Y-a-w-n.

G'night.

Trophy Wife

Mrs. Instapundit, Dr. Helen, has linked an interesting discussion regarding Fred Thompson, and his lovely wife Jeri, who has gotten quite a bit of (likely unwanted) attention recently.

The subject under discussion here is leering and Fred Thompson's right (or not) to leer at his own wife. Ann Althouse weighs in:

He's leering at his own wife. Does that make it okay? Well, there are lots
of things you can do with your wife that people don't want to see in
public.

Well, leering strikes me as something about which not everyone has standing to complain. Obviously the object of the leering may feel violated and uncomfortable, perhaps even somewhat concerned for their safety. With regard to the leering in question, I think it's safe to say Mrs. Thompson was not offended.

Of course there are things you can't do with your wife in public. A little leering seems harmless, though, in light of the public displays of affection we generally deem acceptable.

What is really going on is that for some reason, people are offended by the fact that Jeri is (relatively speaking) young and attractive and Fred is old and not. Maybe he's striking. But he's old.

As Libby notes (from Dr. Helen):

She looks so young, you expect that she signs her name with a little smiley face instead of a dot on the "i" at the end.

Jeri should send Libby a valentine--she's 40 years old. And an attorney. And a political consultant. I'm not sure I'd expect that smiley face...




Margery Eagan similarly embarrasses herself here:

Flashed around the country Thursday was yet another full cleavage shot of Fred
Thompson’s child wife looking almost as well-endowed as Alex Rodriguez’s
stripper/pole-dancer girlfriend. “That was quite a dress,” said one GOP analyst,
breathless.

Child wife? This is a 40 year old woman. And let's be clear--this is Thompson's wife, not some stripper girlfriend.

That's Lame

Somehow I didn't see this coming:

After only three days behind bars, Paris Hilton traded a 12-by-8-foot cell
for her 2,700-square-foot Hollywood Hills home when she was released early
Thursday because of an unspecified medical condition.

Hilton will be under home confinement, wearing an electronic monitoring
ankle bracelet, for the remaining 40 days of her sentence for violating
probation in a reckless driving case.

The excuse offered was a purported medical condition, which Andrew Sullivan labels "clinically privileged." Her stay was not pleasant. Franks and beans?! Wouldn't you be suicidal?

The city attorney wants her back in jail. And that might very well happen. The judge has ordered her back to court.

What Would Tyler Durden Do says "Everyone is Pissed."

Honestly, I can't believe any grown woman--and Paris is 26--couldn't hack 23 days in jail. Make that couldn't hack 3 days. Frankly, 3 weeks in solitary has some appeal--no work, no phone, you could catch up on some sleep, read a few good books...

Anyway, what I think really happened here is Paris spent a few days sobbing, wouldn't eat her prison issued hot dog or bologna sandwich, and gave the authorities just enough reason to get her and all of her papparazzi out of their hair. Not to mention the fact that with her back home she's no longer their ward; no small thing when you consider the Hilton family has the money to sue LA county into bolivian if Paris gets hurt.

Good Night

Closing out my first night on the web...

Two Down, Nineteen To Go

Two nights and counting for Paris

Prisoner #9818783 — also known as Paris Hilton — has spent her second night at the Century Regional Detention Facility in Lynwood, and everything seems to be going as well as can be expected for the jailbird heiress.

By all accounts, Paris is behaving like a model citizen at Lynwood.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19053954/

You have to love Access Hollywood:

News of note: Hilton got her hair extensions tightened before going to jail

Iran Channels Britney Spears

From the Hindu News Update Service:

Iran Minister favours temporary marriage to relieve lust

Iran's interior minister has challenged a social taboo by urging the revival of the ancient Shia practice of temporary marriage to give young people easier legitimate access to sex.

Moustafa Pourmohammadi, the minister, said the tradition, known as sigheh, should be promoted to offset a trend towards later marriage, which he said was depriving Iran's youth of sexual fulfilment.

The custom of sigheh, which allows couples to establish unions lasting from a few
minutes to 99 years, is permitted under Shia Islam, but has been likened in Iran
to prostitution. But Pourmohammadi, a conservative cleric, described it as
"God's rule" and said it was an acceptable alternative to pre-marital sex, which
is forbidden under Islamic law.

To be fair, the practice has been condemned by Iranian feminists and does, from the article, not appear to be widespread.

Houston Has Nation's Second Highest Homicide Rate

Homicide rate in Houston tops Dallas'

Houston's homicide rate surpassed Dallas' in 2006 for the first time in
more than a decade and is now the second-highest among the nation's largest cities, according to figures released Monday by the FBI.Houstonians were killed at a rate of 18.2 per 100,000 residents last year, a number that had gone
unmatched since 1995 when the FBI began posting crime statistics online. Dallas'
homicide rate was higher than Houston's in all of the previous 11 years.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4861918.html

This, from an HPD spokesman, doesn't inspire confidence:

In Houston, burglaries and robberies remained about the same during the two-year
period while the number of reported rapes slightly declined. Capt. Dwayne Ready, a Houston Police Department spokesman, said those figures can be construed as a "win" for the city. He added that homicides are typically difficult to curtail given that typically many are crimes of passion, involving people who know one another.

What this doesn't address is why the rate increased so much. There's no reason to believe Houstonians became any more "passionate" this past year. The article hints at another cause:

Houston has seen an uptick in homicides since more than 100,000 Louisiana
residents fled to the city after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

"Babu," from Philly (the nation's leading city in this regard), in the comments section has interesting commentary on the subject.