Strollerderby : Whoopi Goldberg

Ann Coulter Says Single Moms Are Bad For Society

Brett Singer — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 04:31:00 GMT

Ann Coulter, the woman who once called John Edwards a "faggot" and then defended it by saying that it wasn't a gay slur, has now turned her warped mind to single mothers.

Coulter has been out promoting her new book, "Guilty: Liberal 'Victims' and Their Assault on America." She is a bizarre creature who appears to exist purely to spew venom at the world. It's not clear what possible purpose she has on this planet other than to sell her own books and appear on talk shows, which, in turn, helps her sell her own books. The promotional pattern is the same every time – "make outrageous statement in book, repeat statement on a channel other than Fox News, then go on Fox News and defend the statement." And it works – her latest tome is currently number 21 overall on Amazon.com.

One of her latest "points" is that single motherhood has now become "acceptable," despite the "fact" that it is "a recipe to create criminals, strippers, rapists, murderers." Nice.

Over on The View, Coulter was her usual charming self. She attacked Barbara Walters for the way she read the book aloud, and actually did a very nice job of playing the victim, accusing The View co-hosts of attacking her while she wasn't there. Unfortunately, everyone on The View talks at the same time so it's hard to tell what was being said during most of this clip. But it does mark the first time I can honestly say that I agree with Elisabeth Hasselbeck. (Thanks to Sassy Smith for posting this clip over at Famecrawler.)

As someone who was raised by a single mother, I have nothing but respect for any parent, male or female, who is raising a child alone. I'm married, we're lucky enough to have grandparents who live nearby, and I'm still exhausted. I often ask my mother what the hell she did with me during school vacations and half days. She always says that she "figured something out." In other words, she did what she had to do because she was a mother. That's it. What exactly would Ann Coulter like these single mothers to do? Give their kids up for adoption? Get a mail-order husband?

There are one or two words that I don't like to use. One of them fits really Coulter well. It starts with a "c". And I don't mean "cookie".

Source: Famecrawler

Image: Amazon.com

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DVD Review: Our Country, USA to Z

Brett Singer — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 19:00:00 GMT

With July 4th coming up in a couple of days, many of us are feeling patriotic. But in our current political climate, patriotism can be a highly charged topic. Personally, I think you should be able to love your country without buying into the ideology of a particular person or political party. More "celebrate what's great about America" and less "keep the immigrants out."

"Our Country, USA to Z" (Team Baby Entertainment) is more the former than the latter. Narrated by Whoopi Goldberg in her usual slightly sleepy-voiced style, this is (mostly) politics-free patriotism.

The disc opens with a relatively painless song (performed by John Lennon Songwriting Award winner Joe McDermot) about our nation and how good it is, with shots of cute babies dancing around. Football, kids, cities, Native Americans, Statue of Liberty – pretty straightforward stuff, pleasantly presented.

Then come the letters. (The chapters on the DVD, available in the main menu, are helpfully split up by letter so you can skip around if you need to.) A is for America (duh), B is for Bell, as in "Liberty Bell," C is for Columbus (with no mention of Native Americans), D is for Diveristy, and so on. My favorite segment was J, which is of course for Jazz. Whoopi should do a whole DVD for kids on the history of jazz. M is for Military was a little weird, but kids will like the trucks and Coast Guard boats. There is a slightly right-of-center leaning revealed (I think) in the choice of "great presidents" (the letter P, of course): George Washington, Abraham Lincoln (a "civil war hero", no mention of freeing the slaves), Teddy Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan. It's not a huge deal, but I'm guessing that the Democratic version of this disc might not mention ol' RR in this grouping.

There is a teeny amount of suspense when you watch "USA to Z" for the first time – what the heck are they going to do for X, for example? Since K was for King (as in Martin Luther King), I thought maybe we'd get Malcolm X, but they went with Railroad Crossing, which is a little lame, but at least features subways as well as railroads. Then there's "Road Trip," another original tune with a nice montage of video from the 50 states. These include cities as well as purple mountains majesty and amber waves of grain, something that, as a lifelong city dweller, I always appreciate. As always, there are cute kids of various colors and creeds bouncing around.

"Our Country, USA to Z" is a little different from the DVDs that Team Baby Entertainment typically puts out. Most of their content (which I've never seen) seems to be geared towards indoctrinating young children in the ways of sports fandom – Mets Baby, St. Louis Cardinals Baby, Red Sox Baby World Series Edition narrated by Ben Affleck (ouch, that was hard to type – guess who my favorite team is?), and of course, Yankees Baby, which I've never seen but is of course the best of the bunch (that would be my team.)

For the most part, this relatively short DVD is cute, harmless patriotism that does a decent job of including the different types of people and places that make up the United States of America. There is no mention of more controversial topics – Native Americans, slavery – but it is geared towards very young children; 2 or 3-year-olds is about right in my view. "Our Country, USA to Z" is educational, colorful, and doesn't go too far to the right. And when it does skew a little bit more Red State than Blue, that's tempered by the presence of the Whoopster's narration. Whoever hired her deserves a big, fat all-American raise.

image: Team Baby Entertainment

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Political Nanny: No Cat Fight, But Liz Sheds Some Tears

Madeline Holler — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 21:02:00 GMT

Michelle Obama was guest co-host this morning on ABC's The View. It was her first appearance on the show. The other hosts -- well, those who didn't burst into tears (more on that in a sec.) -- we're visibly thrilled to have her on.

