Tuesday, April 01, 2014

ME-YOW.

You may remember back in 2012 when Ole Perfesser Instapundit called for conservatives to publish women's magazines and thus hypnotize the feckless woman voter. Some of them got excited about a magazine called Verily, which allegedly offers a godly alternative to sexed-up Cosmo with stories like "Are Elite Degrees Wasted on Stay-at-Home Moms?"

Sure, why not, markets in everything, right?  But apparently for conservatism to triumph, it is not enough that Verily do well; it is necessary that evil liberal ladymags do poorly. Jillian Kay Melchior, heretofore best known as authoress of the world's funniest unemployment memoir, does her bit in National Review:
Culture has been replaced by Kulture: Vogue has put Kim Kardashian on the cover of its April issue.
Apparently this is a comedown from the Golden Age of Kate Moss covers.
At its best, fashion is not only an aesthetic choice but a moral one: It’s an expression of values.
I'll spare you. "Though the magazine is distinctly left-leaning" -- an assessment which is never explained -- Vogue, says Melchior, used to "emphasize that kindness, charity, and friendship are as beautiful as any couture dress." But lately they've been embarrassing themselves with features on monsters like Mrs. Bashar al-Assad and Wendy Davis. And now Kimye! Unlike the other monthly fillers-for-fashion-ads, Vogue "degrades its brand" -- you know, like that time Rolling Stone had Britney Spears on the cover -- a cover that had once borne the likeness of Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show! Weep, editorial eagle, weep!

I wonder if this has anything to do with Verily abandoning its print edition. Which I think is a shame; I'd rather see more choices out there than fewer, even in scent-smeared timewasters. But then, I'm more interested in pop culture than in pop culture war.

190 comments:

  1. Magatha11:02 AM

    Oof. I had a look at some of the comments left at Melchior's piece, and see that ronald54321 has figured out why we should hate big business. Wait. I thought we were supposed to love big business.

    "In the past, adults with families controlled the culture, and what their
    kids mainly looked at, listened to and read. Now family people only
    have enough for necessities and cultural products are mainly for
    adolescents and adults without families. That's why big business in so
    interested in homosexuals.
    "

    I get confused. Is this also why Hobby Lobby hates birth control? To attract and employ more homosexuals? I know, I know. Stay in the boat.

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  2. dstatton11:04 AM

    An article there was about which women could be on Mt Rushmore. One of the author's choices was Eleanor Roosevelt. Of course, conservatives do tend to go a little softer on safely dead liberals.

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  3. But then, I'm more interested in pop culture than in pop culture war.

    HIPPIE!
    ~

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  4. All these years leafing through The Weekly World News in the checkout line for Batboy stories and Ed Anger columns, unaware that a high-gloss source of Marxist doctrine was right there in the same rack.

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  5. Vogue, says Melchior, used to "emphasize that kindness, charity, and friendship are as beautiful as any couture dress.

    The DevilSt. Francis Wore Prada?
    ~

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  6. coozledad11:17 AM

    Thou art Peter and upon this rock lies our sexual satisfaction- how to get him off with prayer!

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  7. Get annoyed by some random thing.
    Mull over ways it can be blamed on liberals.
    Write column.

    Just thought I'd take you through a conservative pundit's day.

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  8. Wasn't Lena Dunham on the cover of Vogue lately? Why is she railing at Kim K. when History's Greatest Monster would have made a better subject for the rubes. Spoiler, she's not even pretty!!!

    Vogue, says Melchior, used to "emphasize that kindness, charity, and friendship are as beautiful as any couture dress."

    The only fashion magazine I'm familiar with is Glossy Pate Monthly... is she talking out of her ass here?

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  9. M. Krebs11:20 AM

    "Apparently this is a comedown from the Golden Age of Kate Moss covers."



    Oh, it is. Most definitely it is.

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  10. coozledad11:21 AM

    At its best, fashion is not only an aesthetic choice but a moral one: It’s an expression of values.



    Daddy, where can I get a good deal in a Christian atmosphere?

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  11. "This Season's Hottest Purity Rings!"

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  12. Jaime Oria11:25 AM

    Mmmm - that's smoother than a baby's....wait, what?

