The Female of the Species, Updated. (With Apologies to Rudyard Kipling.)

From the Wall Street Journal:  "Investigators probing the couple suspected of the shooting attack in San Bernardino, Calif., last week increasingly believe the wife was the driving force behind the assault . . . Initial evidence suggests Tashfeen Malik may have had a stronger bond than her husband to jihadist ideology, the officials said. The husband, Syed Farook, appears to have been someone who was curious but not particularly driven on his own to support terror groups, these officials said."

    WHEN the Afghan peasant meets the he-bear in his awful pride,
    He shouts to scare the monster, who will often turn aside.
    But the she-bear thus accosted rends the peasant tooth and nail.
    For the female of the species is more deadly than the male.

Man's timid heart is bursting with the things he must not do,
    but the Woman that God gave him will not sit around and chew;
    So when soldier meets with husband, each confirms the other's tale—
    The female of the species is more deadly than the male.

Fear, or foolishness, impels him, ere he lay opponents low,
    To concede some form of trial even to his fiercest foe.
    Sloth obscene diverts his anger—Doubt and Pity oft perplex
    Him in dealing with an issue—to the scandal of The Sex!

    But the Woman that God gave him, every fibre of her frame
    Proves her launched for one sole issue, armed and panting for the same;
    And to serve that single purpose, lest the generations fail,
    The female of the species must be deadlier than the male.

She is wedded to convictions—not her husband's weaker ties;
    Her contentions are her offspring, Heaven help him who denies!—
    He will meet no soft discussion, but the instant, white-hot, wild,
    Wrathful female of the species warring as for spouse and child.

So it comes that Man, the coward, when he gathers to confer
    With his fellow-slobs in council, dare not leave a place for her
    Where, at war with Life and Conscience, he uplifts his sinful hands
    To some God of kindly Justice—which no woman understands.

    And Man knows it! Knows, moreover, that the Woman that God gave him
    Must command behind the scenes—shall enthral and then enslave him.
    And She knows, because She warns him, and Her instincts never fail,
    That the Female of Her Species is more deadly than the Male.