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Celebrating Our Lady of Paris
June 19, 2013 | 10 comments
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A Nation on the Edge
May 20, 2013 | 5 comments
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April in Paris
April 11, 2013 | 11 comments
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France Meets Ugly American
April 4, 2013 | 23 comments
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Kerry Chéri
March 16, 2013 | 0 comments
Letter From Paris
‘I Like Women’
Strauss-Kahn’s libidinous fall from grace.
Ironically, his luck began to change that happy day two weeks ago in Paris when Dominique Strauss-Kahn took the wheel of a $135,000, V-8, 500-horsepower Porsche Panamera. Before he could even test its acceleration (0 to 60 in 4.2 seconds), a guy with a cell phone snapped a photo of him. And as people do these days, he sold it to a Paris newspaper. No matter that the car actually belonged to a friend of his. When you’re a prominent member of the French Socialist Party, indeed, the front-runner in pre-election polls and its strongest bet in years to beat Nicolas Sarkozy for the presidency in 2012, you’re supposed to be helping the laboring masses, not tooling around in luxury automobiles with a smug smile on your face. The distant rumbling of an uproar could be heard in the chattering class.
The rumble grew and the luck curve continued down a few days later. Published stories reported that 62-year-old DSK, as he is known here, wore decidedly non-working class clothing: $35,000 (sic) suits from a fancy tailor in Washington, where as managing director of the International Monetary Fund he plays Master of the Universe bailing out nations in financial trouble. Not so, he countered furiously, but few believed him, it was so in character.
Some began toting up the signs of his un-Socialist lifestyle: two apartments in fashionable Paris neighborhoods, a vacation home in Marrakech, and, since he joined the IMF in 2007, a red brick mansion in Georgetown with a BMW SUV in the driveway. His tax-free salary at the IMF is reportedly $420,930, plus an annual “scale of living” allowance of $75,350. His wife Anne Sinclair, an American-born French TV journalist, inherited paintings by Picasso, Matisse, and Degas from her art merchant father. How bad could it be?
Well, how about a 48-hour descent into the netherworld of New York City’s criminal justice system? Complete with police lineup, forensic medical exam, complete body-cavity search, and perp walk in handcuffs under popping flash bulbs and leering TV cameras?
Strauss-Kahn’s personal Götterdämmerung on Saturday came with stunning swiftness. On Friday he had checked into the upscale Sofitel in the Times Square area, staying in a $3,000 a night suite with foyer, conference room, living room, marble bathroom and bedroom. It was a lavish layout for a personal trip whose purpose is still unclear; an embarrassed IMF stated firmly that he was not on official business.
He was due in Berlin on Sunday to meet Chancellor Angela Merkel, followed by two days of meetings in Brussels to work on Europe’s sovereign debt crisis. He could easily have taken a flight from Washington’s Dulles airport without going through New York. Oddly, when police pulled him off an Air France flight Saturday afternoon just two minutes before it left the gate, the plane was headed not to Berlin, but to Paris.
The police arrested DSK in response to allegations by a hotel housekeeper that he had violently sexually assaulted her around noon after trying to lock her in the room. They booked him on charges of a criminal sex act, attempted rape and unlawful imprisonment (or as the official complaint nicely puts it, “oral sexual conduct and anal sexual conduct with another person by forcible compulsion”). At his arraignment the judge agreed with the Manhattan district attorney’s argument that Strauss-Kahn was a flight risk and ordered him held without bail — Sinclair wired $1 million to him overnight, just in case — pending his appearance before a grand jury on Friday. He is now in an 11 by 13-foot cell along with several thousand other inmates at the tough Rikers Island prison complex. If found guilty on all four felony counts and three misdemeanor counts, he won’t board another flight to Paris for 25 years.
French media and politicians can’t decide whether DSK’s spectacular downfall is an earthquake or soap opera. “Shock. Political Bomb. Thunderclap,” headlined one newspaper. “KO,” ran another, next to a full-page photo of a dazed, unshaven Strauss-Kahn. “It’s an episode from the TV serial Dallas, and DSK is JR,” said a lawmaker in Nicolas Sarkozy’s UMP party. “Totally hallucinating,” said another. (Sarkozy himself, hitting new lows every week in the polls, has carefully said nothing, though he must be all smiles behind Elysée Palace doors.) Conspiracy theories are rife, but several politicos recognized it was humiliating for France. As one put it frankly, “Now everyone will point at us and say, ‘Look how the French act.’” For sure.
Strauss-Kahn secured top legal talent with the sure touch and speed of someone who would seem to have been through something like this before. In a matter of hours he hired the celebrity New York attorney Benjamin Brafman, whose past criminal cases include the likes of Michael Jackson and the rapper Jay-Z. DSK also quickly retained the services of William Taylor, a top Washington lawyer who reportedly advised him in 2008 in the case of his scandalous affair with an IMF staff member. He was immediately visited in his cell by the French consul general in New York, who assured him that “The French embassy and consulate are mobilized” whatever that means.
THE FACT IS, DSK has been through something like this before, only without the grave legal consequences that he may now face. His extramarital affairs have long been the stuff of Paris gossip and newsroom banter, where he was dubbed “the great seducer.” In broad-minded France where politicians’ private lives are off-limits to reporters (think François Mitterrand’s love child hidden for years in broad daylight and financed with public monies), a dash of expected promiscuity only adds to a public figure’s luster. This after all is the country where the medieval tradition of cuissage gave nobles the inalienable right to sleep with a peasant’s bride on her wedding night. Thus few eyebrows were raised when DSK gave an interview to a Paris paper two weeks ago in which he addressed his womanizing. “Yes, I like women,” he declared with all due chutzpah. “So what?”
Sometimes he went too far. Like three years ago, early in his stint as IMF chief, when a furious Argentine economist publicly blamed DSK for seducing his Hungarian wife, who was then an IMF employee, at the Davos international business forum. Both admitted the affair (she has since left for another job). The IMF glossed over the case, contenting itself with noting that he had not actually used his hierarchical position to abuse an underling. Strauss-Kahn issued an apology, saying, “I accept that this incident represents a serious error of judgment. I am committed, going forward, to uphold the high standards” expected of an IMF managing director. Case closed. But it is clear now that the IMF was seriously remiss in not dismissing him at the time, however embarrassing that would have been.
