The things you learn from Whirled Nut Daily

I never sign up for these things, but apparently many people think it's hilarious to give crazy right wing sites my email address, so part of my daily flood of email is crap from places like WorldNetDaily. Most of it just gets a filter entry and I never see it again, but I have a soft spot for WND — it's barking mad, full of the craziest deluded wackos with this strange sense that, since the Bush years, they represent the mainstream. I learn the wildest stuff from their mail.

Did you know that the Girl Scouts are out to turn your daughters into lesbians? It must be true, since WND says it is.

But here's a perfect example of the strangely twisted minds behind WND. In one section, the author is complaining about one of the books the Girl Scouts use, called Girltopia.

In the next age group, for teens in the ninth and tenth grades, girls are taught about wage disparities between the sexes, and a lack of assets and senior management positions held by women.

"Girltopia" poses the questions, "When women don't earn enough, what happens to their children?" and "How could everyone help create a Girltopia?"

Asked what the purpose of including a message of inequality served in the Girl Scout curriculum, Tompkins explained:

It's to show girls what's going on in the country and have them be part of the dialogue. A lot of girls just aren't aware of what's going on. I think that specific topic might be new this year, but in the broader scheme of things, it's not that new. I'm sure it's something that came up in the 1920s as well. Girls Scouting has been around since before women had the right to vote, so I'm sure these discussions were always part of this.

The text praises Renaissance author Sir Thomas More for his book "Utopia," Mary Cavendish for her book "A New World: The Blazing World" about a utopian kingdom and 24-year Executive Director of Rocky Mountain Planned Parenthood and feminist author Sheri S. Tepper for her novel, "The Gate to Women's Country."

"Girltopia" encourages girls to "let songs inspire you," and as some examples, it provides lyrics to songs such as "Independent Women, part 1" by Destiny's Child; "Hammer and a Nail" by the Indigo Girls - an "out" lesbian rock band; and "Imagine" by John Lennon. The curriculum also asks girls to create an avatar "to represent the ideal you in Girltopia" and features "Wild Geese," a short poem by lesbian poet Mary Oliver.

I read that and was thinking that, hey, I'd like to read that — and those sound like strong, positive messages to send out to girls. Be aware of the real problems you face, but stand up for what is right. Good stuff.

 

And then I read WND's assessment of the book…and it's exactly what makes these rascals such a bizarro mirror of the real world.

"This book was so depressing that I don't know what I would have done as a teen reading it," Garibay said. "The sense of hopelessness abounds in 'Girltopia.' The positivity, the enthusiasm and the vigor of youth is completely destroyed by data found to further the Girl Scout USA's feminist agenda. It plants seeds of despair and hopelessness in today's girls."

I don't quite see it. All I learn from WND is that conservatives are obsessed with lesbians, and somehow equate them with despair.