Chamblee54

PG thought he was in for a low key evening of photo editing and bloggingheads. Little did he know that he would have to stop the diavlog after 41 minutes to write an angry comment. He should have known, even free entertainment has a price.
The squawking heads were Glenn Greenwald and David Frum. The affair was a technical disaster. Mr. Greenwald had the microphone about a foot away from his mouth, and you had to turn the volume way up to hear him. The problem there was, Mr. Frum was speaking at a normal volume, and when it was his turn you had to turn the volume back down. To compensate for this, Mr. Frum spent the first part of the debate in a room with low lights, and then moved to another room while the discussion took place, with the camera shaking and somebody’s dog barking. It makes one long for the black and white days of goodnight david and goodnight chet.
A few days ago this blog published a discussion about the pedantic phrase epistemic closure. The response here was rather typical…while the normal commenters about EC talk about conservatives, the talkers tonight are squealing that liberals do it too. This line of twowrongsmakearight thinking pulled PG’s chain in a few minutes, but at first it was what was expected. Mr. Frum had an amusing comment about EC at 22:33 “I used to like the term until my logician friends explained to me that it doesn’t mean what everybody thinks it means. …..I will only use it one more time, at the risk of sounding like an idiot. “
The chat wandered over to the war on terror, and the erosion of civil liberties in America. At 38:45, Mr. Frum suggests that BHO is epistemically open. Then, at roughly the 41:00 mark, Mr. Greenwald suggests that liberals owe GWB an apology. He said that BHO is violating many of the same liberties as GWB, but is criticized much less. Mr. Greenwald used the phrase “your president”. This made PG put the diavlog on hold, minimize the pictures he was editing, and send this comment to Bloggingheads.
At the 41:00 mark, Mr. Greenwald starts to talk about how BHO is continuing some of the more abhorrent policies of GWB. He makes the comment that “the left” owes GWB an apology…they trashed him for being a war criminal, but don’t say anything when “your president” does the same thing. Yes he did use the phrase “your president”.
Excuse me sir, but he is your president just as much as he is mine. One of the concerns I had about BHO was that he would take the erosion of civil liberties of the GWB regime, and take them to new depths. As soon as there was a fig leaf terror incident, then we would lose that many more rights.
This diavlog (spell check suggestion: diagnose) is a technical nightmare. Mr. Greenwald needs top volume to be heard, and then Mr. Frum blasts you back when he speaks again. This is a serious problem.
I wrote a feature…”[URL=”https://chamblee54.wordpress.com/2010/05/03/epistemic-closure-for-dummies/”%5DEpistemic closure for dummies[/URL]”…at Chamblee54 a few days ago. It was amusing to hear Mr. Frum admit that BHO was epistemically open. The rushnazi crowd might not like it though.
Tonight’s photo editing is pictures of African Americans from 1899, taken for an exhibition in Paris. When I post about this diavlog…assuming I don’t shoot the volume control… I will post a link.
The conversation went on for another twenty minutes or so. There were ups and downs, on the volume knob and elsewhere. The last thing Mr. Frum said was “We have hit the fundamental epistemic divide”
Pictures for this episode are from The Library of Congress. The story goes that: “The Paris Exposition of 1900 included a display devoted to the history and “present conditions” of African Americans. W.E.B. Du Bois and special agent Thomas J. Calloway spearheaded the planning, collection and installation of the exhibit materials, which included 500 photographs.”

This is Wednesday, the day before my birthday/national day of prayer. We are cleaning out the files here, and have two more reposts about prayer. There is one more for tomorrow, and which point we will get some original writing.
Prayer is not always a good idea.
That is up there with G-d and Motherhood, but somebody has to say it.
Many of my objections are in the phrase, ” Prayer is talking to G-d, and Meditation is Listening.”.
In our culture, we love to talk and don’t have time to listen. Talking is yang, active, power. Listening is yin, receptive, passive, and indicates respect for the person you are paying attention to. This is difficult for many.
No one ever says ” I am going to meditate for you”. Maybe you should.
Prayer is used as an aggressive weapon. “I am going to pray for you” is the condescending conclusion of many a religious argument. I have had it shouted at me like a curse.
