Culture Archives

January 11, 2004

What's The Rush?

Over the past four decades -- from the Summer of Love to the Bratz Kids -- our children have been under increasing pressure to become aggressively sexual earlier and earlier. Little girls who aren't even in middle school start wearing makeup and getting expensive hairdos, and now parents are taking it to another level: To celebrate her birthday, Lauren Potter decided to spring for a day at the spa. She and a friend, Ana Zdechlik, spent an afternoon getting facials, manicures and pedicures. They ended the day by having their hair spiked. Such birthday luxuries are not uncommon, except for one thing: Both girls are 11. ... [T]eens and "tweens" (10-to 12-year-olds bursting to be older) can get a French Upgrade or Glitter Topcoat for their nails, a chin wax job, Blemish Blaster Facial, eyelash and eyebrow tint or paraffin foot dip. They can also get a temporary henna tattoo...

January 13, 2004

It's Your Fault I Was An Idiot

Sometimes I wonder what attraction a nanny-state society holds for people who think for themselves ... and then I'm reminded that some people don't think things through at all, and want a big mommy to make everyone give you do-overs: A 55-year-old man is suing a local church because it won't give back a $126,000 donation he gave during a deep depression five years ago. ... After five months of antidepressants and counseling, Mager said he asked for the money back. But leaders at the Cloquet Gospel Tabernacle church said no. They had already used the money for new family ministry space. ... Mager's change of heart is confounding to church leaders because the letter he sent with the cashier's check seemed so genuine, Doebler said. "He felt some remorse for some past actions and he wanted to make it right with God,'' Doebler said, recounting the letter. "At the...

January 20, 2004

McSnake!

From the land of blue-sky lawsuits, the Pioneer Press reports on one of the sillier examples to grace our court system: Joanne Borgerding was sitting in a packed Eagan McDonald's at lunchtime, eating a chicken sandwich and reading a book when something moved beneath her booth. Dancing in the air by her legs were "little movable eyes" that were attached to a dark, 2-foot-long snake. "I looked face to face at it," Borgerding said. "I know people in the drive-up heard me — I screamed that loud." Borgerding also flew out of her booth and in the process injured her foot so badly that she says she has permanent nerve damage. She asked McDonald's insurance company to pay her medical bills, but the company denied her claims, she said. Now she is seeking in excess of $50,000 in a personal injury complaint that she expects to file in Dakota County...

January 22, 2004

NY Times: Choice Is Bad

Barry Schwartz, a professor of psychology at Swarthmore College, penned an article for today's New York Times op-ed section warning against the pitfalls of too much choice: [T]here is growing evidence that the emotional logic (the psycho-logic) is deeply flawed. Indeed, for many people, increased choice can lead to a decrease in satisfaction. Too many options can result in paralysis, not liberation. You may want to think of this as the "Moscow on the Hudson" syndrome; in that movie, a Russian refugee has an anxiety attack when asked to go to an American supermarket for coffee ... and sees an entire aisle of choices. In fact, Schwartz uses similar examples when making his case: • Sheena Iyengar and Mark Lepper, psychologists at Columbia and Stanford respectively, have shown that as the number of flavors of jam or varieties of chocolate available to shoppers is increased, the likelihood that they will...

January 23, 2004

Saluting A Better Captain, Gone To a Better Place

Sadly, an icon of children's entertainment has passed away; Bob Keeshan, better known as Captain Kangaroo, died at age 76: Bob Keeshan, the television producer who created and ultimately became beloved children's personality Captain Kangaroo, has died. Keeshan, who was born in Lynbrook, Long Island, was 76. Keeshan began his career by creating the character of Clarabell the Clown for the 'Howdy Doody Show.' He used that children's show experience to mold Captain Kangaroo, winning over generations of children and their parents through innovative approaches to interesting topics. As the easy-going Captain with his big pockets and his bushy mustache, Keeshan lured children into close engagement with literature, science and especially music, adopting an approach which mixed pleasure and pedagogy. Keeshan's approach represented a rejection of pressures towards the increased commercialization of children's programming as well as a toning-down of the high volume, slapstick style associated with earlier kid show...

February 11, 2004

Maybe This Explains His Attraction to Saddam

Apparently, marrying oneself to a dead partner is something of a French pastime: Dressed in a demure black suit, a 35-year-old Frenchwoman has married her dead boyfriend, an exchange of vows that required authorization from President Jacques Chirac. ... Such marriages are legal if the living spouse can prove the couple had intended to marry before the other died. The French president must also authorize it. I don't know what's more disturbing (with apologies to Mme. Demichel) -- that a woman would pursue such a course of action when her "groom" has been dead for 17 months, or that approval of such unions is an official duty of the French President. I hadn't realized how ingrained the notion of useless marriage was to the French, but it does explain why they insist that we are still partners even after they've plunged the knife in our backs....

February 26, 2004

"You Only Lose People You Thought Were Friends"

That doesn't mitigate the pain of finding out that the friend you thought you had values his/her politics more than they do you. They value their undisturbed environment of outrage and victimization than they do your love and support. And that hurts.

February 28, 2004

Remember This When Hollywood Speaks Out

In an election year -- and are we having any other kind of years lately? -- we regularly get a large dose of insufferable condescension and demagoguery from our entertainers in Hollywood about how we should think, vote, and live our lives. Luminaries such as Barbra Streisand, Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins, and Sean Penn instruct and scold us on issues such as foreign policy and law enforcement without a whit of common sense or personal experience. Sean Penn travels to Iraq as a guest of the genocidal government and wonders why we want to get rid of Saddam Hussein. For those still inclined to see Hollywood as a place where people go to become enlightened, a sort of Taos On The Sea, this article from today's Telegraph should disabuse you of any notion of intelligence among the power brokers and talent elite: Few seemed dulled by the alcohol they had...

March 4, 2004

How The Left Lost Younger Voters

Glenn Reynolds notes an article from Reason which reviews the new book from Danny Goldberg, Dispatches from the Culture Wars: How the Left Lost Teen Spirit. In the Reason review, David Weigel rightly skewers Goldberg's analysis that the problem is one of marketing instead of policy and Goldberg's insistence that musical tastes are particularly revealing of political philosophy: Convinced of the righteousness and appeal of Democratic policies, Goldberg skips over whether those policies might be the problem. Instead, for him, its all about effective advertising. He believes that a majority, especially a majority of young people, will rally around, say, abortion rights, affirmative action, and soak-the-rich taxes as long as theyre slickly packaged via pop culture. Thus, Goldbergs Big Idea is a progressive reconquista of pop culture. Embrace Bill Clintons "boxers or briefs" MTV interview, and be irreverent. Join forces with the hip-hop stars whom Al Sharpton is taking for...

March 11, 2004

To Boldly Go Where Grandma Goes Every Weekend

Somehow, this story gives little hope to this one-time Star Trek fan: The Borg is about to attempt to assimilate Las Vegas -- and if the invasion is a success, the alien collective may not only breathe new life into one of that city's tourist attractions but also could help to rescue the fading "Star Trek" franchise. On March 18 at the Las Vegas Hilton, Paramount Parks will open "Star Trek: Borg Invasion 4D," a state-of-the-art attraction replaces the six-year-old "Star Trek: The Experience." Like the Borg itself -- part machine and part living organism -- the new attraction is a hybrid, part ride and part movie. As the attraction's visitors tour a futuristic research facility, the drones of the Borg collective will try to capture them using 24th century technology. In the movie portion, the Borg queen, played by "Star Trek: First Contact's" Alice Krige, attempts to assimilate the...

