Just the blog ma'am

San Francisco County Fair

Journeyed there from Oakland to watch the Child Bride present her abbreviated compost talk.

It was well done and well received. My swell daughter and her swell boy friend were there as well, and we attended the petting zoo together. It had a zebra!

The Fair itself was rather pathetic. There was only one tent, touting organic gardening, foods, etc. That was all right. But the rest of the fair was little more than the kind of carnivals that spring up in vacant lots in August in Santa Monica. About the size of two parking lots maybe.

But the Dread Wife and I rode the Ferris wheel, so there was that!

This weekend, off to Alameda. We have been told they have an excellent old school 4th of July parade. I look forward to seeing five year old girls in tiaras twirling batons.

I am so tired of all these people....

So there’s this reporter, David Weigel, who covered the conservative movement for the Washington Post. He wrote some emails that were what we call “reckless,” about some conservatives, suggesting that Matt Drudge set himself on fire, for example, and that Rush Limbaugh should die from a heart attack. These emails were sent to a four hundred person list serv called JournoList, from whence they were what we call “leaked.’ Mr. Weigel was subsquently fired, or asked to resign, from the Post, or WaPo, as we insiders like to call it.

As kind of an outsider insider I’m a little amazed at the flap this firing has engendered. It’s kind of like the McChristal flap in a nutshell. First of all, JournoList is a group, supposedly, of liberal journalists. It’s a place where they can whinge and snark to each other, without fear of repercussions. So, some say, whoever leaked those emails betrayed a trust. And that person or persons should be considered the guilty party, not David Weigel. Others say that David Weigel was supposed to be covering conservatives objectively. His emails reveal a hatred and bias of conservatives that render him incapable of covering them objectively, and he was right to be fired. Or asked to resign.

I dunno. This whole Journolist thing I find irritating. Basically this was a glorified invitation-only chat room. Some claim that Tucker Carlson, who runs the website the DAILY CALLER that first published the emails, did so because he had requested to join JournoList and was refused.

It all sounds like 12 year old girls texting each other furiously over a sleepover gone horribly wrong.

And, in a weird way, the McChristal flap struck me as the flip side to that. After actually reading the ROLLING STONE article that got him fired, or what we call asked to resign, it became immediately clear that General McChristal did not say most of the things the media have since said that he said. Doesn’t anybody read any more? He did not call the administration a bunch of wimps. He did not describe French ministerial function as “gay.” He did not refer to Vice President Biden as “Bite me.” It was his staff who drank too much, with a reporter present, with notebook, and tape recorder rolling, who did not have the clue.

So here is this General, whose staff seems to consist of a bunch of out of control drunken swaggering frat boys who think they can say anything they want to and get away with it because they’re on the team. Team America!

We have a bunch of journalists acting like trolls in a Yahoo chat room, and a bunch of soldiers - the very people running the war in Afghanistan - acting like they’re running a chugging contest at a keg party. Fire them all, I say. Or ask them to resign. Maybe it’s time for a fresh new batch of creeps.

From the twelve items or fewer line

There’s a picture of Spencer Pratt on the cover of a magazine. Spencer Pratt thinks that 9/11 was an inside job. Huh. Who is Spencer Pratt? I have no idea. He was on the HILLS, and I’M A CELEBRITY-- GET ME OUT OF HERE, neither of which I have seen. He is - or is that was? - married to Heidi Montag, I have no idea who she is either. She was baptized on television by Stephen Baldwin though. I know who he is. Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag have been referred to in print as “Speidi.”

Heidi Montag supposedly sent a Tweet to Jusin Bieber, which said, "now that I am getting divorced I think you and I should do a photo shoot together! Cutie ;)! I'm closer to your age." Heidi denies the tweet, and tweeted, "I didn't write that thing about Bieber my fame hoer x husband hacked my Twitter and wrote that he is so lame!" I think she means "fame whore." Justin Bieber is sometimes referred to in print as "the Bieb."

The alleged fame whore Spencer Pratt went to Crossroads School in Santa Monica along with Brody Jenner, Whitney Port, and Mary-Kate Olsen. I know Mary-Kate, of course, who doesn’t, but not Whitney Port. Brody Jenner is the son of Bruce Jenner, who has had several face lifts. He was once a famous athlete.

Spencer Pratt’s parents have removed all photos of him from their home, according to Us Weekly. He also recently fired his entire security team –wow! He has a security team! - including his personal bodyguard, Cougar Zank. Spencer thinks that Cougar and Heidi may have been getting it on behind his back.

Heidi has hired a lawyer to get "the quickest divorce possible in California," TMZ reports. Heidi has her own fashion line, called Heidiwood. She too has had cosmetic surgery.

Spencer wants to start his own paparazzi website. He recently tweeted his 836,080 followers: “send me all your celeb photos you take with your camera phones and i will post them on my new blog KINGSPENCER.com and give you credit and $.”

A further advantage of being your own paparazzo is you can take surreptitious pictures of yourself. And then sue yourself, and write it off on your taxes.

The line moves forward. I want to change my name to Cougar Zank. I replace the tabloids to the rack, place my eleven items on the conveyor, and stand patiently before the card machine.

Simultaneously, all over southern California, facelifts gain momentum. Flaps of orphan skin are lifted by soft Malibu breezes and drift slowly out to sea.

Just right!

Michael Rubin in National Review Online

"A lot of the criticism surrounding Israel’s actions against the Free Gaza flotilla center on proportionality. Did Israel apply disproportionate force? … But why should any democratic government empowered to defend its citizenry accept Europe’s idea of proportion? … Likewise, when terrorists seek to strike at the United States, why should we find ourselves constrained by an artificial notion of proportionality when responding to those terrorists or their state sponsors? …One final note on proportionality: Fifteen 'peace' activists dead is a tragedy, but they represent only one one-thousandth of the death toll of a French heatwave."

I suggest that, in future, all shooting victims in dubious international encounters should be compared to French heatwave victims: if there are more victims than the French dead, it's morally unacceptable, but if it's less - well then, it's okay!