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  13. Ratzinger Wore Prada. St Francis was kinda left-wing for these people. That whole "make me an instrument of your peace" thing is really pinko trash.

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  14. Turn the Other Cheek- A Couple's Guide to Godly Spanking

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  15. I wonder how many righties thought that Ed Anger was the genuine article.

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  16. glennisw11:29 AM

    Vogue, says Melchior, used to "emphasize that kindness, charity, and friendship are as beautiful as any couture dress."
    Really? Not the Vogue I was reading.

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  17. tigrismus11:29 AM

    "Will this top keep me warm enough that I don't get poppers?"

    Wait, that's still an aesthetic choice, isn't it?

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  18. shortstop11:30 AM

    I can't accept that Verily isn't some smarmy commie wag's name for a conservative ladymag. It rivals Marge Simpson reading Fretful Mother in the supermarket line.

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  19. If that were true, the best solution for gay dominance of business would be to allow gay people to marry and adopt children... why are conservatives so against those things?

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  20. glennisw11:31 AM

    Adolescents aren't in families?

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  21. coozledad11:34 AM

    Fashion week, live from Lancaster, PA!

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  22. XeckyGilchrist11:36 AM

    This sounded to me like a really glaring case of conservative worship of a manufactured past, but I don't know Vogue very well.

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  23. XeckyGilchrist11:37 AM

    I think ???? = "submit invoice to malefactors of great wealth" here.

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  24. XeckyGilchrist11:38 AM

    (although it occurs the word "invoice" is optional there.)

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  25. edroso11:40 AM

    At In Jeans, where nothing fits.

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  26. shortstop11:43 AM

    This is a big theme on the Christian right now: 'Mos are simultaneously only .000000000000001 percent of society and have ALL THE MONEY. These well-funded God-scoffers are buying off all our corporations and demanding pervert-friendly policies, plus convincing Reagan-appointed judges to rule for marriage equality in exchange for sekrit cash prizes. I am serious. They say this. I guess claiming financial martyrdom at the hands of gay Mr. Potters feels better than admitting you've completely lost the cultural war.

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  27. We can't let gay couples have families because then people might decide that gay couples can have families. And if that happens, how are we going to stop gay couples from having families?

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  28. Ellis_Weiner11:49 AM

    RIGHT HERE, MY FRIENDS (open the curtain, Fred) RIGHT HERE!

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  29. J Neo Marvin11:52 AM

    So in other words, gays are the new Jews?

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  30. Ellis_Weiner11:53 AM

    Vogue, says Melchior, used to "emphasize that kindness, charity, and friendship are as beautiful as any couture dress."



    Oh. Common mistake--she's thinking of Vague, the Christian-values/free markets fashion mag that made all its readers schizophrenic and then had to deal with that logo-ripoff lawsuit in the late 1950s.

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  31. I always used to read Ed Anger when The Weekly World News was still in print. He was always "pig-biting mad" about something.


    Funny stuff. (TWWN is now a website, but it isn't the same. They could have at least kept the black-and-white format.)

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  32. Damn, now the phrase "Mister Potter's Poppers" is running through my head.

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  33. Hell, in this woman's case that little routine was enough to get a major media outlet to comp her overseas travel.


    Yes, I'm still pissed. I've just realized yet again that Melchior and I are about the same age, we were probably in China at the same time, and all I got out of it were a hundred query rejections whereas she got a fucking career. Wingnut welfare's a hell of a thing.

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  34. Made its readers schizophrenic? Was Abdul Alhazred the editor?

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  35. Ellis_Weiner11:58 AM

    "admitting you've completely lost the cultural war."


    It's their genius to have completely lost a war that never existed. THAT'S martyrdom.

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  36. It was fine until they printed those excerpts from The King in Yellow.

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  37. coozledad11:59 AM

    He was always "pig-biting mad" about something.


    Replace pig biting with face biting, and you'd have a Michele Bachmann guest column.

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  38. We've been mysteriously getting Cosmopolitan magazine in the mail these days. As long as we don't have to pay for it, I don't mind.


    I've been reading it for laughs, but my wife refuses to look at them.

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  39. "This Season's Hottest Pallid Masks!"