There is the matter of prayer as entertainment. While this may be cool to those who are on the program, it can be repulsive to others. Once I volunteered to lead the prayer before a dinner. Here is the story, with some more cool pictures.
Now, prayer is not a completely bad thing. One of the cherished memories of my father is the brief, commonsense blessings he would give before meals. In the context of a church service, prayer plays a useful function. Some famous prayers are beautiful poetry. In Islam, the daily prayers are an important part of the observance. Who am I to say it is wrong? ( A note to the Muslim haters…We are all G-d’s children)
When someone is in a bad way, people want to think they can help. Arguably it does not hurt to pray for someone, but it is nothing to boast about.
One problem is when people are proud of their prayers. There are few as prideful as a “humble servant”. While it may mean something to you, not everyone is impressed. And in a religion obsessed with converting others, you should care what man thinks. .

There is a saying, “For G-d’s sake”. The usual meaning is that something is really important. An example would be “you need to replace that balding tire, for G-d’s sake”.
There is another meaning which comes to mind after the inauguration. We need…really really need…to get religion out of politics. For G-d’s sake.
Three ministers were prominently featured in the inauguration. Gene Robinson was seen by some as an olive branch to Gays and Lesbians offended by the antics of minister number two ( pun intended). The selection led to a few gratuitous anti gay comments. Then, when it was show time, his prayer was not a part of the telecast. Hmmm.
Minister number two is Rick Warren. Widely seen as an egomaniac and a hatemonger, his selection was praised by some as “building bridges”. He made a prayer that seemed to please few. It should be noted at this point that this reporter did not see the proceedings, but is going from the abundant internet coverage.
And what does all of this say about G-d? To use prayer from a hatemonger for “building bridges”. Separation of church and state is a good deal for the church. When you use prayer as a decoration in a ceremony, it loses any meaning.
The last of the three ministers was Joseph Lowery. He quoted a rhyme about different colors of people. Some were pleased by this, and others were offended. Here again, what does all of this say about G-d?
In the last few years, religion has been exploited by the right wing politicians. Being a Christian is somehow supposed to make you a conservative. The semantics and Bible justification for all this is rather tiresome to this reporter.
A recent example is a internet thing called “Pray Obama Fails”. (HT to JoemyG-d).What this person does not understand is that if Obama Fails, all of us fail. It is like the war in babylon…many of us were opposed to it, but if our armies lose, then we all lose. The person who prays for Obama to fail is praying for America to fail. And what sort of G-d do you direct a prayer like that to?
Maybe it is time to get prayer for entertainment out of the public arena. For G-d’s sake.

Sometimes people pray for entertainment, and the wrong person hears them. PG was once this person, and it changed the way he sees religion.
It seems that Jesus was not fond of prayer for entertainment. Not that it really matters…Jesus worshipers are more excited about his death than his life. As for the quotes in the Bible, they were written years after they were spoken, and translated at least twice before they get to us. That said, there is a passage in Matthew that is instructive.
5And when thou prayest,(spell check suggestion: grayest, prankster) thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.
6But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.
7But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.
8Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.
9After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. …
This is followed by what is known as the Lord’s prayer. It bears little resemblance to the prayer that caused PG so much suffering.
It was January 1999, not the party Prince predicted. PG had lost his mother December 18, 1998, and was mourning. One day, while at work, he went to the bathroom. As he was washing his hands, PG thought of the love his mother had for him, and how much he was going to miss her. PG became very sad.
There was a radio, on a table by the door to the bathroom. The radio belonged to a Professional Jesus Worshiper, and it was tuned to a Christian radio station. PJW (spell check suggestions: pew, paw, pow, PJ’s) was somewhere else, not listening to his speaker radio.
In addition to the speaker radio, PJW had a second sound device, that led into his ear with an earplug. This was all while he was on the clock, playing a speaker radio and listening to an earplug.
PG left the bathroom, feeling the pain of losing his mother. A lady was PRAYING FOR ENTERTAINMENT on the radio. The speaker said “The blood of the lamb has cleansed my heart”.
