If the First Lady has offended the French, she did her job exceptionally well. And you have to wonder about David Korn's "family values" if he's concerned with explaining Desperate Housewives jokes to his toddler. Only in America!

"I'm not sure I want to explain a lot of those jokes to my 4-year-old."

No, that's a job for the teachers at the public school. They'll also tell his four-year-old how to use a condom and why Heather has two mommies.

OMG!! I can tell David what social conservatives like myself think....IT WAS FREAKIN HILARIOUS!!!!!!

Do these retards really think we have NO sense of humor? I'll put our humor up against guys like AL FRANKEN any day.......

Geeze, you have me using the word "retard" now.

The F- word is just around the corner for me, I just know it.....

David Korn needs to be ridiculed over this for the next decade or two. God, I hate these people!

how about when your 23 year old nanny strips for your 4 year old boy?

that's REAL scarring.

Hugh Hewitt is now playing a clip from it. The Chippendale joke was pretty funny, by the way.

Slick Willy can get his dick sucked by an intern in the Oval Office, but God help us if the First Lady tells a friggin' joke.

Ace, you're dancing around a subject that always makes me mad, because it happens All. The. Time.

Someone, anyone in the MSM (or worse, Drudge) will pick-up on the smallest, least significant critic of a movie/TV show/book and hype them as being representative of a larger group-- usually conservatives.

Meanwhile, everybody in that larger group is like, huh? WTF are you talking about? We don't have any problem here.

For instance, I was reading a liberal site the other day about how "Christian conservatives" were complaining about the new movie Kingdom of Heaven.

Turns out, there was one guy who could be confused with a Christian conservative who made a comment that was misinterpreted as criticism.

Didn't matter, because the damage was done. Because some snot-nosed liberal wanted to hype a story about us silly rubes, one voice multiplied into many, even though there was no "there" there.

That's one aspect of the blogsophere that's really beginning to piss me off-- fake controversies.

Cheers,
Dave at Garfield Ridge

What? No one bemembers the "mommy, what's a blowjob?" question in the late 90's. That one was pretty popular.

Not only that SondraK my dear, but the kids put the knowledge to good use a few years later....like at 14.

PUKE.

Oh yeah, and just a little while ago they were running Laura down calling her a "Stepford Wife".

This stuff, does indeed write itself.

BTW, if I had a daughter I'd tell her to watch Laura Bush to see how a great lady behaves.

Fuckers.

My favorite part:

Even Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, sitting at a Washington Times table, appeared to enjoy the joke.

Translation: We disagree with Scalia's legal decisions, so he must be a puritanical tight-ass.

It was no big deal when Clinton stuck a fucking cigar up Monica's cooch or when he jerked off into a White House sink, but liberals get fainting spells over stuff tamer than Late Night monologues?

"Geeze, you have me using the word "retard" now.

The F- word is just around the corner for me, I just know it....."

Nooooooooooo!

Flee from this site, maintain your innocence, fair Flower of Southern Womanhood.

Go to your own site, for Pete's sake. You had me blubbering in my Jack with your post about your grandmother. Your post about the stuff you leave behind when you die got me filling up five trash cans for the Wednesday pick-up. Deep down, even demented male sickos like me (well, actually, let's say Brewfan) want to believe that somebody is better, purer, and kinder than us.

Moonbat_One:

To a Liberal, a conservative is by definition (theirs) a humorless Christian zealot. Thus when First Lady Bush gets off a couple of mildly blue jokes at her husband's expense, the left is all afluster at the impropriety of it all -- mostly because Ms. Bush stepped out of their caricature of her, not out of her own bounds of behavior.

This is the classic strawman strategem used by the Left -- they perceive conservatism only through their own caricature of it, and thus are left afluster when conservatives do something even mildly unconventional. To be fair, we conservatives also do this with liberals, lumping them into one large patchouli-smelling hippie mass; and yet I find these days that it is the liberals rather than the conservatives who are more often wrong.

...and rightwingsparke, don't let the rest of these people deceive you. Drop the F-bomb and it shall set you free.

