Muddling Toward Maturity Blog

HEATHER MACDONALD - "GIRLING THE BOYS" -- "BOY" SCOUTS ARE NO MORE

MacDonald has written the best, most extensive and most comprehensive article on what this culture is doing to men that I have ever read.   It's up-to-date and extends beyond the issue of Boy Scouts.  A Must Read!

ABBEY JOHNSON - 7 Things I learned at the Women's Convention About Feminists and Abortion

Abbey Johnson (former Planned Parenthood manager) offers 7 observations:

First observations:  "The abortion industry is more brazen than ever." 

In one panel we attended, a post-abortive woman (times six) and clinic worker at the Houston Women’s Center named Kenya Martin stated that “Abortion should be no different than having a tooth pulled.” She even said women should throw “abortion parties” the day they have an abortion and rent “party buses” to celebrate their “decision.” Yes, she really said that."   . . . .

 2nd observation: "These women are still really hung up on their privates."

The vulgarity all around this conference was enough to make even this former secular feminist blush. . . .  

Abbey Johnson offers more details on these two observationss as well as five more.  I urge you to read the whole thing to see what has become of "feminism" today.     

Note:  Abby Johnson is a former Planned Parenthood manager who now runs And Then There Were None, which helps abortion workers leave their jobs. She is also the author of “Unplanned.”

AYAAN HIRSI ALI - WESTERN FEMINISTS NEED TO SPEAK UP FOR MUSLIM WOMEN

Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Somali-born research Fellow at the Hoover Institution, founder of the AHA Foundation (which exists to protect women and girls from abuses), author of a February Op-Ed piece, "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Sharia?," yesterday wrote an article regarding the International Women's Day saying:

 . . . As a moral and legal code, Sharia law is demeaning and degrading to women. It requires women to be placed under the care of male guardians; it views a woman’s testimony in court as worth half that of a man’s; and it permits a husband to beat his wife. It’s not only women’s legal and sexual freedoms that are curtailed under Sharia but their economic freedoms as well. Women generally inherit half of the amount that men inherit, and their male guardian must consent to their choosing education, work, or travel.

In Saudi Arabia, Iran, Sudan, and parts of Nigeria, where Sharia law underpins the judicial system, women’s rights suffer greatly.

There is a growing trend among some feminists to make excuses for Sharia law and claim it is nothing more than a personal moral guide, and therefore consistent with American constitutional liberties. Yet the rules that such “Sharia-lite feminists” voluntarily choose to follow are also invoked to oppress women—to marry them off, to constrain their economic and human rights, and to limit their freedom of expression—who have not consented to them. The moral conflict between Sharia and universal human rights should not be dismissed as a misunderstanding, but openly discussed.

QUICK TAKES

 

   ** New York Times:  "An Earthling's Guide to Black Holes"

   ** Rod Dreher links to major article - "How the Fight Over Transgender Kids Got a Leading Sex Researcher Fired."     Gender dysphoria clinic head gets canned because he is not politically correct enough and because of intellectual and moral cowardice of his superiors.  

   ** Caroline Glick - Israel's defenses in dire straits over Russian deployment of the S-400 and the projected purchase of the fatally flawed F-35.   Israeli air superiority now ended.

   ** Charles Murray - Explaining Trumpism: the white working class has legitimate reasons to be angry at the ruling class.  

   ** David French - Stop Using Israel's Example to Justify the Barbaric Practice of Drafting Women into Combat

QUICK TAKES

  -  David Pryce-Jones - It Would Be Foolish for Britain to Remain in the EU 

  -  David French - It is Only Going to Get Worse -- Jonathan Haidt on the Crisis on Campus.  -  On Leftist domination in the university and plus the effects of raising "fragile kids".  Valuable also for introducing me to Heterodox Academy website.  

  -  Luca Volontè  - European Resistance to Cultural Suicide

                                - Europe, Multiculturalism, and Nihilism

CHRISTINA HOFF SOMMERS - "FEMINIST CRAZINESS"

In the video below, Bill Kristol interviews Christina Hoff Sommers, a self-described "moderate feminist," former college professor, and now a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. She is a critic of the radicalization of feminism over the last few decades.  I first gained knowledge of her (and the commotion she stirred up) when she published her first book, Who Stole Feminism?:  How Women Have Betrayed Women (1995).   Since then she has written other books including The War Against Boys (2001) and Freedom Feminism (2013).  She currently hosts a weekly YouTube series, The Factual Feminist, in which she addresses feminist myths in short five minute segments.   If you watch the interview, be sure not to miss the segment on "The War Against Boys" at the 42:29 - 49:09 spot)

 

On the notion that gender is a total social construction, Sommers argues for the reality of masculinity and femininity.  She responds to a Kristol question saying:  (my emphases)

It’s [gender] obviously a complicated mix of biology and culture, but, you know, there’s no society in the entire anthropological record where you find the men are the nurturers and the women are the, you know, soldiers. They don’t exist.

