<^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> ........Catt's Claws # 117 ... August 20, 1996......... ........ A Feminist Newsletter by Irene Stuber......... <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> As babies are routinely paw printed and their prints recorded in a central registry at birth, we think all infants should also have their DNA registered. Registering DNA would not only be more definitive than paw prints but it would also form a permanent bank for finding lost children and identifying bodies. (A wonderful added feature: it would be to also serve to track down rapists and the men who deny their fatherhood, as well as form a method for identifying murderers and molesters who leave behind pieces of their skin, or blood, or semen.) Infringement of our rights? Oh, come on. Don't buy this nonsense. We are routinely finger printed so what's the big deal about DNA registry? We are tracked on credit, online, everywhere ... The only ones who need object are those who are trying to hide something. So my fingerprints are on file. So what? Just think of all those Jane Does whose bodies have been found in fields and at the side of the roads for all these years and can't be identified. Their fingerprints are long gone, but their DNA would remain. Missing children ... missing rapists. The time for a central DNA bank is upon us. But don't think it will happen soon. Deadbeat Dads, rapists, and other criminals don't like the idea - and they are MALE. . . . . . . . ^c^c^ . . . . . . . Dangblast it! Strange how you look for mistakes everywhere but in front of your nose. Midge Stocker corrected us: Hyundai is a Korean conglomerate, not Japanese. And another reader pointed out that we stubbed our pc toe again. I used the term Jewish in an old joke in a way that could have been taken as denigrating. Sorry. . . . . . . . ^c^c^ . . . . . . . _Sixty Minutes_, as well as the print media, has given a lot of space to th eultra-conservative women who masquerade as feminists under the Women Leaders banner. Our email buddy Asherah3 writes (in answer to our request for the history of these broad checkbooks and the Republican-Christian Coalition bigotry): "The Women Leaders Summit was held in Washington, D.C. in October, 1995. It was sponsored by RENEW (Republican Network to Elect Women). Susan Molinari (R-NY) was co-chair to the Summit. The other two were Rep. Barbara Vucanovich (Chair) and Sen. Nancy Kassebaum (Co-chair #2). Molinari is also on RENEW's advisory board. Approx. 40% of RENEW's members are men. The Summit promoted itself as (according to press releases) "the first conference of women leaders from business, community organizations, state and local government convened solely for the purpose of advising the U. S. Congress." It was founded in 1993 to "recruit, train and fund Republican women candidates in local, state and federal elections." It has members in all 50 states. Over 500 women, who were nominated to participate by members of Congress, were called together via this Summit at the request of the GOP Congressional Leadership in a serious effort to seek policy advice from women leaders across America. But it seems the policies had already been selected since this particular group had been nominated by Congress. "Most of the people at the Summit were very wealthy. 1 out of 5 of the Republicans at the Republican National Convention were millionaires. "This summit also promoted itself as being `the only national organization that supports women candidates without regard to any single issue,' but The Republican National Coalition for Life had a petition out that called for the Republican party to include a pro-life platform. The Board of Directors of this Coalition included (surprise! surprise!) Phyllis Schlafly, Gary Bauer, and Beverly LaHaye. "The women at this Summit referred to welfare as a `disease.' They wanted to see state grants in place. The general tone regarding welfare recipients was that they were irresponsible. Force them to get jobs. They favored family caps. Workfare. English only. School vouchers. Abolishment of Dept. of Education. Flat tax with better mortgage and charitable deductions and rewards to those who `save.' Limit governments ability to manipulate the tax code. De-fund the arts, NEA, and unions because they go against the Republicans. One Republican woman in the audience wanted to `shut them up.' List of Sponsors to the Women Leaders Summit is below. (Occidental, listed below, has been in the news recently, but the reason escapes me. Anyone out there remember why?) KNOW THY ENEMIES: ***PATRON: UtiliCorp United/Energy One ***BENEFACTORS: Harrah's Entertainment, Inc. (-->> Catt's Claws asks is this the gambling people????), National Association