March 26, 2004

My Nominee for the PC Awards

Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, will likely be excoriated by the lords of politically correctness for a speech he gave yesterday in Rome -- but more voices need to be added to Lord Carey's if we are to prevail in the war on terror: Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, launched a trenchant attack on Islamic culture last night, saying it was authoritarian, inflexible and under-achieving. In a speech that will upset sensitive relations between the faiths, he denounced moderate Muslims for failing unequivocally to condemn the "evil" of suicide bombers. He attacked the "glaring absence" of democracy in Muslim countries, suggested that they had contributed little of major significance to world culture for centuries and criticised the Islamic faith. Carey only says what is objectively true on its face: the Muslim world, with the notable exception of Turkey and perhaps Indonesia, has not progressed and in...

May 2, 2004

Harvard Academic Work Not Difficult Enough

Apparently, the scholastic work at Harvard must be a breeze these days, as the student body and the administration has plenty of time to wrangle with issues such as these during the run-up to finals: Harvards lack of gender non-specific bathrooms has caused transgender and gender-variant students to alter eating and drinking habits and suffer severe cases of dehydration, according to a report released yesterday by the Bisexual, Gay, Lesbian, Transgender, and Supporters Alliance (BGLTSA). ... Members of BGLTSA issued four major requests in connection with the study: the neutralization of all gender-specific, single occupancy bathrooms; proper labeling and designation of all bathrooms; inclusion of at least one acceptable gender non-specific bathroom in any future buildings; and immunity from disciplinary action for using a bathroom that a student deems appropriate for his or her gender. Twenty years ago, this article would have appeared in the Lampoon instead of the Crimson,...

June 22, 2004

A Young Protestor's Story

Many people, especially in the media, comment that this generation lacks either courage or convictions. However, as we can see in our men and women in the armed forces, that certainly cannot be true; too many of them have voluntarily put their lives on the line in defense of freedom and their country. Ah, but that's a small percentage, naysayers will tell you. Universities and colleges abound with apathy or worse, as activists seem to fade from sight. Perhaps they're fading because people don't want to hear the message they support. Longtime reader Brian Scott e-mailed me today with the story of Bryan Henderson, a high-school conservative who decided to risk the wrath of his classmates and his teachers to protest the leftist indoctrination he received at school: At the end of the day, my fellow PW chapter members and I felt it was time to fight back and strike...

June 30, 2004

2Pac Or Not 2Pac? That's The Quizzle. Word.

Michelle Malkin, one of my favorite writers, notes the summer reading list from a Worcester school district now includes the poetry of hate incitement: Have you checked your child's summer reading list? Beware: Some lame-brained school officials have decided to ditch the sonnets of Shakespeare for the tripe of Tupac. That's slain gangsta rapper Tupac Shakur -- the drug-dealing, baseball bat-wielding, cop-hating, Black Panthers-worshiping, convicted sexual abuser who made a fortune extolling the "thug life" before he was gunned down in Las Vegas eight years ago. ... Frances Arena, manager of curriculum and professional development of the Worcester Public Schools, told me this week that Shakur's book will remain on the list for the foreseeable future because it "heightens awareness of character education" and, more importantly, because it's "popular with the kids." If that's the standard, why not just drop the pretense of academic instruction and assign them comic books...

July 1, 2004

Hey Diddle Diddle, The Moore Jumped Over The Shark

Over the past twenty-four hours, it's become obvious that the credibility of Michael Moore even among his natural allies has diminished to near zero. Last night Newsweek blew apart the central thesis of his paean to conspiracy-theory paranoia, Fahrenheit-9/11, by utterly refuting the notion that the Saudis had bought the entire Bush family in the 1990s. Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball, no right-wing apologists, did that with simple research and understanding of the calendar. Now today, two major opinion columnists on the Left have shredded Moore's tactics and conclusions even more vociferously than the deferential Isikoff and Hosenball. First, Richard Cohen writes of Moore's film in today's Washington Post (via Memeorandum): I brought a notebook with me when I went to see Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11" and in the dark made notes before I gave up, defeated by the utter stupidity of the movie. ... Moore's depiction of why Bush...

July 2, 2004

Cosby Wasn't Just Speaking To Blacks

The news media was buzzing last night as Bill Cosby's caustic address to the Rainbow-PUSH Coalition conference sped around the country. Cosby, who has dropped his normally humorous approach of late and has taken to scolding and shaming audiences, told people that their problems were primarily of their own making, and to quit spouting excuses -- lessons that apply far more broadly than most analysts give Cosby credit. Like most outlets, the AP repeatedly emphasized the ethnicity of the attendees: Bill Cosby went off on another tirade against the black community Thursday, telling a room full of activists that black children are running around not knowing how to read or write and "going nowhere." He also had harsh words for struggling black men, telling them: "Stop beating up your women because you can't find a job." Cosby made headlines in May when he upbraided some poor blacks for their grammar...

July 8, 2004

Rall And Ehrenreich Guard The Plantation Perimeters

Michelle Malkin erupts in fury to the latest Ted Rall outrage, in which he calls Condi Rice George Bush's "house n***a" and has another African-American character demanding that she surrender her hair straightener. Rall, whose idiocy is so well-documented that it's almost not worth this much commentary, takes it upon his own lily-white tucchus to determine the authenticity of Rice's blackness, simply based on her political point of view. He calls her a hypocrite, which is pretty damned funny coming from an unreconstructed Marxist who nevertheless makes himself a good living selling his intellectual property. In Rall's world, apparently African-Americans are only honest if they adhere to the radical-leftist line. Michelle gives Rall both barrels: Show us more of your assininity, Ted. Keep dropping your rhetorical pants. Which other minority public figures do you want to mock for having straightened hair? Colin Powell's wife? Beyonce? Coretta Scott King? Which other...

August 16, 2004

Maybe The Windsors Should Take Up A New Hobby

The London Guardian reports today on what appears to be an ongoing albatross for the Royal Family -- their prized art collection. Don't get me wrong; I'm sure it's lovely, and they have every right to it, but it just seems to attract the worst luck these days: They have survived Cromwell, the Blitz and the close attentions of a Soviet spy. But now one of the Queen's prized paintings has fallen prey to an unexpected danger: a policeman determined to protect the Royal Collection. The unnamed officer was attempting to close a window in St James's Palace when he tumbled from a chair, pulling down curtains and tearing a sizable hole at the heart of a large oil painting. ... "To get leverage he stood on a chair, but it collapsed, sending him flying. He flung out his arm, grabbed the curtains and landed in a heap of drapes,"...

August 17, 2004

Sitzpinkler: Your CQ Word Of The Day

Just when you thought that the Japanese had the market cornered on weird inventions, the Germans have asserted their industrial might to push ahead. Well, German women have pushed ahead, anyway: German men are being shamed into urinating while sitting down by a gadget which is saving millions of women from cleaning up in the bathroom after them. The WC ghost, a 6 voice-alarm, reprimands men for standing at the lavatory pan. It is triggered when the seat is lifted. The battery-operated devices are attached to the seats and deliver stern warnings to those who attempt to stand and urinate (known as "Stehpinkeln"). Lest you think that Anglo-American men have nothing to worry about, the Brunhilde women plan on making English-language versions available. English-speaking men may soon be interrupted in the lavatory by the sound of the quintessential American male role model insisting that the guys take it like a...

November 16, 2004

ACLU Succeeds In Attack On Boy Scouts

The ACLU has won another victory against that oppressive paramilitary organization that threatens the liberty of every American. Branch Davidians? Al Qaeda? The Vibe Awards? No -- the Boy Scouts. The Pentagon settled a lawsuit with the ACLU by ordering its bases not to officially sponsor any Scout group as long as the organization requires a belief in God: The settlement, announced Monday, came in a 1999 lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, which says American military units have sponsored hundreds of Boy Scout troops. "If our Constitution's promise of religious liberty is to be a reality, the government should not be administering religious oaths or discriminating based on religious beliefs," said ACLU lawyer Adam Schwartz. The Pentagon said it has long had a rule against sponsorship of non-federal organizations and denied that the rule had been violated. But it agreed to send a message to...