Again and again, we see that it’s real. There’s something, femininity and masculinity are real and most people, not all, but most people, many of the stereotypes are true. That women do tend to be more nurturing and risk-adverse and have usually a richer emotional vocabulary, and men tend to be a little less explicit about their emotions, emotionally flattened – we’ll say, stoical to be nice. More stoical, more competitive and they do engage in a lot of risky behavior, for better or worse. Men tend to show up at the extremes of success and failure more than women because they are sometimes more – single-minded in the pursuit of, more obsessive pursuits – more likely to do that than women.

MARGARET SANGER AND PLANNED PARENTHOOD - from JONAH GOLDBERG'S "LIBERAL FASCISM"

This material is subtitled: "Contraception, abortion, and the eugenics movement."  It was Kathryn Lopez who linked to the following excerpt from Jonah Goldberg's book, Liberal Fascism.

Margaret Sanger, whose American Birth Control League became Planned Parenthood, was the founding mother of the birth-control movement. She is today considered a liberal saint, a founder of modern feminism, and one of the leading lights of the Progressive pantheon. Gloria Feldt of Planned Parenthood proclaims, “I stand by Margaret Sanger’s side,” leading “the organization that carries on Sanger’s legacy.” Planned Parenthood’s first black president, Faye Wattleton — Ms. magazine’s “Woman of the Year” in 1989 — said that she was “proud” to be “walking in the footsteps of Margaret Sanger.” Planned Parenthood gives out annual Maggie Awards to individuals and organizations who advance Sanger’s cause. Recipients are a Who’s Who of liberal icons, from the novelist John Irving to the producers of NBC’s West Wing. What Sanger’s liberal admirers are eager to downplay is that she was a thoroughgoing racist who subscribed completely to the views of E. A. Ross and other “raceologists.” Indeed, she made many of them seem tame.

THE FRENCH WINK AT SEXUAL LICENSE; SO DO LIBERAL AMERICANS

Jonah Goldberg makes the point in his article, "French Should Feel Shame, But We're No Puritans."

Empowerment: Women Now Choose Objectification Over ‘Creepy’ Breastfeeding

What does one say about a woman like Kathryn Blundell, who says breastfeeding is creepy?  She claims she wants her body back and doesn't want a "teeny, tiny, innocent baby latching on where only a lover has been before."  I kid you not.  That is Blundell's published statement.  And believe it or not, she is the editor of the parenting magazine, Mother &  Baby.   Lori Ziganto offers her take:

What bothers me immensely is the fact that women now see their breasts as “fun bags” and as something meant for “lovers” only and not as a part of nurturing and motherhood. This concept epitomizes the very worst in female and motherhood degradation and it shows just how much damage the “sexual empowerment” fallacy, pushed by the Leftist Femisogynists, has caused. The thought that women should exist solely as sex objects is now rampant — even amongst women themselves.

The theory behind this whole article, in a woman’s parenting magazine, is that motherhood and nurturing a child is, as they always claim, a punishment. Something that results in the cramping of one’s “empowered” style. Sex is super fun! Motherhood? Not so much. Also, creepy. And anyone who says otherwise is a nutty wing nut liar!

They have ended up diminishing women and womanhood itself with these constant attempts to demonize motherhood and to try to turn it into a punishment and a detriment to one’s happiness. Instead of realizing that being a life bearing nurturer is one of the very best things about being a woman and is an attribute in and of itself, they constantly try to take that away, all in the name of some delusional perceived equality via sexual empowerment.  [more . . .]

Me:  Blundell represents the creepiness of a culture out of its mind, a culture in rebellion against the "created order" which God designed for the flourishing of all.

SARAH PALIN - "WOMEN'S RIGHTS GROUPS: YOUR DOUBLE STANDARD IS SHOWING"

Once again Sarah Palin enters the public fray to offer a common sense perspective. 

MUST-SEE VIDEO EXPLAINING "POLITICAL CORRECTNESS" AND THE MSNBC "NARRATIVE"

Bill Whittle has produced a 13 minute video (after a 30 second commercial) which genuinely educates.  I'm indebted to Wintery Knight for the link.  He titles his blog post "How the Left Wing Media Suppresses News That Doesn't Fit Their Agenda").

Ever heard of the "Frankfurt School"?  Ever wondered about Feminist theory?  Gender theory?  The (exclusive) focus on slavery in America (and nowhere else?)  Get educated and watch this video!!   It's time we begin to understand the nature and development of the intellectual climate that now dominates the airwaves and universities.  While we're at it, we can learn more about "political correctness" by watching the following videos:

• Part 1 (10:36)
• Part 2 (10:30)
• Part 3 (7:36)

CHRISTINA HOFF SOMMERS - "PERSISTENT MYTHS IN FEMINIST SCHOLARSHIP"

Anyone even remotely interested in feminist scholarship and the textbooks used on university campuses, needs to read this article.  (HT: HotAir)  I can't do justice to the article in a sentence or two.  Summary: be very suspicious of statistics, expect hyperbole, and don't expect most feminist authors to care about accuracy (many refuse to correct mistakes even when pointed out).  Here's how Ms. Sommers begins her article:

"Harder to kill than a vampire." That is what the sociologist Joel Best calls a bad statistic. But, as I have discovered over the years, among false statistics the hardest of all to slay are those promoted by feminist professors.  [more ...]

