• Rag Trade

    Escada's Honored by Sarah Palin's Patronage...Because She's "Attractive"

    • After Palin names Escada as her fave brand, the creative director is gracious: "If she does wear Escada because she likes it, I mean, I’m honored actually. It’s not politics; it’s clothing, after all. No? She’s an attractive woman, so why not?" [New York Mag]
    • Fashion's totally in the tank for Obama — but we knew that. [WWD]
    • Halloween update: Blake Lively was Cleopatra, Martha Stewart was Medusa. [Sassybella]
    • Andre Leon Talley: "Fashion may not be the most important thing in life, but it definitely helps you get through it," [Philadelphia Inquirer]
    More »

    11:30 AM on Mon Nov 3 2008
    By Sadie
    2,729 views, 27 comments

    Most discussed hortense: Something tells me they don't stock a ton of Escada at "Out of the Closet" in Anchorage, Alaska, Palin's "favorite more »

  • iconography

    What Does Madonna's 50th Birthday Really Mean?

    Saturday, August 16, is Madonna's birthday. She will be 50 years old. Hank Stuever pondered the life of the woman often called The Material Girl in a must-read article for Sunday's Washington Post. He writes: "Madonna turning 50 is not about Madonna. As ever, it's about the rest of us, who are always caught watching Madonna do whatever it is Madonna currently does, even if when whatever Madonna is doing is nothing more than growing old." And he's right: As a work of art, she has always been more of a mirror than a unique sculpture; reflecting the signs of the times back at adoring fans who would copy and interpret what she copied and interpreted. Stuever recalls August of 1985, when "Lucky Star" was a hit: More »

    12:00 PM on Mon Aug 11 2008
    By Dodai
    5,210 views, 109 comments

    Latest by Luna131: shes old and she thinks shes kim catrell in sex and the city and that men will still wanna fuck more »

  • self-promotion

    What You Get When You Pick On "Old School" Feminists' "Bedside Manner"

    I wrote a rebuttal to a Linda Hirshman op-ed column for the Washington Post's website and I am, uh, pimping it on this blog because it seems to be driving donations to our beer money fund to help the women's rights activists get out of Basra and also because I wrote two things that have nothing to do with this blog this week and I am tired. Basically I think it is cool that Linda Hirshman, who thinks all women should marry dudes who make less money and have no more than one child, is not afraid to be judgmental. I just think that, when one is being judgmental, one should be right. (Also, I would never have one kid without giving it at least one more to fight with, and preferably another one to babysit when it got old enough, but that's just how I was raised.) Anyway, the coolest thing about writing for another publication is the crazy mail from readers who have no idea who the hell you are. The best specimen after the jump! More »

    3:00 PM on Wed Jun 11 2008
    By Moeiscaterwaulingaboutthepatriarchy
    6,855 views, 96 comments

    Latest by 3cardkitty: @persepolis: You'd be surprised how much we agree on this. My point is the patronizing tone undermined the entire piece. more »

  • crappy hour

    Dear Cindy McCain, We Love You Just The Way You Are Made Up

    Dear Cindy, we are sorry. We did not mean to belittle your pain over being called a vagina sixteen years ago. We were just sort of distracted. Distracted by the fact that John used the word "trollop," which, in the context of a rebuttal to a subtle jab about how fucking old he was, was kind of unintentionally hilarious. And by your makeup, and additionally, your steely expressions and rigid hairdos, which sometimes appear as their own sort of counterparts to the torture your husband endured in Vietnam. After the jump, Megan and I are going to go back and explore that famous McCain marital spat of 1992 for the true meaning of calling someone the c-word, but only after we explore the famous Andrew Sullivan-Chris Hitchens L-word spat, and briefly discuss how seven-year-olds are behind the latest Obama endorsements, John Cleese could be behind the next epic Obama race speech, the Washington Post is officially the best paper in America; too bad journalism is dead. Enjoy! More »

    10:00 AM on Tue Apr 8 2008
    By Moe
    5,357 views, 111 comments

    Latest by mysweetmango: @mysweetmango: I mean you. Where did you come from? more »

  • news roundup

    You Know, Cindy, He Might Have Been More Tactful But John Sorta Has A Point About The Tranny Makeup

    • John McCain called his wife a "cunt" sixteen years ago. The full quote, in response to Cindy's "playful" mention of his male pattern baldness, was: "At least I don't plaster on makeup like a trollop, you cunt." I have to give him bonus points for using the word "trollop" and also, calling her out on what looks to be an unhealthy relationship with Mary Kay, and by the same token I have to give Cindy bonus points for adopting a Bangladeshi child, weaning herself off painkillers and throwing all that addictive energy into applying nine coats of foundation. (And what can we say, Meghan: she comes by it honestly.) [Wonkette]
    • Spike Lee is really glad he made Do The Right Thing, otherwise Barack Obama would have taken Michelle to see Soul Man and America's greatest union would have been jeopardized. Also: the "Clintons would lie on a stack of Bibles." [NY Mag]
    • 61% of historians agree that Bush is the Worst President Ever, according to an unscientific History Network poll of 109 historians. And just how did he go about pulling that off? Well, he combined "the paranoia of Nixon, the ethics of Harding and the good sense of Herbert Hoover," in the words of one historian, and applied laserlike focus to doing "only two things well," explained one of the survey's "most distinguished" historians. "He knows how to make the very rich very much richer, and he has an amazing talent for f**king up everything else he even approaches." [History Network]
    More »

    6:30 PM on Mon Apr 7 2008
    By Moe
    12,442 views, 120 comments

    Latest by feelingHELLAmaddowy: Hey Moe- although it's true that Cindy kicked painkillers, it wasn't because of a good old "desire to do right"... more »