"The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth." So saith the Preacher.

Hang out with us in the House of Mirth!

Monty:

Love the Ecclesiastes quotes. The wisdom of Solomon almost equals that of Batman, and is a welcome antidote to much of the idiocy here.

Michael,

LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You need to scroll down to my "In Love" post. That will really have you reaching for the Jack, for we have ALL loved that way.....;-) Just not quite as pure and better though.....

Conservatives don't have a higher birth rate in comparison with liberals for nothing.

Korn can't explain Laura Bush's prepared speech comments to a four year old, but his kind CAN and DO lecture four year olds in kindergartens about homosexuality, and want everyone everywhere to do so, too, with every four year old around.

Don't I recall Whoopi getting a pass on her "Bush-Bush" riff at Kerry's Radio City Music Hall fundraiser? Didn't seem to offend the MSM then.

I heard some excerpts today - Laura wasn't just funny, she was on f'n fire.

Grace, is why *I* wasn't named GRACE...but my momma sure taught me it. Laura's mama, too. Laura's the epotome!
*clap*clap*clap*

SondraK:

It's a pity that the old girl's name Garland isn't much used anymore; Laura Bush is a perfect Garland. I think of flowers when I think of her; not pretentious roses or fussy orchids, but honest summertime daisies laced into a crown and placed on a lovely woman's head.

Your exceptionally small cortexes have obviously missed the point of Korn's outrage. I really don't expect you NASCAR fans to understand the intricacies of Korn's argument, so let me attempt to explain it to you by using a quote from JFK, who we should just canonize now:

"Robert...I need some company. Bring me a blonde this time, would you?"

Please note the spelling of "blonde."

First of all, Laura Bush is all class.

Now, onward to Hob and his linked article about the nanny:

Thanks for that disguting article, Hob. Just what I needed; the St. Petersburg Fucking Times and their commie reporters.

But seriously, that story really is strange. What a wierd drama, from start to finish.

And not to blame the parents, but give me a fucking break. If you have children, and hire someone to raise them for you, then it is your fucking job to make sure that person is part of your family. And that means being there in the fucking home with the nanny, having your mom or dad or a friend stop in unexpectedly and lots of this over many months.

I have tutored and watched many affluent, self-absorbed parents. You know what these people think? They think, "Here's your money, do your fucking job." Some snotty parents think that money buys them surrogate parents. But I look at a nanny as an unique employee, and I take it very seriously. I'm not just talking about sexual predators, I'm talking about building a sense of that person's judgment skills, whether it be driving your kids, dealing with a sick child, when to be firm, etc.

Intertwined with this, you must treat this nanny that meets your standards as an almost-equal. You cannot talk down to them and treat them like you would some guy fixing your car or pruning your trees. We're talking about your fucking home and kids for Lord's sake.

Too many parents simply hire a nanny, go with the referral, and don't do any investigating on their own. Now, could this horrific event have been prevented had these particular parents done these things? Perhaps (and probably) not. But read their comments. It stinks of the wrong attitude from the start.

Just suppose this woman that they hired had double-dosed the kid on medication (even with Tylenol you can give a 4-year-old the suspension drops, which are very concentrated, and think it's the kid's formula, and end up giving a teaspoon dosage of the concentrated formula and kill the little child right there and then) or forgot to buckle up, or made a bad judgement call regarding an allergy. What would they be doing then?

These sorts of things (not the gross shit this sick woman did) can be assessed pretty accurately if you view the hiring of a nanny as one of the most important things you'll ever do.

I've always said that these psycho leftist trash manage to combine puritanism and narcsissism in every thing they do; its the foundation of the nanny-police state. they prove it once again with this inexplicable prudery acting (in david corns admonition), to lecture us by suggesting "say what you will...but please spare di chirren". Hey David, what did you think when oral sex bacame the daily topic of news? Did you say anything then?

These miserable prudes, they just don't understand humor, and they go ballistic when they are not the center of attention. Their narcissism knows no bounds

"I'm not sure I want to explain a lot of those jokes to my 4-year-old."

