I noted a few weeks ago (at BizzyBlog; at NewsBusters) that Mike Celizic at MSNBC couldn’t get though his article about Jenna Bush’s upcoming wedding without bringing up her misdemeanor arrests from seven years ago.

Julie Mason of the Houston Chronicle also went there in a late Thursday report. She also threw in a number of shots at Jenna’s father, his administration, and his hometown:

Saturday, in an Oscar de la Renta gown with twin sister Barbara at her side, Jenna Bush, 26, will marry 29-year-old business school student Henry Hager at her parents’ Central Texas ranch.

It’s probably as close as Oscar de la Renta will ever get to Crawford.

….. The wedding also is a last hurrah of sorts for Crawford. The town saw its fortunes and profile rise when Bush built his 1,600-acre ranch there. More recently, like the president’s approval ratings, Crawford has fallen on hard times.

….. The White House is being secretive about the ceremony, secretive even by the opaque Bush administration standards.

….. It’s all a far cry from “Jenna and Tonic,” the tabloid sobriquet she earned after two college-era busts for underage drinking. (Ohio University historian Katherine) Jellison said it’s clear Jenna has put some work into improving her public image.

Leanne Italie of the Associated Press (HT Captain Ed at Hot Air) also went to apparent go-to “expert” Jellison, who managed to tie a daughter’s wedding into the Iraq War:

“This is going to be such a different kind of situation,” said Katherine Jellison, an associate professor of history at Ohio University who chronicles the American obsession with marital pomp in her recent book, It’s Our Day.

“Jenna’s father is not running for re-election,” she said. “The frivolity of a big White House wedding in the middle of an unpopular war would have used up what little political capital he has.”

Since all sense of decorum has been abandoned, I hope it’s not too rude to point out that Ms. Jellison has a, uh, unique perspective on weddings, as this Editorial Review of her book, the full title of which is “It’s Our Day: America’s Love Affair With the White Wedding, 1945-2005,” explains (original had no paragraph breaks; bolds are mine):

Love may be the catalyst for the American white wedding, but hosting an elaborate celebration also demonstrates a family’s prosperity and material success, argues Jellison in her compelling economic and social history of how this ritual survived despite the major cultural and political changes of the 1960s and beyond.

Jellison, an associate professor of history at Ohio University, argues that while the white wedding of the 1940s may have celebrated youth, virginity and a patriarchal family structure, Americans have reinterpreted the symbolism of satin and lace: the 21st-century bride evokes the tradition of female-focused celebration and uses the elaborate and costly event as a display of her professional and social success as she marks a life transition.

With chapters on celebrity nuptials, silver-screen I-dos and the latest batch of reality TV brides, Jellison demonstrates how advertisers, media and brides themselves slowly reshaped the white wedding into an act of organized feminism.

Who knew that weddings, of all events, are now celebrations of the sisterhood?

Cross-posted at NewsBusters.org.

“Things I‘d Like To Post About Today; But I Don’t Have Any Time ‘4‘”:

• Fabius Maximus delivers a resounding up-to-date debunk (HT Instapundit) of “Peak Oil” (link is to a search on previous related BizzyBlog posts), so I don’t have to.
• From the Useful Reminder Dept. — When people questioned the patriotism of the presidential candidate I irreverently refer to as “Mr. BOOHOO-OUCH” (Barack O-bomba Overseas Hussein “Obambi” Obama - Objectively Unfit Coddler of Haters), and he, in his answer, confirmed the validity of their concerns, he turned around and questioned theirs. I thought we weren’t allowed to do that.
• It happened “way back” on Sunday, but Chris Wallace made Howard Dean look like such a fool (because he is), that if you haven’t seen it, you should.
• Oh, how the pro-aborts despise it when they are reminded of what they are sanctioning. Two years ago, a prolife memorial in Northern Kentucky was vandalized. This time, the destruction of a prolife memorial is on tape.
• This story (”10-year-old gives birth in Idaho; Suspected illegal immigrant charged with rape”; HT Stop the ACLU via Ace) made me think of this BizzyBlog post (”The ‘My Culture Made Me Do It’ Excuse for Statutory Rape”) in September of 2006. If the current suspect is indeed illegal and guilty, will he also make the claim that “this type of conduct is legal in his culture”?
• As an equal-opportunity critic: I don’t care that, after several highly-publicized “odds of recession” pronouncements, Alan Greenspan is now changing course, and telling us that “(the) worst of credit crisis (is) over.” He should be keeping his mouth shut, and letting Ben Bernanke do his job. Greenspan should imagine how he would have felt if Paul Volcker had constantly given his opinion after he left the Fed and Greenspan took over.
• Well, of course Code Pink’s witches are resorting to witchcraft.
• A “Why in the bleep do we bother?” moment — “House passes $300 billion housing rescue plan that will allow the government to back loans for struggling homeowners.”

So the New York Times, as it lays people off, partially blames Bush — falsely, of course:

A little over two months ago, I told you that we would have to reduce staff within the newsroom by roughly 100 jobs given the difficult financial challenges facing our business and the deteriorating national economy.

