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Speaking at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., on Monday, feminist Gloria Steinem said receiving the Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama would be “honoring the work of Margaret Sanger.” “I hope this is retroactive in honoring the work of Margaret Sanger,” said Steinem about the woman who founded what would become Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the largest abortion provider in the United States....

President Barack Obama has named sixteen recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which is the nation’s highest civilian honor. Abortion activist Gloria Steinem will be one of the recipients. The Presidential Medal of Freedom is “presented to individuals who have made especially meritorious contributions to the security or national interests of the United States, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors,” and Obama apparently believes dedicating one’s life to promoting abortion is a part of that list. Obama said “The Presidential Medal of Freedom goes to men and women who have dedicated their...

Gloria Steinem, Jesse Jackson, Bonnie Raitt and Jay Leno have joined prison hunger strikers in calling for an end to California's use of solitary confinement to control prison gang violence. The civil rights crusaders, singer and late-night comedian are among those who signed a letter sent Monday to Gov. Jerry Brown. The letter calls isolation units "extensions of the same inhumanity practiced at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay." The letter to Brown, to be followed by a demonstration Tuesday at the Capitol, was arranged by the National Religion Campaign Against Torture and local supporters of the prison protesters. The organization,...

Asked if the women's rights movement is in a period of retrenchment, Gloria Steinem says she prefers to describe it as a time of dangerous repercussions in Texas and across the nation. Though advocates have made headway in their fight to bring issues like domestic violence to the forefront, it is precisely because of that progress that the country finds itself in a period of backlash, the celebrated writer and activist told reporters Wednesday before her keynote address at the Texas Council on Family Violence's state conference. "We have the majority support on all the issues we care about," she...

Feminist activist Gloria Steinem and several chapters of the National Organization for Women (NOW) have condemned the Democratic National Committee for “discrimination against mothers with young children” during the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C. “Women are the key to a Democratic victory, and sometimes, children are the key to women,” Steinem said in a statement. “It’s both right and smart for the Democratic Convention to behave as if children exist.” The NOW chapters of Southern California — including Hollywood, Long Beach-South Bay, Pacific Shore and Palm Spring — voiced concern this week that the Democratic National Convention will not...

Influence is neutral. By itself it means having a profound effect on something, but that something can be good or bad. Therefore, I can’t argue with Time Magazine’s list of The 20 Most Influential Americans of All Time that happens to include the person who has most influenced the destruction of humanity, Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger. I have to agree with Time’s assessment that she is one of the most influential Americans of all time because her negative influence has been responsible for the deaths of millions, far exceeding that of Hitler’s influence in World War II, whom we...

But don’t worry, their demands to purge the airways of Rush “isn’t political.” FCC should clear Limbaugh from airwaves — Jane Fonda, Gloria Steinem/CNN Ironically, the misogyny Rush Limbaugh spewed for three days over Sandra Fluke was not much worse than his regular broadcast of sexist, racist and homophobic hate speech: Limbaugh doesn’t just call people names. He promotes language that deliberately dehumanizes his targets. Like the sophisticated propagandist Josef Goebbels, he creates rhetorical frames — and the bigger the lie the more effective — inciting listeners to view people they disagree with as sub-humans. His longtime favorite term for...

We know that Sarah Palin hunts animals on reality TV and cheers her daughter on ‘‘Dancing With the Stars’’ — but do we know that both conservative and liberal scholars rate Nancy Pelosi as one of the most successful speakers of the House in United States history? We know that Congresswoman Michele Bachmann gave the Tea Party’s State of the Union response, believes that the founding fathers abolished slavery and urged her Minnesota constituents to be ‘‘armed and dangerous’’ — but do we know that Congresswoman Barbara Lee of California is calling for the United States’ withdrawal from Afghanistan? We...

The first decade of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study ended on a high note with the presentation of the Radcliffe Medal to writer and organizer Gloria Steinem on May 28. “I’m definitely living to 100,” Steinem said, “but now I have to”—in order to earn the medal. A 1956 Smith alumna, Steinem, 75, told in her speech of how, as a member of the Smith College board, she and then-Smith president Ruth Simmons imagined a merger of Smith and Radcliffe in the late 1990s, shortly before the formation of the Institute. Steinem saw Radcliffe, as it negotiated with Harvard,...

When Sarah Palin's big-bucks memoir "Going Rogue: An American Life by Sarah Palin" comes out Nov. 17, there'll be another book about her hitting the stores the same day: "Going Rouge: Sarah Palin, an American Nightmare." The "Rouge" book, with a similar name and cover, will be put out by a new company, OR Books, says Publisher's Marketplace, which says it will be composed of "essays assembled by Nation editors Richard Kim and Betsy Reed." Marketplace adds that "it promises 'progressive perspectives on Sarah Palin's political career' by writers including Naomi Klein, Jane Mayer, Katha Pollitt, Jim Hightower, Christopher Hayes,...

