Archive for May 13, 2008

Talking Points: McCain and Hagee, Again

Apparently, Reverend Hagee has apologized for his controversial comments… about Catholics. Not about Jews, and not about gays. I’ve written about this before, and I still think it’s ridiculous that relatively few talk about McCain’s extremist links. Don’t think he’s that bad? First, here’s a video:

And if that’s not enough, a user commenting at NYT’s “The Caucus” assembled this list of links below – great thanks to you, Jake, if you read this:

• Video of Hagee’s services;
• Article on Hagee’s appearance on Fox’s “Your World”;
• Appearance on NPR’s Fresh Air, with Terry Gross (she doesn’t like him), and;
• Jerusalem Countdown, a book by Hagee.

Why does the media look the other way from this guy? Spread the word.

Action Alert: Phyllis Schlafly at Wash U

Washington University at St. Louis is about to confer an honorary degree on Phyllis Schlafly, the woman who believes that there’s no such thing as marital rape. As she put it, “I think that when you get married you have consented to sex. That’s what marriage is all about.” How delightful. This is also the woman who killed the Equal Rights Amendment (apparently, America is NOT about equality). A couple other Schlafly gems:

• On sexually transmitted diseases (she’s for them): “It’s very healthy for a young girl to be deterred from promiscuity by fear of contracting a painful, incurable disease, or cervical cancer, or sterility, or the likelihood of giving birth to a dead, blind, or brain-damaged baby (even 10 years later when she may be happily married)”
• On diversity (she’s against it): “Many years ago Christian pioneers had to fight savage Indians. Today missionaries of these former cultures are being sent via the public schools to heathenize our children.”
• On feminism: “Men should stop treating feminists like ladies, and instead treat them like the men they say they want to be.”

And the rest are self-explanatory:

• “Sex education classes are like in-home sales parties for abortions.”
• “Sexual harassment on the job is not a problem for virtuous women.”
  
• “[The] ERA mean[t] abortion funding, mean[t] homosexual privileges, mean[t] whatever else”
• “When will American men learn how to stand up to the nagging by the intolerant, uncivil feminists whose sport is to humiliate men?”

Wow.

Contact Wash U (information here). Wash U, every year, graduates thousands of women who will go on to contribute to advancing human knowledge and building a better society. Phyllis Schlafly, who thinks that they should have stayed in the kitchen “where they belong,” does not deserve to share the stage with them.