October 7, 2017

"What could you say to have Judi Dench have your name stenciled on her ass?"



From a Maureen Dowd "Style" piece in the NYT last month called "Queen! Bow Down to Tattoo-Flashing Octogenarian Dame Dench":
Most memorably, she etched a message on her “bum” that said, “JD loves HW,” with a heart with an arrow through it, in gratitude to Harvey Weinstein for making her a movie star in “Mrs. Brown,” “Chocolat,” “Iris,” “Shakespeare in Love” and other films, after she had been starring in a sitcom with her husband in England.

As a young actress, she said, someone told her she would never make it in movies because “you have everything wrong with your face.”

“I’d like to know where that idiot is working now,” Mr. Weinstein tells me. “Probably for Breitbart.”

Ms. Dench pulled down her pants and flashed the tattoo at Mr. Weinstein at a celebrity lunch she arranged at the Four Seasons in 2002 with Mike Nichols, Nora Ephron, Carly Simon and others, and again at the BAFTA awards when Mr. Weinstein asked Ms. Dench to show his gift to a skeptical Oprah Winfrey at Royal Albert Hall.

“I walked in and I saw Harvey, and I said, ‘Hello, Harvey,’ and I dropped my pants down,” Ms. Dench recalls gleefully.

Ms. Winfrey, Mr. Weinstein recalls, “turned into a 12-year-old squealing girl” after Ms. Dench told her, “I hear you’ve been doubting my love for Harvey?” as she unzipped her pants.
Ugh. So much for queenliness and bowing down. How does the subordination of women happen? I dropped my pants, Dench recalled gleefully....

Since Weinstein mentioned Breitbart, I will link to "‘Your Silence Is Deafening’: Oscar-Winning Actresses Who Worked with Harvey Weinstein Stay Quiet on Sexual Harassment Claims" (at Breitbart):
While a number of female celebrities have spoken out since the allegations broke, including actresses Amber Tamblyn, Lena Dunham, and Brie Larson, several A-list stars who worked with Weinstein on Oscar-winning films have remained silent, including Nicole Kidman, Meryl Streep, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Winslet, Cate Blanchett, Anna Paquin, Renee Zelwegger, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Judi Dench, and Penelope Cruz.

139 comments:

Yancey Ward said...

It is amazing the ways in which one can degrade themselves in public.

robother said...

Uhhh, if this is Judy Dench remaining silent, I'd hate to hear her when she cuts loose.

Yancey Ward said...

But isn't the more interesting question this- what would Weinstein have to do for one to get the tattoo removed?

tcrosse said...

"fools' names, like fools' faces, are often seen in public places"

David Begley said...

Obligatory silence is complicity comment.

Bilwick said...

Harvey has "Der Staat" tattooed on his butt.

Diogenes of Sinope said...

Maybe Harvey Weinstein's behavior is normal and commonplace in the entertainment industry. Sure would explain Hollywood's perverse views on most issues.

Diogenes of Sinope said...

Harvey Weinstein is one of the alpha dogs in the Hollywood pack and he can make you a multimillionaire.

rhhardin said...

It might be poetic concealment. The war of men and women leaves lots of room outside of feminism. Feminism is a strategy within that war for humorless women.

Diogenes of Sinope said...

The real question is how many Hollywood asses have Harvey Weinstein tattoos?

rhhardin said...

You need an alpha dog whistle.

rhhardin said...

Dignity is about watching out for banana peels.

Paddy O said...

Everyone is implicated. The whole entertainment business is built on enabling and exploitation.

It's a sex cult with artistic expressions.

It's a religion with bishops, priests, and supplicants, a moral code, and rules of worship.

Which is fine, most people made choices, they chose to find their identity in the terms HW offered. The trouble comes in how this cult also assumes to be a moral guide in responding to cultural issues. The religion serves the religion, and they're not so much hypocrites as deceptive evangelists trying to rationalize their own beliefs and seduce others into their fold.

Paddy O said...

Judi Dench certain knew his reputation, but she chose to accept his reality for the sake of her own ambition and power. Sad!

Which doesn't again rule out any artistic contributions, more that it undermines any moralizing.

So everyone wins.

Pinandpuller said...

Bureau of Alcohol Firearms Tits and Ass.

Pinandpuller said...

Dear Harvey,

If you can read this I'm too drunk to consent.

buwaya said...

Roman law and custom held that certain professions and livelihoods, such as being prostitutes, actors, and gladiators, carried with them infamia, a loss of legal standing and social status. The professions themselves were not illegal, but their practitioners were held to be too immoral to benefit from many of the rights of citizenship.

This was continued, more weakly, and mostly as a custom, in Western Civ until recently. But its gone now.

robother said...

