I want to get a Game Boy Advance SP with Disney Princesses for my 5-year-old girls. Does this make me a good father or a bad father?
Radio host "Dr. Laura" Schlessinger, who has been quite a visible Orthodox Jew in the five years since her public conversion, has renounced her religion. Not because she doesn't believe in Judiasm, but because Jews don't send her fan mail.
Ms. Schlessinger admits "I still see myself as a Jew," but she will no longer practice because "From my own religion, I have either gotten nothing, which is 99% of it, or two of the nastiest letters I have gotten in a long time. I guess that's my point — I don't get much back. Not much warmth coming back." So she wants to believe in what is popular or perhaps believe in what popular amongst her listeners. Now I always though religion was supposed personal belief in higher power. Not a popularity contest of those around you. I have more respect for someone who believes in something despite those around him, not because of those around him. A prominent Jewish commentator, Rabbi Boteach has remarked "It seems incredible that an ethicist and moralist of her standing would invoke such shallow arguments."
While I do not normally appreciate the genre, the self-help book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is one of the better ones out there. I don't just say that because it was foisted upon me by my boss. The second habit says no one should have belief/moral system that depends on what other people think. In the words of Remy De Gourmont: "I do not believe it useful to generalize opinions, to teach admirations. It is for each man to procure himself the emotions he needs and the morality which suits him." Your beliefs should come from you and/or your chosen God, not what others are telling you or how you want to appear to others. Others are fickle and may not be there for you in times of trouble.
I'm guessing people write letters to her, whether they agree with her or not, because of what she says on her talk show not because of her religion but perhaps I am mistaken. Either way, by my estimation, Ms. Schlessinger's beliefs are up for bid. So if enough Islamists write to her in support of her condemnation of homosexuals, perhaps she'll become a Muslim.
In totally unrelated news, Brittany Murphy is switching back the other way. Raised a Baptist, she is now practicing Kaballah, a form Judiasm. I hope it is not because someone Jewish liked Just Married.
Can mentioning a few words save someone from being sued for using those words? Well the words are "Fair and balanced" and it is worth a shot. So day is "Fair and Balanced Day" and hundreds of bloggers are using those same words in their blogs.
Fox News is suing the comedian, Al Franken, for using those same words in a book title. Apparently only Fox should be able to use them because if a book uses those particular words in the title, the public might think Fox News endorses that book. Never mind that Fox and Franken are on opposite sides of the political spectrum.
The suit also claims (horrors!) that it reflects badly on Fox because they think Al Franken isn't that funny anyway. Yes, I agree, in some ways Fox News is funnier than Al Franken. Perhaps not intentionally so.
Al Franken wrote the book Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot. Gee, I guess how some people might get offended, but Rush himself didn't sue Franken. Somebody was so annoyed by the book that they responded with the book Al Franken Is a Buck-Toothed Moron: And Other Observations. Franken didn't sue that book's author either. Both Rush and Franken know that being in the public eye opens you up to parody and the law is on the side of free speech.
Now Mr. Franken is not even using "Fox News" in the title of his book, just the words "Fair and Balanced." You'd think a news organization would appreciate the right to free speech. Especially if it is just three words. Hmm. Doesn't seem quite fair and balanced does it.
An old political joke goes "If you are a Republican when you are young, you are heartless. If you are Democrat when you are old, you are brainless." Now the joke needs to revised.
According to a federally funded study called Political Conservatism as Motivated Social Cognition, conservatives are driven by fear, are dogmatic and accept inequality and liberals accept ambiguity, don't reach closure and aren't as loyal. Blanket generalizations, but with a germ of truth behind them.
Needless to say, conservatives like George Will, are annoyed by the study. Coincidentally, the study starts with an quote from him that he indicates was taken out of context. He asserts that conservatives are only motivated by non-emotional reasons. House Republicans are now reviewing the federal funding of the authors other studies to possibly shutter their opinions.
On balance, perhaps what is needed is a companion Political Liberalism as Motivated Social Cognition report by a different University to prove we are all motivated by something.
First there was the pillow that grandma made. After it became a shredded pillowcase, it was joined by a blanket. A handful of beanies followed. More pillows. Then little plastic animal figurines. My oldest daughter carried them everywhere.
Soon the volume was too much for her to carry in her 5-year-old arms. I showed her how to carry everything using the blanket as a knapsack, but even that didn't work after awhile.
A good father would explain to her that she DIDN'T need to carry every one of her toys everywhere and that possessions are not what is important in life. But daddy messed up. Today I handed her a plastic container about the size of a large breadbasket.
I confess: I am an enabler.
My wife and I took our girls to the Ohio State Fair. My middle daughter just loves horses so I made sure I took them to a horse judging competition. Our youngest was asleep in the stroller, so my wife stayed with her outside under a shade tree.
Inside, my daughter would point to one of the Belgian foals and then indicate that was her and another one was her sister. A few seconds lates she said they were ALL her. She really identifies with horses. At the end of the short competition, one of the resident nubile fair queens handed out ribbons to the top six of the eight horses. I mentioned that mommy was a fair queen when she was in school and she used have a crown and hand out the ribbons to the animals (rural Wyandot county in 1980). My daughters were impressed by the royalty in the family.
Later, at home, my wife asked her daughters about the horses she couldn't see herself. And my daughter blurted "Mommy, you were Queen of the Circus!"
Two of my daughters were adopted from China. With China's one-child policy, men outnumber women by about 50 million in the country. If you consider there are about 500 million women in China, that means about 10% are missing due to sex-based abortions and female infanticide. Tens of thousands of girls are adopted each year by foreigners, but 98% of the female orphanage population is never adopted. No one domestically adopts those girls.
Now decades after the policy has been put in place, there is a dearth of eligible women in the patriarchal rural areas. It is compounded by the fact that many young women flee the countryside because the inbalance gives them the opportunity to seek better lives in the city.
It has gotten so bad that men are marrying their first cousins. Perhaps now females will be valued enough that today's couples will not kill their young.