of Temporary and Staffing Services (NATSS), Natural Gas Supply Association, The Upjohn Company Company ***SPONSORS: American Council of Life Insurance, American Dental Association, American Hospital Association, American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, American Insurance Association, Ameritech, Amoco Corporation, AT&T, Barrick Goldstrike Mines, Inc., BellSouth Corporation, Betty Ford Center and the Hazelden Foundation, The Boeing Company, Eli Lilly, Four Public Affairs Committee, Ford Motor Company, GTE, Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation, Household International, ICI, Americas Inc., Independent Bankers Association of America, International Council of Shopping Centers, ITT Corporation, John Hancock Financial Services, The Limited Loew's Corporation, The May Department Stores Company, National Association of Broadcasters, National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, National Museum of Women in the Arts, National Restaurant Association, National Retail Association, Newmont Mining Corporation, NYNEX, Occidental International Corporation, OHM Remediation Services Corporation, Pacific Telesis Group, Philip Morris, Podesta Associates, Tobacco Institute Travelers Group, United Parcel Service, W. R. Grace." Catt's Claws looks through that list of sponsors and wonders when the REAL feminist movement will grow up enough to seek corporate sponsorship instead of always begging at the pocketbooks of women, most of whom need every cent they earn in our patriarchal society. The long swallowed rant of one of our honored feminist women about how advertisers push for editorial considerations and that's why no advertising in Ms. was a nice article but full of cowshit. Just say "no" dahling and enough would have come around to pay the bills because they want women's $$$. What the bottom line is that too many of our feminist "leaders" have little or no experience with business and practical financing. In fact, few have to run their own homes ... . . . . . . . ^c^c^ . . . . . . . One of our readers in the Los Angeles area wrote: "A woman who called a talk show this morning pointed out that the Republicans have used women on the podium as their hatchet "men" against the Democrats. She said that she was a registered independent and against abortion, but would vote for Clinton because of the way women were used at the convention." . . . . . . . ^c^c^ . . . . . . . Don't expect to see the Bob and Liddy road show on local media. Newsweek of July 29, 1996 explained: "The Bob-and-Elizabeth Media Show will likely be very short-lived. After Elizabeth Dole's take-charge performance on "Larry King Live" last week, campaign aides warned against any future husband-and-wife sit-downs. "Bob Dole appeared tentative as Elizabeth finished his sentences, interrupted him when he was on dangerous ground and gently chastised him when he veered off message. "`Joint interviews are risky,'" says a Dole adviser. `Men defer to their wives, and that tends to emasculate the men.' Elizabeth's prompting seemed overprotective, an image the Dole camp wants to avoid on the eve of the candidate's 73rd birthday. (How come Bill never looked emasculated next to Hillary?) . . . . . . . ^c^c^ . . . . . . . For those who are computer literate (and I wish it included some of the AOL people who flamed me about that filth one of their subscribers wrote by telling *me* there were ways to fake ids), here is the complete header: Return-Path: RoachChron@aol.com Received: from rs0.internic.net (rs0.internic.net [198.41.0.5]) by troi.csw.net (8.7.4/8.6.9) with ESMTP id BAA15002; Wed, 17 Jul 1996 01:35:43 -0500 Received: (uucp@localhost) by rs0.internic.net (8.7.4/SLAM-1) id CAA22799; Wed, 17 Jul 1996 02:26:03 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <199607170626.CAA22799@rs0.internic.net> Received: from 168-183-140.ipt.aol.com(152.168.183.140) by rs0.internic.net via smap (V1.3) id sma021160; Wed Jul 17 02:17:39 1996 Date: Mon, 15 Jul 1996 02:46:36 -0500 From: Chad Hay Subject: Read this account of a walk I took. To: story-recipients@aol.com X-UIDL: 837614390.003 X-PMFLAGS: 36700288 We have, of course, NOT received any official word from the management of AOL about our complaint since it is only about women being raped and murdered by one of its subscribers. AOL seems to be having MAJOR problems with their pedophiles which is taking up a lot of time ... In fairness, AOL is so large that it *has* to have weirdos in its midst. But why fight the *other* weirdos and don't fight those who abuse women from their service? We have the situation where a man says he raped and murdered a woman in a gross and horrible manner. And AOL doesn't consider that important enough to look into? And for one