Beauty pageants
November 5, 2013 — John Hinderaker
It happens every year: the Miss Universe pageant takes time out for the “National Costume” competition. Or exhibition. Or whatever it is. For the most part, the alleged national costumes run the gamut from garish to bizarre. Best case, your national costume is pretty much a swim suit. Miss Aruba, for example: Unfortunately, it is all downhill from there. Some, at least, are familiar, like Miss Canada’s Mountie getup: And
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October 31, 2013 — John Hinderaker
The finale of the 2013 Miss Universe pageant will be broadcast from Moscow a week from Saturday, November 9. We did our first preview post on Monday. There hasn’t been a lot of pageant news lately. Miss Ghana claimed to have been kidnapped, ostensibly so the runner-up could take her place. The battle was fought out mostly on Facebook. The facts remain murky, but the rightful Miss Ghana is now
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October 28, 2013 — John Hinderaker
We have been off the pageant beat for a while, since I boycotted Miss World this year after pageant authorities canceled the swimsuit competition in a pre-emptive surrender to Islamic radicals. But that is about to change: the Miss Universe competition is in full swing. Contestants have gathered in Moscow, and the Miss Universe site finally has some good photography. The preliminary round will be held on November 5 and
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September 15, 2013 — John Hinderaker
I am boycotting this year’s Miss World pageant because the organizers, in a pre-emptive surrender to Sharia, have canceled the swimsuit contest. However, I can’t resist making an exception for the curious case of Rakhima Ganieva, Miss Uzbekistan. Miss Ganieva seems like a pretty typical pageant contestant. This is how the Miss World site describes her: 18 year old Rakhima loves to play the piano. Born and Raised in the
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September 3, 2013 — John Hinderaker
The Miss World pageant is being held in Bali, Indonesia, this year. In deference to anticipated protests by Muslim extremists, the pageant’s organizers announced some time ago that there would be no swimsuit competition. Instead, they substituted a sarong round. In my view, such pre-emptive capitulation is a terrible precedent, so I am not covering this year’s Miss World contest. Still, the latest news is worth noting: Indonesian Muslim hard-liners
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June 17, 2013 — John Hinderaker
The Miss USA pageant was last night; it was won by Erin Brady, Miss Connecticut: There is an interesting trend toward the Northeast in Miss USA, as last year’s winner (and this year’s Miss Universe) was Olivia Culpo, Miss Rhode Island. But today’s news about the pageant focused less on Miss Brady than on Marissa Powell, Miss Utah. Miss Powell was the third runner-up, but she was deemed to have
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June 6, 2013 — Steven Hayward
I knew John would be first in line to cover the congressional campaign of Erika Harold, but there’s another beauty pageant story breaking today that Power Line will need to un-cover fully: the Miss World pageant, to be held this year in Indonesia, has decided to ban bikinis to—wait for it—avoid Muslim threats: BIKINIS have been banned from this year’s Miss World contest – to ward off Islamic hardliners in
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May 24, 2013 — Steven Hayward
One of my favorite Facebook groups is “2nd Amendment Hotties,” and apparently more than a few other people like it too, as it has something like 16,000 “likes” on FB. Would seem an omission not to share some of its awesomeness with Power Line readers, especially since we’re still in a too-long hiatus of beauty pageants worthy of John’s coverage. So enjoy this respite from scandalmania for a holiday Friday.
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May 5, 2013 — Steven Hayward
Either Hinderaker is too busy right now, or we’re in that in-between period like we suffer after the Super Bowl and before baseball opening day when we only have the NBA to tide us through for sports, but there’s clearly a dearth of coverage of beauty pageants on Power Line right now. Thank goodness for the NRA, which has been holding its convention this weekend. And thank goodness for Robert
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April 6, 2013 — Steven Hayward
Turns out Obama’s comment that California’s callipygian Kamala Harris is the nation’s best looking attorney general was not just politically incorrect, it may be inaccurate. Some folks in Nevada have cried foul, and are saying “Hey—wait a minute, we have the hottest state attorney general! Check out our Cortez Masto!” [UPDATE] But wait! There’s also Florida’s attorney general, Pam Bondi! And she’s a Republican! (Thanks for reader tips on this
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March 19, 2013 — Steven Hayward
Okay, so this may be the weirdest Power Line headline ever. You’ll have to bear with me here, though maybe I should say “bare” with me. Because I was briefly inclined to post an embedded video of “Secrets of a Sports Illustrated Body Paint Model” (because this is clearly an important topic, even though I’m crazy busy this week), but then after reviewing the video several times (quality control you
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February 14, 2013 — Steven Hayward
So last summer we noted here our enthusiasm for Australian high hurdler Michelle Jenneke, whose pre-race dance seemed extremely promising. Well, we weren’t the only ones. Turns out the good people who assemble the all-important Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition thought so too, and decided Michelle deserved inclusion in this year’s photo spread. Here she talks about her fondness for the hurdles between fitting fine bathing attire:
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December 19, 2012 — John Hinderaker
Say what you will about Donald Trump, he runs a pretty good pageant. I didn’t live-blog tonight’s Miss Universe show, but I kept notes as it went along, and so what follows are my impressions as the event unfolded. With a lot of stuff left out, like how mediocre the music was, and who in the world are the judges, anyway? So here goes: There are always some contestants who
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December 15, 2012 — John Hinderaker
The finale of the Miss Universe pageant is Wednesday evening. The preliminary round took place on Thursday; it wasn’t televised but was streamed live on the internet. You can watch it here if so inclined. The pageant’s National Costume event was last night; some consider it a rather odd feature of the Miss Universe pageant, but you can watch that, too, on the Miss Universe site. With the finale only
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December 9, 2012 — John Hinderaker
The finale of the Miss Universe contest at Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas is only ten days away. And yet, betting has not yet gotten underway, so it is hard to say who are the favorites. I wrote about some of my personal favorites here and here, noting the representatives from Australia, Mexico, Ecuador, Peru, Czech Republic, Venezuela, Finland, Montenegro, Russia, the Netherlands, Singapore and Cyprus. Wow–that is quite a
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November 25, 2012 — John Hinderaker
Honestly, I haven’t gotten over the election yet, and scanning the news produces a numb sense of impending doom. Moreover, being a resident of Minnesota, I can’t seek comfort in sports, unlike some people we know. So what’s left? Let’s focus on the Miss Universe pageant, set to climax in Las Vegas on December 19. The pageant is in a preliminary stage. The Miss Universe web site is up, and
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October 30, 2012 — John Hinderaker
Last August, I was doing a radio show with Brian Ward and watching a news feed on my iPad as we were broadcasting. I was stunned to see, coming over the wire, the news that the Miss World contest had just finished up in Inner Mongolia, and Miss China had won. The result was considered a dubious, home town decision. But what astonished me was that the pageant had gotten
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