Miss America 2011: "Wikileaks was actually based on espionage."

(Image: Reuters)

Miss Nebraska, Teresa Scanlan, became champion of the 2011 Miss America pageant tonight. She has deep thoughts on foreign policy and radical transparency.

She won after strutting in a black bikini and a white evening gown, playing "White Water Chopped Sticks" on piano and telling the audience that when it comes to the website Wikileaks, security should come before public access to government information.
"You know when it came to that situation, it was actually based on espionage, and when it comes to the security of our nation, we have to focus on security first and then people's right to know, because it's so important that everybody who's in our borders is safe and so we can't let things like that happen, and they must be handled properly," she said.

But I bet she could locate South Africa and The Iraq and the Asian Countries on a map. Anyway, I demand video and a remix, STAT.

Miss Nebraska wins 2011 Miss America pageant (boston.com)

Boing Boing editor/partner and tech culture journalist Xeni Jardin hosts and produces Boing Boing's in-flight TV channel on Virgin America airlines (#10 on the dial), and writes about living with breast cancer. Diagnosed in 2011. @xeni on Twitter. email: xeni@boingboing.net.

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The Snowden Principle

Anonymous

“it was actually based on espionage, and when it comes to the security of our nation, we have to focus on security first and then people’s right to know,”

Good point. It is wrong that the Obama administration engaged in espionage.

Julian Assange, has accused Hillary Clinton of espionage while meeting other diplomats at the United Nations. Assange, who interviewed with “Time” magazine from an undisclosed location Tuesday, said he felt Clinton should step down from her Secretary of State position “if it can be shown that she was responsible for ordering U.S. diplomatic figures to engage in espionage in the United Nations.”

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/6075584/wikileaks_and_hillary_clinton_espionage.html
Modern Jess

As vapid as the rest of her answer is, the choice piece chosen for the headline of the article is relatively accurate. By handing off those cables to Wikileaks, Manning violated the oath he swore to the US government. Regardless of whether you think government should be more transparent or not, his act was one of espionage.
Brainspore

Let’s be fair- it’s not like Noam Chomsky is winning any swimsuit competitions.
redpeakpass

It might seem like bashing the intelligence of a (17 year old!) Beauty Pageant is an easy win, but BoingBoing needs to get their facts straight next time.

Sorry to disappoint you, but she is no Miss South Carolina.
- Cowicide
  
  no one cares
  - redpeakpass
    
    No, I think that they do care about getting the facts straight. BoingBoing clearly supports WikiLeaks — it just seems that their opinion unduly influenced this particular post.
    - Antinous / Moderator
      
      it just seems that their opinion unduly influenced this particular post.
      
      I don’t think that you quite get what a blog is.
      - redpeakpass
        
        I guess that Cowicide is right — they don’t care
      - Cowicide
        
        OK! OK! I care! Now what were you complaining about?
BB

Oh great, another Sarah Palin in the making. Please give her a reality show BEFORE she enters politics. This way she will stay on the right path, for all concerned.
ericmartinex1

Perhaps she was tangentially referencing the “hero bureaucrat” Manning – saving the world and giving the finger to the evil empire with one big steaming classified information dump where there was no way he knew what the content was – other than helping Assange become a millionaire (and helping Manning possibly receive a life or worse sentence, “here’s $16k for your troubles kid, keep fighting the good fight”).

In her defense, this is not as dumb as calling Assange the Martin Luther King or even Daniel Ellsberg.
HereticGestalt

Oh my God. A teenager selected from the population based on her visual appeal and inclusion in the sociocultural demographic which puts its daughters in beauty pageants was thrust into the spotlight and said something not particularly intelligent or articulate about a topic that a lot of people on the Internet are currently obsessed with.

ALERT THE MEDIA
BungaDunga

What she said isn’t, as far as I can see, stupid. You might disagree, but she’s not spouting nonsense. Ex: “we have to focus on security first and then people’s right to know” is a perfectly coherent point of view. She thinks security should come before transparency.
bbpVideo

Alright, Xeni, I’m kicking off the remix session (I think?)

