Good morning!

I was curious yesterday how my blog has changed from a few years ago to today. Strictly speaking I was only curious about my writing. Not my writing style but the actual length and content of my writing.  My big question was this: “Was I personally writing more back then?” I was nervous that I wasn’t giving enough of myself to this blog as I used to.

I thought that I was writing a lot more years ago, but when I went back and looked, what I found I didn’t expect. Yes, I did personally write more but most of my writing was blog comments to my readers, with very little writing in the form of “topic content”. (And I rarely re-posted articles) Only a few paragraphs there. That surprised me. I had envisioned that I was writing long, flowing, content full writes. Nope, I wasn’t.

No wonder I have felt that writing my blog takes me so much more time than it used to. It actually does. I am actually spending more time reading and doing research than I used to, and I am writing a lot more.

But wait a minute, let me correct myself. What I should really say is that the daily write is longer because I am not only doing my monologue (most of the time. {Or is it sometimes now?} ), but there is more content to copy and paste, and more readers to respond to, than let’s say 3 years ago, or even 2.

My writing also changed when I turned into a political animal during the 2008 elections. I became involved in the election, and turned into a major news junkie who just couldn’t get enough. And because I began to include more writes from other authors, I of course had to link back and give credit.

And I began to write more about the happenings in the world and less about the happenings in my life. And that itself is more difficult, in more ways than I need to say. Let’s just say that it takes more focus and brain power.

And even now, logistically I do more. It takes quite some time to link all of my comments in response, back to your original comments. I like doing this though because it helps my readers be able to stay easily connected with whatever is said between me and my readers. The reality is I am giving more…a different kind of more, than I used to.

It may look like it is easy to pull it all together and post every morning but I can tell you it isn’t. Some days are easier than others and some days the format just wants to do it’s own thing, and I’m constantly adjusting. It can be a bitch, especially when I am on a time constraint. But I deal as best as I can. But hey, the bottom line is, I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t love it.

So why am I telling you all of this? I really have no idea. I guess I just found it interesting to go back, way back, and read. And I wanted to share with you what I discovered. And then well…my fingers just kept tapping every other thought that came after, so I HOPE you don’t mind.

So now you have it; the backside of a blog view in a nutshell :) I’m done.

so what about today’s topic?

I’m going to be brief and just blog a few sentences on “kindness”.

I am still so impressed with the Wisconsin protestors for sticking with their beliefs by fighting for their rights. And evidently so is the pizza man. Ian’s Pizza in Madison, got bombarded the other day with over 40 phone calls from supporters who wanted to buy pizza for the protestors who were demonstrating a block away at Wisconsin Capital.

I am guessing the Owner Ian Gurfield, was inspired by the local and country wide hospitality that he decided to join in on the fun and support the protestors himself, by giving out free pizza to those walking into his pizza parlor.  Gurfield gave out the next 600 slices free to the protestors who packed his parlor.

Kudos to the supporters and Gurfield for their kindness and generosity!

…….

Josie: Thanks for posting the article. The other day Shawn posted about the poisonous vaccines that have been given to humans. So of course our four-legged furry friends would not be treated any better. The Rabies vaccine is the only one that we give Lucy every three years. And I’m hesitant to do that but like for cats it is the law. Do you have anything that you can post about vaccines for dogs? I would appreciate it! Thanks.

Emily: This one was cute. How are you? You have been posting these little funnies for me and my readers for quite some time now but I have no idea who you are as a person.

Tiffany: I think your “feeling” is correct. My gut was more like me in my haste yesterday morning. What can I say..this girl is not always right on. :)

Readers: What’s on your mind today? Care to share? Blog me.

Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.

Gratefully your blog host,

michelle

Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)

If you love my blog and my writes, please make a donation via PayPal, credit card, or e-check, please click the “Donate” button below. (Please only donations from those readers within the United States. – International readers please see my “Donate” page)

Or if you would like to send a check via snail mail, please make checks payable to “Michelle Moquin”, and send to:

Michelle Moquin PO Box 29235 San Francisco, Ca. 94129

Thank you for your loyal support!

