The Dish

A reader writes:

Over my lunch break, I couldn’t help pondering Derb’s Lolita article a little more and I found the bright side!

If I understand Derb’s rationale, my 29th birthday will really be cause to celebrate! If, as Derb suggests, rape is mainly a function of the victim’s hotness, and if a woman’s hotness (and therefore probability of being raped) drops off like a "continental shelf" at age 29, then come November, I’m virtually home free! As I enter my last year as a twenty-something and my buttocks begin to sag, I’ll be able to walk without worry down darkened city alleys, jog with my headphones on through the park after sunset, and forget about double-checking the locks on the doors before bed! Alas, a life free from all that fuss about personal safety. 

And all this time I’ve been under the mistaken impression that older women might – might – be less likely to be raped because they (like most adults, about most dangers) are more in touch with their own mortality/vulnerability and more savvy in avoiding dangerous situations. But Derb has made perfect sense of those rape statistics: Hot girls get raped because they’re hot and once you’re past your mid-twenties, you’re not hot.

On this birthday, I’ll drink one (or ten) for Derb and stumble home worry free!

Who, one wonders, is coopting whom?

The Sid Blumenthal of the Bush administration, Hugh Hewitt, is throwing a lot of personal insults around these days. Professor Bainbridge is the latest target. Bainbridge’s sin? Putting a coherent conservatism before Bush-worship.

Feverish anti-Rove speculation here; wet blanket here. Enjoy.

Virginia Postrel tells all.

Yep: the Competitive Enterprise Institute has decided to launch a p.r. campaign in defense of carbon dioxide. Money quote:

"Carbon Dioxide: They Call It Pollution. We Call It Life."

I’m not making this up. Now, I’m not going to knock CO2. And when you watch the ad, you’ll find it comes out of your lungs in short, sharp bursts of laughter.

"An aggressively annoying new phrase in America’s political lexicon is "values voters." It is used proudly by social conservatives, and carelessly by the media to denote such conservatives. This phrase diminishes our understanding of politics. It also is arrogant on the part of social conservatives and insulting to everyone else because it implies that only social conservatives vote to advance their values and everyone else votes to … well, it is unclear what they supposedly think they are doing with their ballots," – George F. Will, today.

Will has one of the best records in punditry in recent years – his tenacious Toryism managing to resist some of the powerful Republican currents of our time. His rebuke of the "values voter" appropriation is overdue – and not far off my own revulsion at having the word "Christian" purloined for political purposes. Next up: the attempt by the Christianists to coopt the term "family." Something is growing out there in the culture, and it’s gaining strength.

A reader thinks we’re seeing the same phenomenon that occurred under a previous Bush administration:

You have lately been publishing a lot of emails of Republicans who have become disenchanted by – or enraged at – the Bush administration for its manifest failure to live up to the plainest conservative principles. These folks sound very much like those who in another era voted for Ross Perot and (possibly) handed the presidency to Bill Clinton.

With the GOP firmly in the hands of Christianist extremists, and with the Democrats still bickering, I wonder if the time might be ripe for another consequential third-party candidacy. Just look at the contortions that McCain is having to go through in order to make is candidacy palatable to the crowd that currently runs the Republican party; wouldn’t it be nice if McCain could run as an independent and not have to suck up to the Christianists?

Of course he can’t and he won’t, but…

The current Perotian cause is obviously fiscal balance. In many ways, the fiscal situation is much worse now than it was in the early 1990s. The new Medicare entitlement, the boomer retirement crisis, and the dawn of big government, big borrowing conservatism makes a Perot-style candidate very attractive. This time, of course, it would be better not have a complete nutcase.

Here he goes again.

Yay! Tom Cruise failed to prevent a free showing of South Park’s episode, "Trapped in the Closet", at the National Film Theatre in London on Monday. Still, they couldn’t charge for the screening; and the show still has not been shown on British television. It is also still not in rotation in the U.S. The power of the Super Adventure Club endures. But it’s a start. Surrender, Viacom!