CAMILE PAGLIA CONTINUES TO BUCK THE "DEMOCRAT TALKING POINTS" ON SARAH PALIN

I posted on Paglia's positive, disarmingly readable views on Palin last month.  Paglia continues to see Palin positively.  In her latest post, Paglia says that Palin

. . .  has been subjected to an atrocious and at times delusional level of defamtion merely because she has the temerity to hold pro-life views.

How dare Palin not embrace abortion as the ultimate civilized ideal of modern culture? How tacky that she speaks in a vivacious regional accent indistinguishable from that of Western Canada! How risible that she graduated from the University of Idaho and not one of those plush, pampered commodes of received opinion whose graduates, in their rush to believe the worst about her, have demonstrated that, when it comes to sifting evidence, they don't know their asses from their elbows. . . 

I like Sarah Palin, and I've heartily enjoyed her arrival on the national stage. As a career classroom teacher, I can see how smart she is -- and quite frankly, I think the people who don't see it are the stupid ones, wrapped in the fuzzy mummy-gauze of their own worn-out partisan dogma. So she doesn't speak the King's English -- big whoop! There is a powerful clarity of consciousness in her eyes. She uses language with the jumps, breaks and rippling momentum of a be-bop saxophonist. I stand on what I said (as a staunch pro-choice advocate) in my last two columns -- that Palin as a pro-life wife, mother and ambitious professional represents the next big shift in feminism. Pro-life women will save feminism by expanding it, particularly into the more traditional Third World.

GUESS WHAT? SARAH PALIN IS SMART!

So says Elaine Lafferty, former editor in chief of Ms. Magazine (and a Democrat) on what she learned on a campaign plane with the would-be VP.  She is irritated that Palin is getting a bad rap.  Bravo for Ms. Lafferty!  It's amazing that elementary fairness now deserves special recognition because of its stark contrast to the sewer-like treatment the media affords Palin.  Read Lafferty's article.

While you're at it, take a look at Fred Barnes' piece, "To Know Her is to Respect Her."  It's excellent.

And finally, I love the way Sarah Palin is setting the record straight about those expensive clothes!

CAMILLE PAGLIA ON SARAH PALIN

Paglia, an iconoclastic professor, self-proclaimed atheist, social commentator, and declared supporter of Barack Obama, has interesting -- and appreciative -- things to say about Sarah Palin.   An excerpt:

The mountain of rubbish poured out about Palin over the past month would rival Everest. What a disgrace for our jabbering army of liberal journalists and commentators, too many of whom behaved like snippy jackasses. The bourgeois conventionalism and rank snobbery of these alleged humanitarians stank up the place. . .

The hysterical emotionalism and eruptions of amoral malice at the arrival of Sarah Palin exposed the weaknesses and limitations of current feminism. But I am convinced that Palin's bracing mix of male and female voices, as well as her grounding in frontier grit and audacity, will prove to be a galvanizing influence on aspiring Democratic women politicians too, from the municipal level on up. Palin has shown a brand-new way of defining female ambition -- without losing femininity, spontaneity or humor. She's no pre-programmed wonk of the backstage Hillary Clinton school; she's pugnacious and self-created, the product of no educational or political elite -- which is why her outsider style has been so hard for media lemmings to comprehend. And by the way, I think Tina Fey's witty impersonations of Palin have been fabulous. But while Fey has nailed Palin's cadences and charm, she can't capture the energy, which is a force of nature.

PALIN MANIA

- -We live now in post-feminist America, and this article by Anne Applebaum explains how and why Hillary Clinton's reign as the archetypal Female American Politician has come to an end.

-- Jessica Gavora  builds an article around Palin's quote: All I ever really needed to know I learned on the basketball court.  It's a good article.  The ending paragraphs:

But liberal feminists are, in fact, afraid of Sarah Palin. For the first time, they face real competition in their claim to speak for women. For decades, feminist groups have insisted they are the voice of American women, when in fact they are the voice of a narrow, liberal fringe. It's an argument that has convinced the media and has cowed politicians of both parties. And it's an argument that Sarah Palin is busy blowing clean out of the water.

If she wins, that hissing sound you will hear will be the air wheezing out of modern feminism. And even if she doesn't win, she will have given America--and, more important, American politicians--the example of a female former athlete who knows who she is and what she wants and doesn't need Big Brother to protect her from the old boys network.

And to think it all began in a gym in Wasilla.