The Wikileaks Espionage feat. Miss America 2011 & SFC Chad
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUmOIEtWqUM

But first I posted up the video and watched the debate take place on youtube, too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYa-FiSMJBw

If you can help me clean up this audio, please contact me on Youtube!
Anonymous

Wait. Security before free speech? Ben Franklin is rolling in his grave.
Anonymous

lol, wait wait wait
why arent we criticizing the the question askers? why the fuk are they politicizing these miss america things? im kinda mad at this, cuz its a total analogy for the rest of the media:

Hey, ur in the spotlight, heres a loaded question, we know the answer we want to hear, and if u answer wrong well drag u through the mud in every lamestream media outlet we own, which is almost all of them. were politically motivated by a chain of collusion, bribed politicians, and political goals, as well as a series of products and services were selling, so dont u dare even mumble a contrary thought…. so, whats your answer?

im just so glad we have things like boing boing and wikileaks or rupert murdock would be grinding us into paste to keep that dessicated zombie he calls a body shambling for another millenium
Cynical

@Chumpmeat and Modern Jess:

Espionage is another word for spying, as in, the state sponsored act of getting secret information from another state. The cablegate information was procured through subterfuge, but to call it espionage is a massive stretch. If Manning had leaked it to his KGB handlers, then yeh, fair enough, but as it stands it’s a leak of stolen information, nothing more, nothing less.
- bkad
  
  Espionage is another word for spying, as in, the state sponsored act of getting secret information from another state. The cablegate information was procured through subterfuge, but to call it espionage is a massive stretch. If Manning had leaked it to his KGB handlers, then yeh, fair enough, but as it stands it’s a leak of stolen information, nothing more, nothing less.
  
  This is true, and this misuse of terms is the only criticism (other than disagreement) that can be leveled here. On the other hand, when I read this news item, the first thing I thought of was the arguments we get into about whether copyright infringement (by downloading unpaid-for mp3s for example) is ‘stealing’ or not. In legal terms, no, it isn’t stealing, nor in strict dictionary terms (depending on your choice of dictionary). But in a colloquial (and I would say, ‘common sense’) usage pirating mp3s IS stealing. Similarly, I don’t think referring to wikileaks as being based on espionage is so far off base that it is worthy of much hate. Using different words to describe it probably wouldn’t change her position that security is more important than openness. Which isn’t ignorant; that’s an opinion.
  
  All that said, I still think if you are getting worked up about this, you are poorly allocating your emotional resources. Unless you have way more angst than I do. I run out after a while so I have to be careful how I spread it around. :-)
- chumpmeat
  
  “Espionage is another word for spying, as in, the state sponsored act of getting secret information from another state.”
  
  Sorry, but this isn’t factually accurate. Let’s ask Merriam Webster:”Espionage: the practice of spying or using spies to obtain information about the plans and activities especially of a foreign government or a competing company ”
  
  It’s not required to be a government doing it any more than it’s required to be an industry.
  
  If Bradley Manning did what it’s generally supposed, then Assange’s use of the information [let's not forget, FOR POLITICAL ENDS] is literally and under no uncertain terms espionage. It’s not ambiguous. There’s no exemption for ideals.
mermaid

miss america pageant is trolling
Michael Dawson

A 17yr old doesn’t know shit from clay, news at 11!
- Cowicide
  
  A 17yr old doesn’t know shit from clay, news at 11!
  
  … and, yet here you are, posting in a “17yr old doesn’t know shit from clay” thread.
knoxblox

So what happens when you say intelligent things the judges DON’T want to hear? Are you banned from pageantry for life?
- Hools Verne
  
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwPWpmvBbOU
- Rob Gehrke
  
  “So what happens when you say intelligent things the judges DON’T want to hear? Are you banned from pageantry for life?”
  
  No, just from politics.
Anonymous

Congratulations. Homeland security is now on par with saving the whales.
Anonymous

Aw, c’mon. You guys are letting your distaste of pageant queens clouding your judgment of the simple statement. If by “espionage” she means illegally obtained information, she’s actually not incorrect.
Antinous / Moderator

If Miss America is talking about Wikileaks at all, the terrorists have already lost.
Anonymous

I hate this feeling of my stomach contents climbing up my esophagus that I get whenever the bullshit which is the concept of “beauty pageant” somehow intrudes my mind.
Anonymous

She’s lived a shielded life, largely homescooled, and plans on attending Patrick Henry University.

She is just 17 and says she plans to register as an independent.
- AnthonyC
  
  I think you mean her *parents* plan for her to attend Patrick Henry University.
- Anonymous
  
  I’d like to just hop in here and discourage any correlation between homeschooling and sheltering and ignorance.
  
