Love, risque playboy pics and snowboards?

Who could associate them all? Well, Burton, a manufacturer of snowboards. See below:

Sunday cat patriot

Women voters just like hating women

Time magazine has figured out that women don’t all love Sarah Palin. But instead of asking women who oppose her for their reasons, their reporter reaches back into her high school memories of how much females love to hate. Apparently it’s all about her prettiness, her confidence and our fear of embarrassment. Issues? Genuine disagreements? Worries about competence? What are those? Ooh, let’s talk skinny jeans (which somehow get a mention in the final paragraph). One the most vapid, shallow, and insulting things I’ve read in some time. It ends, by the way, by insinuating that the reason we keep getting male leaders is that women hate each other so much. Could it possibly be because the belittling of women’s intellects is so socially acceptable that Time publishes dreck like this without a second thought? Nah.

Thanks, NFAH, for passing this on and starting my day with a big jolt of annoyance!

Biden’s Tears

Leah McElrath Renna writes:

Joe Biden did more for the equality of the sexes with his honest display of paternal emotion during the vice presidential debate than Sarah Palin’s presence on the executive ticket has or will ever do.

Biden visibly teared up when he rebutted the idea that “just because I am a man” he didn’t understand what it was like to wonder whether or not a child would “make it” in recovering from a life-threatening medical situation. At the time, he was likely recalling the tragic automobile accident that killed his wife and daughter and severely injured his two sons. It was an authentic, moving and powerful moment. It was, in fact, the strongest expression of real paternal love we have seen from a public official in recent memory and maybe ever.

By bringing that reality to a national political stage, Biden demonstrated that — for all of us, not just feminists — the personal is political, that women alone do not have the sole responsibility for caring about the future of our children and that the concern of fathers is a largely untapped pool of political energy

An interesting thought. (Do you agree?) I find myself also very struck by the fact that nobody has suggested that it was a sign of weakness, and nobody has suggested that it was crass political manipulation (as they did with Clinton). (And speaking of crassness, is anyone else as bothered as I am by all “See Biden choke up!” links to the video?)