of theirs to accuse ME of writing that filth against women really calls for an apology! . . . . . . . ^c^c^ . . . . . . . Beginning this issue we will mark articles that may be particularly useful in the 1996 election campaign by making them noticeable with ***. Might be good to make a special directory to save the gems in. ********************************************************************* Rob Morse, _San Francisco Examiner_ columnist, in commenting on that abomination passed by the Republican Congress called the "Defense of Marriage Act" revealed some of the history of the stalwart gentlemen who "saved the institution of marriage and America." "Rep. Bob Barr, R-Ga., the sponsor of the bill, declared on the floor of Congress that `the flames of hedonism, the flames of narcissism, the flames of self-centered morality are licking at the very foundations of our society, the family unit.' "Barr ought to know about family units because he's been married three times. And he knows about the licking flames of hedonism, too. He once was caught licking whipped cream off the chests of two buxom women. "Of course, that's OK, because it was disgusting straight sex, not disgusting gay sex. However, it was shockingly high in fat grams. "Then of course you have the speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., whose idea of traditional family values was to visit his cancer-stricken first wife in the hospital to say he was leaving her. "....Rep. Steve Largent, R-Okla., who used to run around and get smacked in the head by NFL free safeties, said, `No culture that has ever embraced homosexuality has ever survived.' "Steve, no culture has ever survived. They all decline and fall. Homosexuality somehow stays with the human race, though. "For the first time, the federal government has tried to define marriage. Legislators who claim to favor states' rights, religious freedoms and individual rights are over regulating intimate human relationships. "The House has forbidden citizens to peaceably assemble as man and man in their own bedrooms. The House that treasures the right to keep and bear arms can't bear two women legally in each other's arms." *********************************************************** BTW, has the author of Catt's Claws changed her mind about legalizing gay marriages? No, I think the word marriage signifies a religious commitment and if that's what some couple want, they should go see their religious leader and leave the government out of it. But the rest of the people who want commitments should have the privilege of forming DOMESTIC PARTNERSHIPS - whether they be heterosexual couples of the same sex, or homosexual couples, or heterosexual couples of the opposite sex - leaving the hot key word" marriage" out of it. The question is, simply, do you want to share responsibilities and lives or make a political statement? Do you want the privileges of two people living a joint life with health insurance, tax breaks, joint wills benefits or live it a billboard? . . . . . . . ^c^c^ . . . . . . . EMMETT, IDAHO: The Gem County Prosecutor Douglas Varie says he is using the all-but-forgotten 1921 state law to try to wipe out teen pregnancy in this county NW of Boise, which has one of the state's highest teen pregnancy rates. (He's using a 75-year-old law against fornication, which means any unmarried person who has sex.) Seven teenagers have been charged under the law. One teen was sentenced two weeks before her son was born. She received a 30-day suspended jail sentence, three years probation, and a directive to complete parenting classes. She plans to marry the child's father after high school. He also received a similar sentence. She is 17; he is 16. When will any of these patriarchal bullies realize that you can't legislate morality, nor can you defeat human drives? As surely as the night follows the day, kids are going to engage in sex. That's what the young of any species does. Why do the religious of this world treat sex as one of the great sins when it is really one of our great pleasures? Do they *really* hate people so much? Safe sex and sex with knowledge to prevent pregnancy makes a whole lot more sense that the results of these religious hypocrites - of course, in the past, if a woman were unfortunate enough to get pregnant, SHE was the one blamed because SHE was the keeper of the morality, SHE was expected to have no sex drive, and SHE was expected to commit suicide in SHAME while HE went out and MARRIED a pure virgin ... Now you know when they hate feminism so. Feminism has given women knowledge to prevent pregnancy (if we are allowed to educate women) and given them the opportunity to raise their children sans fathers by having jobs that pay enough to live on - as