Erik must have lived in Princeton

Erik asks Who knows what they will tax next?

Qui sait ce qu'ils taxeront ensuite ?
by Contribuables

In other Erik news, he's got a terrific post titled Witch Hunts in Contemporary America: Is the United States Turning Into a Fascist Country? on how child custody laws destroy families. In Lenin's own words, "Destroy the family, and you destroy society". Go read it.



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What we can learn from Alice Walker's daughter

Alice Walker's daughter has learned many of life's lessons from experience, and there is much we can learn from her. This article speaks to me in more ways than I can explain in this blog because I too am surprised every day by what a blessing it is to be a mother. While some think Rebecca Walker is getting too much publicity saying thoroughly conventional things, those conventional things need to be said.

How my mother's fanatical views tore us apart.

You see, my mum taught me that children enslave women. I grew up believing that children are millstones around your neck, and the idea that motherhood can make you blissfully happy is a complete fairytale.

Motherhood can, and indeed does, make you blissfully happy. Every day I spend with my son is a day I am blessed.

Rebecca Walker continues:

In fact, having a child has been the most rewarding experience of my life. Far from 'enslaving' me, three-and-a-half-year-old Tenzin has opened my world. My only regret is that I discovered the joys of motherhood so late - I have been trying for a second child for two years, but so far with no luck.

I was raised to believe that women need men like a fish needs a bicycle. But I strongly feel children need two parents and the thought of raising Tenzin without my partner, Glen, 52, would be terrifying.

As the child of divorced parents, I know only too well the painful consequences of being brought up in those circumstances. Feminism has much to answer for denigrating men and encouraging women to seek independence whatever the cost to their families.

Make no mistake: no matter how much you try to fool yourself, having a child means that is your top priority. Children need a mother and a father who are totally committed to their child(ren)'s well being. Rebecca Walker suffered because of her mother's misplaced priorities,

work, political integrity, self-fulfilment, friendships, spiritual life, fame and travel.

Narcissism, no matter how you brand it.

If you, gentle reader, think this would have a lesser effect on boys, you are grievously mistaken.

Like most teenage children of divorced parents, Rebecca looked for love by having sex, which makes the child less emotionally demanding of their parents while at the same time giving the illusion that the child in turn has become more independent, and after all, feminism is all about girls' independence, isn't it?

But here's reality: after she got pregnant at age 14 she had an abortion,

Although I believe that an abortion was the right decision for me then, the aftermath haunted me for decades. It ate away at my self-confidence and, until I had Tenzin, I was terrified that I'd never be able to have a baby because of what I had done to the child I had destroyed. For feminists to say that abortion carries no consequences is simply wrong.

Notice how Rebecca knows it was a child she destroyed, and she had to make that decision when she was fourteen years old.

Feminism has devastated the moral character of two generations and is leaving millions of profoundly wounded people in its wake. It's time we recognize that.

Having read Rebecca's article, I'm buying her book.



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Nitty Gritty: Black & White on the Grey Matters

Alfonzo's latest:
Black & White on the Grey Matters (Nitty Gritty)


Play this video. Alfonzo was my podcast guest: listen to him here.



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Note to Obama: No Arabic spoken in Afghanistan, & today's roundup

Afghans don’t speak Arabic

In Afghanistan, it's any of a half dozen other languages — including Pashtu, Dari, and Farsi.

Maybe he hopes they all indulge in Obamaspeak.

The cult goes on:
Via Allahpundit, Obamatopia.

Obamatopia's the future of this:


Campaign spot and Doug Ross are on the same page.

And let's not forget Sweetie:

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Sadr City Residents Battle The Iranian-Backed Mahdi Army

Basra is now free of the Mahdi Army oppressors, so we can expect Mosul (and therefore Iraq) will soon be free of al-Qaeda. Once this is done it will be time to unfurl some well deserved congratulations for our armed forces, the armed forces of Iraq and the people of Iraq. Hopefully the Democrats will see fit to acknowledge the important milestone when Iraq has purged al-Qaeda from all its strongholds. There will always be dead-ender believers, but that is not excuse to recognize the sacrifices and accomplishments of the final defeat of al-Qaeda in Iraq.

Will you find this in the headlines?
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8 yr old girl used as a suicide bomber.
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Towards a More Peaceful World. Anyone who thinks that women are peaceful didn't go to an all-girls' school.
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What Is Justice for A Rape Victim?
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Polar bears are now in the endangered list: not a good thing, says Hugh Hewitt.

