Do I really give a shit what meghan mccain + TMZ think? Obviously, yes. I do.

Meghan McCain: Is Schock the GOP's Mr. Right?
Posted: 02:09 PM ET

From CNN Associate Producer Martina Stewart


In a new blog post, Meghan McCain discusses Rep. Aaron Schock.



WASHINGTON (CNN) — At 27 years old, Illinois Republican Rep. Aaron Schock is the youngest member of Congress. He's also possessed of washboard abs and has, as of late, become a favorite target of celebrity gossip outlet TMZ. And the daughter of the last Republican presidential candidate thinks he might just be the answer to the GOP's troubles.

"The first time I ever heard of Congressman Aaron Schock, I was hanging out with some friends during a girls' night in, and one of my friends yelled to me from the other room: 'Meghan, there's a congressman on TMZ,'" Meghan McCain writes Tuesday in her latest blog post for the Daily Beast. "To which I answered: 'Twenty bucks he's a Democrat.' Well, I was wrong."

"…At the end of the day, Congressman Schock is only three years older than me. Which means he can relay a message in ways my father never could," she says.


TMZ is owned by Time Warner, which is also the parent company of CNN.

McCain gives Schock high marks for reaching out to demographic groups that do not traditionally vote Republican, for his calls for greater ideological flexibility, and his decision to avoid negative campaign ads.

"As someone who has been personally attacked when I invited political discourse, I firmly believe that talking about our differences — instead of mudslinging — can only bring people closer to the Republican Party and force them to take a second look at their candidates," she writes, referring to recent public spats with conservative commentators Laura Ingraham and Ann Coulter.

McCain says the "congressman-turned-TMZ-hottie" may be the cure for what ails the GOP: "If nothing else, in an Obama-crazed land, he is getting people's attention and putting another fresh face at the center of what it is too often perceived as an old-news, boring party."

Huffington Post's Repub Hotie

Liberal site's readers vote Republican 'Hottest Freshman'


Republican Rep. Aaron Schock won a Huffington Post readers' poll to determine the hottest freshman Congress.
WASHINGTON (CNN) – Who says bipartisanship is dead?

Readers of the liberal Web site the Huffington Post have crossed ideological lines and voted Illinois Republican Rep. Aaron Schock the “Hottest Freshman” in the 111th Congress.

At age 27, Schock also has the distinction of being the youngest member of Congress.

Although nearly 10,000 votes were cast in the site’s poll, Schock suggested that he might have gotten some help from some participants who weren’t exactly unbiased. “It’s flattering,” the congressman said in a statement Wednesday. “Apparently my friends and family have a lot of time on their hands.”

Schock hails from Peoria, Illinois and represents the state’s 18th District in the House of Representatives.

The REAL Political Issue...

The First Gen Y Congressman


The new Congress that convened this week is the oldest in history, with the average Representative's age rising to a record 57. That's three decades older than Aaron Schock, the youngest member of Congress and the first to be born in the 1980s. The 27-year-old Illinois Republican is already a political veteran: he won a seat on Peoria's school board at 19, rose to school-board president at 23 and then won two terms in the Illinois state legislature. He spoke with TIME about his early success, reaching out to Gen Y voters and the odds of having any fun in Washington.

Most of your colleagues in Congress are old enough to be your parents. How do you see the job differently than they do?

It's a little lonely being the only one in my 20s here. But obviously, I do bring somewhat of a different perspective because I hope to be around as an American citizen for the next 50 years, Lord willing. The programs we're voting on and the policies we're implementing are things my generation will be paying for for the next 50 years. So I look at it in a different light than somebody who may be in their 60s or 70s.

Do you think of yourself as part of Generation Y? How would you describe people your age?

I hadn't until I became a candidate and I was informed that I'd be the first Gen Y Congressman, so I actually started a leadership PAC as a candidate that was titled GOP Generation Y Fund. So I've tried to play off that to my benefit and to the benefit of other young candidates who might be running in the future.