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  40. "The Latest Fashions from Innsmouth Will Drive You Mad - Literally!"

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  41. RogerAiles12:20 PM

    The Ole Perfesser came up with that idea when DMOP caught him with a Glamour magazine.

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  42. I thought he'd be more likely to use Popular Mechanics as a beatin' bible.

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  43. Gromet12:31 PM

    "What to Wear When You Jet-Set to the World's Hottest Seaside Resort Town, Carcossa!"

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  44. mortimer200012:36 PM

    The way a woman dresses reveals a lot about who she is and how she wants to be perceived. By making that decision deliberately, women exercise their First Amendment rights in a way that’s simultaneously intimate and public.

    Fashion choice is a 1st Amendment issue? Well, that's one way to look at it, I suppose. If the Supreme Court says money = speech, why not clothing? In that case, shouldn't the lack of clothing be just as much an expression of free speech, not to mention simultaneously intimate and public?

    Thank you, U.S. Constitution! You think of everything!

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  45. Not only is it a First Amendment issue, but it's also the most important one for women. We don't want them taxing their soft ladybrains with words, now do we?

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  46. Spaghetti Lee12:41 PM

    Kind of like Project Veritas or Verum Serum. Guys, alluding to the Latin word for 'truth' in your name doesn't actually make you truthful.

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  47. "Dr. Munoz: Refrigeration - The Secret to Youthful Skin?"


    This is what early 20th century horror needed - Fashion magazines.

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  48. "The Must-Have Tiara of the Summer!"

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  49. Gromet12:44 PM

    "Ten Commandments That Will Drive Him Wild In Bed If You Insist on Enforcing Them!"

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  50. S.Lee, did you comment at "Sadly, No!" as esteev back in the day? AFAF

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  51. mortimer200012:45 PM

    The cock crowed. Three times in one night!

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  52. Daniel Björkman12:45 PM

    At its best, fashion is not only an aesthetic choice but a moral one: It’s an expression of values.

    You know what this world needs? A little less morals in our aesthetics. :P

    No, really. It's not that I want to live in an amoral world where no one cares about anything and no one stands for anything. But people who keep try to politicise personal taste could please, please, please stop doing that. What clothes I wear is not a statement of belief. What music I listen to is not a statement of belief. Even what fiction I watch and read is not a statement of belief, though I admit that the border gets a little blurry there.

    May I please like what I like without it saying something profound about the state of my soul? May I, Jillian Kay Melchior? Thank you.

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  53. "Re-Animate Your Sex Life with Dr West's Serum!"

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  54. Spaghetti Lee12:46 PM

    Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Jimmy Choos R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn.

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  55. Spaghetti Lee12:47 PM

    I did use to go there more often, but I was already using this name.

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  56. Daniel Björkman12:48 PM

    Yeah, I just thought that. I think they're just recycling their classics at this point...

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  57. Thanks, an old thread came up and we're now checking out the milk cartons.

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  58. BigHank5312:51 PM

    10 Hot Bedroom Tips for Tentacles!

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  59. Daniel Björkman12:51 PM

    Nudism as a way of saying "no comment"... I must admit that I like the sound of that...

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  60. BigHank5312:57 PM

    Don't worry, they'll get around to Lena Dunham again soon enough. Though I'm sure she could improve the odds if she marries a black guy.

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  61. "Though the magazine is distinctly left-leaning" -- an assessment which is never explained


    I think she may have gotten Vogue confused with Rootless Cosmopolitan.

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  62. BigHank531:03 PM

    Every battle the right picked in the culture war, they fought to lose. The world doesn't make martyrs all by itself, you know.

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  63. "EXCLUSIVE - The Latest Pictures of Shub-Niggurath's Blasphemous Brood!"

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  64. sophronia1:11 PM

    Come on people, this woman is just angling for a job at Cosmo! That quote is basically pompous-speak for "THE RIGHT TO BARE ARMS! What Your Choice of Fashion and Lingerie Says About YOU (And What HE Thinks of It!!!!)"

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  65. shortstop1:13 PM

    Oh, it existed and still does. It's just a little one-sided: they're busy trafficking rocket launchers to reinforce their troops, and we keep forgetting to notice the struggle.

