Letters to the Editor
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Wow, BabyGrumpus
You are such a detective! Jeez, too bad I didn't use my given birth name, like you!
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Good Points (Mostly) All
Thanks for the examples of others undercutting diplomacy. As I've said, this doesn't justify what Pelosi's doing, it only underscores that it's probably not a good idea.
It would be like the guy who wrote the article on eating Cadbury Creme Eggs (http://www.salon.com/mwt/food/eat_drink/2007/04/06/creme_eggs/index.html) speaking to reporters as a representative of Salon instead of Walsh or whoever's authorized.
What if a senator (any senator, Lott or Kennedy or anyone in between) decided that he or she, too, had to talk to Syria as well?
And if I'm not mistaken, the "message from Israel" was inaccurate, as the Prime Minister quickly pointed out.
Tagging Victoria as a neo-con because of a couple of her views is rather unfair, and telling people to STFU is kinda childish. "Liberal," indeed!
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The Scarf: Not Just in Islam
Victoria, others have already taken you to task, but here's something else to ponder (other than the yarmulke analogy).
- To enter St. Peter's cathedral in the Vatican, women cannot be wearing clothes that are too revealing. I have a friend who didn't get to see St. Peter's because of that.
- In Florence, Italy, there are similar rules. The main cathedral provides large plastic tarps for women to wear who are dressed inappropriately, especially during the summer when it's very hot in Florence.
- Other churches in Florence, in particular Santa Maria Novella, provides actual scarves for the same purpose.
- Many Russian Orthdox churches require women to cover their hair with a scarf much like Pelosi's.
- When visiting a church in Meteora, Greece, I came prepared, wearing a very conservative skirt. Other female tourists were given loaner skirts (ankle-length) to wear over their pants.
Now, maybe you like going to places like that Indonesian temple and then not actually visiting the sights because of your "my-way-or-the-highway" objections, because something about them offends you. I don't - when in Rome, do as the Romans do, literally, so don't wear short shorts and tanktops when visiting St. Peter's, because St. Peter's is really worth the sacrifice.
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Regarding Diplomacy
And I'm no expert on diplomacy, but it would seem to me that you would have to be rather cautious when dealing with other cultures.
For example, if you were tasked to visit the Vatican, you likely wouldn't want to tell the pope (or any other major religious leader) that his religion is mumbo-jumbo. You PERSONALLY may feel that way, but as a representative of the United States in a diplomacy mission, that's probably not a good idea.
Look what happened when Sharon visited the Temple Mount: the al-Aqsa Intifada. Does that mean the Palestinians were right for launching the intifada? No, but Sharon knew that what he did would cause unrest.
When Madeline Albright visited North Korea, did she say to Kim, "You have the most oppressive country in the world, you starve your people while you drink bottles of cognac every night"? No, she pretty much did what a visiting rep of a country would do: sit there and applaud while Kim's starving people put on a show that proved their love for the Great Leader or whatever he's called these days.
So if you find visiting a "oppressive" mosque beneath you, then don't apply for the job.
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the most disturbing thing
the most disturbing thing is how much she resembles first lady nancy reagan.
it's that look in her eyes.
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The real question is...
What does david sugarman or Xanthro think about all this? I'd like to know.
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The look in her eyes
is the plastic surgery! Now she always looks "surprised."
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Ditto on the plastic surgery
If you want to see good plastic surgery, look no further than Segolene Royal. She's a veritable hottie for a 53-year-old, and especially for a politician:
http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/0,5538,PB64-SUQ9MjA2MTImbnI9MQ_3_3,00.html
I have a ghastly vision of the future, in which Hil-dog and Sego win their respective elections and have a France-US summit. The ghastly part is what Fox News will dubb this event, something like "Girls' Ngiht Out" or something else equally awful and ridiculous. Fox would just not know how to handle this puzzling situation.
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Stretchy Ségolène
I was just viewing her photo in my local paper this morning! In your Spiegel photo you can see the leftover skin flap near her temple.
But don't count out Francois Bayrou! He's leading the third--I mean, troisième--way!
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Bayrou is kind of ridiculous
Yeah, you can see the leftover skin on her temple, but she still looks damn good for 53.
Bayrou -- there used to be a caricature of him on the evening puppet political satire show, and his puppet always had this nasal voice and he always said "completement au milieu!" Perfectly in the middle. I don't know if all his cow-kissing is going to help him win though. i'd put my money on Sarko, then Sego. I want Sego to win, and not just because she's a woman or a leftist: Sarko is kind of like Giuliani, except not as effective in his authoritarian crackdowns on brown people. I'm not a fan of that kind of methodology.
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C'mon people,
get it together. The story is the media storm provoked by the Democrats' assumption of foreign policy prerogatives normally left to the Administration. This Administration is so arrogant, incompetent, bigoted and just plain wrong that leaving foreign policy to them is dangerous for the country and the world.
The hysteric reaction of the neocons and AIPAC types is expected, and needs to be dealt with. Conason has written one of the best articles on the real subject to appear in any media outlet in the country. That's why he's such an asset to Salon.
Instead of discussing the story, you let yourself get sidetracked by a venting second-waver demanding we address her irrelevancies (either that or a neocon/AIPACer in disguise, hard to tell) and a discussion of Pelosi's plastic surgery. That's really letting the enemy win, at a time when they're finally on the defensive. Since liberals don't believe in guns, you've created the circular bitchslap.
To those who actually addressed the issue, thanks. To the rest, the world is larger than the interior of your navel.