USA Today: IS THAT LAST SENTENCE SARCASTIC? IF SO, YOU SURE LOST ME.

"It's a pity that the old girl's name Garland isn't much used anymore; Laura Bush is a perfect Garland. "

" I will show partiality to no one, nor will I flatter any man; for if I were skilled in flattery, my Maker would soon take me away." So saith Elihu son of Barakel the Buzite (Job Chapter 32, as long as you're into Hebrew wisdom literature).

Monty,

What a beautiful comment about our lovely First Lady.

What about, for Laura, Lilies of the Valley? Look closely at them, they're exquisite tiny flowers. They don't shout "notice me!" and they smell glorious.

Michael,

You're so f'n hot! I just want to go crazy on you!

BrewFan,
Do you do this for a living?

Let's do it. Let's have sex.

Michael,

You have to be into Sean M. though. Just look at me and say 'Yes'.

The real reason that David Korn doesn't want to have to explain this to his daughter is that, inevitably, she'll end up correcting him. Like she does whenever he tries to explain energy policy, economics, foreign affairs, the war on terror, the rules to "Candyland", etc.

For the record, it's so nice to see "Bad Ace" is back in town.

SpewFan - I thought you confined your affections to Sean M and Jack M. But I guess you like fresh wadds wherever and whenever you can get them.

Laura Bush was very funny, but the liberals do have a point about the censorship fears that Michael (Savanarola) Powell has caused - that recently led some networks to tape delay all sports events, and the cutting of much of the 1st 8 minutes of "Saving Private Ryan".

OT - Between 1995 and 2002, China's private sector has increased productivity at 17 percent annually -- a truly breathtaking pace. China's industrial growth rate is 11% per annum. Worker wages flat despite that, and the quantum jumps in worker productivity.

I...but....I mean...well...'

Shoot. Not much left to say. Y'al have done such a fine job.

I think it's great that someone finally blew the lid of the big secret that Texans like to tell jokes and spin tall tales.

Whodathunkit!?

Cedarford,

You do have a point concerning censorship, but if you pull your cap down low on your head, no one can really see it.

OT- You're a commie douchebag. Not to mention the epitome of the word bore.

chagrined girly-men like Korn secretly hate attractive, accomplished, conservative heteronormative women

these simpering prigs prefer the hillarys, jackson-lees, and barbara mikulskis of the world.
liberal females should be foul-mouthed fat slobs, notorious for violent rages, abusive tantrums, and degrading treatment of others.

Cedarford:

Familiar with the concept of learning curve theory? This concept applies to manufacturing as well as worker productivity. As you increase the volume of output, cost goes down and productivity goes up.

Take digital SLR cameras or plasma TVs. If you only manufacture 1,000 your first year, your expenses are high and worker productivity is low. You double the output next year to 2,000 units, and things change at a super-high rate, downward in terms of cost and upward in terms of productivity.

Keep doubling, and it gets harder to get these quantum leeps of improvement. So, once you hit the 10,000,000 mark in terms of production, you'd have to build 20,000,000 next year to get similar changes in cost and productivity. This simplifies things, but the basics are fairly accurate. You can read about it here.

Why do you think China's productivity gains are so high? It's obvious; you mentioned the private sector. Well, when your base is low (the number of businesses and their employees in the private sector, and these are given special treatment by the communist government to behave like traditional free market systems), your productivity has nowhere to go but way up. You interestingly neglect to inform us the percentage of those more than 1 billion Chinese that aren't in the private sector, by the way.

As you might imagine, China cannot keep this rate of productivity increase indefinately. That's why our growth in productivity as a nation is so astounding: we have a very highly developed free market system, and yet we still make substantial productivity gains when compared to other mature economies like those in Western Europe and Japan.

Take a look at Poland, India and other countries and you'll see similarly large, double-digit productivity gains. But these countries, also, will slow down in their productivity gains when they mature, just as learning curve theory proves.