Bye-bye, ANWR.
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Via Betsy, Too "Complex"? Thomas Sowell explains why the price of oil is going up.
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Via Instapundit, Race and the 2008 Election
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Twelve year old Faryl Smith wows judges and crowd




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Obama's corrupt contributor's Hillary's pal, too, and a few other items

Even Obama’s Corrupt Contributors Are Clinton Friends

Drudge right now is featuring this marvelous picture of the Clintons with indicted Chicago real estate developer Tony Rezko. Hillary attempted to lambast Barack Obama regarding Rezko, saying "I was fighting against those [Reagan] ideas when you were practicing law and representing your contributor, Rezko, in his slum landlord business in inner city Chicago."

As for this rather embarrassing picture of not one, but both Clintons with this 'slumlord', Hillary said "I probably have taken hundreds of thousands of pictures. I don't know the man. I wouldn't know him if he walked in the door."

Maybe she would recognize him if he had fistfuls of cash. Are we to believe that Rezko got the honor of a double Clinton portrait entirely gratis?p

Now pause for a moment and picture this scenario:
Hillary as President and Bill in the Senate, having been named by Elliot Spitzer to occupy Hillary's vacated seat for New York; or Obama as President, with either administration naming And John Edwards as Attorney General.

I fervently hope the Republicans get their acts together.
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Andrew Sullivan is 100% right when he writes about The Corruption Of Feminism:

Wow. A proud defense of nepotism over feminism. Or rather, as is the Clintons' wont, a total conflation of feminism with nepotism. I remember similar Clintonian feminists in the 1990s trashing, smearing and sliming women who dared to complain about the sexual harassment and abuse of women that Bill Clinton - with his wife's full knowledge - engaged in for years. This couple really do corrupt everything they touch.

I've been mentioning this, too.
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Ed explains Why pork matters.

The main points are:
1. Because politicians use earmarks to earn credits with political supporters,

Either they're currying favor with state and local officials back home to solidify their own power base, or they're cutting sweetheart deals with contributors to their campaigns.

2. Pork reduces the efficiencies of competitive bidding, resulting in poorer quality products at an inflated price, perpetuating government inefficiency.
3. It entrenches the power of corrupt politicians.
4. It perverts self-government.
Go read the whole thing.
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summer patriot, winter soldier ponders cowsh*t, three days of the condor, and the matrix ... and, oh yeah, saddam hussein ...
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In Turns, both at Fault and Inconsequential: Joe takes a carving knife to pedantic EU economic commentary.
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Mamacita lost her car keys. A while ago I lost a pair of eyeglasses in a totally uncluttered clean room. They simply vanished into the ether.

Maybe J. K. Rowling's on to something by coming up with the shrinking spells.

Last but not least, the Marines,




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The Feminists' letter

At FrontPage Magazine:
A Response to Feminists on the Violent Oppression of Women in Islam

The David Horowitz Freedom Center has succeeded in putting the feminists and Islamists on the defensive. As David Horowitz and Robert Spencer note in the article below, the DHFC's exposure of the feminist movement's lack of attention to women's rights in the Muslim world has caused many of the movement's most prominent activists to sign a letter protesting that they originated concern for Muslim women. The letter, drafted by feminist writer Katha Pollitt, has been signed by such notables as:

* Susan Faludi, the author of Backlash: The Undeclared War Against Women, which argues conservatives are trying to suppress American womyn, and The Terror Dream: Fear and Fantasy in Post-9/11 America, which claims terrorism provided a handy excuse for the American Right to begin binding women's feet again;
* Julianne Malveaux, who expressed her feelings about Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas on PBS' To the Contrary, "I hope his wife feeds him lots of eggs and butter and he dies early like many black men do, of heart disease"
* Jennifer Baumgardner, a Nation writer whose idea of fighting female oppression is staging productions of The Vagina Monologues;
* Dana Goldstein, an employee of the Soros-funded Center for American Progress and a writing fellow at the Soros-funded The American Prospect; and
More than 700 more leftists.

The letter spread quickly, beginning on the website of the far-Left's flagship publication, The Nation. (The Nation's piece was also picked up by Yahoo News). Soon, it had been posted on Mother Jones, the Islamic Forum, the University of Maine, and many other sites -- including that of a woman named Heart who is running for president. Not all are pleased; at least one insists U.S. immigration laws and Israeli treatment of Palestinians are a more direct affront to women's rights than clitorectomies. (She asks, "Does Ms. Pollitt think that 'Muslim countries' are particularly hostile to women’s rights for some reason?") Nonetheless, the very fact that the Left, so long silent about the crimes countenanced by its Islamic partners in the antiwar movement, now feels that it must mount a rousing defense is a vindication of our efforts. -- The Editors.

Here's the text of the letter:

An Open Letter from American Feminists

VFA asks members and friends to join Katha Pollit in responding to accusations that American feminists are ignoring atrocities against women in other countries, especially the Muslim world.

