Manning Up
Last week’s news of Bradley Manning’s desire to become a woman brought the typical response from Erin Gloria Ryan at Jezebel. She stomped her feet and insisted that anyone not immediately referring to Manning by the female pronoun should be referred to by the adjective “shitty”.
Kevin D. Williamson at National Review says, “Mr. Manning…is what he is, and no amount of pronoun play, psychotherapeutic doublespeak, or wishful thinking can make it otherwise”.
Manning Score: Williamson Logic – 1, Ryan Name Calling – 0
Sometimes you are what you are. That goes for being a male as well as a traitor. Bradley can be Chelsea but he can’t be a she unless he changes his Y to an X.
Syria Red Line
Who says that President Obama’s words don’t matter. He warned the president of Syria not to gas his own people. A gas attack meant crossing a red line that would trigger a U.S. response. Apparently we’re down with killing 100,000 Syrians by other means.
Anyway, It looks like Assad has jumped the Red Line. Now we have to respond or lose credibility and, according to the polls, the American people have no stomach for another war.
Going it Alone in Syria
Not only that, the British Parliament voted not to help. It’s the first time they’ve denied the Prime Minister a request for military backing since 1782, when Parliament gave up on the American colonies! Maybe Obama should have kept the Churchill bust.
So far our leader says he’ll go ahead without the British, UN, or United States Congress. The French are still in. Freedom Fries any one?
Miley Cyrus
Miley Cyrus’ remains a leader in family entertainment. Her performance at the MTV Video Music Awards introduced American parents to a new power word for the day – twerking.
As usual, I missed the VMA show but, thanks to the web, still got to see Miley’s performance – and build my vocabulary. Her dance was weird. It reminded me of the guy in the creepy teddy bear suit in The Shining. But the full shock value was lost on me because, shockingly, I’ve never seen Hannah Montana.
So, for the choreographical merits I defer to the experts. Two of them Camile Paglia and Kathleen Parker, were not amused. But for different reasons.
Paglia found the perky twerky one’s attempted lewdness to be, “clumsy, flat-footed and cringingly unsexy, an effect heightened by her manic grin”. She considers Madonna, not Montana, to be the gold standard in this area:
“The greatest performers, like Madonna … know how to use suggestion and mystery to project the magic of sexual allure. Pop is suffering from the same malady as the art world, which is stuck on the tired old rubric that shock automatically confers value.”
Parker agrees with the mystery part:
“Provocation for the sake of provocation is rarely provocative. And sex in the hands of a Cyrus-gone-wild has all the appeal of rutting season at the zoo.
Whither mystery?”
What’s it all Mean?
The writer ladies part company on where this all leads.
Paglia laments, “Unfortunately, the media spotlight so cheaply won by Cyrus will inevitably spur repeats of her silly stunt, by her and others.”
But Parker hopes, “This time may be different. This time, even the young are offended…Just possibly, America has had enough. When all things are permissible, then permissiveness loses its allure.”
Here’s what a disillusioned and anonymous 11 year old Hannah Montana fan had to say, “I bet her dad is sorry he got her into music”.
Egypt
The military in Egypt staged a brutal coup throwing President Morsi in jail, attacking the Muslim Brotherhood, and killing over a thousand. The Muslim Brothers responded by attacking Christians and burning churches. Probably because they can’t find any more Jews to attack.
Here’s Kirsten Powers in the Daily Beast on The Muslim Brotherhood’s persecution of Coptic Christians in Egypt.
Best Bet for Egypt
Krauthammer explains why he thinks the best bet is to root for the coup and hope the military allows new elections.
Saddam Red Line
It looks like Obama’s red line in Syria has been crossed again. UN inspectors are testing victims for poison gas. Putin says if gas was used it was the rebels who did it.
The Assad government is supported by Iran and Hezbollah. Al Qaeda looms large among the rebels.
Hezbollah vs al Qaeda in Syria
So it’s Hezbollah vs. al Qaeda. In a Sunday NYT article titled In Syria, America Loses if Either Side Wins, Edward Luttwak claims the best we can do is hope nobody wins.
Update:
John Kerry now says a chemical attack is “undeniable”.