Our hope, as you know, was that we could trim our payroll by encouraging enough volunteers to accept buyout offers. While the overwhelming majority of our reductions did indeed come from volunteers, we have been forced to resort to a relatively small numbers of layoffs to meet our assigned goal. (We are not going to discuss numbers or the details of the staff reduction, nor will we be releasing a list of names.)

Earth to Times: Stop reading your own bogus economic articles. Things are improving, not deteriorating, and the “challenges facing (y)our business” haven’t stopped your two Gotham rivals from holding their own.

The Times has been catching flak (HT Instapundit) for not releasing the names, and somewhat deservedly so, since it would release the names of those laid off at other companies, especially unfavored ones, in a heartbeat if it ever got its hands on such a list (or at a minimum would hound each released employee for an interview in search of dirt).

My bigger beef is that in a truly professional organization, the Times, as a company, would be giving them professional send-offs and good-luck wishes, including letting the employment market know who’s available publicly (unless the person involved wished otherwise). But the Times is not a professional organization.

The Times’s Newspaper Guild thinks the “Company appears to have violated (the) contract” in its handling of the layoffs.

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Speaking of the Times — On Wednesday, it had a rare example of pretty decent business commentary by the Times’s David Leonhardt, who nonetehless still owes us a retraction of his bogus “manufacturing recession” call over a year ago) —

….. when the new inflation numbers come out next week, they will indeed be misleading. They will be artificially high.

Rhetorically excessive question: “How much inflation has there been in the 19 years Wendy’s has had its 99-cent menu?” Yeah, I know it’s more than zero; but it’s barely so.

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The rebuilding of the Interstate 35W bridge in Minnesota is an ahead-of-schedule, temporary privatization success.

Locally, we should be treating the rebuilding/replacement of the Brent Spence Bridge connecting Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky similarly. It certainly shouldn’t take seven freaking years — until construction (hopefully) begins (not kidding).

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As he was on Wednesday, the Associated Press’s Martin Crutsinger was still “clinging to recession” on Thursday in his report on unemployment claims:

Many economists believe that a prolonged housing slump and severe credit crisis have pushed the economy into a recession. For that reason, they believe job layoffs will rise in coming months as the unemployment rate climbs higher.

Ian Shepherdson, chief U.S. economist for High Frequency Economics, said that even with the improvement this week, claims are now at a level equal to where they were at the start of the last recession in March 2001. He predicted that layoffs would increase further in coming months.

Mr. Shepherdson failed to note that:

• The workforce is 4%-plus bigger now than in March 2001, so current per-capita claims aren’t up to that level.
• Even though there never were two consecutive quarters of GDP contraction (the everyday working definition of “recession”), the alleged start of the “recession,” as “defined” by the “nonpartisan” National Bureau of Economic Research, should have been sometime during the summer of 2000.

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RIP Lynne Harvey, wife of legendary broadcaster Paul Harvey:

She was the first producer to enter the National Radio Hall of Fame and was inducted in 1997.

….. Bruce DuMont, (Radio Hall of Fame) museum founder and president, said Lynne Harvey was “one of the most remarkable behind-the-scenes talents in the history of American broadcasting, both radio and television.”

….. “She was to Paul Harvey what Colonel Parker was to Elvis Presley.”

DuMont called the Harveys’ relationship “probably the greatest love story that I’ve ever experienced.”

Her Hall of Fame bio is here. “The Rest of the Story” was her brainchild.

Husband Paul called her “Angel.” In her industry, she was “The First Lady of Radio.” Her passing should be receiving much more notice than it is.

From the UK:

May 2 2008

BRIGHT-EYED Charlie Lambert is back in the pool - after giving his parents the shock of their lives.

Just weeks after he plunged fully-clothed into the chilling waters at a north Warwickshire park, the two-year-old is happily continuing the swimming lessons which almost certainly saved his life.

It was in February that Charlie, wearing his waterproofs and wellies, fell into the depths at Kingsbury Water Park, near Atherstone, while on a fishing trip with his mum and dad, Katy and Scott.

The family were accompanied by their six-month-old puppy, Otto.

For a split second, Charlie’s parents were distracted by a badlybehaved Otto. In that short space of time, Charlie toppled head-first into the water.

Re-living the moment, mum Katy said: “Scott and I looked at each other in shock and it was simply a mother’s instinct to jump in to rescue Charlie - only to find the water was actually up to my armpits.”

Although fully dressed and wearing wellies, Charlie had quite calmly started to kick his legs, splash his arms and keep his head above water.

The fact that he swam was, according to his mum, a tribute to staff at Atherstone Leisure Complex who had been teaching little Charlie in ‘Duckling’ swimming lessons.

His grateful mum said: “There’s no doubt in my mind that Charlie’s swimming lessons at Atherstone Leisure Complex helped him cope when he fell into the water.

“I think it’s really important for children to learn to swim - even if they don’t use it for leisure purposes, but only for safety purposes.”

Go here for the rest of the story.