Judi and the other mum's the word gals must've answered their casting calls on that Romantically Reverberating Casting Couch.

Laslo Spatula said...

Harvey made Dench feel like one of The Young Girls.

She was -- finally -- the Center of Attention, and he made it happen: she got her Princess Moment.

All the Lights shining were for her.

Makes it easy not to look in the shadows.

I am Laslo.



YoungHegelian said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
buwaya said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Bill said...

Ms. Winfrey, Mr. Weinstein recalls, “turned into a 12-year-old squealing girl”

I've heard that squeal more times than I care to remember, and it's insufferable.

Etienne said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Trumpit said...

Nine recent posts of yours, that I skipped, about some rich guy I've never heard of before, namely Harvey Weinstein. I took one look at his ugly mug, and myself told me to not read about him and why he is in the news. I'd rather read about Justin Bieber's most recent tattoo, or hope for another hurricane to do the first stage of urban renewal, i.e., demolition.

YoungHegelian said...

@Etienne,

Vous etes sage, mon ami. Merci une mille fois.

And, yes, in all of the reasons that Hollywood had for sweeping HW under the rug, there was no doubt power, money, influence, fear, & many other reasons. One of them, no doubt, this being Hollywood, was that he was a member of The Tribe.

I'm gonna let other people drill down on that topic, & not touch it. But, as my "schanda" comment in the Lisa Bloom thread indicates, there needs to be some real soul-searching over this.

buwaya said...

Roman custom, and perhaps in law also, had a way out of infamia. For women it constituted taking up an honorable livelihood for a certain time, I think it may have had to be spinning (wool), but this seems uncertain.

eddie willers said...

There are things I just do not want to know. But with no spoiler warning by Althouse, I now know that Judi Dench is a bubble headed bimbo and not the Queen of England.

Sad.

Humperdink said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Otto said...

Did he rape anyone? Did he fondle anyone?Did he do bodily harm to anyone? What happen to the strong women? What happen to feminism where women=man. Why didn't those women beat the shit out of the fat pervert ? Guaranteed a lot of those silent gals slept voluntarily with the fat slob. BTW this story is as old as the a film industry itself. So much for "i am women , hear me roar".

Laslo Spatula said...

“The 25 Sexiest (Famous) Girls with Tattoos

Judi Dench isn't on the list. But Helen Mirren is.

Jessica Alba, sadly, has a tramp stamp of a poorly drawn green bow.

Scarlett Johansson has a poorly done 'Lucky You' on her rib cage.

Can't these actresses afford better tattoo artists?

I am Laslo.

Kate said...

The first time I became aware of Judi Dench was in Branagh's Henry V. She's sitting on the inn staircase telling of the death of Falstaff, and Branagh sets the camera up in a long shot and slowly dollies in for a closeup, all in one take. I thought, Wow. I'm watching one of the great screen actresses. I've been a fan ever since.

I never thought about her ass before this moment, and I hope I never think about it again.

Paul McKaskle said...

As to what Judi Dench's husband thought she was a widow by the time Mrs. Brown was filmed.

Breezy said...

He had everyone wrapt with that yarn about Judi Dench and his initials. Quite the product placement.

Laslo Spatula said...

I bet Harvey Weinstein called these actresses his Very Special Ladies.

Cate Blanchett? She's my Very Special Lady.

Renee Zelwegger? She's my Very Special Lady.

Judi Dench? She's my Very Special Lady.

Like that.

I am Laslo.

rehajm said...

How does the subordination of women happen?

Voluntarily.

rehajm said...

Look for Dame Judi Dench on the next season of Tattoo Fixers along with all the drunks from Magaluf who got their dicks tattooed.

tcrosse said...

On her back is the Battle of Waterloo,
Above it the Wreck of the Hesperus, too,
While proudly above waves the Red White and Blue....

Big Mike said...

rehajm's comment at 3:40 needs to be enshrined in the Althouse comments Hall of Fame.

n.n said...

So damn sophisticated...

Was this before, during, or after celebrating Planned Parenthood serving one million babies, poached, over easy, sunny side up, inside out, with or without her head, heart, liver, and all those other color (i.e. diverse) parts?

YoungHegelian said...

I've tried many times to watch the Graham Norton show because I stumble across it looking for Star Trek franchise reruns on BBC America. There's something about Norton, who actually seems to be a decent enough guy, that just makes me want to reach my hand into the "telly" & smack him. I'm not even sure what it is, but it sure is there.

Oh well, another tidbit to throw into the "Blezz me, Foddah, fur I have zhinned" file.

Jim at said...

And these are the people who call the rest of us stupid because we don't agree with their political advice.

Up truly is down with these fools.

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

The professions themselves were not illegal, but their practitioners were held to be too immoral to benefit from many of the rights of citizenship.

