As a dissident feminist, I have been arguing since my arrival on the scene nearly 20 years ago that young American women aspiring to political power should be studying military history rather than taking women's studies courses, with their rote agenda of never-ending grievances...
The gun-toting Sarah Palin is like Annie Oakley, a brash ambassador from America's pioneer past. She immediately reminded me of the frontier women of the Western states, which first granted women the right to vote after the Civil War -- long before the federal amendment guaranteeing universal woman suffrage was passed in 1919. Frontier women faced the same harsh challenges and had to tackle the same chores as men did -- which is why men could regard them as equals, unlike the genteel, corseted ladies of the Eastern seaboard, which fought granting women the vote right to the bitter end...
It is certainly premature to predict how the Palin saga will go. I may not agree a jot with her about basic principles, but I have immensely enjoyed Palin's boffo performances at her debut and at the Republican convention, where she astonishingly dealt with multiple technical malfunctions without missing a beat. A feminism that cannot admire the bravura under high pressure of the first woman governor of a frontier state isn't worth a warm bucket of spit...
The witch-trial hysteria of the past two incendiary weeks unfortunately reveals a disturbing trend in the Democratic Party, which has worsened over the past decade. Democrats are quick to attack the religiosity of Republicans, but Democratic ideology itself seems to have become a secular substitute religion. Since when did Democrats become so judgmental and intolerant? Conservatives are demonized, with the universe polarized into a Manichaean battle of us versus them, good versus evil. Democrats are clinging to pat group opinions as if they were inflexible moral absolutes. The party is in peril if it cannot observe and listen and adapt to changing social circumstances...But the pro-life position, whether or not it is based on religious orthodoxy, is more ethically highly evolved than my own tenet of unconstrained access to abortion on demand. My argument (as in my first book, "Sexual Personae,") has always been that nature has a master plan pushing every species toward procreation and that it is our right and even obligation as rational human beings to defy nature's fascism. Nature herself is a mass murderer, making casual, cruel experiments and condemning 10,000 to die so that one more fit will live and thrive.
Hence I have always frankly admitted that abortion is murder, the extermination of the powerless by the powerful. Liberals for the most part have shrunk from facing the ethical consequences of their embrace of abortion, which results in the annihilation of concrete individuals and not just clumps of insensate tissue. The state in my view has no authority whatever to intervene in the biological processes of any woman's body, which nature has implanted there before birth and hence before that woman's entrance into society and citizenship.On the other hand, I support the death penalty for atrocious crimes (such as rape-murder or the murder of children). I have never understood the standard Democratic combo of support for abortion and yet opposition to the death penalty. Surely it is the guilty rather than the innocent who deserve execution?
So far, so fun. She's an iconoclast, this lady. Then, at the end, she spoils the whole effect with this strange statement:
But the one fundamental precept that Democrats must stand for is independent thought and speech.
Huh? Democrats think, Republicans don't? That's the fundamental truth?
2 comments:
FROM CAROL HERMAN
People are going to have to grow up!
Policies that were "new" in the 60's and 70's; where women were still embarassed to be "single moms," is a relic of the past. GONE. And, do you know why? All the issues that feminists claim for themvelves have gone MAINSTREAM.
America's not about to whallop the mainstream! And, one way to discuss this would be to point to Sandra Day O'Connor, who sat on the Supreme Court Bench. And, she used wisdom NOT to roll back Roe V. Wade. She knew that if Roe V. Wade were overturned, the price republicans would pay would be enormous.
Right now, it's the left that's been radicalized. Or you'd realize that Hillary was the better candidate. And, Obama's appeal is only to the extremists. So they won. But they will lose. Rebuilding a party after a fall is much harder; than having the mainstream cooperating with you.
Israel's in such a different ball game. Where the extremists WIN in a parliamentary system, because they can hold you up, as you're knocking together a governing coalition; emphasizes that the American way; once you reach 51% ... allows the winner to take all.
Still, in the upcoming election, I think people will split their votes. And, the Conress will go marginally to the democrats. Which will keep McCain in the center. For anything else would hurt his ability to get anything past. Plus, to get any of his candidates confirmed in the senate. McCain won't give Joe Biden an "I told you so" moment. People benched as judges won't be as incipid a choice as Harriet Miers.
Should McCain be ahead, since Bush isn't liked? No. This is the race the democrats have to lose. And, if McCain wins it, it proves there's brilliance in strategy.
While the most sickening aspect, now, of Israeli politics, is that the POLICE can go to the newspapers, and say "Olmert goes to jail." HELLO! You're either in a oourt of law. Or you are not!
In America the prosecutors who do mischief like that get punished. What's been smearing Olmert, now, for years, would cause a great discount on all the "evidence" the police think they've found. While your russian mafia florishes.
There is a story, from American Law. Going back to the 1950's. When a Mafia Godfather was charged with racketeering, gambling, prostitution. And, in the closing arguments, "by happenstance," the prosecutor pointed to the dedendent and said "you should find him guilty because he refused to testify, here, in front of the jurors."
HELLO. The jurors found the man guilty. And, the case was appealed. And, the government lost because of that remark by the prosecutor. In America, you don't ask the defendent to "prove himself not-guilty." He can sit and not be a witness. It's up to the government to prove the case. And, the Appeals Court was forced to ACQUIT. How much money did the prosecutor pocket? Someone like Morris Talansky would know. It's all about cash in envelopes. If you think "only Olmert" then you have been made crazy by religion. Cause it ain't so.
Oh, yeah. Palin's at least as smart as Sandra Day O'Connor.
Where you see the stupidity of the left, in American politics, is where you see liberals setting the bar so low for Palin, she can avoid it all. While she still lives the life of a woman who CHOSE. And, she CHOSE LIFE. What did you think "choice" meant? Everything's an abortion? I beg to differ.
ANOTHER, FROM CAROL HERMAN
It seems to me to be s obvious! When Olmert won. Kadima survived Arik Sharon' stroke.
And, it's the LIKUD that's been behind this destruction of Olmert! Furious, as they are that their powers have deminished. And, all Bibi has is 12 seats! PLUS, Morris Talansky. And, Israel's corrupt police!
If you think this is all a big secret, I beg to differ.
Olmert was supposed to quit! He has not! While Katsav "quit" with a "bargain" he later said "no deal." And, instead of his immediately having the charges of rape take him into court; you don't see the bogus charges at all!
Instead, you see Shimon Peres now the president of Israel. "Cute." But FAKE.
Israel is a country with a stink-o parliamentary system. Where Ben Gurion falsely thought that Israel didn't need anything beyond Marx. Karl Marx. The man who purposely "converted himself," after his father had arleady taken the path to conversion.
At some point; just like Obama exposes the American liberals; the Israeli system will be exposed.
It's in the hands of lawyers. And, liberals. Who have no idea they're running on FALSE GODS. And, elitism. More snakes than has anything to do with good government.
Sure. Olmert falls. But just like Julius Caesar "crossed the Rubicon." Goes into Rome KILLING THE REPUBLIC. And, then is assassinated. Leaving lesser men to inherit the mantle.
And, from the point in time the Rubicon is crossed, the greatness of Rome, deminishes. Why? Because the Republic was replaced by despots. One after the other.
Crossing the Rubicon means you can win battles. But lose the war.
You can't replace freedom. And, Ben Gurion never chose freedom! He chose, instead, unrealistic ideals. It's just not human nature.
And, yes. Morris Talansky is a tool. You think the story won't be told?
All stories get told, eventually.
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