Finally, why do you trust the Chinese numbers? Every economist that studies China reminds us here in the West that that country never revises its economic numbers. This is a clear sign that their numbers are juiced/slanted/fraudulent. Every country revises up or down all of their quarter-to-quarter and year-to-year economic data, because they make mistakes or fail to include trends in their original numbers. But not China. Now, this does not nullify China's growth; far from it. Most economists agree that China's numbers are pretty solid, but they do question their veracity, which frankly, you should do also.

But your shift in your post from Laura Bush to China's productivity gains is absolutely amazing, I must say.

Hey! Dialogue with Cedarford like he is actually a human being or something. I feel vindicated (until Megan gets here).

BACK ON TOPIC:

Laura Bush slices like an f'n hammer.

There, I said it. And if David "Commie"-Korn (kinda like candycorn only not very sweet or tasty) can't handle the truth then f him. F him right in the f'n ear.

Michael:

Surprise! I've done this more than once. I've engaged the man through dialog, and then it (usually) devolves to sarcasm. That doesn't necessarily mean I don't try. Most of the time, I don't, but sometimes I do.

The extent of the dialog will be driven by how he responds. He'll either directly address my points of contention with a direct rebuttal, or he'll resort to sarcasm (usually in the form of talking down/name calling, etc.). I really don't mind it, but that's past experience.

That's when things go back up to the swamp, where things are best here.

Birkel:

I loved your terse and very funny observation about David "Commie"Korn; however, I would happily welcome your quick thoughts regarding my comments about China and learning curve theory. My guess is you know something about this. I'd like to know if you think my comments are of merit or lacking. Just a request.

I watched the clip on CSPAN.com (f'ing RealPlayer, blaagh) and thought it was hilarious. Best line (badly paraphrased): "They didn't have a strong ranching program at Andover or Yale ... I remember when George tried to milk a horse -- the worst part is that it was a male horse ...."

I've said before that I work at a fairly liberal SF law firm. So my secretary came into my office this morning to hand me something, and spotted a picture I'd printed out and put up on my corkboard last Friday (a pretty goofy shot from the Washington Post of Donald Rumsfeld flexing his biceps along with two dorky-looking guys in Spiderman and Captain America costumes ... long story, but it's actually related to a case I'm working on).

As SF liberals like to do (don't get me wrong, she's a very nice lady and without her I'd be useless, but this is just the mindset I live among), she had to share a political observation: "Did you hear what Laura Bush said at some event when she was roasting George? She said that 'whenever George is fixing up the ranch and runs into a problem, his first approach is to take a chainsaw to it -- I think that's why he gets along so well with Cheney and Rumsfeld.' "

My secretary's reaction was not exactly "shocked," as she had a smile on her face while telling me about it, but she did seem to think that it was kind of tasteless / unintentionally funny for them to make that joke when that sums up the exact reaction that Bush's critics have to him. I laughed with her, not at her, but still pointed out (nicely, and while chuckling) that it seemed to be their way of taking on the most hysterical of their opponents by making a joke out of the criticisms.

After watching the clip, I'm even more convinced that that's exactly what both Laura and Dubya do, completely on purpose, and not just at the correspondents' dinner. Case in point: Laura joking about Dubya's pronunciation of "nuclear" was almost as good as the horse-milking joke (which they probably took from Kingpin anyway) for that precise reason. I've suspected for years that Dubya knows exactly how to pronounce "nuclear," and just says "nucular" because it drives liberals bonkers every time they hear it. Laura's joke confirmed my suspicions. I like these people more and more all the time, even if they do exasperate me with a silly policy every once in a while.

Deep in the churning bowels of Scott's White House Briefing Room, the unholy tension began to build. Tormented by sweat-breaking revelations and squeezed tightly, Jeff's bald head squirmed side to side, desperately fighting back against the constricting maneuvers of angry protestations. The intensity of the flagrant, scandalous behavior became too great to for him bear. He couldn't hold it back any longer! Losing control, his life story spasmodically surged forth as he was ripped out of the place, spraying the seedy news on the publicly exposed back of the entire Administration.

Hey, if "nucular" is good enough for Jack Bauer, it's good enough for the President.

