The recently concluded CPAC convention had some interesting post-event commentary (from our friends at Planet Starboard) about ...... umm ..... sex. Now that I've got your attention: you'll see this is not idle chatter after the jump .....
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I CAN'T REMEMBER a time when I have had more fun reading about Republican sex lives than the recent CPAC convention.
And it all began with your-friend-and-mine, the conservative pundit Erick Erickson complaining (about a prior convention) when he went to a CVS pharmacy to purchase a notebook, and saw young attendees there to buy ..... condoms (in case they got lucky). Back then he glossed over it, but now ...... why, these miscreants are no longer college-age kids, but thirty-somethings. And he's none-too-pleased: fearing that the family values flock might become ... well, you know .... like those lib-ruls at the offices of Media Matters :
"There were these two folks who got caught [having sex] in the communications war room on the weekend," said one employee. "People came in, and lo and behold there were two of their colleagues doing the nasty on a desk." Neither one was fired.
No wonder Erick's ticked ... a few conservatives might, you know, wanna switch sides!
Not to be outdone: pundit Dr. Melissa Clouthier decided to focus on the young women attending ... who she felt were dressed way-too-sexy for a political conference, and gave them tips including skirt lengths and no cleavage:
Have women so internalized feminist dogma that they see themselves in only two ways? Butch, men-lite wannabes or 3rd wave sluts who empower themselves by screwing every available horndog man?
Strict gender roles; ya gotta love it.
She links to Little Miss Attila who is a bit more circumspect ... but also unhappy. And apparently, Melissa got many, many more responses than she normally would writing about, say, the debates ..... because she posted a follow-up in which she clarified her remarks ... and even got upset about another conservative blogger:
Michelle Malkin, Dana Loesch, Pamela Gellar, Abby Alger and Tina Korbe are all unique and uniquely beautiful, tasteful, and sartorially pleasing, as just a few examples. As to the latter, Robert Stacy McCain decided to link-whore (there’s that word again) on my previous post and took the opportunity to be vile to Tina Korbe. There is no excuse for what he wrote.
She was most upset, though, in her original post at an essayist from
Wonkette who, in simply poking fun at her and Erick: led her to write ......
Well, at least Wonkette is consistent. They are for sluttiness! Yay! Let’s promote STDs, drunken debauchery, casual sex, and by extension, the inevitable unwanted pregnancies and abortions that result. Isn’t being progressive positively regressive?
It should be duly noted at this point that many CPAC attendees saw little of the supposed condoms, debauchery and sluttiness being alleged. In this short but comprehensive recap by Politico it was perhaps best summed up by the National Review's Jim Geraghty:
"Strangely, 'you look way too sexy for this conference' is not a complaint I’ve had to deal with often."
If you're in need of some fresh air after the above ... well, so am I. And we begin with the irrepressible
Charlie Pierce at Esquire:
Imagine you're a young, swinging Republican: and you get the call to spend three days at a convention in Washington, D.C. - where there will be liquor, women, and state-of-the-art role-model adulterers like Newt Gingrich. What can possibly go wrong?!?!
Writing in the blog Jezebel, Erin Gloria Ryan is far less sunny towards the focus on women:
Usually when people discover the virgin-whore dichotomy, they're 18 and in their third day in a beginning women's studies class or listening to a pandering Christina Aguilera song, but Dr. Clouthier (a chiropractor) is just now discovering it and linking it to feminism, a movement focusing on trying to eliminate it. Someone's got their thinking cap fastened so tightly, that it's cutting off circulation to key headparts.
.
But as usual: the best came from the redoubtable Amanda Marcotte who wrote thusly:
Watching an artifice that was painstakingly constructed over a period of decades crumble in a week is really a rare treat in politics, so it's really important to take time to enjoy this week ............. as reported in Politico, these posts caused a debate amongst right wing blogs, which I will summarize thusly: "Should we hold ourselves to the standards we hold others to, or is scolding others for unsanctioned sexytimes only something we reserve for everyone else?" As of now, this debate remains unresolved, but should Team Erickson/Clouthier win this one, may I suggest a solution to keep CPAC from tweaking the sensitivities of the increasingly prudish? Why not simply segregate men and women, giving them separate tracks and minimizing the opportunities for fraternization?
