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Carey Roberts probes and lampoons political correctness. His work has been published frequently in the Washington Times, Townhall.com, LewRockwell.com, ifeminists.net, Intellectual Conservative, and elsewhere. He is a staff reporter for the New Media Network. You can contact him at E-Mail.

Hillary Clinton, Feminist-at-Large


Remember Whack-a-Mole? The theme park game that features insouciant plastic rodents popping out of the hole – Whack! Here comes another one – WHACK!

That’s the image that comes to mind as I ponder Hillary Clinton’s controversial career: Staunch defender of a wayward Commander-in-Chief. Achievement-free senator from New York. Once-inevitable presidential candidate.

And just when you think the drama has thankfully drawn to a close, the curtain rises on yet another act.

In the current scene, Mrs. Clinton is nominated to serve as the Secretary of State. You wonder, exactly what qualifies her to serve as America’s ambassador to the world? During Hillary’s eight years in the White House, she didn’t attend any National Security Council meetings. She didn’t receive the president’s daily briefings. She didn’t even have a security clearance.

These facts prompted candidate Barack Obama to jeer, “What exactly is [her] foreign policy expertise?” Incoming White House counsel Greg Craig proffered this blunt response: “There is no reason to believe…she was a key player in foreign policy at any time during the Clinton Administration.”

Not only is Hillary Clinton over-hyped and under-qualified, many of the claims in her foreign relations brief are simply false.

“I was deeply involved in the Irish peace process,” Clinton once boasted on the campaign trail. I “pulled together in Belfast, in the town hall,” a group of Catholic and Protestant women so “the hard work of peacemaking could go forward.”

That claim triggered this rebuke by Nobel Peace Prize winner David Trimbell, who was present at the time: “Hillary Clinton had no direct role in bringing peace to Northern Ireland and is a ‘wee bit silly’ for exaggerating the part she played.”

During a 1996 Bosnia outing, a hail of sniper fire at the airport forced Clinton’s entourage to run “with our heads down to get into the vehicles to get to our base” – at least that’s what she said during a speech at George Washington University.

But then CBS replayed the videotape showing a cadre of Bosnian schoolgirls happily chatting with Mrs. Clinton and Chelsea on the tarmac – but no whizzing bullets.

During a March 8 CNN interview, Clinton claimed, “I negotiated open borders to let fleeing refugees into safety from Kosovo.”

But Congressional Quarterly’s PolitiFact.com throws cold water on the boast. The group concludes, “We don’t find evidence to support that” and ridicules her claim as “Barely True.”

During another interview, Hillary claimed she had advocated for military intervention in Rwanda. But no one else remembers it that way.

“Whatever her private conversations with the president may have been, key foreign policy officials say that a U.S. military intervention in Rwanda was never considered in the Clinton administration’s policy deliberations,” counters National Security Council insider Gail Smith.

I have no doubt that Mrs. Clinton fully appreciates the difference between a French fry and a Belgian waffle. But the stubborn question remains, what are Senator Clinton’s qualifications to serve as Secretary of State?

The truth is, Hillary does have extensive experience working in other countries -- but not in the way most Americans would expect. During the Clinton administration, she was Bill’s goodwill ambassador, traveling to the four corners of the globe as a high-profile advocate of the feminist agenda.

Inevitably the abortion issue came under the glare of the media spotlight.

At the 1994 World Conference on Population Development in Egypt, Hillary worked behind the scenes to establish a universal right to abortion on demand. That brought her into conflict not only with Mother Teresa, but also with the Pontiff.

The following year she led the U.S. delegation to China to attend the Fourth World Conference on Women. She delivered the meeting’s keynote speech, making the wrongful assertion that “Women are 70% of the world’s poor.” Clinton narcissistically concluded, “Women’s rights are human rights and human rights are women’s rights.”

Three years later she appeared at a meeting of First Ladies held in El Salvador. This time she made the bizarre claim that “Women have always been the primary victims of war.”

Hillary Clinton was also behind her husband’s 1996 selection of women’s rights advocate Madeline Albright as Secretary of State. Bill was reportedly leaning to George Mitchell, but once again Hillary had the last word.

There is little doubt that as Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton will attach highest priority to advancing the global feminist agenda, particularly the right to kill the innocent unborn. Pro-life lobbyist Jeanne Head predicts, “Hillary would promote her husband’s agenda at the United Nations to make abortion a fundamental human right worldwide.”