November 18, 2004

Banning The Bell: National Chains Disconnect From The Communities They Serve

The Boston Globe reported yesterday that the Salvation Army, the pre-eminent charity for supporting the most downtrodden among us, can no longer ring its bells or put its trademark red kettles outside Target or Best Buy stores as the national chains get positively Grinchy about their no-solicitation policies: As the Salvation Army kicks off its annual red-kettle program today, a growing number of retailers, from Best Buy to Target, are banning Salvation Army bell ringers from their doors -- to avoid having to choose between competing charities and out of concern for customers, they say. That's created a schism in the retail world, with rival chains banking on kettle-carrying volunteers to set them apart as more civic-minded. Hugh Hewitt wound up devoting almost all of his radio show last night to this topic, as listeners overwhelmingly reacted negatively to this new policy. Most of the ire was directed at Target,...

November 25, 2004

President's Thanksgiving Day Proclamation

President George Bush issued this proclamation for the holiday, titled In Focus: Thanksgiving 2004. All across America, we gather this week with the people we love to give thanks to God for the blessings in our lives. We are grateful for our freedom, grateful for our families and friends, and grateful for the many gifts of America. On Thanksgiving Day, we acknowledge that all of these things, and life itself, come from the Almighty God. Almost four centuries ago, the Pilgrims celebrated a harvest feast to thank God after suffering through a brutal winter. President George Washington proclaimed the first National Day of Thanksgiving in 1789, and President Lincoln revived the tradition during the Civil War, asking Americans to give thanks with "one heart and one voice." Since then, in times of war and in times of peace, Americans have gathered with family and friends and given thanks to God...

November 26, 2004

A Tale Of Two Mercenaries, Not One

The ABC News Show 20/20 featured a story last week on campus cheaters -- those who pay others to do their work while collecting their degrees. The Scotsman highlights one of the cheaters, Wal-Mart heiress Paige Laurie, who sailed through the University of Southern California by hiring Elena Martinez to do her work: Elena Martinez, her former room-mate at the University of Southern California, claims Ms Laurie paid her $20,000 over three years to write essays and complete assignments on her behalf, freeing the tycoons daughter for celebrity engagements. "I thought about quitting a lot of times, but I didnt know how. I was dealing with someone really powerful," Ms Martinez told ABC televisions 20/20 programme. "I rarely got a bad grade, but if I did, shed say, this was horrible. She was pretty picky." ... Her alleged fraud began one night during her first term in 2000, when she...

December 6, 2004

The Swiss Mapplethorpe?

The Swiss have entered political territory familiar to many Americans about the role of government in supporting the arts, especially when artists go out of their way to repulse and insult their sponsor. AFP reports that Pro-Helvetica, the Swiss arts council, faces demands for cuts in funding after presenting a controversial and tasteless display in Paris: An exhibition at Switzerland's cultural centre in Paris, which sheds the more common image of orderly Swiss society in favour of political rebellion and a vomiting actor, triggered an uproar in Switzerland. The "Swiss-Swiss democracy" exhibition by avant-garde artist Thomas Hirschhorn, which opened in the French capital over the weekend, includes photographic paste-ups, graffiti slogans and tracts. It also features an actor feigning vomiting while another urinates on the photograph of the right-wing Swiss justice minister, Christoph Blocher. It typifies the artistic communities in both countries that they only honor the process of democracy...

December 8, 2004

Being The Wrong Crowd

Today's Star-Tribune runs a cautionary tale for teenagers who think that their behavior has no consequences. Unfortunately for one Minnesota teen, his night of debauchery and crime left him permanently disabled and fortunate not to be dead. His so-called friends showed their true colors the moment things went sour -- demonstrating exactly why parents warn their children about running with the wrong crowd: Minutes after he was thrown from a stolen car and paralyzed after a night of drinking and joyriding, the teenage boy begged his buddies not to leave him behind in a roadside ditch. "Please don't leave me here to die," the 14-year-old from Stewartville, Minn., pleaded with friends, according to a police report. But that's what they did, according to a juvenile petition filed in Mower County this week charging four teenage boys with felonies in connection with the Nov. 4 incident near Racine, Minn. The 14-year-old...

December 10, 2004

Too Much Time On Their Hands

The Washington Times writes today about the emergence of a sport that features television coverage, enthusiast associations, and high-stakes gambling. Look out, ESPN poker challenges, here comes ... Rock, Paper, Scissors? A 33-year-old body piercer from the District, he is better known as Master Roshambollah, perhaps the most feared Rock Paper Scissors player in the world. Fear being a relative term. Crushing with a fist, cutting with extended fingers, smothering with a flat hand, Mr. Simmons has thrown down for money and sport, in bars and, well, bigger bars. And he's not alone. Long regarded as the civilized way of settling life's thorniest conundrums such as who pays for the next round Rock Paper Scissors is evolving into something else entirely: a genuine, bona fide, almost legitimate sport, sans the towel doffing, fan pummeling and steroid injecting common to its more celebrated peers. The World Rock Paper Scissors...

December 11, 2004

Taipei Tiring Of Brinksmanship?

Taiwan's pro-independence parties suffered a defeat in legislative election yesterday, a result sure to please mainland China and a signal that the Taiwanese may be tiring of the adversarial tone between the two Chinese nations: The coalition that included President Chen Shui-bian's party had been widely favored to win control of the legislature. But the opposition rallied, keeping its grip on parliament. The opposition won 90 of the 176 seats that are directly elected by voters, while the president's group won 76 seats, the Central Election Commission said. The remaining 10 seats were still unconfirmed, the commission said. ... Since he was elected in 2000, the Taiwanese president has repeatedly urged Chinese leaders to meet with him. They've rejected his invitations because Chen has refused to endorse their view that Taiwan is part of "one China." Chen has been telling voters that Chinese leaders will be more willing to talk...

December 19, 2004

Killing Them With Kindness

Nelson Mandela has created a tradition for South African Christmases where he and his wife throw a large party and hand out gifts to any children who attend -- usually the poor. Unfortunately, South Africa has no shortage of poverty, as Eastern Cape police discovered: A children's Christmas party given by former South African President Nelson Mandela was thrown into chaos after thousands turned up for free gifts. Police fought to hold back up to 75,000 children and adults attempting to get into the venue in Mr Mandela's home village of Qunu, Eastern Cape. Police said they were unprepared for the massive surge. No-one was injured. What did Mandela have to say to this tidal wave of children descending upon his party? Not much, considering he absented himself from the proceedings, although for perfectly understandable reasons: his son is critically ill and he's staying at his bedside. The rational action...

December 23, 2004

I'm Siding With The Feminists On This One

Today's Opinion Journal reports on a strange Austrian custom whose time has surely passed -- The Krampus Run. This may sound like a bowel disorder to American ears, but to Salzburg natives, the Krampus rampage represents a cherished if chaotic Christmas tradition ... but the mayhem aims squarely at women, in what seems to be celebration of male rage: The Krampus is to Salzburg what the bull is to Pamplona, an oversized beast that sends an adrenaline rush of terror through the cobblestone streets of the old town, all in the name of cultural heritage. For a full week during the start of the holiday season, scores of Krampuses stalk the cobbled ways of Salzburg and its surrounding villages. The Krampus is a hybrid-beast of pagan origins that has been affixed to the Christmas season and looks like he stepped out of the pages of Maurice Sendak's "Where the Wild...