This was continued, more weakly, and mostly as a custom, in Western Civ until recently. But its gone now.

10/7/17, 2:37 PM

Actors were declasse and believed to be morally suspect until, really, the advent of Hollywood. "A Long Days Journey into Night" is set in 1912 and is based on Eugene O'Neill's real-life family. The lace curtain Irish mother in the play remembers that when she married matinee idol James Tyrone (James O'Neill), she was shunned by her respectable friends.

I saw the play when I was 16 and was puzzled as to why a woman married to a famous and successful actor would be ostracized. My friends would all be jealous.

wild chicken said...

Haha, joan rivers called from purgatory to say grow up. They all blew their way up, the boys too. If you don't want that kind of life, you go back to Salt Lake and live a decent life.

n.n said...

Well, now we know why humanitarian pornographers are invited to the cock-tail parties.

The social progress of female chauvinists deserves a Slut Walk of the diverse women, girls, and babies they have subordinated to their cause.

Jim at said...

"Nine recent posts of yours, that I skipped, about some rich guy I've never heard of before, namely Harvey Weinstein."

1. Bullshit. You're a leftist. He was one of your biggest donors. You knew of him.

2. He is joined at the hip - and probably several other body parts - to the people you admire ... from Bill and Hillary Clinton to Michelle and Barack Obama.

He is a piece of shit. And he's all yours on the left.
Own it.

EMyrt said...

I first became aware of Judi Dench in 1960.
She played Catherine of France in the BBC cycle of Shakespeare history plays, An Age of Kings.
She looked like a frog then (a radiant, attractive frog).
She still does.

n.n said...

something about Norton, who actually seems to be a decent enough guy

Norton gives a who? Bad cross-franchise joke.

Achilles said...

Interesting that all of this sleaze and hypocrisy is being aired out now. If they aren't careful then some useful leftists are going to join HW on the walk of shame. It seems leftist males have a pattern of abuse of females. I bet this would go on forever if the media didn't cover for it.

The casting couch was ubiquitous. There are far more female stars that auditioned on the couch than there are ones that didn't.

And you know most of those women are pretending talent made them what they are.

Achilles said...

Were there similar requirements of the male stars to perform on the couch?

Jupiter said...

robother said...
"Judi and the other mum's the word gals must've answered their casting calls on that Romantically Reverberating Casting Couch."

A gentleman doesn't kiss and tell. But I guess that doesn't apply to ladies.

mockturtle said...

Light years ago I first saw Judi Dench in a PBS series called, IIRC, "Talking to a Stranger", and was awed by her young talent. She is still an excellent actress but her political views, like those of most of her profession, turn me away from movies altogether. Like the NFL, the are fouling their own nests.

Darrell said...

I bet Judi Dench tells the story as "Hiram Walker" from this point going forward. Booze is better than Harvey anyway.

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

“I’d like to know where that idiot is working now,” Mr. Weinstein tells me. “Probably for Breitbart.”


What amuses me is that Breitbart has become the new bugaboo for liberals who welcome a change after wailing about "Faux News" all these years. That was inevitable, I guess, because of Bannon. Liberals talk about it like it is Stormfront; how many have actually read it. My cousin recently snapped at me "You should write for Breitbart." I said, "I'd love to, what a great job that would be. Have you ever visited the site?" Well, no because it's alt-right and anti-Semitic, and he knows that because Rachel Maddow told him so.

Ralph L said...

Her correct appellation is Dame Judy, not Dame Dench, which sounds horrible.

Has anyone alleged she actually had sex with the creep when she didn't want to (and who would) or felt pressured?

Z said...

I yearn for people with class.....yearn for it.

As for Breitbart, I loved Andrew and he'd be no fan of this Breitbart now, believe me.

TWW said...

Please don't?

Russtovich said...

"So much for 'I am woman , hear me roar'."

More like;

I am woman, hear me whore.

rcocean said...

"Dignity. Always dignity."

I wonder why Judy just didn't give him a public blow job?



rcocean said...

Oprah really would've squealed after that act.

BTW, isn't Oprah worth like a $$$Billion? She doesn't owe Weinstein anything.

rcocean said...

Gotta give Harvey Weinstein credit though. He cleaned up his language for the Ladies. Usually, he would've called them Cunts and thrown in 6 fucks and 2 shits.

And thats in the first sentence.

Ralph L said...

Althouse must have had the hots (or the reverse) for Weinstein to cover his gutterdammerung so thoroughly.

William said...

