i'm a gun-toting psychopath
i can't even muster up enough energy to express any clever outrage over the retardedness of the whole "i'm a security mom" meme running around the rightwing female blogosphere today. if i were a feminist scholar or something (and thank god i'm not), i'd write a lengthy post about the ramifications/subconscious motivations/asshatedness of it all. and then i'd make a joke about having a banner like this:
i understand wanting to keep your children and family safe. i guess i understand wanting to own a gun in case osama bin laden decides that your house is a den of sin and he will send 30 of his comrades into your baby's bedroom in the middle of the night. i don't really get buying your SUV based on how many weapons hiding places there are, but whatever.
but i don't understand how instilling a hysterical sense of fear of improbable situations into children would make them safer. obviously, i'm not a mother, so i can't speak with great authority on the best way to parent. but i have worked a significant amount with small children. and if you are constantly telling them that there are bad people out there that are going to do bad things to you every chance they get, your child is going to grow up to be a paranoid bed-wetting mess of a person. there's a large difference between making sure your kid is aware, with street smarts, and having them think that the ice cream man is going to make off with their severed heads.
i mean, i just want to cry when i read stuff like this, from a recent security mom column by nutjob michelle malkin:
We have educated our 4-year-old daughter about Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein. She knows that there are bad men in the world trying to kill Americans everywhere.She has helped us decorate packages of books and bubblegum for our brave soldiers. And at night, we ask God to bless our troops as they risk their lives trying to kill the bad men before they kill us.
jesus h. christ. i feel bad for michelle, because she is going to be spending a lot of money on psychotherapy bills for her daughter in the coming years.
yes, it can be a scary world. but it can also be a wonderful one. and if you're spending the majority of your time telling your children how terrible and frightening and ghoulish everything is, you're both going to miss out on the best parts of life.
update: well, just go to norbizness. he says it better.
Comments
ick. Michelle Malkin is getting pretty insufferable pretty fast. First she champions the recent "I Survived a Plane Ride With Arabs" non-story, now she's pushing the security mom meme -- a cafepress shop in search of a cause if ever there was one.
I'd hate to be the one to break it to her, but smarter reporters than her have realized they could help their careers by coining the name for the next "Soccer Mom" demographic. "Nascar Dad" probably got someone a corner office, and the single women voter stories probably netted a few stringers staff positions. But the bubble has burst, Michelle. No amount of customized apparel and handgun clipart is going to change that.
Really, all you need to know about Malkin is that her bio contains this bullet point: "received a death threat from the Mexican mafia". Congratulations, Michelle. You're obviously quite a reporter.
Do you know how many death threats the Mexican Mafia hands out? I'm betting it's lots. Here, let me have a try: ¡los jugadores mexicanos del fútbol son inexpertos, y poseen características femeninas! There. Let the cult of personality commence.
Quit linking directly to an image on my server or I'll replace it with something extraordinarily rude.
sorry about that. it's a local copy now. please let us know if you don't consider this fair use for some reason.
Hey, dissent all you like, I just didn't want to pay for the b/w for you to do so. :)
You're overgeneralizing, btw. :)
Perhaps, but I don't see how that's to be avoided when we're talking about putting two-word tags on blocs of voters. You'll have to forgive me, but it's very difficult to see how telling children that Arab men are out to kill them does anything to make the child safer or better adjusted.
So the security mom campaign's sole output seems to be an increase in the celebration of the culture of armchair warrior macho bullshit. Not to trot out the ad-hominems, but you know, there's a word for the celebration of violence and unending war.
As a guy, I'm quite comfortable with all this testosteroney idiocy, particularly since football season is getting close. But it's always discordant to see women pick up these despicable ideologies for no apparent reason. Sorry to be patronizing, but there it is.
No apparent reason? I have two...one is 7 and one is 4 1/2.
You know, with all this jibber-jabber, people are not going over to Norbizness to see how much better he says it.
maybe because you didn't?...
There's also this small item about how NASCAR dads and security moms aren't actual, data-backed demographics. The exist on the Internet and in the punditographosphere and nowhere else.
As for the kids, that weapon-toting SUV is without a doubt more likely to kill them than an Islamofascist. Now, back to Happy Furry Puppy Story Time.
(And would it be impossible to change that image to Security Tom?)
For god's sake, the Top Ten list was a JOKE. It was meant to be FUNNY. Lighten up, people.
Sekimori, I'm pretty sure most of the commentary above is aimed at Malkin's writing. I mean, I wish I could write a column with a similarly arbitrary lead. Perhaps: "I am what this year's election pollsters call a 'breakfast-taco unemployed dude.' I live with my parents. I last dated before the millenium. I like tacos. And I'll vote if I get around to it."
Thanks Matty, I did get that, was just referring to the two specific comments about the "weapon-toting SUV".
i wouldn't care about the security mom idea if i thought it was actually about safety instead of complete paranoia and allowing yourself to be exploited by fear. and then passing that on to your children.
but i really like matty's demographic. i think we should all come up with our own obscure and tiny demographic, start it as a meme in the blogosphere, and demand that bush/kerry pander to us. i am a mid 20s career girl who's unsatisfied with her career. i'm a tad too cynical for my own good. i like miller lite. and puppies. lots of puppies. in fact, i'll vote whichever candidate can promise me the most puppies for the next four years.
(Catherine! We're early-20s! Don't go throwing around the mid- word just yet . . .)
i have no idea what i'd tell my children, but i honestly don't think the one comment you posted really had anything to do with making her child paranoid or scared. the comment seemed to reflect her support of the war, and her reasons for supporting the war, and encouraging her child to support the troops. i'm sure there would be some propaganda in your house regarding these issues if you had children. also, i think you have all been reading too much michael moore non-sense. most people i know don't carry guns because of "fear". we don't lock our doors because of "fear". brian owns guns, and it has very little to do with actually being scared someone will break in or believing he'll be in a situation where he might need one (even though he's been in a situation where he might have needed one), but i digress. just don't believe that bullshit that people are waiting around for guns to be used on them, and that's why they own them.
I saw 16 comments and thought for sure at least one of them would mention how HOT security mom is (image linked unapologetically from [to?] norbiz's' site). Now how about a few shots in sports bra with rocket launcher?
jillyn, i honestly can't believe you don't find a mother telling her four year-old "there are bad men in the world trying to kill Americans everywhere" a little creepy and unnecessary and probably not healthy for the child.
anyway, i didn't mean for this post to be about guns or gun rights or anything; i don't really care about that and i think it's fine if you own a gun. it's about a really gross culture of fear that a lot of people subscribe to and propagate.
It frankly strikes me as irresponsible parenting to go about telling your children about Islamofascism. Yeah, I said it. What do you expect the child to do about it? Be careful if, what, a dirty bomb goes off? Maybe since there's not a damn thing a 4-year-old child can do to protect herself or prevent terrorism, it's all for the better if you just tell her not to talk to strangers and let her enjoy her innocence. Kids don't live in post-9/11 worlds—they're just kids.
Explaining to your child that we love our military is fine, but it doesn't sound like that's the extent of Michelle Malkin's training. From her own testimony it sounds like she's bound to bring up a couple of racist headcases . . .
Wow, this thread is burnin' up. I just have to add that chicks with guns are sexy.
In that case, Scott, I'm sure you already know aaaaaaall about this.
on that note... which of these things is not like the other?
http://www.stackedandpacked.com
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