January 10, 2005

Teaching Standards

Today's lesson in upholding standards comes from Principal Jim Bennett of Lemoore Union High School in California, who followed through on a warning to his students to stop simulating sex during school-sponsored dances. When students ignored their principal, he responded by canceling the rest of the school dances for the entire year: Principal Jim Bennett of Lemoore Union High School said he warned students at a winter formal dance last month to either quit dirty dancing or face the possibility of not dancing at all. But he said the students continued "freak dancing," a form of sexually suggestive dancing that involves grinding the hips and pelvic area. The ban on dances includes the school's Sadie Hawkins dance in February and the junior and senior proms in the spring, but Bennett said they could be rescheduled if students modify their behavior. "It's really up to the kids at this point. They...

January 16, 2005

Gangs Go Hollywood

Street gangs have become much more brazen and organized in their campaigns to intimidate and eliminate witnesses, reports the New York Times today. Not only have they adopted the "Godfather"-style of Sicilian omerta in demanding utter silence from their members and neighbors as well, they've actually started producing their own terror shows on DVD to emphasize their point: In Boston, a witness to a shooting by a member of a street gang recently found copies of his grand jury testimony taped to all the doors in the housing project where he lives. In Baltimore, Rickey Prince, a 17-year-old who witnessed a gang murder and agreed to testify against the killer, was shot in the back of the head a few days after a prosecutor read Mr. Prince's name aloud in a packed courtroom. And in each city, CD's and DVD's titled "Stop Snitching" have surfaced, naming some people street gangs...

January 20, 2005

The Overkill Of Attacking A Sponge

David Kirkpatrick reports in today's New York Times that conservative activist Dr. James Dobson has attacked a cartoon character for alleged homosexual subtext as well as its alleged involvement in a gay-rights promotional video. It appears that Dr. Dobson has not only overreacted, but has gotten some key facts wrong: Now, Dr. Dobson said, SpongeBob's creators had enlisted him in a "pro-homosexual video," in which he appeared alongside children's television colleagues like Barney and Jimmy Neutron, among many others. The makers of the video, he said, planned to mail it to thousands of elementary schools to promote a "tolerance pledge" that includes tolerance for differences of "sexual identity." The video's creator, Nile Rodgers, who wrote the disco hit "We Are Family," said Mr. Dobson's objection stemmed from a misunderstanding. Mr. Rodgers said he founded the We Are Family Foundation after the Sept. 11 attacks to create a music video to...

January 21, 2005

Predicting A Win From The Bottom Of The Ninth

The recent surprise announcement of Spanish bishops of the Catholic Church in support of condom use to halt the spread of AIDS caused an uproar amongst the faithful around the world. Most have treated the debate with earnestness and thoughtfulness. Some have resorted to the absurd: Debate in Spain on the use of condoms to prevent the spread of Aids turned to farce yesterday when an 82-year-old Vatican loyalist vowed to die without ever using one. Manuel Fraga, the regional premier of Galicia and a former minister under Franco, backed the Vatican's stance against condoms. "I have spent my life telling the truth without condoms and I plan to die without ever having worn one,'' he said. How tough do you suppose that will be?...

January 22, 2005

Dr. Dobson Explains It A Little Better The Second Time Around

After a rash of criticism following his statements to a political gathering of Congressional heavyweights, Dr. James Dobson and Focus on the Family clarified their objections to the music video produced by the We Are Family Foundation. Instead of focusing on SpongeBob Squarepants, Dr. Dobson clearly states that his objection comes from the use of the video and its accompanying teaching material being presented in the schools outside of the control of parents: We applaud the ideal of championing to children the value and dignity of every human life as well as respect for our differences. What we vehemently object to is using these beloved characters to help advance an agenda that's beyond the comprehension of 6 and 7 year-old children, not to mention morally offensive to millions of moms and dads. The video in question is slated to be distributed to 61,000 public and private elementary schools throughout the...

January 25, 2005

Fundraising Effort Behind Oregon U's Sticker Ban?

Kevin McCullough remains on the story from the University of Oregon, where school administrators forced an employee to remove a "Support the Troops" sticker from his campus truck, claiming it violated their ban on political speech. That assertion fell apart yesterday and the question of Oregon's motivation remained open. Now, Kevin sees that Oregon has embarked on an ambitious fun-raising drive, and thinks that the university known as the Berkely of the North wants to establish its leftist credentials in order to boost donations: On Sunday - the University of Oregon went public on its goal of seeking donations in record form - 600 million. The univeristy's own press release calls it "the most ambitious in state history": "The University of Oregon has a long and proud tradition of competing with the best, but competing is not enough -- we must excel," said Frohnmayer, who made the announcement at news...

February 7, 2005

The AP Misses The Point

The NFL delivered a much classier halftime show yesterday than its MTV-produced fiasco of last year, choosing the more elegant option of just having a truly talented singer perform instead of the crotch-grabbing bondagefest that climaxed in Justin Timberlake's pantomime rape that "inadvertently" released Janet Jackson's decorated breast. Somehow this seems to have offended David Bauder of the AP, whose satirical look at the performances of the acts before the game and Paul McCartney during halftime makes clear his preference for less mundane fare: It was strange seeing the former Beatle, a bold and shocking performer for another generation, now presented as the sedate option. NFL censors were probably hoping the "California grass" reference in "Get Back" slipped by unnoticed, or figured people would think he was simply referring to a football field. ... The closest thing to a wardrobe malfunction during all the performances were courtesy of country singer...

April 10, 2005

Stupid Parents Ruin Youth Sports, Part XXXVII

I haven't commented much on the shooting of football coach Gary Kinne by Jeffrey Doyle Robertson, simply because the story speaks for itself. A lunatic father who couldn't deal with the fact that his son had to work within a team environment, where life isn't always fair, decides to resolve the situation by murdering the coach. It's yet another example, if an extreme one, of how parents ruin youth sports by living their glory dreams vicariously through their children and losing all perspective. However, one quote from Robertson's family points out that the stupidity and lunacy might have a genetic component, one his lawyers might want to pursue. Despite a history of violence in the community, his relatives blame the victim for Robertson's attack: Police have said they dont believe any one incident triggered the shooting. Robertson had a long reputation of being a hothead and starting fights, but hed...

May 5, 2005

Jerry Lewis: Sinatra Was Mob Bagman

An upcoming biography of Frank Sinatra includes recollections from Jerry Lewis that appears to confirm the rumors of Sinatra's involvement in Mafia business. The Guardian (UK) reports that Lewis offers an anecdote revealing that Sinatra nearly got caught while muling $3.5 million through New York customs in the 1940s: In an interview for a new biography of Sinatra, Lewis is quoted as saying of the Rat Pack member: "He volunteered to be a messenger for them. And he almost got caught once ... in New York." As he passed through customs, Lewis says, Sinatra was stopped by officials who started to open the suitcase he was carrying. Inside, says Lewis, were notes to the value of "three and a half million in 50s". But the customs officers were distracted by the crowds of people trying to catch a glimpse of the singer and aborted their search. Had they not, claims...

May 29, 2005

Parents Without A Clue

This story pops up every once in a while, proving that stupidity and cluelessness has a strong streak of repetition. A Nashville mother is the latest parent to get arrested for hiring strippers for a minor child and his buddies to celebrate a birthday: A mother faces criminal charges after she hired a stripper to dance at her 16-year-old son's birthday party. Anette Pharris, 34, has been indicted by a grand jury on charges of contributing to the delinquency of a minor and involving a minor in obscene acts. The boy's father, the stripper and two others also face charges. ... Anette Pharris took photos at the party and tried to have them developed at a nearby drug store. Drug store employees notified authorities, police said. "Who are they to tell me what I can and can't show to my own children?" the mother said. Where to start with Pharris?...

