Pundit is astonished women think Daniel Craig is hotter than he is

The Washington Post’s Richard Cohen is decidedly distressed that Daniel Craig in Skyfall is really buff. He assures us it’s because being buff is such a tragic waste of human life: “Every rippling muscle is a book not read, a movie not seen or a conversation not held … Nothing about him looks natural, relaxed — a man in the prime of his life and enjoying it.”
Of course, he’s also really upset that young buff men are held up as the ideal for young women to swoon over instead of older men like himself—er, like Cary Grant, Gary Cooper or Humphrey Bogart years ago. They got girls by being suave and sophisticated, winning the “sexual meritocracy”—whereas Craig is just a mean ol’ cheat (apparently putting in effort to get ripped doesn’t count as any sort of merit). Think Progress looks more generally at the idea Craig is being posed for women the way Bond Girls are usually posed for men; this LGM thread has some snark.
Moving on to the subject of Republicans recovering from the election … In my last And column, I discussed the frustration older white Republicans feel at being demoted from Real Americans to just one of many minorities (more on this topic here). As if to prove my point, one Tea Party member responds to the idea Republicans are “too old and too white” by arguing that only those old enough to remember the days of freedom before “anti constitutional” civil rights legislation and before affirmative action imposed racism on America (as I’ve noted before, some whites are convinced they are the civil rights movement) are the Real Americans. Slacktivist collects a few more examples of Republicans reaching out to minorities. And here’s a Slacktivist post linking to an article that celebrates the new world where everyone’s a minority.
Meanwhile, Charles Murray (also mentioned in one of the links above) is baffled why Asians don’t all vote Republican. And conservative bloggers are horrified by Obama’s failure to observe a real American Thanksgiving.
•The University of Colorado has bowed to gun-activist pressure and opened a dorm for students who want to pack heat (concealed). Nobody’s moving in, which the campus gun-activist explains is because they’re all offended by segregation and the implied discrimination against gunmen.
•How much should we stretch to accommodate even the loonier believers?
•Why is “feminist” a bad word?
•An old post from Rod Dreher explains that while Jesus may have talked about greed more than sexual misbehavior, but sexual misbehavior is a greater threat in the modern world so-look, a chicken!
•Digby on the Republican ability to play hardball better.
•Trying to hire skilled workers at a rock-bottom rate is not a skills gap.
•Likewise, the fact Hostess workers rejected a proposed pay cut doesn’t make the union uncompetitive, it makes the company uncompetitive.
•Slacktivist again, this time on Thanksgiving.
•Ross Douthat argues the strength of American society lies in marriage and private institutions (churches, clubs, businesses). Thereisnospoon cries bullshit.
•Is Rush Limbaugh’s charm waning?