Unwritten but widely understood rule among left wingers for media coverage of filibusters: when done by conservatives, death knell of democracy, obstruction for obstruction's sake, close cousin to fascism; when done by liberals, heroism personified, this is what democracy looks like, cue Jimmy Stewart in "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington."
It wasn't enough for leftward media types to enthuse this week about Texas state senator Wendy Davis's 11-hour filibuster against restrictions on abortion as allowed, inconveniently enough, by Roe v. Wade. Their gushing has extended ... to Davis's choice of footwear, Mizuno Wave Rider 16 running shoes.
Over at TIME magazine's Business & Money site, Brad Tuttle posted a story about Davis's sneakers "getting great reviews" on Amazon, albeit it from "mock reviewers." A sampling --
- Excellent protection for the foot and the womb!
- Guaranteed to outrun patriarchy on race day.- Fits perfectly up a republican's rear end.
- These shoes are a danger to the republic! This is precisely the kind of technology that will enable terrorist women, terrorist gays, terrorist minorities, and other terrorist liberals to endure the long (and getting longer, just you wait) lines at the polls.
Tuttle wrote that "Davis's choice of sneakers has been highlighted everywhere from E! News, to the Associated Press, to the Washington Post, which offered the headline, 'These shoes were made for filibusterin'." Absent from his story were any negative reviews, though in fairness it did not appear there were any when Davis posted his story yesterday. This negative review from "NHurley" appeared today --
Sorry, but politicizing a shoe like this is wrong. Mizuno makes great shoes, but if Mizuno now stands for a political agenda, they're going to lose a lot of customers, myself included.
For the oh-so-enlightened and oh-so-intelligent who are claiming I don't know how uder-generated content works, you may want to read Mizuno's twitter feed, in which they publicly come out in support of Ms. Davis and her position.
Pro-lifers: please contact Mizuno (there's a contact link on their website) and let them know how you feel about their public position on this issue. Mizuno has basically become a sponsor for the pro-abortion movement. Their logo is now the logo of choice of the pro-abortion activists. Let them know that you will not be choosing Mizuno products going forward.
All this attention on Davis's footwear comes across as yet another exercise by liberals during a debate about abortion -- to change the subject from abortion. It starts with their kneejerk retreat into euphemism -- "abortion" itself is banished in favor of "choice," "women's healthcare," and "reproductive freedom," one of those rare instances when liberals don't break out in hives after "freedom" is uttered.
It goes far beyond word choice and extends to the specifics of the debate itself -- to wit, legislation in Texas to ban abortions after 20 weeks (example of question that pro-abortion types squirm to avoid answering -- 20 weeks after what?) and greater state oversight (three words that usually leave liberals weak in the knees), of abortion mills, after the murder convictions of a Philadelphia abortionist who routinely engaged in infanticide, or as deemed by abortion apologists, "private family matters."
Incidentally, those running shoes worn by Davis aren't really pink, contrary to what many have claimed. As Sister Toldjah wrote on her Facebook page, they are more like "rouge red" -- "a color you'd see on abortion room floors."