As far as this generation, I think we're a very involved and engaged demographic. I think you saw that in the last election.

That's true — your generation was very active politically last year. But most supported Democrats. Is there something your party doesn't get about younger voters?

I think at times elected officials lose sight of the fact that the younger generation uses different means of communications. They don't necessarily pick up the New York Times to get their news. They may go online, and they may use more things like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube — things that members of the older generation aren't as accustomed to using to communicate with constituents.

If President-elect Obama's campaign taught us anything, it was how to use new media to reach out to youth. If your source of information is your iPhone and your Facebook page, then hands down, Senator Obama did a much better job than Senator McCain. Job One is just reaching out and communicating.

You graduated from college in two years. You joined the Illinois legislature at 23. Why the hurry?

I'm a big believer that when opportunity presents itself, you've got to seize it. I've been very fortunate that the doors of opportunity have been opened, and I've walked through them. I've been very blessed that back home, the community has supported me — I look back at photos of me when I was running for school board at 19 and I joke that I don't know if I would have voted for that kid.

It's humbling to know that several hundred thousand people cast their ballot to put a 27-year-old in the U.S. Congress. To have their faith in my ability to represent them and to do a good job for central Illinois means a lot. That weighs heavily on me, the responsibility to deliver for them.

There are lots of young people in Washington and plenty of opportunities to unwind. Is having fun on your agenda?

I asked my scheduler about that yesterday, and I didn't see it on there for the first six months [laughs]. The schedule that the Speaker has put out is pretty aggressive. The weekends that I have, quote, free, I'm planning to go back to central Illinois. Those are the folks who gave me the job, and I need to stay in touch with them.

But I'm a big believer in balance too. You can't be all work and no time for family and friends, so that's important to me as well.

Are you dating anyone, Congressman?

Not yet. Put out the word!

Now that you have a congressional staff, is it strange to be the boss of people older than you?

When I was a state legislator, my staff was all older than me. What I have found with my colleagues is, if you're respectful with one another and you have a level of professionalism, it's reciprocated. I figure when they apply to work for me, they know who they're applying to work for, so if they had a problem with the age thing, they probably would not have sought employment with me.

Members of Congress get special license plates and free postage, right? Any other cool perks of the office so far?

There are definitely perks, but I can tell you my constituents think there are more perks than there actually are. They wanted to know right away where my bodyguards were, and they were surprised that I haven't found a place to stay yet. They said, "You're kidding — you have to pay for that?" Sometimes they think that the opulence is more than what it actually is. I put my pants on one leg at a time this morning and walked to the Capitol. But it's definitely a privilege to serve.

Your predecessor in the 18th District, Ray LaHood, has been nominated as President-elect Obama's Transportation Secretary. Abraham Lincoln once represented that district as well. What's down the road for you?

As far as where I want to go, I'm a big believer in staying on task and doing a good job in the position you've been given. And who knows what the future may hold.

Her Alleged "Beating"?? We don't even know if it was HER...

Rihanna: How She Can Heal

As Rihanna recovers from Sunday morning's alleged beating by her boyfriend, Chris Brown, the singer will need to tend to more than her bruises.

According to experts, a victim must surround herself with people who will not make her feel responsible for what happened.

"Friends, family, people who will give you good and positive information and not ask questions like, 'So, what were you doing?' " explains Rita Smith, executive director of the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence.

Adds Sheryl Cates, CEO of the National Domestic Violence Hotline: "I'd say to Rihanna, 'You did not cause this.' "

Normal Response

As her physical wounds heal, Rihanna could still suffer sleeping problems, a change in eating patterns and a lack of concentration, says Smith. "She could also experience an exaggerated startle response," says Smith. "Somebody raising their hand to say hi near her might bring a reaction.

"This is a normal response to being a victim of violence. Those things will lessen and go away, but they'll be around for a while," adds Smith.

Joining a support group or speaking with a counselor involved in a domestic violence program can aid in healing, says Sue Else, president of the National Network to End Domestic Violence.