I don't think Queen Victoria would ever consider having a tattoo of Prince Albert inscribed on her butt, nor flashing such a tattoo at court functions. Perhaps this aspect of Judi Dench gave more depth and shade to her portrayal of Queen Victoria. Or maybe not. On the face of it, this is one the most spectacularly awful decisions of all time. This is why it pays to be a liberal. None of the late nite comics will make cruel jokes at her expense. No interviewer will ever question her about this while she's out plugging her movie..........Also, this story may rebound to Harvey's favor. Some of them are now dead, but those are some potent names dropped in the article. Who wants to alienate Harvey and his circle of friends. Far better to zip it about that unpleasant episode.

Trumpit said...

"He is a piece of shit. And he's all yours on the left.
Own it."

I agree with the first sentence, but not the other two.
Being the good liberal that I am, I would tax all these billionaires down to size to pay for something call the the federal, state and local governments. You Republican Hoosiers think you, too, will become a billionaire some day, so you don't want the rich to pay their fair share. Get on your knees and blow Trump and Harvey Weinstein. Your doing it now with the people you put in office.

tim in vermont said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
rcocean said...

"Althouse must have had the hots (or the reverse) for Weinstein to cover his gutterdammerung so thoroughly."

Yeah, and you must have the Hots (or the reverse) for Althouse, since you post here so often.

Myself, i welcome the chance to comment on this cockroach who's been exposed to the light. But let me guess, you love Harvey and have his name tattooed on your rear end. Or you're just a butt hurt liberal.

rcocean said...

"Willingness to give a blow job shows commitment to your craft."

Yeah, maybe Judy has already give Harvey Pervstein his share of private blow jobs, so the butt tattoo was something special.

tim in vermont said...

Huge Democrat donor and power broker, Bill Clinton clone, gets exposed and Trumpet the troll thinks we should talk about something else.

MayBee said...

I love Graham Norton. I love his show. I loved his coverage of EuroVision.

JMW Turner said...

The Romans had the right take on the normals relations with the creative class. The creatives have a fetish with defying "conventional" morality and social mores. The normals need entertainment. Therefore, normal society will ignore childish narsistic behaviour and the terribly out of whack rewards of the market that creatives enjoy. In turn, for those privileges, the normals want these opinionated, moralizing jerks to shut the f**k up and stay in their golden ghetto.

walter said...

In Hollyweird, "branding" is important.

Bad Lieutenant said...

And, yes, in all of the reasons that Hollywood had for sweeping HW under the rug, there was no doubt power, money, influence, fear, & many other reasons. One of them, no doubt, this being Hollywood, was that he was a member of The Tribe.

I'm gonna let other people drill down on that topic, & not touch it. But, as my "schanda" comment in the Lisa Bloom thread indicates, there needs to be some real soul-searching over this.

YH, this is difficult to understand, a bit. Roger Ailes seems a very like case and is not Jewish.

I don't, can't, object to the individual wickedness of individual wicked people being pointed out, even if they are my co-religionists. I just don't see how you tar all with the same brush. I have none of this power that "the Tribe" has. Where do I apply?

fivewheels said...

I'm not really a denizen of the Internet Right, so I've never been a Breitbart reader. I probably hadn't even heard of them when they came to prominence suddenly (for me), as the Democratic Party along with everyone in the news media rose up as one to decry those idiot lying scandal mongers for daring to publish a story so stupid, so outlandish, so patently false ... they actually claimed that Anthony Weiner was some kind of weirdo who sent dick pics to rando women. Can you believe it? They're certainly not credible journalists like they have at NBC News or 60 Minutes or Rolling Stone.

Nicolas Darkwater said...

Are you saying that Harvey came on to Lena Dunham? Man, he really is a pig.

Laslo Spatula said...

"...several A-list stars who worked with Weinstein on Oscar-winning films have remained silent, including Nicole Kidman, Meryl Streep, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Winslet, Cate Blanchett, Anna Paquin, Renee Zelwegger, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Judi Dench, and Penelope Cruz."

No one wants to admit to giving Harvey a rim-job.

I am Laslo.

Nicolas Darkwater said...

Are you saying that Harvey came on to Lena Dunham? Man, he really is a pig.

Ralph L said...

you must have the Hots (or the reverse) for Althouse, since you post here so often.
I've been gone for 4 years, so I'm making up for lost time. And I'm unemployed.
I don't remember Althouse concentrating on a single person in such a short time in the previous 7 years of so. Do you?
Never heard of this creep IIRC until this week.

Laslo Spatula said...

"Amber Tamblyn, Lena Dunham, and Brie Larson... ...Nicole Kidman, Meryl Streep, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Winslet, Cate Blanchett, Anna Paquin, Renee Zelwegger, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Judi Dench, and Penelope Cruz."

I notice there are no black actresses on this list.

Denied opportunity, really.

I am Laslo.

Otto said...

@BL Sin and evil is a human condition including the tribe and women. God is no respecter of persons.

jeff said...

