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Redefining "screed"

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stillnotking

Joined: 18 Dec 2007
Location: Oregon, USA

Posted: Wed Feb 13, 2008 5:53 pm Post subject: Redefining "screed"

A little humor, courtesy of Erica Jong:

Quote:

Ever since I wrote an article in the Washington Post ten days ago, I've been getting love letters from women and super-smart men and brickbats from the Hillary-Haters. Unfortunately the Hillary-Haters are in charge. They monopolize the networks, the newspapers, the talk shows -- both radio and TV. They are crossing their legs for fear of castration. They are wearing the body armor our troops never got. Or got too late to matter. They are determined that a woman will not prove herself competent as Commander in Chief.

What's their ammunition? Oh, it's simple. They call her Mrs. Clinton, not Ms. or Senator. They pull out those nutcrackers in the shape of her supposed thighs. They complain about her ankles -- too thick. They complain on Fox TV that "White women are the problem" -- (idiot boy Kristol, the brain-damaged scion of Irving who rose through nepotism like our unelected "president"). Then they say she has "baggage" -- which could mean wrinkles, or her husband, or her daughter Chelsea whom they say she is "pimping." Then they say she never divorced Bill -- as if it's anyone's business. Then they moon over Obama's rhetorical style. Then they make it appear that she's a drone or a worker bee and has no royal jelly. Or else she has royal jelly and is queen bee. And that's her problem.

If Bill defends her, he's a pimp. If he doesn't, he's a creep. If Chelsea campaigns, it's cynical. If Obama trots out those cute little girls Michelle gave birth to, he's a family man. If Michelle attacks Hillary, it's news. If Hillary attacks Michelle -- well she can't because that would be racist. All we need now is a black woman in this race -- Maya or Oprah or Toni or Gayle or Donna -- any of whom would be a far better president than the one we've still got (not to mention his surrogate Dad, Dick Cheney, his co war-criminal). You couldn't attack Oprah or Maya or Toni or Gayle or Donna because of their color. Wow -- what an idea! Oprah for President. I'd definitely vote for that. I adore Maya Angelou as both person and poet. Toni Morrison is a genius and a true progressive. Gayle King is an executive, mother, communicator. Donna B. is a spokeswoman on CNN. Oprah -- well, she's Oprah -- way beyond having a last name.

Let me tell you about the Hillary-Haters who fill my inbox, they can't spell. They also believe in witchcraft. They believe HRC boils eye of newt with unborn baby's hair and little Jewish children not yet circumcised. They think she had a child with Vince Foster (even though Chelsea looks much like Bill and even his mother), then murdered him. They think she will leave Iraq, not leave Iraq, give us universal health care, not give us universal health care, sanction the killing of fetuses, not sanction the killing of fetuses, defend Israel, not defend Israel, end the Death Tax, not end the Death tax.

Honey, they are all mixed up. But they know they hate. And not just her -- but lots of people and things and ideas.

Ho hum. We've seen this all before in the United States of Amnesia (Gore Vidal's brilliant phrase). Remember Geraldine Ferraro -- tarred with the brush of her Italian-American husband, whom they claimed was a mafioso? Remember Bella Abzug, attacked for her hats (which covered too large a brain)? Remember Eleanor Roosevelt, attacked for her teeth? Remember Victoria Woodhull (the first woman to run for president) "hanged" as a *beep*? Remember Emma Goldman rode out of town on a rail -- for being Jewish, liking to dance and supporting the rights of the working classes?

Perhaps you know the history. Most likely you don't. They'd rather you didn't know it. Hence trillions for guns and pennies for education. The military industrial complex needs your boys and your girls in Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan. But there's no one to guard the "homeland" -- a nice Hitlerian locution. Perhaps they'd rather you didn't know that every great empire -- from Persia to Greece to Rome -- fell when it spent more on war than on its people. This is history, kids. But we don't read history any more. History begins with Britney and ends with Paris.

I give up. If I have to watch another great American woman thrown in the dustbin of history to please the patriarchy, I'll move to Canada -- where they live four years longer than we because they have universal health care. Or Italy -- where Berlusconi played at being Mussolini but life is sweet anyway and people take vacations in August and at Chanukah (Christmas or Diwali or Kwaanza) and Passover (Easter).