As France goes through a period of soul-searching in the light of DSK’s arrest, other skeletons may well emerge. Assistant District Attorney John A. McConnell, the prosecutor, told the judge Monday that New York crime officials are investigating at least one other case of “conduct similar to the conduct alleged” in the present case. He did not elaborate.
In Paris this week, a young journalist named Tristane Banon spoke up to say she had been sexually assaulted by Strauss-Kahn in 2002 when she interviewed him. He attacked her like “a rutting chimp,” she says, describing how he wrestled her to the floor, undoing her bra and trying to pull her blue jeans off before she managed to flee. Her mother dissuaded her from filing suit at the time, because there had not been an actual rape and public opinion would have sided with the great man. But her lawyer says she is likely to sue now because “she knows she will be heard and be taken seriously.”
A few French opinion leaders are beginning to speak out publicly. One of the first was the National Front’s president, Marine Le Pen. “The truth, and everyone knows it, is that Paris has buzzed for months if not years in political and journalistic circles about the pathological relationship M. Strauss-Kahn has with women. This week’s news is not exactly surprising.”
Another was the lawmaker Bernard Debré, a well-known member of Sarkozy’s UMP party and son of one of the authors of the Constitution of the Fifth Republic. He told a news magazine that DSK had engaged in this sort of behavior several times at the Sofitel in New York, where he has stayed five times over the last year, and that hotel employees knew about it. “Enough is enough, you have humiliated France,” he said. “You have ridiculed and soiled your country. Your best hope now is to seek the help available for sexual delinquents.”
To be sure, every man is innocent until proven guilty, even people like this. No one can be certain what may come to light as this murky affaire goes forward. But at least one fortunate consequence is now clear: contrary to predictions of just a week ago, Dominique Strauss-Kahn will not be the next president of France.
About the Author
Joseph A. Harriss is The American Spectator’s Paris correspondent. His latest book, An American Spectator in Paris, was released this fall.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (113) | Leave a comment
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Ramage| 5.18.11 @ 6:44AM
Different authors to be sure. But the same American Spectator online site and same topic: DSK and justice. Yet a completely different take in this piece than what Ben Stein displayed yesterday.
American Spectator staff need to swiftly reconsider what Stein (and the editors) posted yesterday. I submit that yesterday must be the last day of collaboration between American Spectator and Stein.
As to DSK, this is why our world sucks. These are the people in the positions of leadership, management, decision-making. Whether guilty in this case or innocent, this man's a walking buffoon (and has been for years).
"No good man in the land to be found."
Aquanomics| 5.18.11 @ 10:26AM
Strauss-Kahn is the epitome of the Euro-Socialist. His motto: do as I say, not as I do.
What seems to be missing in this story is that this Champion of the Underclass took maximum advantage of (1) a woman, (2) a black woman, (3) a working class black woman and (4) an immigrant, black working class woman.
Much like Clinton kept NOW support throughout Monica and Paula Jones.
What a bunch of frauds.
Jamie W.| 5.19.11 @ 2:16PM
Worse, there is a scary part of the story that the Muslim world has already seized upon: a powerful white Frenchman of Jewish descent tried to rape a devout Muslim woman of humble origins from a country that was once a French colony.
Rape is rape. Depending on how this other part of the story is spun, however, we could see people dying over it, no matter where the truth falls.
G.N. Parker| 5.18.11 @ 10:41AM
Thank you, thank you, thank you, for this searing rebuke--though indirect-- of Ben Stein's repulsive post from yesterday.
Stein suggested that Strauss-Kahn, because of his wealth and position, should have been treated differently than ordinary men. Rikers was not fit for the likes of Strauss-Kahn, according to the wise Ben Stein.
And Stein expressed little sympathy for the maid in his wildly inappropriate piece of infuriating muddled drivel.
Time for Stein to express a little mea culpa.
Sylvia| 5.18.11 @ 10:48AM
Ben Stein is an embarrassment. Time for Ben Stein to go, don't you think?
Who could respect him after what he wrote yesterday about Dominique Strauss-Kahn?
Give the boot to Ben! We want a new editor!
A.M. Mallett| 5.18.11 @ 2:00PM
I agree. Stein made a fool of himself
Violet| 5.20.11 @ 6:58AM
Go take a prozac and leave the thinking to the grownups.
g| 5.18.11 @ 4:00PM
Its a setup, no defensive wounds, se.men, DNA or a history of criminal activity?
He could have had twenty women there with one phone call.
Violet| 5.20.11 @ 6:59AM
Agree with g.
This is a setup.
Appleby| 5.18.11 @ 7:16AM
One more case of a wealthy, powerful, married man who cannot keep it zipped, and for a few days the world is shocked, until it joins Ben Stein in saying *Thats just what men do, ho hum.*
I am surprised Bill Clinton hasnt weighed in on this yet.
Peter Witting| 5.18.11 @ 1:28PM
Or Eliot Spitzer.
Shamus| 5.18.11 @ 3:49PM
Yasser Arafat once told Clinton that goats were better than women because they never complained about their treatment.
Violet| 5.20.11 @ 7:00AM
And you are a case of a man hating liberal female.
Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 5.18.11 @ 7:23AM
It's curious that the American press never compares him to Bill Clinton. If the maid's allegations are true they are two of a kind.
If not true, or a payoff is in the making, Bill Clinton could be perceived as worse, having been accused of rape on several occasions.
Oddly enough, Clinton escaped the allegations unharmed himself, and still holds the adoration of the entire world of socialists.
Reference:
A Clinton campaign worker at the time, she described a meeting in her hotel room in which Clinton held her down forcibly on a bed and bit her lips while engaging in sexual intercourse. After the encounter, Clinton allegedly told her not to worry because he was sterile.
She first told her story to the Wall Street Journal in 1999.
