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From the New York Times ….. 

French First Lady More Than Tames British Press 

Was she the new Kennedy-Onassis or a reborn Diana? With her flat Dior pumps and calf-length gray overcoat, was she a high-school student on vacation, or, as one columnist asked, “Jackie O dressed as a nun”? 

After appearances with members of the British royal family, in Parliament and at a state dinner — with different Christian Dior outfits for each — Carla Bruni, the 40-year-old model-turned-singer and first lady of France emerged Thursday as the star of the visit, supplanting affairs of state with an affaire d’amour among British newspaper reporters wistfully competing for the fondest paean of praise. 

If her husband, President Nicolas Sarkozy, had come here to woo his British hosts with a flattering speech to Parliament — compared by one writer to a “torrent of crème Chantilly sprayed from a high-pressure hose” — then his wife’s slender frame and twinkling eyes upstaged his effort to achieve gravitas. 

“Nicolas Sarkozy’s seduction of the British started yesterday at 11:26 a.m. when his plane landed at Heathrow,” Andrew Gimson wrote for Thursday’s Daily Telegraph. “He brought with him his latest conquest, Carla Bruni, and many of us decided at once that if we were going to be seduced by anyone, we would rather be seduced by her.”

and while milliners were busy in Europa...

A Chill Ushers in a New Diplomatic Order in Pakistan

By JANE PERLEZ
Published: March 28, 2008

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — If it was not yet clear to Washington that a new political order prevailed here, the three-day visit this week by America’s chief diplomat dealing with Pakistan should put any doubt to rest.

The visit by Deputy Secretary of State John D. Negroponte turned out to be series of indignities and chilly, almost hostile, receptions as he bore the brunt of the full range of complaints that Pakistanis now feel freer to air with the end of military rule by Washington’s favored ally, President Pervez Musharraf.

Faced with a new democratic lineup that is demanding talks, not force, in the fight against terrorism, Mr. Negroponte publicly swallowed a bitter pill at his final news conference on Thursday, acknowledging that there would now be some real differences in strategy between the United States and Pakistan.

He was upbraided at an American Embassy residence during a reception in his honor by lawyers furious that the Bush administration had refused to support the restoration of the dismissed judiciary by Mr. Musharraf last year.

Mr. Negroponte once told Congress that Mr. Musharraf was an “indispensable” ally, but the diplomat was finally forced to set some distance after months of standing stolidly by his friend. Mr. Musharraf’s future, he said, would be settled by Pakistan’s new democratic government.

Women!...

Every-time I read an article by Miranda Devine, even if there is some sense on the surface, I know I will eventually smell a rat and rat — small or huge — there is. Often, it does not take long... first sentence. Boom. Rat.

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Despite the concerted efforts of social revolutionaries over four decades, marriage is making a comeback, at least for Australia's most educated women.

Career-minded women used to be haunted by the prospect of never marrying, because, according to conventional wisdom, men liked to marry down the social scale.

"Oh my God I forgot to have children," was the cry of a generation of female university graduates who came of age in the 1980s.

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A Generation???????????

Whenever she writes about women's affairs, Miranda seems to always finds a spot to blame the sisterhood of women's lib (albeit the name hidden behind "the social revolutionaries") for many sins — if not for all the problems encountered by women — and never acknowledges the huge change to society that the women's lib movement brought to society in a historical context. Today (9/04/08) Miranda's exposé is no exception.

I will say that Family Planning was hugely expanded with many options including contraception, under the strong push by "liberated" women for example... Sure, some "intelligent women" regret they chose the wrong options (career path, no kids, no bloke) by the time they turned 40. But these "intelligent women" cannot blame the sisterhood for this. Some other "intelligent women" chose a similar path and do not regret it one bit. Nor can some "intelligent women" blame their mother for showing they could be something more interesting but a kid-popper in a suburban dead end.