We’ll need to keep a close eye on this woman.

Domestic Violence Industry: Criminal


The domestic violence industry has a habit of attracting unsavory characters into its ranks. And now three former operatives are doing hard time.

Take Barbara Dehl of Nampa, Idaho. Ten years ago Dehl single-handedly lobbied for passage of Cassie’s Law, a bill aimed at stopping dating violence. That achievement landed her on the Montel Williams Show, and Sen. Mike Crapo hailed Dehl as the “Spirit of Idaho.” Her crowning moment came in 2002 when she was invited to serve on the National Advisory Committee on Violence Against Women.

But then Dehl got caught up in drug trafficking charges and a murder case. Two years ago Dehl was sentenced to 15 years in the slammer for the kidnapping and macabre torturing of a 20-year-old man and his girlfriend.

About the same time Cindy Lou Shores, director of the South Central Region Tribal Nations and Friends Domestic Violence Coalition in Oklahoma, was pilfering $106,000 from the coalition’s cookie jar. This past March, Shores was sentenced to 17 months in federal prison.

And two months ago the former head of Domestic Violence Emergency Services, John Scott, was sentenced to a year behind bars for stealing money from the Roanoke, Va. abuse shelter. After Scott leaves jail, he will serve another year of probation and pay $48,000 in restitution.

But the problem isn’t limited to shelter officials who enrich themselves at the expense of taxpayers. Shelter managers condone and even encourage a broad range of illegal activities within their own facilities.

Mistreatment of children appears to be widespread. Last October the life of toddler Myliak Dale was snuffed out when a woman backed out her car at the SafeSpace shelter in Stuart, Fla.: www.renewamerica.us/columns/roberts/080722 . Incidents of child abuse often go unreported to local officials, in violation of state law.

There’s the problem of harassment and sexual assaults. At Bethany House in Falls Church, Va., two house managers were forced to resign following sexual advances of shelter residents: www.renewamerica.us/columns/roberts/080902 .

Drug abuse is rampant at some shelters. A former employee at Another Way of Lake City, Fla. revealed, “I, on numerous occasions reported illegal drug use that I had witnessed take place on Shelter property and often my complaints were ignored…We always knew not to call the law unless you were prepared to be unemployed.”

Some shelters forego background checks on job applicants. That policy helped Another Way land former shelter manager Wendy Pittman (four criminal charges of passing bad checks); Brenda Collins (one charge of aggravated assault and two counts of cocaine possession); and Gloria Taylor (nine misdemeanor convictions and three felonies): www.renewamerica.us/columns/roberts/081009 .

Many shelters have lawyers who coach women to embellish their stories or even dream up incidents that can never be refuted (“Don’t worry, he’ll never be able to prove he didn’t threaten you with the knife”). Then they file a series of baseless allegations that are designed to make the man’s life miserable.

That’s what they did to James Hall of McIntosh Co., Oklahoma: www.renewamerica.us/columns/roberts/080923 Convincing a person to commit perjury is called subornation of perjury -- and that’s a crime.

Then there’s the slick shelter shake-down routine: Arrest the man on phony abuse charges and then plunder his house while he’s stuck in jail. That’s what happened to Bob Hartzog of Glendale, Ariz: www.renewamerica.us/columns/roberts/081117 .

Some managers believe their shelter is protected by a form of sovereign immunity -- after all, our society is steeped in patriarchal privilege so women need to have a safe place.

So when 26-year-old Veronica Bullock sexually assaulted a 12-year-old boy at the Brewster Center Domestic Violence Services, shelter workers not only barred the Tucson police from entering the facility, they even refused to disclose the rapist’s name.

And when the police arrest a woman for assaulting her husband or boyfriend, the shelter girls scoot over to the police station and have the woman released to their custody. Once ensconced at the shelter, the assailant is free to come and go as she wishes.

For illegal immigrants, sovereign immunity means a neon-flashing “Bienvenidos” sign. Just spend a night at the local domestic violence shelter -- all you need to do is scream, “Abuse!” That will entitle you to a free pass with the immigration people – amazing but true: www.renewamerica.us/columns/roberts/070912 .

