France continues to regard its former West African colonies as its sphere of influence. This video shows their true colors and commitment to human rights.
November 30, 2004
Stealing Childhood?
John Vennochi waxes indignant:
"The crime: stealing childhood, and in this instance stealing it in painful, ugly, public fashion.
"The little girl, around 2 years old, kicked, squirmed, and shrieked in her mother's arms. The mother, old enough to know better, held on tightly, determined to go through with her plan: getting her daughter's ears pierced.
"Piercing screams did not prevent this mom from accomplishing her ear-piercing mission. She carried the girl triumphantly back into the mall, adorned with two tiny gold button earrings -- all the better to show off her wispy blonde curls, red velvet dress, and tiny, teary face."
Two-year olds will scream over a broken crayon or a doll's dress they can't quite manage to get on the doll, or over an inoculation.
So is Vennochi overwrought, waxing indignant over this incident?
One of our daughters got her ears pierced at nine, because she wanted to. The other, older, has no interest in going near the piercing machine.
This event, though, seems to be an imposition by an adult on a child for the sake of the adult's vanity. Sure, we all get pleasure from our kids' finger-paintings, home runs, and even SAT scores.
But we don't own our offspring. In this culture, we no longer force our sons and daughters to marry for our convenience, or to go into the family business if they choose not to. Aside from the fact that we can't easily impose these choices, we see children as free, autonomous beings, whom we protect and discipline, but only partly make in our own image. Ultimately, they are free, and if we're both wise and lucky, we prepare them with enough discipline, and high enough standards, that they can use their freedom well.
Not owning our children, but having them on loan, isn't an easy condition to manage. That said, forcing a frightened two-year-old to get her ears pierced seems unjust to me.
November 29, 2004
A Wise Child
On our family blog (private), I posted a recommendation that people look at this slideshow, a poetic tribute to our troops.
The anti-Bush faction (just about everyone but us) used the occasion to comment on their dislike of the war, W. et al., although they don't hold it against the troops.
My 11-year-old posted this comment:
The anti-Bush faction (just about everyone but us) used the occasion to comment on their dislike of the war, W. et al., although they don't hold it against the troops.
My 11-year-old posted this comment:
I would like to say that I thought it was sweet and that we should forget about all of the politics behind the war. What's done is done and they are there. At this point, we should just be supporting the troops who put their lives on the line for this country even though you may think it isn't necessary. The troops are already there, we should just try to keep them alive and support them. FORGET ABOUT THE POLITICS!
She is a wise child, methinks.
Reread Any Good Books Lately -- Or Ever?
Hugh Hewitt asks here for the blogosphere to name modern novels worth rereading. I guess he means ones we've actually reread.
There was a nomination here of John Kennedy Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces. Hysterically funny, especially if you've been to The Big Easy.
Must be a Pelican State moment, because I had already thought of Robert Penn Warren's All the King's Men. Also a 1949 movie.
This in turn put me in mind of A. J. Liebling's The Earl of Louisiana, which is not a novel but reads like one.
Members of my family have nominated To Kill a Mockingbird, Angela's Ashes, ( a memoir, not a novel, but who cares?), and Body and Soul. I've never read any of these.
Zoë, my eighth-grader, is reading Mockingbird in English class, and is frustrated because they take so long. Zoë devours fantasy books. She's read over 9,000 pages since school started in September. After a bit of cross-examination, she chose Rhapsody, by Elizabeth Haydon, or for a younger child, The Wind Singer by William Nicholson. Zoë has good judgment about these things.
Katharine, the sixth grader, would probably stick with the Harry Potter series as a reread. I'd reread them, too, had I but world enough and time.
There was a nomination here of John Kennedy Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces. Hysterically funny, especially if you've been to The Big Easy.
Must be a Pelican State moment, because I had already thought of Robert Penn Warren's All the King's Men. Also a 1949 movie.
This in turn put me in mind of A. J. Liebling's The Earl of Louisiana, which is not a novel but reads like one.
