(I usually don’t post my rants here, but this is something that I have been simmering about for days. I’ll be back to my usual historical considerations following this brief interruption of temper.)
You know, I am reminded of my own relative naiveté whenever I open a tab on my browser and go to my usual news and political websites these days. I remember when I could innocently assume that the elected representatives of the greatest democratically elected republic on earth could be assumed not to be professional sc*mbags not primarily interested in re-election and being able to soak up enough goodies through their connections to be able to retire as millionaires. I remember when it was confidently expected that they would do the business of administering to the needs of the republic at least most of the time with some pretensions at doing what would benefit the public at large, not just themselves, their scummy relations, present and former staff, and their media enablers.
I remembered when feminism meant basically that women should have the same opportunities for education, for employment and without lowering the standards for either the same pay for doing the same job, to be considered creditworthy without regard to sex, not be fired from your job on the instant of marrying and/or becoming pregnant, and to have the opportunity to seek election to any political office in the land. Big damn whoops there! Apparently the program of modern feminism means that you can be as ugly to the males in your personal life and those misfortunate enough to attend class or work with you as you please, to have unfettered access to abortion at any stage of the pregnancy, and to demand that your birth control be paid for by others. OK then and that being considered for any political office while possessing the uterus and tits from your original issue is also contingent upon being a graduate of an approved university, possessing a non-hickish accent, being the spouse or spawn of one of the accredited political families, and genuflecting before all the right altars of properly progressive thought.
So, when Sarah Palin swam across my ken, upon being honored with an invitation to become the GOP VP nominee, I was delighted. No, really and so were a great many ladies of certain age of my acquaintance, many of them actively employed or retired from a lifetime of work at it, some of them in defiantly non-traditional specialties and living arrangements. Intelligent, hard-working, happily and bountifully married, popular in her district and among those she had served and who had elected her, outdoors-loving and a partner in hubby’s enterprises, educated in much the same way that I was community college and upper division at a state school? Hey, what wasn’t to like? A serious woman in serious business, and about to ascend politically as had not been seen since Gerry Ferrero in ’84. Well, as Bertie Wooster would have said in a much more innocent age and place, “Huzzah! Huzzah, and Huzzah again!” A woman in the second highest political place in the land! A woman’s place is in the House … and Senate … and in the VP’s office. Women-power has arrived, baby! Alas, not to be, for it seemed that Sarah Palin was Not The Right Kind, Darling, and the blowback was vicious beyond anything that I had ever seen, save maybe the savaging of LBJ in the late 60’s. The upper-class, establishment-elite, academic, and capital-F feminists were the most vicious of all. So much for sisterhood, ladies; not what I assumed feminism would be what you have is Mean Girls writ large and nationally. So sad, ladies it seems that the women’s movement, despite all claims to the contrary by the officially-declaimed mouthpieces summoned up by the established media/entertainment orgs, is only for the benefit of the properly anointed. The rest of us are on our own. We have the support of husbands, churches, communities and friends, I guess. But not the anointed Official Capital-F Feminists.
Which brings me to the thoroughly filthy Honorable Mayor Mr. Filner … good thing that neither my mother, daughter or I ever had the bad chance to be within his ken and reach, else he’d be minus a testicle or two and we’d be up on charges of assault … or whatever they would call it when you suddenly step backwards and grind your sensible 2” heel into his foot, shoot an elbow into his ribs, or a knee into his crotch after a swift pivot, while saying brightly, “Oh, I am so sorry, you startled me!”
So, he is only the most recent and most notorious establishment-blessed letch, although he and the risibly-monikered Anthony Wiener are about neck and neck for the title of Sexist Pig o’ The Day. Ted Kennedy firmly held those sorry laurels for the last couple of decades; most disgusting in personal conduct when it came to the hapless and unfortunate women in his personal orbit, beginning when he swam to the surface at a water-crossing and let a young woman drown in his car. Apparently, according to this representative of Official Capital-F feminism, Dem pigs are OK because they just are, and those horrible GOPers are untouchable (no matter how gallant they are in personal conduct) because in their Official Legislative Conduct, they vote for policies which Harm Teh Womyns! Gosh, it’s as if slogans like ‘The Personal is Political’ have vanished down the memory hole, along with the memory of every yearly briefing that I had to take about sexual harassment. Yes, dear official feminist operatives, I had to take that class, and I remember quite well what we were told. If it’s sauce for the military gander, it must also be sauce for the civilian goose. Otherwise, I am left with the conclusion that working-class women must put up with a certain degree of bad behavior from upper-class and elite male sexist pigs… because it’s duty or something.
Damn, I thought we had moved on from the 19th century Victorian standards of conduct with regard to sex and class. It does look like the Official Political Capital-F Feminists are lining up to urge Filthy Filner to resign, so maybe they did sit down and have a good think about it all.
(Crossposted at www.ncobrief.com)
My oldest daughter, who is a loyal Obama supporter and federal employee, told me, as I was picking up the check for her graduation dinner after law school, that I was “a white male and my days are over.”
I knew right then that my pro-feminism beliefs were outmoded.