All you have to do is imagine what these same douch-bags would be saying if hillary Clinton had told these same jokes when she was first lady. Lets face it, they would be openly manipulating themselves to climax in the isles during the event. They would be explaining how the clouds parted to the lordf himself could get a better view. How for a few breif moments there was peace around the world as everyone tuned in to hear Hillary Clinton tell a joke about about her fabulous marriage. Laura was funny and sweet, can't they just fucking leave it at that?

Laura is one of the best First Ladies.....ever

I wish I knew what the MSM said about Marilyn Monroe's sexy Happy Birthday song to JFK back in the day. Considering political figures really didnt become so obtainable to the media before Nixon and the era at the time, I bet it was quite the scandal.

I really tire of this political tit for tat and the sophmoric mentality of those who are somehow and unbelievably allowed to acquire the recognition for their ignorance.

Laura was endearing, she was smart and funny. Gotta love her.

I watched it live during Geraldo Rivera's show...I was shrieking with laughter. When they did quick video cuts to the room, could see that everybody there was having a good time.
Except of course for a few bitter souls who looked like they were trying pretty hard not to laugh.

It was so unexpected to hear the words 'Desperate Housewives' come out of her mouth. Most of the laughter was surprise.

I didn't expect that kind of stuff from a bible thumper either. She challenged the perceptions of not only those on the fossilized left, but us non-religious cons too.
It almost makes me wonder if it was some kind of a signal. That, and Bush bringing his social security case to the people the other night.

I wonder if the rest of his term is going to be really different from what we've seen in the past.

WP has yanked the article. It was apparently a hoax.

Sorry, I meant WT. (Washington Times)

WHAT IS UP WITH THE BUSH FAMILY???

Laura's remarks about the horse were really stupid and not worthy of a First Lady, no matter who she is. Though the horse joke is a standard farm joke, it belongs in the barnyard not in front of a group of reporters being told by the president's wife.

And the Bush's hanging with Bill Clinton? Whoa, what's up with that? Clinton is the lowest life-form (yes, even lower than e coli) ever to occupy the White House and made the whole world a far more dangerous place by doing nothing after we were attacked FIVE TIMES by Al Queda. Bill Clinton deserves to be in prison, not hanging out with president and his father.

Are they all on drugs again?

I recall the President got hammered pretty good last year after the same event for making jokes about WMDs. Dems used the personal anguish of families who had lost soldiers to basically say that the search for WMDs was no laughing matter. Loved ones had lost their lives searching for WMDs.

Any subject the President would have used to poke fun at himself would have been used the same way this year. "How can he joke about social security when millions of poor, elderly. . . " I think last year's criticism stung and this was a brilliant way for the jokes to be told without handing his opponents any real ammunition.

You're killing me 72.
You are sucking the joy right out of my soul.

Geez, 72, get a grip. At least she didn't follow up the joke with, "And that horse followed him around everywhere he went after that."

No, Alex, a better phrasing would be, "...and he liked to never got that stupid horse to stop following him around after that."

I hate to steal someone else's joke, but a commenter over at Chrenkoff allowed as how no Red Stater would be shocked by the horse joke, but it's a good thing the Bush's ranch isn't a sheep ranch.

A little secret on nucular. If you look at who works in the civilian nuclear power industry, the Navy's nuclear power program, and the military's nuke weapons program, you find a heavy southern influence. Which means that even mucho-credentialed nuclear engineers down in Texas or elite Naval servicemen in Puget sound or Holy Loch Scotland or nuke weapons servicemen in Minot, N Dakota .........

Most pronounce it "nucular".

Because they learned their trade from the instructors in the military hailing from the South, the heavy southern component in university nuclear programs. And you go to nuke facilities up north, like the Blue State Groton Sub Base - you find sailors there say "nucular", so do nuke power plant workers in New Jersey.

All but people NOT involved in the nuke fields who come from the media centers on the East Coast who lecture that it is pronounced "nu-cle-ar". The same people who think Southerners are stupid and not able to count to "five" because they pronounce it a hard "FI-ivve".

