Michelle and Barack on day of national commemoration; and Serena Williams at U.S. Open

LA wrote to Kidist Paulos Asrat:

Look at photo of Obama and Michelle visiting Arlington cemetery.

Kidist replies:

Yes, it is shocking. Hands in pocket, relaxed in a tie-less suit, strolling around a National Cemetery. Shameful.

His wife, as usual, pushes at us her large, muscled body, and lacks the sense of decorum or prudence to cover those bulging muscles. She’s truly ugly. Here she is arriving in Pennsylvania, and later in NYC. This is what she wore to both memorials: strange, short, stiff dress, above the knees; thick gladiator belt, above the waist; short, shrunken sweater. Further down the link of photos, you can see a weird, loose stitch on the side of the dress. And the back is bare, with buttons going all the way down. This looks like some mediocre prom dress, rather than attire for a memorial. And this is supposed to be First Lady material.

Laura Bush wore a pants suit, but for some reason I didn’t mind it. The trousers were flowing and long, and at times seemed like a long dress, and the jacket was long too. [LA replies: It doesn’t look long to me at all. The pants suit is totally inappropriate, but for many years now it’s been standard dress for Republican women, at formal and even at solemn events.] Michelle, on the other hand, is wearing these tight-fitting pants in the photo above, with her “signature” short sleeveless shirt.

Obama’s expression often is detached and aloof. At times it is bemused with a smirk, as though he were surveying some comical, alien civilization in front of him. Or he’s smiling around in a condescending way.

I don’t know how the American people have put up with him for so long. He’s even worse than Canada’s Trudeau.

Despite your advice to the contrary (at your website), I still watched the memorial. I know they went over-board, naming names, families crying at the podium, etc. But, it is a very big event. I think the memorial is apt (two gaping holes in the ground). I was sad the whole area wasn’t finished. It seemed like people were standing near construction cranes. But I know of all the loop-holes etc. the memorial had to get through to get done.

I hope now that this milestone is over, people will just get angry. The Muslim world is no better, and in fact the leaders as as belligerent and anti-West as ever.

- end of initial entry -

Paul K. writes:

Did you see this photo of the president at prayer? He has his head tilted back in his Mussolini attitude. In all fairness this may have been just a momentary position, but it is one that has become familiar with Obama.

(Michelle’s hair is blending in with the back of the president’s head, which looks a bit confusing.)

LA writes:

Another black woman with overdeveloped upper arm muscles and lots of attitude is Serena Williams, who, as discussed at The Thinking Housewife, made a spectacle of herself again yesterday at the U.S. Open.

Serena Williams

One cannot easily say that prominent contemporary black women are adding positive values to American culture. This is not the age of, say, Althea Gibson. But she lived in an America that was had a middle-class white majority culture to which minorities were expected to conform, not a left-liberal culture in which everything is permitted.

Althea Gibson

Robert B. writes:

Serena Williams is obviously on steroids—testosterone to be precise. Not even black women can build muscle like that. My guess is is that she is doing because white women began beating her a few years back.

LA writes:

Today was something of a landmark, with the New York Times describing the menacing behavior of a prominent black woman as … menacing:

For the second time in three years, Williams’s menacing behavior toward an official at Arthur Ashe Stadium overshadowed her opponent’s brilliance. In 2009, Williams lashed out at a lineswoman who called her for a foot fault and lost her semifinal to the unseeded Kim Clijsters when she was given a point penalty on match point….

Stosur had reeled off 12 consecutive points to secure the first set, so when Williams ripped a forehand to Stosur’s backhand for an apparent winner to stave off another break, she could not contain her glee. “Come on!” she screamed.

But Stosur stuck out her racket and got a piece of the ball, and when she made contact, it brought into play the hindrance rule. That rule also cost Marion Bartoli a point under similar circumstances in her second-round match against Christina McHale.

The Ashe scoreboard initially flashed 40-40. Asderaki was slow to inform the crowd that the point and the game had gone to Stosur because Williams had verbally hindered her opponent’s ability to complete the point.

The confusion whipped the crowd into a frenzy, the boos and catcalls becoming so voracious that Stosur waited to deliver her first serve of the second game until the noise died down. She bounced a ball on her racket while a defiant Williams stood on the baseline, her left hand on her hip.

After Williams won the first point with another stinging forehand, she walked toward Asderaki and, pointing her racket as if it were an extension of her index finger, said something that drew her a code violation from Asderaki. During the changeover two games later, Williams continued to take Asderaki to task, and she got personal.

“If you ever see me walking down the hall, look the other way,” Williams said. “You’re out of control. You’re a hater and you’re unattractive inside.”

Williams continued: “Code violation for this? I expressed who I am. We’re in America last time I checked.”

The U.S.T.A. said it was reviewing the incident.

Asked about it in her postmatch news conference, Williams said she was “just in the zone” at the time and did not remember what she had said.

“It was just so intense out there,” she said, adding that she misunderstood the rule.

“I thought it was the hat-drop rule, where if you drop a hat you kind of replay the point,” she said.

The fans fed off Williams’s ire, their decorum disintegrating after she lost her composure. Spectators started applauding Stosur’s faults and shouting during points. The crowd’s fury seemed to take Stosur out of her comfort zone, something that Williams, to that point, had been unable to do.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at September 12, 2011 12:29 PM | Send