Just across the AP wire: a group associated with the Ku Klux Klan is planning on staging a protest in support of Augusta National Golf Club during the playing of this year's Masters:
"We intend on making speeches and picketing for the right of the Augusta National Club to include only members of their choice regardless of race, religion, sex or creed,'' said J.J. Harper, identified by the newspaper as the imperial wizard of the American White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.Augusta National spokesman Glenn Greenspan distanced the club from the group that made the permit request Thursday.
"As a result of the controversy created by political activists, a number of organizations, some of them extreme, have sought to voice their political views,'' Greenspan said. "Anyone who knows anything about Augusta National Golf Club or its members knows this is not something the club would welcome or encourage.''
The golf club has been under pressure from Martha Burk, chairwoman of the National Council of Women's Organizations, to admit a woman. Burk has said she will seek a permit to demonstrate during the Masters tournament in April.
"(Augusta National) should not be shocked by the KKK's endorsement,'' Burk told the newspaper. "They have behaved in a manner that attracts this type of support. They are going to have a real circus if this goes on.
This is where things are going to start to get real uncomfortable for Hootie Johnson and the rest of the folks at Augusta. Normally, when the Klan marches, a group of protesters show up to stage a counter-protest, so Burk is right when she says the atmosphere surrounding Augusta this year will resemble a circus -- possibly a violent one. Stay tuned.
UPDATE: Courtesy of the crew over at Sportsfrog we find the following quote from an interview Burk did with the New Yorker (not available online) that tells us all we need to know about her ideas of equality. Here's what she had to say in response to reporter Peter Boyer's question, "Can there exist such a thing as a benign exclusion of one gender or the other in a private social setting?":
"I myself have what I call the 'girls' dinner,'" she said. "Just some of the women in the women's movement, and we get together for dinner. Women in Congress do it, too." The difference, she explained, has to do with the conditioned behavior of men and women. "Here's the difference. And it's interesting that you should ask this, and it
I work in an office that’s 95% women and let me tell you, when women get together men bashing happens all the time! Even when I’ve been with all male groups, I’ve never heard the level (and frequency) of critisicm that these women level at men. Note that Burk is using her imagination to conjure up what men must talk about when there are no women present.
Hmm. All I get out of that quote is that Burk has a warped view of what men talk about when they get together. Beyond that, I’m not seeing what you’re seeing there.
Charles,
The quote was delivered in response to the following question from the New Yorker:
“Can there exist such a thing as a benign exclusion of one gender or the other in a private social setting?”
From Burk’s answer, it’s clear she believes that while it’s quite ok for women to get together without any men around, it isn’t ok for men to do the same thing. Seems like an obvious double standard to me.
Why doesn’t this disgraceful excuse for a human being, Burk, just come out and call all men dogs, relegate them to second-class citizenship, replace the God with the Goddess, and reassure us that due to the male gender’s unfortunate conditioning he shall never have as nice as public restrooms as women. At first I thought this whole flap at Augusta was the biggest non-issue. A private club has a right to include and exclude whoever they choose. But apparently, equality is the last thing on the mind of Ms. Feminazi herself, Burk. Obviously, her anger at years of historical inequality between the genders has clouded any sense of rational and moral thinking. Now, I say dump her and that ingrate who stands her back to the flag off on the next flight over Iraq.