For archives dated before January 17, 2008 click on my Blogroll:

or click here: “A Day in the life of…”

All content on this site are property of Michelle Moquin © copyright 2008-2011

" Politics, god, Life, News, Music, Family, Personal, Travel, Random, Photography, Religion, Aliens, Art, Entertainment, Food, Books, Thoughts, Media, Culture, Love, Sex, Poetry, Prose, Friends, Technology, Humor, Health, Writing, Events, Movies, Sports, Video, Christianity, Atheist, Blogging, History, Work, Education, Business, Fashion, Barack Obama, People, Internet, Relationships, Faith, Photos, Videos, Hillary Clinton, School, Reviews, God, TV, Philosophy, Fun, Science, Environment, Design, The Page, Rants, Pictures, Church, Blog, Nature, Marketing, Television, Democrats, Parenting, Miscellaneous, Current Events, Film, Spirituality, Obama, Musings, Home, Human Rights, Society, Comedy, Me, Random Thoughts, Research, Government, Election 2008, Baseball, Opinion, Recipes, Children, Iraq, Funny, Women, Economics, America, Misc, Commentary, John McCain, Reflections, All, Celebrities, Inspiration, Lifestyle, Theology, Linux, Kids, Games, World, India, Literature, China, Ramblings, Fitness, Money, Review, War, Articles, Economy, Journal, Quotes, NBA, Crime, Anime, Islam, 2008, Stories, Prayer, Diary, Jesus, Buddha, Muslim, Israel, Europe, Links, Marriage, Fiction, American Idol, Software, Leadership, Pop culture, Rants, Video Games, Republicans, Updates, Political, Football, Healing, Blogs, Shopping, USA, Class, Matrix, Course, Work, Web 2.0, My Life, Psychology, Gay, Happiness, Advertising, Field Hockey, Hip-hop, sex, fucking, ass, Soccer, sox"

Thank you all for the Valentine wishes – I HOPE that everyone enjoyed themselves!

Nawzad, Lashkar Gah, Shulgareh, Kushka, Mazar-E-Shaif, Chaghcharan: My concern is always for women and especially women when it concerns their rights, or should I say lack of rights. And I am being gentle here. Perhaps I should be blunt and say that I am especially concerned for women who are treated with less respect than animals, less rights than animals, women who are abused, raped and murdered, simply because they are women.

I perused the net reading the latest articles about Egypt hopeing that I would read something that broached the subject of women and their future now that Mubarak has resigned as president. Nothing was mentioned. It’s all about the men, their quest, their needs.

It wasn’t until I googled “How will Egypt’s revolution affect women?”, that I found anything. And even then, it was slim pickings. It seems there is much talk about everything else, and very little on how women will fare in this country’s fight for democracy. Just whose fight is it?

Will It Get Worse for Women in Egypt After the Protests?

“I’d rather have Mubarak than an Islamic government,” a woman in the street wearing a full black niqab told NOS, a Dutch news service yesterday. Seeing the fear in her eyes makes it hard for me to feel excited for the revolution. Though there has been footage of women in the streets, looking through most recent photos from Cairo, I see an ocean of men. (Read more on women in the Egyptian protests in Slate.) Women appear to be almost completely absent from any wide-angle shot you see of the protests at this point, and those I do see are often in Western clothes, speaking to the cameras with American and English accents. They are not representative of the majority of Egypt’s women, who are working class and in hijab.

Though Mubarak has been in power for too long, and violated the human rights of his people, for the average Egyptian woman, there is the potential for things to get far worse. The position of women in Egypt has already declined in the past two decades.

You could blame it on the stagnant economy, which could of course be blamed on Mubarak’s bad policies. On even a normal day, thousands of men loiter in the streets of downtown Cairo. Young and unemployed, most have never had a normal sexual partner. This kind of young, male frustration manifests itself in religious devotion, aggressive sexual harassment, or both. The Egyptian streets have become increasingly conservative, and women, in turn, have covered up.

