TO ALEX: Yes, I *do* understand that Sobran is ridiculing her looks (at least partially) because he can’t stand her ideas. And in the end, Hillary probably deserves about as much ridicule as she gets, if not more.

I also find it ironic that some men (like Joe Sobran) who aren’t all that gorgeous themselves still feel entitled to ridicule the looks of any and every woman they meet.

Personally, I think that some of Sobran’s pockmarked pictures make his face look like the surface of Mars… but his anti-Semitic ideas are far worse.

Same for Janet Reno. The fact that she was a major player behind the Waco Baby Barbecue is a lot scarier, and more important, than the fact that she is judged to be big-and-ugly by a lot of people.

[Remember “IT’S RENO TIME” on SNL?]

I’m so out of touch that I don’t even keep up with what the youngsters think. As we’ve discussed here before, Paris and Britney are both repulsive in their own special ways. Kristin Scott Thomas…now there’s a woman for me! Eyes so blue it hurts real good to look at ’em.

I grew up in suburban L. A., and I remember that looks were the only criterion on which I was judged by my “peers.” In those days, there was only one standard of “beauty”: thin, tan, and blonde (the ideal being Marcia Brady) and I’m none of the above, so I beat myself up emotionally for my “failures” despite consistently maintaining a high academic record and personal qualities of intrinsic value.

I agree that our culture’s obsession with looks is sickening. But here’s what’s helped me: studying, performing, and teaching Middle Eastern dance. Works like a charm, for some reason. I’ve seen students with negative body images and no confidence at all in themselves emerge proud, strong, and self-confident after less than a year of study. I’ve also noted that many men I’ve considered attractive would not be judged attractive at all by prevailing physical standards. Self-confidence is sexy in a man; and applied alongside feminine sensitivity, it’s sexy, too, in a woman.

I would argue that this is because we are civilization in decline and a civilzation in decline elevates form over substance. Our preoccupation with looks and youth, as well as our worship of political correctness and our obsession with diversity are all symptoms. Parallels of this can be easily observed in the declining days of both the Greek and Roman civilizations.

I’m not even a Jew, but I feel really odd and strange right about now. I can’t believe people like this still exist…