Ok folks, stick your heads in the sand like Maureen Dowd who thinks we're not against women but just against Clinton "baggage." Or Barbara Walters who seems to have forgotten how viciously she was attacked when she got her first million dollar contract -- worth only half a million in Euros today.

Or Oprah who forgets she wasn't always Oprah -- I knew her when she had two names. She was always really smart, but she used to identify with women. And now she's joined the Obamarama. I get it. I understand. People want their own color in the White House (pun intended). And nobody said Barack wasn't brilliant.

But the truth is, we have no idea what he stands for. At least I don't. All we have are soundbites and attacks on "the" Clintons. But I guess the great American Amnesiate prefers it that way. And they always get what they deserve in the White House. Last time it was Dubya -- the dumb son of the CIA who showed them by never heeding their warnings. We lost Al Gore to sound bites about his nerdiness. Then we lost him again to hanging chads in Florida. We lost Adlai for being too intellectual. They used to say "egghead" in the olden days. And we lost Kerry to touch screens in Ohio and to election officials later indicted and tried and convicted. I didn't like him anyway. I especially hated his not returning fire at the Swiftboaters, and that stupid salute at the Democratic convention where Barack was born from the head of Athena.

Flip Flop, Flop Flip. This is the nature of our political dialogue. Might as well vote Repugnican as Democratic -- though I never have in my whole life. They're all just pols who secretly pledge to ignore fifty three percent of the population. And guess what? The fifty three percent is resigned to it. We don't like it. We wish it were otherwise. But we adore our sons and grandsons and husbands and fathers and grandfathers -- not to mention our nephews whom we happily nepotize.

One of my nephews works for Hillary. I bet his heart is breaking too.

I feel better already about my support for Obama.

wannago

Joined: 16 Apr 2004

Posted: Wed Feb 13, 2008 6:50 pm Post subject:

Yes, this is pretty funny. I love the way the "open-minded" liberals think. And attacking Oprah for not supporting the woman candidate? Wow, Oprah's got a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation, doesn't she?

Ya-ta Boy

Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994

Posted: Thu Feb 14, 2008 1:46 pm Post subject:

I agree with about 63% of this. Listening to men talk smack about Hillary Clinton, you can just feel their sexual insecurity oozing out. It could well be that her candidacy is too early--not enough Ameican men can yet handle the idea of a female president.

stillnotking

Joined: 18 Dec 2007
Location: Oregon, USA

Posted: Thu Feb 14, 2008 2:03 pm Post subject:

Ya-ta Boy wrote:

I agree with about 63% of this. Listening to men talk smack about Hillary Clinton, you can just feel their sexual insecurity oozing out. It could well be that her candidacy is too early--not enough Ameican men can yet handle the idea of a female president.

63%? Dude, this article is about 99% ka-ray-zee. Sure, some of Clinton's critics are misogynist, but that doesn't make Jong right.

I mean, the Oprah stuff? Jong is all but coming out and saying that EVERYTHING should be determined by identity politics, as if Oprah was in some kind of quandary between voting her race or her gender. That's not the America I live in, and it's definitely not the one I want to live in.

Oh, and I automatically dismiss anyone that says "I don't know what Obama stands for". Really? Did it ever occur to her to go to barackobama.com, or read a newspaper, or watch one of his hundreds of stump speeches? The guy couldn't be any clearer about what he stands for; he's got detailed policy prescriptions for everything from health care to hunting licenses. Anyone who doesn't know what he stands for is either just plain lazy, or doesn't want to know.

Ya-ta Boy

Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994

Posted: Thu Feb 14, 2008 11:28 pm Post subject:

Quote:

63%? Dude, this article is about 99% ka-ray-zee.

My estimate is 37%.

I'm surprised we got this far into the campaign before we started seeing stuff like this post from Jong. There's no difference between voting for Clinton just because she's a woman and voting against her just because she's a woman. They're both ignorant positions to take.

