Bizarro Beauty Pageant World

I'm not sure when beauty pageants (you know, wouldn't they be considered as objectifying women?) became so PC, but the flap about Miss California wasn't really about previously undisclosed semi-nekkid pics--it was about Miss California Carrie Prejean saying she disagreed with the concept of gay marriage.

The trumped-up nature of the bogus picture charges was, erm, exposed by Miss Rhode Island Alysha Castonguay, who has some pics of her own and who explained, “I personally believe this situation is stemming from the controversy over her opinion and not a photo.” She also defended Prejean's right to answer as she did, whether you agree with her or not. Pretty basic civics, isn't it? And it all came to an end today with a decision by Donald Trump, owner of the Miss USA Pageant:

“It's the same answer that the president of the United States gave,” Trump said. “She gave an honorable answer. She gave an answer from her heart.”

In her own remarks moments later, Prejean echoed Trump’s statement, telling reporters: “The president of the United States, the secretary of state, and many Americans agree with me in this belief.”

Anyway, from all of this we have learned: 1) Posing for semi-nude pics as a teenager = OK; 2) Bucking the liberal Conventional Wisdom on the PC topic-du-jour = not OK. Lesson: No matter the question asked at a pageant, always bring your answer back to any or all of the following: feeding the hungry; clothing the poor; world peace. Or be ready to stand up for yourself, like Prejean did.