peccant mooncalf tartuffe. i must admire your commitment to inflection.

i have just now taken a moment to reflect on the unnatural volume of opportunities in the past week or so for people to weigh in on women's issues. i caught myself wondering why this was so after another hallway mini-conversation about women's reproductive rights with one of my co-workers.

then i remembered. it's because there's a fucking psycho running her mouth and for vice president.

there is a fascinating current running all around her. firstly, there's her faction of freaks falling over themselves to defend any attacks made against her virtue or divine motherhood. these people are so willing to overlook the glaringly obvious obnoxious stupidity (of the not to be underestimated creepy evil george w. variety) to taut her strength as a mother who is raising a family amidst forging a career and making the world a better place. is that all it takes to dupe us? a little rouged spunk and hallelujah?

but it is this very exulting that instigates discussion between people who normally wouldn't even think about these issues.

for instance, the whole dilemma behind whether or not she's an empowered female or a bad mother. personally, i don't know. but it seems to me that holding that sort of office would require 110% of your time. and since she's so conservatively religious, i'd be willing to bet that having her husband take a primary role in raising her children isn't going to be an option. plus she has and infant. with special needs, no less. and, it's not that i think a woman can't be a capable parent and have a successful career. but, in this situation, one thing will have to take a priority over the other. which would be different, for me at least, if her platform weren't so family intensive. it just seems hypocritical for her to have a nanny raise her kids, or whatever she decides to do, and still push the values she does.

the good thing about it is that it has really inspired a lot of conversation. and that can't be bad. it gives everyone an opportunity to figure out where they stand on things that they may not have considered until they were faced with a really good example of something that forces them to think about it.

besides, i think it's good that people have a chance to think about how racially skewed we still are as a country. if michelle obama had a teenage daughter who was pregnant do you really think that people all over the nation would be saying 'what strength of character she must have to deal with this delicate situation with such grace'? i'll go on and say not so much.