  Parents who will shelter their children for any variety of reasons can use homeschooling as a convenient tool to control what their children think.
  
  But homeschooling itself is not the cause of the ignorance anymore than Islam causes people to want to kill innocent people. It’s just a matter of who is using homeschooling as a tool to further their agenda.
- Pantograph
  
  Your description reminds me of Patty Hearst. She’ll blindly follow whoever feeds her at the time.
Anonymous

If she’s heading to Patrick Henry College, then she’s a right-wing conservative fundamentalist Christian. Too bad we didn’t hear her thoughts on gay marriage and global warming!
- blueelm
  
  Or evolution.
  
  But seriously, she’s a beauty pageant contestant. Did you expect her to have anything but the social values that appeal to that demographic of viewer?
  
  Look at her.
  
  There is a part of this country that believes we should all be like her.
  
  And she’s dancing for them.
  
  This is what right wing Christian anti-sex strippers look like.
Jake0748

“security should come before public access to government information”.

WTF does that even MEAN??
- Anonymous
  
  It means that politicians should not have to worry about what they say and if they are found out, they should be protected from the nasty public. Not what I believe!!
Anonymous

Sheer utter stupdity and total ignorance crowned as a role model.

Why am I even surprised?
Anonymous

Can you remix a Miss Universe answer into something credible? I think that may be more difficult than you think…
Razzabeth

It’s a beauty contest, not a brains contest.
Winski

So, now we know who will be the Alaskan Swag-Hag’s new chief of staff!!
RufusTheGreat

They should just get rid of this part of the pageant. Does anyone check to see if a pair of pants can reason before buying them? no. You just want something that looks good and doesn’t end up embarrassing you.
- Jake0748
  
  :D
oldtaku

Damn, just look at that. If she were any whiter she’d be British royalty or Michael Jackson.

Come to think of it, she does have a scary resemblance…
- gravytop
  
  Almost as white as Assange.
Anonymous

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Y-IriLTC9Y
Cowicide

Ugh, first some vapid numerology lady on Coast to Coast AM says this kind of stupid shit the other night… and now this genius.

Congrats, mainstream media, you’ve done what you’ve always done so well… misinformed the easily misinformed.
SFSlim

â€¦and such.
inkfumes

Nice personality you have there darlin’.
ackpht

Looks like my cousin.
inkfumes

Wait, she can talk? I thought it was plastic.
Jack

Laugh at her now, but come 2020 I be she will be running for some office somewhere. Be afraid.
inkfumes

You know when it came to that situation, it was actually based on looks, and when it comes to the beauty of our nation, we have to focus on beauty first and then people’s right to know beauty, because it’s so important that everybody who’s in our borders is beautiful and so we can’t let things like that happen, and they must be handled properly,
- BastardNamban
  
  Inkfumes, bravo-
  
  For a second there, I thought I had some sort of logical model for refuting idiotic statements in the mind of the very person who stated them, but my brain just can’t wrap my head around the pattern.
  
  In any case, your statement shows the illogicity of the statement pattern itself.
  
  Surely we can take people like this, and use a logical statement substitution to either prove doubly so that something is logical, or conclusively that a statement is illogical. From this, we could decide if it is right or wrong.
  
  I seem to remember something about this from philosophy classes in college, but it evades me. Didn’t you just use some sort of logical philosophy there? Can anyone comment?
  
  I think if she read out loud your new statement, she might realize her justification is illogical, and could reassess her thought.
Cowicide

OK, that’s it. Enough is enough… release the Kracken!

Bank of America? You ready, bastards?
Cowicide

If anyone cares to make a wall of nightmares out of this, have at it…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQ8QC00tv2w
William George

In a way “The Man” should to be congratulated for their success in making people believe that the claimed beacon of democracy acting like a third world junta is a good thing.
- Cowicide
  
  [cow offers quiet, sarcastic "golf clap" to The Man]
Martin _22

I’m all for freedom of speach and would fall in the wikileaks support camp but can’t stand the bullying attitude. ‘You have different views than me, I will now mock you’ – childish
- Anonymous
  
  To be fair, the other side of the debate is “You have different views than me, I will now detain you indefinitely without trial.”
  
