In The Shadow Of Mt Hollywood

I've been following the news releases on the Walter Reed National Medical Center terminating its contract with Holy Name College, a community of Franciscan priests and brothers that had provided pastoral care to service members and veterans there for nearly two decades. Frankly, most of the accounts seem to leave important information out. The most complete is the news release from the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA . I also found the Archdiocese's statement of its mission very helpful. It says in part: The Archdiocese serves as the sole endorser (certifier) of Roman Catholic chaplains to the United States government. A Roman Catholic priest cannot serve within the United States Military as a priest without the express permission of the Archdiocese. . . . The Archdiocese is the sole endorser of chaplains for the Veterans Administration hospitals. In 2008, 242 priests were endorsed for service in the Veterans Administration. . . . Unlike a conve...

Ann Coulter this past week: The endless stream of preposterous charges against Trump only helped him. So why not launch another ridiculous accusation to help him get the nomination? That’s exactly what they did in last year’s GOP primaries, supporting Trump’s nut-bar candidates, knowing they would go on to lose the general election. By boosting Trump’s candidates, Democrats managed to pull out a historic midterm victory for Biden. And now, they’re doing it again, trying to trick Republicans into choosing the worst possible presidential nominee. Guess what? It’s working! New GOP motto: unable to learn from the third kick of a mule. In response to Trump’s arraignment on Tuesday, all conservative media swept aside news of out-of-control crime, chaos at the border, fentanyl overdoses and the looming recession. Their No. 1 job became: SAVE TRUMP! A major conservative talk radio host even suggested DeSantis stand down and endorse Trump. In this case, Ms Coulter is echoing William Ba...

Ever since my colleague Phil began piping up with the question, "What problem are we trying to solve?" in staff meetings at a very stodgy company 30 years ago, this has been one of my favorite analytical tools. I'm sorry to say this never helped Phil's career, though. Indeed, if I were still attending staff meetings, I'd probably have the good sense not to ask it myself. But it's still a useful question. Let's apply it to Dylan Mulvaney, whose latest endorsement is with Nike: Transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney has secured another major partnership deal, days after Bud Light was criticized for partnering with her. Mulvaney, an actor and comedian who has been documenting her transition across social media, is now a sports bra model for Nike. It comes after Bud Light partnered with Mulvaney for her Day 365 Of Girlhood video series. The beer brand was met with scorn and calls for a boycott from furious social media users. Actually, there might be some...

I noted yesterday that Alissa Heinerscheid comes from a wealthy family, but it's worth pointing out that, at least back in the day, wealthy people used to hire public relations firms to keep them out of the news, not in it. If Elon Musk is any indication, that's no longer the case, and it's certainly not the case with Ms Heinerscheid. I linked yesterday to a story about her in her pre-Bud Light days that ran in the New Yorker in 2021 , which was likely placed by either a publicist or by Ms Heiderscheid herself. At the top of her LinkedIn profile is a plug for that piece, with this comment: Childhood dream of being featured in the New Yorker achieved. Thank you Lizzie Widdicombe! I've got to say that there must be something wrong with me, as my own childhood dreams were more like being a cowboy or a firefighter. If I'd had childhood dreams of being featured in the New Yorker, maybe things would have turned out differently for me. But whether she placed hersel...

One of the few news stories to hold its own against the Trump indictment over the last several days has been Bud Light's advertising endorsement of TikTok trans entertainer Dylan Mulvaney : The trans activist revealed Saturday that the beer company sent packs of Bud Light featuring the influencer’s face as a way to celebrate a full year of "girlhood" that Mulvaney recently reached. Mulvaney said the cans were her "most prized possession" on Instagram with a post featuring "#budlightpartner." A video then featured Mulvaney in a bathtub drinking a Bud Light beer as part of the campaign. This story supports two of the points I've been making lately, first, that the traditional Ivy League upper class has allied itself with the special-pleading sexual fringe (as well as the urban petty criminal class, but that's a separate subject), and second, that transsexualism is so outside natural law that almost nobody actually wants to have sex with a t...

In 2021, I thought Bill Clinton was a pretty good Br'er Rabbit . How wrong I could be. Among yesterday's headlines was, Trump’s Legal “Super Tuesday”: The Trump Arrest Will Start One Of The Most Bizarre Presidential Elections In History. Prof Turley's implication in that piece is that Trump has got the 2024 primary process wrapped up a full year ahead of time, and of course, this is courtesy of his enemies, or more accurately, an unreliable and out-of-control faction of his enemies, the Lumpenproletariat represented by leniency-for-criminals District Attorney Bragg. The New York political establishment is belatedly waking up to what it's done. Acting New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan rejected pleas for extended coverage by multiple media outlets — including the New York Times, CNN, the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post — ahead of Trump’s first court appearance after they declared “this indictment involves a matter of monumental signific...

Yesterday, Mr Barr continued to speak on interview shows on Trump's legal issues. On Fox News, he said, In a Sunday interview with Fox News' Shannon Bream, Barr was asked whether Trump would personally defend himself in court if his indictment went to trial. "I'm not his lawyer, generally I think it's a bad idea to go on the stand," Barr replied. "And I think it's a particularly bad idea for Trump because he lacks all self-control, and it would be very difficult to prepare him and keep him testifying in a prudent fashion." Here I think Barr is seriously missing the point. Trump has a public persona to be sure, and part of it is his irrepressible naughty-boy image. But it's a persona, and it's part of his appeal to a broad swath of the public. Take the famous example of the Access Hollywood tape , which culminated in remarks he made about Arianne Zucker, whom he and Billy Bush were waiting to meet in a 2005 studio visit: I better us...