May 30, 2005

In Defense Of Home Schooling -- In The Strib?

The Minneapolis Star Tribune recently hired Katherine Kersten as a featured columnist, a major step for the far-left Twin Cities daily. Long reviled for its outrageous bias and intellectually bankrupt editorials, the Strib has recently attempted to balance itself as more critics discover their shortcomings -- critics with voices of their own, such as Power Line, Shot In The Dark, Fraters Libertas, and other Twin Cities bloggers who regularly point out their inconsistencies. They hired D. J. Tice as an editor a few months back in order to demonstrate fairness in their news reporting, and Kersten now joins the Strib to give better balance to local columnists. Kersten is no middle-of-the-road commentator, either. She provides some of the driving force behind the Center for the American Experiment, a local conservative, free-market think tank that has grown in stature and influence tremendously since its founding 15 years ago. Kersten lends the...

July 9, 2005

Dafydd: Come One, Come All, and Have a Ball!

Bear Flag League Conference coming up soon! (The primary category for this post should be Log Rolling, but the Captain inexplicably failed to set that one up.) Where: CalTech (that's in Pasadena, California -- hence the "bear flag" reference) When: 17 July 2005 How much: $50 if you're a schlemiel who pays full price; $40 if you contact Patterico (see link) and pretend that you listen to Hugh Hewitt or that you read Captain's Quarters. Oh, wait, if you're reading this, I guess you qualify legitimately! Link: Bear Flag League Conference Why: I dunno... good conversation, rubber chicken, who could ask for anything more? Speeches by Ted Costa (conservative activist and one of the originators of the recall petition that booted Gray Davis back into the Outer Darkness); Daniel Weintraub (Sacramento Bee columnist who operates the SacBee corporate blog California Insider); and Bob Hertzberg (unsuccessful mayoral candidate in the recent...

July 18, 2005

The New Hallmark Moment: Cheating

Apparently there really is a greeting card for every occasion, as the commercials used to claim. Cathy Gallagher has ensured that with her new line of greeting cards for cheating spouses, romantically named the Secret Lover Collection. This product line emphasizes the special bond formed between two people who promise other people not to sleep around, but then do anyway: Gallagher doesn't plan on patronizing her own business. "You don't have to be a murderer to write a murder mystery," she says. Nor, apparently, does one need to be unfaithful to write a Christmas card that says, "As we each celebrate with our families, I will be thinking of you." Gallagher says her Secret Lover Collection of 24 cards is the first line exclusively for people having affairs, and she expects hot sales. She says half of married people have had affairs (though some studies show the figure to be...

July 23, 2005

Sometimes And Whenever

Fox News reports this morning on a trend in weddings that not only demonstrates the slide away from commitment in our culture, but the erosion of confidence in what used to provide the apex of optimism in the confluence of private and community living. Instead of vowing to remain together "until death do us part," nuptials now include such tenuous promises as "until our time together is over": Vows like "For as long as we continue to love each other," "For as long as our love shall last" and "Until our time together is over" are increasingly replacing the traditional to-the-grave vow a switch that some call realistic and others call a recipe for failure. "We're hearing that a lot 'as long as our love shall last.' I personally think it's quite a statement on today's times people know the odds of divorce," said New Jersey wedding...

July 27, 2005

A Lack Of Commitment

My new Daily Standard column is up today, titled "Exit Strategies". It looks at the lack of commitment in evidence today in what used to be our most basic social model -- marriage -- and how that lack of commitment gets reflected in our politics. This started as a post last week ("Sometimes And Whenever") about the increasing popularity of vows that avoid lifetime commitments. We covered this topic on the Northern Alliance Radio Network last Saturday as well. We had a lot of fun trying to predict the next variation of marriage that would lower the commitment level even less than that of today. Some suggestions: * One-year contracts with mutual renewable options (sports fans would love these) * Pre-paid marriage cards -- if things are going well, just put some more time on them * Cell phone minutes -- sort of like the pre-paid cards, only you get...

August 14, 2005

Dafydd: Contiguationness

I think I think too much. Or maybe everyone else thinks too little. For instance, John "Hindrocket" Hinderaker of Power Line (and the new news and blogs blog Power Line News -- check it out!) added a codicil to a post by Scott "Big Trunk" Johnson (or is that Scott "Big Johnson" Trunk?). The post was about the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) voting to condemn the Israeli security fence, presumably on the grounds that it might give Israel some security. John added more information which included the following statement from the ELCA: This Churchwide Strategy for ELCA Engagement in Israel and Palestine... describes the fragile hope for a just and peaceful solution that is growing in the region following the recent Palestinian elections. It also expresses a sense of urgency, calling for strong and concerted action so that: 1) the possibility of secure, contiguous, and viable Israeli and...

August 24, 2005

Doctor Reprimanded By Board For ... Honesty

In what may become a classic case of political correctness run amuck, a medical board has reprimanded a doctor for diagnosing a patient as "fat", ordering him to take a sensitivity course as a remedial step: Dr. Terry Bennett believes in being honest with his patients, but one woman was so offended about the way he spoke to her about her weight, she filed a complaint with the state Board of Medicine. The New Hampshire state attorney general launched an investigation, asked Bennett to take a medical education course and admit he has made a mistake. ... The case has some medical professionals concerned. "We are really walking on thin ice when we have the legal system coming into a doctor's office and saying what we can or cannot do," said Dr. Mark Fendrick, a professor of medicine at the University of Michigan. I'd say that Dr. Fendrick's concerns come...

October 16, 2005

Brother Hoagland Takes A Stand

Brother Kenneth Hoagland, the Marianist monk who serves as principal of the Catholic Kellenberg Memorial High School, has decided to cancel this year's prom rather than give passive acceptance to the debauchery that attends the dance of late. He defied parents who appeared more interested in enabling their children's exploration of sex, booze, and drugs than in teaching them how to conduct themselves ethically: Brother Kenneth M. Hoagland had heard all the stories about prom-night debauchery at his Long Island high school: Students putting down $10,000 to rent a party house in the Hamptons. Pre-prom cocktail parties followed by a trip to the dance in a liquor-loaded limo. Fathers chartering a boat for their children's late-night "booze cruise." Enough was enough, Hoagland said. So the principal of Kellenberg Memorial High School canceled the spring prom in a 2,000-word letter to parents this fall. "It is not primarily the sex/booze/drugs that...

October 19, 2005

Temples Of Our Times

My weekly column in the Daily Standard reviews the connection between the Minnesota Vikings' Love Boat cruise last week and the ongoing worship of self-obsession in American society: What temples do secular societies build? Lately in America, cities and states have increasingly found themselves funding and building vast offerings to professional athletes and the games they play, even though the owners and participants of these games make enough money to house themselves quite handsomely. Why do communities foot the bill for this, and what does it say about the people who support the practice? That question moved from a vague philosophical debate to practical and uncomfortable introspection for many in Minnesota last week. The Minnesota Vikings have long demanded a new venue in which to play their games--one funded by taxpayers and from which the proceeds almost exclusively support the privately-owned team. ... ACCORDING TO allegations aired in the local...