If you'd like to sign, just E-mail KATHA POLLITT and send her your name and ID (professional and/or feminist affiliation) at kpollitt@...

PLEASE READ ON


Columnists and opinion writers from The Weekly Standard to the Washington Post to Slate have recently accused American feminists of focusing obsessively on minor or even nonexistent injustices in the United States while ignoring atrocities against women in other countries, especially the Muslim world. A number of reasons are given for this supposed neglect: narcissism, ideological rigidity, reflexive anti-Americanism, fear of seeming insensitive or even racist. Yet what is the evidence for this apparently now broadly accepted claim that feminists don't support the struggles of women around the globe? It usually comes down to a quick scan of the home page of the National Organization for Women's website, observing that a particular writer hasn't covered a particular outrage, plus a handful of quotes wrenched out of context.

In fact, as a bit of research would easily show, there are dozens, if not hundreds, of US feminist organizations involved in promoting women's rights and well-being around the globe -- V-Day, Equality Now, MADRE, the Global Fund for Women, the International Women's Health Coalition and Feminist Majority, to name some of the most prominent. (The National Organization for Women itself has a section on its website devoted to global feminism, on which it denounces a wide array of practices including female genital mutilation (FGM), "honor" murder, trafficking, dowry deaths and domestic violence). Feminists at Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the United Nations have moved those organizations to add the rights of women and girls to their agenda. Feminist magazines and blogs-- Ms, Feministing.com, Salon.com's Broadsheet feature, womensenews,com (which has an edition in Arabic) -- as well as feminist reporters and commentators in the mainstream media, regularly report on and condemn outrages against women wherever they occur, from rape, battery and murder in the US to the denial of women's human rights in the developing or Muslim world. As feminists, we call on journalists and opinion writers to report the true position of our movement. We believe that women's rights are human rights, and stand in solidarity with our sisters who are fighting for equal political, economic, social and reproductive rights around the globe. Specifically, contrary to the accusations of pundits, we support their struggle against female genital mutilation, "honor" murder, forced marriage, child marriage, compulsory Islamic dress codes, the criminalization of sex outside marriage, brutal punishments like lashing and stoning, family laws that favor men and that place adult women under the legal power of fathers, brothers, and husbands, and laws that discount legal testimony made by women. We strongly oppose the denial of education, health care and equal political and economic rights to women.

We reject the use of women's rights language to justify invading foreign countries. Instead, we call on the United States government to live up to its expressed commitment to women's rights through peaceful means. pecifically, we call upon it to offer asylum to women and girls fleeing gender-based persecution, including female genital mutilation, domestic violence, and forced marriage; promote women's rights and well-being in all their foreign policy and foreign aid decisions; use its diplomatic powers to pressure its allies -- especially Saudi Arabia, one of the most oppressive countries in the world for women -- to embrace women's rights; drop the Mexico City policy--aka the 'gag rule'--which bars funds for AIDS- related and contraception-related health services abroad if they provide abortions, abortion information, or advocate for legalizing abortion; generously support the UN population Fund (UNFPA), which supports women's reproductive health including safe maternity around the globe, and whose funding is vetoed every year by President Bush; become a signatory to The Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the basic UN women's human rights document, now signed by 185 nations. The US is one of a handful of holdouts, along with Iran, Sudan, and Somalia.

Finally, we call upon the United States, and all the industrialized nations of the West, to share their unprecedented wealth, often gained at the expense of the developing world, with those who need it in such a way that women benefit.