Something inside PG fell apart when he heard that lady. While PG had heard about the Christian symbols plenty of times, this was one time too many to be hearing about bleeding lambs. Gross. This was poison to his soul.
PG ran into the back of the building, and shouted “I hate Christian Radio”. A supervisor went to talk to PJW, who turned off his speaker radio.
The next day, PJW turned his speaker radio back on. He did not say anything to PG.
Three weeks later, and PJW played his speaker radio every day. PG could hear it from his work station, a nasty low level noise, all day, every day. The one difference was at 11:30 every morning, when a preacher came on, and shouted the entire time he was on the air. It made PG sick to his stomach, to have that old man yelling at him because of Jesus. When the videos of Jeremiah Wright came out years later, PG immediately recognized the style of verbally abusing the audience, for Jesus.
Finally, one day PG knew he must confront the bully, and ask him to turn one of his radios off. When PG asked PJW to turn his radio off, the preacher went ballistic. He ranted, quoted the Bible, invoked the names of Jesus and G-d, and made a total fool out of Jesus. All because a co worker, his peer, asked him to turn off one of his two radios.
PJW preached hatred against PG to anyone who would listen. Many of the “Good Christians” agreed with him, that PG needed to be punished for the unforgivable sin of asking PJW to turn down one of his radios. The company management was afraid of a lawsuit, and left PG on his own. The hatred, back stabbing, and bad mouthing continued for the next six years, until PG was laid off. This was all because PG heard a woman praying for entertainment.
Pictures are from The Library of Congress

In honor of the National Day of Prayer , Chamblee54 presents two reruns, both based on the words of Mark Twain. Pictures are from The Library of Congress.
One hundred and four years ago, the United States was involved in a war, that did not want to end. This conflict was in the Philippines. Although there had been an official end to the war, guerrillas continued to fight the Americans. The war was a nasty affair, with many atrocities.
The War against the Philippine people was a souvenir of the Spanish American War. There had been a rebellion against Spanish rule in the islands. After the American forces routed the Spanish, the rebellion shifted to the American occupiers. It was a war stumbled into, and difficult to end.
Mark Twain was horrified. He wrote a story, The War Prayer. As Lew Rockwell tells the tale
“Twain wrote The War Prayer during the US war on the Philippines. It was submitted for publication, but on March 22, 1905, Harper’s Bazaar rejected it as “not quite suited to a woman’s magazine.” Eight days later, Twain wrote to his friend Dan Beard, to whom he had read the story, “I don’t think the prayer will be published in my time. None but the dead are permitted to tell the truth.” Because he had an exclusive contract with Harper & Brothers, Mark Twain could not publish “The War Prayer” elsewhere and it remained unpublished until 1923.”
HT to David Crosby and his autobiography, “Since Then“. A book report is forthcoming.
Getting back to “A War Prayer“, the story starts in a church. A war has started, and is popular. The troops leave for glory the next day. The preacher has an emotional prayer to send them on their way. Unknown to the minister, there is a visitor. “An aged stranger entered and moved with slow and noiseless step up the main aisle, his eyes fixed upon the minister, his long body clothed in a robe that reached to his feet, his head bare, his white hair descending in a frothy cataract to his shoulders, his seamy face unnaturally pale, pale even to ghastliness. With all eyes following him and wondering, he made his silent way; without pausing, he ascended to the preacher’s side and stood there, waiting.
With shut lids the preacher, unconscious of his presence, continued his moving prayer, and at last finished it with the words, uttered in fervent appeal,” Bless our arms, grant us the victory, O Lord our God, Father and Protector of our land and flag!”
The stranger motioned to the preacher to step aside. The stranger stepped into the pulpit, and claimed to have a message for the worshipers, sent directly from G-d. The preacher’s message was for support in time of war, and implied that G-d and the preacher support the same side in this conflict. There is an unspoken part to a prayer like this. This unspoken part was what the stranger was going to put into words.
“”O Lord our Father, our young patriots, idols of our hearts, go forth to battle – be Thou near them! With them, in spirit, we also go forth from the sweet peace of our beloved firesides to smite the foe.