Clinton, through his attorneys shortly after the Journal report appeared, claimed the allegations were false. But Broaddrick, in her interview, said the former two-term president assaulted her, then "casually" asked her to put ice on her swollen bottom lip he had bitten during the alleged attack.
"Then he … put on his sun glasses and walked out the door," Broaddrick said.
She went on to say she told a friend – Norma Rogers – who "found me" right after the incident "that, I was sitting there crying and so upset at the time… I felt like the next person coming through the door to get rid of the body. I absolutely couldn't believe what had happened to me."
Rogers later said in an interview she found Broaddrick in a state of shock, her lip swollen, mouth bruised, and her pantyhose torn at the crotch.
During the Fox News broadcast last night, Broaddrick said she had told up to five people of the incident within hours or days after it occurred.
"You begged him to stop?" Hannity asked.
"Yes," Broaddrick replied
Read more: Broaddrick details alleged rape by Clinton http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=19242#ixzz1MhaoGbf2
Carol| 5.18.11 @ 7:49AM
While this letter points out the obvious - the guy is a sex pervert - there is another HUGE issue for the entire world.
The creep is George Soros' good friend. The guy has called for the end of the dollar. The guy should have been arrested long ago for messing with the U.S. but because the American people are stupid enough to vote for a black guy they knew nothing about who hates America for POTUS and who does what his puppet master Soros says, this should make the American people rest a little easier - for now.
If only we could get on hands the real evil-doer George Soros and put him in prison for the rest of his evil life, would America be better off!
PJ| 5.18.11 @ 9:17AM
"The creep is George Soros' good friend."
Where did you read this? Seriously!
Wouldn't it be nice if DSK had some incriminating evidence against Soros & used it to plea bargain!
Carol| 5.18.11 @ 3:56PM
Hey PJ:
From your one of your favorite websites.
Denial is not a river in Egypt.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn, International Monetary Fund Head, Charged ...
May 15, 2011 ... Dominique Strauss-Kahn's arrest in New York on Saturday for alleged ... of his closest friends remembers telling him before he took the job. ..... should not worry about a friend good friend of George Soros at the IMF; ...
www.thedailybeast.com/.../domi.....l-assault/
Bob Grant| 5.18.11 @ 10:40AM
"..While this letter points out the obvious - the guy is a sex pervert..." -
...and how is it so obvious? What did you know about the guy last Saturday as opposed to last Monday?
I'm not a big fan of his but nothing is "obvious" at this point.
Bob K.| 5.18.11 @ 7:51AM
Has anybody at A.S. consulted with the ladies on "The View" to get their opinions?
I look forward to an article on this world shaking event from one of them. It will help take our minds of the price of gas, health care, the forthcoming primaries; the 2012 presidential election and who the Republican candidate will be, Illegal Immigration, Islamic Hijad, China's economic inroads on the U.S. economy, the Israel/Palestine problem and Peace In Our Time!
Bob K.| 5.18.11 @ 7:55AM
Sorry, that should be "off" the price of gas. And I might as well throw in the increase in food prices, inflation, the threats to everyone's pensions----I'm getting tired.
Occam's Tool| 5.21.11 @ 5:12PM
You are correct, Bob K.
Bob K.| 5.18.11 @ 8:18AM
On Monday I received an e-mail from Mr. Regnery, the publisher of A.S. asking for a donation to help fund the training of new conservative journalists and activists for the conservative movement.
Mr. Regnery, I have a better idea. Why don't you give them fellowships to the National Enquirer so they can learn to throw red meat to the ravers with the same skill as Mr. Harriss does here?
Nothing like getting the reader's minds off the important issues of our time. Don't you agree?
Occam's Tool| 5.18.11 @ 4:52PM
Apparently his lawyer is going for the "it was consensual" defense.
I just don't think so. Assange has a better defense.
tonyo| 5.18.11 @ 8:36AM
"As France goes through a period of soul-searching in the light of DSK's arrest, other skeletons may well emerge"
What searching? What soul?
canuckistani| 5.18.11 @ 8:53AM
He is the world's money man, period. Whatever he does between the sheets is his business and the women who insinuate themselves near him know the deal. The example of the French presser who now claims an act from 9 years ago after being suppressed by her own mother, is occurring everyday. What did she do the last nine years with this suppressed evidence, build a career? Advance her mother's career? Think about it.
What he did to the maid, if proven, is criminal.
A man having affairs requires another willing accomplice, and in the domain of sexual politics, women are just as adept - in fact it is the man who typically loses his mind and implodes. This article says zero to me about monetary policy and belongs on TMZ.
If they show he was being forward with the likes of Angela Merkel - then we have a story, an absurd one, but a real story nonetheless.
txn4ever| 5.18.11 @ 4:27PM
"Whatever he does between the sheets is his business and the women who insinuate themselves near him know the deal."
You're joking, right?
Next time you are between the sheets with some scum bag and you are insinuated against your will maybe you will change your opinion.
Clint| 5.18.11 @ 8:37AM
Dr.Ron Paul:
"These are the kinds of people who are running the IMF," Paul told Chris Wallace, "and we want to turn the world's finances and the control of the money supply [over] to them?"
Paul added he hoped the incident "should awaken everybody to the fact they ought to look into the IMF and find out why we shouldn't be sacrificing more sovereignty to an organization like that and individuals like he was."
"I would like to go to a sound American currency," Paul warned, "but others want to go to a world currency. They want to use the IMF."
Straus-Kahn, 62, appeared likely to win the French Socialist Party's nomination for president later this year, with a good chance of defeating the increasingly unpopular Nicolas Sarkozy in the spring of 2012. "
Dan Gerouse| 5.18.11 @ 9:34AM
Dr. Paul added "It may be true that Mr. Strauss-Kahn is the victim of conspiracy; his elite, Jewish Masters at the IMF, and their extraterrestrial allies from Planet X may have decided that he was becoming too powerful. I'm able to hear them through secret listening devices implanted in my fillings, so I know what I'm talking about. And who could blame them, really? It's ultimately America's fault."
Occam's Tool| 5.18.11 @ 10:28AM
Watch out, Dan---you have merited the wrath of Clint "Verbal Incontinence" himself and his marshmallow fists of Doom!
