Nixon. Or Clinton.

The worst part of this is the fact that asshole conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart, who broke the story, was proven right. And he crashed Weiner's press conference to gloat by taking the microphone before Weiner showed up, asking for Weiner's apology.

If that wasn't bad enough, as Weiner was exiting the podium, a "journalist" reportedly asked, "Were you fully erect?" Sullivan is way too kind, although I understand his reasoning.

Weiner should resign now and exit, stage left, with his wiener between his legs. Fucking tool.

History as "Bible Part II"

Interesting perspective. Basically, for people like Sarah Palin, there is no such thing as fact, or reality. There are just stories to be manipulated to suit the point being made at that particular time. Funny how people like Sarah Palin treat allegorical tales in the Bible as immutable facts that really, really happened, exactly as they were written!

Keep Pounding Away

The nerve that Sarah Palin has to rewrite established history! In fact, in order to cover up her monumental gaffe about the ride of Paul Revere, people who support her tried to edit the Wiki page about the actual historical event.

To be fair, Revere did warn the British that advancing on Lexington would be dangerous because the colonists were armed -- after he was captured by the British! However, the Palin backers tried to assert that, because most of the colonists at the time considered themselves British, she was historically accurate. What unbelievable fucking balls these people have.

On MSNBC's Morning Joe today (VIDEO), conservative commentator Mark Halperin called the question Palin was asked a "gotcha question," to which host Joe Scarborough replied, "Everything's a gotcha question with her, isn't it?"

The MSNBC clip also reminds us of the actual question she was asked which spurred her horrible, schizophasic word salad of an answer:

What have you seen so far today, and what are you going to take away from your visit?

Sound like a gotcha question to you? Or is that question itself a gotcha question? How about that one? Or this one?

While the MSM will likely let this story die away until she announces her candidacy, the blogosphere needs to continue to pound away at her relentless odd lies, incoherent babbling, and snarky delusions of authoritah. As it's clearly wrong to take her out back and put her out of her misery, she needs to be constantly held up to ridicule. And I don't care how pissed off her followers get, because there aren't enough of them to convince her critics that she's worthy of even a stage at a shopping mall in Anchorage, let alone the national stage.

Proud Dad Moment

Max Potruch blows the roof off of the House of Blues today, holding down the beat with the Cowan Avenue Kool Kidz with a rocking version of The Kinks' "All Day and All of the Night."

Quote of the Day

"Purity is the enemy of victory." Governor Haley Barbour (R-MS), addressing the Faith and Freedom Coalition on Friday.

"Don't Stop Her, She's On a Roll"

Witness this totally asinine comment made by Sister Sarah on the midnight ride of Paul Revere as she visited Boston.

He who warned, uh, the…the British that they weren’t gonna be takin’ away our arms, uh, by ringin’ those bells and um by makin’ sure that as he’s ridin’ his horse through town to send those warnin’ shots and bells that uh we were gonna be secure and we were gonna be free…and we were gonna be armed.

Reminds me of this little clip.