O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with their little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames of summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it-
for our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with their tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet!
We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love, and Who is ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts. Amen.”

Mark Twain wrote a lot during the American Genocide in the Philippines. Many of his words could apply today. War has gotten more high tech…for our side…, but the bottom line is the same. No matter how fancy the weapons get, the casualties are just as dead. And the investors make money.
Mine eyes have seen the orgy of the launching of the Sword;
He is searching out the hoardings where the stranger’s wealth is stored;
He hath loosed his fateful lightnings, and with woe and death has scored;
His lust is marching on.
I have seen him in the watch-fires of a hundred circling camps;
They have builded him an altar in the Eastern dews and damps;
I have read his doomful mission by the dim and flaring lamps —
His night is marching on.
I have read his bandit gospel writ in burnished rows of steel:
“As ye deal with my pretensions, so with you my wrath shall deal;
Let the faithless son of Freedom crush the patriot with his heel;
Lo, Greed is marching on!”
We have legalized the strumpet and are guarding her retreat;
Greed is seeking out commercial souls before his judgement seat;
O, be swift, ye clods, to answer him! be jubilant my feet!
Our g-d is marching on!
In a sordid slime harmonious Greed was born in yonder ditch,
With a longing in his bosom — and for others’ goods an itch.
As Christ died to make men holy, let men die to make us rich —
Our g-d is marching on.

Thursday is the National Day of Prayer. It is also PG’s birthday. This week, we will have commentaries on the custom of prayer. ( He put forth the proposition that you can petition the Lord through Prayer) Today is a repost, written in first person. Pictures are from the ” Special Collections and Archives,Georgia State University Library”
So much for world affairs. It is time to tell a story, with no moral and no redeeming social value.
In 1980, I was staying at a place called the Sea Haven Hostel, affectionately known as Sleaze Haven. This was in Seattle WA, as far as you can get from Atlanta, and still be in the lower 48. I was working through Manpower, and staying in a semi private room for $68 a month.
There was a Christian group that met in the basement on Sunday Night. Now, as some of you may know, I am a recovering baptist, who hasn’t been to church since 1971. However, the lure of a free meal was hard to resist, so I went to a few meetings.
One night,after doing quality control work on the local beer supply,I cheerfully joined in the discussion. This was the night when I realized that the Bible is not the Word of G-d, a concept that has been very handy in dealing with the clumsy efforts of our Jesus-mad culture to convert me.
They seemed to like me, though, and welcomed me back. Maybe it was the southern accent.
One Sunday, after the dinner was finished , it was time to have a prayer to begin the meeting. I raised my hand.Now, Jesus Worshipers enjoy prayer as entertainment. When they bow their heads, you see them stretching and deep breathing, in anticipation of a good, lengthy, message to G-d.
My message was a bit of a disappointment. Instead of a long winded lecture about Jesus and the magic book, I said what was on my mind. Lord, thank you for letting us be here today. What else do you need to say?

There is a six syllable phrase whose use is rampant on the political end of the internet…Epistemic Closure. With all these learned folks tossing the phrase around, PG would like to know what it means.
One way is to separate the two words. Epistemic, the more impressive of the two, means “of or referring to knowledge”. Closure has a few meanings, mostly related to the end of something. The combination of the two does not really add up to what the pundits mean when they talk about EC.
What is being talked about here is more like rhetoric . This is writing, or speech, designed to persuade. You list the “facts” that support your cause, and you ignore any troubling information that disagrees with you. You write with a specific audience in mind, and make the most noise about the “facts” that push their buttons.
We appear to be at the beginning of a tsunami of verbiage about EC. The oil well in the gulf of Mexico may be easier to shut off. In this brief study of EC, we will quote two sources on the internet. One makes a claim to define EC, but this claim may be another example of EC.
At True/Slant Mark Adomanis tells a tale of EC and Russia. It seems like the press likes to talk about Russia as being close to collapse. Some of the data available now indicates that things are not that bad. The press ( many of whom were cold warriors, long used to trashing Russia) seems to ignore this new data when writing about the problems in modern Russia.
