[kerberos3]

Go FreeRepublic !!!!!!! Referenced on Drudge. Why not reference the original article though?

Go Freepers !!!!!

BTW...Paglia is an idiot.

[Henk]

This is Salon Premium content and really should not have been posted here. It needs to be removed. Haven't we learned this the hard way once?

[Cicero]

Just one word for Paglia on this one: weak.

Who would have thought that self-proclaimed diesel-dyke Paglia would take such a feeble, even a dull and conformist, stand? It's as if she read every wimpy article in the liberal media and sucked it up without a thought.

[GeorgeWBiscuit]

Wow! Drudge linking directly to Free Republic. Talk about moving on up.

[steve-b]

Already posted here.

(Admin Moderator pinged to lock duplicate thread.)

[ricpic]

Subtle bitch, isn't she?!

[Shermy]

However, I'm extremely upset about our rush to war at the present moment.

What rush? This is the French/Saudi/Daschle line, hoping that delay will end up with no action, like in 1998. This whole charade has less to do with Bush and Hussein than French and Russian fears their Saddam approved oil contracts will be revoked, and Saudi strategic policy to keep Iraqi oil production depressed while they assume the Iraqi shortfalls of previous OPEC allotments. It's called "containment" ie, money for Saudi and France.

Don't take it from me, hear it from an OPEC official himself:

The ideal outcome for Russia is exactly the same as that for Saudi Arabia and OPEC, i.e. maintenance of the status quo and the sanctions regime on Iraqi oil. Thus, Russia's opposition to a U.S. invasion of Iraq is completely rational.
It would be an irony indeed if events in Baghdad this winter were to signal the end of the modern oil era and OPEC, just as 42 years ago they saw its start

If there truly were an authentic international coalition that had been carefully built, and if the administration had demonstrated sensitivity to the fragility of international relations, I'd be 100 percent in favor of an allied military expedition to go into Iraq and find and dispose of all weapons of mass destruction.

Again, the French/Saudi/Daschle delay tactic. Totally disconnected from reality, totally connected to some lefty and ill-informed media hypothecations. Jeez, our receptionist who doesn't follow the news much knows that we have allies. At least Paglia doesn't use the word "unilateral" - a slogan of the ignorant.

But most members of the current administration seem to have little sense that there's an enormous, complex world beyond our borders.

"Seem"...meaning what columnists did she read to filter the information for her? Another example of media-privileged "intellectuals" wrapt up in their own daily business, but speaking with "authority" about something some teenager with a computer has a better understanding of. Maybe she reading too many French representations of America and our admin.

The president himself has never traveled much in his life.

Sniff...nose in air.

They seem to think the universe consists of America and then everyone else -- small-potatoes people who can be steamrolled. And I'm absolutely appalled at the lack of acknowledgment of the cost to ordinary Iraqi citizens of any incursion by us, especially aerial bombardment.

Let me guess ... their "voices" aren't beang "heard" because some American newspaper doesn't talk about them enough? I'm surprised, she's just reacting to the patina of media representations and interests as if it reflected some reality.

Regime change

That's been US policy since 1998.

[Drango]

Infiniti is one of the few advertisers left on Salon. To help Salon get below .05 cents a share....send Infinite a comment. Ask why they are funding this vulgar site that hates America, hates our military and hates our values?

Tell 'em your a rich Republican and you'll never drive one of their cars! Link: Infiniti

[marts]

You have to tip your hat to her for her "ominous" reading of the shuttle disaster. That was, at the very least, one of the creepiest arguments for rethinking a full-throttle, speedy assault I've come across yet.

[RobFromGa]

Under the previous SLIMEBALL administration, here's how we would have known it was an ORANGE alert:

This is what she would have worn yesterday:

And watch out for this outfit.

[rrcobra]

What a self absorbed crock....

[canuck_conservative]

Camilla Paglia is one bizarre package.

She's pro-war, but wanted the antiwar demonstrations to succeed. She's understands "tribal politics", but then can't comprehend how the US could be fired up by 9-11. She likes Condi's strength, but then complains she's too macho. And on it goes ....

And that comment about the shuttle "omen" over Texas - she's one weird woman.

[lainie]

Perhaps everyone that WAILS about Drudge not linking FR will shut up for awhile.

[jejones]

Interesting--and also depressing to see someone normally pretty rational go on so about the Columbia's explosion as an evil omen.

[pook]

Paglia's book 'Sexual Personae' had an incredible influence on me. I recognized myself in her 'Pagan Beauty' chapter... she infected me with realizing I was a 'beautiful boy'. Her thoughts later aided my metamorphosis like something out of Ovid.

The next few years, in my spare time, I've been studying sexuality and I've found some of the same conclusions as Paglia but many more unturned stones.

Paglia's thoughts on Iraq are completely predictable. Here's why:

Ever since the beginning, people have always thought themselves controlled in some way. People turned rivers, volcanos, clouds, and the sun into gods. Others imagined a grand prince who would tend his nation like a gardener does his garden. And as a gardener has his hooks and shears, so does the prince have his laws, regulations, and armies.