Some women still like to be trophy wives, some like to be homemakers, kid-poppers, some like to be CEOs. Whatever they choose, some are good at it, some are not... What the sisterhood did was to break the shackles of being forced to be dependent (enslaved) to become a fully fledged partner in a relationship — should there be a relationship. Women's lib gave the choice for women to be what they wished in a world, so far then, constructed for men. It also gave them the gamut of pitfall and warnings in all these choices. The same went for men who had to do some fancy footwork in order to adjust. Some men did, some did not... But modern so-called "economic realities" that moulds a marriage directions can be keeping-up-with-the-Joneses maniacal greedy desires, as well as real needs due to a social construct that demands we be more greedy.

I could suggest here that the invention of the SUV did more for women than a lot of other fancy stuff. It gave some women the illusion of power over a big wild beast... but I won't go there, it's facetious...

In fact, there is a huge variety of options people can make choices about. Sometimes these choices work out, sometimes they do not. There are househusband, housewives, there are "balanced" couples, women at work, blokes at work, and kids that are brats, kids that are well-behaved, in all permutation possible — including singles, lesbian and gay relationships that are resilient.

The big notion here as well is that when choice is available, choice can be daunting for some people and some prefer a "restricted choice", but this is a can of baked-beans that could be explored in depth for a university doctorate. For another time. A generation?????????

Then, for "the social revolutionaries", it was a question of proportion of women able to rise above their traditional station — being wedded to a kitchen sink, the standard model for womanhood in the 1950s. Sure, then, there were already "emancipated clever" women doing all the bits like manage work and kids in a very liberated way (unlike the ones slaving daytime in factories, then slaving night-time at home, while hubby read the newspaper or drank beer at the pub) — but the emancipated women were in small numbers. And, of course, the inventions of household appliances gave women time to think a bit more about why they were bored and stressed at the same time.

Women's lib movement made many more women aware of other options than popping Valium to relieve the stress of home-baking... Some "intelligent women" may regret they gave up home-baking for a career, but on average not many. Because let's face it, even with a career, there is always time to do a bit of home-baking. And hubby can turn the oven on. Or put the garbage out. Or take the kids to ballet classes. Or mow the lawn. Or...

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Smart women it seems, have worked out the value of traditional marriage as the optimal way of ensuring health, happiness and success for their children. In effect, they are reinventing the wheel, because the reason nuclear families came into existence in the first place was to protect the interests of women and children by harnessing men's energies. Sex without strings is of benefit primarily to men.

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I could rave (or rage) on a lot more about this loaded miranda's reinvention of the wheel, but I'll save my breath. All I will say is smarter women never had to reinvent the wheel... They prefer driving SUVs. Facetious me, primarily. And women are still underpaid...

nudy bruni...

Carla Bruni has come clean – she is styling herself on Jackie Onassis, the late wife of John F Kennedy, rather than on France’s first post-war First Lady, Yvonne de Gaulle, who was once photographed ladling out soup to the poor. All is revealed in an interview in the new Vanity Fair magazine which is run across several pages and features photographs by Annie Leibovitz, one of which has Bruni on the roof of the Elysee Palace in a stunning, blood-red, strapless dress. It is fair to assume Mme de Gaulle rarely climbed onto the roof of the Elysee Palace or that she ever wore a cleavage-revealing strapless dress.

Explaining her Jackie O dream, Carla B says: "She [Jackie] was so young and modern, and of course unconsciously I would project myself more like Jackie Kennedy than, for instance, Mme de Gaulle, who would be much more like the classical French woman behind her husband."

Bruni offers few political insights, save, perhaps, the revelation that President Sarkozy was pleased when old nude photos of his new wife appeared on the internet.

"Carla Bruni has come clean?" Sure, but she's definitely not the cleaning lady... Marie Antoinette? see toon at top... Let them have cakes...

winning shot....

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/aug/05/one-of-last-photos-of-queen-elizabeth-ii-up-for-national-award

The poignant image of the late queen, standing beside a lit fire at Balmoral holding a walking stick before meeting the then prime minister, Liz Truss, on 6 September, is among the contenders.

The monarch died at Balmoral Castle two days afterwards.

Another picture of her on the balcony of Buckingham Palace during the platinum jubilee celebrations in June also caught the eye of judges, along with photographs of Prince Louis covering his ears during a flypast.

 

 

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