Wolf Howling: Code Pink

Saturday, September 20, 2008

Palin'sanity

This is too priceless. The author of an article in the NY Sun, "Palin Pick Puts Many Women On The Verge," went to the Code Pink members and other activists for reaction to McCain's selection of Gov. Palin. In a super-nova of PDS, these excitable ladies expressed in colorful terms their deep, soul wrenching angst about Sarah Palin . . . and are then diagnosed by our own Dr. Sanity. Here is the article with some helpful added visuals:

Senator McCain's selection of Governor Palin of Alaska as his running mate, which was hailed in some quarters and met with skepticism in others, is sparking intense reactions from some New Yorkers, who report being driven to fits of rage and even all-consuming panic.

"All of my women friends, a week ago Monday, were on the verge of throwing themselves out windows," an author and political activist, Nancy Kricorian of Manhattan, said yesterday.

"People were flipping out. ... Every woman I know was in high hysteria over this. Everyone was just beside themselves with terror that this woman could be our president — our potential next president."

Ms. Kricorian allowed that she was among those driven to distraction, upon occasion, by Mrs. Palin's nomination. "My Facebook status last Monday was, 'Nancy is freaking out about Sarah Palin yet again,'" the writer said.

A posting on a New York-based Web site for women, Jezebel.com, spoke of unbridled anger. "What I feel for her privately could be described as violent, nay, murderous, rage," an associate editor at Jezebel, Jessica Grose, wrote just after the Republican convention wrapped up.

"When Palin spoke on Wednesday night, my head almost exploded from the incandescent anger boiling in my skull." Ms. Grose was not alone. More than 700 comments poured in, many from women who said they were experiencing a visceral hostility to Mrs. Palin that they were struggling to explain.

"When I see people crowing about her 'acceptable' speech last Wednesday ... I literally want to vomit with rage," a comment from Anibundel said.

"I am shocked by the depths of my hatred for this woman," another commenter, CJWeimar, wrote.

"It is impossible for me not to read about her in the newspaper in the subway every morning on my way to work and not come into the office angry and wanting to kick things," a commenter using the name ChampagneofBeers wrote. "My boxing class definitely helps."

Even some prominent figures admitted to being overcome by anti-Palin feelings. "I am having Sarah Palin nightmares," an acclaimed playwright and writer, Eve Ensler, wrote on the Huffington Post.

She said she was disturbed by the chants about oil and gas drilling during Mrs. Palin's speech to the Republican convention. "I think of rape. I think of destruction. I think of domination," Ms. Ensler wrote.

Experts and the women themselves offered differing explanations for the extreme reactions. "I think a lot of women felt insulted by the idea you could just take any woman," a longtime editor of women's magazines, Bonnie Fuller, told The New York Sun. "A lot of women feel it was a very cynical decision. ... What got some women's backs up was the idea she didn't earn her stripes. It's been so hard for so many women to get ahead both in business and in the political worlds and she just seemingly slips in." . . .

Ms. Kricorian said some of the agitation was because women felt Mr. McCain was pulling off a political trick, using the novelty of selecting a woman to hide her conservative social and religious views. "The women thing is a ruse. ... She was chosen because of the evangelical thing," the writer said. "It's weirdly stealthy that she's not talking about it."

Ms. Grose posited that some of the anger was because Mrs. Palin, a former beauty pageant winner, resembled a high school homecoming queen. "She has always embodied that perfectly pleasing female archetype, playing by the boys' game with her big guns and moose murdering, and that she keeps being rewarded for it," Ms. Grose wrote.

A psychiatrist and conservative blogger, Patricia Santy, said the strong emotional reactions are driven by Mrs. Palin's differing with the left-leaning political agenda of many feminists. "Their entire image of themselves is based on the fact that they are paving the way for women. What do they see? Women getting ahead, women being empowered who don't agree with them," Dr. Santy said. . . .

A psychiatrist who wrote a book remotely psychoanalyzing President Bush, Justin Frank, said some women felt Mr. McCain was mocking them by naming an unqualified but attractive woman to the ticket. "You're put in the position of attacking her and going against your own gender. ... What makes it even worse is so many people are actually taken with her," Dr. Frank said. "It makes you speechless, almost apoplectic, if you're a feminist." . . .

Apparently, they do not suffer this angst up in the frozen north. Go figure. Read the entire article.

Interesting Posts From Around The Web - 13 March 2008

Interesting posts from around the web, all below the fold:

_____________________________________________________

Art: Sisyphus, Vecellio Tiziano, 1549

A Rose By Any Other Name: A fallen hero.

Dinah Lord: Kidnapped Iraqi Archbishop found dead.

The Transatlantic Conservative: John McCain and the Pledge of Allegiance. Its quite a moving story.

Classical Values: "Wright is raw. Obama is smooth. Different sales pitch. Same product." Watch the video.

Ironic Surrealism: Much more on Obama’s racist Reverend Wright.

Q&O: Hillary gets fact checked with predictable results.

The New Editor: Per Instapundit, Hillary plays the Dork Card.

Winds of Change: Evaluating Geraldine Ferarro’s comments on Obama.

Redstate: Quid pro crook - Obama, earmarks, and his wife’s salary.

This Ain’t Hell: Code Pink suffers mission failure . . . and yes, that dress makes you look fat.

Red Alerts: The good and bad news about the economy from an interview with legendary economist Anna Schwartz, who co-authored the revolutionary "Monetary History of the United States" with Milton Friedman.

A Western Heart: Our economic woes are wholly self-inflicted. This is not the normal business cycle.

Vast Rightwing Conspiracy: Obama pulls a Kerry on the issue of mail in voting.

The Irish Elk: "Ho No," it’s a good Spitzer round-up.

An Englishman’s Castle: The UK has granted an asylum to a rouge’s gallery of people who have no business in the West whatsoever. Now, in the case of a young gay man from Iran who faces execution for his homosexuality, where there should be no question that asylum is appropriate, the UK is inexplicably dragging its feet.

Fulham Reactionary: Indeed, as to illegal immigrants, it seems but for the odd Iranian homosexual, the police aren’t even really trying anymore.

Seraphic Secret: Israel releases its annual intel report and Iran puts a bounty on Irsraeli leaders.

Shrinkwrapped: Has Israel lost the will to live?

The Shield of Achilles: I thought this was answered several millenia ago. Should incestuous marriages be declared illegal?

Liberty Corner: Taking on the arguments against teaching intelligent design.

Sigmund, Carl & Alfred: PC Manspeak. Heh.

The Dhiveistan Report: "[T]he penis of the Elected never softens, the erection is eternal. The sensation that you feel each time you make love is utterly delicious . . ." Surprisingly, this is not out of Eliot Spitzer’s journal. It is more insidious than that.