The Macy's Parade is Sexist?

From the liberal blowhards at the Huffington Post comes this guffaw-worthy piece.

I've never been big on parades. Crowds of people crammed together, inevitably sweating or freezing, no one under six feet tall getting a good view. But from the comfort of my parents' kitchen, the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is a tradition even I don't like to forgo. I don't get up early to watch, but with my whole family crowded into the one room, all vying for counter space or the good knife, it's the only acceptable accompaniment.

The parade attracts over 3.5 million people to the often frigid streets of New York, plus over 50 million people who watch the performers and balloons from home. But no matter whether these observers are avidly engrossed or peeking up from their poultry prep, all of them are absorbing one simple fact: from cartoon cats to historical heroes, there aren't many female figures floating by.

Look, no lady balloons!

Holidays are an obnoxious time to pick a fight. The holiday spirit implies not kicking your brother under the table and leaving partisan politics outside the dining room so your relatives can digest their meal in peace. But not everyone can afford to take the vacation.

On November 10 of this year, Lynnette Long, president of Equal Visibility Everywhere--a not-for-profit charmingly acronymed EVE--published a blog on the astounding under-representation of female characters among the Macy's parade balloons. For a few key feminists, despite the holiday, it was a call to action.

In the 84-year, 129-character history of the parade, only 10 female characters have ever sailed down the avenues. "Parade balloons are not a trivial issue," said Long. "Every year millions of young girls eagerly attend Macy's and other parades, only to look up and see nothing but male characters float by." Long concluded with a latent call for action: "Hopefully, one day, the parade skies of the United States will be filled with an equal number of male and female characters."

But the call didn't stay latent for long. The blog post got the attention of Lyn Mikal Brown at Hardy Girls Healthy Women, a nonprofit devoted to the health, well-being, and empowerment of girls and women. HGHW, in turn, reached out to SPARK, a newly formed coalition of feminist organizations helmed by Deb Tolman, a professor at Hunter College. SPARK had its first event right before Halloween, a conference I attended and wrote about.

For every holiday there could probably be an anti-holiday of feminist grievances. SPARK's first event was timed to raise consciousness about the sexualization of Halloween costumes for women and girls. Now it's the lack of women in the Thanksgiving Day parade. I suppose you could ask what's next? An awareness day for Mrs. Claus? St. Valentine's girlfriend? The Easter Bunny's mom? In some ways, the last thing even I want with the turkey is a side of feminist frustration.

But the truth is, the lack of visibility of women and girls in our culture and the media--while a year-round issue--is more insidious during the holidays. These are the moments for the stories we love, the characters we identify with and want to celebrate. If the characters are overwhelmingly male, what do we internalize about who matters?

This isn't just important for young girls: how we see females portrayed and whether we see them featured at all affects how boys and men--how all of us--understand and relate to girls and women.

So SPARK decided to step up the call for equal balloon representation and set a date for the goal. How's 2012 sound?

The answer is up to Terry J. Lundgren, CEO of Macy's, Inc, and the designated recipient of SPARK's petition demanding balance among the balloons. Maybe it's up to you, too, if you want to sign.

"This isn't just about the Macy's Day Parade," says Brown. "This is part of a larger pattern of girls underrepresented in the media."

"The parade is a concrete way to see the issue," explains Tolman.

The ability to pick up on this item and run with it is central to SPARK's mission: to create a feminist network. By connecting big organizations with small ones, SPARK lends the power of a greater voice to grassroots groups that are not encased in bureaucracy and therefore may be more creative with their energies.

Like the can of cranberry sauce that's sitting directly in the center of the shelf, often the most difficult issues to see are the ones that are right in front of us. But just recognizing them is perhaps the most important step toward change.

There's no good reason why female characters can't be equally represented in the Parade. True, the lack of parity reflects the general state of the media, but with a history of only 129 balloons total, it doesn't seem like a lot to ask. Given TV, books, movies, and all of history, I think most of us could come up with 64 characters to fill the ranks. Who knows... maybe even 65.

Which women, girls, and female characters would you like to see in The Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade? Post your ideas in the comments section below!

I've pretty much come to expect liberal nonsense from the HuffPo, but this one takes that cake. Seriously, this isn't a joke? Young girls are being disempowered because there aren't enough female cartoon character balloons in the Macy's parade? I think I speak for everyone when I say piffle. A young kid isn't going to care about what balloons they have in the parade; they're too busy enjoying themselves to care about uber-feminist pontificating.

So, to the fine folks at the Huffington Post I say; give it up.

Pax Christi.

Free Asia Bibi!

From CatholicVote.org

Pakistan woman sentenced to death for Christian beliefs
Asia Bibi is a Pakistani Christian who, following a discussion with several Muslim colleagues, was accused of having pronounced offensive words against the Prophet Mohammed and was denounced to the local Imam. Her offense: claiming that Christianity is true.
The Imam asked the police to intervene and an investigation began leading to her arrest on the accusation of violating code 295 of the penal code, which provides for the death penalty for blasphemy.
Pope Benedict has made a plea for her release saying:
"Over these days the international community is, with great concern, following the situation of Christians in Pakistan, who are often victims of violence or discrimination. In particular, I today express my spiritual closeness to Ms Asia Bibi and her family while asking that, as soon as possible, she may be restored to complete freedom. I also pray for people who find themselves in similar situations, that their human dignity and fundamental rights may be fully respected."
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has the ability to intervene to help save this woman. Call your legislators and tell them to urge Secretary Clinton to request the Ms. Bibi be pardoned, released, or exiled to the United States.
Your voice matters.  Do not delay.