"Feeling like there is safety net around you is going to help that," says Else. "Feeling like you're not in this alone – that you didn't do anything to cause it."

**** I hate everyone who contributed to this article.

Employment Purgatory

Recession leaves many working in limbo

The morning after she lost her job, Patty Powers expected to wake up with that feeling of dread you get when you realize that something bad has happened, like a death in the family.

Instead, she felt relief.

“I almost felt like a new opportunity had opened up for me,” she said. “I really felt worse when I was waiting.”

For months, Powers had gone to work knowing there would be little if any work for her to do because of a steep slowdown in business at the health care consultancy where she worked.

At first, her boss used the lull to encourage employees to take additional training. The staff also took on a pro bono case and was encouraged to seek out other potential business leads. In their copious downtime, they sent around computer games to play.

Toward the end, Powers said her boss literally gave her the assignment of updating her resume. Finally he called her into his office and, in an emotional hour-long meeting, told her he would have to let her go.

It was only after that that the Ontario, Calif., resident realized how hard it had been to go to work every day knowing that it might be her last — or might not.

“I really didn’t know how stressful it was until I got laid off,” said Powers, 50. “It was like a hindsight thing.”

The economic recession has pushed hundreds of thousands of Americans into a similar employment limbo, still holding on to a job but worried that they might lose it any day.

U.S. companies announced plans to lay off 241,749 workers in January alone, the largest monthly total since January of 2002, according to data from outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. The pace of job cuts hasn’t abated much in February, either, with companies such as General Motors announcing plans to cut thousands more jobs over the next year.

It can often take months for companies to complete a massive layoff, leading to a nerve-racking period in which workers are left to wonder whether they will be targeted, and anxious to defend their position.

Of course, no one relishes the thought of the unemployment line, and the nation’s soaring jobless rate has left many laid-off workers unable to find a new job at all, let alone one that is comparable to their old one.

Still, for some the most stressful part is the ambiguity of not knowing if, or when, they will be joining the swelling ranks of the unemployed.

“The condition of uncertainty is sometimes actually worse than actually knowing that you’re going to get laid off,” said Leon Grunberg, a professor of comparative sociology at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Wash., who has studied downsizing extensively.

His research showed that people who were fearful of losing their jobs but hadn’t lost them yet were more likely to suffer symptoms of poor health, such as headaches, indigestion and sleep disorders.

The widespread fear of layoffs, combined with an absence of any concrete information, also can have a deep impact on both morale and productivity, as workers find it hard to keep their minds on their jobs amid rumors about who could be next and anxiety over what will happen if they are the ones to get the pink slip.

‘Just a matter of time’

Every payday for the last two months, Jackie Hopkins has watched as some of her co-workers have been let go. And every payday, she’s wondered if she will be next.

“I know it’s just a matter of time,” she said.

The 40-year-old purchasing supervisor for a manufacturing company already has had both her wages and hours cut as the slowing economy has led to a drop in business.

Hopkins' fears are compounded by the fact that her husband, a welder, has been unemployed since October 2007. The couple lost their home of five years to foreclosure and are currently renting a trailer in Bremen, Ohio, and trying to save money wherever they can.

The situation has left her riddled with anxiety, worried about doing her best at work and consumed at home with looking at job sites and wondering how she will pay her bills and keep food on the table.


“This is something that consumes my whole life,” she said. “It’s all I think about.”

Hopkins said one of the hardest parts is that she actually has always loved her job, which she has held for nearly eight years, and would never have thought of leaving. Even now she is trying to keep her morale up despite her worries about her own future.

“You try to let the company know that yeah, you’re rooting for them and everything else, but deep down inside it’s like, ‘Oh my God, what am I going to do when I’m on the unemployment line?’ ” she said.


Many workers who still have jobs say they nevertheless are planning for the possibility that they won’t.

Scott Ho, a 29-year-old designer for an architecture firm, figures that if he gets laid off his best chance for finding new employment will be to transition to a career in transportation, but he knows that could take time. The Monterey Park, Calif., resident recently moved back in with his parents so he can save money and pay off debts.