Members of my family have nominated To Kill a Mockingbird, Angela's Ashes, ( a memoir, not a novel, but who cares?), and Body and Soul. I've never read any of these.
Zoë, my eighth-grader, is reading Mockingbird in English class, and is frustrated because they take so long. Zoë devours fantasy books. She's read over 9,000 pages since school started in September. After a bit of cross-examination, she chose Rhapsody, by Elizabeth Haydon, or for a younger child, The Wind Singer by William Nicholson. Zoë has good judgment about these things.
Katharine, the sixth grader, would probably stick with the Harry Potter series as a reread. I'd reread them, too, had I but world enough and time.
November 28, 2004
Trouble Brewing?
This report is ominous:
"While television cameras have focused on the carnival-like sea of hundreds of thousands of orange-clad protesters in the Ukrainian capital, the blue army of men like Kolukh has been steadily on the march, pouring in by bus and train from the east.
These mostly impoverished miners and industrial workers voted in Ukraine’s disputed presidential election for Viktor Yanukovych, the pro-Russian prime minister who is fighting to hold on to a victory widely condemned as rigged.
Some 20,000 cheered Yanukovych as he called on them to do all in their power to stop a constitutional coup — raising fears, as the standoff entered its seventh day, that the remarkably festive mood in this ancient city could turn violent, with repercussions far beyond Ukraine’s borders."
A civil war or partition could be nasty.
HT: Andrew Stuttaford at The Corner.
Polynesian Update
While similar events unfold in the Ukraine, whose population is 200 times larger and whose weather is 200 times worse, the occupation of the Presidential Palace in Papeete, the capital of Tahiti, continues.
Oscar Temaru, leader of the indpendence movement, is in Paris, as is Gaston Flosse, the Ferdinand Marcos of French Polynesia, Jacques Chirac's poodle. Temaru and Flosse are negotiating with the Chiraqistanis for new elections. Flosse wants them in 18 months, Temaru immediately. Flosse has threatened to cut off the talks and return to Tahiti if the occupation is not suspended. Temaru has appeared to ask his followers to vacate, but they have refused.
We are still waiting for the American gunboats to appear on the horizon and throw the French out.
Frank Rich Drops His Towel
The insufferable Frank Rich, who writes a cultural column for the New York Times (free subscription), were life not short, would deserve a truth squad like his colleague Paul Krugman.
Unlike Krugman, who is a permanent fount of misinformation and spleen, Rich occasionally stumbles upon an insight. So it was on November 28, in this column.
Rich's riff was on the Monday Night football commercial where starlet Nicollette Sheridan appears to have accomplished a seduction of football player Terrell Owens in the locker room, a scene ending with the actress, seen from behind, dropping her towel, leaving a few bits to the imagination.
Now this scene has evoked considerable indignation from some circles, an indignation Rich derides as inconsistent at best and feigned and opportunistic at worst. Rich points out that the soap-comedy-sitcom in which the actress stars, Desperate Housewives, is a big hit, as much in the red states as in the blue, and suggests that those who criticize the football commercial scratch that prurient itch watching the sitcom itself. He also puts in the ritual dig at Rush Limbaugh, whose success and talent have made him the left's favorite whipping boy, pointing out that Rush has had his drug problem and divorces.
On one level, Rich's critique is fair enough. Our culture, including its corporate and commercial side, is saturated with sex, and not just the high-toned variety (think "erotica" as opposed to "porn"). This saturation includes even the MSM (main-stream media), and even football. Rich points to scantily clad cheerleaders and commercials for aphrodisiac drugs. In this light, the noisy reaction to one pre-game bit is either beside the point or hypocritical, argues Rich.
Fair enough. But Rich stops there. He does not address at least two issues.
First, as Dennis Prager points out here, there's a difference between public and private displays. The issue is not whether Terrell Owens and Nicollette Sheridan indulge in a bit of hanky-panky, but whether they display it on prime time to an audience of millions who have not necessarily chosen to see this particular type of display.