The one woman in the class ahead of me in medical school also became the one woman asked to join the medical fraternity I belonged to in medical school. She was a great gal, in her early 30s and mother of a 9 year old daughter at the time. She had a very successful career as an ophthalmologist in LA and, sadly, died a couple of years ago.
My high school girlfriend was president of the Society of Women Engineers a couple of years ago. She quit working while she raised her kids and then went back to a successful career in space technology. She once sent me a picture sitting in the Mercury capsule.
Those feminists are extinct or soon will be. What we have now are Hillary and Huma.
I’m done with the current lot of professional feminist icons myself, Mike. The local Dem party telling women to support him or else, while he is a complete pig to every woman he gets his nasty pervy hands on – that is the absolute, final, and complete last straw.
I used to contribute to NOW, but stopped about 1990 when I realized it was stupid to support people who considered me an enemy. At this point I don’t give a damn about “women’s rights”. If they are good, they will do fine on their own. If not, tough.
Know the feeling, Chuck. I was nearly a member myself – back when it seemed like their mission was real and ecumenical about women’s specific needs. Naomi Wolf had a brief brush with reality in her book, Fire With Fire – in which she pleaded against ‘victim feminism’ and for women to basically put on their big girl panty-hose, stop being crippled by outdated resentment, stop being so doctrinaire and judgmental about putting other women into the straight-jacket, stop with the man-bashing, put the energies into something other than the right to abortion on demand. and move beyond. Use the very real power and authority that women had (but were nervous about exercising) for good – not to make life absolute bloody hell for men and nonconformist women.
It was a damn reasonable request, which I pretty much agreed with … but I think she got taken behind the woodshed and flogged thoroughly by the doctrinaire feminist hardliners. She toed the straight feminist line ever since, and the book only has 13 reviews on Amazon. Heck, my own first book has that many, and no one who matters in publishing has ever heard of me!
Harm Teh Womyns! STOLEN.
You’re a white male and your days are over.
Well I doubt it, since the rest can’t seem to manage a functioning society. Actually the days of Federal employees will be over the instant the Fiat money bomb explodes.
But since our days are over, can we keep our money? We need it for our post-modern apocalypse nest egg.
Federal employees can’t run a bath.
And everyone, including the women sadly, wants to be DON DRAPER, THE WHITE MALE SUPREMO.
Mind you oblivious that it comes with responsiblity. It ain’t all about subsidies, b*tches and bling. Those were perks for running the world, and it came with responsibility.
Good “feminism” rant Sgt Mom!
I’ve read somewhere that the Dems KNEW about Filner’s escapades, ahem, for couple of years – and kept him because they were happy to get someone to push “progressive” policies.
HUH? I think they meant communist policies – anti woman, anti indidividual yadda yadda
I am a Palin fan, too. She’s my kind of feminist. We need to get that word back to its proper meaning.
I’m tired of up is down, down is up – immoral is moral and moral is immoral.
cheers from a Chicagoan currently gone Galt living in NZ.
:-)
“You’re a white male and your days are over.”
I have to say that she has been self supporting since joining the FBI, really since law school. OK with me.
Many of the traditional advocacy groups are now merely wholly-owned subsidiaries of the dem party, and their political positions, and their outrage, are aligned with what is good for the party, as they perceive that good to be, not with what might be much better for their member groups.
NOW, especially, which has only a small actual membership compared to the number of women, is completely owned by upper class political and academic women and their various allies, and has little or no relevance or connection with segments of the female population.
Given their ideological fervor as vanguards of the movement, however, this rarely disturbs their laughable claim that they represent all women, even those who are diametrically opposed to their extremist positions, because they are the true women, and the rest are only misguided dupes.
The viciousness of their attacks on Palin, and any other women who challenge their positions, is due to the fear that other beliefs might actually be more attractive and popular to many women, so they have to be destroyed by any available means as soon as they appear.
page 127 of the Power of the Powerless – V. Havel
” The fact that the establishment gave the task of ending its positions to the usual political and journalistic hacks probably a case of Hobson’s choice in an emergency, but it · ed it nothing and was just one further error, since those gentle- ‘s standards are notorious, As could be expected, they imrnedi- y brought into play against the Charter a whole set of slanders, ortions, abuse, half-truths and absolute falsehoods which all resent the dismal range of their capacity. I speak from experience one who has been a favourite target for their sort of behaviour for past thirty years, and who could well lay claim to the laurels of iority and worthy service. Though the powers that be may not w it, or rather, would sooner not know it, nay, cannot afford to w it (for where else would they find more obedient, unscrupu- and servile creatures), the media are the principal, albeit · tentional, creators and encouragers of opposition, since they totally suspect and nobody believes them. People almost auto- tically take for gospel the opposite of what the papers say. Once owerful, the media were capable of pointing the finger that demned people to death. As they lost all credibility they also lost e of their power. and at the very least were obliged to change ormethods, if not their ends. ”
sorry for the bad cut and paste
@Mike – in thinking about the seeming in graciousness of your daughter I am thinking no good deed goes unpunished
More likely she will change her opinion as Mark Twain changed his opinion of his father.
