Fun With McCain

Let’s assume, for the sake of having a little fun, that John McCain really did have some sort of affair with Vicki Iseman.  From one persepctive, the one that Phoebe Maltz noticed, there’s really good evidence that they did.  That evidence is that Iseman looks like a younger version of McCain’s current (and second) wife Cindy.  Here’s the photographic evidence:

I”ll let Maltz take it away, “So, under the heading of Major Questions of Our Age, when an older male head-of-state or would-be head-of-state decides to chase after (or allow himself to be caught by) a younger woman, is it a sign of integrity if the YW in question is a younger version of his wife? Or is it just a sign of not knowing how to exploit one’s situation of power to the fullest?”

Life Imitates Art…Creepily

At first glance, the GawkerStalker cell phone picture of 14 year old Gossip Girl star Taylor Momsen wearing a short skirt on a subway is just creepy. I mean, can it just be possible for a girl to ride a subway without being groped, oggled or have pictures taken of her for a snarky gossip blog? And on second, third and fourth glance…it’s still really creepy. But once you get over the creepiness, or at least just accept it, this has to be one the most surreal blog posts ever. Why is it surreal and not just gross?

Taylor Momsen plays Jenny Humphrey on Gossip Girl. What “Gossip Girl” refers to in the show is a blog written by an annoymous sleuth who reports on gossip among Upper East Side teens. In the show, what often happens is that some teen will take a picture of one of the main characters in a compromising situations — say Serena buying pregnancy tests. The tipster sends the picture to Gossip Girl, and within minutes, the picture and an explanatory caption show up on her blog and is sent out to the cell phones of the “Upper East Side Elite.” “Gossip Girl” is basically a small scale version of Gawker for this make believe universe.

Coming back to real life, Taylor Momsen was in a compromising situation — wearing a short skirt while sitting on a subway — and a sleuth took a camera-phone picture and sent it off to the gossip blog.  The only real difference between real-life and TV in this case is the name of the person involved — Taylor Momsen instead of Jenny Humphrey.  Surely Jean Baudrillard or Marshall McLuhan would have had some profound insight into this seminal moment in media cross-pollination and self reference, but I just think its weird.

Debating the Love Nest

Mark Kleiman and Megan McArdle have been having a little tuffle over whether Rudy decided to place the NYPD command response center in the WTC because he and his staff thought it was the best location of all the available options or because he wanted a love nest within walking distance of city hall. Megan’s arguments are relatively convincing and certainly plausible, but isn’t the most important reason to criticize Rudy is that he decided it was best to place his disaster recovery bunker/command center in the only place in New York to be get hit by terrorists.  Al Qaida attempted to blow up the WTC in 1993 and failed, surely someone who understands the threat as well as Rudy would know better than to place his command post inside the most likely target to get hit.  Surely this should be the focus of the debate, love nest or no love nest.

Andy Samberg Must Be Some Kind of God

He’s managed to date Natalie Portman and get the feministing crowd in a collective swoon over him because he wore a NOW shirt. This dude has his shit together. He’s also a Bay Area native which is not a coincidence, not a coincidence at all.

The Future of American Jewry

Jewish mothers across the world constantly fret that their beloved sons and daughters may go off into the world…and marry non Jews. The opportunity has never been greater, and the social stigma has never been lower; so it really is a great chance for young Jews to expand past their cultural and traditional boundaries, because you never know how these things may change.

There is however, in this bleak world of intermarriage and diminished identity, hope. And Hope’s name is “Natalie Portman and Andy Samberg are dating.”

In the words of a “Portman source”- “A nice Jewish boy would be good for her.”

Via US Weekly.

PS - I’ve had a crush on her since I visited my brother at school and saw her in a bar/restaurant there…it was love at first site, but I don’t think she saw me.