Amanda LePore – The WOW Report

Photo via YouTube

March 15, 1933– Ruth Bader Ginsburg:

“All of the incentives, all of the benefits that marriage affords would still be available. So you’re not taking away anything from heterosexual couples. They would have the very same incentive to marry, all the benefits that come with marriage that they do now.”

Marriage Equality is now a Constitutional right everywhere in the USA, thanks to the SCOTUS’s landmark ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges in June 2015. It was a majority decision of 5 to 4, but there was one Justice who has stood out above the rest as a steadfast and fierce supporter of Gay Rights, and we like to call her The Notorious RBG.

Ginsburg’s support was crucial, from her personal opinion of the American public’s shifting attitude to the earlier oral arguments and, ultimately, the historical decision that says anyone in any state can marry the person they love. Justices Anthony Kennedy, Sonia Sotomayor, Stephen Breyer, and Elena Kagan joined Ginsburg in agreeing that gay couples should be free to marry in all 50 states. We all know who declined.

Ginsburg was at the top of her class at Harvard Law in 1959, and after graduating she did not receive a single job offer, neither did Former Justice Sandra Day O’Connor when she graduated from Stanford Law, seven years earlier. Ginsburg had to beg for work. Finally, a favorite Harvard professor had to pressure a U.S. Federal Judge in Manhattan to hire Ginsburg, threatening the judge he’d never recommend another Columbia University student to him unless he gave Ginsburg the big break. Her first assignment was to study Civil Law in Sweden. She learned Swedish for the job. She next taught at Rutgers Law School, and received tenure in 1969.

Before that landmark decision, Ginsburg had already been very vocal about same-sex marriage:

“The change in people’s attitudes on this issue has been enormous. In recent years, people have said: ‘This is the way I am’. And others looked around, and discovered they are our next-door neighbors, we’re very fond of them. Or it’s our child’s best friend, or even our child. I think that as more and more people came out and said that ‘this is who I am’, the rest of us recognized that they are one of us.”

Ginsburg used her noted wit to shut down the opposing side’s arguments. When “tradition” was brought up as an argument to maintain the marriage status quo, she countered by pointing out the extremely antiquated laws that defined marriage as being between a dominant male and a subordinate female. Clearly, that was a marriage tradition that desperately needed to be challenged, just like the opponents’ idea of marriage as only between a man and a woman.

When John Bursch, the lawyer representing the states who want to keep their same-sex marriage bans, argued that marriage was all about procreating, Ginsburg said:

“Suppose a couple, a 70-year-old couple, comes in and they want to get married? You don’t have to ask them any questions. You know they are not going to have any children.”

She even officiated at a same-sex wedding earlier, already a clear sign of her advocacy, where she also dropped a sly hint about the impending SCOTUS’s decision. When she pronounced Shakespeare Theatre Company artistic director Michael Kahn and NYC architect Charles Mitchem, to be “husband and husband”, Ginsburg emphasized the word constitution as she said: “By the powers vested in me by the Constitution of the United States”.

Ginsburg is only the second female SCOTUS Justice. The first was O’Conner. Now she is one of three, joined by Sotomayor and Kagan, and she is only the sixth Jew. She was appointed by President William Jefferson Clinton in 1993. Ginsburg claims that she had been taught from childhood to champion Equality and to cherish Independence:

“My mother told me two things constantly. One was to be a lady, and the other was to be independent. The study of law was unusual for women of my generation. For most girls growing up in the 1940s, the most important degree was not your B.A., but your M.R.S.”

Ginsburg has held her seat as Supreme Court Justice for over 20 years. She remains one of the most important and articulate legal thinkers and interpreters of the Constitution. She is also a funny and engaged writer and speaker. She is a passionate fan of the opera, an avocation she shared with her unlikely pal, the now extremely stiff Antonin Scalia. Ironically, the unusual friendship between the liberal, Jewish, well-spoken woman and the brash, Catholic, conservative bulldog is the subject of an actual opera. Scalia/Ginsburg, by composer Derrick Wang. It was presented at the Castleton Festival in summer 2016. The opera about the pair of opera lovers, also celebrates the virtues of SCOTUS with an affectionate, comic look at the two unofficial leaders of its conservative and liberal wings. The premiere was highly anticipated and was attended by Ginsburg, who was warmly received by the audience; Scalia was in Rome saying his rosary and didn’t attend.

