Saturday, September 27, 2008
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Phyllis Schlafly Only Younger
Gloria Steinem (via LATimes) explaining why we won't be fooled by Sarah Palin:
"So let's be clear: The culprit is John McCain. He may have chosen Palin out of change-envy, or a belief that women can't tell the difference between form and content, but the main motive was to please right-wing ideologues; the same ones who nixed anyone who is now or ever has been a supporter of reproductive freedom. If that were not the case, McCain could have chosen a woman who knows what a vice president does and who has thought about Iraq; someone like Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison or Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine. McCain could have taken a baby step away from right-wing patriarchs who determine his actions, right down to opposing the Violence Against Women Act.
Palin's value to those patriarchs is clear: She opposes just about every issue that women support by a majority or plurality. She believes that creationism should be taught in public schools but disbelieves global warming; she opposes gun control but supports government control of women's wombs; she opposes stem cell research but approves "abstinence-only" programs, which increase unwanted births, sexually transmitted diseases and abortions; she tried to use taxpayers' millions for a state program to shoot wolves from the air but didn't spend enough money to fix a state school system with the lowest high-school graduation rate in the nation; she runs with a candidate who opposes the Fair Pay Act but supports $500 million in subsidies for a natural gas pipeline across Alaska; she supports drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve, though even McCain has opted for the lesser evil of offshore drilling. She is Phyllis Schlafly, only younger."
"So let's be clear: The culprit is John McCain. He may have chosen Palin out of change-envy, or a belief that women can't tell the difference between form and content, but the main motive was to please right-wing ideologues; the same ones who nixed anyone who is now or ever has been a supporter of reproductive freedom. If that were not the case, McCain could have chosen a woman who knows what a vice president does and who has thought about Iraq; someone like Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison or Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine. McCain could have taken a baby step away from right-wing patriarchs who determine his actions, right down to opposing the Violence Against Women Act.
Palin's value to those patriarchs is clear: She opposes just about every issue that women support by a majority or plurality. She believes that creationism should be taught in public schools but disbelieves global warming; she opposes gun control but supports government control of women's wombs; she opposes stem cell research but approves "abstinence-only" programs, which increase unwanted births, sexually transmitted diseases and abortions; she tried to use taxpayers' millions for a state program to shoot wolves from the air but didn't spend enough money to fix a state school system with the lowest high-school graduation rate in the nation; she runs with a candidate who opposes the Fair Pay Act but supports $500 million in subsidies for a natural gas pipeline across Alaska; she supports drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve, though even McCain has opted for the lesser evil of offshore drilling. She is Phyllis Schlafly, only younger."
Friday, September 12, 2008
Homeland Un-preparedness/This is Not a Joke
Sarah Palin is not ready to be VP and CERTAINLY not even close to the calibre necessary to take over for 72-year-old John McCain. This is not something to joke about or be sarcastic about or even partisan about. This is scary, irresponsible and wrong.
See her first interview with Charles Gibson ABC.
Then read what Eve Ensler has to say on Palin. She's the American playwright, performer, feminist and activist best known for 'The Vagina Monologues.'
Here's an excerpt:
I don't like raging at women. I am a Feminist and have spent my life trying to build community, help empower women and stop violence against them. It is hard to write about Sarah Palin. This is why the Sarah Palin choice was all the more insidious and cynical. The people who made this choice count on the goodness and solidarity of Feminists.
But everything Sarah Palin believes in and practices is antithetical to Feminism which for me is part of one story -- connected to saving the earth, ending racism, empowering women, giving young girls options, opening our minds, deepening tolerance, and ending violence and war.
I believe that the McCain/Palin ticket is one of the most dangerous choices of my lifetime, and should this country chose those candidates the fall-out may be so great, the destruction so vast in so many areas that America may never recover. But what is equally disturbing is the impact that duo would have on the rest of the world. Unfortunately, this is not a joke.
See her first interview with Charles Gibson ABC.
Then read what Eve Ensler has to say on Palin. She's the American playwright, performer, feminist and activist best known for 'The Vagina Monologues.'
Here's an excerpt:
I don't like raging at women. I am a Feminist and have spent my life trying to build community, help empower women and stop violence against them. It is hard to write about Sarah Palin. This is why the Sarah Palin choice was all the more insidious and cynical. The people who made this choice count on the goodness and solidarity of Feminists.
But everything Sarah Palin believes in and practices is antithetical to Feminism which for me is part of one story -- connected to saving the earth, ending racism, empowering women, giving young girls options, opening our minds, deepening tolerance, and ending violence and war.
I believe that the McCain/Palin ticket is one of the most dangerous choices of my lifetime, and should this country chose those candidates the fall-out may be so great, the destruction so vast in so many areas that America may never recover. But what is equally disturbing is the impact that duo would have on the rest of the world. Unfortunately, this is not a joke.
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Family Values $$ of the Righteous
A modest letter to the editor in Saturday's Boston Globe by a local man, Keith Backman, clarifies the Orwellian quality of Sarah Palin's "family values" around her 17-year-old's pregnancy:
ALTHOUGH THE pregnancy of Sarah Palin's daughter, Bristol, should not influence anyone's vote, the double standard by which it is judged in conservative circles should. Palin's grandchild will be born into a family with ample resources, and so Bristol's flawed youthful decisions are being downplayed in light of her family's supportiveness. But the same flawed decisions of any inner-city teenager are consistently decried by conservatives as moral decay and poor family values. Wealthy individuals can make mistakes without disapprobation, but poor individuals who make the same mistakes are castigated, because they need help coping with the otherwise identical fallout of the error.
The logical extension is the conservative agenda: Social programs should be done away with because they squander the tax dollars of the righteous (i.e., the well off) on the vices of leeches and ne'er-do-wells. Whether it is teen pregnancy, drug abuse, family dysfunction, or any other issue, in the conservative mind the sin is not in the act or event itself, but in the lack of personal resources to deal with the outcome. How anyone can subscribe to, much less vote for, such a mean-spirited and hypocritical philosophy is beyond me.
KEITH BACKMAN
Bedford
The logical extension is the conservative agenda: Social programs should be done away with because they squander the tax dollars of the righteous (i.e., the well off) on the vices of leeches and ne'er-do-wells. Whether it is teen pregnancy, drug abuse, family dysfunction, or any other issue, in the conservative mind the sin is not in the act or event itself, but in the lack of personal resources to deal with the outcome. How anyone can subscribe to, much less vote for, such a mean-spirited and hypocritical philosophy is beyond me.
KEITH BACKMAN
Bedford
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
