Paglia: 'Birthers' Aren't Racist, And They Have A Point

washingtonindependent.com:

Camille Paglia, the lone Salon.com columnist who can count on her ramblings getting regular links from The Drudge Report, appeared on NPR's "On Point" yesterday and made a spirited defense of the "birther" movement.

Read the whole story: washingtonindependent.com

Comments

[Dugwood]

The title of the article says Paglia says the "birthers have a point." I have been listening to this crap for two years and I have yet to see anyone make any such point - one with any logical, legal or intellectual validity. If they had one we wouldn't still be having this discussion­... again. Same herein. HP if you are going to post this crap - make your authors "make the point" and then get on with something that has some kind of informational value. Are so hard up for writers that actually have something of value to post?

[DrJulienArbor]

Interesting that Ms. Paglia would be taking up with the "birthers" while also supporting NAMBLA...

http://www.salon.com/april97/columnists/paglia970415.html

http://www.nambla.org/paglia.htm

And from here...

http://xahlee.org/Periodic_dosage_dir/t2/camille_paglia.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HF2x8Z6qUa4

No such thing as snuff films, huh? Really?

http://robertlindsay.wordpress.com/2009/02/18/russian-neo-nazi-beheading-video/

OK... now that we know that's not true... what is Paglia's agenda?

[Scentedflower]

a stin king flower.

[Bodie1]

Why is HP bothering with her? She adds nothing to the debate and hasn't for many years.

[Soundofthunder]

Paglia is a fan of Frank Burns (M*A*S*H) I see:

"Do you have any papers to prove these are your papers?"

Obama has released the only proof he or ANY Hawaiian has, because Hawaii digitized its birth records in 2001. If you don't know this or aren't willing to believe it, you are nothing but a ra c i$t.

SOT

[monsterofNone]

was a recent picture of camille so disturbing that we had to go back to the early 90s to find one that wouldn't scare the kids?

[Mildmannered]

http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/born_in_the_usa.html

[motoGpifupleez]

I'm sure this one has already appeared 1,000 times already, but it never gets old:
Yes they do have a point, at the top of their white hoods.

[JeanPaulSatire]

Sure they have a point -- a completely discredited and disproved one that makes them all look like escapees from the laughing academy.

[socialtalker]

look, lets cut the crap! the birthers have not shown that obama's mama was in kenya or some other country at the time of his birth. if his mama was in the us at the time of his birth, then HELLO??? US CITIZEN!!!! its being born in the us, and not having a birth certificate that makes him a us citizen. they aint brain surgery, folks.

[BurkeBoylan]

A classic example of bitterness polluting reason.

I liked Paglia when she championed the Western classical/liberal arts tradition over post modernism, but now I just feel sorry for her.

[Wiseronenow]

She's still around? Oh, yeah, she reports on Dredge. Last time I read anything by her, and it was irrelvant then too, was back in the 60's. But, does it surprise me that she is trying to gain some notoriety with the Birther issue? Nope.

[jackstpaul]

I think you mean 90s.

[aintnogod]

Poor Paglia. Several years back, I tried to read her Sexual Personae. At the same time, I was privately moving from the world of literature where my Masters was earned toward the world of rational thinking via working my way through algebra text books and reading more science. In the midst of my reading of Sexual Personae, I suddenly realized that her entire methodology for arriving at truth was bogus, that too many intellectuals live in that world of unprovable hypotheses called literary criticism which is filled with personal opinion and appeals to authority. Though wonderful for creating an interesting persona, a world view entirely based in the language arts or the fine arts is really adrift when it comes to finding an anchor in fact. Her book is empty of useful information and is made up of one statement after another which are contradictory, empty of meaning, and open to debate, that is, unless you earn your living in that arena and have adopted all the correct and authoritative language for working there. Literature is the hierarchical sport of kings; science the life of democracy.

PS: My minor in Catholic philosophy at the University of Dayton (though I was and am not Catholic) helped prepare me for seeing that the use of language in the human animal is almost always an exercise in rationalizing one's behavior.

[BurkeBoylan]

Literature is as democratic as it gets. It is available to anyone who can read.

However, literary critical theory is the sport of those who live in the rarefied air of the ivory tower.

I do agree that science is a universal egalitarian language.

But over dependence on rational thought brought us the Soviet Union.

[Dugwood]

You are right about science's potential - but it only works when used correctly. Actually, it was a complete lapse of rational thought that brought us the Soviet Union. You are confusing rational thought process with the denial of reality and erroneous thought processes. It's not rational to knowingly pursue what can be demonstrated from the outset to be erroneous - it is irrational to do so. No rational person - someone well informed on human psychology and economics ever thought communism, or a totally socialist economy could ever work. The Soviets turned communism into a faith based religion where the state was their god. Like all religious ideologues, they were in denial of the reality relating to the rational conflicts of their communist religion and it's leaders and basic observational reality of human psychology and how it effects economic out put. The motivations of receiving a markist medal for your superior communal work - end the end did not compete with capitalism's effective utilization of human greed to motivate workers. Communism was defeated not by military might, but by being forced from their state of ideological denial by economic reality.

[bootman69]

wow. Camille Paglia is still alive? have we seen her birth certificate?

[KCinBK]

why is this still posted, much less on the front page at that. Her musings are neither entertaining or informative.