In one of the final chapters of The Penelopiad, “An Anthropology Lecture”, the twelve hanged maids relate their and Penelope’s story to that of Artemis, the “virginal but deadly goddess of the moon”, and the twelve moon-maidens. In the story, the maidens are willingly sacrificed at the dark-of-the-moon phase so that the new moon goddess may rise again.
In the chapter, the maids lecture an educated group on the tale of Artemis and the moon-maiden’s. The maids suggest:
Thus possibly our rape and subsequent hanging, represent the overthrow of a matrilineal moon-cult by an incoming group of usurping patriarchal father-god-worshipping barbarians. The chief of them, notably Odysseus, would then claim kingship by marrying the High Priestess of our cult, Penelope.
The chapter reminded me of the recent primary. The matriarchy, represented by Hillary Clinton, won the final four months of battle, and thus one could presume the war, but was overthrown by those usurping patriarchal father-god-worshipping barbarians at the DNC for their King, Obama. We, PUMA, were sacrificed and figuratively hung by the barbarians. Obama then symbolically marries the matriarch, in the case, Hillary, in a series of “Unity” events, thus the final act of usurping her position.
The maids conclude their lecture with these final words to their educated guests:
Never mind. Point being you don’t have to get too worked up about us, dear educated minds. You don’t have to think us as real girls, real flesh and blood, real pain, real injustice. That might be too upsetting. Just discard the sordid part. Consider us pure symbol. We’re no real than money.
Likewise, the message of PUMA to the DNC and the so-called creative class. Go ahead and discard the sordid part where the super delegates installed Obama, the loser of the final four months of the primary, the loser of the popular vote, the loser of the swing states, the loser of the swing voters. Never mind the injustice of the primary process that we represent. Perhaps we are merely symbol and no more real than Obama’s money. Perhaps.
*With RD’s permission, I would like to change the dedicated Book Confluence page to a page where I will post links to our weekly sessions in the comments so those not around for the meeting can find the threads. I have selected our next book and will post it shortly.
Filed under: General |
The Confluence 
http://www.pr-inside.com/barack-obama-panics-andy-martin-s-book-r700482.htm
New book exposes some of the fibs that Obama has woven, and might explain why his birth certificate is secret and his grandmother in seclusion.
Hmm. Odd. Well, that explains his wife’s weird comments, Thursday I guess.
Hello wordpress owner of blogs I read more of Brazil, and wonders if you want to exchange links of partnership?
my blog has 26 thousand hits a day.
http://blogaodoflamengo.wordpress.com
I am awaiting a reply.
thanks and hugs!
Personally, I don’t care if his parents were married. He need not have fibbed about that, though I understand it. It’s private.
Ok, I read the link. It’s not confirmed. So, I think it’s just a rumor. But, I really don’t care anyway. Wether or not his parents were married has nothing to do with his competence to run for President.
Democrats Don’t Care About You
Public Service Announcement: You don’t need political analysts; just read the news. Singular lines of news suffice at times. You are now in the post-analytic age. Here is a one-liner from a Yahoo! News piece on the recent passage of the Snoops-R-Us bill in the Senate: “Obama ended up voting for the final bill, as did Specter.”
That one sentence tells you all you need to know about where Obama and most Democrats stand on the issue of civil liberties and what political leaders are not willing to do to protect those liberties. Now, that should be enough to make you withdraw your support from Obama’s presidency — if, that is, you still have illusions about the Democrats in general, and Barak Obama in this round of Anybody-But-Bush/McCain.
“What?” says you, “And let McCain win the election?”
To that it must be said: What on earth is the difference when the Democratic presidential nominee, during the election campaign, votes in the same way as a right-wing Republican not just on any bill, but on a bill curtailing people’s civil liberties?
http://countusout.wordpress.com/
masslib – WORD!
The DNC is gambling with the lives of millions of Americans, Iraqis, Afghanis…and with the future of the planet. They’ve got a weak, illegitimate, unelectable candidate whom they are backing, when they could have a sure thing.