Signed,

Katha Pollitt, writer
Marge Piercy, writer
Susan Faludi
Alix Kates Shulman, writer
Julianne Malveaux, president Bennett college for women
Anne Lamott, writer
Mary Gordon
Linda Gordon, historian, NYU
Jennifer Baumgardner, writer
Ruth Rosen, historian
Jane Smiley, writer
Anna Fels,
Debra Dickerson, writer
Margo Jefferson, writer
Jessica Valenti, writer
Dana Goldstein, The American Prospect
Karen Houppert, writer
Gloria Jacobs, The Feminist Press
Carole Joffe, Sociology, UC Davis
Janet Afary, Middle East Historian, Purdue University
Barrie Thorne
Professor and Chair of Gender & Women's Studies and
Professor of Sociology
University of California, Berkeley
Catharine R. Stimpson - New York University
Lakshmi Chaudhry, writer
Rosalyn Baxandall, chair, American Studies SUNY-Old Westbury
Naomi Weisstein
Alisa Solomon,writer
Judith Ezekiel, historian, Wright State U/U de Toulouse
Barbara Bick
Amy Swerdlow
Kathryn Scarbrough
Bea Kreloff
Sonia Jaffe Robbins, writer/editor
Laura X,activist
Linda Stein, sculptor
Stephanie Gilmore, historian, Trinity College
Ariel Dougherty, Media Equity Collaborative, co founder Women Make Movies
Amie Newman, Associate editor, RH Reality check
Merle Hoffman, activist
Adele M. Stan, columnist, American Prospect Online
Michelle Goldberg, writer
Agnieszka Graff, scholar, writer and activist, Warsaw, Poland
Margaret Morgenroth Gullette, Women's Studies Research Center, Brandeis
Eleanor Bader, writer and educator
Eileen Boris, Hull Professor, Women's Studies UCSB
Cynthia L Cooper, "words of choice"
Jennifer Pozner, Women in Media and News
Dolores Hayden, Yale
Kelli Zaytoun, English and women's Studies, Wright State U
Laura Ross, liaison, Indigenous Women's Political Caucus
Melody Berger, writer
Donna Schape, Senior minister, Judson memorial church
Carol Sternhell, professor of journalism NYU
Mari Matsuda, law professor, PLACE TK
Michele Barry, professor of medicine and global health yale
Meredith Tax, writer, president, Women's WORLD
Estelle Freedman Robinson Professor, History, Stanford University
Annie Laurie Gaylor, Freedom from Religion foundation
Heather Nijoli Robinson, Equal Access Fund of Tennessee
Anna Clark, writer
Colleen Kelly Johnston, activist for owmen and peace
Emily Apter, literary theorist, NYU
Laura Zimmerman Co-founder, Center for New Words
Diane Wahto, Chair, Peace and Social Justice Center of South Central Kansas
Rev. Linda Pashby Kaufman, Unitarian Universalist Community Minister, Seattle,
Deanna Zandt, Media Technologist
Linda Ann Wheeler Hilton, artist and writer, Arizona
D. H. Melhem, Ph.D., poet & writer, New York City
Barbara Winslow, Women's studies and school of Ed., Bklyn College
Courtney E. Martin, Brooklyn-based writer and teacher
Lucinda Marshall, Founder, Feminist Peace Network
Jill filipovic, feministe.us/blog
Alison Redford, homemaker & civic volunteer, Wellington, Kansas
Vickie Sandell Stangl, Wichita State University, Political Science Dept.
Meredith Michaels, philosophy dept, Smith college
Muriel Dimen, writer and Psychoanalyst, NYU
Susan Yanow MSWReproductive Health Consultant Cambridge, MA
Nancy Folbre, Professor of Economics, University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Judy Norsigian, Executive Director , Our Bodies Ourselves
Co- author of "Our Bodies, Ourselves"
Kathleen Gerson, sociologist, New York University.
Amy King, Poet and Educator, SUNY Nassau Community College
Ana Bozicevic , Poet, New York City
Debbie rogow
Katherine Ellis
Dr. Suellen Miller
Director, Safe Motherhood Programs
Women's Global Health Imperative
UCSF
Janine Jackson, program director, FAIR
Lise Vogel
Professor Emerita of Sociology, Rider University
Lisa Jervis, bitch
Nora Bredes, Director, Susan B. Anthony Center for Women's Leadership
Emily Gordon, writer and editor
Sophie Pollitt-Cohen, writer and student
Naela El-Hinnawy
Joan D. Mandle, Colgate University, Emerita
Esther Newton Women's Studies, University of Michigan
Marti Copleman, lawyer, board member Women for Afghan Women
Liza Featherstone, journalist/author.
Vivian gornick
Dorothy C. Miller, D.S.W., Director
Flora Stone Mather Center for Women
& Clinical Associate Professor
Mandel School For Applied Social Sciences
Case Western Reserve University
J. Goodrich, blogger, "Echidne of the snakes"
Victoria Rosenwald, RN MPH
Sonali Kolhatkar, Co-Director of Afghan Women's Mission
Beccah Golubock Watson, Legal Momentum
Veronica I. Arreola, Ctr for Research on Women & Gender, U Ill- Chicago
Jane Mansbridge, Kennedy School of Govt
Patricia Thorpe, writer
Sheila Weller / writer
Amy Richards, Soapbox, Inc
Jacqui Ceballos - President, Veteran Feminists of America

I'll be following up on this story later on.



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Phyllis Chesler has a question for the presidential candidates

Phyllis Chesler wants to Ask the Presidential Candidates: Does Anti-Zionism=Racism? Is it Racism When the only Jewish State is Excluded?

Feminists slander Israel when they describe her as an apartheid state — when in fact, Islam is really the largest practitioner of both gender and religious apartheid not only in Muslim countries but also in the West. Western feminists won’t say this. They would lose their funding, their cozy lives, their positions in universities and their cachet in the media; their friends too. Perhaps even their lives.

When I say this on campuses, I need police officers to protect my right to speak.

