Hi Bill:

Here's the thing that pisses me off:

" I am an American, and I do not feel that I owe Mr. McCain "an incalculable debt of gratitude" for his participation in that stupid, unnecessary war."

More that mere disavowal, this is an inditement.

First, it might be germane to recall that two Democrats got us in that war --I almost said mess, but read below. They were the highly esteemed and magnetic JFK, and Johnson. Why do those most vocal about the "tragedy" of Vietnam continue to vote Democrat?

The left clings to their, ancient, self righteous denunciations of that war with a fervor that you could call religious. I smell desperation in this, as if any admission they were even partly wrong would destroy brittle, fragile egos.

However,we ought to consider the cost of abandoning what we had already committed ourselves to: What of the demoralization of our military and society and the self absorbed cynicism that followed?(remember disco, studio54, rampant sex and cocaine?) What of the collapse of international esteem? You know Bill, people the world over die when US esteem falls. Remember the Iran crises? And oh yes, by no means least of these, what of the Vietnamese--the ideological and ethnic cleansing as the jack boots descended? There are degrees of chaos. It's a good thing you can call yourself an American. You damned sure wouldn't like being Vietnamese.

Bill, can you assure me, and yourself, that these had no connection to our retreat? We washed our hands of this? Let's look under our fingernails.

At the very least, can't you finally credit the men and women who sacrificed so much in genuine conviction that they were securing the best interests of the world? Their idealism eclipses yours in retrospect. That idealism continues, and perhaps in final analysis this is what compels Bush's stubborn refusal to give up Iraq. You might question the wisdom of this idealism (as I do), but not the nobility of it.

Camille:

Recall Edmund from King Lear:

"Thou, Nature, art my goddess. To thy law

My services are bound. Wherefore should I

Stand in the plague of custom and permit

The curiosity of nations to deprive me

For that I am some twelve or fourteen moonshines

Lag of a brother? Why 'bastard'? Wherefore 'base',

When my dimensions are as well compact,

My mind as generous, and my shape as true

As honest madam's issue? Why brand they us

With 'base', with 'baseness, bastardy--base, base'--

Who in the lusty stealth of nature take

More composition and fierce quality

Than doth within a dull, stale, tired bed

Go to th'creating a whole tribe of fops

Got 'tween asleep and wake? Well then,

Legitimate Edgar, I must have your land....

No it's not Edmund's fault, but he's mad as Hell.

Consider Bill Clinton, a brilliant politician. Despite this, a thorough education garnering him with top credentials, and apparently stable marriage, and popularity, he proved an erratic and devious statesman.

Clinton's upbringing included no father, that is, unless you count his stepfather. Not that stepfathers can't father, sometimes they don't.

Barack Obama, like Clinton, had no consistent, reliable father. It seems this condition engenders a subliminal,even unconscious bitterness, projected on the larger social order.

This is not about fairness, it's about the wisdom of placing a man without father at the head of our government.

Flame on.

and "traditional left wing" feminisms attempt to prohibit consensual prostitution and (until the internet made it physically impossible) pornography.

"The university culture at Columbia and Harvard through which Obama passed has been drenched in a reflexive anti-Americanism for several decades"

What a load of bullshit. Paglia talks in cliches stereotypes about "the left". She doesn't know shit about this amorphous bogeyman she calls "the left." The notion that two of the country's most elite, establishment universities strongly connected to people like Henry Kissinger, AIPAC and establishment elite foreign policy think tanks like the Council on Foreign Relations are hotbeds of "anti-American leftism" is loonytunes idiocy.

And what the hell is it with Paglia's perpetual orgasmic love-in with glamour girls who look good on stage? Is that her definition of feminism? Shallow, vapid camera-friendly (mostly white) women who are pretty and overtly sexy, who can offer a few glib lines and putdowns? Paglia is so deeply out of touch with the lives of real women all over the country and all over the world, she has nothing whatsoever to say to those of us struggling to make ends meet, those of us who don't look perfect on stage.

And oh my! heavens! So Obama actually DARES to consider talking to Iran without conditions! Who are these idiots who actually believe that Iran is the second coming of Nazi Germany?

I want to talk about real middle America in the upper Midwest.

First of all, I'm a male in my early twenties in my last semester at school and I was raised in North Dakota by a 60s feminist who doesn't subscribe to any litmus test. My mother stayed home to raise her kids and throughout the long haul of being a mom (my oldest sister is ten years my senior) served as head of the YWCA, PEO,and worked in any number of volunteer organizations (including at our Presbyterian church), writes a lauded and award winning weekly opinion column for the local paper, had a longstanding segment on public radio, and still found time to get her masters degree and teach freshmen English at a local University. Her hobbies include knitting, sewing, and gardening. My mother is exactly the kind of middle American feminist that you claim does has not existed and whose lifestyle is unacceptable to so-called elite feminists. Incredibly, she was raised by very conservative people and came to her tolerant and progressive worldview of her own accord (and persuaded my father, a man who voted for Reagan once, to do the same).

I write all this because my mother and sisters balk at the absurd notion that Sarah Palin represents a new kind of feminism. Just because Palin is a woman does not mean she is a feminist, nor does it mean she is a good representative of "real Main Street women". Sarah Palin does not come across as authentic because real people don't pepper their speech with excessive colloquialisms and condescending monikers (Joe six-pack? No one has ever actually said that) in order to prove their bona fides. She hasn't shown the ability to answer even basic policy questions (or even name a SINGLE periodical)! I don't think she's stupid but her willful ignorance (feigned or real) is insulting and condescending to true middle American feminists. I was raised to respect all but also to question everything and call a spade a spade.

Those are middle American values.

In addition, and this can't be repeated enough, Palin made women pay for their own rape kits! Feminist? You must be kidding.

Camille, I implore you to do some soul-searching. Perhaps it is you who is out of touch.