The XX Factor: What women really think.

The Cute-ocalypse is Coming

Like Lauren, I enjoyed Jim Windolf's insightful attack on cute culture, but I find the otters-holding-hands/Iraq War connection to be a bit of a stretch. Windolf suggests that we're asking for forgiveness through penitential offerings of cuteness, but it's not my impression that most Americans think we need to be forgiven. Maybe popular cuteness is intended "as some sort of correction" to our new status as invaders, but that presupposes a level of remorse I don't really see. Which is not to say cuteness and politics never meet; they certainly do in Japan. Here's Prince Pickles, the rosy-cheeked mascot of Japan's Defense Forces ... (Read the rest of this article in DoubleX.)

The Dangers of the Cute-R-Net

A post from DoubleX writer Lauren Bans:

Several times a week I walk by the marketing section of my office and see a group of grown men and women in their business-casual attire standing over someone’s computer screen giggling and cooing. Almost daily, I get an e-mail entitled, “SO CUTE I WANTZ TO DIE” or “AHHHHHHZZ! CUTEGASM!” along with a link for, say, a YouTube video of a sweet-faced pug so fat it can’t roll over, or a 4-year-old performing the Single Ladies dance. Most of these videos live up to the adorability claims of their “z”-infested titles. (Apparently bad grammar signifies something is SO cute it’s made one functionally retarded.) Though, admittedly, in order to enjoy the slew of children-dancing-to-Beyonce-videos I’ve been sent, I have to actively forget the gross reality that there are parents behind the camera who have trained their kids to be delightfully adorable circus monkeys for the Internet masses ... (Read the rest of this article in DoubleX.)

Enough Out of You, Young Levi

The juicy bits from Levi Johnston's article in Vanity Fair are now online. The most talked-about excerpt is sure to be that Sarah Palin wanted to keep Bristol's pregnancy a secret ... (Read more in DoubleX)

Heath Ledger Profile Shows How Fame Can Destroy the Psyche

The Car Seat Taboo

The Sarah Palin Saga: Why Doesn't She Get it?

Like Jessica, I devoured Todd Purdum's blistering report in the current issue of Vanity Fair about Sarah Palin that draws on sniping from former John McCain aides, shrugging statements of disownment from acquaintances in Wasilla, and sorrowful head-shaking from the Republican intelligentsia. The wide-ranging “profile” of the woman who almost stood second in line to the presidency pre-empts the forthcoming book that netted the Alaskan governor seven figures. And, having undergone the saga of the 2008 presidential campaign—particularly the post-Labor Day sprint that made up Palin’s first months in the public spotlight—it’s astonishing to think that there could POSSIBLY be more to the story.

And yet, writes Purdum ... (Read more at DoubleX.com.)

Sarah Palin's Uneasy Relationship with the Truth

There are many things that I find deeply upsetting about Sarah Palin. But in the new Vanity Fair assessment of Palin's current place in the political universe, the most disturbing thing Todd Purdum reveals is her inability to discern or care about the truth:

At one point, trying out a debating point that she believed showed she could empathize with uninsured Americans, Palin told McCain aides that she and Todd in the early years of their marriage had been unable to ... (Read more at DoubleX.com.)

Is It Wrong to Feel Sympathy for Eliot Spitzer?

I have a strange fascination with Eliot Spitzer. There, I said it. It's true. I suppose that's in part due to the fact that when Spitzergate roared its way into the headlines, I was running a project in which I was (for reasons that now escape me) collecting e-mails from men who had paid for sex about why they had paid for sex. Spitzer was one of those guys. I mean, he didn't send me an e-mail (not that I'm aware of, anyway), but he was one more john who had paid for sex, and the only difference was that A) he had gotten caught and B) he was famous.

Since, I've followed the guy's fall from grace and heady reascent to Slate columnist. Most recently, the kids over at Vanity Fair took him out to lunch, and John Heilpern succeeds in getting the former governor to open up over hotdogs. These days, Spitzer works for his father, a real estate tycoon. He's worked doggedly to rehabilitate his reputation, but ... (To read the rest of this post, visit our new website DoubleX.com!)

Bernie Madoff: "Nothing Gets By Ruth"

Eleanor Squillari, Bernie Madoff's former executive assistant cooperated with Vanity Fair reporter Mark Seal for a juicy secretary's point of view on her crooked ex-boss that will appear in the VF June issue. Squillari spent two months helping the FBI and SEC unravel Madoff's financial accounts after Madoff confessed to operating a $50-billion Ponzi scheme in December 2008. Squillari says in the article that following Madoff's arrest, his wife Ruth called the office frequently asking the 25-year employee to provide her with information without notifying the bankruptcy trustees. Squillari said no dice. "Instead, I told the FBI what had just happened. I was working for them now, not for Ruth and Bernie Madoff."

I've always been curious about how much the financier's wife of nearly 50 years knew about his decades-long fraud. In a video interview with Seal, Squillari tells the veteran reporter she "would have no way of knowing if Ruth knew," but she shares a telling anecdote about when a colleague of Madoff's employee embezzled from him. In discussing the matter, Madoff told his own subordinate, "He should have been keeping an eye on his personal finances. That's why I've always had Ruth watching the books. Nothing gets by Ruth."