Mr.Adomanis appears to be too young to remember the firebreathing anti communism of the Soviet era. He says that maybe things got so bad in Russia that the only way to go was up. Mr. Adomanis just wants a little bit of balance in the reporting. He also contributes a sentence that gives EC a new look. “Are there more consequential examples of epistemic closure, closed-mindedness, or, using my own preferred synonym, intellectual douchebaggery (spell check suggestions: carpetbagger, debauchery) than movement conservative efforts to propagandize about Russian demographics?”
PG interrupts this commentary to note that using female hygiene products as an insult does not raise the level of discourse.
At National Review Online, Jim Manzi writes a piece about a “conservative manifesto” called Liberty and Tyranny. L&T is a doorstop volume, and Mr. Manzi did not want to spend his summer reading it. He decided to focus on the section involving global warming. Before he made this call, he noted ” But when I waded into the first couple of chapters, I found that — while I had a lot of sympathy for many of its basic points — it seemed to all but ignore the most obvious counter-arguments that could be raised to any of its assertions. This sounds to me like a pretty good plain English meaning of epistemic closure. “
The chapters on AGW were full of EC. ” Levin argues that human-caused global warming is nothing to worry about, and merely an excuse for the Enviro-Statists (capitalization in the original) to seize more power. It reads like a bunch of pasted-together quotes and stories based on some quick Google searches by somebody who knows very little about the topic, and can’t be bothered to learn. “ (The post you are reading is another “bunch of pasted-together quotes and stories based on some quick Google searches by somebody who knows very little about the topic, and can’t be bothered to learn.” )
Global warming is a playground of rhetoric, paid spokesmen, and EC. The subject is complex, with literally millions of measurements that few know the significance of. There is big money on the side of denial, and lots of entertainers to take the loot.
Mr. Levin does not look good in his chapter on global warming. ( This is the view of Jim Manzi. PG has not read “Liberty and Tyranny”). At one point, Mr. Levin cites a petition “rejecting the theory of human-caused global warming”, signed by 31,000 scientists. One of the signatories is Spice Girl Geri Halliwell.
Mr. Manzi writes a dynamite concluding paragraph to his post. “There are many reasons to write a book. One view is that a book is just another consumer product, and if people want to buy jalapeno-and-oyster flavored ice cream, then companies will sell it to them. If the point of Liberty and Tyranny was to sell a lot of copies, it was obviously an excellent book… But if you’re someone who read this book in order to help you form an honest opinion about global warming, then you were suckered…This section of the book is an almost perfect example of epistemic closure. ““>

It is another saturday night on the internet. PG is listening to bloggingheads and editing pictures. The pictures are from a trip he took to the beach a few weeks ago. There are 350 pictures in the folder, and the only way to get through them is to sit down and go through them.
The first bloggingheads is about nuclear disarmament. That is not a flavor of gum, like peppermint and doublemint. The doublemint twins are not good at negotiating arms control agreements…another flavor of mint.
It seems like the IAEA is having it’s once-every-five-years conference. Many of the countries at the conference are mad at the US for hanging onto our nukes, while not letting any other countries get them. There is hope for an agreement of sorts, but it probably won’t come until the last minute. A few years ago, they did not have an agreement at the end of the last day, so the delegates unplugged the clock and worked until the next afternoon, and came up with a treaty.
A few weeks before the end of the Bush regime, the US made an agreement with India to do something…PG doesn’t remember the details, and doesn’t want to listen to the broadcast again to find out. Anyway, India is somewhat of a rogue country, since it went ahead and got the bomb, prompting it’s neighbor Pakistan to get the bomb. Some say that if a nuclear war ever starts, it will be between those two. So, it is a bit controversial that India is getting special treatment from the US…Israel and South Africa are especially jealous.
Iran’s President and fashion icon Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will speak to the conference. The diplomatic one has a way of making enemies when he opens his mouth. Iran, and her nuclear program, are being watched at the moment. Israel especially likes to make noise about Iran’s nuclear ambitions, and diverts attention from the Palestinian tragedy while doing so.
This is another place where the talkers need to play smart…while the temptation to make Iran an issue is strong, there are other fish to fry. If Iran wants to make trouble, and prevent consensus on other issues, it can.
