Anna Nicole Smith Is Dead

CNN is reporting that the Queen of All Skanks, Anna Nicole Smith, has died.

Reality TV star and former model Anna Nicole Smith was pronounced dead Thursday after being taken to a Florida hospital, a law enforcement source told CNN. Smith, 39, collapsed at a south Florida hotel, according to news reports.

"I can confirm that she is deceased. It's as shocking to me as to you guys," Smith's attorney, Ronald Rale, told Reuters. "I don't know anything further. [Her lawyer and husband] Howard [K. Stern], obviously, is speechless and grieving."

Smith's nurse called Seminole Hard Rock Hotel workers at 1:38 p.m. and security went to the room, hotel officials said. Fire rescue workers from both the Seminole Indian tribe and from Hollywood Fire-Rescue arrived minutes later and Smith was taken to Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood at 2:10 p.m.

Smith was involved in a paternity suit regarding the parentage of her daughter, Danielynn, as well as other disputes, including some regarding a house she stayed at in the Bahamas around the time she gave birth.

Hey, she was a trainwreck. I'm surprised that she didn't die sooner.

North Korea To Disarm?

Yahoo.com:

North Korea expressed its readiness Thursday to discuss initial steps of its nuclear disarmament, raising hopes for the first tangible progress at international talks on Pyongyang's atomic weapons program since they began more than three years ago.

"We are prepared to discuss first-stage measures," the North's nuclear envoy Kim Kye Gwan said on arriving in Beijing for the six-nation negotiations set to start later Thursday.

Media reports have suggested the North may agree to freeze its main nuclear reactor and allow international inspectors in exchange for energy aid as a starting step to disarm.

But Kim said any moves by North Korea would be determined by the United States' attitude.

"We are going to make a judgment based on whether the United States will give up its hostile policy and come out toward peaceful coexistence," he said, adding that Washington was "well-aware" of what it had to do.

If they actually do disarm this time, will Bush get any credit? Of course not. He never does.

Rudy Giuliani Supported Ruth Ginsberg

Giuliani loved Ruth Ginsburg?!? Does it get any more liberal that that?

From CBN.com:

Now that Rudy Giuliani is in, his conservative critics are going to go to town on him from abortion to marriage to yes, even judges. Just recently as this weekend, Giuliani said he would appoint judges like Scalia, Alito and Roberts. That's music to the ears of social conservatives. But, less than two years ago, in July of 2005, when he appeared on Fox's Hannity and Colmes he said this about judges:

Host Alan Colmes:
"Now, Roe versus -- now, you are pro-choice. How important is it to you as a pro-choice Republican to have a pro-choice on the court as someone...

Giuliani:"That is not the critical factor. And what's important to me is to have a very intelligent, very honest, very good lawyer on the court. And [John Roberts] fits that category, in the same way Justice Ginsburg fit that category. I mean, she was -- she maybe came at it from a very different political background, very qualified lawyer, very smart person. Lots of Republicans supported her. I expect, and listening to Senator Nelson, I expect that John Roberts will get support from a lot of Democrats."

By the way, the Family Research Council predicts that a Giuliani nomination in 2008 will assure a victory for the Democrats. I agree.

"Newsweek" Confronts Whores Britney Spears, Paris Hilton, et al

Those wacky celebrity skanks. Finally, someone in the mainstream press is taking them to task.

Is the bad behavior of today's pop twits legitimate enough reason to keep your daughter away from I Know Who Killed Me? Or is Newsweek's latest cover, "The Girls Gone Wild Effect," another example of media-manufactured alarmism?

According to the mag's new poll, 77 percent of respondents said Britney, Paris, and Lindsay have too much influence on young girls. (Perhaps that's what happens when you put them on the cover of a national news magazine.) Here's a quick look at the other data:

• "Sex surveys are notoriously unreliable, but the best available data show that the average age of first sexual intercourse for girls is 17 ... and hasn't changed by more than a few months in 20 years."

• "Smoking and overall drug use among teenage girls have declined in recent years."

• "The overall teenage pregnancy rate in 2002, the most recent available, was down
35 percent from 1990."

• "In the 2004-2005 school year, women earned 57 percent of all bachelor's degrees awarded and 59 percent of master's degrees."

Of course, this could just be a bunch of ivory tower numbers manipulation. What do today's real girls think?

• "My friends and I look at them to laugh at them," explains Emma Boyce, a 17-year-old from New Orleans. "Our lives seem pretty good by comparison. We're not going to rehab like Lindsay."

One of the best books I've read on America's celebration of decadence is Ben Shapiro's excellent tome "The Porn Generation". 21yo (at the time he wrote the book) Shapiro spouts the same topics Newsweek brings up: the utter rejection of morality by these very same celebrities and how much of a damaging effect it's having on our society, especially today's youth. If you haven't already read it I highly recommend that you pick it up.