People get naked and do the nasty. People relieve themselves. Except in selected venues, where the audience know what it is getting, these are private matters, and there's a great deal to be said for their remaining so.
Hypocrisy? Not necessarily. My father used to say that there are no dirty words, just words that are out of place. Soil in the garden is a blessing, but on the living room carpet it's just dirt. Although some of the same people who are offended by the Sheridan's towel drop don't want their children to learn about birth control even if the girls end up pregnant when abstinence education fails, others just want their prurient interest scratched constantly and in public.
Second, the noise about the NFL commercial is not necessarily hypocrisy, but a surrogate for a general concern about the coarsening of the culture. A generation ago, feminists made great noises about the "objectification" of women and the commercial exploitation of sex. Some of this noise was traditional pecksniffery disguised in avant-garde clothing, but it also made a reasonable argument for respecting women as whole human beings – in short, for public decency.
The culture has been coarsened and just because I say so I'm neither Bin Laden nor a Jerry Falwell.
There is a mass culture, and Proust, Joseph Beuys, and Penderecki will never replace it, which is probably just as well. But is it exploiting sex, violence, and various stupid ideas to a fault? Rich doesn't address the issue. He's content to mock the critics of the NFL episode. Easy enough, but beside the point, and par for the course.
Unlike Krugman, who is a permanent fount of misinformation and spleen, Rich occasionally stumbles upon an insight. So it was on November 28, in this column.
Rich's riff was on the Monday Night football commercial where starlet Nicollette Sheridan appears to have accomplished a seduction of football player Terrell Owens in the locker room, a scene ending with the actress, seen from behind, dropping her towel, leaving a few bits to the imagination.
Now this scene has evoked considerable indignation from some circles, an indignation Rich derides as inconsistent at best and feigned and opportunistic at worst. Rich points out that the soap-comedy-sitcom in which the actress stars, Desperate Housewives, is a big hit, as much in the red states as in the blue, and suggests that those who criticize the football commercial scratch that prurient itch watching the sitcom itself. He also puts in the ritual dig at Rush Limbaugh, whose success and talent have made him the left's favorite whipping boy, pointing out that Rush has had his drug problem and divorces.
On one level, Rich's critique is fair enough. Our culture, including its corporate and commercial side, is saturated with sex, and not just the high-toned variety (think "erotica" as opposed to "porn"). This saturation includes even the MSM (main-stream media), and even football. Rich points to scantily clad cheerleaders and commercials for aphrodisiac drugs. In this light, the noisy reaction to one pre-game bit is either beside the point or hypocritical, argues Rich.
Fair enough. But Rich stops there. He does not address at least two issues.
First, as Dennis Prager points out here, there's a difference between public and private displays. The issue is not whether Terrell Owens and Nicollette Sheridan indulge in a bit of hanky-panky, but whether they display it on prime time to an audience of millions who have not necessarily chosen to see this particular type of display.
People get naked and do the nasty. People relieve themselves. Except in selected venues, where the audience know what it is getting, these are private matters, and there's a great deal to be said for their remaining so.
Hypocrisy? Not necessarily. My father used to say that there are no dirty words, just words that are out of place. Soil in the garden is a blessing, but on the living room carpet it's just dirt. Although some of the same people who are offended by the Sheridan's towel drop don't want their children to learn about birth control even if the girls end up pregnant when abstinence education fails, others just want their prurient interest scratched constantly and in public.
Second, the noise about the NFL commercial is not necessarily hypocrisy, but a surrogate for a general concern about the coarsening of the culture. A generation ago, feminists made great noises about the "objectification" of women and the commercial exploitation of sex. Some of this noise was traditional pecksniffery disguised in avant-garde clothing, but it also made a reasonable argument for respecting women as whole human beings – in short, for public decency.
The culture has been coarsened and just because I say so I'm neither Bin Laden nor a Jerry Falwell.