Myself, let's see what the evidence shows, eh? In the meantime, French assholes deserve the perp walk.
Clint| 5.18.11 @ 11:01AM
Dr. Paul is the "one exception to the Gang of 535" on Capital Hill
- William Simon, former Secretary of the Treasury
"According to a 1998 study published in the American Journal of Political Science, Paul had the most conservative voting record of any member of Congress since 1937.
Doctor Right| 5.18.11 @ 11:40AM
1998 was 13 years ago. Was that before he started blaming America for the world's problems, or after?
Clint| 5.18.11 @ 2:48PM
Are YouDr.Reich, Asking Before Or After You Go To Your Hermann Goering Woo Girls Meeting ?
Dr. Ron Paul's ACU Rating 2010: 96 Percent.
Doctor Right| 5.18.11 @ 3:32PM
No, I was asking if Dr. Ru Paul had settled on his "Blame America" strategy before 1998, or after.
It's a simple question.
I know you have problems with simple grammar, so perhaps you misunderstood?
victor| 5.18.11 @ 4:28PM
http://www.dailypaul.com/12715.....r-of-house
Ultra-liberal on war effort
Ultra-liberal on drug war
Ultra-liberal on internal security operations
Surely that's the way National Journal must see it.
victor| 5.18.11 @ 4:34PM
2010 ACU Ratings :: House Standouts
The 2010 ACU Ratings of Congress are determined on a scale of Zero to 100.
Defenders of Liberty
Perfect 2010 ACU Rating of 100
NUNES
OLSON
NO PAUL!
PENCE
PITTS
POE
2010 2009 YRS LIFE
14 PAUL 96.00 91.00 20 83.51
Read More :: http://www.conservative.org/co.....z1MjofVHtj
Occam's Tool| 5.19.11 @ 10:03PM
It is also an interesting thing to look at the votes that the ACU uses to determine compliance. In 2010 , it was one foreign policy vote---on the US Mexico border, and, I believe, no drug votes.
Heck, you can cherry pick me into an LA Lakers fan.
hardcard| 5.18.11 @ 8:41AM
Boob K. does g.soros pay in Euros or 30 silver coins?
Timothy L. Pennell| 5.18.11 @ 8:59AM
Here's hoping that he likes MEN, too.
"Hey Frenchie. Can you pick up the soap for me?"
jd| 5.18.11 @ 9:10AM
Why is it that when a liberal, Socialist is accused of a sex crime he is considered "innocent until proven guilty" yet when a conservative or a Republican is accused of same he is immediately found guilty?
On another note regarding Schwarzenegger's pathological womanizing, I am sickened that Maria Shriver is being portrayed as a saint in all of this. She knew that he had indiscretions, LIED about his accusations in 2003 when he was running for governor by staunchly defending him, yet once his political career as governor is over, this "staunch Catholic" leaves him! I am not defending Arnie here, it's just more blatant to me how ALL Kennedys, women as well as the men, only care about POWER AND THEIR OWN WEALTH PRESERVATION.
Margie| 5.18.11 @ 1:46PM
You are assuming and saying that she left him because of his political career being over, and not because of his Adultery.
That's pretty catty.
CalMark| 5.18.11 @ 2:04PM
That's what most people are thinking, actually.
The point being made is that she's been aware of this stuff for a long time, and has put up with it and protected him from the consequences.
What color is the sky in your world?
Margie| 5.18.11 @ 2:14PM
Oh, excuse me Mr. all-knowing.
MOST people are thinking this?
I do not presume to know what MOST people are thinking, including those who presume to know the "real" reason she left him.
Your sky looks black from where I am.
jd| 5.18.11 @ 2:56PM
Margie,
Maria Shriver has been aware of the rumors of Arnie's womanizing for YEARS, even defending him in 2003 when he was running for governor. She sucked up the humiliation then, even when rumors of another love child by his personal airline stewardess were well-publicized. Now you want to believe that she left him now because of this latest lovechild? I suppose you think it's a coincidence that once his political career is over, she not only leaves him but makes a beeline to the best financial planner to preserve her wealth. Huh, go figure, a Kennedy woman who is more concerned about preserving her wealth, her power and status as a political wife when it suits her, and then decides to play a moral victim once he leaves political office. Nothing catty about my observations at all, just poining out the hypocrisy.
But I am surprised that you have not yet vented your anti-Catholic vitriol when the media portray her as conflicted about divorce because of her faith.
Margie| 5.18.11 @ 3:16PM
As usual, you presume to know the motivations of others.
I am not surprised. This is your way of life.
You are based in a phony Religion and therefore reject the Truth.
My "vitriol" is toward liars and phony men who make themselves God.
Yet you are surprised at me that I would sympathize with a woman, any woman who is conflicted about divorce because of her faith, yet you are the one casting aspersions on your fellow (sister) Catholic?
I'm not based in Religion, I'm based in Truth.
jd| 5.18.11 @ 3:30PM
Talk about hypocrisy, you condemn me for being catty for pointing out the obvious about Shriver and the Kennedy family in general, and that I presume to know ones motivations, yet you consistently presume to know what is in ones heart and soul when you constantly condemn to Hell anyone who does not believe in your interpretation of the Bible. I did not detect any vitriol from you directed towards Arnie's indiscretions, even though you say your "vitriol" is toward liars and phony men who make themselves God." If Maria were truly a devoutly practicing Roman Catholic, she would not divorce him period, yet all of a sudden once he leaves political office, she decides to go against a major tenet of her faith. I do not have any empathy for any woman who puts power, prestige and wealth above her faith.
Margie| 5.18.11 @ 4:03PM
jd,
You don't like me because I'm a Christian, and not a Catholic.
And you take pleasure in demeaning me and outright lying about me in your posts, for a couple of years now.
You blatantly lie about me which is despicable. I don't condemn anyone to Hell~ I simply quote~ from the Bible~ what God says He will do.
And, if someone is lying I say so. Like you just did.
Your quarrel isn't really with me, anyway~ it's with God.
