Archive for double standard

“Is there a word for a promiscuous boy that compares with ‘slut’?” “Alas, that word is ‘stud’.”

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double standard men women

Another Los Angeles Times letters to the editor, because our voices matter:

Re “A birth control double standard,” Opinion, May 20

Bravo to Meg Waite Clayton’s articulate Op-Ed regarding society’s double standard for male and female sexuality, and the Obama administration’s consequent restriction of access to emergency contraception. As an adolescent medicine specialist, I have seen the punishing results of stigmatizing girls’ sexual expression firsthand, having cared for 12- and 13-year-old mothers. Conversely, I have seen many patients who greatly benefited from using Plan B, the so-called morning-after pill.

President Obama and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius’ efforts to bar easy access to an extremely safe, effective medication with negligible side effects (much safer than, say, a bottle of Tylenol) reflects society’s mistrustful, punitive attitude toward young women and its shameful disregard for scientific expertise.

Putting our collective heads in the sand will not stop young people from having sex. But nurturing and supporting their resourcefulness, resiliency and proactiveness can prevent a life-altering, unplanned event. Plan B should be available without restriction to all youths, regardless of gender or age.

Claudia Borzutzky

Los Angeles

The writer, a medical doctor, is an assistant professor of clinical pediatrics at USC.

***

Clayton asks, “Is there a word for a promiscuous boy that compares with ‘slut’?”

There is such a word, one that’s widely considered to be the masculine complement to the designation “slut.” It’s also a monosyllable, and it has three of the four letters that appear in “slut.” Alas, that word is “stud.”

As long as the boys themselves, men in general and, indeed, many of the girls who sleep with these guys think along these lines, the double standard that Clayton laments will continue to reign supreme.

Bruce Burroughs

Sherman Oaks

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Cliff Notes– IOKIYAR: Republicans preach morality but do the opposite

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family values my ass

Via aaateeshirts.com

Via aaateeshirts.com

Recently I posted about hypocrite extraordinaire Pete Domenici, the former GOP senator who admitted to a secret affair and fathering a child outside marriage.

Which brings me to my dear friend and mentor, Cliff Schecter, who has a new post up; Cliff has given me permission to share his work with you, so I’ll give you the latest edition of what I call Cliff Notes.

He skewers better than a chef at Smokey Joe’s BBQ. He has comedic insights that rival those of our mutual friend, the hilarious Lizz Winstead. He’s sharper than the point on Sarah Palin’s pin head.

Here are a few excerpts from his latest, with permission. Please read the whole thing, because he has way more than I’ve included here:

Domenici is certainly not the first politician to suffer from “Strom Thurmond’s Disease”. … Just another sad story of conservative hypocrisy, and in Thurmond’s case, one of many dalliances with women not his wife for the “family values”-spouting, Lost Cause romantic.

This is not to say this kind of thing doesn’t happen on the Democratic/liberal side… Yet, the difference is that like most Republicans, Domenici was abundantly concerned what was going on in our private lives if we were gay, a woman, or a President being impeached in the 1990s over an affair.  [...]

For kicks, here was his statement at the time, dripping with enough irony to quench even Marco Rubio’s thirst. [...]

Truthfulness is the first pillar of good character in the Character Counts program of which I have been part of establishing in New Mexico… Guess which one of these pillars comes first? Trustworthiness. Trustworthiness… So what do I say to the children in my state when they ask, “Didn’t the President lie? Doesn’t that mean he isn’t trustworthy? Then, Senator, why didn’t the Senate punish him?”

Ooh, I have an answer! How about you tell the children of your state that if character counts, your life adds up to a goose egg? [...]

Frankly, the most important part of this affair is that it’s another reminder of why the troupe of old men playing pajama dress up, known as the “Tea Party”, are so perpetually angry. This is the way the world is supposed to exist… Old white guys thumping Bibles on weekends … and doing the very things they warned us to avoid.

No longer do they get to just live in this world of white, male privilege, and it’s a serious bummer. It’s why you see Ted Nugent doing performance art for dementia, and more famous white guys from David Mamet to Rick Warren striking out with articles or tweets that make no sense in the real world. And let’s not even get started on Pope Benedict.

These guys have to actually answer today for the ultimate form of elitism: their white male privilege of being able to tell us all how to behave while blithely ignoring the very same dictates. … [W]e have the numbers at polling booths, and it’s driving them bonkers.

IOKIYARIOKIYAR

opposite worldCliff Schecter is an author, pundit and public relations strategist whose firm Libertas, LLC handles media relations for political, corporate and non-profit clients. 

Follow him on Twitter: @CliffSchecter

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Former GOP senator admits to secret affair, fathering child outside marriage

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family values my ass

CREW, 2007:

CREW just asked the Senate Ethics Committee to investigate Senator Pete Domenici (R-NM) for his role in the growing scandal surrounding the dismissal of David Iglesias, the U.S. Attorney from New Mexico.