Look at photos from 20 years ago and you’ll see women in skirts that show their calves, their hair and make-up done. These days, the women’s car (I dare you to ride in the men’s section during rush hour) on the Cairo subway smells from the sweat trapped by layers of black polyester. Subway reading material of choice is the Koran, held open and aloft by black-gloved hands, read through eye-obscuring lenses. And 85 percent of Egyptian women have had their clitorises removed, a practice that Suzanne Mubarak campaigned to end, citing its African, rather than Islamic origins.

Once Mubarak is gone, the climate of the country will still be frustrated and devout. The real will of the common Egyptian could be dangerous to women. A recent public opinion survey in Egypt showed that 80 percent of men think it is OK for a husband to beat his wife for speaking to another man, one-third of men and women believe that it is OK to resort to violence if a woman refuses sex. Acid attacks and honor killings are already far too commonplace, but they have been condemned by the current administration. A new government could turn a blind eye to domestic abuse or even worse. The new government will have to actively engage women in the political process in the increasingly hard-line country to keep their oppression from seeming democratically sanctioned. Revolutions have begun like this in other countries—Iranian women certainly thought they were getting something far different for themselves when they took to the streets to depose the corrupt Shah—only to leave women suffering and invisible behind metaphorical and literal curtains when the dust settled.

Jessica Olien is a Washington D.C. based writer.

Kushka and June: I can only imagine what happened to Lara Logan was devastating. And yet I know this is something that Muslim women deal with everyday. Thank you to the women who helped her. I too wish for a quick recovery for Lara Logan. Perhaps although her experience was incredibly horrific, she will pull out of it stronger, and something good will come from it in some manner. I wish her well.

In similar vein, I read this:

Still, in what is coming across to many as offensive, or even a sick joke, a journalist named Nir Rosen called Logan a “war monger” who would probably become a “martyr” for having been attacked.

Rosen, 33, Tweeted: “Lara Logan had to outdo Anderson [Cooper]. … Yes yes its wrong what happened to her. Of course. I don’t support that. But, it would have been funny if it happened to Anderson too.”

Although some of the comments subsequently were removed from Rosen’s Twitter page, Jeffrey Goldberg, a correspondent for The Atlantic wrote: “Rosen found humor in the fact that Logan was sexually assaulted in Cairo. Apparently, Rosen doesn’t understand much about violence against women; he also doesn’t seem to understand much about Twitter.”

Of course it is a man who finds humor in the brutal abuse of women. Sickening.

Readers: Not only are Egyptian men guilty of the above abuse, but Egypt also has a sexual harassment problem. In a 2008 study, 86 percent of women said they had been harassed on Egypt’s streets—any woman walking through a crowd of men in Egypt braces to get groped.

Men abuse women.

(Not “All” men. That’s for you men out there who are new to my blog; to my writing, and are maybe feeling a little defensive)

We see it happen. We talk about it, and hear about it, right here on my blog.

American women are not immune from the abuse. Yes, the abuse can be and is very brutal. And yes the abuse can be more subtle, more sly, more covert, than the abuse of Muslim women. But non the less, abuse is abuse in any form, and abuse is here too.

Physical abuse is obvious and hard to miss. The interesting thing is, so many American women don’t realize it, but on a daily basis we are dissed just because we are women, and men think of us not as equals. Things are said and done by men to women, that wouldn’t happen, if a man instead of a woman was in the equation. Even in humor, as I mentioned above, women are the brunt of jokes. We just have to pay attention and notice the nuance, or it will surely, slyly slip past us. And it does slip past many women.

While pondering the plight of women, while feeling once again frustrated and at a loss of what to do, I thought to myself yesterday, ”If men don’t give a shit about women here in our own country…if men don’t support and protect and honor and respect women right here in our own country, why  would they ever give a damn about women half way across the world in Egypt, or Iraq, or Iran or…that they have absolutely no connection to?” You already know what the answer is.

So when we talk about men standing up in support of women….when we talk about men taking a stance and refusing to buy oil in countries such as Iraq, unless they demanded that the men treated their women as equal, we can say almost without doubt, “I’m sorry, but it’s not going to happen. I’ll say it again,  ”If men don’t give a shit about women here in our own country…if men don’t support and protect and honor and respect women in our own country, why  would they ever give a damn about women half way across the world in Egypt, or Iraq, or Iran or…that they have absolutely no connection to?”