"I would tax all these billionaires down to size..." And this is somehow their "fair share"? And of course this would have zero unintentional consequences. After all, its all the governments money, right? And fair share is ever thing more than you make.

Laslo Spatula said...

Regarding Harvey's showers:

If you're an actress having to give Harvey a rim-job you'd probably want him right after a shower.

He was being considerate. Harvey doesn't want to see the poor girl throw up corn.
o
I am Laslo.

YoungHegelian said...

@BL,

I don't, can't, object to the individual wickedness of individual wicked people being pointed out, even if they are my co-religionists. I just don't see how you tar all with the same brush.

Who's saying that gentiles can't be sexual jerks (JFK was a much bigger bastard than HW in my book)? And I'm certainly not tarring "all Jews".

But, Hollywood is, like the diamond trade, a business where a large fraction of the major players are Jewish. They're not Jewish like the old movie moguls, who at least paid lip service to the Old Faith, however much they scorned it in private. These are out & out secular, liberal Jews. As I pointed out in an earlier posting on HW, what's conspicuous by its absence is HW turning to a rabbi in his time of crisis.

I think it's naive to think that somehow the culture of secular & liberal Jewishness is not involved in the moral mess that is modern Hollywood. I can get into cases about that if you'd like. I also think that I could get a chorus of agreement from observant Jews of many stripes that when Jews fall away from the Torah & try to make up their morality as they go along, a morally failed culture like HW & Hollywood will always be the end result.

walter said...

"Harvey doesn't want to see the poor girl throw up corn."
or caviar..
But making them watch is just cruel.

traditionalguy said...

So Dench liked Harvey. He is probably very likeable. But let's kill him anyway.

Fritz said...

If it's not on video, it didn't happen.

eric said...

Once again, Trump was right.

You can just walk up to them and grab them by the bleep.

n.n said...

This post is begging for a "No Judgment" tag.

Michael K said...

Who knew that casting couches needed safety rails?

Big Mike said...

It's going to be tough to watch "Shakespeare in Love" next time they run it on HBO, knowing what "her majesty" has tattooed on her butt.

rehajm said...

Yahoo! embarrassingly reveals where they kneel in all of this.

Trumpit said...

@YoungHegelian,

Thank you for providing the thoughtful anti-Semitic comment that we were all holding our breaths for. You enliven and enlighten us all with your glorious Jew-baiting. You have all of the s(l)ick traits of someone like Harvey Weinstein, but you lack his money and power. You are the epitome of evil, but you've got no functioning putz to power your diabolical plans. That's a blessing.

David53 said...

Bond would not approve.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Leftists acting offended by "grab em by the pussy" was so much hypocrisy.

chickelit said...

What disgusting person, Judy Dench. I'll never watch her stuff the same way again.

narciso said...

It makes me less upset about her death in skyfall, speaking of hagiography, John guys reconstruction of the real record of the warrior queen.

Bix Cvvv said...

Ann - thanks for covering this. I know I am not important to anybody - if you saw me in a shopping mall, or at a beach, you might wonder why someone so unattractive thinks they have a right to be at a place that was built for beautiful people - but I know what is just, and what is not just. I have 5 quickly stated reasons for being grateful for your observations on the alleged nastiness of Mr Weinstein, Ann - (1) as an unattractive male, I spent 40 years of life not getting promotions and benefits and 'mentorships' and recommendations in work that went to attractive females, because they were pretty, and I was not, and the subject of discrimination and harassment based on looks and under the table sexual favors, and the subject of what happens when the requested favors are denied, while it might be something that I personally no longer care about (forgiveness is a real thing) it is still something which I recognize is important (2) I like movies, and am offended that, even in this small part of the world - just movies, for Gods sakes, it is not like that is eternal poetry, just something I thought might be interesting - in one of the few areas of life where I am treated as a respected customer - even in that small part of the world, dirty-minded people deprived me of good performances because the actresses who would have done a good job did not get the job because of the producer's lust (3) I have known for half a century that the dirtbag aspects of so many people (Dylan's close friend, your beloved John Lennon, the wife-beater, for example, and most famous Kennedys, the sexual predators, for a start) - have been swept under the rug: while that is a good thing, in a way, signifying forgiveness, which is something we all need; it is also a bad thing, in another way, when the Bills (put some ice on that) and Hillarys (my friends like Carville say that Bill's victims could be found by passing around some 20s in trailer parks) and the Michelle Obamas, bless her angry little heart, of the world insult good women for not supporting the sexual predators and their defenders (4) I am still very convinced that the anti-conservative Hollywood Blacklist of the 1980s and 1990s (hello Gwyneth's beloved dad, who was as nasty as Joe McCarthy) is the most censored story in movie history and (5) you seem like a nice person, Ann, for a liberal constitutional law professor (I have known a few - they are 'nice', generally, but usually without much compassion, but that is another story - as Shakespeare said, the Dyer's Hand and all that) and it is nice to see nice people standing up for other nice people. By the way, Human Life Review is available, in its entirety, on Westlaw - I hope that Wisconsin Law preserved your Westlaw rights.