It is noted in the video that the IAEA is charged with monitoring nuclear programs to verify compliance with treaties. This is considered an important job, and yet the IAEA has less of a budget than the police department in Vienna, the base city of the IAEA. It is expected that more money for this agency will be discussed at the conference.
The second part of the doubleheader is “Science Saturday”, and the subject is nuclear energy. It seems like the US is buying decommissioned weapons from the USSR and is using the radioactive matter to generate electricity.
One of the guys is a navy man, who works on nuclear vessels. He gets going on the different types of nuclear matter, and your eyes can glaze over quickly. The pro nuke man said that the containment buildings around reactors is too strong to be penetrated by an aluminum plane, The issue of a 911 plane attacking a nuclear facility is a non issue. He says that the nuclear matter supply is secure, and this blog hopes he is right.
The issue of nuclear energy…developed separately from nuclear weapons…can be a force for peace. The navy man said, in response to critics who say nuclear power is too expensive, said (31:00) that the US Navy is an organization that spends $600 for a hammer, and just because our plants are expensive doesn’t mean that your would be .
The regulation and licensing issue was discussed. There are a lot of obstacles for a person who wants a small scale nuclear plant on their farm. On the other hand, China is building many large reactors, and the regulation process is taking a fraction of the time that America takes.
The pro nuke man…his name is Rod Adams…is a master of rhetoric. He says that a problem with the nuclear industry is the influence of the submarine industry, which is a tight lipped bunch. He says that there is a need for English majors at nuclear facilities, to get the word out about the benefits of the industry.
John Horgan, the anti nuke man, said something about the Homer Simpson syndrome, with regards to nuclear power plant workers. Mr. Adams said he hopes people don’t make career choices based on a cartoon. He does not watch the Simpsons, because it offends him. (57:30)
Mr. Horgan was gushing with praise for Mr. Adams at the end of the dialog, saying he might have to become pro nuke. PG was a bit more skeptical. Mr. Adams was repeating rhetoric, saying all the good things about nukes, a few bad things about non nuclear energy, and little bad about nukes. Mr. Horgan was over matched.
Watching the military man with the big mustache made PG wonder about the truth of what he said. (He was more plausible when listened to, without the visual part of the show).The man was just a bit too slick to be completely believed, especially on a subject as complex as nuclear energy.
One of the commenters said “it would be wonderful to hear Rod come back to discuss his views with someone who has his technical chops but not his enthusiasm for nuclear power. I’m not knee-jerk anti-nuke by any means, but I would like to hear some skepticism — this diavlog was at times only one step away from “too cheap to meter.” Nothing against Rod for being gung-ho, and I don’t think he misrepresented anything, but still: nothing is ever as good or as easy as it sounds when a proponent is the only informed voice in the room.”

This is a repost of a story from a year ago. It is good to see Carrie Prejean becoming a trivia question. Pictures are from The Library of Congress.
Back when PG was working at Shakey Blueprints, he had this running conversation. “PG you should write a book”. “No one would believe it”.
Now we fast forward to the blogosphere of 2009. You can write a post, and no sane person would believe it. The only problem is that it is the truth…at least part of the story is real.
The story in question is Carrie Prejean and Perez Hilton. As you probably know by now, Miss Prejean is Miss California, and was a finalist in the Miss USA pageant. Perez Hilton asked her whether the other states should follow the lead of Vermont, and legalize same sex marriage. Miss Cali gave a rambling answer. The bottom line was, her religion taught her that marriage was between a man and a woman.
The story went downhill from there. Mr. Hilton ( whose “real” name is Mario Lavandeira, which is spanish for laundromat) had a hissy fit, and insulted mama dogs. Miss Prejean opened her mouth, and has not shut it. It takes talent to make Perez Hilton look smart, but Carrie Prejean has done it.
Then reports came out that Miss Prejean had breast implants. There was a public statement by the Co Executive director of the Miss California Organization, speaking under the poetic handle Shanna Moakler. It turns out that the Miss California Organization paid for the breast implants. You can’t make this stuff up.