Here's the video of Phyllis's lecture,

More related videos of the event at the AJC YouTube page.


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"Women Are Never Front-Runners"

Gloria Steinem, writing in the NYT whines, Women Are Never Front-Runners"

Ignoring Michelle Bachelet, Angela Merkel, Margaret Thatcher and Golda Meier, Steinem bemoans that Hillary's not on top because

sexism is still confused with nature as racism once was; because anything that affects males is seen as more serious than anything that affects "only" the female half of the human race; because children are still raised mostly by women (to put it mildly) so men especially tend to feel they are regressing to childhood when dealing with a powerful woman; because racism stereotyped black men as more "masculine" for so long that some white men find their presence to be masculinity-affirming (as long as there aren’t too many of them); and because there is still no "right" way to be a woman in public power without being considered a you-know-what.

What crap. Anyone who knows anything about Chilean society knows that any of these "obstacles" are alive and well in Chile; more so in Pakistan, where Benezir Bhutto was elected Prime Minister twice, and India, where Indira Ghandi served four terms as Prime Minister.

For cryin' out loud, just a few days ago my friend and I were at an exhibition of photographs of Indian widows who had been cast out by their families because their husbands had died. Since they didn't belong to a man, they were useless. I'm talking about present-day India here. Does Gloria know about this?

As for

there is still no "right" way to be a woman in public power without being considered a you-know-what

I venture guess that neither Indira, or Golda or Lady Thatcher lost a night's sleep worrying about that. They probably didn't give a rat's a**.

In Gloria's mind, everything is about identity politics. Women, not just women but American women, are the eternal victims of the patriachy.

There's there something pathetic and embarrassing about identity politics, particularly when

All this easy talk about being a "uniter" and not a "divider" is piffle if people are talking out of both sides of their mouths

Because the truth is that the more you wrap yourself with the identity politics flag, the less of a "uniter" you can ever be.

And let me add one thing: All of the candidates are looking backwards. The Democrats' idea of "change" translates to policies that are outdated and useless. The Republicans keep claiming the mantle of being "the next Ronald Reagan". We do not need either. What we need is a President who will take America's current challenges and bring it into greater prosperity, liberty and leadership in the world.

So, if you're a woman running for office, suck it in, drop the identity politics, and spare me the tears.

While you're at it, give up the Liberal crap. As Gerard not very delicately put it, De-Liberalized Babies of the World Unite. We have nothing to lose but Our Liberals. And THEY are NOT NECESSARY.



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The war against women rages on

UPDATED. Please scroll down
Hitchens (via Betsy), writing about last week's car bombs in the UK (emphasis added)

Only at the tail end of the coverage was it admitted that a car bomb might have been parked outside a club in Piccadilly because it was "ladies night" and that this explosion might have been designed to lure people into to the street, the better to be burned and shredded by the succeeding explosion from the second car-borne cargo of gasoline and nails. Since we have known since 2004 that a near-identical attack on a club called the Ministry of Sound was proposed in just these terms, on the grounds that dead "slags" or "sluts" would be regretted by nobody, a certain amount of trouble might have been saved by assuming the obvious. The murderers did not just want body parts in general but female body parts in particular.

I have posted on the effects of sexual rage and terrorism, on clerics who say that raped women are to blame because they're not wearing chastity belts, on how breasts are sawed off manekins in Iran, how women have been killed for not wearing a veil, and on the practice of honor killings. According to U.N. statistics, more than 5,000 women and girls die across the world each year in so-called "honor killings."

As the Muslim Women's League Position Paper on "Honor Killings" explains (emphasis added),

The problem of "honor killings" is not a problem of morality or of ensuring that women maintain their own personal virtue; rather, it is a problem of domination, power and hatred of women who, in these instances, are viewed as nothing more than servants to the family, both physically and symbolically.

Dymphna has posted on how feminists are accepting female genital mutilation as part of "diversity". The willful blindness of these feminists is absurd, if you don't understand that the Jihadi movement is the proper heir of Marxism-Leninism.

Radical islamists are at war against women, against women education, against women themselves.

In Pakistan, Islamist extremists have bombed at least four girls' schools and circulated violent threats warning girls to stay at home.

And then there's the officially encouraged wife beatings, which are everyday and mundane by comparison, but still part of the war:

Hitchens continues (emphasis added),

The most noticeable thing about all theocracies is their sexual repression and their directly related determination to exert absolute control over women. In Britain, in the 21st century, there are now honor killings, forced marriages, clerically mandated wife-beatings, incest in all but name, and the adoption of apparel for females that one cannot be sure is chosen by them but which is claimed as an issue of (of all things) free expression. This would be bad enough on its own and if it were confined to the Muslim "community" alone. But, of course, such a toxin cannot be confined, and the votaries of theocracy now claim the God-given right to slaughter females at random for nothing more than their perceived immodesty. The least we can do, confronted by such radical evil, is to look it in the eye (something it strives to avoid) and call it by its right name. For a start, it is the female victims of this tyranny who are "disenfranchised," while something rather worse than "disenfranchisement" awaits those who dare to disagree.

