A Beauty Queen for Queen & Country

I needed something pleasant to distract myself and thought this was an awesome story. Katrina Hodge (22) enlisted in the British Royal Army on a dare from her brother and when she showed up in heels and fake eyelashes she was dubbed "Combat Barbie". I'm sure it surprised many when she passed her training courses and proved a capable soldier. She served a tour of duty in Iraq where she was awarded a commendation for bravery and the rank of lance corporal. Now, she is also a beauty queen with the title of Miss England. She entered the Miss England pageant and came in second but when scandal forced the original winner to resign Miss Hodge took her place as Miss England and now the beauty queen doing her bit for Queen and Country is making alot of buzz. One item is that the lovely lance corporal has convinced pageant officials to do away with the swimsuit competition and replace it with a sports competition. She has also become the front-person for a dating website devoted to helping men and women in uniform find romance. With all of the shallow, superficial and frankly selfish attitudes we often associate with pretty faces today, it is nice for someone to be in the position of a beauty queen who has actually served her Queen in a war zone. Now, so as not to mislead, I tend to have very traditional attitudes about women in the military, but I applaud anyone for serving in uniform and "Combat Barbie" here has hopefully shown others that enlisting in the service of their Queen and Country is an admirable thing that anyone of any background should consider. The Mad Monarchist salutes her for her spirit of service and her loyalty as well as her other obvious qualities.
(there, something totally unrelated to creeping socialism...)

Mad Monarchist Salute: Miss California

I have mixed feelings about beauty pageants, say what you will about the good causes they champion it still seems like objectification at worst and at best simply further glorification of the beautiful. I like a pretty face as much as the next guy, but I never met a beautiful person who did not know it and they are usually celebrated enough without winning any contests. However, I have to give credit to Carrie Prejean of California, runner-up in the Miss USA pageants for displaying on national television that her beauty is not just skin deep. In a deplorable effort to politicize a beauty pageant (as liberals love to politicize *everything*) one of the judges; a radical homosexual activist self-dubbed Perez Hilton, asked Miss Prejean what her view on "gay marriage" was. To my surprise, and with the audience booing in the background, Miss California responded, in a very respectful way, that according to her faith marriage was between a man and a woman -end of story. Needless to say Perez Hilton gave her a "zero" for her answer and thus cost her the crown. He later went on his video blog and insulted Miss Prejean in the most vile language and admitted that she lost because of her answer. He said she should have supported "gay marriage" or simply dodged the question. However, to her credit, in a later interview Miss Prejean said she did not regret her answer and that it was more important for her to be "Biblically correct" than "politically correct". I don't know anything else about her, but I can see for myself that she is qualified to win a simple beauty pageant and for giving up her chance to stand by her religious convictions the Mad Monarchist salutes Carrie Prejean.