layla | (no subject)

As usual, Dave Barry brings the awesome:

The Republicans are also feeling good about their message, which is that Washington is bad and whoever is in charge there needs to be run out of town on a rail. Interestingly, this is also the Democrats' message. We are now in our fourth consecutive decade in which both of our major political parties are just totally FED UP with Washington. I frankly don't see how Washington can survive this onslaught much longer.

I do love Dave Barry.

I also love this delightfully stabby rejoinder to Palin criticizing Obama for being a "community organizer":

"Mrs. Palin needs to be reminded that Jesus Christ was a community organizer and Pontius Pilate was a governor."

Hee hee. ZING!

I started off with a lot of respect for Palin, but I must admit that every time she opens her mouth on the national stage, my respect for her drops a few notches (by which I assume she must be doing a good job of appealing to her constituency ... *rimshot*). The pre-emptive dismissal of Palin (apparently on the basis of her gender and Alaska's remoteness) really upset me, but it also bothers me because I think the Democrats are fools to underestimate her. She's smart, charismatic and very much a self-made woman, and I just hope she's not going to be what gives the Republicans their edge in November, because the more hypocrisy comes out of her mouth, the more I want to see the whole ticket go down (and I wanted that quite badly to begin with).

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

*hugs* Thank you for the thoughtful comments and discussion - it's hard to talk about these sorts of issues without tempers flaring, and I really appreciate the level-headedness. :) I've also been thinking that, since I don't personally consider myself a feminist, there's no way I could possibly have an informed opinion on what it means to be one. *g* I generally have a knee-jerk negative reaction to seeing people's self-identification labels rejected by others (like, say, claiming that somebody-or-other is "not really a Christian"; even though I'm not a Christian, that kind of judgment still bothers me). But it's presumptive of me to claim that my own definitions carry as much weight as those of someone who is actually a part of the group being discussed. That's very rude of me, and I apologize.

What you're saying above -- I can certainly see why you'd be hurt and upset if you work hard to offer someone freedom, and then they take it and do something you wouldn't do yourself, even something that hurts themselves and others. But isn't the whole point to granting someone freedom in the first place that they have the right to use that freedom however they like? Even if what they do with it is toxic? I can understand pointing at someone like Palin and going I disagree and You are doing wrong here and I am going to try to stop you, but I have a much harder time with People worked hard to give you this freedom, and now you're using it wrong! which seems to me only one step removed from You don't have the right to it! and You shouldn't have it in the first place! Because it's their freedom now. You don't offer someone free speech so that they'll only say things you agree with. I'm very grateful to everyone who worked hard to give me the freedoms I have now, but I really hope they didn't do all that hard work just so that they could offer me so-called "freedom" that actually has strings attached.

*hugs* Thank you for the thoughtful comments and discussion - it's hard to talk about these sorts of issues without tempers flaring, and I really appreciate the level-headedness.

Hey, no problem, and same here! HUGS BACK! :) I just wanted to assure you I'm not stewing or anything -- I like having this discussion with you. It's making me think.

since I don't personally consider myself a feminist,

If you think you deserve equal pay for equal work, and that your worth is not determined by your gender -- welcome to the club! I think those are the basics for entry. ;)

I guess I see it more that Palin is mouthing a lot of stuff she doesn't really stand behind. She's the one calling herself a feminist, after all. Also -- I think Gloria Steinem said it really well in an op/ed piece she wrote earlier this week: "Feminism has never been about getting a job for one woman. It's about making life more fair for women everywhere."

Edit:

Finally put my finger on what bugs about her. It pisses me off that she calls herself a feminist. If it were up to her, she would reverse most of the modest gains that women have made over the past 40 years in this country. It would be like a factory-farm loving meat eater wandering around telling everyone they're a vegetarian. You'd have to expect real vegetarians to take issue with that.