Pray, pray, pray for this woman to be spared.  Pray for an end to dominance by Sharia law which does not recognize religious freedom, or any kind of real freedom for that matter.  Write to your Senators and Representatives and ask them to denounce this atrocity and pressure our government to intervene on her behalf.

Our voice really does count.

Animal rights zealots threaten trappers

From the "nothing new under the sun" files comes this.  Courtesy of Examiner.com

"But if we want to be a bit more strategic in our approach, let’s focus on the source of the horror: the trappers. Thus far, this community of violent inbreds has remained largely below our radar. The time to change that is now.

"Therefore, we have compiled a state-by-state list of trappers so that each of us may focus on the problem in our own communities. Eliminate them and we liberate those who would have been their future victims."— Gerald Hoffman & Camille Marino

This is a posting from an underground animal rights forum "Negotiationisover.com", as published in a column on Examiner.com.  The author of the column wonders if this is a death threat.  I say I'm certain of it; they're publishing a list of names and then suggested said people be "eliminated".  Doesn't this meet the definition of a terroristic threat?  And innocent holiday travelers are the ones getting groped by the TSA at airports.

I post this not because it is shocking, but because it so typifies the behavior of radical animal rights activists, the ones who refuse to recognize that humans are created in the image and likeness of God and place animals above them, contrary to the order of creation.  It is an attitude that is dangerous and needs to be opposed by all people of goodwill.

Pax Christi.

NCReporter: Australian priest publicly calls for women's ordination

Courtesy of WDTPRS and the NCDistor... excuse me "Reporter".

'I am convinced in my heart that it is God's will that we should have women priests … I feel prompted by the Holy Spirit to share my position publicly, and yet very reluctantly,'' the sermon said, according to a report on the Web site theage.com.au. ''I believe certain women are being called by God to the ministerial priesthood, and our official church is obstructing the work of the Holy Spirit. I feel I can no longer sit back and remain silent.''
He conceded that as ''an insignificant little parish priest'' he lacked the profound theological training to contradict papal teaching, ''but some things you just know in your heart, in the core of your being''.

Rubbish.

A spade needs to be called a spade, so that's what I'm going to do.  This priest is preaching heresy and needs to be disciplined.

PC LUNACY ALERT: School forces kid to remove American flag

13-year-old Cody Alicea rides with an American flag on the back of his bike. He says he does this to be patriotic and to honor veterans, like his own grandfather, Robert. He's had the flag on his bike for two months but Monday, was told to take it down.

A school official at Denair Middle School told Cody some students had been complaining about the flag and it was no longer allowed on school property.

"In this country we're supposed to be free," said Cody. "And I should be able to wave my flag wherever I want to. And they're telling me I can't." Cody had to take the flag off his bike and put it in his backpack, where he kept it all week.

Liberalism is a mental disorder.

Back from unplanned hiatus and WTH?

After having been on a non-intended hiatus for the past few days (I neglected my poor little blog), I am back.

And I found this on LSN:

CORDOBA, Spain, November 10, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A Spanish judge has ruled that a violent occupation of the Cathedral of Cordoba by a group of Muslims in March of this year did not violate the nation's law against offending religious sentiments.
According to Europa Press, the judge occupying the seat of the Fourth Court of Instruction of Cordoba ruled that the incursion into the cathedral, which culminated in an assault on several guards and a policeman, was merely a "public disorder" and was not intended to offend anyone's religious sentiments.
"There isn't so much an intention to minimize or harm the religious sentiments of the Catholic religion so much as an attempt to favor, not to say clearly impose, in a false gesture of tolerance, the possibility of carrying out joint worship [in the cathedral]," the judge declared. "It doesn't act to demerit or discredit the Catholic religion, but rather in favor of joint use."
Spanish Muslims have long demanded the right to carry out Islamic worship in the Cathedral of Cordoba, which was demolished by Muslims in the 8th century and replaced with a mosque following their conquest of the area.  The cathedral was rebuilt in the 13th century after Christians reconquered Cordoba. However, much of the original architecture of the mosque was left intact.
Despite a prohibition against Islamic worship in the cathedral, a group of approximately one hundred Muslims from Austria entered the building during Holy Week on March 31, led by an imam and sporting walkie-talkies.  After they began to carry out the rites of the Islamic religion they were confronted by security guards and police, several of whom suffered injuries after being attacked by eight members of the group, one of whom brandished a knife. The eight aggressors were arrested, while the rest were allowed to go free after being forcibly removed from the cathedral.

OK, let me see if I get this straight; A group of Muslims who (most likely illegally) occupied the Cathedral of Cordoba in order to hold Islamic religious rites, despite that the fact that it is a rebuilt Christian cathedral and meant for the celebration of Holy Mass, and they were NOT offending anyone's religious sensibilities?

We Catholics are VERY particular about what we use our churches for (well, most of us anyway) and let me tell you, it is VERY offensive when someone else invades a church to hold their own religious rites.  Not very politically correct, but the Truth isn't PC at all.  The Cathedral of Cordoba is NOT a mosque anymore, despite some remnants of the mosque today, and it is NOT meant for holding Islamic prayer services. 

Yet the Spanish courts seem to think that it wasn't meant to be offend Catholics?  Allow me to explain; they invaded the cathedral to use for their rites because in their minds, it's still a mosque.  In Islam, once something is taken over for Islam, it stays that way, and it can never be given back.  So, the Muslims invading the mosque were doing it to stick their fingers into the eyes of Christians by saying "See?  This is our building and we can walk in whenever we want!".

O Glorious Saint Benedict, pray for Europe.