Poseur Alert

"Her vagina was all that, as they say in the urban media – a powerful ethnic muscle scented by bitter melon, the breezes of the local sea, and the sweaty needs of a tiny nation trying to breed itself into a future," – Gary Shteyngart, Absurdistan.

For some reason, this didn’t win the annual bad bad sex writing award, which Norman Mailer picked up posthumously. The full awful passage can be read in full after the jump.

Here it is:

    “You wanna pop me?” she said. This must have been some new-fangled youth term. The verb “to pop.”

    “I wanna bust a nut inside you, shorty,” I said. “I wanna make you sweat, boo. Let’s do this thing.”

    I’d like to say that she stepped out of her jeans, but in truth it took a while to maneuver two large dimpled buttocks and the accompanying vaginal wedge out of the hard shell of her Miss Sixty denims. We huffed and sweated; I had her hanging off the edge of the bed while I gripped the cuffs of her jeans; I nearly pulled a groin muscle getting her naked; but through it all I stayed hard, a testament to how much I wanted her. She kept her T-shirt on throughout the initial popping, which is just how I like my sex, infused with a little mystery. I slipped my hands beneath the cotton tee and felt the smooth creamery of her breasts while saving the visuals of those brown glossy globes for later. Her vagina was all that, as they say in the urban media – a powerful ethnic muscle scented by bitter melon, the breezes of the local sea, and the sweaty needs of a tiny nation trying to breed itself into a future. Was it especially hairy? Good Lord, yes it was. Mountains of kinkiness black as the night above the Serengeti with paprika shoots at the edges – the pubic hair alone must have clocked in at half a kilo, while providing the inspiration for two discernible trails of hair, one running up to the navel, the other to the base of the spine.

    Naturally, considering my size, she got on top of me. But given her impressive overall body mass and natural resilience, I could see a day when we could broach the missionary position, not that there’s anything special in attacking a poor woman that way. After we had fussed with the condom, I reached for her pubes, but she slapped me away. These preliminaries did not interest her. Instead, she just plain mounted me, holding on to my tits for balance, slipping me inside with no effort, both vaginal lips working to usher me into her tightness. I find it clichéd when couples insist that they have “the perfect fit,” but between the busted-up, zigzag, Broadway boogie-woogie of my maligned purple khui and the all-encompassing nature of her Caspian pizda, we reached a third way, as it were.

    That is to say, she rode me. It was all very classy and contemporary, like a modern-art survey course at NYU. I wanted to have the slogan I RODE MISHA VAINBERG imprinted on her T-shirt. “Yeah, do me,” she kept saying, after issuing a few grunts so male and assertive they startled me into a brief homosexual fear, a fear compounded by one of her sharp nails digging into my tight rectum. “Do me, daddy,” she said, her eyes closed, her thighs slapping against my upper and lower stomachs, my own tits making wet noises against my frame. “Just like that,” she said, stealing a brief glance at me and then turning her head to the side so that I could lick her ear and plunge into her neck. “Just … like … that.”

    “Yeah,” I said, “I’m fucking you, boo,” but the words did not convince me. “I’m busting my nut tonight,” I sang.

    “My pussy fills so tight,” she sang back in perfect ghetto English.

    “Ouch,” I said. She was crushing my pubic bone, grinding into it. “Ouch,” I repeated. “Baby doll … ouch.”

    “Just a minute, pops,” she said. “Just give me a minute. Do me right. Just like that.”

    “Move up a little,” I said. “Move up. It hurts. My bone.”

    “Just … like … that,” she said.

    “My bone hurts,” I said. “I’m losing it.”

    “AW,” she shouted. “FUCK ME.” She leaned back. I slipped out. Her thighs trembled before me, and I felt a warm, abundant liquid spreading on my own thighs, not sure which of us had issued it. My bedroom was filled with the smell of asparagus and related greenery. “Aw,” she said again. “Fuck me.”

Race and IQ: What We Do Not Know

The ever-vigilant Reihan pointed me to this succinct and highly informed blog-post on the subject by Jim Manzi. I’ve read a lot about this over the years, but this is one of the best and fairest analyses of the debate I’ve come across. And it’s highly disappointing if you’re hoping for some sort of resolution:

Given our current datasets and analytical tools, when we use econometric methods to try to understand the causes of group differences in intelligence, we are like cavemen trying to figure out how a computer works by poking at it with sharpened sticks.

Do genetic differences accounts for any material portion of the difference in IQ scores by self-identified racial groups in the US? The only honest answer is that we don’t know. This, not political correctness is why the American Psychological Association’s formal consensus point of view on this question is stated without qualification: “At present, this question has no scientific answer.”

He’s surely right as a simple empirical matter. A chastened Will Saletan – who deserves mad props for raising this important but frustrating issue – also concludes:

I outlined the evidence primarily to illustrate the limits of the genetic hypothesis. If it turns out to be true, it will be in a less threatening form than you might imagine. As to whether it’s true, you’ll have to judge the evidence for yourself. Every responsible scholar I know says we should wait many years before drawing conclusions.

So wait we shall.

The Web And Identity Politics

A truly depressing sign:

If approved, .LAT will become one of the first TLDs based on an ethnic group [Latinos] instead of being limited by country. The first, according to Keenan, was .CAT for Catalonians (for those not familiar, Catalonia is an autonomous community within Spain). With a new TLD approval process coming in 2008, .LAT and .CAT could be just the beginning of a bigger wave of domains focused around culture and lifestyle. We may one day see TLDs like .GLBT or .BIKE for the gay/lesbian/bisexual/trans and cycling communities, for example. The question is: who plans to beat me to applying for .NERD?

I’ll wait for .FAG myself.

Quote For The Day III

"We Spice Girls are true Thatcherites. Thatcher was the first Spice Girl, the pioneer of our ideology – Girl Power. But for now we’re desperately worried about the slide to a single currency," – Geri Halliwell.

The FT’s Peter Aspden comments:

Perhaps it is the cold nights of November drawing in, or possibly just a rank bad mood. But I ask: has there been anything so repellent in British cultural life as the new song and video by the Spice Girls?

At your own risk: here it is. It really is dreadful.

Historians For Obama

A new endorsement:

As president, Barack Obama would only begin the process of healing what ails our society and ensuring that the U.S. plays a beneficial role in the world. But we believe he is that rare politician who can stretch the meaning of democracy, who can help revive what William James called "the civic genius of the people."

Background on the Jamesian Obamans here. Ralph Luker, of Cliopatria fame, is one of them.

Should We Dump Musharraf?

Daniel Markey argues for holding our nose; Hussain Haqqani disagrees:

By abandoning Pervez Musharraf, the United States could signal that it will not tolerate Pakistan becoming "Myanmar lite," a nation permanently dominated by its military. Once Washington makes it clear that it will no longer support Musharraf, Pakistan’s military will have to start negotiating with the country’s political parties and civil society instead of dictating to them.

Meanwhile, there’s a lot of ambivalence on this thread of Pakistani commenters and bloggers after the Kayani news. Here’s one vent:

The "deals" with the Tribals, the pipeline with Iran, opposition to any sanctions against Iran, Chinese investment in Gwadar, the imposition of the emergency itself – all of these indicate indicate that Washington can not make Musharraf do squat, unless Musharraf feels it is in the interest of Pakistan.

Random factoid: Kayani "president of the Pakistan Golf Federation with a handicap of 18."