Discrimination on the basis of sex is also illegal, but who cares about abused men?: www.renewamerica.us/columns/roberts/080817 . Racial bias has been documented as well: www.renewamerica.us/columns/roberts/081124 .

Rounding out the picture are uncounted incidents of embezzlement, record falsification, financial irregularities, and garden-variety malfeasance: www.mediaradar.org/docs/RADARreport-DV-Programs-Misuse-1-Billion-Tax-Dollars-Per-Year.pdf

One asks, Where are all the state attorney generals and federal inspectors who are supposed to be enforcing our laws?

Domestic Violence Industry: Hateful


Dogged by weeks of protest, the Dallas Area Rapid Transit finally took down the controversial advertisements from its buses this past weekend. Purchased by a local abuse shelter, the ads featured a young schoolgirl who blithely predicted, “One day my husband will kill me.”

Journalist Helen Smith denounced the ads as “Very disturbing hate speech against husbands, fathers, and even boys.” Advice Goddess Amy Alkon titled her op-ed, “Hating Men – Supposedly for the Greater Good.” One distraught mother responded to the Dallas Morning News article by writing, “I took my son aside after seeing it and explained to him how certain women in this society abuse their positions to promote hatred towards men and boys.”

From its beginnings three decades ago, the domestic violence industry has been plagued by a cabal of pinkshirts who will do almost anything to advance their agenda.

Erin Pizzey, founder of the first domestic violence shelter in England, let the cat out of the bag when she revealed many of the women in her shelter were as abusive as the men they had left. In retaliation, feminists issued death threats and eventually forced her to flee the country.

In the United States, Dr. Suzanne Steinmetz’ research on the Battered Husband Syndrome triggered a whispering campaign designed to torpedo her impending promotion, as well as a bomb threat at her daughter’s wedding.

Family violence researcher Murray Straus at the University of New Hampshire has been similarly slandered, harassed, and threatened by radicals who all claim to be against violence.

Eventually the gender partisans got their way, securing passage of the Violence Against Women Act in 1994. Conservative commentator Phyllis Schlafly would later refer to the legislation as the “hate-men law.”

Is that description a little over-the-top? Read on, decide for yourself.

Federal domestic violence laws funnel millions in taxpayer money to sponsor public awareness programs such as the Dallas bus ads, as well as training for judges and law enforcement personnel.

Former police officer George Sperry of La Mesa, Calif. described the training he attended as “so dripping with male hatred that everyone in the class felt uncomfortable, male and female officers alike.”

But the most virulent anti-male ethos is found at the 1,800 abuse shelters scattered across the country.

A former worker at Bethany House in Falls Church, Va. revealed the facility was “largely used as a free hostel for women with emotional problems if they were willing to hate their husbands enough.”

One woman, hired to work for a network of shelters in the St. Louis area, quit in disgust after only a few months because the residents “were subjected to a constant barrage of man-hating lesbian propaganda.”

One Seattle-area judge who served as a member of the advisory committee of a shelter admitted, “I was shocked at the anti-male bias of the ladies who ran the shelter. The only solution championed by the shelter was to get free from that big, malicious male.”

Joy Taylor, former volunteer at a Washington state shelter, found that “Men were always presented as potential abusers; any goodness one might see in them was only temporary.”

Shelter residents also complain of deep-seated anti-male bias.

At Independence House in Hyannis, Mass., Nev Moore disclosed, “Women are ordered to leave their husbands, even in the complete absence of real domestic violence or abuse.”

Former shelter resident Nezha Saad revealed, “exposure to domestic violence audio and visual materials in the shelter has negatively affected my children to the point where even they may now feel that men, in general, are abusive.” Saad demanded that “Justice, not man-hating ideology, must prevail in our justice system.”

But the problem is not just an out-of-control industry that marinates itself in defamatory caricatures of men – the source can be traced to feminist ideology as a whole.

Gloria Steinem once made this breath-taking statement, “The patriarchy requires violence or the subliminal threat of violence in order to maintain itself.” And feminist icon Andrea Dworkin spewed this shocking tirade: “Under patriarchy, every woman’s son is her betrayer and also the inevitable rapist or exploiter of another woman.”

Three years ago the New York Times ran a screed that blamed the problem of domestic violence on “every man and in every class of society.” (All the research shows women are as likely to abuse as men -- www.csulb.edu/~mfiebert/assault.htm -- but goodness gracious, let’s not allow the facts to stand in the way of female empowerment!)