If you want people who deal with nuke stuff that consistently say "nu-cle-ar" you likely hear it from a Canadian, a Brit.

Bush likes "nucular" because it drives the East Coast elites crazy, but that's also how it's said in Texas. As well as being the dominant pronounciation in civilian and military circles by people actually doing work with nukes.

They also were known to say, back in the early days of atomic research at the Oak Ridge National Lab in Tennessee:

DON'T DROP THAT FUCKER HANK, OR WE'RE ALL GONERS!

KCTrio -

I do know the learning curve and quite appreciate how dominant it is in new industry or new, nimble competitor's growth numbers. It was good of you to spell it out.

But what we are seeing in China is 25 straight years of 9% or better GNP growth. No nation has ever done that before. The numbers are better than the Meiji Restoration or the great American growth periods when we protected domestic markets and built up advanced industries (1804-1860, 1865-1930).

The difference with the Japanese challenge is that Japan started their challenge as a full employment, high wage nation, and Reagan protected the two key key industries Japan sought to destroy - steel and autos. The great Japan Challenge ended not when "Americans kicked their asses" as the myth goes, but when Japans wages rose enough above ours that we were competetive again.

Now, with the Global challenge led by China - no domestic manufacturing industry is protected except boutiques serving the US military. Japan has a manufacturing wage of 40.66 hr, the US 36.72, China only 1.67 despite 25 years of explosive growth because they still have 200 million workers seeking good jobs and Central Control keeps the workers from pushing for better compensation.

And there is India wanting to get those services in America which are the most well-compensated, starting with IT, then Financial services, then if they can defeat protectionist measures, get a chunk of the huge money professionals in the medical and legal fields get. They have 300 million unemployed or under employed workers, and are expanding their university capacity in those 4 areas at a massive pace.

Within a decade, I think the American people will mostly be on board, understanding the huge mess that globalization has caused - because American wages will have to fall to let us be competitive with 3 billion new "low cost" competitors. How thoroughly fucked they were by the power elites that gave them free trade destruction of America' s tecnological and industrial dominance,, global labor pools, and supply sider ideologues' massive debt to pay off.

And if your average secretary or truck driver goes to half the wages they once had, they will insist that the lawyers they use or pay for with their taxes also see their pay be cut too, and the US market opened to cheap Indian and Pakistani attorneys.

Most economists agree that China's numbers are pretty solid, but they do question their veracity, which frankly, you should do also.

If the numbers are reasonably solid, and they appear to be solider than the Enron sheets, Krispy Kreem, or the Federal Gov'ts budget and politically influenced economist Reports.....then they are solid enough for investment purposes. Veracity? The Chinese seem more honest than much of our private and Gov't P&Ls. No worse than the US hiding 300 billion in war costs over the last 3 years, the pretense that SS exists when it's surplus is all thrown into current Fed spending, or the political appointee economists trotting out miracle jobs creation under the Household Survey or the Clintonistas hawking the "New Economy on the Information SuperHighway to the future".

I sort of trust the China private sector annual reports over what Wall Street and corporate lawyers have given us in the last 20 years. Over there, their Jack Grubmans, Dennis Levines, Ivan Boeskys, Koslowskis and Fast Andy Fastows are considered major economic criminals who prey on the people through fraud - and many get a trial and a bullet. China's accounting practices are nowhere near as "creative" as America's major corporate accounting.

Dave in Texas:

They also were known to say, back in the early days of atomic research at the Oak Ridge National Lab in Tennessee:

DON'T DROP THAT FUCKER HANK, OR WE'RE ALL GONERS!

I think it went, "Dhaoon You Drop That There Fucker Hank! If Yuh Do, We're Gol-Dang Goners!"

Within a decade, I think the American people will mostly be on board, understanding the huge mess that globalization has caused - because American wages will have to fall to let us be competitive with 3 billion new "low cost" competitors. How thoroughly fucked they were by the power elites that gave them free trade destruction of America' s tecnological and industrial dominance,, global labor pools, and supply sider ideologues' massive debt to pay off.

