A feminist decries pacifists' 'rubbish'

"Being that I am pro-war and in favor of the invasion of Iraq, it was also incredibly disturbing to me to see how much modern feminism, especially modern, feminist, large organizations like the National Organization for Women, have allied themselves to antiwar groups," Schreier says. As one recent measure of women's attitudes toward war, a December opinion poll in The Times showed that 52% of American women supported sending U.S. ground troops into a war with Iraq (the figure for men was 64%). The same poll found that 59% of women surveyed (and 69% of men) thought the U.S. "should retain the right to launch a preemptive strike if it feels under threat."

Though Schreier describes herself as a Republican, her political views don't fit snugly into any conventional template. She says she's "in some degree pro-choice" on abortion and "not necessarily part of the [Andrea] Dworkin camp of feminism that sees pornography as inherently evil.... I think that I am part of that generation that sees freedom in all its various forms as an inherently good thing."

Since posting her thoughts about war and feminism earlier this month, Schreier says, she has been getting about 3,500 page views a day -- an "abnormally high" number for her -- and scores of posted comments in reply. That's only a fraction of what top blog sites like Instapundit.com, the "so-called Grand Central Station of Bloggerville," command. But it's much more than the average dead-tree reporter gets in response to a typical newspaper story. Asparagirl.com also was recently cited in the Wall Street Journal's Best of the Web On-Line and has been linked to by better-known bloggers, including writer and conservative provocateur Andrew Sullivan.

Before she became a blogger, Schreier says, she had a Web site up "in some form or another" for about eight years. She'd also edited the online campus newspaper for her alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania.

Then came Sept. 11. "I felt a sense of personal vulnerability living in New York, and I think I found an outlet for that somewhat by writing," Schreier says. Her blog turned a year old in February.

In the throes of blogging ecstasy, Schreier says, she lets her thoughts and opinions flow uncensored -- jokes, expletives and all -- without concern about shaping an online persona. In one entry she raved over Condoleezza Rice's strategic acumen as well as her looks, describing the national security advisor as "hot." Blogs are the perfect example of "the personal is political," she thinks, because they show how one's "political reasoning" interacts with one's life and vice versa.