-- The International Herald Tribune posts an article "Bible is Palin's professional guide, friends and pastors say"  (9/7/08)

KATHLEEN PARKER'S NEW BOOK - "SAVE THE MALES"

Kathryn Jean Lopez introduces the book by saying Save the Males: Why Men Matter. Why Women Should Care is funny, clever, and important.  ". . Don't be misled into thinking the book is all about abortion — it covers higher ed, military, celebrity, children, marriage, pornography, and so much more.  Save the Males is worth a read. You'll enjoy that you did. And if saves a male or two, too, all the better."

FEMINISTS SHUSH WOMEN WITH POST-ABORTION REGRETS

Michelle Malkin writes persuasively. 

IS THERE A RAPE CRISIS ON COLLEGE CAMPUSES? NO.

Heather MacDonald in her L.A. Times article "What campus rape crisis?" sheds light on yet another myth perpetuated by feminist lies. Her article is subtitled: "Promiscuity and hype have created a phony epidemic at colleges." 

David Horowitz, in calling attention to this article, says:

For twenty-five years academic feminists have been pushing a big lie and using it to extract millions from student pockets. The big lie, which is ably exposed by Heather MacDonald in the LA Times is that one out of every four campus females is raped by a campus male. In fact, as MacDonald shows, there are almost no such campus rapes. But the feminists have used this phony claim to extract millions of dollars from student pockets and establish campus "rape centers" as an institutional beach-head for spreading hate propaganda against men in general and male students in particular.

Update: The full-length version of Heather MacDonald's article can be found here.  The sub-title of this article reads: "The reality: bogus statistics, feminist victimology, and university-approved sex toys."

FEMINISM AND THE PROBLEM OF THE "CHILD-MAN" -THE MAN WHO DOESN'T GROW UP

In response to Kathryn Jean Lopez's article on the movie Juno, a reader responded with this intriguing analysis of feminism's effect on manhood:

. . . Feminism’s second wave has had many, many unintended consequences, one of which is that men, not just women have been liberated from their traditional roles. Many men simply don’t feel the need to grow up because women have quite plainly said they don’t need or value men. “You say you can take care of yourselves? Fantastic! I’m gonna go invent computer games and play them for as long as I want.”

So, women indulged in a gigantic fit of self-indulgence and selfishness, which they are still very much involved in, and along comes not just one woman (you), but many of them, calling upon men to engage in the self-sacrifice of yesteryear, while at the same time, retaining all of their newfound privilege, comfort, self-determination, and

Ellen Goodman's Columns Need Regular Fact Checking

Ramesh Ponnuru of National Review notes:

Alison Jaggar - Radical Feminist/Marxist University Professor

Click here for a synopsis of a radical feminist/Marxist university professor's views on humanity and the sexes.  As they say, "you can't make this stuff up."

Western Feminism: Silence in the Face of Muslim Honor Killings

Robert Fulford writes  in the National Post:

On the question of honour killing, defined as the murder of women to protect men's pride, the news from Jordan has recently grown slightly worse. Although it's among the most civilized and modern of Arab countries, Jordan hasn't come close to eliminating this repellent crime, a bizarre remnant of the region's tribal past. It was only five years ago that the penal code made honour killing clearly illegal. Till then it was rarely punished.

In August, five Jordanian men were charged with the premeditated murder of a 22-year-old woman whose crime was to have a love affair with the man she later married. When the pre-marital affair came to light, her father, three uncles

Review of "Full Frontal Feminism": Not Exactly a Genteel Read

Allison Kasic, the director of campus programs for the Independent Women's Forum, reviews Jessica Valenti's book, Full Frontal Feminism: A Young Woman’s Guide to Why Feminism Matters. Judging from the review, Jessica Valenti exhibits an addiction to vulgarities and coarseness, ranting as she does against wedding rings, married women who take their husband's last names ( even though 81 percent of women get married intending to change their last name), and who knows what else.

If we needed reasons why young women today shun the label "feminist," this review suggests the answer.  Kasic concludes her review:

In her book she aims to succeed where groups like NOW have failed — to get young women excited about feminism.  But I would suggest that if young women aren’t afraid of the word “feminism” before they read this book, they certainly will be after they read it.

Christina Hoff Sommers - "What Are American Feminists Doing About the Plight of Muslim Women?"

Sommers notes:

The subjection of women in Muslim societies--especially in Arab nations and in Iran--is today very much in the public eye. Accounts of lashings, stonings, and honor killings are regularly in the news, and searing memoirs by Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Azar Nafisi have become major best-sellers. One might expect that by now American feminist groups would be organizing protests against such glaring injustices, joining forces with the valiant Muslim women who are working to change their societies. This is not happening.

If you go to the websites of major women's groups, such as the National Organization for Women, the Ms. Foundation for Women, and the National Council for Research on Women, or to women's centers at our major colleges and universities, you'll find them caught up with entirely other issues, seldom mentioning women in Islam. During the 1980s, there were massive demonstrations on American campuses against racial apartheid in South Africa. There is no remotely comparable movement on today's campuses against the gender apartheid prevalent in large parts of the world.