  I’m not saying either side is right, but there’s definitely a bit of difference in how either likes to handle the people they disagree with.
- fearful_jesuit
  
  I agree. Plus, she is 17. In a beauty contest. If you’re expecting ‘deep thoughts on foreign policy and radical transparency’ from her, then I’d argue that you’re the one with questionable perspective.
- Anonymous
  
  How can you be for freedom of speech and not understand what Wiki Leaks is all about?
Anonymous

Wait–Miss America said that? What happened to “I can’t comment on an ongoing investigation”?! Manning’s lawyer has to demand the judge throw this case out on the grounds that it’s impossible now for his client to receive a fair trial.

Actually, her exposition comes off as something that might well have come out of junior’s mouth. Is our children learning? Sadly, no they isn’t.

reCAPTCHA sez: thewsper And
the|one

Wow. She just totally blew any chance she had to get it on with Julian Assange.
- chumpmeat
  
  Oh, I’m sure that’s not true.
Anonymous

imo one of the biggest problems we have in this country is we’ve stopped mocking stupid… when people say stupid things they should be mocked – repeatedly – so that maybe they will learn that having poorly informed opinions is something to be avoided. We all sit and marvel at the idiocy of the Becks – but there are millions upon millions who take the echo chamber they create as positive reinforcement… and as a result we end up moving further and further into the land of stupid. Sitting on our hands and wondering ‘how can people be this dumb’ only makes it worse.
carborundum

She’s 17???
She looks like a 40 year old newsreader with all that make-up!
- Pantograph
  
  The tough lives of kids in the beauty mines are heart breaking. They age twice as fast. In ten years time all that will be left is a toothless grin and soulless eyes.
Griefer

This woman is a future Sarah Palin.
decius

Most of this thread seems to be missing the point (esp sapere_aude). The problem is not with Scanlan’s answer to the question. Her job is to win over peoples hearts and minds. She did exactly the right thing under the circumstances. The problem is with the circumstances.

America wants to see it’s sweetheart put security before democracy. This question was asked because the people who run this pagent know that the spectacle with make their audience feel good by reinforcing their prejudices. Its a litmus of the present state of mind of the general populace.

That state of mind is troubling if you realize that a people who want their sweetheart to tell them how much she prefers safety to democracy are a people who would be willing to allow their leaders to take that democracy away from them if it was necessary to keep them safe.

That is the great danger of the present moment, front and center in one of our most characteristic national spectacles.

BoingBoing’s community consists of people along the intellectual fringes of society, and those kinds of people know from history that they are vulnerable to nationalist purges. So to see this sort of thing happen – its scary. If American embraces the dark mistress it is flirting with we’re all in a lot of trouble around here.
- sapere_aude
  
  My comment was in response to those who were bashing a 17-year-old for daring to express an opinion they happened to disagree with; so I’m not sure how you can argue that I’m missing the point. In fact, I agree with you that we should be focusing on the attitudes of the American people as a whole rather than focusing on the opinions of one teenage girl who hasn’t even gone to college yet, and whose opinions are no more relevant to the Wikileaks issue than the opinions of any other high school student. We can criticize politicians and pundits as much as we like, and can even criticize public opinion; but let’s not pick on kids who aren’t old enough to know any better. She’s only 17. Her brain hasn’t even finished developing, yet. Chances are her worldview will change quite a bit over the next few years as she matures and attends college. Mine certainly did. Let’s cut the kid some slack, and confine our debate to the larger issues involved here, and our criticism to those who are old enough to actually understand those issues.
- Cowicide
  
  agreed
Anonymous

That Harvard Crimson article is from 1989. This is from 2008:

“Introducing God’s new Harvard – Patrick Henry College’s goal is launching leaders for Christ”

http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=58673
knoxblox

The suggestion that the question was unexpected is bunk, though she may not have had a fully practiced response handy.

My godfamily is a Pageant Family, and the mother is the go-to woman for girls wanting to get a leg up on the competition, whether it be how to dress, pageant manners, or questions/current events.

I think they’re a little crazy (the mom and the pageant girls), but they do keep abreast of whatever is happening in the news at all times, whether they truly understand it or not. Their goal is to not be fazed by the curve balls some pageants throw at them, so they’re constantly second guessing what questions might be asked.
gths

Amber, do you think the Bill of Rights is a good thing or a bad thing?
The Mudshark

Sometimes a picture really does paint a thousand words.
Anonymous

Oh, she’s concerned with the security of our nation?

You know what would make me feel more secure? If she never voted or spoke publicly again.

