"Get Back in Line, Or We Will Destroy You"

I haven't had much time to post here lately. No, I haven't been on the Great American Road Trip in my little beater Ford, now that I can drive one, but things have been busy. I took my son to see the pediatric neurologist 150 miles away -- not in the beater Ford, because I don't feel that comfortable getting on and off the highway yet, but on the Greyhound bus; I spent a few days with my ailing mother; and I finished the first part of a scholarly writing project that I'm trying to get under control before we have Jude (we still don't have a travel date).

I'm really only here now because I wanted to link to The Anchoress's trenchant analysis of the Susan G. Komen fiasco. The truth is that Planned Parenthood leaked the news that Komen was defunding them, and then used it as a major fundraising opportunity of their own: 

And so, like a good but weak soldier, Komen has essentially destroyed itself: hardline leftists will never forgive it; hardline rightists will never trust it. But feel a little sorry for Komen. They were trying to do the better thing, and they got mauled for it. They’re not cowards, they just weren’t strong. Not everyone can face the lions, especially if they’re being pounced on in their first steps.

I can't help but think that even the most die-hard Planned Parenthood fans might recoil from the bullying tactics, including the menacing, bring-it-on language, that the organization used to force Komen to its knees. But I'm probably wrong about that. It's not just the die-hard fans, after all, but even those who reluctantly accept the fiction that the destruction of human life is a defensible and necessary component of women's self-actualization, who become hardened a little, inured to seemingly small cruelties.