. . .  One reason is that many feminists are tied up in knots by multiculturalism and find it very hard to pass judgment on non-Western cultures. They are far more comfortable finding fault with American society for minor inequities (the exclusion of women from the Augusta National Golf Club, the "underrepresentation" of women on faculties of engineering) than criticizing heinous practices beyond our shores. The occasional feminist scholar who takes the women's movement to task for neglecting the plight of foreigners is ignored or ruled out of order.

This is a major, detailed article that deserves bookmarking.   Sommers goes on to show how  in American feminist academic circles the Taliban's treatment of women is equated with the views of Focus on the Family.   She also discusses the rise of Islamic feminist groups that push for the dignity of women without destroying the family or denigrating the opposite sex and religion.  There is now, for example, WISE - " Women's Islamic Initiative in Spirituality and Equity".  Sommers says of the various subgroups composing WISE:

They are all vehemently opposed to such practices as forced marriages, honor killings, genital cutting, child marriage, and wife-beating. They are passionately dedicated to the educational, economic, legal, and political advancement of women. The feminism that is quietly surging in the Muslim world is quite different from its contemporary counterpart in the United States. Islamic feminism is faith-based, family-centered, and well-disposed towards men. This is feminism in its classic and most effective form, as students of women's emancipation know

Don't look for much support from American feminists.  I repeat, this article is truly informative and important reading.

Mind Boggling: All Democratic Presidential Candidates Support Partial-Birth Abortion

Kirsten Powers a Democratic writer, helpfully spells out how sadly wrong the Democratic Party and its presidential contenders are with regard to partial-birth abortion.  (By way of Michelle Malkin).  Powers writes (my emphases):

It's tragic that abortion rights have become synonymous with modern day feminism. But it's mind-boggling that late-term abortions now enjoy the imprimatur of every one of the presidential candidates of one of the two main political parties. Many early feminists -- the Suffragettes -- opposed abortion. They viewed it as an affront to human rights. There is little doubt that they would have recognized elective, late-term abortion for what it is, a gruesome, uncivilized and inhuman procedure.

Feminism was meant to establish women as having equal legal rights to men. Yet, in today's twisted debate, women are not mere equals. Instead, they have been elevated to a special status where they have the "right" to determine whether a five-month or older "live fetus," as the court called it, should be partially delivered outside of their body and killed in the most gruesome manner imaginable, even if carrying that fetus poses no threat to their life.

Some elected Democrats ignored this faux-feminist canard, and supported the ban, including Rep. James P. Moran, of Virginia, who said, "It's not about a woman's right to choose. It's about a baby's right to life." The late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, a pro-choice Democrat, called the practice "infanticide."

It needs to be said that there is no constitutional right to crush a living human's skull and suction out its brains, no matter where that life may reside -- inside the womb, or partially outside the womb, as is done in the so-called partial birth abortion. It's immoral and contrary to the values of the Democratic Party, which prides itself on standing up for the weak and voiceless.

Why Was The Brit Female Hostage (Fay Turney) There In The First Place?

Kathleen Parker asks a good question: Why does a once-great power such as Britain send mothers of toddlers to fight its battles? 

Why indeed?  Is the West in the throes of some great insanity that it must argue against all common sense and logic because some (can we legitimately call it "crazed"?) movement thinks it a good idea to erase all differences between men and women?

It is, of course, madness.  And it doesn't help the image of the West to have, as Kathleen Parker put it, "a dangerous, lying, Holocaust-denying, Jew-hating cutthroat thug" point that out to us.

Parker rues the propaganda value to Ahmadinejad of the Faye Turney episode.

In the eyes of Iran and other Muslim nations, we're wimps. While the West puts mothers in boats with rough men, Islamic men "rescue'' women and drape them in floral hijabs.

We can debate whether they're right until all our boys wear aprons, but it won't change the

Should "Progressives" Be More Accurately Called "Retrogressives?"

Update 4/9/07 - Phyllis Schlafly says "'Equal Rights' for Women: Wrong Then, Wrong Now"

**
David Frum has it exactly right as he comments on the attempt of "Progressives" to reintroduce the ERA (Equal Rights Amendment). 

We've been hearing since November about the resurgence of the progressive left - the new enthusiasm, the new energy, the new organizations, the new commitment. Amidst all these exciting novelty, there is only one thing lacking: new ideas. The resurgent "progressive" movement is the most backward-looking political force since William Jennings Bryan tried to repeal the industrial revolution. Their big issues - a government healthcare monopoly! do away with secret union ballots! and now ... ERA! - date respectively to the 1940s, the 1930s, and the 1970s.

It's just bizarre to tune into blogosphere debates to watch freshfaced 20-somethings passionately champion, as if just invented, policy proposals that were old when their grandparents were young. If this is progressiveness, what would reaction look like?

Incidentally, on the ERA, be sure to read all of Frum's column cited above, plus see Kathryn Jean Lopez's article from last year, and the contemporary video of Phyllis Schlafly fighting the proposed (resurrected) Arkansas ERA amendment on February 7, 2007.   Isn't it interesting that

Women Keep Outnumbering Men in College (As If You Didn't Know)

This article surveys the situation.  Sounds like it's past time to start reading Christina Hoff Sommers' The War Against Boys: How Misguided Feminism Is Harming Our Young Men.