The war rages on.

Related
45 Muslim doctors planned US terror raids

A group of 45 Muslim doctors threatened to use car bombs and rocket grenades in terrorist attacks in the United States during discussions on an extremist internet chat site.

Police found details of the discussions on a site run by one of a three-strong "cyber-terrorist" gang.

They were discovered at the home of Younis Tsouli, 23, Woolwich Crown Court in south-east London heard.

One message read: "We are 45 doctors and we are determined to undertake jihad and take the battle inside America.

"The first target which will be penetrated by nine brothers is the naval base which gives shelter to the ship Kennedy." This is thought to have been a reference to the USS John F Kennedy, which is often at Mayport Naval Base in Jacksonville, Florida.

The message discussed targets at the base, adding: "These are clubs for naked women which are opposite the First and Third units."

Update, Friday 6 July:
Jihad's Target: Women

Islam’s record of treating women is abominable. Islamic gender apartheid targets Muslim women for maximum punishment (lashing, stoning to death, political gang-rape, honor-murder) when they are in any way perceived or misperceived as even slightly independent (e.g. if they want to marry men of their own choosing, divorce dangerously abusive husbands, or simply attend college.) But, even when they have committed no such "crime," many Muslim, Arab, and African women are genitally mutilated; most Muslim and Arab women are routinely beaten as daughters and wives. They are forced to "cover" their hair, faces, bodies, and threatened with maximum punishment when a wisp of hair or too much ankle is showing. They are forced to accept and embrace polygamy and purdah (physical sequestration).

These onerous practices have penetrated the West. Increasingly, masked and silent women are appearing on our streets; their presence is oddly menacing. At the very least, they clearly do not approve of your ways because they have chosen a visibly different path. The fact that some women may view hijab and niqab as a legitimate and humble expression of religious submission or freely choose to be modestly "covered" as a way of proclaiming themselves "off-limits" to western secular promiscuity does not change the fact that their presence also constitutes a walking advertisement for jihad.

The article is by Phyllis Chesler and Nancy Kobin. Phyllis Chesler is the author of

Obi's Sister has more links.

Cross-posted at MNM



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The American feminists' silence on the subjection of Islamic women

Christina Hoff Sommers writes about The Subjection of Islamic Women And the fecklessness of American feminism,

The condition of Muslim women may be the most pressing women's issue of our age, but for many contemporary American feminists it is not a high priority. Why not?

The reasons are rooted in the worldview of the women who shape the concerns and activities of contemporary American feminism. That worldview is--by tendency and sometimes emphatically--antagonistic toward the United States, agnostic about marriage and family, hostile to traditional religion, and wary of femininity. The contrast with Islamic feminism could hardly be greater.

Sommers explains,

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.

Sommers mentions Katha Pollitt, who

casually places "limiting young people's access to accurate information about sex" and opposing abortion on the same plane as throwing acid in women's faces and stoning them to death. Her hostility to the United States renders her incapable of distinguishing between private American groups that stigmatize gays and foreign governments that hang them. She has embraced a feminist philosophy that collapses moral categories in ways that defy logic, common sense, and basic decency.

I can't say that I would expect decency from the American feminists. After all, these are the women which, as I have said before, equate women with their gonads and see nothing wrong with a lesbian statutory rape, which is even presented as a "salvation".

Phyllis Chesler has written eloquently about the feminist establishment's unwillingness to take on Islamic sexism,

She faults it for "embracing an anti-Americanism that is toxic, heartless, mindless and suicidal."

In the irony-poor mindset of the feminist establishment, there is no notion that believing that our culture is ruinous for women, while failing to see the horrors routinely perpetrated against women in Arab countries and in other parts of the world, shows their argument in all its emptiness.

Unfortunately, it is suicidal not only for the feminist establishment, it is lethal to women all around the world.

Update
Via Dreams Into Lightning, Is Phyllis Chesler right?

Two exceptional posts at Gates of Vienna

Jamaat ul-Fuqra in Georgia - From the Air
and
The Feminislamists: Women of Woe. Don't miss SC&A's comment,

I think the 'acceptance' of FGM (and thus the culture that allows for FGM), comes about as a response to 'white man's guilt over colonialism.

If we accept and endorse FGM, well, maybe that might mitigate some of the colonialist 'guilt' over colonialism.