Before she was appointed to the Supreme Court, she had been nominated by President James Earl Carter to serve on the Federal Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, which she did from from 1980-1993 In 1972, while still just a lawyer, Ginsburg helped launch The Women’s Rights Project of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Ginsburg, 1972 via Columbia University Archives

Throughout the 1970s, she litigated a series of cases solidifying a constitutional principle against gender-based discrimination. From 1972- 1980, she was a professor at Columbia University School of Law.

Forbes Magazine named Ginsburg to its list of 100 Most Powerful Women. Time Magazine listed her as one of the Time 100 Icons. She has also been named to The Stephen Rutledge List Of Fashion Icons for her signature collection of lace jabots from around the world. She wears a black one with gold embroidery and faceted stones when issuing her dissents, and another that is crocheted yellow and cream with crystals that she wears when issuing majority opinions.

Ginsberg is a two-time cancer survivor. She is now the oldest member of The Supremes with no intention of stepping down. She has stated that the Court’s work has helped her cope with the death of her husband Martin Ginsberg in 2010 (they were together 56 years). She has stated that she has found a role model in Justice John Paul Stevens, who retired after nearly 35 years on the bench at 90 years old. She does a daily workout with a personal trainer at the Court’s gym.

“As long as I can do the job full-steam, I would like to stay here. I have to take it year by year at my age, and who knows what could happen next year? Right now, I know I’m OK.”

Ginsburg, as you probably know, is no fan of the current POTUS:

“A great man once said that the true symbol of the United States is not the bald eagle; it is the pendulum, and when the pendulum swings too far in one direction, it will go back. Some terrible things have happened in the United States, but one can only hope that we learn from those bad things.”

Ginsburg has defended the free press, the target of attacks from the president, who has calls the media “The enemy of the American People”.”Ginsburg says that she reads both The Washington Post and the failing NY Times every day and believes:

“Reporters are trying to tell the public the way things are. What is important is that we have a free press, which many countries don’t have. Think of what the press has done in the United States.”

She cited The Washington Post’s Watergate investigation, and the work of reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein in exposing the Watergate scandal that eventually brought President Richard Nixon’s resignation.

Ginsburg, who lives in the famous Watergate building:

“That story might never have come out if we didn’t have the free press that we do.”

Ginsberg’s memoir My Own Words was published in 2016.

The smash-hit at the Sundance Film Festival, a new documentary RBG is sure to give Black Panther some competition when it is released in May. Directed by Betsy West and Julie Cohen, the film looks back at Ginsburg’s life, starting from her childhood and then going on to her days as a student at Harvard and Columbia’s law schools, the early days of her legal career, her appointment to the Supreme Court and eventual progression into Feminist and Internet Icon, all the while smashing the patriarchy along the way.

NBC via YouTube

Ginsburg believes the #MeToo movement will have “staying power” and that she doesn’t worry about a serious backlash:

“It’s too widespread. It’s amazing, that for the first time, women are really listened to because sexual harassment had often been dismissed as ‘well, she made it up’.”

Ginsburg has become a beacon of hope for so many, especially during an administration determined to limit rights for women. Please, Lord. Let her stay on the court until we can fix this thing!

“Life is about using the whole box of crayons.” – Rupaul (who gets her Hollywood Star today!!!)

Never thought I’d see a bush with multiple pussies. Never thought I’d want to until now!

Check your lipstick before you come for me

He’s tightening the screws. Because we all love a tight screw!

Coke is a hell of a drug.

Cats will cautiously lap at tiny splashes of water from sources that they’re unsure about drinking from to determine if its actually safe to drink or not. It keeps them from drinking stagnant water or contaminated water (or something that isn’t water at all).

If the water is still, you’ll see the cat sniffing it for a long time before drinking.
Cats apply this to other things, they’ll almost always lick food before eating it, and while a cat who lacks this instinct – and some do – will eat nearly anything, many of them are picky eaters due to bad results from the lick test.