If I could play a slot machine and the odds were as good as Hillary’s chances to win the Presidency against McCain, I’d run to that machine in a second. Obama’s odds would cause me to keep my quarters in my pocket.
Exactly, madamab. Winning was never more important to the DNC than beating Hillary.
FYI- Posted one hour ago:
Backers stage Protest on Obama’s Social Network-
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=321980&taxonomyId=14&intsrc=kc_top
“The DNC is gambling with the lives of millions of Americans, Iraqis, Afghanis…and with the future of the planet. They’ve got a weak, illegitimate, unelectable candidate whom they are backing, when they could have a sure thing.”
_
Put into that context it raises the stakes to an even higher pinnacle. Wow, seeing how you succinctly outlined what I have been thinking the tenor is more ominous surrounding his elevation to POTUS.
The DNC has been playing a game of Russian roulette.
Headline on AP/Yahoo News: Obama finds magazine cover “tasteless and offensive.” That’s O Talk for It’s Doesn’t Flatter Me.
Of all the media outrages this season, the AP is the worst. Most adults watching Tweety & Keith know they’re just commentators. But people think the AP is “real news,” especially the local feeds. That has been the most difficult part, trying to discuss with people that no, it’s not the “news” that Hillary gave up the morning of the SD Primary, or that Obama has now won it all, that it’s really, really over, just because the AP says so.
PJ, this is what keeps me up at night. I can’t believe how many people have been killed, tortured, maimed, or otherwise permanently injured since the Warmonger-in-Chief took office. Both Obama and McCain will be powerless to change the Bush Foreign Policy: McCain, because he doesn’t want to, and Obama, because he is too lazy to do the necessary hard work.
The next four years are gonna be really tough, even if HRC does become President. The difference is, she can handle it and the other two can’t.
Sign and spread to friends and family.
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/We-Want-Hillary-In-The-White-House
Like most of you, I don’t care whether Obama’s parents were married; although I do care that Obama may have lied about it.
But, since we’re been using the term “illegitimate” to refer to the back-handed way Obama was selected as our presumptive nominee, will we have to stop using that word? Is it one more word we can’t use?
MEDIA ALERT: Heidi Li Feldman, co-founder of The Denver Group, will be on Your World with Neil Cavuto today. The show starts at 4:00 EST on FOX.
Whether or not his parents ever married is not the issue. No child can be held responsible for the actions of the parent under any circumstances.
What rankles is the book. Trying to put a spin on an apparently reckless, uncaring, undemonstrative, and uninvolved parent as seems to be his father is craven. The real man was an abysmal human. Making something out of nothing seems to be the pattern here.
His mother appears somewhat naive, a young girl of 17 out in the world and away from home for the first time and swept away by her new found freedom. But to glorify the father is an out and out distortion because all it does is strengthen the narrative of this idyllic background that somehow only exists on those pages.
I’ve got a list of words I can not use. Like hope, change, the transcender. He offers none of these.
Possibly one way of verifying the truth of the first marriage is to look at the marriage license of the second. Not sure how much information they require, but there may be a box indicating if she had been “married before” when they issued the license for the second wedding.
I think it is a big deal if he lies about his parents being married. He seems to have a major problem with the truth. See: FISA, Iraq.
Now, I don’t mind people making mistakes and apologizing for them – like Hillary on Tuzla – but when has Obama EVER apologized for any mistake? It’s always someone else’s fault every time he gaffes. We just didn’t listen to him carefully. We didn’t get the Great Obama.
No, Barack, we understand you far too well, and that’s why you are not getting our votes.
I’m not sure that a marriage between Stanley Ann and Obama Sr. would be valid, considering that Obama Sr. was already married with a family back in Kenya. Polygamy was legal for Mr. Obama in Kenya, but in the U.S. it would be considered bigamy.
Birth status doesn’t matter, it is just the Web of fibs that need to continue to be supported that are starting to look troubling.
Can someone make a video of backtrack barack as Nero fiddling as Rome burns?
He has no interest in making this country better and really doing something about the war, constitutional rights, economy, health care or any other problem facing the American people.
If there is a democratic congress in power they have already proven they won’t stand up to him and help Americans.