This is the convoluted (and erroneous) logic that is behind so much of European anti semitism. If the Europeans can paint Israel as racist and evil, well, maybe the Holocaust wasn't perpetrated against innocents, but rather 'maybe they had it coming'- and thus, European ambivalence and acquiescence to the Holocaust might be mitigated.

To consider FGM as an 'acceptable cultural alternative' is to accept radical hatreds and bigotry as 'acceptable alternatives' and to assign them equal status to the values of free and civilized cultures.

What's next- the celebration of cannibalism, bestiality and pedophilia?

and Dymphna's reply.

Chastity belts and the foundation of civilization

Warning: Post not suitable for work

I was rushing this morning to do several things and managed to finish well ahead of schedule, but I wasn't planning to post until later. Then I came across a news item that made me change my mind.

Also, I don't post when I'm angry, but right now I'm making an exception.

First, for a definition:
civ-i-li-za-tion

An advanced state of intellectual, cultural, and material development in human society, marked by progress in the arts and sciences, the extensive use of record-keeping, including writing, and the appearance of complex political and social institutions.

The basic premise of civilization is that men (and I mean men, not mankind, not men and women) can control their instincts and impulses in order to achieve an advanced state of development.

What, then, do we make of this?
Malaysian Islamic cleric proposes chastity belts to stop rape

Kuala Lumpur - A leading Malaysian Muslim cleric has suggested that all women should be fitted with chastity belts as a deterrent to rape and incest, a news report said Friday.

Abu Hassan Al-Hafiz, an influential cleric from the northeastern Terengganu state, said that women were most safe from sexual predators if they donned some form of barrier to their sexual organs.

Ponder that for a moment. This sorry excuse for a man is saying that it's the women's fault because they're not donning a Medieval artifact of torture.

It's clear he doesn't think the predators are to blame.

'We have even come across a number of unusual sex cases, where even senior citizens and children are not spared. The best way to avert sex perpetrators is to wear protection,' Abu Hassan said in a sermon late Thursday, quoted by the Star daily.

My idea of protection would be firearm. Or a taser gun. Or a sharp enough knife.

I don't believe that thought ever entered the cleric's mind, though.

The cleric says he means well,

'My intention is not to offend women but to safeguard them from sex maniacs.

but here comes the real reason,

Besides, husbands could also feel more secure, if you know what I mean.'

We know exactly what you mean - that the little bitches can't be trusted. That's why they must be mutilated before they even reach puberty.

But hey, it's part of the cultural landscape, isn't it?

Abu Hassan said that the practise of women wearing chastity belts in Malaysia could be traced to as recent as the mid-1960s.

I want to know, where are the Monologuers?
Where, indeed?
Fjordman

other feminists in academia assert that the veil, or even the burka, represents "an alternative feminism." Dr. Wairimu Njambi is an Assistant Professor of "Women's Studies" at the Florida Atlantic University. Much of her scholarship is dedicated to advancing the notion that the cruel practice of female genital mutilation (FGM) is actually a triumph for Feminism and that it is hateful to suggest otherwise. According to Njambi "anti-FGM discourse perpetuates a colonialist assumption by universalizing a particular western image of a 'normal' body and sexuality."

Because what it all comes down to is that, in the long run, we're all "uncovered meat" for those intent on taking us back to the Dark Ages.

PS Meanwhile in Sweden...

Update, Saturday, 17 January Just kidding?
The women don't think so:

"We hope he realises that he is definitely insulting all men by suggesting women have to be restrained because men are incapable of controlling their lust," SIS said in a Press statement.

Chastity in the news, and other items

Not Sonny and Cher's daughter Chastity, but chastity, via The Anchoress: Casual sex is a con: women just aren't like men
Former groupie Dawn Eden explains how she realised morality made more sense for women than free love

Our culture - both in the media via programmes such as Sex and the City and in everyday interactions - relentlessly puts forth the idea that lust is a way station on the road to love. It isn't. It left me with a brittle facade incapable of real intimacy. Occasionally a man would tell me I appeared hard, which surprised me as I thought I was so vulnerable. In truth, underneath my attempts to appear bubbly, I was hard - it was the only way I could cope with what I was doing to my self and my body.

The misguided, hedonistic philosophy which urges young women into this kind of behaviour harms both men and women; but it is particularly damaging to women, as it pressures them to subvert their deepest emotional desires. The champions of the sexual revolution are cynical. They know in their tin hearts that casual sex doesn't make women happy. That's why they feel the need continually to promote it.

The article was published in the London Times. I'll be very surprised if the NYT would carry it in their Styles section. Just a couple of weekeds ago they had a feature article about a 50-yr old porn actress. Dinesh D'Souza writes on Pornography -- The Real Perversion (h/t Maria)
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Don't miss LGF's videos of Dispatches: Undercover Mosque.
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Afghan civilians stop terror attack at U.S. base. As U*2 put it,

This seems to clash with the "America out of everywhere" mantra which is incessantly bleated by the French mainstream preSS.