Trade-offs. They’re funny like that.
ceabaird

“And Miss America is actually based on sex.” I would like my beauty contestants (and winners) to focus less on attempting to make intelligent-sounding noises with their pieholes, and more time working on actually improving their minds. It will help them out in the future, long after (physical) beauty has faded.

Well, maybe acting a little more ‘self-aware’ might not be asking too much.
sapere_aude

So, are you folks complaining about the fact that this 17-year-old was unable to give a thoughtful, nuanced dissertation on the legal and ethical complexities, and political and diplomatic implications of the Wikileaks controversy in an unrehearsed, single-sentence reply to a question she was probably not expecting to be asked, under conditions that are probably about as psychologically stressful as a police interrogation; or are you complaining about the fact that her opinion on the subject differs from your own?

Because, in either case, your criticism is unfair. She has just as much right to her own opinion on the subject as you have to yours; and I doubt that any of us (myself included) could have given a more thoughtful answer under the circumstances. Lighten up, people! We’re talking about Miss America; not a candidate for Congress or a judicial nominee. You may not realize this; but Miss America is a purely symbolic office, with no actual political power. Her opinion on the subject carries about as much weight as the opinion of any other 17-year-old American. She’s not even old enough to vote yet, for goodness sake. Cut her some slack.
- Cowicide
  
  I doubt that any of us (myself included) could have given a more thoughtful answer under the circumstances.
  
  Please, for the love of Gawd, speak for yourself.
- Yamara
  
  under conditions that are probably about as psychologically stressful as a police interrogation
  
  If you had just left this phrase off, your point would have come off much stronger and your supporters on the thread, less obsequious.
  
  As it is, it’s quite a tell, and so phrases like “in either case, your criticism is unfair” and “lighten up!” become revealed for the dismissive constructs they are. Just another encouragement to ignorance.
  
  The stress created by the reward/punishment structure of a police interrogation is similar to that of a premiere beauty pageant? I’d like to see that tested. We’ll need access to a wide range of interrogations of course. Like we’re supposed to.
  
  As for Miss America’s opinion, it sounds like her educational track is one of cheerful obedience. She already decided to put her flesh in the service of the private national interest, why not leave her mind to the will of the secret one?
- gravytop
  
  You, of course, hit the nail on the head. The snark here comes not from the substance or profundity of her answer (light as that may be) but the fact that she has the wrong opinion, and doesn’t look like a Die Antwoord groupie. And that’s all.
- Enormo
  
  “So, are you folks complaining about the fact that this 17-year-old was unable to give a thoughtful, nuanced dissertation on the legal and ethical complexities, and political and diplomatic implications of the Wikileaks controversy in an unrehearsed, single-sentence reply to a question she was probably not expecting to be asked, under conditions that are probably about as psychologically stressful as a police interrogation; or are you complaining about the fact that her opinion on the subject differs from your own?”
  
  I would have accepted a complete sentence.
  - gravytop
    
    One criticism that you can’t make in good faith is that she didn’t provide a complete sentence.
    - Enormo
      
      “One criticism that you can’t make in good faith is that she didn’t provide a complete sentence.”
      
      “You know when it came to that situation, it was actually based on espionage, and when it comes to the security of our nation, we have to focus on security first and then people’s right to know, because it’s so important that everybody who’s in our borders is safe and so we can’t let things like that happen, and they must be handled properly,” she said.
      
      You’re right. It was just incoherent. She should be congratulated.
      - gravytop
        
        Sounds to me like someone needs a hug.
      - Cowicide
        
        [cow offers quiet, sarcastic "golf clap" to gravytop]
- emdubya
  
  I’m not criticizing her answer for being wrong ,which it factually is, but for being stupid and sheep-like. And I criticize the contest for being set up so that in order to win, a contestant must give a sheeplike, stupid, conservative answer that would satisfy both Glen Beck and the producers of “kids say the darnedest thangs.”
- Pantograph
  
  I think she is a lovely person. I am only hating her for her freedom.
- AutomaticWordGenerator
  
  Thank you for being among the few people I see that actually bother to look deeper on the other side instead of just going with the flow.
- bkad
  
  Thanks sapere_aude, I was thinking much the same thing. People need to relax a little bit. It’s not like she said the sun revolves around the Earth or something.
joelfinch

“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”

Of course, Ben Franklin probably wouldn’t have made it past the swimsuit stage.
- Anonymous
  
  As much as we (the parents of contestants) want to admit, most of these girls are being raised by rich, right-leaning, white people. It’s no doubt their spawn would mimic their thought pattern. The few of us who encourage our children to look at the world with a critical often get overshadowed by the majority.
  