He originally had planned on making that move to save up for a house, but after his company laid off some workers, he said, “now it looks more like it’s a matter of survival.”

Many workers also worry about what will happen to the people they serve if they are let go. Tricia Henington has worked as a school nurse in Idaho since 1992, doing everything from helping students with insulin shots to administering feeding tubes.

Now, with the state facing a budget crunch, she’s worried that her job may be on the chopping block.

Henington said she’s sympathetic to the school district’s budget woes, and she doesn’t want to see academics and extracurricular activities cut, even if it means she loses her job instead. Still, she said that without her position, parents and teachers might have to take on her responsibilities, adding to their burdens and stresses.

On a personal level, Henington also worries that if she loses her job she’ll have to go back to school to update her skills for other nursing work. At 52, she doesn’t relish the thought of retraining for a new job when she had hoped to retire in her current one. Perusing the job listings, Henington also frets about whether she’ll be able to find a new job that provides benefits for herself and her husband, a rancher.

There are days, she admits, when she wakes up at 5 a.m. to get ready for work and wonders why she even bothers.

“It’s hard to go to work and put on that happy, cheery face when you know, come July, you may get that letter saying you haven’t been renewed,” she said.

Hard to move on

Being in limbo also makes is hard to move on to a new job — assuming there is one in this difficult economy.

For one thing, it’s hard to find the time to search, or train, for a new job when you are already dealing with the workload of a full-time job.

There are other distractions as well. Powers, the computer programmer, said she felt like a traitor to consider new jobs while her boss was still paying her despite the evident slowdown in business.

Now that she is officially unemployed and starting her job search, she said she feels sorry for her former co-workers.

“I’m sure it’s worse for them because they have both the stress of thinking that they’re next, and the guilt of being the ones that didn’t get laid off,” she said.

While layoffs create anxiety for workers, Grunberg’s research showed that the process also can be extremely difficult for the managers who are charged with carrying out the job cuts.

Fred Smith has been in the business of building fences since 1982 and has owned his most recent business since 2004. But in recent months, he’s seen business slow considerably and also has been stuck with unpaid bills from customers who have gone bankrupt. That’s left him no choice but to lay off 19 workers for the first time.

He called it “the hardest thing in the world.”

“There’s been a lot of tears shed just for the people I’ve had to let go,” he said. “It’s devastating because they don’t know how they’re going to pay their bills.”

Smith, who runs Accurate Fence LLC in Buford, Ga., also has had to cut pay for his salaried employees, and he is trying desperately to keep the workers he has left busy enough to collect a paycheck. He said it’s tough to see how worried his employees are that they could be next.

“They’re wanting to do extra, go extra just to keep from losing their jobs, but right now the jobs are just not coming in,” he said.

Stimulate This, Morons...

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/02/13/stimulus.winners.losers/index.html

Points of interest to me:

Car buyers: Anyone who buys a new car in 2009 gets to deduct the sales tax. To qualify, buyer must make $125,000 individually or $250,000 jointly. Cost is $1.7 billion. (IF YOU MAKE THAT, WHY DO YOU NEED A TAX BREAK ON A NEW CAR!?!?!?)

Foreclosures: $2 billion is set for a neighborhood stabilization program that helps areas plagued with foreclosures by buying back properties and preventing blight. (IMPOSSIBLE TO TRACK THE SUCCESS OF…)

Veterans: Nearly all items for Veterans Affairs were reduced and the $2 billion the Senate wanted for VA construction was wiped out altogether. The VA did get one thing: $1 billion for medical facilities renovation and retooling. (WITH MORE VETERANS THAN EVER, AND MILITARY STAYING IN LONGER, THIS MAKES NOOOOO SENSE)

NASA: Banked just more than $2 billion, including $400,000 for science/global-warming research. (DOES ANYONE EVEN CARE ABOUT NASA ANYMORE??? I SURE DON'T….)