So your sentiment Lashkar Gah, “…Thus muslim world women are being oppressed by Western men equally as they are by muslim men”, I’m sad to say,  is right on.

Still in spite of it all, I have not lost HOPE.

Lisa: I am disgusted by how we treat animals, our meat that provides us nourishment (?) in big factory farms. And people eat way too much meat per week. If people just ate less meat per week, and purchased only good quality meat (organic/grassfed) demanding only the best quality, we could put these big farms to rest. But cheap is what people go for.  You are what you eat is something that not enough people take to heart. Thanks for posting.

Doug: This was such a disappointing article to read. I signed that petition and this morning I have been reading even more about the monster Monsanto. Maz is right when he says that we shit on our own range. And we’re eating all of the shit. This won’t be the last of my writes concerning Monsanto. Thanks.

Victor: Thanks for expressing your loving words in recognizing all that your sister and women do. You are a wonderful brother.

Peace out.

Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.

Gratefully your blog host,

michelle

Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)

If you love my blog and my writes, please make a donation via PayPal, credit card, or e-check, please click the “Donate” button below. (Please only donations from those readers within the United States. – International readers please see my “Donate” page)

Or if you would like to send a check via snail mail, please make checks payable to “Michelle Moquin”, and send to:

Michelle Moquin PO Box 29235 San Francisco, Ca. 94129

Thank you for your loyal support!

For archives dated before January 17, 2008 click on my Blogroll:

or click here: “A Day in the life of…”

All content on this site are property of Michelle Moquin © copyright 2008-2011

" Politics, god, Life, News, Music, Family, Personal, Travel, Random, Photography, Religion, Aliens, Art, Entertainment, Food, Books, Thoughts, Media, Culture, Love, Sex, Poetry, Prose, Friends, Technology, Humor, Health, Writing, Events, Movies, Sports, Video, Christianity, Atheist, Blogging, History, Work, Education, Business, Fashion, Barack Obama, People, Internet, Relationships, Faith, Photos, Videos, Hillary Clinton, School, Reviews, God, TV, Philosophy, Fun, Science, Environment, Design, The Page, Rants, Pictures, Church, Blog, Nature, Marketing, Television, Democrats, Parenting, Miscellaneous, Current Events, Film, Spirituality, Obama, Musings, Home, Human Rights, Society, Comedy, Me, Random Thoughts, Research, Government, Election 2008, Baseball, Opinion, Recipes, Children, Iraq, Funny, Women, Economics, America, Misc, Commentary, John McCain, Reflections, All, Celebrities, Inspiration, Lifestyle, Theology, Linux, Kids, Games, World, India, Literature, China, Ramblings, Fitness, Money, Review, War, Articles, Economy, Journal, Quotes, NBA, Crime, Anime, Islam, 2008, Stories, Prayer, Diary, Jesus, Buddha, Muslim, Israel, Europe, Links, Marriage, Fiction, American Idol, Software, Leadership, Pop culture, Rants, Video Games, Republicans, Updates, Political, Football, Healing, Blogs, Shopping, USA, Class, Matrix, Course, Work, Web 2.0, My Life, Psychology, Gay, Happiness, Advertising, Field Hockey, Hip-hop, sex, fucking, ass, Soccer, sox"

Good morning.

I have been stressing a bit over what to write this morning. I have to admit that over the past two days between my birthday and another friend’s birthday, I have been in my own little celebratory atmosphere, and tonight is not going to be any different. Thank you again for all of your warm birthday wishes.

However, I want to at least address the happenings in Egypt. For the past hour and a half I have been trying to catch up on the latest. It is obvious the people of Egypt want their president, aka “dictator”, Hosni Mubarak to step down, and he simply refuses to. And now he’s appointed a V.P., Omar Suleiman. Not exactly what the people of Egypt consider “sufficient change”.