  Even with her upbringing, my daughter is more right leaning than I. I am constantly surprised by her positions – then I look @ her friends, her schoolmates, her teachers (public school), etc. and I’m not surprised anymore.
- Stooge
  
  They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.
  
  joelfinch, you’re quoting Benjamin Franklin in defense of Wikileaks? I doubt I’ll see anything more ironic on BoingBoing this year.
OrcOnTheEndOfMyFork

Move over Gretchen Carlson. Meet the new Fox News corespondent…
- Anonymous
  
  You know Gretchen Carlson played an extremely difficult violin piece for her ‘talent’ portion back in the day.
  
  Yes, she is walking in those footsteps. The footsteps where despite the fact she’s the smartest person in the room, all anyone else cares about are upskirts. Search Gretchen Carlson on youtube if you don’t believe me.
  
  Also note she keeps telling the audience to use Google.
  
  This girl will learn, as Carlson did, how her ‘beauty’ is the only thing that really matters to anyone, and she may as well not have however much brains she does.
  
  Politics is as good a way as any to leverage that. Ask not only Palin, but also Bono, Schwarzenegger, Ventura, and Reagan.
Anonymous

Not enough “likes” and “literallys” in that statement…
Alan

You ask my straight A’s 17 year old daughter the same question, and she’ll look at you like you’re crazy and say “why the fuck do I care?”

I’m trying to work with her on her language, by the way.
zyodei

All in all, she seems like a fine representation of America today.
- Anonymous
  
  Based on most of the comments IÂ´ve read so far, I guess you havenÂ´t read what other people think. I hope she doesnÂ´t represent anyone in the US. She doesnÂ´t demonstrate freedom of thought.
Ugly Canuck

In a sense the existence of Wikileaks IS based upon the existence of espionage.

For if there were NO espionage in this world, then there would be far fewer reasons to need to keep secrets: and if there were no, or far fewer, secrets kept, then there’d be nothing, or far less, for Wikileaks to “expose” or “leak”.

People ought not to dismiss somebody’s opinions, nor hate them, just because they are beautiful!

Or ugly.
grimc

She also hoped to attend law school, become a judge and eventually a politician, according to her pageant biography.

Thankfully, there’s no way a beauty queen from a sparsely populated state who communicates through word salads could possibly become a national political figure. And even if she does, what’s the worst that could happen?
AirPillo

It’s a popularity contest, of course the competitor are all going to utter toothless, populist silliness.
CastanhasDoPara

Honestly, her job is to be pretty… that’s it. Cogent thought, properly received opinions on complex issues (for either side), or critical thinking are not what is at hand here. It’s a beauty pageant not a debate club.

FWIW, her statement isn’t all that asinine. Oh, of course she comes off as a tool of the state and a product of some right-wing wacko upbringing but I unfortunately can’t blame a 17 year old for not knowing any better. I remember being a 17 year old idiot once and fortunately I grew out of that with a little help from some people that challenged my views with thoughtful and respectful debate and education. Being handed Howard Zinn’s People’s History was the tipping point and from there I think I finally got it. But I am still not so deluded to think that I know it all or that I am completely right about the thoughts and opinions I hold. So with that in mind and knowing where I once was I try to educate people about what I feel is the truth(philosophical) or the facts (empirical). Sometimes it works and sometimes I just have to cut my losses. This young woman just needs a little help(maybe a lot). A lot of people out there do. So with that on the table I challenge all of you to go out and educate somebody instead of just sitting here griping about random buffoons in ball gowns.
Anonymous

Would you expect Miss America not to mouth the party line?
Anonymous

does she have a map?

.~.
Zaaphod

Well… it was based on espionage. If that sniveling $#!t 8@g army private hadn’t decided to boost his low self esteem and total lack of worth by sharing secrets he had sworn to keep, the bottom feeder at Wikileaks wouldn’t have had much to publish.

She may not be a grand orator like the Head Hawaiian In Charge, but at least she didn’t need a teleprompter.