So there was fist bumping, and Matthew Broderick interviewing, and Laura Bush-praising. But, for those with a love/hate thing for Elisabeth Hasselbeck, the show was ultimately disappointing. No meltdowns, no cat fights, no pro-Iraq War diatribes, no talk of the Democratic candidate being "not brilliant."

However, ABC News reports behind the scenes that Hasselbeck cried hard between segments:

At one point during the show's commercial break, Elisabeth Hasselbeck, the most conservative of the co-hosts, burst into tears while talking about how she was about to leave her new baby alone for the first time since his birth.

Sitting on the couch, Obama noticed Hasselbeck was trying to compose herself and asked Sherri Shepherd if she was okay.

Hasselbeck, who supports the Iraq war and spoke at the 2004 Republican Convention, grilled Barack Obama during his appearance in March over his association with Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

During Wednesday's show, Hasselbeck said it was ridiculous for people to anticipate a "girl fight" between herself and Michelle Obama.

"We must be enemies because we disagree politically?" Hasselbeck asked rhetorically.

On the air, Obama said of Hasselbeck: "This girl is solid, she's got great kids, she's funny."

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Political Nanny: Hasselbeck Thinks Obama 'Not Brilliant'

Madeline Holler — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 22:32:00 GMT

Likewise, Elisabeth, likewise.

The View Hot Topic indeed got heated, this time (or is it everytime?) about how nobody will let Elisabeth finish her sentence. All of it couched in "intelligent" political "discourse," naturally.

In a nutshell: Joy says Obama's brilliant. Liz says she doesn't think so. Whoopi says we don't know anything about the candidates yet. (Really?)

Antics ensue.

Here's Political Nanny's problem with the entire segment: none of the women seems more than superficially informed, each just kind of parroting the talking points of their favorite personality.

On the "where American's get their political news" hierarchy, Political Nanny is hoping The View ranks way, way lower than Comedy Central and, say, the Lincoln, Nebraska Penny Saver.

Photo: ABCnews.com

Elisabeth Hasselbeck's Boobs are Hard

Madeline Holler — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 20:31:00 GMT

The View hostess and resident babymaker Elisabeth Hasselbeck told the audience this week that her boobs were hard. Seems she's experiencing a bit of engorgement due to the weaning of her second child, son Taylor.

Hasselbeck does a hint of fondling early on in a video of the segment ... but it's Whoopi who steals the scene with her lack fo sympathy for formerly nursing mother or frustrated baby. Co-hosts Joy and Sherri are slightly more sympathetic and understanding when Hasselbeck calls it "withdrawal."

Sure wish Barbara had been on the show that morning. Isn't she a huge fan of breastfeeding?

Photo: Gawker.com

Political Nanny: Cindy McCain Says Husband Doesn't Have a Temper

Madeline Holler — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 22:09:00 GMT

Posted by Political Nanny

Cindy McCain played co-host on ABC's The View this morning where she told the ladies -- including a silent and reverend Elisabeth Hasselbeck -- that John McCain doesn't have a temper. And he's never unleashed that non-temper temper on her (so the c-word was a term of endearment ... now we get it.)

Oh, Cindy, come now. Political Nanny has watched your Johnny enough to know that his nickname "McNasty" isn't irony.

She also says the biggest misconception about her is that she doesn't like her role as campaigning spouse. She loves it. Then goes on to say, kind of aw-shucks-y, who could imagine a girl from Phoenix ... growing up ... being in her position.

Lady, you're a beer distributor magnate's daughter. You're rich. On behalf of all able-minded people, Political Nanny would like to say WE could have imagined it. It's actually very imagineable.

Still, it's fun to hear her talk. She hasn't been terribly vocal, like the other spouses. So it's nice to put a voice/speaking style with the face.

Political Nanny will search for the video and post it, and also try to uncover what Whoopi was so anxious to ask. Go here to watch the video.

The View's Shepherd Won't Let Her Son Wear a Dress

Madeline Holler — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 23:20:00 GMT

Should I just start watching The View, because I’m telling you, that Sherri Shephard is just the kind of train wreck that makes me slow down and crane my neck to look. I'm holding up traffic on YouTube because I stop so often to stare, dumbfounded, at her daily collisions with the outside world.

This time, Shepherd is unwittingly (witlessly?) sucked in to a discussion on trans-gendered children. Sort of. Sherri says she would not let her son wear a dress, not even for make-believe. Not until he's 18 (the age of fashion majority?). Whatever. We know some people like that, so, granted. Go for it, Sherri.

Incredibly, though, she would also expect a teacher to ask him to remove the dress were he to try one on over in the dress-up corner. Even when there's a play dough fight across the room? Or a light-table glitch? What about butterfly wings? Or the patent leather belt meant for a Madeline costume but which also fits the firefighter's jacket? Should the teacher be discrete, or just call him a sissy and get it over with? (Incidentally, Sherri should never let her son play with my girl, who manages to get every little boy that comes over to drop the trucks and stuff a doll under his shirt yelling, "Mom, I got pregnant!")

The gals on The View, who won't leave this discussion alone, get diverted into a lot of irrelevant talk of Scotland and man skirts and premarital sex in your mom’s house, before finally coming back around to the teacher’s responsibility to make sure children are reminded of gender roles.

For the record, Shepherd would still love her son if he were gay. But dressed appropriately, we assume?

Would you expect a teacher to step in if your son put on a dress (or your daughter a cowboy hat)? Don’t answer that. But feel free to give us your take on Sherri Shepherd's conversations with America.

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