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  66. shortstop1:16 PM

    What did you think was ringing Clarence's bell?

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  67. glennisw1:16 PM

    What I recall - although FSM knows it's been ages since I read Vogue - is that Vogue stood out from Glamour, Mademoiselle, etc. in that it didn't even bother to have the frothy stories about relationships and self-improvement. It was all about fashion, and pretty much ONLY fashion, and by that I mean couture fashion, not stuff you could buy in department stores. Also with edgy fashion photos - models in weird make-up, etc. It was totally NOT about kindness, charity and friendship. Unless you count the occasional coverage of an elite charity event attended by women wearing couture fashion.

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  68. mgmonklewis1:17 PM

    Hypocrisy is the tribute vice pays to Derp.

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  69. Jay B.1:18 PM

    A Handy Taxonomy of Ladies' Magazines:


    Vogue -- A French word, obviously anti-American and smug
    Verily -- Probably in the Bible, sounds like something John Winthrop said at some point, obviously pro-American
    Cosmopolitan -- Rootless, probably Jew

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  70. glennisw1:19 PM

    Yeah, it's pretty hilarious that she's miffed at Vogue's choice to put a celebrity known for her fashion on the cover of a fashion magazine.

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  71. Cosmopolitan -- Rootless, probably Jew
    Hey!

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  72. That is absolute genius and I am so stealing it.

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  73. mgmonklewis1:34 PM

    I would like to discuss kerning and font selection with this comment and the editor of Glossy Pate Monthly.

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  74. redoubtagain1:36 PM

    Submitted without comment. . . .

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  75. Bitter Scribe1:45 PM

    "Though the magazine is distinctly left-leaning" -- an assessment which is never explained...



    Does it really need explaining? Everything that is not explicitly conservative is "left-leaning."


    That said, I have to say I don't disagree entirely with the criticism of Vogue over this. Kim fucking Kardashian? Vogue will become just another celeb rag if it keeps this up.

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  76. M. Krebs1:46 PM

    Yay, Verily!

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  77. Jay B.1:49 PM

    Fuck! Totally missed it. All credit goes to mds. All hail mds!

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  78. M. Krebs1:50 PM

    "In the past, adults with families controlled the culture, and what their kids mainly looked at, listened to and read. ...

    That ronald54321 has never gotten out much, apparently.

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  79. Upvoting this would be gauche, wouldn't it?

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  80. At its best, fashion is not only an aesthetic choice but a moral one: It’s an expression of values.



    At its best, fashion is unfucking affordable.


    My expression of values appears to be that as long as I am not displaying buttock, my jeans and underwear are not yet too destroyed to wear. My collection of dress clothes indicates that I can either go to a job interview or a funeral, as long as either is in the Winter season, or summer if I don't mind apologizing for the faux pas. My fine pleather shoes would have Melchior throwing herself at my feet errrrr, fainting. Couture? Well, a red handkerchief sewn into the aforementioned hole in my jeans certainly both makes a statement and makes the pair literally unique.


    Jilly baby, I have just the thing for you - a roll of gingham, a box of safety pins, and a cup of shut the hell up.

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  81. That whole 'marry daddy until some local hunyuck, desperate to make 'the Bald With Two Backs', impresses daddy enough, or gets him drunk enough, to take her off his hands', IS. CREEPISH. Gaaahhhh!!!

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  82. When did PopMech have a John Galt centerfold? I stopped reading after the Bolton-Cheney-Scalia topless cover shot.

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  83. tigrismus2:18 PM

    That is annoying. I blame liberals.

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  84. What to wear when running from nameless things in Antarctica!

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  85. The Call of the Choo Shoes

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  86. Soooo... no gratuitous ass-flash from paleo? I am somewhat disappointed.

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  87. Okay, now I'm thinking that this magazine cover has to exist. Anyone here with Photoshop skills who's willing to sell out their dignity for Internet fame? (Hey, I've sold my dignity for a lot less!)

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  88. As well you should be. My wife is a fine judge of horseflesh.

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  89. That would explain why their obituary of Reagan began, "That is not dead which can eternal lie."

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  90. satch3:30 PM

    Well, we KNOW that most Democrats are vampires, so...