And in citing Erick Erickson's observations of the young right-wingers out buying condoms: instead of simply praising the young men for being responsible (as a few conservative writers did, it should be noted), she went one step beyond:
I'm just going to note that at the liberal conferences I've been to, there's no need to buy condoms, since you usually have organizations like Planned Parenthood cheerfully donating basketfuls of them. Just another perk of being on the left; your fellow travelers don't hate you for having fun, but instead just want you to be safe while you play.
People with much more advanced education than I will have to wade through the conservative Id to find meaning about all of this. For now: let's just say that I'm glad to be on a team where your sexuality (within the bounds of reason, not scorn) is your own. No wonder the other side is so repressed, when they have to tie themselves in knots over all of this. (No, wait: don't give them even more nightmares).
Now, on to Top Comments:
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From fb: (from late last night)
In the diary by chipoliwog about the Washington state federal judge who declared that state's rules requiring pharmacists to provide access to legal prescriptions to all who request them unconstitutional - comments like these by big annie help me know that I'm not alone in this fight .... I couldn't have said it better myself.
And from
Ed Tracey, your faithful correspondent this evening ........
In the diary by The Book Bear over State Sen. John McGee (R-ID) who is resigning after first being arrested for drunkenly stealing a truck, leading to a DUI .. and now that he sexually harassed a female Senate attaché ...... AnnetteK wants to know if wagers are being taken on how long it takes to get a D after his name on Fox?
And two items on your-friend-and-mine, Bob McDonnell (R-VA) from Diana in NoVa:
First, in the diary by TheGreenMiles about how he used taxpayer money to lure a firm that destroys the rainforest habitat of tigers .... Diana points out that he lured Lockheed Martin to Virginia via corporate welfare as well.
Meanwhile, in the front-page story about how the trans-vaginal ultrasound probe bill has been shelved: Diana wrote about (I assume a photograph) in the newspaper this morning: "Someone was holding a sign that said, 'When do I get personhood?'"
Next: yesterday's Top Photos (as compiled by Jotter each day) - click on the photo to see the story behind it.
And lastly: yesterday's Top Mojo - mega-mojo to the intrepid mik ...... who rescued this feature from oblivion:
1) I'm still working out a bunch of the details, but by MinistryOfTruth — 273
2) Who Jesse? by Actbriniel — 167
3) And I thought the homophobia was reason enough by allergywoman — 163
4) Keep abortion safe and legal. by mijita — 155
5) Good! by lunachickie — 123
6) Break a leg, Jesse by Dallasdoc — 121
7) Heh. Mind your manners:) Remember that a by cany — 117
8) it isnt just Oakland or the OWS by live1 — 113
9) Thank you for participating Ms Warren by TexDem — 109
10) How absolutely horrendous by Bionic — 101
11) So ...the priest advocated bearing... by mommyof3 — 99
12) Well, isn't that special n/t by bobinson — 98
13) And no parental notification for minors. by Marie — 97
14) FYI by jpmassar — 96
15) Yes exactly by mijita — 92
16) I can´t see how this is like Op. Hilarity by Mariken — 91
17) My daughter is in her 37th week... by CanisMaximus — 91
18) Oh my God by Reetz — 92
19) Yes, the police everywhere are far too by YucatanMan — 91
20) thanks so much for joining our fundraiser by Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse — 91
21) Sweet! I am so very happy for you by Actbriniel — 90
22) Bravo for Mr. Darden by lgmcp — 90
23) It's time to tell the stories again by mijita — 85
24) My brother had good friends who were Mormons -- by Tamar — 82
25) Nope - by Unit Zero — 81
26) Yeah by hulibow — 80
27) I think they're trying harder to make it seem by middleagedhousewife — 80
28) I might also add that those missionaries by cany — 76
29) I like "News from the Real World" because if Jesse by Mr SeeMore — 76
30) First, do no harm. by rserven — 75
31) you know, as relatively "trivial" as by one love — 75