Imagine a world where ideology takes the place of truth and laws are rooted in dubious factoids from nowhere. That pretty much sums up the fact-challenged, hysteria-mongering domestic violence industry that is propped up by $1 billion of federal money each year. Industry ideologues are loathe to admit the fact, but they truly believe the cause of partner abuse is patriarchal oppression. Not convinced? Just take it on the authority of feminist Gloria Steinem who once made this randy claim, "The patriarchy requires violence or the subliminal threat of violence in order to maintain itself." In her now-famous PBS interview,...

STEINEM TOUTS KENNEDY FOR NY SEAT - IN HOUSE By BRENDAN SCOTT in Albany and MAGGIE HABERMAN in New York January 3, 2009 -- Feminist icon Gloria Steinem yesterday said Gov. Paterson should appoint Rep. Carolyn Maloney to the Senate - and ask Caroline Kennedy to run for Maloney's House seat instead of the Senate. Maloney, 60, who represents Manhattan's East Side and part of Queens, has been quietly pushing her case for the seat being vacated by Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton even as Kennedy, 51, has received more attention. Steinem put forth her idea, unsolicited, as Maloney was honored...

Whether or not Sarah Palin helps John McCain win the election, her greatest work may already be behind her. She’s exposed the feminist con job. Don’t take my word for it. Feminists have been screaming like stuck pigs 24/7 since Palin was announced as McCain’s running mate. (Are pig metaphors completely verboten now?) Feminist author Cintra Wilson writes in Salon (a house organ of the Angry Left) that the notion of Palin as vice president is “akin to ideological brain rape.” Presumably just before the nurse upped the dosage on her medication, Wilson continued, “Sarah Palin and her virtual burqa...

Ms. Steinem: That chromosome AK Gov. Sarah Palin and NY Sen. Hilary Clinton share is the same one that you and Palin - and all women - share as well. But it is Palin – whom Cindy McCain described as a “reform-minded ... hockey-mommin' ... basketball shootin' ... moose huntin' ... fly-fishin' ... pistol-packing ... mother of five” in her speech to the RNC – who more closely resembles the typical American woman, not you. ...It’s obvious from your op-ed in the Los Angeles Times that it’s been a long time since you’ve hung out with women who ... can...

Sarah Palin shares nothing but a chromosome with Hillary Clinton. She is Phyllis Schlafly, only younger. Here's the good news: Women have become so politically powerful that even the anti-feminist right wing -- the folks with a headlock on the Republican Party -- are trying to appease the gender gap with a first-ever female vice president. We owe this to women -- and to many men too -- who have picketed, gone on hunger strikes or confronted violence at the polls so women can vote. We owe it to Shirley Chisholm, who first took the "white-male-only" sign off the White...

Steinem is supporting Obama in the general race. “Women are more than smart enough to see that McCain’s policies are a disaster … He is anti every reproductive issue we’ve ever fought for.” She believes women will vote for Obama even if Clinton doesn’t get the much-mooted consolation prize of the vice-president’s spot on the Democratic ticket – a job Steinem doesn’t think is good enough for her anyway. Why? “It’s not an independent position, to put it mildly. I would rather see her as the president of the Senate.” For most of this decade, the conventional wisdom has had...

Iknew Molly Pitcher, Molly Pitcher was a friend of mine, and Ms. Steinem you are no Molly Pitcher. http://www.thebulletin.us/site/index.cfm?newsid=19366059&BRD=2737&PAG=461&dept_id=576361&rfi=8

Hey, remember four years ago how we needed a vet at the top of the ticket since only people who’d seen the horrors of war could appreciate the human cost of sending men into battle? Late-breaking caveat: Having seen the horrors of war isn’t quite as valuable experience-wise as picking out White House china patterns. Would a man who endorsed Waffles in 2004 explicitly on the basis of his military service really dare try this double standard vis-a-vis, of all people, John McCain? Believe it: In the national security business, the question is, do you have — when you have...

Incredible…..incredibly stupid that is: Feminist icon Gloria Steinem took to the stump on Hillary Clinton’s behalf here last night and quickly proved that she has lost none of her taste for provocation. ** snip ** “Suppose John McCain had been Joan McCain and Joan McCain had got captured, shot down and been a POW for eight years. [The media would ask], ‘What did you do wrong to get captured? What terrible things did you do while you were there as a captive for eight years?’” Steinem said, to laughter from the audience. McCain was, in fact, a prisoner of war...

The "feminist” radio company whose founders include Jane Fonda and Gloria Steinem failed to attract an audience and it signed off the air for good on Friday. When the talk-radio network, called GreenStone, officially launched in September 2006, NewsMax reported that it was a "new left-wing radio network that plans to appeal to women listeners and counter the dominance of conservative talk radio.” GreenStone claimed it would deliver "de-politicized, de-polarized talk radio by women hosts for female listeners,” and Steinem said it would offer an alternative to current radio talk, which she described as "very argumentative, quite hostile, and very...