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  91. satch3:34 PM

    "As God is my witness, Helen, I thought "Juggs" WAS a ladies magazine..."

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  92. Smurch3:45 PM

    The Secrets of the Walls of Jericho will have you going down all night!

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  93. Bethany Spencer3:46 PM

    Once again find myself wishing I could up vote your comments more than once.

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  94. MikeJ3:51 PM

    This is actually new for Republicans. I seem to recall people getting kicked out of public events at which Bush was speaking for wearing t-shirts with unapproved messages. At that time we were told that speech means expelling air through the larynx and nothing else.


    Acknowledging that some actions are symbolic speech puts you squarely in the camp of flag burners.

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  95. Lack of clothing is, in fact, considered a First Amendment issue. Nude dancing, for example, is considered expressive conduct and can't be outright forbidden, BUT because of negative secondary effects, states can regulate where and when it can happen and whether to allow alcohol with it.

    Sorry. I've spent the past month researching alcohol-and-titty-bar statutes.

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  96. Mind you, what you do when you're dancing nude may be considered obscene, and obscenity isn't protected speech.

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  97. Spaghetti Lee3:53 PM

    Sell out as in actual cash money? Well, you do have my e-mail address...

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  98. Vogue is not at all left-leaning. If you think about it, the people who can afford upscale fashion -- haute couture in particular -- are older and richer, and tend to lean Republican. Why would they alienate the people who can buy the clothes their advertisers manufacture?



    The people who work in fashion and in fashion mags may well be left-leaning, given the fact that creative types often are, and certainly celebrities, who are the vast bulk of the cover subjects during Anna Wintour's editorship, tend to be liberal. But Vogue tends to stay away from the political, unlike Glamour or Mademoiselle, which regularly run features in favor of reproductive rights and the like.

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  99. I definitely picked the wrong career.

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  100. Remember, these are the people who thought that McCain and Romney lost their elections because they were too liberal. By not running articles denouncing the Kenyan Usurper, vogue has shown itself to be left-leaning.

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  101. whetstone4:22 PM

    I will grant that I have rarely looked at Vogue (though "The September Issue" is a great documentary even if you are, like me, totally ignorant of fashion*), but insofar as I have, I don't recall it being Guideposts with Bottega Veneta ads.


    *Like I said, I'm ignorant of fashion and fashion magazines, but it's a great portrayal of a longterm professional relationship.

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  102. I wonder how many righties thought that Ed Anger was the genuine article.

    Wait, what!?!?!

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  103. whetstone4:26 PM

    In fairness, she kind of got bootstrapped in by Kanye, who's a genuine fashion/design nerd. I've always loved the story about how he used to browse Architectural Digest in a Chicago B&N like a kid sneaking peeks at a Playboy.

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  104. Seven sexy things to do with fish and bread.

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  105. What they really meant by "sermon on the mount"

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  106. dstatton4:45 PM

    But one of the commenters nominated Sanger. And Rosa Parks. Maybe they're not reaching their target demo.

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  107. Jay B.4:46 PM

    Well, to be fair, you need to bring it up with Stalin. He ripped you off 70 some odd years ago. Fucking thieving bastard.

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  108. Tom M.4:47 PM

    Silly rabid (liberal), if they won the war they wouldn't need to beg for money to fight on. Of course, this is NR where begging for money is kind of necessary.
    These people only have one true purpose: fundraising from the rubes.

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  109. Derelict4:47 PM

    Johnston, I and every other dues-paying writer on the planet feel your pain.

    And what makes it ever worse for us is the fact that she sucks as a wordsmith!

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  110. Derelict4:49 PM

    Zuzu, we've missed you!

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  111. It's Not Your Grandparents' Missionary Position!

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  112. mortimer20004:51 PM

    Interesting. Even as I was joking I was wondering if say, ordnances outlawing being topless in public were ever contested on 1st Amendment grounds. Aside from nude dancing, which I imagine is protected by 1A on artistic merit, has anyone ever tried claiming a 1A right for just walking topless on a public beach?

    By any chance do you need a field assistant for your research?