The MSM Does It Again: Bigoted Anti-Christian Bloggers Amanda Marcotte and Melissa McEwan Get Painted As Victims of the "Vicious" Right

It's amazing how the MSM twists the truth with the result that two bona fide vulgar, crude, anti-Christian bigoted bloggers come off looking like victims of "hateful" narrow-minded Christians.  I am referring to the way the MSM handled the resignations of two bloggers (Amanda Marcotte and Melissa McEwan) from Presidential candidate John Edwards' staff.  The story has been in the news as most of you know.  But are you aware of the MSM's bias in reporting?  Read this article.

Update:  Tim at Random Observations makes some good points concerning rampant narcissism on the Left.  He quotes former Los Angeles NOW president Tammy Bruce who said:

The Left’s organizing relies on selling the line that everyone who disagrees with the leftist status quo is a hater of some sort; those who disagree with leftist policy are not dealt with as serious people who have a different opinion on the issues. That would then require arguments based on reason. Instead, leftist leadership casts their opposition as haters who live every moment planning to eradicate the gay, woman or black. When your base is primarily narcissistic that’s an easy line to sell, remains emotional devoid of reason, and makes people easy to condition and control. Leftist politics, like a vicious circle, rely on the damaged as footsoldiers, while the most damaged, the “Malignant Narcissist,” ... move into positions of power and leadership...   [Tim's emphasis]

Tim's further comments are well worth reading.

Harvard Follies - A Further Descent into Feminist Madness Looms

Heather MacDonald reports :  "America's oldest university selects a dreadful president."

The feminist takeover of Harvard is imminent. The Harvard Crimson reported yesterday that the university is about to name as its new president Drew Gilpin Faust, dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. . . 

Faust runs one of the most powerful incubators of feminist complaint and nonsensical academic theory in the country. You can count on the Radcliffe Institute’s fellows and invited lecturers to proclaim the “constructed” nature of knowledge, gender, and race, and to decry endemic American sexism and racism. Typical guest speakers include left-wing journalists Susan Faludi and Barbara Ehrenreich. . .  

 This triumph of feminist ideology is a tragedy not just for Harvard, but for the American academic world, which will undoubtedly follow Harvard’s lead in elevating feminist politics to premier intellectual standing. (More)

Carol Ionone weighs in blaming former President Summer's backing down and the supine cowardice of science faculty from standing up to the radical and ferocious feminists.

The question arises, why didn't more scientists come to Summers's aid and defense?  The answer is that they are cowards. A friend tells me that they are afraid of losing their funding and even more, that they are really, really frightened of female anger. This reminds me of a professor who told me years ago that he had been through the Warsaw ghetto uprising, but that nothing incited melting fear in his heart like the sight of an angry feminist student approaching his office. What has happened to our society? Have testosterone levels so diminished that men are unable to stand up for what is right because they fear women?

Everything You Wanted to Know about NOW

Want to know more about the National Organization for Women?  Want to examine its politics?  Discover the Networks.org ("A Guide to the Political Left") has the essential information you need to know.   Click here.

THE FOUNTAIN OF A CERTAIN TYPE OF BANEFUL THINKING

Louis Markos says, "If I were asked to select the single sentence from the writings of the founders of modern secular humanism that exerted the most baneful influence on twentieth-century thought, it would have to be this seemingly innocuous line from the "Author's Preface" to Karl Marx's A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy:

"It is not the consciousness of men that determines their existence, but, on the contrary, their social existence determines their consciousness."

The quote is from Markos' article, "Alien Notion:  John Gray's Men are from Mars, Women Are from Venus" in Touchstone magazine, December 2006, p. 9. Markos goes on to explain:

THE "VICTORY" OF THE FEMINIST MOVEMENT

The following observation by Anthony Esolen deserves some sort of prize for astuteness and succinctness:

Women are beautiful, and men are necessary.  It has been the great victory of the feminist movement to make women unlovely by persuading them that men are not needed.

            - From Touchstone magazine, December, 2006, p. 5

MARK STEYN ON AMERICAN FEMINIST LEFTIES FAILING THEIR MUSLIM SISTERS

The eminently quotable Mark Steyn always has interesting things to say.  In this recent  interview triggered by his new book America Alone: The End of the World As We Know It, he responds to a question from Kathryn Jean Lopez:

Lopez: You also write in a list of ways we can help Muslims reform Islam — that we should “Support women’s rights — real rights, not feminist pieties — in the Muslim world.”  Are American feminist lefties mature enough to do that — and work with Mark Steyn on that endeavor?