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Say 'ello to my leetle fren'? Well, My leetle fren' has more fun than Hugo and Mahmoud!

Speaking of Hugo, he says Fidel doesn't have cancer. Not if he's dead, he doesn't.
Update Dada lives: Elephants In Academia posts that CNN is concerned about Fidel Castro's right to privacy.
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Muslims say they'll boycott Northwest Airlines. I predict the stock price will rise.
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Via Larwyn,
American Digest says There's No Stopping This Insanity Now

The media as red Cell

Saudi Arabia Joins Egypt In Supporting Bush Iraq Plan

The killer princesses: Volver

A movie review of Volver

***************SPOILER ALERT***************
Pedro Almodovar brings to the screen a heartwarming chick-flick about murder and incest.

The movie starts at a cemetery where dozens of a town's widows laboriously clean the tombstones of their dead husbands' graves; "Men don't live as long as women in this town," we are told. The only exception are Raimunda (Penelope Cruz), her sister Sole (short for Soledad, which means loneliness, which indeed the character is, played by Lola Duenas) and Raimunda's daughter Paula (Yohana Cobo), who are cleaning the grave of their mother and father who died three years earlier in a fire.

Their town in La Mancha (home of both Don Quijote and Almodovar) is named Alcanfor de las Infantas (the camphor of the princesses) and indeed the town is steeped in the mothballs of yesteryear - the widows wear black, the houses are classic courtyard houses, the dolls are made of porcelain, the traditions are part of everyday life, and the city is far away, separated by a modern windmill farm.

Theirs is a world without men.

It is a world of hard work and clean, modestly pleasant and very colorful surroundings, but, as I said, a world without men. The only men in Alcanfor de las Infantas show up at a funeral, and at that point one wonders if they are ghosts.

There is a great deal of symbolism in the film but I won't focus on that. This is a movie about relationships. Bear with me for a moment.

Penelope Cruz does a terrific job in this film. All that remains from her Hollywood bimbo years is the breast surgery, and even that becomes a minor joke when her mother, played by the always great Carmen Maura, asks her

"Weren't your t**s smaller? I don't remember their ever being so big".

Penelope's acting reminded me of Sophia Loren in Sunflower. Like Sophia, Penelope credibly portrays a woman in her thirties coping with exhausting work and a hard life. Sophia's part in Sunflower was a woman who was truly in love and whose commitment to her man was complete.

No such thing can exist in Volver. The men at the margins of these women's lives might be helpful or considerate but the men with whom these women are involved are the worst of the worst - Raimunda's ugly husband was a lazy drunk, and a pig. The message of the movie is that the only way these women can live in peace is by killing them.

I read the NYT review after watching the fim, and A. O. Scott said,

Men, for Raimunda and her circle, tend to be malevolent, irrelevant or simply absent: straying husbands, predators, dead bodies. They cause a fair amount of trouble, but the point of "Volver" is that it's not about them.

It is about what American feminists of an earlier era called sisterhood, and also about the complicated bonds of kinship and friendship that Mr. Almodóvar observed as a child growing up among women in traditional, patriarchal, gender-separated (and fascist) Spain.

The American feminists have, in all their sisterhood, routinely defined relations between men and women as inherently adversarial. Complicated bonds of kinship and friendship can and should exist between the sexes, but in this movie what Almodovar tells us is that women can't live in peace if there are men around. That's why those widows were completing their wifely duties by keeping those tombs immaculate.

In previous films Almodovar's women were completely subjugated to men (to the point where they were near-dead, like the women in the perverse Talk to Her). In Volver, the women just kill them off. Obviously this is not any improvement.

Volver is a chick-flick for the Oprahfied. There's even a talk show scene to boot. This movie has its good moments, particularly because of the actresses, but its message is clear.

Almodovar writes in the film's official website,

Volver destroys all the cliches about "black" Spain and offers a Spain that is as real as it is the opposite. A Spain that is white, spontaneous, funny, intrepid, supportive and fair.

Supportive and fair, as long as you kill off those bad men. Once the men are out of the way, the women can become whole and mend each others' hearts.

While the NYTimes reviewer says,

Very few filmmakers have managed to smile so convincingly in the face of misery and fatality,

Mr. Almodovar is to be pitied for never having had a father to show him how to be a good man.

Rated R because of adult situations and language. In Spanish with English subtitles. The subtitles were clear and accurately conveyed the meaning of the dialogue.
(Tango purists might not be too happy that Carlos Gardel's classic tango Volver has been changed into a flamenco song, but it's a really lovely rendition which is one of the highlights of the story.)