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  113. Derelict4:51 PM

    Well, expelling air through the larynx also got you escorted from Bush events. Many of us remember that Bush had the Secret Service set up "Free Speech Zones" that were fenced-in areas far away from the Shrub's event. I recall thinking, "Gee, I thought the entire United States was a free-speech zone."

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  114. Derelict4:55 PM

    I want to take this comment for a night on the town before dumping it unceremoniously for some other comment.

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  115. XeckyGilchrist5:08 PM

    I wonder if it's even more than that, that whoever would call Vogue left-leaning has no idea what "left" actually means.

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  116. JennOfArk5:08 PM

    Ever noticed the resemblance between Michele and BatBoy?

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  117. XeckyGilchrist5:11 PM

    Well, the dicks on the Supreme Court who said that money = speech might agree, but remember how they feel about lack of money.

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  118. BTW, kids, a great place to pick up back copies of Vogue.

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  119. Halloween_Jack5:14 PM

    OMNI, baby.

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  120. Halloween_Jack5:18 PM

    At the Clearance Sales of Madness


    The Case of Yves St. Laurent


    The Doom that Came to Filene's Basement


    The Horror at Macy's


    The Dream-Quest of Unknown Polo


    The Colour Out of the Fall Line-up

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  121. Halloween_Jack5:19 PM

    Why didn't they just leave it as "Vogue? Isn't that something that homosexuals used to do?" Or do they get paid by the word?

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  122. tigrismus5:22 PM

    Not Tekeli-Lees?

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  123. Glock H. Palin, Esq.5:27 PM

    At its best, fashion is not only an aesthetic choice but a moral one: It’s an expression of values.

    Well, it looks like somebody sleeps with a copy of The Fountainhead under their pillow.

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  124. It's both drier and weirder than you might imagine. I think the most interesting discoveries I made were that: 1) anything goes in Alaska, due to their state constitution; 2) West Virginia will let you have all the titties you want, but drinking in public places, such as saloons, is outlawed under their constitution. Happily, the state of West Virginia will issue you a club license, which allows you to treaty your titty bar as a private space, so you can have 200 of your closest friends over to watch the nude dancers.

    I also found the statutes with extremely detailed descriptions of clothing requirements (a lot of "top of the areola" and "anal cleft" language) to be amusing.

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  125. XeckyGilchrist5:32 PM

    cf. Objectivism.

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  126. A.K.A. The Universal Shorter.

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  127. Actually, it looks like there's an entire blog dedicated to issues of dress and constitutionality. I'm gonna bookmark it.

    This one is about a recent case filed in New York challenging an arrest for topless sunbathing even though the woman pointed out that that's been legal in New York since 1992: http://www.dressingconstitutionally.com/2013/10/20/woman-sues-nypd-for-topless-arrest/

    The Supreme Court hasn't ruled on toplessness as a right, but many state courts have.

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  128. The Case of Susie Tompkins Ward.

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  129. J Neo Marvin6:03 PM

    I want to love this post craftily.

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  130. J Neo Marvin6:04 PM

    Oh, enough about the Kardashians already.

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  131. Paid by the turd is more like it.

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  132. To the dismay of some on the left!

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  133. Blessed are the lovemakers...

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  134. Meanie-meanie, tickle a person6:36 PM

    Is it just me, or is "nekulturny!" an odd ejaculation for a wingnat*?



    *Was supposed to be "wingnut", but I decided I liked it, and left it in, even though I'm unsure of its exact meaning. Suggestions welcome!

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  135. Meanie-meanie, tickle a person6:39 PM

    "Name three examples of silly things you wouldn't do anymore if you went out and got a life"

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  136. smut clyde6:55 PM

    In the Free Market you would be able to buy upvotes which other commenters weren't using.

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  137. smut clyde7:02 PM

    Now family people only have enough for necessities

    Perhaps ronald54321 should campaign for HIGHER WAGES.

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  138. XeckyGilchrist7:06 PM

    I like it! It's kinda "Clockwork Orange"y.

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  139. StringOnAStick7:19 PM

    Hobby Lobby might hate birth control, but their pension plan is invested in, amongst other things, birth control manufacturers. Interesting; its almost as if the whole point is to make a big stink over an employee benefit, while still retaining the right to make money in any way possible.