November 22, 2005

Halloween Continues At Columbia

It sounds like the natural progression from the toga parties popularized by Animal House, with more than a hint of 21st-century libertinism. The Ivy-League fad of "naked parties" has spread to Columbia University, despite having restrictive policies regarding sexual behavior on campus. Parents sending their children to this very expensive school may not find the cost savings on clothing all that comforting: "Compadres," the e-mail states, "join us in refusing to comply with a culture that tells us to hide our body, to be ashamed of its scents, secretions, curves, and hair, to conceal those parts that have been dealt sexual connotations. We're gonna f-- this bondage we call clothing and party like the savages we really are." Following in the footsteps of their exhibitionist peers at Brown and Yale, Columbia undergraduates are staging parties with one basic ground rule - all guests must part with their clothes upon arrival....

December 4, 2005

Politically Correct Christmas Carols

Okay, I had planned on mostly staying out of the Christmas Wars this season, a madness where "Happy Holidays" has now reached the status of a war cry. However, while the First Mate and I went out for our first whack at Christmas shopping, we stopped for lunch at Applebee's. They had a music channel on that rotated through various holiday songs, mostly pleasant if forgettable pop covers of the classic carols. One, however, couldn't be forgotten if we tried. Right in the middle of the last chorus of the song, the singer paused and added "Happy Kwanzaa" in the pause. The song? Incredibly, it was "The Christmas Song" -- you know, the one that starts, "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire..." I don't know the artist who provided this cover, but the irony and the stupidity made me laugh out loud, while the FM's jaw dropped, aghast. Here's the...

December 10, 2005

An American Original Leaves Us Laughing

Richard Pryor died today at 65, after suffering from long bouts of multiple sclerosis, heart disease, drug abuse, and what appeared to be a decades-long death wish. Pryor overcame the pain and illness of his life to change an entire entertainment form -- stand-up comedy -- from a series of jokes and witty third-party observations to a review of his life and his pain that seemed almost Freudian at times, even while making us cry with laughter. Pryor started off trying to be the next Bill Cosby -- another American original -- but Pryor soon discovered that he could not spend his life ignoring his own viewpoint. While I would hardly claim to agree with much of what Pryor said and did in his life, he never quailed at talking about his failures and making them part of his always-hilarious act. His brutal honesty towards his own shortcomings made his...

February 28, 2006

No Wonder They're So Bummed Out

Power Line's Paul Mirengoff notes an essay by Phillip Longman in the magazine Foreign Policy that predicts a conservative evolution in the West, thanks to birth rates that decline more the farther one moves to the left of the political spectrum. Longman forecasts that if the population in the West declines dramatically, the remainder will adopt an old-fashioned cultural model of patriarchy as conservatives reproduce at higher rates: With the number of human beings having increased more than six-fold in the past 200 years, the modern mind simply assumes that men and women, no matter how estranged, will always breed enough children to grow the population—at least until plague or starvation sets in. It is an assumption that not only conforms to our long experience of a world growing ever more crowded, but which also enjoys the endorsement of such influential thinkers as Thomas Malthus and his many modern acolytes....

April 21, 2006

Polygamy Is Rather Taxing

A band of polygamists face prosecution from the state of Utah not for their unusual marital arrangements but because they refuse to pay property taxes. In a dispute that resulted from the collapse of their commune, the individual members of the LDS separatists have refused to pay the taxes due and may lose their homes. They have responded by fortifying defenses around the houses and community: Thousands of polygamists are engaged in a highly unusual standoff here over property taxes that could ultimately cost them their houses or thrust them into a mainstream America they fear and despise. In one corner is a group of 8,000 or so adherents of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, an offshoot of the Mormon Church that had long paid the property taxes of its members, sometimes even rolling a wheelbarrow through meetings to collect the needed cash. ... The...

July 30, 2006

Adding Insanity To Insult

Mel Gibson made an ass out of himself this weekend, first by driving while drunk, and then by reportedly spewing anti-Semitic slurs while police officers took him into custody. As he said in his apology, Gibson's remarks were despicable, and regardless of his state of sobriety, he richly deserves his embarrassment for those actions and remarks. Some have said that his controversial film, The Passion of the Christ, should be re-evaluated in light of Gibson's alleged latent anti-Semitism. Of course, people are free to do so, although people didn't appear to be shy in reviewing the film on those terms during its release over two years ago. (My review can be found here.) Gibson invited those reconsidered evaluations with his remarks, as well as speculation on the motivation behind his upcoming work on the Holocaust. However, some people just cannot abide the fact that even stupid people have the right...

August 15, 2006

There May Be Crossover Between The Two

Zogby International has published another poll in which Americans prove they watch way too much television. The worst example comes on the difference between knowing the members of the Supreme Court and knowing the members of Snow White's diminutive court: Three quarters of Americans can correctly identify two of Snow White's seven dwarfs while only a quarter can name two Supreme Court Justices, according to a poll on pop culture released on Monday. According to the poll by Zogby International, commissioned by the makers of a new online game on pop culture called "Gold Rush," 57 percent of Americans could identify J.K. Rowling's fictional boy wizard as Harry Potter, while only 50 percent could name the British prime minister, Tony Blair. ... Respondents were far more familiar with the Three Stooges -- Larry, Curly and Moe -- than the three branches of the U.S. government -- judicial, executive and legislative....

August 19, 2006

Maybe It's A Protest Against Halal?

The descent of modern art continues in Cornwall, where a dead pig and a naked woman received government funding for an exhibition in Newlyn. Kira O'Reilly dances with an actual dead pig on stage, and British taxpayers get to foot the bill (caution: link not work safe): After pickled sheep, unmade beds and painting with elephant dung, some questioned where modern art could go next. Kira O'Reilly will provide her own answer today by spending four hours naked, hugging a dead pig - at the taxpayer's expense. The controversial Irish performance artist will invite one person at a time to watch her sit in a specially-constructed set and perform a 'crushing slow dance' with the carcass in her arms. She claims the bizarre exhibition is an attempt to 'identify' with the pig, which she cuts with a knife during the show. She feels the need to "meld into [the pig's]...

November 21, 2006

Starting The Normalization Of Polygamy

Quite a while back (two years ago), I wrote that the Supreme Court decision in Lawrence v Texas would open a Pandora's box about all sorts of cultural norms currently supported by statute throughout the United States. At the time, Jonathan Turley had written about the impending sentencing of Tom Green for polygamy, and opposed it on the basis of personal choice. I wrote: I don't see anything particularly wrong with gay marriage, as long as a majority of voters approve it. I also think that the Texas sodomy laws were about as stupid as you could have found in any penal code. ... However, the Court used a sledgehammer when a flyswatter would have prevailed, and the consequences of their decision has led -- logically -- to the appeal of all anti-polygamy statutes. If in fact the Court applies the same thinking to polygamy as it did to the...

December 16, 2006

On The Whole, I'd Prefer 'Happy Holidays' (Updated)

Many people get exercised about the reluctance of retailers and politicians to say "Merry Christmas" or "Happy Chanukah" of late, and cringe when they hear "Happy Holidays" instead. Critics see this as a secular erosion of the religious nature of the holiday, and some of the more militant advocates refer to it as the Christmas War. I don't find the secular greeting offensive, but I do appreciate the acknowledgment of Christmas when it occurs. Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen has decided to up the ante, however, in his choice of imagery for his official Christmas cards: Gov. Phil Bredesen has given an unusual twist to his family's Christmas card: He is marking a Christian holiday with a card depicting a Muslim girl. The card's cover is a print of a painting by the governor of a young woman he met when he toured Afghanistan in March. "May the peace and joy...

January 6, 2007

Are Libraries The Same As Book Stores?