By that point, cedarford, Americans will be as democratically powerless as Europeans, so it won't matter much. Probably disarmed by that point too, at least under the law.

lauraw and Alex

If a Liberal had made the same stupid joke you'd both be furious and all over them for how inapprpriate the joke was. If it is wrong, it is wrong no matter who says it. Liberals are always searching for ways to attack us about our "hypocracy," let's not prove them right.

Can you see how a joke directed at somebody else can be cruel and unfunny, while the same joke directed at oneself is charming, self-deprecating humor?
Libs jab at others, not at themselves. They have no fucking sense of humor about their own foibles.

And if Hillary had made the same joke about Bill, the only reason it wouldn't be funny is because he's such a sick fuck we'd wonder if there was any truth to it.

I would also remind you that Laura never actually said anything dirty. Part of saving your dignity while telling a nasty joke is letting the dirty minds of the audience do the work.

So SHAME ON YOU, and get your mind out of the gutter.

Well, it was good Laura Bush did the jokes. Before that, her legacy was shaping up to be cast as the Stepford wife, gazing adoringly at her husband at all times, occasionally daintily dabbing a bit of drool off her lips so it didn't fall on her designer dress.

A big plus for her. She got rid of the Stepford wife label without going the Nancy Reagan route to be seen as the Machiavellian manipulator of "Ronnie". She ticked off a few hypocritical liberals and the usual "purer than thou" Bible-thumpers, but fuck 'em.

As an aside, the "Stepford Wives" was created by writer Ira Levin of Stamford, CT. In the 60's, many well heeled execs fled NYC for the suburbs, notably Stamford, and brought along their model-perfect trophy wives who learned to reflexively smile and interact from beauty contests and days as airline stewardesses. Ira noticed these soul-less creations, and the propensity of men to ignore the plastic phoniness as long as the package looked hot. The corporate Stamford Wives....

So he created "Stepford" from Stamford and took it to an extreme in a sci-fi novel that really resonated. To this day, Stamford is very proud of it and denies it's neighbor, Bedford NY, another homeland of corporate trophy wives - was Ira Levin's inspiration.

Once again he segues into something so fucking off topic....
Why are you here?

I think he just likes hearing himself write.

He should get his own blog.

Really, CF. You should.

As for this continued stupidity...

If it is now against "family values" for a first lady to make silly jokes about not getting enough sex from her husband, Good Lord, then I'm all done with family values.

If you can't even joke about NOT getting sex inside the "holy" confines of marriage, when, precisely, can anyone bring sex up?

Never?

Why?

What the hell is going on?

It's one thing to insist on a certain minimum level of public sexual modesty and restraint.

But for the love of everything holy... we're talking about LB suggesting Bush is too tired to do his "husbandly duties" and then she mentions (gasp!) Chippendales.

Oh, and him mistaking a male horse for a female one or whatever.

Pleeeeaaaase... I can't take this scolding nannyism.

cedarford--i'll bite. i am a reporter on the biz desk of a large metropolitan daily. I speak to investors in Chinese concerns all the time, including two of the four largest, on a fairly regular basis.

They all say the same 2 things:
1. any profitable investment in china requires extensive sub-rosa and outright bribery, usually in the form of taking care of senior Chinese Army/military sorts via no-show, "featherbed" jobs and equity stakes.
2. Reread #1, since the Chinese have embraced fraudulent and inaccurate accounting to a level you simply cannot imagine. In fact, it is not really accounting at all. Western investors have to import their own accountants at great expense.

in short, the bribing of the Chinese military is an effective hedge for protecting your money.

Re GDP growth of China:
It will be more of a political concern when they make things that have intellectual capital components to them, such as cutting edge tech and pharma....for now, they are artful thieves that an overstretched Bush administration has neither the political or economic capital to confront...

lauraw

To quote Michelle Malkin:

But I think the stripper and horse jokes were totally beneath her.

Just put it to the other-shoe test: If it were Teresa Heinz Kerry standing up on the dais telling the same jokes, the conservative commentariat would be buzzing for the rest of the year about what a tasteless skank she is.