Sen. Domenici has now admitted that he called Mr. Iglesias, stating “I asked Mr. Iglesias if he could tell me what was going on in that investigation and give me an idea of what time frame we were looking at.”

In a discussion of Senate Rule 43, the Senate Ethics Manual states that “[t]he general advice of the Ethics Committee concerning pending court actions is that Senate offices should refrain from intervening in such legal actions . . . until the matter has reached a resolution in the courts.”

Pete Domenici, February 2013 (both parties’ complete statements at that Livewire link):

More than 30 years ago, I fathered a child outside my marriage. The mother of that child made me pledge that we would never reveal that parenthood, and I have tried to honor that pledge and so has she. I have been concerned about the burden of privacy on the son Adam Laxalt.

Michelle Laxalt, the mother of Domenici’s child:

I come from a political family and learned early in life the value of privacy. I vowed that I would make personal decisions based not on politics, but on my values. This self-pledge was tested when one night’s mistake led to pregnancy more than 30 years ago. I chose to go through with that pregnancy, although other choices were available. I also chose to raise my child as a single parent. Given the fact that both my father and the father of my child were United States senators, I felt strongly that I would make this choice according to my values, and would not seek advice, input or permission. [...]

Recently information has come to me that this sacred situation might be twisted, re-written out of whole cloth, and shopped to press outlets large and small in a vicious attempt to smear, hurt and diminish Pete Domenici, an honorable man

Yesterday: Massachusetts GOP demands Ed Markey cancel “disgusting” fundraiser with Eliot Spitzer. Double standard much?

Conclusions:

  1. Pete Domenici is not “an honorable man.” His ethics are questionable, to say the least.
  2. People make mistakes, Democrats and Republicans. That is true and it is also not the issue, and I’m sick of those on the right offering up a false equivalence every time a Republican cheating on his wife makes headlines. The issue? See #3.
  3. Republicans claim to be the party of “family values,” yet they continue to expose their own hypocrisy. Their party’s double standards don’t seem to faze them, and they rarely waste an opportunity to point fingers at Democrats who did not run on a “family values” platform. It’s the hypocrisy, stupid.
  4. Domenici’s lover emphasized her freedom to choose various options to deal with her situation. She “chose to go through with that pregnancy, although other choices were available.” Fine. That worked for her, but it doesn’t work for every woman. (Domenici has a long record of being anti-choice.)
  5. Family values my ass.
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Massachusetts GOP demands Ed Markey cancel “disgusting” fundraiser with Eliot Spitzer. Double standard much?

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double standard

You can’t make this stuff up. Via Livewire:

In a statement, Kirsten Hughes, chairman of MassGOP, said that it’s “disgusting” that [Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA)] would “rub elbows” with [Eliot] Spitzer, who resigned in 2008 amid a prostitution scandal. 

You are judged by the company you keep and it’s disgusting for Congressman Markey to rub elbows with a man best known for his solicitation of prostitutes,” said Kirsten Hughes, MassGOP Chairman.“Instead of lining his campaign coffers with donations from the disgraced Eliot Spitzer, Markey should immediately cancel the fundraiser and denounce Spitzer’s abhorrent and unacceptable behavior.  Anything short of a public condemnation and cancellation would send the wrong message to women everywhere.”

Did anyone on the right “keep company” with Newt Gingrich? How about David Vitter? Oh wait, Reince Priebus gave David Vitter a pass because “that’s a 5-year-old story.”  (Spitzer resigned five years ago.)

Okay then, how about “rubbing elbows” with the “disgusting” John Ensign? And the “abhorrent” Mark Sanford? Wasn’t their behavior unacceptable? And this is just the tip of the iceberg.

All of those Republicans claimed they stood for “family values” (Spitzer didn’t). All of them are hypocrites. Did they “keep company” with other Republicans? Call me crazy, but I’m guessing they did.

Here’s a thought, Kirsten Hughes: If Mark Sanford can assert that if God forgives you, then cheating on your wife and lying to America shouldn’t matter any more, so can Eliot Spitzer.

gop family values

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What if Michelle Obama said, “There were times when I wanted to like come out of my seat and clock somebody.” Ann Romney did.

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Today’s L.A. Times letter to the editor, because our voices matter:

Re “A warmer Romney,” Aug. 28

Ann Romney said in 2010: “There were times when I wanted to like come out of my seat and clock somebody. I mean, sometimes you just want to come out and just go at them, you know?”

I have a feeling that if Michelle Obama had made those remarks, there would have been a major outcry.

Grace Adams

Palm Desert

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VIDEO- Romney: “There was no reduction- not 1 dollar reduction in taxes- by virtue of having an account in Switzerland or a Cayman Islands investment.”

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Via from an interview with Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday.

“There was no reduction –  not one dollar reduction in taxes — by virtue of having an account in Switzerland or a Cayman Islands investment.”

“The conduct of the trustee in making investments was entirely consistent with U.S. law and all the taxes paid were those legally owed and there was no tax savings by virtue of those entities.”