The reason cats lick themselves so often is so they don’t eat themselves as well. Cats don’t possess self consciousness, i.e. “Hey that leg or tail is mine I shouldn’t eat it”, but they do know their own flavor, so by licking themselves they prevent accidentally eating themselves – a once common problem for cats before evolution brought them this wonderful trait.

Resistor of the Week – Lesley Stahl Schools DeVos

Listen in at 3:00PM EST and again at 3:00 PST (6 PM EST) on SiriusXM! Or listen whenever you want on the SiriusXM App!

And be sure to give your ears the gift of THE WOW REPORT on Radio Andy SiriusXM EVERY Friday.

Do something this weekend that makes YOU go WOW!!!

Via YouTube

March 17, 1969 – Lee Alexander McQueen:

“I find beauty in the grotesque, like most artists.”

McQueen was a great, but incendiary British fashion designer. He worked as chief designer at Givenchy from 1996 to 2001 and then founded his own Alexander McQueen label. His achievements in fashion earned him four British Designer of the Year Awards (1996, 1997, 2001, 2003), as well as the CFDA’s International Designer of the Year Award in 2003.

In his personal life, McQueen was quite shy. At the end of every catwalk show, he would dash out to take a quick bow in his plaid shirt, sweatshirt and baggy jeans. His longtime friend Daphne Guinness, whom McQueen met after seeing her across the street wearing his dragon-embroidered kimono, wrote that he was: ”Adorable and kind, and he’s unbelievably good to his friends, generous without noise”. He was loyal to his friends; in 2005 after the scandal in which Kate Moss was caught on camera using cocaine, McQueen took his catwalk bow wearing a tee-shirt that read: ”We love you Kate.”

McQueen was renowned for theatricality of his fashion shows, but because of his imagination, precision tailoring and attention to detail, the effect was more beautiful than shocking. His catwalk shows were never less than 10 minutes of pure theatrical energy. Featuring spray-painted gowns, a hologram of Moss, amputee models, or dresses made from fresh flowers, a McQueen show was always innovative, unexpected and much anticipated.

Openly gay, he described himself as ”the pink sheep of the family”. He said of coming out at a young age:

“I was sure of myself and my sexuality and I’ve had nothing to hide. I went straight from my mother’s womb onto the gay parade”

In 2000, he married his lover, filmmaker George Forsyth. The wedding was held on a yacht in Ibiza, with Moss as a bridesmaid. They divorced a year later.

No profile of McQueen could ever resist the phrase ”enfant terrible”. McQueen was the bad boy of fashion, yet he was beloved by the establishment.

Designer John Galliano:

”McQueen was daring, original, exciting. He shook up the establishment with his creativity and understood what it takes to be a great British ambassador for fashion. I admired him very much. He put his own unique mark on the industry. He will not be forgotten.”

Stella McCartney:

”Lee was a fashion genius. I don’t say that lightly. He was a real friend. I will miss him as a mate, a peer, and as a true British talent, full of life and energy in everything he ever did.”

The son of a taxicab driver, McQueen rose to the highest peaks of the fashion world. He dropped out of school when he was 16-years old and went to work on Saville-Row. His career was ignited with his seminal and highly controversial Highland Rape collection of 1995, cobbled together with remnants from fabric shops.

In 1996, Bernard Arnault, chairman of Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, hired the then-27-year old designer to give new life to Givenchy, one of the most famous names in French fashion, where he succeeded Galliano, who Arnault had moved over to Christian Dior. McQueen wrestled with the decision whether to take the position with Givenchy, but he saw the opportunity it gave him to increase his expertise and raise his profile. After five years at Givenchy, he had a major falling out with Arnault, at one point turning up to a press event wearing a Gucci hat.

McQueen was just coming off the success of his own label, but he was really raw and very gutsy. His manner was wild. He was outrageous. He would sometimes go missing for weeks at a time. He felt a lot pressure to be creative and still be very true to himself.

McQueen’s tenure at Givenchy was rough. His eclectic collections, space aliens one season, rockabilly for another, failed to galvanize the house, and he was vocal about his discontent with large corporations and commercial fashion. However, the exposure to French couture made a lasting impact on his business, with garments in his recent ready-to-wear shows resembling couture in workmanship and price.