High-speed and inner-city rail: Went from $300 million in House bill to $2.25 billion in Senate to $8 billion in final version. There also is a $6.9 billion provision for public transit. (I GUESS DETROIT'S GETTING THEIR LIGHT RAIL UP WOODWARD THAT'S TOTALLY POINTLESS).

The Shug from Esquire Mag

The Shug: A Gesture from Obama You Believe In

The combination of a shake and hug has been around for years. One hand grasps the other man's hand, and one arm goes around his shoulder. The handshake is facile. The hug is tender. But the shug is right there in the middle — masculine and affectionate at the same time, reserved but expressive. It allows you to put yourself out there by bringing the other guy in. Close but not so close. It's more than a shake, less than a hug. It's a shug.

The shug can be predetermined: You can go in shugging. Or it can be decided upon during the course of the ordinary (if all-important) handshake. But the choice is yours. Because you have the guy's hand. He can't get away. Which brings up the interesting part: With a shug you can inflict affection.

Like when Barack Obama shugged John McCain during one of their presidential debates last October. At that moment the elegance and utility of the shug were fully realized. That's when it went beyond merely being the future president's signature greeting and became useful to us all. Because what appeared at first like a physical manifestation of unity may also have been disarming. With that shug, he pulled McCain in. He literally kept his enemy close. He leaned in so far that he could plant the kiss of death. Or maybe it wasn't nefarious at all. Maybe he just likes the guy. Either way, McCain got shugged.

How is this still possible...

Holocaust denier removed as head of Argentine seminary

(CNN) -- A Holocaust denier Pope Benedict XVI welcomed back into the Roman Catholic Church last month has been removed from his position as head of a seminary in Argentina.

The views of Bishop Richard Williamson, who has led the seminary in La Reja since 2003, do not reflect those of The Society of St. Pius X, said Christian Bouchacourt, head of its Latin American chapter.

"It's obvious that a Catholic bishop cannot talk with the ecclesiastical authority, but to things related to faith and morality," Bouchacourt said in a written statement.

Williamson, shortly before the pope lifted his excommunication, denied the Nazis had systematically murdered 6 million Jews during World War II.

In his blog Saturday, Williamson, referring to himself, posted a note, saying, "His Excellency is neither dead, dying, nor retired."

Earlier Sunday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel phoned Pope Benedict about the issue, though neither side seemed to have shifted its position over Williamson.

"It was a very constructive conversation," the German government and the Vatican said in a joint statement about the call. Merkel and the pope expressed respect for each other's opinion, the release said -- diplomatic-speak for saying neither side budged.

Merkel demanded Tuesday that the pope firmly reject Holocaust denial.

"The pope and the Vatican must make absolutely clear that there can be no denial of the Holocaust," Merkel said.

The Vatican has pointed to several statements by Pope Benedict in the past few years condemning the destruction of European Jewry, including his visits to concentration camps. He has also said he did not know of Williamson's views on the Holocaust when he lifted the excommunication.

"I believe that the historical evidence is strongly against -- is hugely against -- 6 million Jews having been deliberately gassed in gas chambers as a deliberate policy of Adolf Hitler," Williamson said recently in an interview with a Swedish television station, which also appeared on various Web sites after its broadcast. "I believe there were no gas chambers."

Germany's Catholic bishops Saturday called for the expulsion of Williamson, a member of an ultra-conservative group expelled from the Church by Pope John Paul II in 1988.

"Mr. Williamson is impossible and irresponsible," Archbishop Robert Zollitsch, chairman of the German Bishops' Conference, said Saturday, according to Spiegel Online. "I now see no room for him in the Catholic church."

In the Saturday article, Spiegel quotes Williamson saying he will not recant and that he would need more evidence to believe the Holocaust really happened.

"If I find this proof, then I will correct myself," he said. "But that will require some time."

On Wednesday, the Vatican had ordered Williamson to "distance himself" from his views "in an absolutely unequivocal and public manner."