The truth is that Catholicism does not teach the gospel of Jesus Christ~ but a different gospel.
You don't care for the truth, and want to hang on to your Religion and so you feel the need to personally attack, like all haughty Catholics do.
As to Maria Shriver~ I am sorry for her that she married a louse, a cad, an Adulterer.
When will you quit lying, jd? I also did not defend Ah-noold.
Even if you say she is a hypocrite, etc. and claim to know she's divorcing him out of political reasons~ (both of which we don't even know)~ I still think it's sad.
I wish people would marry and stay together for ever. God hates Divorce. But the Bible says to Divorce on the grounds of Adultery is the only acceptable reason. I'm not saying she should do so though, that is her choice.
The Catholic church doesn't go by what the Bible says, though.
Does that even matter to you?
The Catholic church teaches hundreds of things that are not Biblical~ does it matter to you?
Here's a good verse for you:
"And if you had known what this means, 'I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,' you would not have condemned the guiltless." Mt. 12:7.
CalMark| 5.18.11 @ 6:29PM
Catholics believe anybody--baptized or not--can get into heaven by living a righteous life in accordance with God's law.
People like Margie believe that anybody who disagrees with them goes directly to Hell.
Seems to people like Margie worship Allah, not the God of Abraham.
Margie| 5.18.11 @ 6:55PM
"Catholics believe anybody--baptized or not--can get into heaven by living a righteous life in accordance with God's law."
This flies in the face of the true gospel of Jesus Christ, which states:
"He who believes in Him is not condemned; he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the Name of the only Son of God." Jn. 3:18.
And this:
"And Peter said to them, "Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the Name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." Acts 2:38.
And this:
"Jesus answered and said to him, Truly,
truly, I say to you, If one is not generated
from above, he is not able to see the Kingdom
of God." Jn. 3:3.
CalMark| 5.18.11 @ 7:12PM
Margie, you are not a Christian.
You are a Bible-thumping Jihadist.
Margie| 5.18.11 @ 7:15PM
And you are a liar who rejects the God of the Bible.
Margie| 5.18.11 @ 8:59PM
p.s. Cal Mark,
If you think I am a jihadi because I quote His Words, tell me, what will you do when you actually experience the wrath of God?
"He who believes in the Son has eternal life; he who does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God rests upon him". Jn. 3:36.
"For the wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all ungodliness and wickedness of men who by their wickedness suppress the truth." Rom. 1:18.
Jack in Wi.| 5.19.11 @ 2:24AM
The Bible comes from the Catholic Church. The final canon was assembled by the Church at the end of the fourth century. I have to laugh at you Bible thumpers attacking the Church which gave you the Bible to thump. It also was the institution that spread the Bible over the whole world before Martin Luther started his revolt. Christ founded the Church. The Church, out of it's God given teaching authority, gave the world the Bible.
Violet| 5.20.11 @ 7:10AM
Duh, Jack, the Bible does not come from the Catholic Church. Read some history re Martin Luther (and I don't mean the guy with King attached to his last name.) Catholic hierarchy wanted the Bible to continue to be written only in Latin as a means to keeping it away from the common people. The Bible is the inspired Word of God, not a catholic invention.
You only, BTW, get to heaven through belief in Jesus Christ and making Him Lord of your life, NOT BY GOOD WORKS! Read Isaiah, Psalms, and New Testament and ask God for understanding. That's all. A Jihadist for Christ.
Occam's Tool| 5.21.11 @ 5:13PM
Jack---you remind me of Torquemada! (Torkey to the boys at the pool hall)
Occam's Tool| 5.19.11 @ 10:07PM
You know, a jihadi would want me dead. Margie prays for my well-being. Save the terms for what they are correctly used for. Margie is a Fundamentalist Christian of an evangelical persuasion. Having graduated Magna Cum Laude from TCU, I ran into a few of them (I held the highest academic scholarship the University offered all 4 years). You know, you can disagree with her without smearing, or making her forced to slap you. I do, all the time.
Tim the Enchanter| 5.19.11 @ 5:34PM
You're a Protestant, not a Christian.
Occam's Tool| 5.18.11 @ 4:58PM
You know, Cal, up to a few days ago the adultery was not a matter of public knowledge. Now it is, and Maria is under the brutal magnifying glass. Why shouldn't she tell him to go take a long jump off a short pier for this? (The public huniliation)
His political career was a dead man walking for quite some time.
Occam's Tool| 5.18.11 @ 4:59PM
Sorry, "humiliation." Maria is the victim here, and people are criticizing her?
polskababe| 5.18.11 @ 5:49PM
I think Maria deserves criticism because she put up with his infidelities and must have heard the rumors of other potential love children all during the time that Arnie was in politics (and before) yet now after her husband leaves political office she has had enough? Smells too much like political opportunism trumped her outrage at his womanizing; so in my opinion they both made their bed to lie in together.
jd| 5.18.11 @ 6:01PM
Sorry, Occam, but Arnie's adultery has been common knowledge for YEARS, not just a matter of days. Where have you been?
Maria covering for Arnold for all these years, even sponsoring legislation when she was California's First Lady to amend the requirement that would allow foreign born citizens (like Arnold) to be able to run for the US Presidency reminds me of Elizabeth Edwards (and Hillary, too!) supporing her husband for the highest political office in the land knowing full well his deception and lies. These political wives knowingly supported their scummy husbands and wanted to foist them on the American people. Again, seems like the smell of political power is too overwhelming for these wives of cheatin' hubbies.
Occam's Tool| 5.18.11 @ 6:28PM
Possible, but this latest humiliation may be the last straw. Actually, however, both are scum-tard Hollywood/Matha's Vineyard Liberals, so who really cares?
Occam's Tool| 5.18.11 @ 6:28PM
Martha's Vineyard. Sorry.
Margie| 5.18.11 @ 11:09PM
Heh, you've been had, O.T.
jd got at least one man to say something derogatory about Shriver.
Just sayin'!
Occam's Tool| 5.18.11 @ 11:43PM
Yeah, I may have been had, Margie. But you gotta admit, they are both scumtard Liberals.
