Typically, when I think of NPR, what comes to mind are shows where intelligent people have taken the time to do their homework, and bring more light than heat to a subject. A prime example of this would be listening to Dr. Chartock & Mario Cuomo on Capitol Connections – although I didn’t always agree with their perspective, it was still compelling listening.

Given the above, I was extremely disappointed in the superficially judgemental & dismissive manner which Cindy McCain was treated during this particular ‘On Point’ show. All the talk about her clothing, but not one word uttered about the fact that she had the goodness in her heart to adopt a child in need.

****

Please don’t allow NPR to given up their unique contribution to public discourse, and instead lower themselves to compete with the likes of The View, Bill Maher, or Keith Olbermann…who seem to prefer to shed more heat than light on any given topic.

Last but not least, anyone who has the opportunity to broadcast on the NPR system should keep in mind the sheer size of the carbon footprint of the hundreds (thousands?) of transmitters carrying their message, (I’m sure that the aggregate power consumption is in the megawatt range!) …and this fact alone should spur them to really prepare for any & all on-air time.
It’s the right thing to do.

I think your philosophy teacher was correct.
One should not use nazi out of context.
I have noticed that am guilty of doing this sometimes myself, I’ll have to check myself.

I would say she is a kind of zealot. She does seem to have traits that are more in keeping with this kind of ideology.

His point was that people tend to USE the Nazis when it is completely unnecessary, and he was right. It’s a lazy form of argumentation.

Obviously there are exceptions. The point you were trying to make, however, was not one of them.

By the way, my philosophy teacher was never a prig. Can’t say the same for you.

For some reason I keep thinking of Louisiana governor Huey Long. She reminds me of him which is a bit ironic as he was democrat. But she uses the same type of populist rhetoric and is potentially dangerous as he was.

I don’t like how her husband is always in on meetings.
How people who want access to her in the governor’s office sometimes befriend him.

I didn’t – I quoted Kaiser Wilhelm. I only mentioned the NAZIs because the average American thinks that the phrase originated with them, to the extent that the average American even knows enough European history to recognize it.

Anyway, your philosophy teacher sounds lame – there are plenty of perfectly reasonable comparisons to make to NAZIs – they provode lots of useful and appropriate object lessons. Anyway, you or your philosophy teacher are probably thinking of Godwin’s Law, which doesn’t apply here.

Hillary Clinton in office does not make sexism go away. Sarah Palin would not promote policies that would favorable to anyone earning under 5 million dollars.

Whoever gets into office- there are real issues, core to both men and women including the economy, global warming, the devastation of jobs, poor heath care access, support of women in the work place and day care is what we need to focus on. How will the next president help our country and our world? How will they help women? I did not hear this

My Philosophy 100 teacher taught his students never to compare an opponent in a political debate to a Nazi. Once you compare someone to a Nazi, he said, you’ve lost your argument.

People who question Palin’s personal situation need to be very respectful, very civil, and very cautious.

However, I would argue that it is legitimate to ask questions about her personal life. We’re talking about a person who may have access to nuclear missile launch codes in a few months.

Sarah Palin *gave birth* a few months ago. This is a big deal. It certainly does not disqualify her from anything, but it is not blood and soil fascism to be curious about how this might affect her on the job.

If Michelle Obama had given birth recently, and if the Obama’s had a daughter who was pregnant before the age of 18, I am going to go out on a limb here and guess people would be talking about it.

Personally, I’d like to know what kind of person shoots wolves from an airplane. That sort of revolting, disrespectful behavior disqualifies her, in my opinion, let alone her family.

I agree with other critics of this show. It seemed a little cushy and gushy.

She’s no Eleanor Roosevelt that’s for sure.

I thought that it was very impolite and cowardly for the guests to snicker and sneer at the Republican candidate and to laugh at Cindy McCain.

So deeply ingrained into our collective cultural sub-conscious is the conformity demanded by gender-role stereotypes, that even in this assumably impartial journalistic treatment of issues, an individual who happens to be female who aspires to take an influential place among other influential individuals is painted as being engaged in subversive war of the sexes. And the combatant’s individual and unique attributes are colored as secondary to their fashion (uniform)choices.

“I thought we were past that.”
Posted by Peter Nelson, on September 8th, 2008 at 8:26 am EDT

Come on Peter, I think you’re smarter than that. You may have hoped we were past it or that we could get past it, but I think you probably know we are not. And maybe we will never be past allowing superficial and relatively minor differences between us determine to a lage extent the way we perceive others. Prejudice may just be a result of the frailty of human nature. If we try to pretend it can somehow be overcome through intellectual enlightenment, then we may just be living in real-world denial. I believe prejudice is when we allow our initial preceptions of others to be colored by those superficial differences and their stereotypes. The ‘isms’ sexism, racism, ageism and all the rest are the result of allowing those imperfect impressions to determine our actions. Prejudice in action, if you will. We can’t hope to come close to overcoming the latter if we won’t admit to the former.

This is truly the Red State Feminists against the Blue State Feminists. I wish your guests could have been more tolerant of of the Reds. They have just as much right to their views as the Blues!

http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1839724,00.html

We do get what we deserve.

Jeez.

I think this points right back to McCain and his teams lack of vetting here.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/08/AR2008090803088.html?hpid=topnews

I agree that the fact that she has young children is an invalid reason to reject her. You never hear people complaining about male candidates having young children at home. I’m sure Mr Palin is perfectly capable of managing things on the home front. I frankly think that the assumptions made on both ends of the political spectrum that, somehow, childcare is the domain of women is bogus. It reminds me of Kaiser Wilhelm’s doctrine (later echoed by the NAZIs) of “Kinder, Küche, Kirche”.

Her attitudes show a failure to grasp why we have separation of church and state in the US. Palin would probably be happier in a place like Iran where her well-oiled style of theocracy seems to be more appropriate.”-PN

I shouldn’t respond to such trolling but I will. There are definitely legitimate reasons why one could object to Mrs. Palin as a political candidate and even though I’m a Republican I am not sure I would vote for her for president myself. I however do not think its legitimate to not vote for Palin because you personally think she can’t handle the rigors of a home life and political campaign or to assess how she should live her life.