The Vatican's secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, said Williamson will not be allowed to perform priestly functions if he does not recant. He said the pope was unaware of the comments when he rehabilitated Williamson and three other members of the Society of Saint Pius X.

Williamson apologized last week for the "distress" he has caused the pope, but did not retract his comments.

Williamson, who now lives in Argentina, and three other bishops who belong to the Society of Saint Pius X were excommunicated 20 years ago. The society was founded by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, who rebelled against the Vatican's modernizing reforms in the 1960s, and who consecrated the men in unsanctioned ceremonies.

Williamson's reinstatement and comments have been fiercely criticized by Israel, American Jewish groups and political leaders.

The pope -- who was born in Germany and was a child during the Nazi era -- rejected Holocaust denial in public statements on January 28.

At the end of his weekly audience, the pope discussed his trips to the former concentration camp at Auschwitz and the images of "the heinous slaughter of millions of Jews, the innocent victims of a blind racial and religious hatred."

After his 14th birthday in 1941, Benedict -- then called Joseph Ratzinger -- was forced along with the rest of his class in Bavaria, southern Germany, to join the Hitler Youth. However his biographer John Allen Jr., said Ratzinger's family was strongly anti-Nazi.

His spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi, called Williamson's remarks to Swedish television "absolutely indefensible."

I almost punched my computer...

You Try to Live on 500K in This Town (NYT)

PRIVATE school: $32,000 a year per student.

Mortgage: $96,000 a year.

Co-op maintenance fee: $96,000 a year.

Nanny: $45,000 a year.

We are already at $269,000, and we haven’t even gotten to taxes yet.

Five hundred thousand dollars — the amount President Obama wants to set as the top pay for banking executives whose firms accept government bailout money — seems like a lot, and it is a lot. To many people in many places, it is a princely sum to live on. But in the neighborhoods of New York City and its suburban enclaves where successful bankers live, half a million a year can go very fast.

“As hard as it is to believe, bankers who are living on the Upper East Side making $2 or $3 million a year have set up a life for themselves in which they are also at zero at the end of the year with credit cards and mortgage bills that are inescapable,” said Holly Peterson, the author of an Upper East Side novel of manners, “The Manny,” and the daughter of Peter G. Peterson, a founder of the equity firm the Blackstone Group. “Five hundred thousand dollars means taking their kids out of private school and selling their home in a fire sale.”

Sure, the solution may seem simple: move to Brooklyn or Hoboken, put the children in public schools and buy a MetroCard. But more than a few of the New York-based financial executives who would have their pay limited are men (and they are almost invariably men) whose identities are entwined with living a certain way in a certain neighborhood west of Third Avenue: a life of private schools, summer houses and charity galas that only a seven-figure income can stretch to cover.

Few are playing sad cellos over the fate of such folk, especially since the collapse of the institutions they run has yielded untold financial pain. But in New York, where a new study from the Center for an Urban Future, a nonprofit research group in Manhattan, estimates it takes $123,322 to enjoy the same middle-class life as someone earning $50,000 in Houston, extricating oneself from steep bills can be difficult.

Therefore, even if it is not for sympathy but for sport, consider the numbers.

The cold hard math can be cruel.

Like those taxes. If a person is married with two children, the weekly deductions on a $500,000 salary are: federal taxes, $2,645; Social Security, $596; Medicare, $139; state taxes, $682; and city, $372, bringing the weekly take-home to $5,180, or about $269,000 a year, said Martin Cohen, a Manhattan accountant.

Now move to living expenses.

Barbara Corcoran, a real estate executive, said that most well-to-do families take at least two vacations a year, a winter trip to the sun and a spring trip to the ski slopes.

Total minimum cost: $16,000.

A modest three-bedroom apartment, she said, which was purchased for $1.5 million, not the top of the market at all, carries a monthly mortgage of about $8,000 and a co-op maintenance fee of $8,000 a month. Total cost: $192,000. A summer house in Southampton that cost $4 million, again not the top of the market, carries annual mortgage payments of $240,000.