I like Laura Bush too, and actually I thought the stripper joke was funny, though a bit much. But as told, the horse joke really does belong in the barnyard.

Can't disagree with you there, 72DV. If Terezzzza had been the one making jokes about jacking off horses, the right would've flipped out.

I have no problem with what Laura said but there's certainly a double standard at work here.

Q: didn't you hear what Laura Bush said at the Correspondent's dinner?

A: What's a correspondent's dinner?

yeah, this is a huge story

(not a criticism of your coverage , ace, but the MSM's)

Cheesh, can't you prudes leave Laura Bush alone? All she did was make a joke about her husband jerking off a horse, what's wrong with that? Doesn't everyone?

I rest my case ...

Tried to milk the horsie, and it was a male one, get it?

But it's funny BECAUSE it's Laura Bush saying it. If it was Terezzza, you'd say that's just more weirdness from that loose canon. Consider the source. Or you would say that's boring. She really had to tone it down to make it acceptable to the public. There is a double standard because so little is expected of Laura in terms of being an entertaining speaker. That's why people like her benefit from mildly risque jokes. Half of the funny is people trying to get a grip on their perception of the speaker. In my best Connery voice, I say "well played."

skinbad is EXACTLY right. It's not just the joke, Allah, it's the person telling the joke that makes it funny.

Lauraw made the same point. The fact that Mrs. Bush is so straightlaced is what made it so funny.

But lauraw, rest assured, us theocons like naughty humor too.

Why else would I be here?....;-)

"And there is India wanting to get those services in America which are the most well-compensated, starting with IT, then Financial services, then if they can defeat protectionist measures, get a chunk of the huge money professionals in the medical and legal fields get."

Does this mean that Indian lawyers will soon be winning landmark cases before the OREGON SUPREME COURT?

Hob is in deep shit.

Lawyers and Doctors have spent generations erecting barriers to professional entry, and defining tasks that they, and only they, are permitted to do. Effective Guilds.

So Hobby has more protection from the billions of people dreaming of taking America's best paying jobs than those in other professions. But if all the other good-paying jobs are threatened by outsourcing and wages of all Americans must be lowered to close the Gap between skilled American workers (31.55 hr ave. comp) and India (84 cents/hr) and China (1.67 hr) skilled workers, it will be impossible for American society to afford 150 dollar an hour lawyers.

If we go ahead and accept Americans are just interchangable resources in the Global labor pool - that means American wages all generally fall 60-70%. Then we either get 50.00 an hour lawyers or demand that we can use Haji, the friendly Indian charging 25.00 an hour from Kolcut to defend us via Broadband court hookup, or to do our real estate closing.

Actually, Cedarford, Indians are already doing tax returns for American taxpayers. The process you describe is well underway.

For a nightmare glimpse into the past, and apparently the imminent future, of international aristocracy and mercantile, multicultural empire, read "Creation" by Gore Vidal (yeah yeah I know, but the freaky-philosopher-seer ones are almost *all* moonbats).

Now THAT book would make a kick-ass movie.

I spent the weekend and first half of the week drunk etc. in celebration. In case anyone missed me.

*crickets*

helloheLOheLOLOLO

this is what I get for reading old posts, tryin to get caught up.

Hi Knemon. I'll be the last one on this thread.

Hi Cederford.

Dead thread and you'll probably never read this, but I'm going to go on record anyway. Your "aside" about the relationship between the Stepford Wives and Stamford was interesting. Ignore the fact the at Lauraw and Ace felt obliged to dump on you for being OT. These threads wander all over anyway, and they're just being assholes.

They both failed to notice that you were giving full credit to "Ira Levin" for the inspiration that lead to the Stepford Wives. What? Cedarford commenting favorably about the creative contribution of a Joooo?

I'm actually starting to relish the mindless Cedarford-bashing going on here. Bet you do to.

You're also right about the role of professional associations as an entry barrier to competition, like a medieval guild. I'm a member of such a guild, but not dumb enough that I can't see it for what it is -- an attempt to restrict supply in order to raise prices. under the guise of 'protecting the public' and 'maintaining professional standards'.