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  140. StringOnAStick7:27 PM

    "Fish and bread"? Seems a bit self-interested, sir!

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  141. StringOnAStick7:33 PM

    Imagine my surprise when I accepted a gift sub of Harpers Bazaar, thinking that was where the Harper's Index comes from.....

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  142. TGuerrant7:39 PM

    I should have known that one would be boring just from the way they misspelled "Bizarre."

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  143. Meanie-meanie, tickle a person7:41 PM

    In the case of Tee-shirts, most of 'em *are* speech of one sort or another. As opposed to when I was a kid, when they were just, you know, shirts. Which causes me to wonder when that changed. There are shirts now for every band that ever was, but were there Beatles Tees in '63? Beach Boys? Hmmm...
    Google sez 1942 was probably the first printed T, for the Army Air Corps, followed by Mickey Mouse. Can't find squat about early rock & roll shirts. Wonder who was the genius that made the first billion off that...

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  144. Meanie-meanie, tickle a person7:46 PM

    Frightgowns, from Boris' Secret!

    OK, not tentacles, but maybe Boris coulda used some, livened up his act...

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  145. Meanie-meanie, tickle a person7:56 PM

    Man, I guess you just don *not* show up late to a pun-laden thread around here...

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  146. Meanie-meanie, tickle a person8:02 PM

    as long as I am not displaying buttock

    There are exemptions for Plumbers, I believe...

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  147. LittlePig8:05 PM

    Wow. She really *is* a blonde.

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  148. LittlePig8:23 PM

    The Facts In The Case of M. Kardassian

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  149. TGuerrant8:26 PM

    Anna Wintour held fund-raising events for the Obama campaign, so the magazine exudes Eau de Commie despite all the Chloe fragrance strip inserts.

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  150. realinterrobang8:36 PM

    It's legal in Ontario for women to walk around topless, but nobody really does it...

    ...to the dismay of some on the left.

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  151. realinterrobang8:40 PM

    And when you go to bed, make sure to apply the facial masque of the Red Death!

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  152. realinterrobang8:47 PM

    I hope what I like doesn't say anything profound about the state of my soul, because according to popular consensus, I'm definitely going to Hell for liking disco that much...

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  153. TGuerrant8:48 PM

    It started out being a Gilded Age guide for the new American aristocracy (aimed at men, in fact), began covering aristo weddings, got all girly, and went wild for the sexual revolution.


    My advisor in these matters believes Melchior reads Teen Vogue, which uses features like "Why You'll Change Friend Groups at Least 3 Times in Your Life" to break up the "Katy Perry Expands Her False Lash Line" coverage. This is more than I can decode.

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  154. mortimer20008:51 PM

    Wow. We are a strange people. That such statutes with such ridiculous language exist is nuts. I hope they had to at least read them aloud in legislative chambers.

    I've only heard "anal cleft" used in the context of discussions about Republican speech impediments (see ass, talking out of), not clothing specs. You learn something new every day.

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  155. M. Krebs9:51 PM

    Aside from nude dancing, which I imagine is protected by 1A on artistic
    merit, has anyone ever tried claiming a 1A right for just walking
    topless on a public beach?


    That would be one's A1A right.

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  156. M. Krebs10:06 PM

    Look up screen printing on Wikipedia. The relevant patent was supposedly granted in 1969. That's all I got.

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  157. AGoodQuestion10:14 PM

    Christ! That takes a whole day? Are they typing with their feet?

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  158. davdoodles10:15 PM

    Possibly a subconscious smooshing together of wing and gnat.

    Didn't read the Aesops fables as a kiddie, perchance? His fable The Gnat and the Bull nicely portends the wing-gnat (trolls in particular, but more generally also) 'lifestyle':

    "A Gnat flew over the meadow with much buzzing for so small a creature and settled on the tip of one of the horns of a Bull. After he had rested a short time, he made ready to fly away. But before he left he begged the Bull's pardon for having used his horn for a resting place.

    'You must be very glad to have me go now,' he said.

    'It's all the same to me,' replied the Bull. 'I did not even know you were there.'