Americans pride ourselves as being open-minded and tolerant. So where did the feminist movement get sidetracked?

Professor Murray Straus, a courageous man who refuses to back down in the face of feminist efforts to squelch his research, explains it this way: “History is full of atrocities carried out in the service of a moral agenda.”

Domestic Violence Industry: Racist


The Family Place, an abuse shelter in Dallas, recently placed race-baiting advertisements on local buses. The ads depict a smiling African-American girl crowned with a tiara who innocently predicts, “One day my husband will kill me.”

Barbara Kay of the National Post charged the ads were “outright lies.” Dallas Morning News columnist James Ragland labeled them “shocking and biased.” Journalist Helen Smith called them “very disturbing hate speech.” And Elizabeth Crawford, president of African-Americans for VAWA Reform, denounced the bus placards as “sexist and racist.”

The Family Place -- funded to the tune of $2.9 million a year and whose director receives an annual compensation package that tops $163,000 -- receives much of its funding from the federal Violence Against Women Act.

So if the Family Place is able to indulge in hurtful racial stereotypes with impunity, what does that say about the domestic violence industry?

There’s no doubt that the abuse industry strives mightily to keep a tight lid on dissent. But a few years ago the Ms. Foundation for Women sponsored a conference probing the effects of intrusive domestic violence programs on inner-city residents.

The Foundation’s tell-all report, “Safety and Justice for All,” reveals that “when state power has been invited into, or forced into, the lives of individuals, it often takes over.” As a result, the “Criminalization of social problems has led to mass incarceration of men, especially young men of color, decimating marginalized communities.”

That’s a strong indictment of a law that was supposed to rid our families of the scourge of violence.

Linda Mills, vice provost of New York University and author of the book Violent Partners, makes the point that our current domestic violence system, designed by college-educated white women, caters mostly to the needs and conveniences of college-educated white women. So it’s no surprise that racial minorities are poorly served.

In Charleston, W.Va., the Domestic Violence Counseling Center specializes in helping minority victims of partner abuse, female and male. But when the Center approached the West Virginia Coalition Against Domestic Violence for support, the answer was a stern “nyet.”

Why? Because the Counseling Center refuses to endorse the radical feminist, anti-male ideology that the West Virginia Coalition imposes on its membership.

A few years ago Tricia Bent-Goodley wrote an article, “Perceptions of Domestic Violence: A Dialogue with African American Women.” Bent-Goodley notes, “Shelters have denied housing to African American women for not sounding fearful enough or sounding too strong….Shelter workers have been found to make assumptions about the mental health needs and safety of the survivor based on this superficial stereotype.”

Angela Mae Kupenda of the Mississippi School of Law voices a similar concern about domestic violence shelters: “In many minds a picture has been painted of Black women as hardened, tough, back-talking, strong, permissive and undeserving of protection.”

These biases eventually affect the persons who are in greatest need of help.

Meagan Copelin, a former resident at the Cherokee Family Violence Center in Canton, Ga. recently contacted me. She revealed Black residents routinely faced discriminatory practices, such as being denied gas vouchers to go look for a job. One staffer “would look as us Blacks like we were horrible,” Copelin said.

Dolores Taylor, a single mom, had a similar experience at the Georgia shelter. “I am writing to you because I have experienced racism from the staff here at CFVC and my departure from this facility is to prevent me from voicing what really takes place here,” Taylor revealed.

When Pearl Williams and her two children arrived at the Martha House in Hamilton, Ontario, they faced a torrent of taunts:“Einy, meiny, miney, moe, catch a…” One co-resident referred to her as “that black bitch,” and a shelter worker told Ms. Williams that she should “learn how to be white.” With that, she took her children in hand and fled the facility. “I swore I’d never go back to another shelter,” Williams told me.

And a few miles down the road, internal racial discord contributed to the decision to shut down the Shirley Samaroo House in Toronto.

So how does the domestic violence industry get away with these travesties? Simple.

The $4 billion-a-year abuse industry has become another self-serving interest group that steadily expands its definition of “domestic violence,” advocates for policies that are out of synch with women’s wishes, and condones racist practices within its own ranks.

That’s an industry that’s overdue for reform.

© 2008 Carey Roberts

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