Back in the 1980s I was a feminist and supported NOW, too. Like Sgt. Mom, the so-called feminists of today disgust and amaze me with their condescension and hypocrisy.
I like to say that if NOW and the feminists had made their signature issue “safe, affordable child care” instead of abortion, they would be a major force in American politics today. But they seem to hate the woman’s mothering role more than they hate even male “repression.” Now the feminists make a ripple only by trotting out a pink-sneakered Barbie doll and her shrieking, tampon-throwing posse to defend late-term abortion (which most Americans oppose). But I’m sure that sideshow was good for fundraising purposes.
“You’re a white male and your days are over.”
Sounds like a daughter who wants to be disinherited.
Clinton face multiple accusations of forcible groping, in other words rape. Not as bad as Filner, but bad enough. And yet feminists rallied to his defense. That was indeed one of the important factors in my realization that feminism was hopelessly corrupt.
Someone wisely said, “In America, what starts as a crusade usually ends as a racket.”
“What starts as a crusade usually ends as a racket.”
Good point. Like MADD, and the NAACP.
“NOW, especially, which has only a small actual membership compared to the number of women, ”
The best comment on NOW is actually from Ralph Nader. While I can’t find the quote, what he said was “NOW has been solely a fund raising organization for years and that is their only function.”
The lefties don’t like him anymore.
Sgt Mom – I know the origins of MADD – the founder had her daughter killed by a drunk – but over the hears they got fat, the head was getting 6 figure salaries
I used to give to Soldier’s Angels – until I found they were eating 90+ percent in “administration”
Good saying though – starts as a crusade ends as a racket.
Sorry to hear that about Soldier’s Angels, Bill. They were doing good things early on. They have an office building on IH-35, just north of BAMC. Not plush, I thought – going past at 45+ MPH, just in a new strip mall visible from the highway and in a quasi-industrial/retail end of town.
It’s a bad idea, donating to any charity which absorbs more than about 15% in administrative costs. I used to use that as my slide rule whenever the CFC drive came around.
The Soldiers’ Angels stories poisoned the well for many of these organizations.
According to the BBB.org, Soldiers’ Angels admin costs are 7%:
http://www.bbb.org/charity-reviews/national/veterans-and-military/soldiers-angels-in-pasadena-ca-1687/financial
It’s simple to find that information, so I don’t understand the derogation of a useful organization. If your understanding of SA’s admin expenses are due to Michael Yon, I’d ask you to look for other, more reputable sources of data. That guy is an unhinged nutcase.
skh.pcola
You are assuming that I heard this from Michael Yon; I heard it from several sources.
You like the bbb so go for it.
Sgt Mom there is a respected organization that lists all non-profits revenue-expense ratios – forget the name at the moment.
I have heard for years the Salvation Army has always been one of the best.
Remember the United Way’s mini scandal where the head was flying the Concorde?
I did originally give Soldiers Angel’s money; it got to the point they were sending me a lot of unwanted “knick-knacks” in an effort to get more –
But I keep thinking of JFM’s comment that in America, what starts as a crusade usually ends as a racket.
How true.
And so many have become rackets – I’ll bet even Jim & Tammie Faye originally had good intentions. But with so much money coming in I am sure the temptation is huge to just add some “expenses”.
Billy Graham’s organization is another (besides the Salvation Army) that is completely transparent as to their income & expenses.
While I am seemingly on a religious bent a friend of mine, who used to be a cruise director of a very small and elite line (small ships; 100s of passengers instead of thousands) – anyway Robert Schuller in his early days was a passenger and he kept bugging her to give him the names/addresses of the passengers (she didn’t) – but it always included many millionaires.
Schuller’s organization went bankrupt too, a few years ago.
Three phases of NGO’s
Starts as a cause,becomes a business, ends as a scam.
Weirdly, Sarah Palin was everything Feminism – at one time – claimed to support. But when that female achiever has a different political outlook, they couldn’t slit her throat fast enough. So Feminism, writ large on the stage, is a lie. It’s the same old politics of personal destruction under another guise.
On the other hand, real feminism, where girls are given real opportunity, has been achieved and I think was a good thing.
Michael, she was everything that I thought an old-line feminist was – and managing to have a good marriage, a family and a worthwhile career in local politics. She was well-thought of in Alaska, and had something like 80% approval ratings. But the viciousness aimed at her from the Establishment Political Feminists was just appalling. I’ll be holding a grudge against them for a long, long time, just like the one I hold against Jane Fonda.
So it looks like Rush Limbaugh was ahead of his time when he spoke of “Feminazis” twenty years ago.
Possibly, Snop – but at the time it seemed like he was lumping all feminists together and painting them with a very broad brush; the small-f feminists like myself along with the Professional Radical Capital-F Feminists, and I did not appreciate it.
Sgt Mom – I have listened to Rush since he got his start in Sacramento and he has reiterated that his term “feminazis” applies to a small group within the feminist movement (at least in the 70s) – now it seems they are mostly feminazis (those who are left).
Perhaps one could make the assertion that modern day feminism achieved its goals (women now even in combat units) and those who are left are the radicalized ones.