What black bikini?
DJBudSonic

I happened to tune in for various parts of this last night (whatever was opposite the NFL playoff commercials) and as a result saw her swimsuit (not in my top 3), evening gown (just ok) piano performance (heavy-handed), and then the crowning. The runner up did ventriloquism yodeling with two dummies!! And @oldtaku if you think she looks like Michael Jackson you should have seen the runner up – at least compared to the cut-away shots of her parents. But in any event, what I see in this picture exactly what I thought last night, this poor woman is going to have to spend the next year fighting for control of her hair color.
Anonymous

Vapid girl makes vapid statement.
This is news why?

Maybe the thought we expect more from “Miss America” is a failing on our part.

We are conceited enough to have a World Series, to think our law is more important than any other countries, and to think our job is to show everyone else the American way is the best way.

It is a beauty pageant, your answers need to appeal to the chest thumping flag waving demographic. Did we forget what happened with Perez Hilton and Carrie Prejean? She was such a wholesome girl he ambushed. Except she was making sex tapes, got the pageant to buy her new boobs, and tried to cash in on her “fame”.

She is more Miss America than anyone wants to admit. We look pretty on the outside but we are a hollow plastic shell full of stupidity and bigotry. We put a pretty face on our “peacekeeping” efforts but the grim reality is we kill people to get what we want. We lie, cheat, steal, break our own laws all under the wraps of keeping ourselves safe. We have the illusion of freedom, and anyone who disbelieves the lie is wiretapped and searched at the border. Our political parties are corrupt, the only difference being what corporations benefit from the side in power. And rather than try to make a change and have our voices heard we debate what some vapid girl said on television. Because posting comments online is so much easier than reminding our congress critters we elected them to represent the people, not the sound bites.
- Cowicide
  
  Vapid girl makes vapid statement.
  
  And, here you are… posting in a “vapid girl makes vapid statement” thread.
maroon

Wikileaks hysteria is getting boring now – can’t we just nuke Iran and be done with it?
Teller

Ragging on a 17 yo’s opinion of WikiLeaks. What next, y’all want to do a Robert Hughes on some 3rd grader’s art project? Very smugly comments. And whomever said She blew her chance to get it on with Julian Assange – I SOOOO doubt that.
- grimc
  
  Yeah, because a 17-year-old is just like a 3rd grader.
  
  She turns 18 in three weeks, btw. Would people feel better if BB reposted this on Feburary 6th?
  - Teller
    
    Oh I got no trouble with the posting. It’s kind of an anticipated annual event to put the Miss America gal in the dunk tank. And not entirely undeserved. Beauty Pageants are pretty silly. And the years those gals spend working up to the possibility of being “crowned” seem like an enormous waste of time. Though, not to them. C’est la vie. It’s the smug and sanctimonious tone of the cluckers and tut-tutters that, while I admonish them, I secretly derive pleasure reading how self-satisfied they are to be able to, for a small portion of their constipated day, shoot fish in a barrel. I’ve got a touch of it myself.
DJBudSonic

So what was the question?
chumpmeat

“Wikileaks was actually based on espionage.”

Can someone please explain to me why you’re making fun of her for saying this? It’s true isn’t it?

In 2007 Assange described work to uncover information by a chinese dissident as “espionage one of our contacts was involved in”. And Bradley Manning is accused of having covertly taken secret and confidential information from the defense dept. There’s no other word to use for it but espionage – it’s as clear an example as can exist.
emo hex

Can I get a Heil !
DrPretto

Well not as bad as the answer from this girl from Panama (my country) in a beauty contest, where she answers that “Confucious was the inventor of Confusion”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqgfbDIlhbw
Anonymous

She’s like a genius, except for the part about having a big-brain.
BootStar

I hope she was misquoted here, because I thought these homeschooled kids generally did well on their SATs (from the AP):

“I do think I will register as an Independent,” Scanlan said. “All the BIPARTISANSHIP (emphasis added) has become ridiculous and it’s time to look at issues instead of parties.”

She’ll be attending the homeschooler’s Harvard, Patrick Henry University.

Read more: http://www.philly.com/philly/entertainment/20110116_ap_missnebraskawins2011missamericapageant.html#ixzz1BDDgckv2
- Anonymous
  
  The homeschoolers’ Harvard is Harvard.
  
  http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1989/3/16/homeschoolers-are-at-home-at-harvard/
ToMajorTom

I think the judges bait the contestants with politically charged questions to generate headlines, hoping to make beauty pageants relevant again (assuming they ever were).