  • opportunity cost cutting

    5 Ways For Ladies To Make The Most Of All That Time They Waste Applying Makeup

    Today the UK is issuing a lofty challenge to female citizens: Go A Day Without Makeup! Horrors! Thankfully, famous pundit Michael Kinsley knows this is not possible in American society. He knows because he goes on TV and has to wear makeup himself, which explains why men on TV are so much more empathetic with the feminist cause than other men, and ha ha ha that is a serious statement is what is sad about that. Kinsley says this with regards to Hillary Clinton, and how the fact that she is a woman means she gets at least forty minutes less sleep per night than Barack Obama, and wow, it is so simple that men are finally getting a grasp of this. There is nothing I regret more than the opportunity cost of putting on makeup and looking perfect all the time; no seriously, there was a time in my life during which I actually did that: adolescence. Adolescence! When the brain is at its most agile and capable of absorbing information, my brain was preoccupied absorbing ... stray droplets of T-Zone oil. But I have a solution, womenfolk of the land! More »

    12:00 PM on Thu Mar 27 2008
    By Moe
    12,502 views, 184 comments

    Latest by ltlbbynthn: @rocknrollunicorn: Here here! I like makeup, not because I'm hiding anything but I feel so much happier when I'm put more »

  • post hoc ergo propter hoc

    The Washington Post, Advancing The "Women Are Stupid" Argument Since 1994

    Well, "Woman Are Stupid" advocate Charlotte Allen gave an online chat elucidating her little polemic (as well as waxing lyrical over the virtues of Hurricane Katrina and the Iraq War etc. etc. puke hurl) over at the Washington Post today, and we gave them the page view because the Washington Post not so long ago overlooked the fact that women are stupid for long enough to allow two women into the position whereby they won two separate Pulitzers the same year. Here is the highlight:
    Anywhere: Hey, Charlotte. Nice tits. Sincerely, a guy.
    More »

    4:00 PM on Wed Mar 5 2008
    By Moe
    4,627 views, 114 comments

    Latest by nifrank: I actually took a minute to email this woman. Here's what I wrote: Wow. Women sure are stupid! Gosh, we can't more »

  • idiocracy

    Are Men Or Women More "Hostile To Knowledge"?

    Susan Jacoby says Americans are dumb. Oooooh, bold thesis!! Well but, remember that book Everything Bad Is Good For You about how videogames are actually good for kids' brains? Susan says that guy is full of shit. And it's a message that seems to be striking a chord. A New York Times story about her new book The Age Of American Unreason has been on the site's Most Emailed list for five days now. (Could it beat out What Shamu Taught Me About A Happy Marriage? Only time will tell!) I would have just ignored it but then for her column in yesterday's Washington Post, which now sits atop that site's "Most Viewed" list. How'd she decide to do the book? Well, the day was 9/11... Remember that? What year was it again? Anyway, depressed and confused, she found herself in a bar... More »

    3:20 PM on Mon Feb 18 2008
    By Moe
    3,437 views, 94 comments

    Latest by TheFormerJuneBronson: @snarkhunting: Knowing too much--and revealing that knowledge--that's just snobbery. Dead on. And you know what's the worst is that well-intentioned more »

  • ha-poly ever after

    Is Polyamory Not Such A Retarded Idea After All?

    So like, sometimes I want to tell you guys about a story that's, like, too nuanced and complex to distill into a cynical one-liner. And then I think "pageviews!" and just skip it. But what the hell: it's about a small polyamory convention going down somewhere in exurban Pennsylvania, and it kind of — I know, I know — made me reexamine my prejudices (?) a bit. I mean, polyamory is one of those things it's all too easy to associated with, like, free-bleeding and Xena conventions and other subcultures too dorky, too fully occupied by people who are just too completely divorced from the desire for mainstream acceptance, to really want to examine in a way deeper than "not that there's anything wrong with that," right? But the story, while rife with harmless little digs at classes with names like "Hap-poly Ever After" and "Threesome, Foursome and Moresome," actually poses a striking question: is poyamory actually maybe a utopian ideal borne of a courageously humanistic mix of selflessness and pragmatism? More »

    5:40 PM on Wed Feb 13 2008
    By Moe
    10,142 views, 172 comments

    Latest by friedeggsammich: My first thought was, "Yeah, right." And my second was, "Maybe I could get a second boyfriend who actually likes to more »

  • crappy hour

    "Most Kids Like Ron Paul 'Cause They Hate Cops, But The Cheerleaders Are All Feminists"

    Ever wonder how upper middle class high school students felt about the election? Well, fuck you then bc it's the best thing in the morning papers. Today we learn that the cheerleaders are 4 Hillary because they're "feminists," and that the boys are totally feeling Ron Paul because they "hate the cops, bro." (Although we bet they refer to them as the "po po.") Some kids wear "Barack The Vote" T-shirts but you sorta picture those kids as being kinda corny, like that 21-year-old superdelegate (do you ever think, like, judging from the sight of these young politico whippersnapper types, that the 2032 election is totally going to pit the first gay against the first tranny? That would be awesome.) Anyway, there's primaries in DC, Maryland and Virginia tonight, which is why the Washington Post decided to run all the remnants of all the stupid political conversations they'd eavesdropped in on, so it's a very special edition of Crappy Hour today. After the jump, me and Megan Carpentier discuss high school, pimping and the evil of insurance companies. More »

    10:00 AM on Tue Feb 12 2008
    By Moe
    7,648 views, 326 comments

    Latest by vivresavie17: @charlotte corday: I was going to say something here about how I agree with you, but just thinking about healthcare more »