Call it senator Joseph Biden's family secret. He grew up with a
bully-sister. She didn't just boss people around - she beat people up.
Her name was Valerie. She was Joe's younger sister.
How do we know this? Because Mr. Biden, with his usual unblemished
candor, told us. It happened during the Senate hearings held on December
11, 1990 to probe the problem of violence against women. This was
Biden's tell-all:
"In my house, being raised with a sister and three brothers, there was
an absolute - it was a nuclear sanction, if under any circumstances, for
any reason, no matter how justified, even self-defense - if you ever
touched your sister, not figuratively, literally. My sister, who is my
best friend, my campaign manager, my confidante, grew up with absolute
impunity in our household."
And this was the good senator's bell-ringer: "And I have the bruises to
prove it. I mean that sincerely. I am not exaggerating when I say that."
Most politicians who had experienced that type of childhood trauma would
be pushing for a law to protect children from abusive female siblings.
But Mr. Biden's reaction was different -- champion a law designed to
protect women. Call it the Patty Hearst syndrome, in which an abused
person comes to identify with his tormentor.
Why does this matter?
Because thanks to senator Biden's chivalry, taxpayers are now saddled
with a billion-dollar-a-year boondoggle called the Violence Against
Women Act, a law that looks the other way on female batterers and throws
men in jail when they act in self-defense.
Twenty-some years ago, progressive-thinking men began to kow-tow to the
feminist shibboleth that patriarchy was at the root of all of society's
woes. This belief was voiced by the eminent physician Lewis Thomas,
author of The Youngest Science: Notes of a Medicine-Watcher, who floated
this wacko proposal:
"Taking all in all, the history of human governments suggests to me that
the men of the earth have had a long enough run at running things; their
record of folly is now so detailed and documented as to make anyone fear
the future in their hands. It is time for a change. Put the women in
charge, I say. Let us go for a century without men voting, with women's
suffrage as the only suffrage."
Of course, we now have the record of folly when feminists sink their
talons into once-proud organizations like the
World
Health Organization,
Amnesty
International, and even the
Girl
Scouts.
Chivalry has now been transmogrified into a convoluted line of thinking
that reasons, "Yes, we must treat women as equals, so let's enact
another affirmative-action program." Or better yet, "We've never had a
female president, so this time it's their turn."
This inflated sense of chivalry also runs rampant in the legal system,
which operates by the unspoken code that women who come before the court
always should be given a second chance.
You may remember Debra Lafave who was accused of having sex with a
14-year-old student. A few weeks ago Florida prosecutors announced their
plan to drop the case. Miss Lafave is
now
negotiating a lucrative book deal.
Ladies used to express appreciation to men who extended acts of courtesy
and respect. And fortunately most still do.
But feminists came along and did a double-cross. First they played on
men's innate sense of chivalry to enact laws and policies that grant
women unfair advantage. Then they turned around and claimed chivalry
only put a happy-face on gender oppression.
Columnist Selwyn Duke
reveals the formula:
"preach equality, accept
favoritism, win with stacked decks, pretend you had no advantage, then
rub salt into the wound."
Another version of the ruse is to claim that men and women are equally
chivalrous. Funny, I've never heard of a female soldier who charged into
a fusillade with the blood-curdling cry, "Death before dishonor."
And some women will pretend that chivalry doesn't exist, but never
hesitate to cash in on a free dinner from her latest heartthrob.
Back in Delaware, chivalry is alive and well. Valerie Biden Owens, now
employed at a high-powered political consulting firm, continues as to
serve as one of senator Biden's closest political confidantes.
This past November, young Joseph "Beau" Biden, III announced his plan to
run for attorney general of Delaware. And guess who he picked as
his
campaign manager? Missy Owens, daughter of Valerie.
Joey junior is proud to operate at the behest of a woman's machinations.
As he recently announced, "We Biden men know it's the Biden women who
really run the show."
Like father, like son.
Carey Roberts 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 Alliance.
