Chris Christie, hard-charging 2016 presidential candidate, has hit a historic polling low in his own state. His favorable rating is now down to 37% – down 7 points in the last two months. His approval number is at 42% – down six points since December. At this point he made need to start closing down bridges to raise his numbers.
Great, detailed piece on Ron Dermer, the guy at the center of the unprecedented US-Israel rift.
Back in December, Whitney Mallet wrote a provocative piece reminding us that despite the mainstreaming of S&M kicked off by 50 Shades of Grey, we’re still threatened by the way it makes uneven power relations explicit. Seems particularly relevant amid this 50 Shades-branded media blitz, complete with black vibrators at Walmart, all pegged to its cinematic debut tonight.
Coming off this week’s shooting in Chapel Hill (which may or may not have been tied to anti-Muslim sentiment) here is a fascinating story about the effort of South Carolina’s small Muslim community to petition for equal rights in the 1780s. There’s even a cameo from Charles Pinckney, one of the (today) lesser known members of the founding generation. Fascinating story.
Congressman who told his communications director that she had semen on her skirt and that she “could show her nipples whenever she wanted to” provides formal response to sexual harassment claims.
Rep. Farenthold seems off to a smashing start with his counter-claim to the suggestion that he gave his communications director a standing invitation to show him her nipples. “There was an occasion in which Plaintiff reported to work in a shirt and bra that were made of such flimsy fabric that Plaintiff’s nipples were visible, and that such attire was inappropriate for the Communications Director for a Member of Congress.”
My friend Jen Senior remembers David Carr before he became David Carr.
The FAA has finally released its proposed guidelines and rules for the routine use of commercial drones in US skies.
Don’t miss our longform piece from last year (sub req) on the fascinating, weird and occasionally spooky issues the FAA has been forced to consider in devising these policies.
From The Forward …
Several weeks ago, a group of pro-Israel, pro-peace Danish Jews and non-Jews and Iranian dissidents had to be driven away in buses from their rally because the police couldn’t guarantee their security, due to increasing threats from young Muslims who were clustering in ever-louder and more violent groups nearby and even driving past in their cars shouting anti-Semitic slogans and waving Hamas flags. An eyewitness filmed several young men shouting “Fucking Jews” at the rally participants.
A friend of mine pointed me to this column by Bill Kristol. I don’t get much chance to read the Standard. I would have missed this otherwise. It is an amazing, short piece of writing for its emotional heat, its historical grandiosity and what can only be called its denigrating, fulminating rage toward Barack Obama, the President of the United States. Kristol contrasts Obama, as a lifelong loafer, to Netanyahu, a lifelong warrior. (Netanyahu did serve in one of Israel’s most elite commando units. But unlike Rabin, Sharon, Barak, Mofaz et al., he is a career politician, not a career soldier.) “As a young man, he was fighting terror while Barack Obama was fighting boredom. As an adult, while Obama was community-organizing his way to the presidency, Netanyahu was a participant in the civilizational struggle in which both Israel and the United States, as leaders of the West, are engaged.”