Eh?
Instapundit links to
this rebuttal by Matt Yglesias of a
comment by Max Boot in today's LA Times.
Boot said:
Yet I don't recall a single Hollywood feminist expressing gratitude to the U.S. military or its commander in chief for the liberation of Afghan women. No doubt Streisand, Sarandon & Co. were too busy inveighing against the horrors perpetrated by John Ashcroft.
Yglesias responds:
Thanks to the magic of Nexis, I found a December 6, 2001, Guardian article reporting that "Mainstream websites are fairly keen on self-censorship, and include the likes of Barbara Streisand removing anti-Bush remarks in the interests of 'national unity.'" Then there's the Associated Press' coverage of the November 2001 Emmy Awards:
Sunday's show featured a new tribute to entertainers who visit troops during wartime, and included a surprise finale by Barbra Streisand, singing "You'll Never Walk Alone" before a wall decorated with the names of Sept. 11 victims.
(Text that I am quoting is in italics; text that Matt quotes is in boldface)
I guess Matt thinks that removing anti-Bush remarks constitutes an expression of gratitude? And note that Streisand's finale was part of a tribute, not to the US military, but to
entertainers who visit troops during wartime. Praising Bob Hope is not the same thing as praising the troops, however praiseworthy Hope was (very, in my opinion).
The rest of Yglesias' "evidence" of gratitude is more of the same. He mentions a SacBee article about Sarandon doing a benefit for the women of Afghanistan (and also, oddly, for the families of undocumented workers who died in the 9-11 attacks--were there a lot of those?), and a
Feminist Majority page neither of which contain expressions of gratitude to the US military or the Commander in Chief.