I say more power to the people. Just like the people in Iran, I support their desires to become a modern and democratic society. I don’t like violence, but I am moved by revolutions when people finally to come to the point in their lives where enough is enough, and they stand up to fight for their freedoms and rights.

And as always, in these moments of uprising, I can’t help but think of how women will be affected and treated, now and in their future.

Here is a photographic story of the steady erosion of women’s rights in Egypt:

These photos, sent by my good friend Tareq Heggy, speak volumes about the politicization of the Islamic Veil. In the 1950s, Cairo University graduates were not veiled. By the twenty first century, the veiling of educated women was fully underway.

January 28, 2010 – by Phyllis Chesler

Class of 1959

Class of 1978

Class of  1995

Class of 2004

Readers: I apologize for the small photos; I attached them as big as I could. But you can certainly see the politicization of the veil. Please increase your screen view if you can not.

Thoughts? Comments? Blog me.

Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.

Gratefully your blog host,

michelle

Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)

If you love my blog and my writes, please make a donation via PayPal, credit card, or e-check, please click the “Donate” button below. (Please only donations from those readers within the United States. – International readers please see my “Donate” page)

Or if you would like to send a check via snail mail, please make checks payable to “Michelle Moquin”, and send to:

Michelle Moquin PO Box 29235 San Francisco, Ca. 94129

Thank you for your loyal support!

For archives dated before January 17, 2008 click on my Blogroll:

or click here: “A Day in the life of…”

All content on this site are property of Michelle Moquin © copyright 2008-2011

" Politics, god, Life, News, Music, Family, Personal, Travel, Random, Photography, Religion, Aliens, Art, Entertainment, Food, Books, Thoughts, Media, Culture, Love, Sex, Poetry, Prose, Friends, Technology, Humor, Health, Writing, Events, Movies, Sports, Video, Christianity, Atheist, Blogging, History, Work, Education, Business, Fashion, Barack Obama, People, Internet, Relationships, Faith, Photos, Videos, Hillary Clinton, School, Reviews, God, TV, Philosophy, Fun, Science, Environment, Design, The Page, Rants, Pictures, Church, Blog, Nature, Marketing, Television, Democrats, Parenting, Miscellaneous, Current Events, Film, Spirituality, Obama, Musings, Home, Human Rights, Society, Comedy, Me, Random Thoughts, Research, Government, Election 2008, Baseball, Opinion, Recipes, Children, Iraq, Funny, Women, Economics, America, Misc, Commentary, John McCain, Reflections, All, Celebrities, Inspiration, Lifestyle, Theology, Linux, Kids, Games, World, India, Literature, China, Ramblings, Fitness, Money, Review, War, Articles, Economy, Journal, Quotes, NBA, Crime, Anime, Islam, 2008, Stories, Prayer, Diary, Jesus, Buddha, Muslim, Israel, Europe, Links, Marriage, Fiction, American Idol, Software, Leadership, Pop culture, Rants, Video Games, Republicans, Updates, Political, Football, Healing, Blogs, Shopping, USA, Class, Matrix, Course, Work, Web 2.0, My Life, Psychology, Gay, Happiness, Advertising, Field Hockey, Hip-hop, sex, fucking, ass, Soccer, sox"

Good morning!

I chose to attend a seminar on “stress” last night instead of being present to watch Obama’s State of the Union address. Nothing against Obama of course; I was actually bummed that I made a commitment to attend in support of a friend and colleague, as well as in support of myself, and it just happened to be on the same evening.

So…I have yet to catch up and listen to the address this morning.  But I have been reading that the word “Salmon” seemed to be a big hit when more than 4000 listeners were asked to describe Obama’s speech in three words, with “inspiring” and “HOPEful’ coming in second and third, depending upon which group you looked at: Democrat, Republican, Independent.

Not surprising about the words “inspiring” and “HOPEful”, but “Salmon”? Guess you had to be there. :) And if you weren’t there listening like me, it seems Obama, made a funny, and that is what many are remembering.

Why is “salmon” so big? As The Two-Way explains, NPR’s Facebook followers were referring to one of the night’s humorous moments — when the president joked about the complicated and convoluted way the government regulates salmon.