Earlier this week, the Washington Post reported on the efforts of the Fairfax County public libraries to create shelf room for best sellers by culling out the classics that have received little attention. Research on the library computer system reported on titles that had not been loaned to readers in over two years, but among those titles are classics of literature and letters: You can't find "Abraham Lincoln: His Speeches and Writings" at the Pohick Regional Library anymore. Or "The Education of Henry Adams" at Sherwood Regional. Want Emily Dickinson's "Final Harvest"? Don't look to the Kingstowne branch. It's not that the books are checked out. They're just gone. No one was reading them, so librarians took them off the shelves and dumped them. Along with those classics, thousands of novels and nonfiction works have been eliminated from the Fairfax County collection after a new computer software program showed that...

January 20, 2007

Should Spanking Become A Crime?

California will soon debate whether to make spanking a child of less than 4 years of age a crime punishable by prison time. A bill in the state assembly intends to take the decision for disciplining their children out of the hands of parents, and the Governator says he may well sign it: California parents could face jail and a fine for spanking their young children under legislation a state lawmaker has promised to introduce next week. Democratic Assemblywoman Sally Lieber said such a law is needed because spanking victimizes helpless children and breeds violence in society. "I think it's pretty hard to argue you need to beat a child," Lieber said. "Is it OK to whip a 1-year-old or a 6-month-old or a newborn?" Lieber said her proposal would make spanking, hitting and slapping a child under 4 years old a misdemeanor. Adults could face up to a year...

February 18, 2007

Is It Nuts To Worry About Children's Literature?

An award-winning children's book faces a boycott for including the word "scrotum". The book, The Higher Power of Lucky, tells the story of a 10-year-old orphan whose scrappy spirit is intended to encourage young readers. Librarians have objected to the vocabulary: The word “scrotum” does not often appear in polite conversation. Or children’s literature, for that matter. Yet there it is on the first page of “The Higher Power of Lucky,” by Susan Patron, this year’s winner of the Newbery Medal, the most prestigious award in children’s literature. The book’s heroine, a scrappy 10-year-old orphan named Lucky Trimble, hears the word through a hole in a wall when another character says he saw a rattlesnake bite his dog, Roy, on the scrotum. ... The book has already been banned from school libraries in a handful of states in the South, the West and the Northeast, and librarians in other schools...

February 20, 2007

Bratz Girls Damage Self-Image Of Young Girls

The American Psychological Association reaffirmed what most people of sense and taste already know -- that overly sexualized advertising aimed at young girls pressures them into objectifying themselves sexually. The Bratz Girls dolls and accessories come in for specific criticism: Advertising and media images that encourage girls to focus on looks and sexuality are harmful to their emotional and physical health, a new report by the American Psychological Association says. The report, released Monday, analyzed some 300 studies over the past 18 months. It included a variety of media, from television and movies to song lyrics, and looked at advertising showing body-baring doll clothes for pre-schoolers, tweens posing in suggestive ways in magazines and the sexual antics of young celebrity role models. The researchers found such images may make girls think of and treat their own bodies as sexual objects. ... The panel defined sexualization as occurring "when a person's...

March 10, 2007

Male Bashing As A Bad Habit

Dr. Helen notes that the magazine Cosmopolitan has broken a mild taboo -- talking about the detrimental effects of male bashing on relationships in general. They refeence it in terms of how it damages women, of course, but the magazine hits the problem head-on otherwise: The advice is good and direct, such as telling women to stop telling their dates they are not like the jerks they usually date. "You're actually broadcasting for the most part, you think dudes suck." To break the habit, the author suggests when your girlfriends start guy trashing, you change the subject. Or, "if a girlfriend says that guys never commit, ger her to see how silly it is to make such broad statements by making one about women, like, 'I know, and women start shopping for a wedding dress after the third date.'" Cosmo gives suggestions (but should you really need this advice after...

March 18, 2007

The Institutional Apology

All customer-service professionals share at least one common experience: the apology. The ability to execute an apology makes or breaks careers. If it comes out too rote and lacking empathy, it will serve to enrage the customer. If a representative makes too many of them or gives away too much as penance, their employer will not trust them to look after the company's interests. As someone who has spent almost two decades in customer service management, I can tell you from long experience that this one aspect of customer service may be the most critical piece of customer retention. Mistakes will be made -- how companies react to them is what customers value most. With that in mind, it makes sense that apologies would become their own industry. Not surprisingly, it has started with the industry that probably has the greatest need for professional apologizers: Airlines are getting serious about...

March 31, 2007

Willy Wanker And His Chocolate Factory

The display of a life-size, anatomically correct Jesus at an Easter exhibition has been cancelled after a meltdown by Christian critics, including William Donahue of the Catholic League. The hotel in which the exhibition would have appeared booted the display after people began organizing a boycott: A Manhattan art gallery canceled on Friday its Easter-season exhibit of a life-size chocolate sculpture depicting a naked Jesus, after an outcry by Roman Catholics. The sculpture "My Sweet Lord" by Cosimo Cavallaro was to have been exhibited for two hours each day next week in a street-level window of the Roger Smith Lab Gallery in Midtown Manhattan. The display had been scheduled to open on Monday, days ahead of Good Friday when Christians mark the crucifixion of Jesus. But protests including a call to boycott the affiliated Roger Smith Hotel forced the gallery to scrap the showing. Numerous bloggers have already weighed in...

June 9, 2007

A Victim? Hardly!

The Paris Hilton saga has become so compelling that many political bloggers who swore off mentioning her have weighed in on the topic, including myself. Hilton got hauled off screaming and crying to jail after having been released by Los Angeles Sheriff Lee Baca five days into a 45-day sentence, reportedly for becoming too hysterical. Judge Michael T. Sauer ruled that Baca had violated the court's order in releasing her, and sent her back to serve the entire sentence for violating probation on a drunken-driving conviction: Hilton, who was brought from her home to the court in handcuffs in a sheriff's car, entered the courtroom red-eyed and trembling, and she cried throughout the hour-long hearing, dabbing her face with tissues, biting her knuckles, and shaking her head. She sat slumped at the table throughout the proceeding, wearing a gray sweater, her blond hair pinned up. Hilton was released from the...

June 11, 2007

The Hot Rock

An interesting, (mostly) non-political debate has arisen between Meghan O'Rourke at Slate and Jonah Goldberg at The Corner today on a ubiquitous American cultural imperative: the diamond engagement ring. Interestingly, it is O'Rourke challenging the customary decimation of a young suitor's finances, and Goldberg submitting to the inevitability of the custom. O'Rourke starts by asking what this one-sided exchange really means: The retail fantasy known as a "traditional" American wedding comprises many delicious absurdities, ranging from personalized wedding stamps to ring pillows designed for dogs to favors like "Love Mints." Of all these baubles, though, perhaps the most insidious is the engagement ring. Most Americans can say no to the "celebrity garter belt" on offer for a mere $18.95 from Weddings With Class. But more than 80 percent of American brides receive a diamond engagement ring (at an average cost of around $3,200) before they get married. Few stop to...

July 6, 2007

Let's Maintain Our Sense Of Humor

Having seen the film License to Wed on its opening day, I am surprised to see a critical reference to it in the Wall Street Journal's OpinionJournal as unfair to marriage preparation courses. As a person who volunteers for an organization dedicated to marriage preparation, the tone of Christine Whelan's article seems a little too defensive over a harmless bit of fun: This week, Hollywood takes the focus off of "bridezillas" and puts it on marriage preparation courses. In "License to Wed," which opened Wednesday, Robin Williams plays the "Reverend Frank," a clergyman of unspecified denomination who puts his charges through a series of tests--including an exercise in the diapering of urinating robotic twins--to earn the right to marry. Off the silver screen, marriage preparation courses are about shared values rather than simulated disaster drills, and are increasingly popular. ... "License to Wed" paints a terrifying picture of marriage preparation...

July 7, 2007

Will They Invite Quentin Tarantino To The Funeral?