Bix Cvvv said...

Well, not so quickly, sorry!

Pinandpuller said...

Ashley Judd, Rose McGowen and Judy Dench walk into a tattoo parlor...

mockturtle said...

Trumpit, your outrage at YH is phony. I'll wager you're not even Jewish.

mockturtle said...

BTW, the casting couch has involved more than a few male wannabe stars, as well. Some pretty well known.

Ken B said...

The answer to your question is “Here's a part.”

Pinandpuller said...

Ralph L said...

Her correct appellation is Dame Judy, not Dame Dench, which sounds horrible.

Harvey called her Double D.



Say, has anyone heard from Dame Edna lately?

YoungHegelian said...

@Trumpit,

You are the epitome of evil, but you've got no functioning putz to power your diabolical plans. That's a blessing.

Let me guess -- I hit a little too close to home with my comments.

And, no, people who do not chime in on what a wonderful thing secular, left wing Jewish culture is are not anti-Semites. Unless, of course, you consider Orthodox Jews anti-Semites.

The secular Jewish community provides around 40% of the Democratic Party's funding. Let's not pretend that we're in some "You leave me alone, I leave you alone" sort of situation here. As a conservative, straight, white, Southern, Christian male, they want to fuck with my life big time. And they're often not too pleasant about how they do it.

I truly admire the historical Jewish faith. You name the biggies in Jewish history (e.g. Maimonides), I've read them. I've read a lot of the rabbinic sources & secondary source material on it. I know the history of the Ashkenazim fairly well. I believe that it's impossible to understand Christianity without understanding the "Judaisms" from which it sprang. I believe that the Jews were & are still God's Chosen People. I have no problem with the existence of the state of Israel. And, lastly, I'm married to one. These not the words of an anti-Semite.

What I do take umbrage at is the moral outrage that secular Jews evince when you point out some of the times that they have immersed themselves in secular evils (e.g. the Soviet Union, which destroyed religious Judaism & Jewish culture root & branch with the help of secular Jews in the Bolshevik party). I'd just like them to admit that no matter how smart & successful a person may be, that has absolutely nothing to do with how good you are. Often, the converse is true. In sum, I'd like to see a bit more moral humility. I'm not holding my breath.

Ann Althouse said...

Thanks, Bix.

Bix Cvvv said...

YoungHegelian - try harder. You claim to be able to assess blame for historic injustices in an impartial manner. I would like you to show a little more moral humility.

Bix Cvvv said...

Ann - you are welcome. I meant what I said. (I really hated saying bad things about people who repented - like John Lennon and hopefully one or two others that I mentioned - but this is an important subject, requiring truthfulness.)

YoungHegelian said...

@Bix,

You claim to be able to assess blame for historic injustices in an impartial manner. I would like you to show a little more moral humility.

I'm afraid I don't understand your point. Please explain further.

YoungHegelian said...

@mockturtle,

Trumpit, your outrage at YH is phony.

No, it's not. It is the outrage that is part & parcel of Standpoint Theory.

You see, each identity group under standpoint theory is the guardian of its own self image. They & only they understand the nature of their own history & existence.

Silly persons that you & I are, we would think that the history of a culture is just another object of study. You can study Sanskrit. I can study the history of the Zulu Empire. If we work hard, at the end of our studies, we will be experts in our subject matters. And, conversely, an Indian can learn Medieval Latin, & a Zulu the history of the American Civil War & they, too, end out experts.

Nope. Cultures are basically sealed to each other, & can only truly be understood from the "inside".

Thus, when you as an outsider make a judgement that doesn't reflect back to a black person his self-image, you're racist. A woman, sexist, A gay, homophobic, etc.

Whether its completely realized & articulated, that's what we're dealing with here.

mockturtle said...

Like I said, phony. And I bet he's not Jewish.

Bix Cvvv said...

YoungHegelian: there are not many of us in this world. Criticize everyone who deserves criticism, not just a few targets: be fair. Sure there are a few saintly people in the world. Don't criticize them. But if you are blessed enough to be impartial: remember, God loves those who walk along the watchtower, warning all - that means, everybody - of the dangers of sin. Don't be that guy who criticizes one group for lesser faults than some other group with greater faults. That would be wrong! Maybe you did not need this advice - in which case God bless you. If you did need this advice - you are welcome. God loves us the way we are, but God loves us too much to let us (well, me anyway - I hope ,,,, I remember) to let us stay that way. Peace, brother.