Many top executives have cars and drivers. A chauffeur’s pay is between $75,000 and $125,000 a year, the higher end for former police officers who can double as bodyguards, said a limousine driver who spoke anonymously because he does not want to alienate his society customers.

“Some of them want their drivers to have guns,” the driver said. “You get a cop and you have a driver.” To garage that car is about $700 a month.

A personal trainer at $80 an hour three times a week comes to about $12,000 a year.

The work in the gym pays off when one must don a formal gown for a charity gala. “Going to those parties,” said David Patrick Columbia, who is the editor of the New York Social Diary (newyorksocialdiary.com), “a woman can spend $10,000 or $15,000 on a dress. If she goes to three or four of those a year, she’s not going to wear the same dress.”

Total cost for three gowns: about $35,000.

Not every bank executive has school-age children, but for those who do, offspring can be expensive. In addition to paying tuition, “You’re not going to get through private school without tutoring a kid,” said Sandy Bass, the editor of Private School Insider, a newsletter that covers private schools in the New York City area. One hour of tutoring once a week is $125. “That’s the low end,” she said. “The higher end is 150, 175.” SAT tutors are about $250 an hour. Total cost for 30 weeks of regular tutoring: $3,750.

Two children in private school: $64,000.

Nanny: $45,000.

Ms. Bass, whose husband is an accountant with many high-end clients, said she spends about $425 every 10 days on groceries for her family. Annual cost: about $15,000.

More? Restaurants. Dry cleaning. Each Brooks Brothers suit costs about $1,000. If you run a bank, you can’t look like a slob.

The total costs here, which do not include a lot of things, like kennels for the dog when the family is away, summer camp, spas and other grooming for the human members of the family, donations to charity, and frozen hot chocolates at Serendipity, are $790,750, which would require about a $1.6-million salary to compensate for taxes. Give or take a few score thousand of dollars.

Does this money buy a chief executive stockholders might prize, a well-to-do man with a certain sureness of stride, something that might be lost if the executive were crowding onto the PATH train every morning at Journal Square, his newspaper splayed against the back of a stranger’s head?

The man would certainly not feel like himself on that train, said Candace Bushnell, the author of “Sex and the City” and other books chronicling New York social mores.

“People inherently understand that if they are going to get ahead in whatever corporate culture they are involved in, they need to take on the appurtenances of what defines that culture,” she said. “So if you are in a culture where spending a lot of money is a sign of success, it’s like the same thing that goes back to high school peer pressure. It’s about fitting in.”

By the way, the frozen hot chocolate costs $8.50.

Fox News -- You Really ARE Fair and Balanced...

Jessica Simpson Shocks Fans With Noticeably Fuller Figure

Once renowned for her famously taut abs and sculpted legs, it seems that country singer Jessica Simpson has eased up on her fitness regimen a bit.

The former “Newlyweds” star and ex-wife of Nick Lachey showed off her noticeably fuller curves at the Radio 99.9 Kiss Country's annual Chili Cookoff in Florida Sunday.

Donning mom-jeans, a tight black tank top and a muffin-top-inducing leopard belt, the songstress' appearance left the gossip-world abuzz.

Is Jess preggers? Did she gain sympathy weight for sis Ashlee (who just had a baby with hubby Pete Wetnz)? Is it all a ploy to get her on the cover of a magazine? Or is it, more likely, that the star has been eating the same diet that her Dallas Cowboys quarterback boyfriend Tony Romo does?

Indeed, the singer even admitted that she and Romo love to have “movie nights” where they cook and order in.

Still, don’t expect the singer — who seemed as happy as ever as she dedicated her performance to Romo — to be down in the mouth about her fuller frame.

She famously told Harpers Bazaar magazine that she prefers curves on a woman to a super-skinny frame.

“Curves are better,” she said. “I don’t get the whole rail thing. It’s not good for your heart, it’s not good for your mind; it’s emotionally destructive, it really is.”