The NAACP plans to bury an old adversary and, unfortunately, for some an old friend. Chairman Julian Bond says that the group plans to symbolically bury the N-word on Monday at its annual meeting in Detriot: Julian Bond wants people to understand that when the NAACP symbolically buries the N-word on Monday, the effort will be led by the younger members of the venerable civil rights organization. "Seven young people are on our board of directors, and they are spearheading this initiative," said Bond, the group's chairman. "This is the continuation of a long fight against the denigration of African Americans in popular culture. If it's someone black or someone white, it's equally wrong." I agree, but most of the word's use over the past few decades have come from the rap industry, which seems to have a love affair with the word. It didn't start with rap, though; that...

August 13, 2007

Maybe Men Are More Forgettable

Surveys taken around the world about sexual habits of men and women all have one thing in common: men claim to have more sex partners over a lifetime than women. Supposedly, this reflects a primal urge for procreation. Men act promiscuously while women act more to provide a family unit for children. There's only one problem with this explanation. It doesn't add up -- literally: One survey, recently reported by the federal government, concluded that men had a median of seven female sex partners. Women had a median of four male sex partners. Another study, by British researchers, stated that men had 12.7 heterosexual partners in their lifetimes and women had 6.5. But there is just one problem, mathematicians say. It is logically impossible for heterosexual men to have more partners on average than heterosexual women. Those survey results cannot be correct. ... Sex survey researchers say they know that...

August 15, 2007

Must Be Pon Farr

As longtime CQ readers know, my nickname came from the period in my life when I was a Star Trek fan. I don't think I qualified as a Trekkie; I never attended a convention, and the only outward sign of my Trekophilia was my personalized license plate and its "Carship Enterprise" frame. I also dated, had a life, and got married. Now Trekkies want to do the same, and a new dating service promises to take them where few of the men have gone before: By day, 28-year-old Scott Josephson is an educational software writer. By night, or during any of his free time for that matter, he is a Trekkie. In fact, Josephson's obsession with "Star Trek" has evolved to such a degree that he is now attempting to watch all the TV episodes, from the original version all the way through "Enterprise" — in chronological order. But "Star...

August 30, 2007

When Exactly Did Art Die?

At least the latest travesty in the art world comes Down Under rather than the US, but that only shows how global the collapse of art from a meaningful form to an anti-Christian realm of bigots has become. The latest examples are entrants in the Blake Prize competition in Australia, which features a statue of the Virgin Mary in a burqa and a holographic image of Jesus that transforms into ... Osama bin Laden: THE artist behind a controversial work depicting terrorism mastermind Osama bin Laden morphing into Jesus today asked people to look deeper into the work. Queensland artist Priscilla Bracks denied she had deliberately set out to be offensive. "Absolutely not, no, no. I am not interested in being offensive. I am interested in having a discussion and asking questions about how we think about our world and what we accept and what we don't accept," she told...

October 30, 2007

What Drives The Skank Impulse?

Halloween will arrive tomorrow, with plenty of kids hitting doorbells looking for candy. Some of them will dress as though they want to work something out in trade, as Newsweek noted yesterday (via Instapundit): Apparently, witches aren't ugly anymore; they're sexy. So are pirates and pumpkins and princesses--traditional little girl Halloween costumes that used to say, Isn't she cute? now scream, That's hot! with an increasing array of halter tops, bare midriffs and miniskirts. Costume catalogs and Web sites, filled with images of pouty preteens modeling the latest in Halloween fashion, seem almost to verge on child pornography, and ooze with attitude. Witches are "wayward" and grammar-school pirates are "wenches." A girl isn't an Army cadet, she's a "Major Flirt," and who knew female firefighters wore fishnet stockings? Even Little Bo Peep comes with a corset, short skirt and lacy petticoat. And while complaints about "slutty" kids' costumes may seem...

October 31, 2007

So Much For Daylight Savings Time

One of the reasons why Congress extended Daylight Savings Time doesn't appear to have panned out in the Twin Cities. The extra week has allowed for longer daylight on Halloween, which arguably made trick-or-treating safer for the smaller children. Instead of darkness dropping at the time parents got home from work, they'd have an hour or so to take the kids around while drivers could still see them on the streets. I'm manning the door this year, not in costume (unless mild-mannered blogger counts as a Halloween costume), and we didn't get a single trick-or-treater until well after 6 pm and complete nightfall. We've seen a good number of small kids already, but also our share of teenagers. So far, we haven't had childless adults showing up, which is supposed to be this year's expression of arrested development. Earlier today, the Little Admiral visited with Mommy and Daddy, and she's...

November 20, 2007

Narcissistic Deviancy Comes Of Age

As the price of technology drops, the barriers to entry for the markets they represent do as well. The blogosphere provides an excellent example of this dynamic. The cost to publish has become almost non-existent, and now millions of people (including me) have created their own on-line publications. BlogTalkRadio allows anyone with a phone line and an Internet connection to become a talk-radio host on any topic -- and we have thousands of hosts in the network with almost as many topics. Self-publication has grown into a mass movement, a revolution in how information gets disseminated and absorbed. This dynamic has a darker side, too. As the price drops on video technology and publication, a strange new phenomenon has arisen -- the need for people to put themselves on display in the most extreme moments of their lives. A certain class of narcissistic deviants have been unable to commit their...

November 27, 2007

Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas, 67%-26%

If a war over Christmas really exists, it's not much of a fight. We're heading into the part of the calendar where we can expect to read about retailers who substitute "Happy Holidays" for "Merry Christmas", with critics claiming the former as a dilution of the significance of the season. As it turns out, two-thirds of Americans in almost all demographic groups prefer the traditional greeting (via the Political Machine): As the holiday season begins, 67% of American adults like stores to use the phrase “Merry Christmas” in their seasonal advertising rather than “Happy Holidays.” A Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that just 26% prefer the Happy Holidays line. It's as much of a sweep as anything anyone will ever read in a poll. The only demographic categories giving "Merry Christmas" less than 60% were Black (50%-44%) and Other (55%-37%) ethnic categories, and people making under $20,000 per year...

December 6, 2007

The Devil In The Corpus Callosum

Our friend Barbara Oakley has an interesting follow-up to our conversation on Tuesday with this intriguing opinion piece in today's Chicago Tribune. The author of Evil Genes discusses cultural blind spots, starting with a personal anecdote regarding her adopted sons, both Balkan Muslims. She noted that they have never even thought to look at Islam critically, as they do with other religions. Similarly, Westerners have a blind spot when it comes to their belief in the inherent good of each individual: It's fashionable in the West today to assert that every culture has its blind spots, and so culturally speaking, everything is relative. But what many Westerners are unaware of, unless they have also spent time in a totalitarian state, is how much more free Westerners are to study their blind spots, to write about them and to publicly attempt to put a spotlight on them. One blind spot Westerners...

December 7, 2007

What Not To Get Me For Christmas

Good news, men -- master shoe designer Manolo Blahnik has created a new line of men's footwear. If you don't recognize the name, your wives or girlfriends can explain that his designs are highly prized and very expensive. Now, possessors of the Y chromosome can have the access to Blahnik's genius, as represented in this new design: Men, we've waited years for this opportunity. Now we can also wear open-toed slingbacks with a low heel: Well, guys, listen up. There's a man who wants you to put on a pair slingbacks. And they're blue suede, open-toed, and cost about as much as a flat screen TV. This week, Manolo Blahnik, the Spanish designer famous for making women swoon over $700 stilettos, announced he's putting out a line of men's shoes. Among the styles: Afiyet, the aforementioned blue suede number, and Bir, a sandal made of leopard-print leather. "There are some...