Gucci Group, then led by Tom Ford, swept in in 2000 and bought a 51 percent stake in McQueen’s company, expanding his signature boutiques in London, NYC, Los Angeles and Milan; and with a secondary line of men’s wear and leather goods, plus collaborations with brands including Puma and Samsonite.

In 2003, he was honored with a CBE from Queen Elizabeth II for his services to the fashion industry.

2009, via YouTube

Known for his transporting runway shows, aggressive one season, ethereal the next, McQueen could hardly be bothered with the business part of his company. Yet, he was proud of the fact that his label made money and that his clothes amounted to more than just showmanship.

McQueen’s meteoric ascent in the Fashion world mirrored some of the fairy tale themes of his shows:

”Fashion should be a form of escapism, and not a form of imprisonment.”

His razor-sharp tailored looks fused the romantic with the avant-garde, a fresh contrast that won much acclaim. McQueen maintained that his shows were highly autobiographical. The men’s collection he showed just before his passing was titled The Bone Collector and featured engineered prints of skulls on tailored clothing. Some models were muzzled, Hannibal Lecter-style. The show was a return to the runway for his men’s line after a year off, when he issued a rambling statement about creative exhaustion and the relentlessness of the fashion system, and opted to screen a film about the anguish of making art. His final women’s show was fantastically futuristic, with models stalking the runway in otherworldly shoes and dresses as robotic cameras whirled around them.

McQueen worked with musicians throughout his career. He art-directed the cover of Björk’s 1997 album Homogenic and directed the music video for one of the album’s tracks. He designed the distressed Union Jack coat worn by David Bowie on the cover of his album Earthling (1997). Rihanna and Sting were fans of McQueen, and Lady Gaga wore McQueen, including those notorious Armadillo shoes, in the music video for her single Bad Romance. Sandra Bullock wore a McQueen gown to the SAG Awards in 2010.

His fashion shows were always hot tickets, attracting celebs such as Grace Jones, Nicole Kidman, Penélope Cruz, Sarah Jessica Parker and Naomi Campbell. At one of his shows, Kate Moss appeared and vaporized in a glass pyramid to the haunting strains of John William’s theme for Schindler’s List, and para-Olympian record-holder Aimee Mullins walked catwalk on hand-carved wooden prosthetic legs with integrated boots.

McQueen was known for his fascination with dark subjects, with fashion shows that referenced witchcraft and bondage. Yet those that knew him, found McQueen to be extremely sensitive and very fragile, with a deep affection for dogs.

Donatella Versace called McQueen a true icon:

”His imagination had no limits and his strong personality, together with his strong creativity, made him unique. I think every designer’s dream is to have that talent, that vision and that integrity.”

Marc Jacobs:

”He is such a great guy and such an amazing talent. I miss him, and I will miss the beauty that he created, and his vision and his world.”

Anna Wintour:

”He brought a uniquely British sense of daring and aesthetic fearlessness to the global stage of fashion. In such a short career, McQueen’s influence was astonishing, from street style, to music culture and the world’s museums.”

Before he left this world, McQueen had hoped to create special capsule collections, so the public could buy clothing right off his runway, setting up glass pyramids anywhere in the world and beaming holograms of his fashion shows into them. McQueen:

”This is the birth of a new dawn. There is no way back for me now. I am going to take you on journeys you’ve never dreamed were possible.”

McQueen took his own life in February 2010. His suicide stunned his fans and the hundreds of international magazine editors and store buyers who had just gathered in Manhattan for the first day of the fall collections at NY Fashion Week at Bryant Park. His mother had died just a few days before.

His friend, photographer David LaChapelle, said that McQueen ”was doing a lot of drugs and was very unhappy” at the time of his death

McQueen left a note saying:

”Look after my dogs, sorry, I love you, Lee.”

From Victoria & Albert Museum Poster

The Metropolitan Museum of Art hosted a posthumous exhibition of McQueen’s work in 2011 titled Savage Beauty. The exhibition’s elaborate staging included soundtracks for each room. Despite being open for only three months, it is one of the most popular exhibitions in the museum’s history. The exhibition was repeated at London’s Victoria & Albert Museum in 2015. It sold over a half million tickets, making it the most popular show ever staged at that museum.