Basement-rated CNN announced yesterday that disgraced former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer and “conservative” columnist Kathleen Parker will co-host a new political talk show at 8 p.m. Regulated by the Federal Communications Commission, CNN should hold its airways to a higher standard and not give an open platform to an admitted john and sex trafficker.

Eliot Spitzer, aka “Client No. 9,” broke numerous state and federal laws, but has never taken responsibility for his actions, nor shown any real remorse. The once-dreaded “Sheriff of Wall Street” was reduced to droning his resignation in front of a microphone while his long-suffering, grim-lipped wife looked on — a familiar trope for those involved in Democrat politics.

Joe Klein, President of CNN and Spitzer’s close friend, demonstrates an utter lack of morality by putting Spitzer on the national airwaves at all, much less during the family hour at 8 p.m. How can parents teach their children about consequences to their actions when Spitzer breaks laws and gets his own TV show? (more…)

Holland today is probably the worst country in Europe, a sinkhole of social pathologies that would make Berkeley blush.  And yet, at every step, the decisions the Dutch took to liberalize their formerly straitlaced Calvinist society seemed to make sense at the time, at least to some

Today, with crime rampant, social tensions brought on by enormous, apparently unassimilable migration from the Muslim world, and the collapse of its social cohesion and cultural self-confidence, the Netherlands is the Sick Man of Europe.

I originally wrote this story for the now-defunct Mirabella Magazine, to answer the editorial question: why are the Dutch so tolerant. “Tolerant” seemed like the right word at the time; today, nearly 18 years later, “suicidal” might be a better choice.

This is what I found.

The smoke is overpowering as I climb the steep stairs and enter the tiny second-floor room at a neighborhood joint called “Balou.” A group of young men are sitting at a handful of tables, talking, listening to loud rock music, looking out the window at the street below or watching a Detroit Pistons – Cleveland Cavaliers basketball game on the television perched mutely in the corner, each puffing away contentedly. The 25-year-old owner, Jerry, is standing behind the bar and gabbing affably to some of the regulars, displaying upon request a menu of the evening’s offerings. This might be anywhere, in any bar USA. Except it’s not.

Jerry shows me the menu. Compared with competing locals like “The Grasshopper” and “The Bull Dog,” it’s rather small. This is what it says: (more…)

I didn’t know whether to feel insulted or oddly flattered when Bob Beckel called me a “ho” Monday night on Sean Hannity’s show. He was discussing James O’Keefe’s current situation and for some reason brought me up. But not the real me: not the 20-year old committed Christian, brown-belt Jiu-Jitsu girl and aspiring journalist, who embarked on a secret summer adventure that caused a major political and media disruption in the fall of ‘09.

Nope, evidently the characters I played in the ACORN videos, Kenya and Eden, had Beckel a little confused.  After he called me a ho, the panel informed him I wasn’t a real hooker, only pretending to be one for the sake of the story. He defends himself by saying I was a very “convincing hooker.”

All I can say is, Beckel would know. (more…)