Margie| 5.19.11 @ 12:11AM
They're both lost. I hope both of them get found by the Grace of God.
Maybe this will bring them low and they will turn to Him.
There's no mercy in j.d's attitude toward her sister Catholic, yet she always loves to excoriate me for my "hatred" of same.
Just sayin'.
Oh, and BTW~ I don't even think she was telling the truth about the foreign born restrictions~ I'm not sure but I think that was Joe Lieberman.
Anyhoo, I feel sorry for their children the most.
jd| 5.19.11 @ 8:59AM
Margie,
My sister Catholic Maria is not what I consider a devout Catholic. Not only because she is contemplating divorce, but also because as a liberal Democrat she goes against the Church's teaching on abortion, homosexuality, euthanasia, etc. As with her marriage, politics also trumps her faith.
Since you think I am wrong or lying about Maria's sponsorship of the bill while she was First Lady of California, do your own research, and please respond back with an apology.
As far as the Catholic faith is concerned, I concur with Jack and Cal, and a host of other previous bloggers on different posts who have pointed out the fallacies and oversights of your version of the "Truth". Like you usually do, your final retort is to brand everybody a "LIAR!!!" In my opinion, you ARE a jihadist.
And it is ironic that you cannot even acknowledge the complicity of Maria Shriver as it relates to her politics and tolerance of Arnie over the years when it suits her. So much for you seeking the TRUTH about anything.
Occam's Tool| 5.19.11 @ 9:31PM
Indeed, the children suffer the most.
Anthony| 5.18.11 @ 9:13AM
Breaking News!!! Ben Stein, Esq. has agreed to join the legal team for the beleaguered Strauss-Kahn.
It is reported that Attorney Stein has agreed to join the legal team provided the "consensual sex" defense is abandoned.
Instead, Attorney Stein is said to be developing a variation of the "Twinky Defense", with the "best hamburger I've ever eaten" defense, in that Strauss-Kahn was in the throes of insane passion over a $40 hamburger that sent his libidinous desires wild!!
Stay tuned!!! Attorney Stein was not available for further comment.
Anthony| 5.18.11 @ 9:40AM
More Breaking News!! In light of the series of serious sexual revelations that have emerged since the NY arrest of Strauss-Kahn, the IMF, in an attempt to maintain its esteemed international reputation, has asked former president Bill Clinton to assume head of its operations.
The former president was unavailable for comment, however, it is reported his new executive assistant will be a Miss Monica Lewinsky, currently residing in London.
Details of Ms. Lewinsky's experience in the areas of international finance are sketchy at present, however, sources close to the former president have disclosed that Mr. Clinton and Ms. Lewinsky have enjoyed a close working relationship in the past, with some very good give and take.
PJ| 5.18.11 @ 9:46AM
This DSK scandal is another example of the moral degradation that western civilization is sliding into because of the people in power. They are suppose to lead us , peasants, into a righteous & humane way of life. What we are seeing is men & women using their positions to prey on the weak & defenseless not protecting them. For example Barack Obama, Eliot Spitzer, Mr & Mrs Bill Clinton, George Soros, Warren Buffet, The Arnold, & Nancy Pelosi, to name just a few. Do these humbleless persons actually "get off" on this sort of behavior? Or is it psychosis gone wild!
Claypoole| 5.18.11 @ 2:05PM
Power corrupts.
The Bishop| 5.18.11 @ 9:52AM
I admit to being upset with Mr. Stein's article yesterday, but let's not rid ourselves too quickly of an old friend who may have an occasional lapse of judgment. I've had more than a few lapses myself over the years. I still like Ben.
Anthony| 5.18.11 @ 10:19AM
Dear Bishop, You've misconstrued my post. I've not come to bury Stein, I've come to praise him.
In a more serious vein, as some posters have already opined, America and the world are currently being "ruled" by a class of leftist elites that are destroying us.
We damn well had better wake the hell up, as Ron Paul (not a fan) has said, and take back our lives and our country from these pathetic, feckless and hypocritical elites.
Apologists like Stein are not helpful.
Occam's Tool| 5.18.11 @ 10:32AM
I think it's important to separate things---the IMF stinks, and should be defunded. No doubt. That this guy's another hypocritical socialist swine, that's true. No doubt.
The court will answer guilt or innocence on the rape charge, and, having been a player in a major international newsstory once upon a time myself (the Alabama Chain Gang), I know how the media screws things up. Let's see what the evidence shows.
draintheswamp| 5.18.11 @ 10:02AM
L'affaire DSK is a replay of Tom Wolfe's Bonfire of the Vanities "Great White Defendant".
Andrew B| 5.18.11 @ 10:29AM
The only bright spot in this sordid mess, if there is one, is the spectacle of the French lecturing America on the presumption of innocence. They might want to check their own legal code, as no such provision exists in Napoleonic Law. In his homeland, DSK would be presumed guilty.
Of course, he would also be presumed too important to indict, so we wouldn't need to worry about technicalities.
chris haynes| 5.18.11 @ 10:33AM
President Obama, and President Bush give them this: Theyre not pigs.
Like Clinton, Bersolloni, Strauss-Kahn, Gore, Spritzer, Gulianni, Kennedy, Gingrich, Schwartznegger, Edwards, etc etc etc
Yes yes. Guys like Obama, Lieberman, Blair, and Biden promote abortion. And it is indeed the greatest holocaust in history.
But its nice to have a few guys, even liberals, that dont make you feel dirty watching them on TV. We can still give thanks for the small blessings.
ConantheContrarian| 5.18.11 @ 10:34AM
I haven't read all the comments, but one scenario comes to mind: Was this a set-up similar to Marion Barry? Did he order a hooker and mistook the maid for the hooker? I am not trying to excuse him; the more international liberals that we can discredit the better (or rather the more the international liberals can discredit themselves the better). But something about this is not quite right. Did he piss off somebody? Did he betray Soros in some way? I don't know; I'm just asking, wondering?
Cuffs| 5.18.11 @ 11:00AM
Who the hell cares? Send him back to France
so they can foot the bill. Why do we want to
spend all this money on litigation- for what?
