Laura Bush meets the sex bloggers, By Mark Morford

[madokie]

Laura Bush meets the sex bloggers
By Mark Morford

And over here we've got what we can only hope will be the final nationwide appearance of any kind whatsoever of one dangerously prim, heavily shellacked Laura Bush, trotting herself out like some sort of equestrian trophy on Larry King Live to shill for her new book, "Shut Up and Sit Quietly, You're Just a Woman" -er, "Spoken from the Heart."

Verily, it was on the advice of a handful of brave readers that I forced myself to watch the clip in which Laura, looking increasingly extraterrestrial and translucent, responds to a couple of Larry's mildly loaded questions by twitching, blinking a few times and then humbly, quietly, rather sheepishly admitting that, yes, she is, in fact, both pro-abortion rights and pro-gay marriage, and apparently has been for just about ever. You read that right.

Well now. Here is where I would like to say that I stood up and screamed. Here's where I sort of expect myself to write that I leaped up in my chair and hurled something heavy at the screen with a full-throated "What the f-- did you just say?!!" and then curse her in a hundred dialects for her pathetic decade of cruel silence and offensive passivity.

I didn't do any of that. All I did was sigh and shake my head in compassionate disgust, as a tremor of deep pain shoot through my heart, a visceral cringe in honor of all the suffering, sadness and loss Laura Bush could've have helped alleviate, even just a little, had she brains enough, and balls. ...

(click here to read the rest)

(Full URL: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2010/05/14/notes051410.DTL&nl=fix)

[Scuba]

1. "looking increasingly extraterrestrial and translucent"... and transparent

[tanyev]

2. LOL. You left out the best paragraph of all!

Oh sweet Laura, it is very likely you are going to hell.

Look, I don't care if Dick Cheney threatened you with razor wire and a concrete pumps. I don't care if Karl Rove said he'd suffocate you with his giant clammy hog thighs if you dared to speak up. You did a violent disservice, even outright harm, to women the world over, for nearly a decade. You helped allow virulent homophobia to rage in the nation and in your own husband's tiny soul, when you were in an insanely unique, privileged position to a stand, even a modest one, and help defy a deep hatred and ignorance in this country.



Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2010/05/14/notes051410.DTL&nl=fix#ixzz0nuIL0O4E

[NC_Nurse]

3. Another excellent piece from Morford. Thanks!

[madokie]

4. Yup, Morford is right on once again

as he is most times.

[gratuitous]

5. Almost ironic, innit?

I emphasize the "almost." One of the enduring myths the right wing likes to indulge is the Hebrew Testament story of Queen Esther. She is one of the wives of King Asahuerus of Persia. The king is influenced by his counselor Haman to carry out a purge of the Jews. In the story, no one may approach the king, on pain of death, unless the king agrees to allow the person to speak. Esther is afraid to confront her husband on her people's behalf, but her uncle finally persuades her that she's the only person in a position to thwart Haman's evil plan. His payoff line is that perhaps she has been placed in her position for just such a time as this.

In right wing mythology, this story is justification for all sorts of "courageous" speaking out (usually nothing more than mouthing off from the safety of anonymity or in a venue where repercussions won't visit one anytime soon). Now, I'm not averse to people speaking their minds, but the fantasy among right-wingers is that they're risking something more than being regarded as a boor by being a loudmouth.

And here's Laura Bush.

In a position nearly exactly analogous to Queen Esther, her husband's counselors advocated for all kinds of mischief against her identity group, women. And yet, in the time and the place where she could have made a difference, she . . . kept her mouth shut and sat quietly by. Not exactly a profile in courage, eh? Esther risked her life to approach her husband in the biblical story, and Laura Bush almost surely would have come in for some heavy criticism. But heavy criticism isn't exactly a public hanging now, is it?

Should we expect courage out of Laura Bush? Is the propensity in her? We now know that she's has had a life of comfort and privilege by living a lie. Is it even possible that she would risk it for personal integrity and the truth? Or are we asking too much of a person, as we would ask too much of a person to fly to the moon by flapping her arms?