Steyn: No. The trivia of identity-group politics in America is beyond parody: Women are now so dominant at, say, U.S. law schools that feminist groups are reduced to complaining about the lack of female pipe-fitters.  If this keeps up, circa 2015 NOW will be complaining that there are too few female wait staff.  And circa 2020 that there are too few female prostitutes.  Meanwhile, in Afghanistan women were prevented by law from feeling sunlight on their faces and the only guy who did anything about it was George W Bush.  We have “honor killings” now not just in Jordan and Pakistan, but in Britain and Germany and Scandinavia. Where are the feminists on that?  This is the biggest lever we have in the Muslim world — the fact that half their populations are chattels.  They don’t want to be navel-pierced Britneyized slatterns but a lot of them want something other.  That’s a huge opportunity.

WOMEN IN ISLAM

I am indebted to a fine piece of blogging by Sister Toldjah.   Here is excellent commentary on Islamic convert Yvonne Ridley (who praises the veil) and Asra Q. Nomani, a Muslim woman (not a recent Western convert) who writes candidly about the travail of women in Islam.   Both women published articles in the Washington Post the same day.    The Anchoress weighs in with fine commentary as well.  Both these blog posts are well worth reading.  Additional links on each site offer well-rounded complete commentary.

The Politically Incorrect Guide to Women, Sex and Feminism

Jamie Glazov interviews Carrie Lukas, the author of the recently published The Politically Incorrect Guide to Women, Sex, and Feminism.  Amazon reviews are quite positive.

DR. LAURA - HOW TO SURVIVE A BAD CHILDHOOD

Here's an intriguing excerpt (courtesy WorldNetDaily) from Dr. Laura's newest book Bad Childhood---Good Life:  How to Blossom and Thrive in Spite of an Unhappy Childhood.   

Richard Kirk offers an excellent article, "Hating Dr. Laura", which lays out the politically incorrect advice she offers.   Here's most of the article: 

They hate it when she downplays the importance of feelings and places moral obligation on a higher plain than emotion. 

They hate how Dr. Laura badmouths "psychobabble" and demands that callers say what they really mean when they talk about "dealing with" their "issues."

They hate it when Dr. Laura makes people feel bad about doing bad things.  

They hate it when she turns the expectations table and asks dissatisfied female callers, "How would you like to come home to you every day?" – a query inevitably followed by an extended period of silence. 

They hate it when the daily dispenser of hardcore compassion responds to "It's so hard" whiners with the callous retort, "So what?" 

They hate it when Dr. Laura answers "How do I ..." questions with straightforward replies: "How do I get over the pain?" "It takes time." "How do I stop being a complainer?" "Stop complaining." 

They hate Dr. Laura for destroying the illusion that there's an easy way to do difficult things – for not pretending that a pill or a slick technique can undo messes and avoid hurt feelings. 

They hate it when the petulant moralist employs the term "slut" or labels callers "selfish" and tells them to think about others – as if she were qualified to judge someone's "personal value system." 

They hate the fact that Dr. Laura disparages popular ideas about "venting" and "confrontation" – concepts endorsed on TV shows where problems are resolved after shouting matches that last less than five minutes. 

They hate it when she uses the term "shack-up" for relationships where couples don't pledge to stay together "in sickness and in health, as long as we both shall live" – as if their unwillingness to publicly express their commitment to each other implies a lack of commitment. 

They hate it when the impertinent shrinklette exclaims, "At least a prostitute gets paid!" 

They hate the fact that Dr. Laura puts the lives of children above the sex lives of adults – and that she has the audacity to suggest staying together for the sake of the kids. 

They hate it when she looks at custody arrangements through the eyes of children and asks parents to imagine how their offspring feel about being shuffled back and forth and "crammed" – not "blended" – into his, hers and ours families. 

They hate that Dr. Laura dismisses the adult-centered excuse, "Kids adapt," and has the gall to say that mothers who don't want to raise their children shouldn't have them. 

They especially hate it when she condenses current legal reasoning on the subject of abortion into a simple, morally indefensible proposition: "If she wants it, it's a baby. If she doesn't, it's not."

They hate when she says "Hoooah" – as if soldiers make the world a better place.

And they hate it when she says, "Do the right thing" – as if most actions aren't gloriously gray. 

Most of all they hate it when, having turned off the radio in disgust, a barely perceptible but persistent voice keeps whispering in their ears: "You know, don't you, that what Dr. Laura just said, is right?"

QUOTE OF THE DAY - ATTITUDE OF BABIES

The New York Times today printed a surprisingly flattering picture of Phyllis Schlafly, the arch opponent of the Equal Rights Amendment and one of the most influential figures in modern American politics.  Here's the line that caught my eye:

A regular lecturer on college campuses, she is often asked to speak on the subject of balancing work and family.  "Feminism has changed the way women think, and it has changed the way men think," Mrs. Schaflly said, "but the trouble is, it hasn't changed the attitudes of babies at all."