People view tyranny as a 'slavery'. But when someone like Moses freed people from slavery, they still reverted to a paganism and demanded that Moses act like a prince. They even created a golden calf to control them. Throughout Chinese history, the pattern is cyclical. The people thought the emperor to be a 'prince' and to 'control' them. Alas, an earthquake or flood occurs and the prince is thrown out with another taken in his place.

The point of what I'm getting at is that most of Human history, man has thought himself controlled rather than free. He places his destiny in a prince or god. This is why for thousands of years, humanity often starved or perished from the elements (or slaughtered each other in stupid wars).

This is the fruit of classical education: the notion of a prince to control people from Plato's 'philosopher kings' on up to Rousseau.

Man knowing himself free has happened in spurts and spasms throughout history. But a nation did so here a couple of centuries ago, and the world forever changed.

There is an intellectual fashion to say or try to prove that Humankind is CONTROLLED by something. Some people say speech and media controls us and alters us. Others say everything is a matter of psychology. Yet, a few say that it is entirely our environment. A more popular idea coming forth now is that GENETICS controls us. Whatever it is, it is that Humanity is under control of some 'authority' and free will is an illusion.

Paglia believes that Humankind is under some authority. She gives it the name of 'nature' with 'sexuality' pulling the rug from our lofty ideals.

I live in north Texas. I heard the explosion and looked up at the brilliant sky. I know that Columbia blew apart due to some malfunction, perfectly reasonable and caused by error. Paglia insists that it is an 'action' from the 'Authority'. She then digs into classical romanism to say that the romans would think that. Of course they would! They believed everyone was under an authority as does Paglia.

This is the grounding reason, no matter what evidence is present nor how damning it is, why people insist on going through the UN or some coalition. They still demand some 'authority'. But diplomacy is a made up world of theories and more theories. Oh, how I wish I could move to this World of Theory all the intellectuals come from! For in Theory, everything is correct.

This rooting for some 'authority' is the same everywhere for these people (to them, Democracy means creating a god whose name is Will of the People and we see his scriptures in charts, polls, and such).

The American Revolution has turned global. People are learning that they do not live under some authority, that they possess free will. THESE are what cults like extreme like Islam hate (remember, they believe Allah is the 'authority' and sets the destiny for them all!). The technology unleashed from this revolution is wonderous. But the old school of thought will use them to their own ends. The tank was meant for farming. They made it into a weapon. On 9/11, we saw airplanes (used solely for transportation) be turned into missiles. Box cutters became used to slit people's throats.

The same trend is following with biological technologies. Paglia can believe in some great overall 'authority' that controls. But I will believe that we are free people, independent, who are composed with life, liberty, and the quest for joyfulness. We will tell these authority worshipers that freedom is not the cutting of chains or food stamps. Freedom is a matter of mind where people take up their own responsibilities and tell the leaders what to do, rather than dumping responsibility on a leader and have him tell us what to do. One day, it will become absurd to blame a politician for the faults of the economy just as it is now to blame a politician for hail and frost.

Ms. Paglia, you will not place a crown on Nature. We don't see your 'authorities' which is why the commentary seems silly as a child demanding he go ask Santa Clause before he acts.

What you call arrogance, I call independence. What you call destiny, I call a matter of will. And what you call extremism, I call a day's work.

[gcoolidge]

I've always found her to be an independent thinker and thought-provoking. very refreshing actually - an objective, intelligent liberal who, above all, does not subscribe to the liberal orthodoxy (or anyone else's, for that matter).

[Viking2002]

OK, I only made it to page two, and hit the silk.

'Libertarian Democrat' - there's a friggin' oxymoron, if I've ever heard one. Next.

[lainie]

The Camille Paglia Checklist

So, you've missed the beginning of this interview and don't know whether it's Camille Paglia or not? Nothing simpler than that. Just fill out this handy checklist, and the revolutionary Pagliameter will do the work for you!

• Is she talking about herself?
• Does she contrast something Judeo­Christian with something Pagan?
• Something Apollonian and something Dionysian?
• Hardcore porn is great?
• Mainstream feminism sucks?
• Foucault's an overvalued fake?
• Art is porn?

Follow the link to use the Pagliameter.

[lainie]

If I could, I would assign everyone to watch "Gone With the Wind" -- which is dismissed these days as an apologia for slavery. But that movie beautifully demonstrates the horrors of war. Everyone is so wildly enthused for war at the start, but Ashley Wilkes says, "At the end of a war, no one remembers what they're fighting for." It shows the destruction of a civilization, the slaughter of a whole generation of young men, and people reduced to squalid, animal-like subsistence conditions. And that's what's missing right now, as we prepare to march off to Baghdad -- a recognition of the horrors and tragic waste of war.

How can anyone take her seriously with this? (Everyone?) She is telling me I don't understand the gravity of war and need to use GWTW to get my education?

[saradippity]

Bookmarking for later. Thanks.