Interested in an honest debate about the US involvement in Afghanistan, then head over to Civilian Casualties in Afghanistan: Germany’s Defense Minister Criticizes US Policy at the Atlantic Review. By the way, big props to my friends over there for having their article on Wolfowitz quoted in Slate. The farthest I’ve gotten is getting insulted on Gawker.

This is my first post in my new Blog, I had only intended to ask Kit if I could link to PBH, but he asked me to write as well. Kick ass for me. I love audiences. I’m cross posting ’cause fuck if I’m going to write it all again when Copy and Paste will do it for me. Not sure exactly what kind of content I’ll contribute here on PBH, but something will happen and it will all work out in the end. Either way, hello all. I’m the new guy.

I’ve finally launched my own private shouting booth. It was a long time coming, but I was able to rationalize my way out of embracing the vanity press since Live journal came on the scene. Truth be told I still don’t fully understand the “Blog” phenomenon, and the incessant need for folks to passively read other people’s opinions. Opinionated slants on anything don’t carry much weight with me. When too many opinions fall into the mix of any debate I think it dilutes the impact of the discussion and an issue can lose focus. Every time I see anything within the major news sphere that refers to blogs, bloggers, or the blogosphere as a credible and viable news alternative I want to stab someone, anyone, in the fucking eye.

The 2006 mid-term elections were hailed as an ushering in of a new era turned against the Bush administration and politics as usual, and statistically speaking, the 110th Congress is the most diverse in US history. Yet there remains a serious disparity between the demographics of the United States population and the demographics in the Congress, which will be explored below.

Over Representation

Males - As of the 2006 congress, 83.7% of the Congress is male, while the percentage of males of the voting age population (18 plus) is only 48.4. If this is further evaluated to include the over-representation of white males, the figure is even more staggering: 36.3% of the voting age population are white males, yet there are 79 White Male senators making up the Senate (79%).

So, did you hear they found a cure for cancer? This isn’t the start of a bad joke. This is actually real. But if it were the start of a bad joke, I’d say: “Yeah, you can cure it by having sex with a virgin who has cancer.” ZING!

Anyhow, Americorps is going pretty well. There are certainly bumps in the road, but the ride is smooth enough to manage. My team, but for a few exceptionally awesome people, is very definitely the Melvin team with the Melvin team leader for whom I harbor some underlying static.

The famous Israeli diplomat Abba Eban once quipped that “the Arabs never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity [for peace].” With Israel’s refusal to-date to accept the recently re-tabled Saudi Peace initiative offering Israel peace with the entire Arab World, it seems that it may be Israel this time that is guilty of Abban’s charge. For years there has been no substantive progress concerning the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. The Israeli position has been that there is no “viable” partner from the Palestinian side to negotiate with. It seems as though the tide has changed in dramatic fashion over the course of the past few months.

After the second Republican debate, we had the pleasure of reading a plethora of reviews of who did and didn’t do well. And none managed to do it as biased as Time, who put all the front runners (McCain, Guiliani, Romney) as their top 3 performers of the debate and classified Ron Paul as unelectable because he looks like Mr. Magoo. Check out the pictures below and notice the lack of mentioning of foreign policy or anything else worthwhile for the candidates, unless of course you consider comparisons to cartoon characters an objective part of political reporting:

The Article: If you didn’t get a big enough erection from Jerry Falwell dying or the 40th Anniversary of Fucked Up Religious Zealots Taking Over Jerusalem, then you can try this on for size: Christians to train in Israel advocacy by Michael Landon in the Jerusalem Post (also known as ‘if you’re Jewish and don’t believe in blowing the shit out of brown people in the Middle East, you probably are a Holocaust denying terrorist’).

The Text: As the American Jewish community debates the pros and cons of a growing relationship between Jews and Christian supporters of Israel, the courtship is quietly growing more intimate.

Courtesy of The Sun, we have our definitive proof that a woman getting spanked in the ass by a superhero is not misogny as previously argued. In Women are porn to be wild (I know, those British, so fucking creative and snarky!), James Clothier reveals that woman actually fantasize about being spanked:

WO thirds of women fantasise about having group sex and a quarter dream of starring in a PORN film, says a poll.

One in five admit they like the idea of LESBIAN romps — with 13 per cent thinking of their female mates during nookie.

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The Article: The Thunderbolt: Judi Guiliani’s Run for First Lady by Lloyd Grove. If you’re interested in becoming a power-hungry, manipulative gold digger, learn from the best!

The Text: If everything works out, it may be the last great political deal brokered in a smoke-filled room. On a balmy June night in 1999, Judith Nathan was having a drink at Club Macanudo, a cigar bar on East 63rd Street. Her companion was Dr. Burt Meyers, an infectious-disease specialist at Mount Sinai hospital and one of the many physicians she had befriended as a hospital sales rep for Bristol-Myers Squibb. Nathan, then 44, was at ease amid the upmarket manliness, a woman of the world among many middle-aged men of the world, including, that night, the mayor of the City of New York, Rudolph Giuliani.