Hat tip: The Corner: National Review

RESISTING THE "MONOLOGUES"

Tim Graham over at NRO posts the following note.   The WashPost puts female conservative opponents of the "Vagina Monologues" on the front page of the Style section today.  It's not bad, but it does have the same old habit of constantly employing the "conservative" label, and "Vagina" author Eve Ensler is a what?  No liberal label.  She professes to be "baffled" by opposition, because she's pro-sex.  She's good at making straw men.  It's better than having to deal with the real men.

The article reports that "The Vagina Monologues" play appears on hundreds of campuses every February and March.  It has been performed in more than 81 countries and raised more than $30 million over the years.  I am glad to hear that a solid, effective response has come forth  May those involved be empowered to stir up genuine debate!

WOMEN WHO MAKE THE WORLD BETTER

For the UN's International Women's Day, NRO highlights  "women the world should know — some activists, some struggling for their lives and the lives of others, some living lives of quiet grace; most are living, others are memorialized here."     This is a very inspiring page since it includes truly courageous women, "women who make the world better," women who do not necessarily make the news.  If you are like me, you will respond more than once with a lump in your throat to the vignettes presented here.   Don't miss this link!

KATE O'BEIRN on "WOMEN WHO MAKE THE WORLD WORSE"

For a wonderful, comprehensive interview with Kate O'Beirne, author of Women Who Make the World Worse: and How Their Radical Feminist Assault Is Ruining Our Schools, Families, Military, and Sports, see this article.  Yes, I know I've blogged about this book before, but an interview with an author gives us the substance of a writer's thoughts directly, without the intervention of reporter or pundit.    Good stuff!

More on Kate O'Beirne's book "Women Who Make the World Worse"

I still find Kate O'Beirne's book title fascinating, Women Who Make the World Worse.   I also find the positive reviews well worth reading.   Take for example Betsy Hart's  and Mona Charen's.  Mona Charen titles her review "Feminism isn't dead, but a new book wounds it badly."  Liberals don't take to the book kindly, which is no big surprise.   But the problem is that many of the writers who flame the Amazon.com book review section with dastardly, negative reviews have never read the book.    That really bothers me.   All too often liberals choose to shout down their opponents rather than engage in true debate.   Michelle Malkin refers toEd Morrissey's piece  and his powerful quote:

The Left doesn't want people to hear what conservatives have to say, perhaps knowing that they have been intellectually outclassed and proven disastrously wrong by history and current events.   Instead, they issue mindless attacks, childish insults, and do everything possible to keep people from having access to conservative thought.

That's not the actions of people who have confidence in themselves.  Those are the actions of a fearful, small-minded, vulgar group of Neanderthals who have suddenly seen Homo sapiens and realized that their days are numbered.   These mouthbreathers cannot offer any new ideas, so instead of trying to compete with conservatives, they're busy with the electronic equivalent of sticking their fingers into their ears and shouting, "LA-LA-LA-LA, NO ONE CAN HEAR YOU!!" as loudly as possible.

In short, the Left consists of ill-educated, ill-mannered children. That they keep going to such lengths to prove it shows that they don't have anything else to offer.

The "Women's Vote" is not monolithic

Kate O'Beirne, journalist with National Review magazine and author of the recently published Women Who Make the World Worse: and How Their Radical Feminist Assault Is ruining Our Schools, Families, Military, and Sports (as previously noted on this blog), outlines in  a short article the way different categories of women (by age, marriage, education, etc) view abortion and similar issues.  She demolishes the preposterous claim that liberal women activists speak for women in general.

Blockbuster Book Takes on Feminists

My nomination for the most understated, highly nuanced book title (ahem, I'm joking) published in December, 2005 would be Kate O’Beirne’s  Women Who Make the World Worse: and How Their Radical Feminist Assault Is Ruining Our Schools, Families, Military, and Sports.  Actually, it’s a book I would like to read.  I suspect I would agree with most of what she writes.  One reviewer suggested it would make “a particularly useful book for parents to give to college age daughters so as to innoculate them against the feminist groupthink on American campuses.” An interview with  Kate O’Beirne conducted by National Review Online's Kathryn Lopez makes fascinating reading. A few quotes:

We live with the destructive feminist agenda because the fathers or husbands of so many of them, including Betty Friedan, Gloria Steinem, Germaine Greer, and Jane Fonda, never failed to fail them. The views of these angry, abandoned women inform the modern women's movement. . .

Feminist fundamentalism holds that the battle of the sexes can't be won unless women make war on the tiniest enemies of their independence. How can we be the equal of men when our bodies betray us? These women aren't arguing that abortion must be available for the hard cases. They believe that women's fertility makes us inherently inferior to men, so there can be no restrictions at all on abortion. Lacking the public's support for their radical abortion agenda, they wrap their demands in a tissue of euphemisms and lies and fiercely fight to keep the issue in the courts insulated from public opinion. The majority of the public, including the majority of women, oppose the majority of abortions. . .

The moral intimidation feminists inflict on men means that other women have to take on the modern, destructive women's movement. In the pages of my book you will meet some of the smart, admirable women who take on the feminists. The feminist message is crippling to our daughters, but we mothers of sons in particular have to defend our offspring.