Culture Briefs

Feminist ideals

"I'm a woman. And I find it quite annoying that people don't classify high taxes and out-of-control government spending a 'women's issue.' I also am appalled at the infanticide and gender-selective abortions that occur in China -- now, that's a women's issue. Not nation-wide availability of female condoms. ...

"I had a bad attitude when I was a young kid attending a small Christian college. I fashioned myself a 'feminist' because I was under the impression the 'patriarchy' was responsible for our midnight curfew, our strict dress code, and daily chapel. When I threw in the towel and transferred to New York University, I expected to be embraced with open arms. I thought I'd finally find my true home -- the NYU Women's Studies Department. Instead, my new liberal classmates heard my accent and considered me their 'project.' To be a feminist in their eyes, I had to hate men, feel oppressed in my marriage, refuse to do the dishes, and have fewer sexual restrictions than Paris Hilton.

--Nancy French, author of "A Red State of Mind," interviewed by Kathryn Jean Lopez in National Review Online at www.nationalreview.com

No response

"Nancy Pelosi's office decided not to respond. ...

"When Pelosi spokeswoman Jennifer Crider was told that the subject of the call was Pelosi's participation in the San Francisco Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Pride Parade -- the welcoming tone on the other end turned frosty. ... Pelosi had marched in the parade that honored man/boy love advocate Harry Hay ... I have to say I was not all that surprised. After all, if you're busy charging the House Republican leadership with a 'cover-up of Foley's internet stalking' ... of teenage boys, the last thing you would want anybody to notice is that your boss found it just ducky to lend her support to the honoring of a man who was famous for talking about men having relationships with 'the 9-year-old, the 11-year-old, the 12-year-old, the 14-year-old.' ...

"If you're a Democrat in Pennsylvania or Montana or Indiana ... this will not help you win points. To confess that your first vote as a freshman Democrat in Congress will be to put someone in the Speaker's chair who is apparently afraid to condemn Harry Hay's philosophy even after the man is dead for fear of angering his supporters -- this is a tough sell to all those Soccer Moms and Dads with boys."

--Jeffrey Lord, writing on "Nancy Pelosi Ducks," Friday in the American Spectator Online at www.spectator.org

Farewell, again

"At Madison Square Garden, Barbra Streisand began her latest farewell tour with what friends who were there tell me was a moving, beautiful concert. She was in great form and brought the audience together in appreciation of her great ballads, which are part of the aural tapestry of our lives. And then ... the moment. Suddenly she decided to bang away on politics. Fine, she's a Democrat, Bush is bad. But midway through the bangaway a man in the audience called out. Most could not hear him, but everyone seems to agree he at least said, 'What is this, a fund-raiser?'

"At this, Ms. Streisand became enraged ... and cursed the man. A friend who was there, a liberal Democrat, said what was most interesting was Ms. Streisand made a physical movement with her arms and hands ... as if to say, See what I have to put up with when I attempt to educate the masses?"

--Peggy Noonan, writing on "The Sounds of Silencing," Friday in Opinion Journal at www.opinionjournal.com