“I could have said, ‘Don’t make any investments in any foreign companies, in any foreign bonds, in any foreign currency, only U.S. entities. And by the way, don’t buy any foreign products, don’t have any Japanese TVs, or foreign cars.’ I could have done that.”

Yes, you could have done that.

We interrupt this post for a Willard Whopper Alert! Incoming! The majorest of major whoppers in 5… 4… 3… 2…

“But you know, I did live my life and I expect that by virtue of disclosing all of these things, people can take look at it and see whether that’s something they’re comfortable with or not. I’m not going to try to hide who I am and try and manipulate my life to try and avoid the truth.”

Some of us beg to differ: VIDEO: Mitt Romney won’t discuss his record as Mass. governor. No worries, we’ve got it covered.

And there’s this: VIDEO: Serial hypocrite Mitt Romney lied, pointed fingers in 2002 and got away with it. It’s now 2012: Blather, wince, repeat.

So by “not avoiding the truth” he means releasing one incomplete 2010 return and one 2011 estimate… And how about all the rest of Willard‘s lies?

As I said in a previous post, media, will you please take Rachel Maddow up on her request to insist that Mitt Romney (and Paul Ryan) give us some straight answers? Or “do you just write down what they say?”

“It’s not what they say, it’s about what they’ve done. And when what they say is some distance from what they’ve done, that distance is the story. This is what the press is for.”

Speaking of lies:

“Their campaign is trying to find something to say, ‘Gee, hey, he had a Swiss bank account,’ which apparently was done by the blind trustee. I mean, I had no involvement in this, but the blind trust said we’re going to have some currencies, U.S. currency and some in foreign currency, that tends to be something which investors do. But they’re trying to make that seem like it is some kind of unsavory action and frankly all of the taxes are paid exactly as owed and there were no tax savings by virtue of having that vehicle.”

“I had no involvement in this, but the blind trust said…” So now blind trusts can speak?

Blind trusts are people, too my friend.

Hypocrites can certainly speak. Remember this, Willard?

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Paul Ryan will be “sharing the [GOP convention] stage with [Ayn] Rand’s ghost, a specter he has been trying to outrun for weeks.”

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(Photo: Brian Blanco, European Press Agency)

This just in via many news alert emails: The Republican National Convention will convene on Monday and immediately recess until Tuesday afternoon, due to severe weather reports regarding Tropical Storm Isaac:

Republican officials Saturday canceled most of Monday’s planned opening of the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla., bowing to concerns about  the safety of delegates who were to gather as Tropical Storm Isaac barreled into the area.

The plan is  to formally gavel the convention open, then recess until Tuesday. The most notable events of the convention will come later, capped with Mitt Romney’s nomination acceptance speech Thursday night.

Romney’s wife, Ann, is scheduled to speak Tuesday and vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan on Wednesday.

Isaac was headed on a track past Tampa toward landfall perhaps in the Florida Panhandle, but its trajectory was not clear Saturday. The storm was wide enough, however, that it was expected to affect much of western Florida.

 For the latest information go to www.latimes.com.

What does take place will be held in a 19,500-seater, the Tampa Bay Times Forum, and of course, some redecorating was in order.

So what did those geniuses, those meticulous planner-aheaders, those wizards of decor come up with? Why, they decided on a Frank Lloyd Wright look.

And that look will be scrutinized to the nth degree, just as Team Obama’s design was for their choice of Greek columns at the Democratic Convention:

As architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne of the L.A.Times puts it, “There are more than a few risks in going with Frank Lloyd Wright as your architectural touchstone. And I wonder how many of them the Romney campaign has fully considered.”

Silly Christopher, he must have forgotten that Willard Romney has a knack for ill-considered ideas:

[T]he stage will be crowded with large video screens framed in wood. Actually the “wood” will be made of vinyl and various laminates, but it’ll read on television as cherry, mahogany and walnut. [...]

For this particular ticket, the most obvious risk is the Ayn Rand connection. Wright was the chief inspiration for the headstrong architect Howard Roark, hero of Rand’s 1943 novel “The Fountainhead.” Romney’s running mate, Wisconsin Rep. Paul D. Ryan, was long a devotee of Rand’s Objectivist philosophy.

 Wait. No… really? Team Willard forgot to vet the architecture? Oops!

Paul Ryan’s hypocritical efforts to distance himself from Ayn Rand are laughable, as you can see from my most recent Blunt video:

This just keeps on getting better:

[W]hen Ryan steps behind the lectern to accept the vice presidential nomination next week, he’ll be sharing the stage with Rand’s ghost, a specter he has been trying to outrun for weeks. [...]

Romney’s team rejected an earlier version of the stage design — one without the Wright references — as too cold and detached

Oh that’s rich, Willard doesn’t want to come off as detached.

So instead, the Ryan-Rand connection will be set in stone:

By venturing right into “Fountainhead” territory in Tampa, the Romney campaign is opening itself up to a critique of its own taste in architectural metaphor.

Tropical Storm Isaac and Ayn Rand… what inadvertently memorable guests! Talk about a high risk event!

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