“The Interior Department is in charge of salmon while they’re in fresh water, but the Commerce Department handles them when they’re in saltwater,” Obama said. “I hear it gets even more complicated once they’re smoked.” That last line drew big laughs from lawmakers in the Capitol.

~NPR.org

Hmm…all I can say is that those who oppose…those that bash Obama, seem to constantly want to put the state of our country on a “slippery slope”. We could all use a little humor, even if it’s just throwing a slippery “salmon” into the State of the Union mix. :)

For those of you like me,  who missed it last night, here it is:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Peace & Love: “Live it, Give it”

xoxo

Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.

Gratefully your blog host,

michelle

Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)

If you love my blog and my writes, please make a donation via PayPal, credit card, or e-check, please click the “Donate” button below. (Please only donations from those readers within the United States. – International readers please see my “Donate” page)

Or if you would like to send a check via snail mail, please make checks payable to “Michelle Moquin”, and send to:

Michelle Moquin PO Box 29235 San Francisco, Ca. 94129

Thank you for your loyal support!

For archives dated before January 17, 2008 click on my Blogroll:

or click here: “A Day in the life of…”

All content on this site are property of Michelle Moquin © copyright 2008-2011

" Politics, god, Life, News, Music, Family, Personal, Travel, Random, Photography, Religion, Aliens, Art, Entertainment, Food, Books, Thoughts, Media, Culture, Love, Sex, Poetry, Prose, Friends, Technology, Humor, Health, Writing, Events, Movies, Sports, Video, Christianity, Atheist, Blogging, History, Work, Education, Business, Fashion, Barack Obama, People, Internet, Relationships, Faith, Photos, Videos, Hillary Clinton, School, Reviews, God, TV, Philosophy, Fun, Science, Environment, Design, The Page, Rants, Pictures, Church, Blog, Nature, Marketing, Television, Democrats, Parenting, Miscellaneous, Current Events, Film, Spirituality, Obama, Musings, Home, Human Rights, Society, Comedy, Me, Random Thoughts, Research, Government, Election 2008, Baseball, Opinion, Recipes, Children, Iraq, Funny, Women, Economics, America, Misc, Commentary, John McCain, Reflections, All, Celebrities, Inspiration, Lifestyle, Theology, Linux, Kids, Games, World, India, Literature, China, Ramblings, Fitness, Money, Review, War, Articles, Economy, Journal, Quotes, NBA, Crime, Anime, Islam, 2008, Stories, Prayer, Diary, Jesus, Buddha, Muslim, Israel, Europe, Links, Marriage, Fiction, American Idol, Software, Leadership, Pop culture, Rants, Video Games, Republicans, Updates, Political, Football, Healing, Blogs, Shopping, USA, Class, Matrix, Course, Work, Web 2.0, My Life, Psychology, Gay, Happiness, Advertising, Field Hockey, Hip-hop, sex, fucking, ass, Soccer, sox"

Scalia: Women Don’t Have Constitutional Protection Against Discrimination

WASHINGTON — The equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution does not protect against discrimination on the basis of gender or sexual orientation, according to Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.

In a newly published interview in the legal magazine California Lawyer, Scalia said that while the Constitution does not disallow the passage of legislation outlawing such discrimination, it doesn’t itself outlaw that behavior:

In a newly published interview in the legal magazine California Lawyer, Scalia said that while the Constitution does not disallow the passage of legislation outlawing such discrimination, it doesn’t itself outlaw that behavior:

In 1868, when the 39th Congress was debating and ultimately proposing the 14th Amendment, I don’t think anybody would have thought that equal protection applied to sex discrimination, or certainly not to sexual orientation. So does that mean that we’ve gone off in error by applying the 14th Amendment to both?

