Wait, is that an image of John Evrett Millais’ Ophelia that we’ve posted in announcing the arrest of Rupert Murdoch lackey Rebekah Brooks? Our bad. We thought it was portrait of the former News of the World editor relaxing at the local hot-springs. We certainly didn’t mean to imply that Ms. Brooks should bring any harm to herself now that it is becoming clearer by the day that she headed up what can only be described as a criminal enterprise in journalistic guise. And at any rate, it would certainly be premature for the henchwoman to drown herself while the criminal mastermind still walks the earth. And we suspect he will, for some time yet. As long as somebody, somewhere, is still practicing honest journalism, as long as an independent newspaper still rolls off the presses, Murdoch’s voracious appetites will remain unsated.

And when Rupert Murdoch saw the breadth of his domain, he wept, for there were no proud journalistic institutions left to debase and destroy.

Title: “Of Thee I Zing: America’s Cultural Decline from Muffin Tops to Body Shots”

Authors: Laura Ingraham and Raymond Arroyo

Rank: 48

Blurb: “While Laura Ingraham was walking through a Northern Virginia shopping mall one Saturday afternoon, it all became clear to her. Everywhere she turned, she saw signs of the impending disaster: zombie teens texting each other across a café table; a man having his eyebrows threaded at a kiosk; a fiftyish woman shoe-horned into a tube top and skinny jeans; and a storefront ad featuring a Victoria’s Secret model spilling out of her push-up bra and into the faces of young passersby.”

Review: “Watch any old movie from the 30’s, 40’s or 50’s and everyone is wearing dresses, suits, ties, etc. Very few flip-flops, tank tops and tattoo’s. And we are getting numb to vulgarity.”

Customers Also Bought: “After America: Get Ready for Armageddon”, by Mark Steyn

Footnote: Speaking from experience, we’re inclined to agree: Life was better before AM radio was polluted by the likes of Laura Ingraham.

Of Thee I Zing [Fuck Amazon]

In yet another victory for the plutocracy that controls both political parties, President Barack Obama has decided not to back Elizabeth Warren as director of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which opens on Thursday, according to sources who were briefed on the subject.  Warren is reviled by Wall Street and Republicans for having the audacity of speaking up for the little people getting shafted by shady mortgages and credit card companies, and for her ability to speak cogently to people across the country.  The bankruptcy and tax law professor at Harvard has been a longtime advocate of consumers’ rights, and was the person who conceived of and led the creation of the new bureau.

[Bloomberg]

“We’ve been down this road before, and Republicans will not go down it again. In 1990, Congress and the President struck a deficit reduction deal that combined spending cuts with tax increases. Unfortunately, while the tax hikes remained, the spending restraint did not, and our debt has only marched higher.”

–Republican Senator, Orrin Hatch

Apparently, being a Republican means you can re-write history any which way you please, and not be called out on it. This morning, as I watched CNN, the 24 Hour News network ran a segment on President Obama’s call for a debt limit/long term budget compromise position that would involve spending cuts and tax increases at a ratio of about 5 to 1. CNN then quoted Hatch above, but for some reason saw no need to point out that Hatch’s statement is a bald faced lie, seemingly suggesting that the Clinton era tax increases (which left the nation with a $200+ billion surplus when the Democratic president left office) are still with us today, when in fact they were undone by his Republican successor, President Bush, who pushed through massive tax cuts that immediately plunged the nation into deficit. Hatch is correct that massive spending increases also followed, but conveniently fails to note that the spending increases, too,  were the result of Republican policies, such as unnecessary wars and a poorly conceived prescription drug benefit for seniors that was not balanced by either tax increases or spending cuts and which specifically excluded the government from using its purchasing power to negotiate better drug prices.

In honor of Carmageddon, we thought we’d revive our favorite movie about the 405. Which is also, as far as we know, the only movie about the 405.

Carmageddon could result in 20-mile back-up on 405 [LAT]

Now that Rebekah Brooks has resigned, we here at Stinque can better concentrate on the issue that has kept us wondering throughout this developing scandal which has already engulfed one of Britain’s most venerable institutions and looks set to engulf more, namely — Who Does Her Hair?

As the women of Stinque (and some Stinque men: you know who you are) can attest, a do like that does not come cheap. Though it looks like she just jumped out of the shower, scrobbled it quickly with a towel before running for a bus, such a coiffure can only be achieved after significant spendy-time in a Knightsbridge salon listening to cockney stylists whining about their boyfriends. Or even worse, taking the morning train to Paris so the only colorist who can really pull off that particular tone of hebridean ginge can breathe stale garlic fumes all over one’s tuck box from Fauchon.

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Christianity Today recently interviewed a well known conservative personality and author about her personal views and her latest book. Can you guess who this person is, based solely on the following exchange?

Cristianity Today: In your book, you described premarital sex as a sin. Do you worry that by calling it a sin, it might distract non-Christians?

Mystery Author: You know, it might, but for me I do think of it as a sin. And, if that distracts other readers then I’m sorry, but that’s what I believe.

Is the author in question:

A) Dr. Laura Schelssinger
B) Bristol Palin
C) Ann Coulter
D) Christine O’Donnell

Click the “Read more” link to see the answer.

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