    We are often of greater importance in our own eyes than in the eyes of our neighbor. The smaller the mind the greater the conceit."

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  159. The 20 Greatest Conservative Wrap Sarongs

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  160. AGoodQuestion10:19 PM

    They somewhat misunderstood Samuel Clemens when he said, "The lack of money is the root of all evil."

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  161. AGoodQuestion10:25 PM

    "Enter this year's Vera Wang Pickman's Model contest."

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  162. davdoodles10:33 PM

    "The way a woman dresses reveals a lot about who she is and how she wants to be perceived. By making that decision deliberately, women exercise their First Amendment rights in a way that’s simultaneously intimate and public."
    When pervy moral scolds are upbraided for salivating about how "women who wear mini skirts are asking to be raped" they don't change the product, they just re-do the packaging.
    .

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  163. AGoodQuestion10:34 PM

    Melchior is under the bizarre impression that the cover of Vogue was until recently an incorruptible meritocracy. Kim Kardashian is high-maintenance pretty and has more money than God, so why shouldn't she be there? (Why yes, there is another factor that some NRO readers might hold against her, especially those who really miss John Derbyshire.)

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  164. randomworker10:35 PM

    Yes, there's that.

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  165. AGoodQuestion10:40 PM

    That's crazy treasonous talk.

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  166. AGoodQuestion10:51 PM

    Once you're accused of liberalism the burden to prove yourself innocent is on you.

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  167. No worries, Rasputin by Boney M. is one hell of a song.

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  168. sharculese12:11 AM

    Too old?

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  169. Another Kiwi3:44 AM

    "Left leaning" so it's a nuanced rat in the belfry. "have you now, or have you ever bought Rive Gauche instead of Chanel No.5?"

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  170. Al Swearengen5:56 AM

    Rightwingers prefer reading "Vague", the journal of Republican policy ideas.

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  171. Having done a fair share of radio remotes at the Great Alaska Bush Company (and Crazy Horse I & II), I can attest to that claim.

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  172. Emily688:15 AM

    I was a big Beatles' fan, and I don't remember any Beatles' tee-shirts from the early days. And if there had been very many, I would remember.

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  173. In the article, Jillian Kay Melchior states that "...the clothes are the canvas for the woman, not the other way around."


    Isn't that an odd metaphor? Does she wish for women to become paint for some reason, or is she advocating the use of canvas for clothing material?


    I guess that canvas might be more fashionable than burlap, but not by much.

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  174. I don't know about rock-n-roll, but this strip from 1960 depicts a sweatshirt with Beethoven printed on it...

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  175. William Miller9:58 AM

    Nice dress. They must have been out of drapery material.

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  176. drkrick12:57 PM

    Perhaps he's in rehearsals for a production of The Music Man.

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  177. Is there a Latin word for "truthiness"?

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  178. Meanie-meanie, tickle a person3:24 PM

    And the right, too, depending on which side of the sidewalk you're on...

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  179. Gabriel Ratchet5:22 PM

    I thought Bat Boy was the governor of Florida.

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  180. Everything is becoming an expression of identity politics these days!

    Have you seen these recent car commercials? The Cadillac one is blatantly nationalistic (and since you frown on the American idea of the "Leader of The Free World," you're bound to hate this ad.)
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4wNMOapzyw

    The Ford Company responded immediately with this ad, parodying the Cadillac one:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAN61QK0aUI



    Both commercials are almost unbearably smug, but they are both good examples of what you were talking about: politicizing personal taste, or at least in consumer choices.

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  181. Smarter than Your Average Bear5:57 PM

    Well it's understandable - too damn cold in the winter and well, black flies in the summer :)

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  182. Smarter than Your Average Bear6:09 PM

    Ah pig bites face

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  183. Meanie-meanie, tickle a person9:26 PM

    By not running articles denouncing the Kenyan Usurper


    Sadly, this is really all it takes.

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  184. Tehanu10:15 PM

    At Ames' Guns, 30102 East Rhode Island School of Design Terrace in Yucaipa!

    ReplyDelete
  185. Daniel Björkman12:13 AM

    You're right. I hate that ad very, very much. It makes me want to throw a cappuccino in that smirking asshole's face. :P

    ReplyDelete