Yes, yes. Sorry, to tell you that. … But, you know, if indeed the current society has come to different views, that’s fine. You do not need the Constitution to reflect the wishes of the current society. Certainly the Constitution does not require discrimination on the basis of sex. The only issue is whether it prohibits it. It doesn’t. Nobody ever thought that that’s what it meant. Nobody ever voted for that. If the current society wants to outlaw discrimination by sex, hey we have things called legislatures, and they enact things called laws. You don’t need a constitution to keep things up-to-date. All you need is a legislature and a ballot box. You don’t like the death penalty anymore, that’s fine. You want a right to abortion? There’s nothing in the Constitution about that. But that doesn’t mean you cannot prohibit it. Persuade your fellow citizens it’s a good idea and pass a law. That’s what democracy is all about. It’s not about nine superannuated judges who have been there too long, imposing these demands on society.

For the record, the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause states: “No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

Marcia Greenberger, founder and co-president of the National Women’s Law Center, called the justice’s comments “shocking” and said he was essentially saying that if the government sanctions discrimination against women, the judiciary offers no recourse.

“In these comments, Justice Scalia says if Congress wants to protect laws that prohibit sex discrimination, that’s up to them,” she said. “But what if they want to pass laws that discriminate? Then he says that there’s nothing the court will do to protect women from government-sanctioned discrimination against them. And that’s a pretty shocking position to take in 2011. It’s especially shocking in light of the decades of precedents and the numbers of justices who have agreed that there is protection in the 14th Amendment against sex discrimination, and struck down many, many laws in many, many areas on the basis of that protection.”

Greenberger added that under Scalia’s doctrine, women could be legally barred from juries, paid less by the government, receive fewer benefits in the armed forces, and be excluded from state-run schools — all things that have happened in the past, before their rights to equal protection were enforced.

“In 1971, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that they were protected, in an opinion by the conservative then Chief Justice Warren Burger,” Adam Cohen wrote in Time in September. “It is no small thing to talk about writing women out of equal protection — or Jews, or Latinos or other groups who would lose their protection by the same logic. It is nice to think that legislatures would protect these minorities from oppression by the majority, but we have a very different country when the Constitution guarantees that it is so.”

In 1996, Scalia cast the sole vote in favor of allowing the Virginia Military Institute to continue denying women admission.

UPDATE: Observers have pointed out that Scalia and his interviewer, UC Hastings law professor Calvin Massey, are wrong when they say that no one ever considered the 14th amendment applying equal protection for women. In fact, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony and other women’s rights advocates publicly pushed to include explicit mentions of women’s rights in the 14th and 15th amendments. (The National Woman Suffrage Association was born out of Stanton and Anthony’s opposition to the shape of the 14th amendment.) Republican Rep. Thaddeus Stevens introduced a petition for universal suffrage in 1866.

Their version, however, was defeated, and as Linda Gordon, NYU professor of history, told The Huffington Post, “the women who had led that felt they had been absolutely sold out by the post-Lincoln Republican Party because the 14th and 15th amendments are the first times that this notion of black people as a separate category was added” to the Constitution.

Legal scholar Jack Balkin writes that while the 14th amendment doesn’t end up explicitly mentioning sex, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t grant women equal protection:

First, The central purpose of the Fourteenth Amendment was to guarantee equal citizenship and equality before the law for all citizens and for all persons. It does not simply ban discrimination based on race. The fact that the word race is not mentioned in the text (as it is in the fifteenth amendment) was quite deliberate.

Scalia argues that the fourteenth amendment was not intended to prevent sex discrimination. That’s not entirely true. The supporters of the fourteenth amendment did not think it would disturb the common law rules of coverture: under these rules women lost most of their common law rights upon marriage under the fiction that their legal identities were merged with their husbands. But these rules did not apply to single women. So in fact, the fourteenth amendment was intended to prohibit some forms of sex discrimination– discrimination in basic civil rights against single women.

Moreover, the Constitution was subsequently amended. After the nineteenth amendment, the common law coverture rules made little sense. If married women had the right to vote, why did they not have the right to contract or own property in their own names? If we read the Fourteenth Amendment’s guarantee of civil equality in light of the Nineteenth Amendment, the guarantee of sex equality should apply to both single and married women. The conservative court during the Lochner era thought as much in a case called Adkins v. Children’s Hospital, decided immediately after the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment.

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Readers: It’s a bit quiet around here. :)

Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.

Gratefully your blog host,

michelle

Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)

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