A shameless grifter who feeds off & controls other people's money. I am more than sure
we would be astonded at the miserable caliber of men at IMF: in for their own aggrandizement of
money & power, add to that the Federal Reserve & World Bank. All you have to do is look at
little Timmy Geithner from the NY FED. He couldn't even pay his taxes when he had been given the money to pay them!
Anthony| 5.18.11 @ 11:16AM
Dear Conan, You're attempting to be to clever by half, this isn't "The bitch set me up" defense of the esteemed crack smoker, his honor, Marion Barry, although you might have given Ben Stein, Esq. another unique defense tactic.
This guy is a leftist, elitist fraud, plain and simple. The champion of the workers of the world is anything but, yet the morons of the left adore these types.
It's no wonder the world and now America are in deep dodo. We've fallen into the Euro-lefty elitist trap and Obozo is our new ruler, with a lap dog media in tow.
Redstateboy| 5.18.11 @ 11:24AM
I am honestly curious if it is illegal for this guys defense attorneys - either overtly or covertly - to offer compensation to this woman to drop her accusation? Are we in store for another Kobe'esq sweep under the carpet?
Anthony| 5.18.11 @ 11:37AM
Yes, it most certainly is, it's called suborning perjury.
Steve A| 5.18.11 @ 11:52AM
Red, I'm no attorney but I believe you are mixing criminal & civil.
Michael Hawke | 5.18.11 @ 11:37AM
It's amazing how much Eurosocialism looks like California
Mike Gabel| 5.18.11 @ 11:50AM
So, this guy sounds like scum. Still, as this is a crime investigation, he is afforded the presumption of innocence and due process.
Nancy Pelosi made a very inappropriate statement regarding this matter, expressing her sadness for "the victim". Certainly, she has already convicted the accused before the trial.
Barack Obama made a similar inappropriate statement regarding the Henry Skip Gates matter.
The lesson is that Pelosi and Obama, in addition to being unwise, have no working knowledge or regard for our Constitution.
Its scary when you think that these people are the leaders and representatives of our country. Especially when the media paints Obama as the smartest man in the room.
The misguided and failed policies, and the utter decline of our country that resulted from this dumbnamic duo should come as no surprise.
Cpm| 5.18.11 @ 12:07PM
Did Blinky Pelosi specify who she considered "the victim"?
maximumrandb| 5.18.11 @ 2:26PM
"Blinky" I LOVE it!
Pat| 5.18.11 @ 1:08PM
Apparently, powerful men - rich, respected and living a celebrated public life - see no reason why they can’t secretly enjoy many women as sexual partners – but some tear off bras like a “chimpanzee in heat” and some provide lifelong financial support for less actual sex than a local prostitute, for a much lower fare on the thrill meter, would have provided. Here in California, Ah-nold is apologizing for his love child, Mel was just about exhausted apologizing for his sins so we needed a new face whining for forgiveness, same old pathetic words though. And the media is having the time of their tawdry lives analyzing every aspect of these latest celebrity sins, whether freely confessed or still proclaiming their innocence.
Maureen Dowd, who probably has no personal reason to fear aggressive male advances, is the female dragon currently leading the shame-shame chorus. But, given time, we can reasonably expect other female commentators to chime in with their thoughts, either hostile or benign.
With all the bad news about everything else in this country – matters we have no control over and are helpless to address - it’s kinda nice to choose a simple topic and collectively indulge in some harmless self-righteousness. Our government is out of control, unemployment is turning out to be a slow cancer eating away at our confidence as well as our pride and nothing we do seems likely to bring back that buoyant optimism Americans once enjoyed.
These men betrayed the trust of loved ones and demonstrated a clear disregard for male responsibility, but we have to admit they’re a godsend when it comes to diverting our thoughts from all the things we as a nation have failed at – it’s not like Ah-nold, Mel, Bill, John and that Frenchy, Strauss-Kahn, deserve a public service medal for their actions – but at least we can silently applaud their timely efforts toward providing a welcome diversion from our ongoing national failures.
Ramage| 5.18.11 @ 3:25PM
Pat, you are correct in a number of ways, but this is precisely the point: The men and women who gravitate and lump themselves permanently in politics at all levels seem to share: A confused high assessment of their own skills, arrogance, deceit on a grand scale, & a will to self-indulge and self-serve at whim.
Frenchman DSK is just a slight twist on a very w0rn-out theme. Just like former Gov. Mark Sanford of South Carolina and what we learn about John Ensign. Sure, each of these stories has their own unique chapters, but the overall plot is the same: They dallied and danced and pranced about doing a whole lot of NOTHING for years or even decades on the public doll (while throwing $billions to the wind).
Public servants? What a crock! No, just frat party boys on a different level in different venues.
THEY ARE the reason for the NATIONAL DEMISE (and they laugh at you and me behind closed doors).
And they all seem to share something in common: Secular liberalism. Oh, they steer clear of this or even try to hide behind faux faith like Sanford, but in their mind & empty souls, they are godless secular humans....
Fyodor Dostoyevsky's writings, anyone? (Yes, this is an age-old, very repetitive theme.)
On your last paragraph: Actually these pitiful wretches for personages should help us 1. focus on the locusts who run the nation at the local, state, & national levels, 2. resolve to remove their ilk NOW, and 3. threaten their replacements with an even shorter fuse should they even think of "playing around" on our time.
No matter what: LESS funding for EVERYTHING/significantly LESS taxation. With less money at their disposal, these fools can do less damage.
AgentRose| 5.18.11 @ 1:35PM
He likes women AND money! Big Journalism is reporting that U.S. taxpayers picked up the tab for the IMF: " In fact, you may not have heard on your evening newscast that Strauss-Kahn was given that $100 billion of our dollars in 2009 by the Obama administration to help bail out the EU. While we thought we were debating whether to give New York or California billions of dollars, we were actually handing over billions to Greece in one of the world’s great “shell games.”
Obama and Democrats called it an international stimulus that needed to happen to help the world economy!!!"
A.M. Mallett| 5.18.11 @ 2:03PM
I may have to redefine my use of man-bitch after this incident.