I'm willing to cut the writer some slack (maybe 25%) because it must have been thrilling to have Senator Clinton in the lead all last year and made the women who led the fight for equality believe that 'their' day had finally arrived. And now they feel it slipping out of their hands. That has to be frustrating and disappointing.

I remember when the women who went down South in the 60's decided that they were risking just as much as the men, but while the men sat in one room planning strategy, the women were sent to the kitchen to make sandwiches and wash dishes. The social revolution these women accomplished is as important as the racial social revolution. Both want to see their efforts crowned with a representative in the White House.

It's too bad Barbara Jordan isn't the one in Obama's position.

Czarjorge

Joined: 01 May 2007
Location: I now have the same moustache, and it is glorious.

Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2008 9:14 am Post subject:

Ya-ta:

Quote:

I'm willing to cut the writer some slack (maybe 25%) because it must have been thrilling to have Senator Clinton in the lead all last year and made the women who led the fight for equality believe that 'their' day had finally arrived. And now they feel it slipping out of their hands. That has to be frustrating and disappointing.

This is the attitude I don't understand. Maybe I'm too young, or from a generation where gender definitions aren't that important, but I don't see how the 'libbers' couldn't think they've already won. It never runs through my mind, ever, that a woman couldn't do something a man can do. I don't think I'm in the minority there.

Yes, women at some companies experience things like lower wages comparitively or a glass ceiling, but that's life. Life's tough. One of my big muckety muck corporate promotions was lost to me because I was a smart fattie. If you work for a Japanese company it's pretty much understood that you're gaijin and s.o.l. if you want upper upper management. There are all kinds of problems in the world, and as the old white men die off a number of them are fading away.

I guess it's disingenuous to make that argument as I've openly said that one of the reasons I support Obama is that he's black and I believe his Presidency can help heal the racial divide in the US. But it's a good sign that most research shows that the generation under me views race the same way I view gender.

Ya-ta Boy

Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994

Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2008 3:49 pm Post subject:

Quote:

All of the women I know as the leaders of the women's movement, Gloria Steinem etc., would have to be in their 70's by now. I'm sure they want to see their life's work crowned in their lifetime. Winning the White House would be like getting the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval from the American public. Very Happy

Hillary Clinton mentioned last week that her mother was born before women had the right to vote and now her daughter is running for the presidency. That must be an awesome feeling for women in much the same way that blacks are feeling. Once the victory has been achieved, identity politics of this variety can begin to fade away.

I think it helps to remember that women began the struggle for equality in 1848 and it took them 60 years to get the right to vote. It's been another 90 years and the number of women governors can be counted on one hand. Nancy Pelosi is the highest female government official we've ever had. If it has taken 150 years to get this far, the resistance has been stronger than you are acknowledging.

I can understand if some women react bitterly at the idea of having to wait still longer.

Kuros

Joined: 27 Apr 2004

Posted: Sat Feb 16, 2008 9:22 am Post subject:

Ya-ta Boy wrote:

I can understand if some women react bitterly at the idea of having to wait still longer.

Its more understandable than posting a screed not directly endorsed by a campaign and casting it as representative of all supporters of that campaign's candidate.

stillnotking

Joined: 18 Dec 2007
Location: Oregon, USA

Posted: Sun Feb 17, 2008 6:59 am Post subject:

Kuros wrote:

Ya-ta Boy wrote:

I can understand if some women react bitterly at the idea of having to wait still longer.

Its more understandable than posting a screed not directly endorsed by a campaign and casting it as representative of all supporters of that campaign's candidate.

Yeah, that'd be terrible. Who the hell did that, I'll go beat 'em up.

Seriously: I never said or implied that this was representative of all Hillary supporters. I posted it for a laugh, and to show that Jong trying to make me feel bad for supporting Obama was actually having the opposite effect.

You're taking this stuff way, way too personally, man. Calm down.

Kuros

Joined: 27 Apr 2004

Posted: Sun Feb 17, 2008 7:49 am Post subject:

stillnotking wrote:

Seriously: I never said or implied that this was representative of all Hillary supporters.

wannago wrote:

I love the way the "open-minded" liberals think.

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