But, do the curtains match the rug?

Morgaine at What She Said points out that the $8,000 spent on curtains at the Justice Department so that John Ashcroft would not have to view the sculpted breasts of the Spirit of Justice are now to be removed. I suspect that Mary Carey's recent popular visit to a GOP fundraiser had something to do with this (why isn't the Christian base upset about Mary Carey being in the GOP? Maybe they think that this porn star is a cocksucker for Christ? Not that there's anything wrong with that, but it does seem to be a tad hypocritical for the party of moral values, as the GOP likes to project itself as, to suddenly embrace - or more - a porn star).

Morgaine, however, has a different take on this:

America suffers from what I like to call Infantile Mammary Obsession. We didn't get enough as babies, so we don't know how to act like adults. See, Nature has Her reasons. Babies are intended to suckle at a soft, warm tit, not gnaw on a hard glass or plastic bottle with a cold, rubber nipple.

You can see where this is heading. It's an amusing thought, if only she were parodying America's obsession with the obsessed Freud. However, Morgaine goes on to say:

When you have a couple of generations of babies growing up without mother's milk, you get all kinds of bizarre behaviors. Men start restaurants like Hooters, and become obsessed with breast size. They spend money on pictures of breasts, give women money to show their breasts, have a freaking seizure if a woman dares to *gasp - breastfeed in public? How DARE she do what Nature intends? What "God" and Gerber hath replaced, let no man have to remember! (He can't have it - it's mine, it's mine, it's mine!)

Again, it's an amusing thought. However, it's off the mark. Men (and women!) have been obsessed with breasts long before Gerber (which was an amusing way of putting it - Morgaine's writing was quite good). A friend of mine, Archie, recently suggested that men have to get over sexualizing a baby feeding organ. It's a similar point to what Morgaine is suggesting. They're both wrong. Men and women have been sexualizing breasts because, and here's the shocker, breasts are not merely milk bottles, but they are also sexual organs. Like the whole of the human, they serve more than one purpose. Breasts feel good and they love to be felt. Some people (men have breasts, too, ya know) like their breasts caressed, pulled one, twisted, nibbled, sucked, and fucked. Some people even get them pierced to, in part, increase stimulation. That sounds to me like it's a bit more complicated than soft warm baby bottles.

While I'm happy to see the curtains at the Justice Department come down (hell, who would've thought that curtains could cost $8,000 anyways?!!?), I think it's safe to say that the reason they went up in the first place is John Ashcroft's Puritanical Christian background and it's obsession with and fear of sexuality. We needn't go further than that. We also don't need to oversimplify human nature in order to make political points.