"The pressure . . . the pressure"

The animals wait around the herd this evening as Tuck digs in to his giant salad.

"Just wondering since you hardly ever 'don’t' blog . . . The pressure . . . the pressure," emails blogdoll Teresa of Technicalities, worrying about whether everything's okay down Chelsea-by-the-Sea. Yes, but, "How awful to not blog for a day or two," we emailed back:

I'm overloaded with all the stuff out there, I think. EGAD . . . Goomp is watching too.

Beyond the predictable for-more-troops before they were against-more-troops of the shameless BDS-challenged Democrats and all-about-me Republicans jockeying for a presidential run -- two bits of cream rose to the top:

1. A kinder and gentler counterinsurgency -- "New US general will copy British 'softly-softly' style" -- thanks to intellectually brilliant David Petraeus's Iraq experience and ongoing study of military history. The upside of colonialism raises its beautiful head.

2. A stupid and stupider "what does a woman want?" narrative from Barbara Boxer, who implied Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had no business implementing foreign policy that involved sending volunteer soldiers to war as "You're not going to pay a particular price, as I understand it, within immediate family."

As for stupid and stupider, Freud himself way back when was said to have pondered "what does a woman want?" We, ourselves, might have asked "what does a man want?" except we think we know. But as for the women, White House spokesman and total cutie pie Tony Snow got it almost right:

I don’t know if [Boxer] was intentionally tacky, but I do think it’s outrageous. Here you have a professional woman, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and Barbara Boxer is sort of throwing little jabs because Condi doesn’t have children, as if that means that she doesn’t understand the concerns of parents,” he told FOX News Talk. "Great leap backward for feminism."

It isn't just food. Petting is huge with the Chelsea Grays, even as they keep their eye on the prize.

Our only quibble with Tony and others critiquing Barbara Boxer's pathetic lack of class is the feminism thing. The divine Ann Althouse missed the point, too, in our opinion. Here's her take:

I think the negative reaction to Boxer is overblown. It's another one of these statements that we hear all the time about how the people in power who are making the decisions don't have family members serving in the war. Coming to the defense of Condoleezza Rice in this instance is not a feminist gesture. Female politicians have to take this criticism just like their male counterparts. If you think they need special protection, you're not helping the cause of women.

In our view, the big thing that didn't help "the cause of women" was the moment when Marxist feminists co-opted what used to be called "women's lib" back in the day. We were a natural feminist from childhood, when we realized as the younger sister of an older brother that there were double standards simply because, as Mummy would say, "You're a girl." Not to mention how condescendingly women were often portrayed in classical literature -- David Copperfield's "child wife" made a huge impression on our pre-adolescent mind. Once the Marxists moved in, the debate was over. It was fear society lite: Women were victims, and white males -- dead or alive -- were their oppressors. As sadder but wiser Harvard  prez Larry Summers learned to his dismay, you put up or shut up. As we are forever blogging, the totalitarian instinct runs dark and deep in our species.

But all that aside, what's really wrong with Barbara Boxer's clueless attack on Dr. Rice is the nerve to suggest that a gal -- especially one like Condi, who lost a childhood friend to a white supremacist bomb in the Sixties -- who hasn't given birth to a child cannot possibly understand human suffering. Like so many Democrat demagogues, Boxer is not a serious person.

Update: For serious persons, with and without backbones, head on over to Modulator's Friday Ark.

Comments

[Tara]

Barbara Boxer championed reproductive choice for women and rode that issue to power in Congress. That she turns around and uses that choice to attack Dr. Rice is typical of how Democrats commit hypocrisy in the name of their twisted views of what femininsm means for women who are Republican: you're not a real woman and unless you have children, you cannot make decisions regarding American wartime policy .

That Boxer is is too stupid to realize she is indicting her own ability to make those same decisions as she is in the same boat as Condi re having kids in the military is not surprising.

And furthermore, it is not "paying the price" as Boxer charged, to serve in an all volunteer military. It is an honor and a personal choice many are willing to make.

Since when is serving in the military a "price to pay " ?

A long 2 years it's going to be.

[Laura Lee Donoho]

I am so weary of women like Boxer. Thank you Sissy for putting it all in perspective. As always, you nailed it.

[goomp]

What the ignorant Boxer misses is the truth that everyone in Western civilization will pay unless we win the war which the militant Muslims are waging against us by handing them decisive defeat. Our withdrawal will only increase the range of their attacks.

[goomp]

Your further comment on the dark totalitarian instinct of humans was also commented on indirectly by Tom Sowell this week when he referred to the liberals' inability to understand the dark side of the human condition, which they possess but are unable to comprehend.

[Teresa]

She's back! Holy smokes... *grin*

As for Boxer, she once again proves that when Democrats are strapped for a logical argument involving facts, they go to the personal argument involving a particular person. This time the person is Condi Rice.

It's not like they couldn't do some research and come up with some actual facts as to why more troops are not the answer, that would involve work on her part. It's so much easier to pick something out in Condi's life and use a non-related issue to tug heart strings.

As usual - it's the argument of the weak and ineffectual. Unfortunately, the press thinks it's the be all and end all of presenting a point. Then again, the left wants us to lose the war. So I guess it's by any means available including propaganda.