There is a mass culture, and Proust, Joseph Beuys, and Penderecki will never replace it, which is probably just as well. But is it exploiting sex, violence, and various stupid ideas to a fault? Rich doesn't address the issue. He's content to mock the critics of the NFL episode. Easy enough, but beside the point, and par for the course.
November 27, 2004
A Worm in the Ukrainian Apple?
This story suggests pure optimism about the situation in the Ukraine may not be justified:
"But Ukraine, a country bigger than France with a population of 47 million, is not the Czech Republic. Its history of independence is sporadic and, crucially, it borders Russia and hosts that nation's warm-water fleet.
"Neither is it Romania. Leonid Kuchma, the man who has ruled the country with a rod of steel for most of its post-Soviet period of independence, is no Nicolae Ceausescu. He may stand accused of bribery, corruption, stifling authoritianism and complicity in the murder of a critical journalist. But he is by no means a universal figure of hatred; he commands serious respect among large swathes of the populace.
"Nor is the country united. It is in fact implacably divided, with the Dnipro river serving as a fault line that splits the country almost exactly in half. The more Russified east backs Mr Yanukovych, and the west and centre, which sees the country's future in the EU, supports Mr Yushchenko. Watching dramatic images of fired-up Yushchenko supporters marching through the streets of Kiev is arresting, but similar scenes are being played out in pro-Yanukovych strongholds. Yesterday, hundreds of thousands of his voters took to the streets of Donetsk.
"The 'Czechoslovakia scenario' is therefore never far from people's minds, with many Ukrainians fearing the political crisis could cause the country to split into two new states or prompt entire regions such as the Crimea to secede."
We'll see. Whether the European Union wants an impoverished nation of 46 million people is also a question.
If they're going to have mass immigration, which seem likely given the population decline, better Ukrainians than North Africans, who harbor an Islamist minority.
The Best of Times
Sometimes there is good news.
The Ukraine, which suffered through Stalin's mass famines, the Second World War, and only recently became independent, has been ruled by a post-communist mafia.
Recent elections have led to a crisis as hundreds of thousands took to the street to protest the mafia's attempt to steal the election. So far, the protests have been both massive and peaceful, and the U.S. and Europe have weighed in on the side of the democratic opposition.
It's not clear how things will turn out, but no one seems to want things to sink into violence. Let us hope the Ukraine's sad history changes, and like Poland and the Baltic States, this large and important country becomes freer and more prosperous.
The Ukraine, which suffered through Stalin's mass famines, the Second World War, and only recently became independent, has been ruled by a post-communist mafia.
Recent elections have led to a crisis as hundreds of thousands took to the street to protest the mafia's attempt to steal the election. So far, the protests have been both massive and peaceful, and the U.S. and Europe have weighed in on the side of the democratic opposition.
It's not clear how things will turn out, but no one seems to want things to sink into violence. Let us hope the Ukraine's sad history changes, and like Poland and the Baltic States, this large and important country becomes freer and more prosperous.
November 25, 2004
Thankfulness
My 11-year old's one-sentence recital of what she's thankful for:
"I am thankful for my family, friends, food, technology, freedom, nature, rights, choices, love, and school."
'Nuff said.
November 22, 2004
These People are Nuts
This story shows how nutty multicultural-secular-progressive-yadda-yadda school administrators have gotten:
Maryland public school students are free to thank anyone they want while learning about the 17th century celebration of Thanksgiving - as long as it's not God.
Whether one is religious or not, you can't be true to history without teaching that the Pilgrims were dissenting Protestants, highly religious, and Thanksgving was created and evolved with a religious meaning.
To tell the story otherwise is a lie. There's always been an "official story" taught in the schools, but to teach that Thanksgiving wasn't about thanking a Protestant God is just a lie.
One lesson I've learned as a parent is don't lie.
Here's more detail on the Pilgrims and days of Thanksgiving.
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