Monica Lewinsky: Emerging from “the House of Gaslight” in the Age of #MeToo

By Monica Lewinsky in Vanity Fair

On the 20th anniversary of the Starr investigation, which introduced her to the world, the author reflects on the changing nature of trauma, the de-evolution of the media, and the extraordinary hope now provided by the #MeToo movement.

"How do I know him? Where have I seen him? The Man in the Hat looked familiar, I thought, as I peered over at him a second time.

"It was Christmas Eve 2017. My family and I were about to be seated at a quaint restaurant in Manhattan’s West Village. We had just come from Gramercy Park—on the one night each year when the exclusive park (accessible only to nearby residents with special keys) opens its gates to outsiders. There had been carols. People had sung with abandon. In short, it was a magical night. I was happy.

"Amid the glow of candles and soft lighting, I strained to look again at the Man in the Hat. He was part of a small group that had just exited the main dining room. They were now gathering their belongings, likely vacating what was to be our table. And then it clicked. He looks just like . . . no, couldn’t be. Could it?

"A student of Karma, I found myself seizing the moment. Whereas a decade ago I would have turned and fled the restaurant at the prospect of being in the same place as this man, many years of personal-counseling work (both trauma-specific and spiritual) had led me to a place where I now embrace opportunities to move into spaces that allow me to break out of old patterns of retreat or denial.

"At the same moment I stepped toward the Man in the Hat and began to ask, “You’re not . . . ?,” he stepped toward me with a warm, incongruous smile and said, “Let me introduce myself. I’m Ken Starr.” An introduction was indeed necessary. This was, in fact, the first time I had met him." . . . Full Article..

"Bake the damned cake for the NRA, Mister Banker" !!

Don Surber  "So, First National Bank of Omaha thinks it can blacklist the National Rifle Association and refuse to do business with [them].
"Uh-uh.
"Not in 21st century America.
"The courts have ruled that a business has no discretion in whom it will do business with.
"If a Christian baker must bake a wedding cake for gay weddings, then you had better believe a bank must do business with the NRA."

. . . 

" 'The New York Times, through a column by John Corvino, a professor of philosophy at Wayne State University on November 27, said businesses cannot act on personal beliefs.

"At first glance, the Masterpiece Cakeshop case — for which the United States Supreme Court will hear arguments on Dec. 5 — looks easy. In 2012 Charlie Craig and David Mullins attempted to buy a wedding cake at Masterpiece Cakeshop in Lakewood, Colo. The owner, an evangelical Christian named Jack Phillips, refused to sell them one. The Colorado Civil Rights Commission found Phillips liable for sexual-orientation discrimination, which is prohibited by the state’s public accommodations law. State courts have upheld the commission’s decision," the column began.

. . . 

"But Corvino reached the conclusion that Christians must break their moral beliefs.

" 'It’s a mistake to treat sexual-orientation discrimination as exactly like racial discrimination — just as it’s a mistake to treat it as entirely dissimilar. But the underlying principle from Piggie Park holds in the case at hand: Freedom of speech and freedom of religion do not exempt business owners from public accommodations laws, which require them to serve customers equally. The Court should uphold the commission’s decision and rule against Phillips," Corvino concluded.

"If a religious belief is not sacrosanct in the eyes of the court, why should a political one be protected?" . . .

Highlights added by TD

Transgender boy wins girls’ state wrestling title for second time

Theorically going from girl to boy in this case.

NY Post

"CYPRESS, Texas — For the second year in a row, a transgender wrestler has won the Texas girls’ Class 6A 110-pound division.

"Mack Beggs, an 18-year-old senior from Euless Trinity High School near Dallas, entered the tournament in Cypress outside of Houston with an undefeated record. He beat Chelsea Sanchez — who he beat for the title in 2017 — in the final match Saturday.

SEE ALSO

Transgender boy booed, cheered after wrestling title he didn't want

"Video posted online showed a mix of cheers and boos from the crowd following Beggs’ win.

"Beggs is in the process of transitioning from female to male and taking a low-dose of testosterone.

"It was his steroid therapy treatments while wrestling girls that stirred a fierce debate about competitive fairness and transgender rights last season. It’s been a lot quieter since last year when his march to a state championship was dogged by a last-minute lawsuit that tried to stop him.

"Beggs had asked to wrestle in the boys’ division, but the rules for Texas public high schools require athletes to compete under the gender on their birth certificate.

"Beggs entered the state tournament with a 32-0 record, beating three female wrestlers on his way to the championship.