COUNTRY BEFORE PARTY ALWAYS
PUMA RULES
this is why i can’t warm up to the idea of hillary as VP. is that the best a woman can hope for- a semi-ceremonial position with no real executive authority, while the men get the power and decision-making?
besides, she’d be doing obama a favor, and i don’t think she owes him one. let him sink on his own – hillary has already done all she can to keep the democrats from losing in november. if the party really, REALLY wants to lose, nothing can save them.
Sorry …off topic
But…
Terry Gross is having a very good interview with a NewYorker writer about Obama’s political career in Chicago….Ofcourse the MSM is stating things calmly, but the info is still quite revealing and damaging (atleast to me). Barry is definitely a politician, no doubt whatsoever…
Yall should check it out today…Fresh Air with Terry Gross on NPR…
I’m not sure why he felt the need to lie about it. It makes his personal narrative even better. Now he’s the child of “an unwed teenage mother who needed food stamps to get by in the slums of a Honolulu high-rise apartment near the beach”. Tugs at my heart strings. Do you think he’ll unlock the door of his grandmother’s place and let her out for a little fresh air now? Unless she’s bedridden, she must need to get out once in awhile.
oops – shoulda read first. my internets died yesterday, but that didn’t stop me from getting psychic messages from riverdaughter.
campskunk, on July 14th, 2008 at 1:42 pm Said:
this is why i can’t warm up to the idea of hillary as VP. is that the best a woman can hope for- a semi-ceremonial position with no real executive authority, while the men get the power and decision-making?
Yep, camp. I feel the same way.
Who cares if his parents were married?
Very possibly it was a common law marriage. It was, after all, the era of free love and it was fairly well accepted back then. As a feminist I doubt his mother would have felt compelled to marry because she had a child. I’m not such a prude it makes a difference to me.
Plenty of more important concerns about him to focus on, imho.
Blair, not that I care, but common law marriage is only recognized in eight states, and refers to marriages where said couple lived together for a statuatory period of time(usually seven years), and were recognized in public as married, so I doubt it. Again, not that I care, but either they were married or not. Let’s not add fabrications to a rather benign story.
It’s the lying.
Obama lies more than he tells the truth.
Just have time to stop by and spread the news. Heidi (of the Denver Group and her own blog) will be on Your World with Neil Cavuto on FOX today!
PUMA!!!
I dont think it will matter that his parents were or were not married ; what will matter is that he lied about such a fundamental foundational fact . It will shake more peoples confidence and lose millions of ahem… votes
and as for Artemis …her 12 Moon Maidens could easily be the 12 signs of the Zodiac ( there are feminine deities for every sign which are either remote or have been lost in history speaking of sacrificing feminine identities)
and as the signs of the Zodiac they cuold be seen symbolically sacrificing themselves so the next cycle could begin
…which might not necessarily translate to a feminine submission but just might be cyclical in nature … but in the Greek patriarchal culture absolutely does translate as the relegation of the feminine to importance less than that of the male .
I know i was not the only one to hear that collective sigh of male relief when the presumptuous nominee of the demographic party was selected , the threat to male supremacy was removed; and Jon Stuart and Colbert and Bernie Mac and bo could return to their crass jokes abuot women .. and not have to rethink their entire life paradigm as they would have had to do if there were a woman president in the white house
swanspirit,
Yes, and the Blogger Boyz.
🙂 BOYZ Is right … real men make real jokes …. plural 🙂
I think this time is its own archetype.
For astrology buffs. Obama is the lion and Hillary is the scorpion. Obama will be in his element during the month of August until the 22nd. Gary and I will be leaving for Denver on the 23rd in an RV. It is the beginning of Virgo the sign of the woman. Don’t know what this entails, but hope it is auspicious. The convention will take place under the sign of Virgo, and the election takes place under Hillary’s sign, Scorpio.
Mawm – I am a Virgo with Scorpio rising. Need I say I am a Hillary girl all the way? 🙂
swanspirit “I know i was not the only one to hear that collective sigh of male relief when the presumptuous nominee of the demographic party was selected , the threat to male supremacy was removed; and Jon Stuart and Colbert and Bernie Mac and bo could return to their crass jokes abuot women .. and not have to rethink their entire life paradigm as they would have had to do if there were a woman president in the white house.”
