Hecate has a kickass post on the new media meme re: Hillary: SHE WEARS PANTS!!!!11!!
I'll let my favorite Wiccan explain it:
Please, just shoot me now. You can't convince me that Givhan, a crappy writer no matter what the topic, is going to write a column about how Chris Dodd looks or about how Mike Huckabee looks.
I mean, honestly: Women have come a long way from the time when wearing a pair of pants was considered "borrowing from the boys." So it would be highly regressive to suggest that the candidate is using trousers to heighten the perception that she can be as tough as a man. And yet . . .
In its way, its as disingenuously bad as the "some rumors say Obama is a Muslim" piece of shit the WaPo recently published.
She goes on to note the disapproving tongue-clucking about the fact that Hillary is apparently... wait for it... smart.
(scream, faint)
Dana Milbank contributes to the nonsense, with an article on, I am not making this up, how Hillary "sounds." You'll be surpried to learn that the answer is: like a smart girl. And we all know how bad those are. Even worse,
For a quarter-century now, Democrats have had a habit of selecting brainy, establishment presidential nominees who are frequently pedantic but rarely passionate. Al Gore and John Kerry were bookish, and Michael Dukakis didn't even show emotion when asked about the hypothetical rape and murder of his wife.
The article is subtitled "Nobody Knows More than Hillary" and condemns her for actually knowing what she's talking about, rather than giving a speech long on buzzwords like "hope" and "freedom" and "Jebuz."
Read the whole post: Hecate is terrific when she's righteously angry, and she's righteously angry here.
I have my cautions about Hillary, as regular readers know. But the mode of attack pisses me right the hell off. What is Mitt wearing? Does Huckabee sound too dangerously smart? (Answers: he won't say whether he wears The Garment, and, umm, no, not fucking likely.) But her intelligence and wardrobe have nothing to do with anything, as far as I can tell. To the extent that they do, they're plusses.
My jihad against The Idiot Princess (and Queen Winebox) really has its roots here: we are killing each other with terminal triviality. I like bitchy gossip as much as the next person (and am particularly enamored of the evidence suggesting Mike Huckabee had gastric bypass surgery he felt compelled to conceal), but no, I don't think it's a basis for public policy. There are very real issues up for grabs next year, and the wingnut obsession with teh gaii and abortion strikes me as merely another kind of distracting triviality. A truly populist candidate would allow people to see beyond their prejudices and toward a cleaner, better future for all of us, and for the planet.
Al Gore accepted the Nobel Prize today with a speech that should shame us all.
We must quickly mobilize our civilization with the urgency and resolve that has previously been seen only when nations mobilized for war. These prior struggles for survival were won when leaders found words at the 11th hour that released a mighty surge of courage, hope and readiness to sacrifice for a protracted and mortal challenge.
..........
When we unite for a moral purpose that is manifestly good and true, the spiritual energy unleashed can transform us. The generation that defeated fascism throughout the world in the 1940s found, in rising to meet their awesome challenge, that they had gained the moral authority and long-term vision to launch the Marshall Plan, the United Nations, and a new level of global cooperation and foresight that unified Europe and facilitated the emergence of democracy and prosperity in Germany, Japan, Italy and much of the world. One of their visionary leaders said, "It is time we steered by the stars and not by the lights of every passing ship."
.........
The world needs an alliance — especially of those nations that weigh heaviest in the scales where Earth is in the balance. I salute Europe and Japan for the steps they've taken in recent years to meet the challenge, and the new government in Australia, which has made solving the climate crisis its first priority.
But the outcome will be decisively influenced by two nations that are now failing to do enough: the United States and China. While India is also growing fast in importance, it should be absolutely clear that it is the two largest CO2 emitters — most of all, my own country — that will need to make the boldest moves, or stand accountable before history for their failure to act.
And no, it didn't say what he was wearing.
Seriously, what the fuck is our media doing? They seem determined to out-Dowd each other, to focus solely on the most petty and demeaning issues, to play the shallow stereotype card at every opportunity. Save me from the castrating mama, the pretty boy, the evil black man! Save from the hippie dippies who want to take my SUV and guns away! Save me from the Mohammedan Menace and the scary people who speak Spanish and are probably talking about me!
Grow. The. Fuck. Up.
Seriously.
UPDATE BY THERS: You think they're going to buy that thing 2 posts up? Bets?