YoungHegelian said...

@Bix,

Criticize everyone who deserves criticism, not just a few targets:

Seems to me in my long time here, I pretty much have. But, we're commenting more or less on one topic by writing here in little boxes, which luckily precludes book-length dissertations. So, we gotta take 'em one at a time, & everyone gets their turn at the bottom of the barrel.

Ray - SoCal said...

There seems to be a huge effort to memory hole this and compare it to Trump, and what happened at Fox. Trump I think was a Cad and cheater, but everything was voluntary. No accusations like Harv had that was often sexual harassment.

I'm not up what happened at Fox, but it seems less than what Harv did. Harv was mostly voluntary, but there was a power relationship I would compare to Lewinsky / Clinton that was unethical.

Bix Cvvv said...

YoungHegelian - have you ever had one of those dreams where you are in some unusual geographic place ( perhaps one town over, the day of high school graduation, where everyone is spending time together because all we have is time, and you all figured that out the week you graduated your (in actuality) sad little high school): perhaps, if you are a doctor, the dream took place in the courtyard at your medical school a week before you graduated, (before anyone you cared about had made a fatal mistake) and someone said to you: be fair! there are people who think every word you say is well said, and words have power .... of course you have. Put some effort in, mention the modifiers, don't zero in on one victim group at a time: sure it is more of a burden to know how to give good advice while people listen in than to give good advice to one selected audience at a time: but it is also a burden to never know how to give good advice. So there's that. Almost nobody who is not an AI reads all of the criticisms any of us have for others on the internet. Try harder: is that too much to ask? No it is not too much to ask. Put things in context: that would be kinder than not putting things in context. Right? Am I missing something here?

buwaya said...

"Am I missing something here?"

Yes. Casual discussions of this sort can't themselves provide perspective or context, bandwidth is too limited. At best they can suggest a source of such perspective or context. Which I why I am addicted to suggesting background reading.

You can ask way too much of the venue.

It suffices for basic thesis-antithesis, and if there is sufficient shared context and if ones interlocutor has sufficient depth of knowledge something can be learned.

The other matter is independent of venue or bandwidth. The idea that on-the-one-hand and on-the-other-hand sort of contemplation gets somewhere is very flawed. Modifiers muddy, conceal and deceive, most often oneself, but quite often everyone. This is also a deliberate technique to deflect and delay.

Way too many years in way too many decision making processes on my part. Clarify disagreements, enhance the contradictions, make a clear argument, and make the opposition do the same. Choose a winner. Decide, decide quickly, and make the best of it even if it proves suboptimal.

Drago said...

There seems to be a huge effort to memory hole this and compare it to Trump, and what happened at Fox.

Standard operating procedure for the left and their lifelong republican allies.

chickelit said...

But if you are blessed enough to be impartial: remember, God loves those who walk along the watchtower, warning all - that means, everybody - of the dangers of sin.

There's a Bob Dylan complex, right there.

The news about Dench is news. It is shocking. It is crude. It shows her complicity in hypocrisy. Accept it or STFU.

Oh and the part about Joan Rivers cited above? She never said that. She could call a spade a spade and a whore a whore.

Yancey Ward said...

"Trumpit, your outrage at YH is phony. I'll wager you're not even Jewish."

He probably has YH on his ass.

ihasch said...

To paraphrase Ric Flair, sometimes you work with a person that everyone tells you is a real SOB, but then they are not an SOB to you. In that case it is not your problem.

Judi Dench and all the other actors in Miramax films were not working at Miramax with Weinstein day to day. They were in films his company financed. And even if they heard or knew he was a real SOB, what does this have to do with them? So they should not accept the financing because Weinstein was an owner? Unless the sexual harassment involved them personally, it is not their problem. That is the real world. The rest is self-righteous delusion.

chickelit said...

ihasch notes: Judi Dench and all the other actors in Miramax films were not working at Miramax with Weinstein day to day. They were in films his company financed. And even if they heard or knew he was a real SOB, what does this have to do with them? So they should not accept the financing because Weinstein was an owner? Unless the sexual harassment involved them personally, it is not their problem. That is the real world. The rest is self-righteous delusion.

I assume you've worked for a living, perhaps for a corporation whose CEO you've never met. Think Gates or Bezos if you want to think big.

So of all the ways you could say thanks to the Big Guy, getting your ass tattooed like Dench did is no biggium? I just hope it was a real and not a temporary tattoo. Perhaps if she'd tattooed her forearm the point would be more obvious to you, ihasch?

chickelit said...

@ihasch: Oh and don't forget, Dench had the chizzputz to flash her butt -- in public in person -- for the "distant" boss.

chickelit said...

He even chuckled about it.

ihasch said...