Shafer Parker | 5.18.11 @ 2:05PM
I returned to your website today just to see if either Ben Stein had recanted or the American Spectator had rebuked him for yesterday's truly awful column. I'm glad this article was written to refute the one-sided support DSK got from Stein. But I must say that with a few notable exceptions most of what Stein writes these days is either trite or stomach churning. He needs a break to take stock and reconsider many things about his life. Right now he too easily gives the benefit of the doubt to bad men and bad policies.
Mimi| 5.18.11 @ 2:27PM
DSK.....I like women...You got a problem with that?
USA.... " NO !....but you do!
The article states his problems started 2 weeks ago to take him DOWN....My oh My.... somebody upstairs is calling him to task...I think its called..COME-UPPENCE. Luck has run out...a lesson is there to learn,
carol| 5.18.11 @ 2:33PM
besides disgust at this guy
let's leave the victum alone and get out of the IMF
Anthony| 5.18.11 @ 4:30PM
Hold on to your wallets and purses boys and girls, the settlement this poor woman is going to extract for the actions of the Bill Clinton of the IMF will come out of our pockets, despite this having occured while on "private business".
One of my brother or sister members of the bar will make sure of that, talk about a deep pocket, they don't get much deeper than the IMF. Maybe Soros or Jean-Francois Kerry.
Hopefully some of the $100 B given to the IMF (hat tip AgentRose) is still available for the
settlement.
Dare we ask who's paying the legal fees for Clinton's, err, Strauss-Kahn's criminal defense?
The left is so out of control, we don't need just an American revolution, we need a world wide revolution.
The entire world wide left is being supported on our dime!!!!
shipley130| 5.18.11 @ 4:44PM
So, a socialist that owns a car worth the same as a house, stays in $3000 dollar hotel rooms. A socialist that might have bitten by the very policies they fight for, such as letting deadly disease stricken people into the US. Progressive policies that just wiped out a progressive.
shipley130| 5.18.11 @ 4:50PM
Maybe the maid should sue the IMF.
shipley130| 5.18.11 @ 4:50PM
Maybe the maid should sue the IMF.
De Maistre| 5.18.11 @ 5:49PM
A sordid business, certainly. But for the historical record, the "droit de cuissage" which the author refers to -- evoked, some will recall, in the film Braveheart -- is almost surely a total myth propagated by Jacobin historians and given no credit by serious medievalists.
beebop| 5.18.11 @ 6:12PM
Well, I for one have learned something: if you get accused of a crime and find yourself in jail, talk about killing yourself and get moved to the hospital ward. I'm thinking no cell mate, better chow, and not locked up with the sort of people who might be the brother to the woman you are accused of attacking ....
Occam's Tool| 5.18.11 @ 6:29PM
Or better yet, a State Psychiatric Hospital... (sigh). I hate working with psychopaths. I really do.
Margie| 5.18.11 @ 11:10PM
God bless you for doing so, O.T.
Occam's Tool| 5.18.11 @ 11:45PM
Thanks, Margie.
Dee See| 5.18.11 @ 10:49PM
---Great piece, and what else is new?
MEANWHILE the greatest nuclear disaster
of all time bar none continues to be covered
up by our globalist 'EUGENICS friendly'
media.
The fallout will be spewing at this steady rate
not just for the next 10 months but now, we're
told ---INDEFINITELY.
Radiation levels 500X tolerable levels have
been detected in milk and food across America.
AGAIN, the spew will be indefinite ----therefore
the bio-accumulation will continue to rise
precipitatously.
NOTE the U.S. government is releasing NO
figures.
And DON'T fall for the pooh-poohing from
the media about 'safe levels'. Take heed, the
tolerable levels themselves apply ONLY to
external contact as in bomb radiation.
Internal exposure is far, far, far, far more
deadly over time. We ingest and inhale fallout.
DO CHECK OUT Dr Christopher Busby's latest
on youtube for what's really going down.
HUAC meets NUREMBERG 2012.
It gets more obvious with each passing day.
Jim Hlavac | 5.19.11 @ 2:46AM
But the obvious has not been said, you all avoid it -- Here, let me help you -- DOMA did nothing to stop this cretin. The "defense of marriage act" did zilch to defend the sanctity of marriage. Nor did it do anything to stop Newt, the Donald, McCain, Dole, Clinton, Edwards (here in La, or there in NC) Ensign, Schwartzenegger, or any one of you long list of people. How many examples do you need? Aren't you fact based around here? You sure claim to be so. Then fact it. Fact you.
And we people, us gays, are tired of the hypocrisy -- which from my last reading of the Bible, is the worst of all sins.
Let my people go, let us go. And you praise Santorum in these pages? A man whom aided and abetted Ensign in his destruction of marriage? And that man, Santorum is delusional enough to think he wants to outlaw us again.
Well, we shall demand to be arrested, and it will cost you billions to incarcerate us and force this "cure" upon us -- and you and Newt and the rest will call it punishment -- and we will call it the weirdest Club Med ever devised by man.
Let us go, and stop the hypocrisy.
Other than that, I'm with you on virtually everything as I have been since I started to subscribe to this magazine when I was 20 years of age.
But gay folks are not the problem: come to this conclusion in this magazine, and let my people go.
Cheers.
Ronald W. Carnine| 5.19.11 @ 11:31AM
What an idiot. Would somebody lock him up and throw away the key. "I like women" too so I married one. Over 35 yrs. ago (actually 37 on June 1) I married a wonderful woman. So I stayed faithful to her. I didn't go around attacking maids in motel rooms. I didn't force myself on others. When you truly "like women" you treat them with respect an fidelity. Anything else is bull.
Controse| 5.19.11 @ 11:44AM
When it comes to rape is there such a thing as premeditated? Absent a stated rational to fly to N.Y.C. and spending the night at the Sofitel on his way from Washington D.C. to Bonn via Paris one might easily conclude the object of his itinerary was to rape the chambermaid; pure and simple.
kyle | 6.6.11 @ 11:35AM
This typical of individuals with power and money, and it has been going down since time immemorial.