Naomi Wolf and "The End of America"

More than 10 years ago, I sat in an auditorium on the campus of Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Illinois, and listened in dismay as Naomi Wolf stood there and expounded on her anti-male ideas during a permanent honors lecture series held in honor of my maternal grandfather, Charles D. Tenney. Her ideas were so anti-male that I felt compelled to stand up and call her to task on them, and added that my grandfather would never have countenanced her ideas. After the question-and-answer session was concluded, three men (including the organizer) came to me to thank me for standing up for all males. You know, as a woman, I know that there are plenty of male jerks out there, but I also know that there are many good men. My grandfather was one of them, as was my paternal grandfather, as was my father. Naomi Wolf had gleefully used the Greek myth of the hunter Actaeon being torn apart by his own dogs because he had had the temerity to watch as the Greek goddess Artemis was bathing in a pond. Ms. Wolf seemed quite amused by this and evidently applauded his terrifying death. I was appalled. I was even more appalled when Al Gore had her as a campaign adviser. I thought, "What an East Coast, media-created twit of a woman!" and I questioned his judgment but voted for him anyway -- what was the alternative?

Possibly, Ms. Wolf has now matured. Let us set aside, for the moment, her idiotic ideas on men and look at her more cogent ideas concerning the Bush administration's systematic destruction of our democracy because on these I cannot disagree.

She lists 10 points:

1. Invoke a terrifying internal and external enemy

2. Create a gulag

3. Develop a thug caste

4. Set up an internal surveillance system

5. Harass citizens' groups

6. Engage in arbitrary detention and release

7. Target key individuals

8. Control the press

9. Dissent equals treason

10. Suspend the rule of law

For more detail, see her article at this link:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,2064157,00.html