Mhmm, yes, I heard that sigh.
Hmm, I didn’t know that Mawn. neat. I hope it means good things.
With RD’s permission, I would like to change the dedicated Book Confluence page to a page where I will post links to our weekly sessions in the comments so those not around for the meeting can find the threads. I have selected our next book and will post it shortly.
Do you mean to tell me that the book discussion has been taken place somewhere else and I missed out? Please direct me if so.
samanthasmom noted: “I’m not sure why he felt the need to lie about it. It makes his personal narrative even better. ”
You know I’m coming to think his whole revisionist history approach reflects not just a political strategy but a life strategy. Plus if anyone has read BO’s books, am I right in inferring it sounds like he idolizes his father? Which is sad, but not unusual when a parent sucks, but also not really a commentary for strength of character and ability to come to grips with unpleasant realities.
God, are we really here after the past 8 years? After 2000 I thought people had wised up, but actually – not fricking at all.
To sum up, I guess I am really rambling generally about self-delusion by BO and by people in general.
Mawm and madamab….
I have a good friend who is quite a good astrologer (I help proofread for her) and she wrote a most interesting essay about Hillary in March. Here’s a link to her website – scroll down to issue #13 in March.
http://www.aquariusastrological.com/newsletter.html
I missed the book club and will definitely check out this book – it sounds so interesting.
If you click on the Book Confluence tab at the top of the website, youy’ll see last week’s thread. However, I am going to see if we can change that so that we just post the links to the threads there. If that makes sense.
masslib: During the workday, I am incomunnicado behind the corporate firewall. I hope you weren’t waiting for me. You can alter the tab without my permission..
Some AAs that I’ve known for a very long time were trying to convince me, back in May, that Barack is the answer to all of America’s problems. Since they all had been Hilary fans I asked them what it was that made them abandon her, a proven friend to their ethnic group, other than the fact that his skin color is the same as their own (i.e. that they were “racists”). The meager reply that I got was that Hilary had lied about being under fire while she got off of the plane in Europe. I tried to say that that was a cop-out since I’d heard many people embellish stories for effect. She did not lie about something that really mattered, and she was in a war zone.
Well, this is a lie that does matter. To me the fact that he had to lie and create elaborate stories and books to create a new personal history, shows me that he has contempt for himself. Also, that he has no problem achieving his goals untruthfully at anybody’s expense (in this case grandma’s).
That is not a good thing.
Excellent You Tube video regarding Senator Clinton and women’s rights around the world,
Yeah, Obama offers the kind of hope and change in attitudes that perpetuate everything that I will stand against. Using misogyny to your advantage. Never saying a word all the while knowing that misogyny in the media has real life consequences for those who are subject to abuses.
This is a VERY powerful video that uses Hillary’s Beijing speech to drive home the point that we wonder where the outrage is from our “liberal” dems supporting Obama and O himself or herself….both of them.
Donna Brazile hasn’t seen anything yet with regard to “rulz” breaking. Is she referring to the “rulz” Rosa Parks broke to right an injustice or the ones the suffragettes broke and were thrown in jail for?? More rulz busting in exactly what this party needs. We’re coming to take it back and there is NO stopping us now.
They catch up so fast!
MSNBC just found out BO didn’t win the requited pledged delegates to ‘clinch” the nomination!
http://edgeoforever.wordpress.com/2008/07/15/nominee-schnominee/
“For those who wish to stay together in a long term commitment to the ideals and principles that Hillary Clinton has spent a lifetime promoting, http://Together4Us.com offers access for activists, funders, students, policy-makers and ordinary people to come together in support of each other and their goals for America. Please come to our website and join, use the code below to put our linked logo on your website and distribute our message and this code to all your network. Spread the word. We will be happy to put up a reciprocal link, your own co-branded web page on our site, or your own blog. Thanks so much, Gretchen Glasscock, Together4Us”