Chickelot-Dench appreciated what Weinstein did for her career. Not sure why a tatoo is so taboo when the guy helped her win an Oscar. But using your analogy, guys like Steve Jobs were no picnic. Yet I doubt you would turn down a job opportunity from him.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Bill Clinton gets speaking fees and still has a foundation bringing in money. I think Bill made sexual harassment, if not totally ok, he made it not so bad that you are ruined and run out of town on a rail. Justice Thomas comes to mind also.

Btw Cernovich is tweeting...”Way more is coming, worse than the harassment, that is REAL reason Harvey Weinstein lawyered up. Expect rape and / pedo accusations soon.”

It’s always worse than initial reports with the liberals.

Ray - SoCal said...

Bill Clinton just showed the hypocrisy of most Feminists of the day, what an amazing politician he was, and the failure of the GOPe. Claims against him ranged from rape to groping to sexual sexual harassment (payout to Paula Jones and he was disbarred) to his affair with Lewinsky.

>I think Bill made sexual harassment, if not totally ok, he made it not so bad that you are ruined and run out of town on a rail.

Ps - one of the most amazing Trump moves of the campaign was inviting some of Bill Clintons accusers to a debate!

Ray - SoCal said...

Judge Thomas unfair accusations that I was amazed he survived, did a lot to high light sexual harassment and made his accuser a martyr. What happened highlights the liberal hypocrisy/ double standards / smear tactics / win at any cost methods.

From Judge Thomas statement:

"And from my standpoint, as a black American, it is a high-tech lynching for uppity blacks who in any way deign to think for themselves, to do for themselves, to have different ideas, and it is a message that unless you kowtow to an old order, this is what will happen to you. You will be lynched, destroyed, caricatured by a committee of the U.S. Senate rather than hung from a tree."

>Justice Thomas comes to mind also.

Ray - SoCal said...

Snl is catching it at the daily mail for not mentioning the scandal.

Chelsea was dumb enough to tweet on it.

And Don Jr trolled Jimmy Kimmel about the scandal.

I know I should not waste time on the daily mail, but it's like candy, hard to resist...

walter said...

ihasch said...Not sure why a tatoo is so taboo when the guy helped her win an Oscar.
--
Oh..not "taboo", just idiotic...at least as depicted.
But if you think someone owns your ass..

RBE said...

Some of these high profile folks seem pretty weird and depraved.

rcommal said...

The whole entertainment business is built on enabling and exploitation.


This. Yes.

[bolding added]

rcommal said...

Pay attention, folks, to what your own selves are saying, doing, and also consuming via media.

rcommal said...

Not to mention encouraging.

rcommal said...

For the Nth time, I'm gonna repeat that I saw Bill Clinton for what he was, called it for myself at the time, back in the mid-latter '80s. For myself at that time, I had a pretty clear idea as to how I he would conduct himself in office and--AND!!--what he would inspire in others. For that I reason, I knew that I would never vote for him. And I never did.

Many years before I ever encountered the Althouse blog (much less Althouse herself as a legal writer), before that blog even existed, I was one of those who thought that the Clintons betrayed the reasonable form of feminism and, far worse, inspired their militant followers and many others as well to betray themselves.

Now, here we are, decades later, and I find myself in a similar situation, which includes a similar lack of fear in bucking against the trend. I do not expect to be alive 20-25-30 years from now, but if I should happen to be alive then, I fully suspect that I will have as little regret for having seen Trump and his zealot followers for what they are and do as I do now have no regret for having seen Clinton and his zealot followers for what they are and did.

Pookie Number 2 said...

I also think that I could get a chorus of agreement from observant Jews of many stripes that when Jews fall away from the Torah & try to make up their morality as they go along, a morally failed culture like HW & Hollywood will always be the end result.

I'm of only one stripe, but I think Weinstein is just another example of someone corrupted by power.

Anonymous said...

amazing video

Abraham Incoln Quotes
Adele Brookman Quotes
Albert Einstein Quotes
Anotole France Quotes
Anthnoy Pagano
Anthony Robbins Quotes

rcommal said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
rcommal said...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTpMZawjcmQ

(Buddy Guy & Paul Rodgers performing "Some Kind of Wonderful" in 1993)

---

oh, by the way ...

my husband and I are looking forward to taking our son, 17, to see Buddy Guy perform live tomorrow night ...

can i get a witness??

;

AllenS said...

So, what do you think about Harvey Weinstein, smilequotes24?

rcommal said...

@AllenS: That ^ there did make me laugh out loud. Thank you!

walter said...

rcommal said... I fully suspect that I will have as little regret for having seen Trump and his zealot followers for what they are..
--
Spell it out. Prediction.

And by the way, who did you vote for?

Unknown said...

Some additional light shed on the playing down by some of Roman Polanski's predation?