well as dignity on their own without becoming the Mrs. that only lives in the shadow of the Mr. . . . . . . . ^c^c^ . . . . . . . A Golden, Colorado man who spent time in a mental hospital and was released after attacking his father with a knife evidentally viciously stabbed to death his 10-year-old daughter after raping her. He had been released from the state hospital for the attack on his father about four months ago after counselors concluded he no longer suffered from an "abnormal mental condition" which could cause "dangerous" behavior, records showed. One wonders why the counselors who released him won't be charged with complicity - or at least have their licenses suspended for a time for failure to recognize that he was so dangerous. . . . . . . . ^c^c^ . . . . . . . From a new discoverer of Catt's Claws: "I have been catching up on back issues, and I love it! It is wonderful to see your constructive rage (how's that for a nice coin of a phrase?) in action." . . . . . . . ^c^c^ . . . . . . . In Jennifer Gagliardi's latest report, we have direct subscribers from 25 countries and a surprising number from U.S.A. government accounts (uncle watching???) In addition to U.S. accounts, we have readers in Canada, Australia, United Kingdom, Germany, New Zealand, Sweden, Ireland, Japan, Netherlands, Argentina, Austria, Brazil, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Finland, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Italy, Norway, Poland, Singapore, and South Africa. Jennifer, you are doing a magnificent job keeping all this running. I thank you from the bottom of my heart. . . . . . . . ^c^c^ . . . . . . . In a serious vein, during his 50th birthday bash in New York City hosted by Whoopie Goldberg and featuring the creme de la creme of the serious vein, during his 50th birthday bash in New York City the entertainment world, Bill Clinton mentioned the people in his life who have died since he took office. "Lord, I miss my mother," he said. "She liked a good party." That she did. That she did. We still miss seeing her around town and at the race track. And we will also miss Catherine S. East, a retired federal worker who was instrumental in formation of the National Organization for Women, is dead of congestive heart failure at age 80. Betty Friedan said East was the "valiant, incorruptible woman who cajoled me into the act of starting NOW" and was the "midwife to the birth of the women's movement." East held senior staff positions with every presidential advisory commission on women from 1962 to 1977. She left two daughters ... two very PROUD daughters...and millions of grateful women from all over the world. ....................... * ........................ CONDOM ALERT - Avanti Plastic Condoms break four times more often than latex. And, of course, the "thins" for the men who claim "they can't feel anything" are VERY dangerous for women who are depending on them for pregnancy and AIDS prevention. The rate of tearing is alarming. Breakage in a two-year test showed Avanti tore at a 9.6% rate as compared to 1.6% for PROPERLY used regular latex condoms. Many men are refusing to wear latex condoms because of an unfounded rumor of impotency resulting from them. (CAN YOU REALLY BELIEVE HOW AFRAID THIS YOUNGER GENERATION OF "MEN" ARE OF THEIR POTENCY?) Evidently the basis for this false rumor is that about 5% (2.5% are men) of the population shows some allergic reaction to latex. The allergy is to antigens - and most of the allergic reactions are from rubber gloves, etc., made overseas. Just make sure the condoms you buy are made in the U.S.A. where there are more stringent rules about washing out the antigens in production. Any man who refuses to use a latex condom should be refused sex on that account unless he has taken the simple doctor administered latex allergy test ... ................................................. To receive Catt's Claws by email, write and in the body of the note No name, nothing else. ....................... * ........................ Women's rights are young and tender and we must protect them from the plagues of holy hypocrisy and newts. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- >>> Send your ideas, comments, and news to istuber@cswnet.com for inclusion in the Catt's Claws feminist newsletter which will be emailed up to three times a week. This is NOT an interactive discussion net but an exchange of information. Catt's Claws is NOT sponsored by any organization. We are accepting *limited* donations (only what can be spared) to help offset the online costs of posting Catt's Claws. Copyright 1996, Irene Stuber. PO Box 6185, Hot Springs, AR 71902.<<<< Much appreciated proofreaders: Lori Corteville, Kathryn Lively, and Gavriella Person.