“ 'He has so much respect for all the girls he wrestles,” said Beggs’ mother, Angela McNew. “People think Mack has been beating up on girls … The girls he wrestles with, they are tough. It has more to do with skill and discipline than strength.” . . .

A must-read: The Politically Incorrect Guide® to Climate Change

Watts Up With That?  . . . "I particularly liked this bit of history, one I hadn’t read before.

---

"The world is running a fever, and the effects will be dire. As another commentator observed,

Snows are less frequent and less deep. They do not often lie, below the mountains, more than one, two or three days, and very rarely a week. They are remembered to have been formerly frequent, deep and of long continuance. The elderly inform me the earth used to be covered with snow about three months in every year. The rivers, which then seldom failed to freeze over in the course of the winter, scarcely ever do now. This change has produced an unfortunate fluctuation between heat and cold in the spring of the year which is very fatal to fruits.

"This same observer also noted,

“I remember that when I was a small boy, say 60 years ago, snows were frequent and deep in every winter.”

"Who said that? Al Gore? Leonardo DiCaprio? Nope. That’s Thomas Jefferson, in his 1799 book “Notes on the State of Virginia.”

---

"It just goes to show, that even before the industrial revolution started around 1850, before the world saw an invasion of big, bad, carbon belching machines, the climate was changing just like it always has. In today’s political climate, Thomas Jefferson would be labeled a “denier”."

. . . 

The left wants to talk only about guns, but that's not the problem

Dark Angel Politics

Silvio Canto, Jr.  "Have you tried talking to gun control advocates about school shootings?  Or the one down at the church near San Antonio, Texas?

"It's frustrating, because they are always singing the same song, from "we have too many guns" to "we should follow the example of Australia."

"Yes, we indeed have too many guns, but so what?  We have a right to those guns.  We also have too many cars, and no one wants to outlaw them when a drunk driver kills a family on the road.  We also have a lot of residential swimming pool deaths, and no one is calling to outlaw them.

"As for comparisons to Australia, let's remember what John Lott recently wrote:

Gun control advocates like to note that there has been no mass public shooting in Australia since the buyback.  But they are simply picking out a country that happens to "prove" what they want it to prove. 

European countries such as Belgium, France and the Netherlands have even stricter gun control laws than Australia does, but their mass public shooting rates are at least as high as those in the United States.

During the Obama administration, the per capita casualty rate from shootings in the European Union was actually 27 percent higher than the U.S. rate.

"I tried to bring these numbers to the attention of a gun control advocate, and he told me to stop citing studies paid for by the NRA.

"So how do you talk to an ideologue?  You can't!"

President Trump may finally move the ball forward, because he is talking about school security, or the one issue that cuts through ideology.

American Silliness; Feb 25, 2018

War on Men Week in Higher Education  "Imagine if the gender roles were reversed in any of these stories.

• Hamilton College students protest too many “white, upper class, able-bodied males” at campus pub
• Stanford Hosts ‘Women Only’ Training Hours to Promote Inclusivity
• Stanford Academic: Quest to Colonize Mars Driven by Patriarchy and Male Entitlement

Stanford Hosts ‘Women Only’ Training Hours to Promote Inclusivity

"Nothing says inclusiveness like being exclusive of certain other people, right?

"The Daily Caller reports: . . . 

“Everything was being used and all the testosterone in the air was super suffocating — the kind of culture you find in the gym, it feels very aggressive and not very welcoming,” said Camille Townshend, a Stanford student, when describing her first experience lifting weights (outside the women-only hours).

The old "muscle-privilege" rears it's ugly head again. 

Black student complaint about Black History Month menu gets black employees canned  . . . "However, in today’s environment, it’s not hard to imagine the head cook getting grief if he had denied the two (black) employees’ menu choice — that would be exercising “white privilege/supremacy”: “How do you know what menu is best for us?' ”  

Harvard Law Prof Wants to Lower Voting Age to 16 
The attraction to that is because the decision-making frontal lobe hasn't fully developed by age sixteen, so they would tend to be Democrats. TD

School cancels ‘Hunchback of Notre Dame’ due to white student getting lead role  "A New York high school has canceled a production of “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” after a student activist group complained about a white student being cast in a lead role.
"Students United’s letter conceded that the student cast as Esmeralda “is a stellar actor, singer, and dancer” and that any production would be “lucky to have her.”
"However, it added: “Our concern is not with her, but with the fact that in terms of demographics, she is the wrong choice for this role.”
Related:  Minnesota high school band: We’re only buying music by composers of color   Minnesota: The state that spawned the Wellstone Memorial.

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