Fearless Arianna

JA has a flat head?

Then again, I should keep my big mouth shut; my cranium's large enough to support a buffet table...

:-)

I dislike immensely Richard Thompson's graphic, accompanying your Rough Draft, Joel. Since when is a Greek (Arianna Huffington) to be costumed in a manner like that of Brunhilde of the Valkyries? If this is the best that your illustrator can come with as a representation of the current and rising tide of female power, than your thinking about this whole topic is tragic.

"In several myths, the Valkyries appeared as giant beings with supernatural powers who could cause a rain of blood to fall upon the land or row ships across the sky on rivers of blood. Some Valkyries caused warriors to die, while others served as protectors, guarding the lives of those most dear to them. Valkyries were often shown as wives of heroes. Brunhilde, one of the most famous Valkyries in mythology, disobeyed Odin and was placed in an enchanted sleep within a wall of fire as punishment."

Which is the most powerful (pick one, pick several, pick whatever...)?
Female height
Female girth
Female money
Female politics (single women are the most underrepresented because they don't vote)
Female sexuality
Female intellect
Female attitude

SCC: than..then

Dueling accordions put dueling banjos to shame. Visually, it was quite a night. The bright, multi-colored stagelights glaring into our eyes, coupled with the strings of small multi-colored bulbs of lights draped between the big braches of oaks ringing the plaza, intersperesed with thousands upon thousands of reflecting raindrops. The sound danced between the drops.

Posted by: Loomis | October 15, 2006 10:41 AM
----
Dueling accordians....oh the possibilities. Perhaps we should solve world problems with such competition.

That, or the wineglass has a concave bottom that, with some silly putty, perfectly fitted Joel's head.

Good 'toon. But people who cut other people out like cancers aren't whom you would enjoy being in charge. Something like why they're complaining at Gallaudet. They put a more cogent picture together at www.gufssa.com about her track record at the secondary and elementary schools at campus-- I had heard she really wrecked the education but hadnt seen the details in full.

(Check Letter from Clerc Center Staff onm the site)

It is a fact that parents yanked 75 kids from Kendall Demonstration Elementary School and transferred them to the Maryland school for the Deaf after she took over. Fernandes was interviewed about this.
Fernandes claimed it was white flight. That, to anybody who knows the demographic of KDES is absurd, and it's insulting to imply that the parents of 75 kids (which is what, 1/5 to 1/3 of the school?) are racist.

The very simple problem is she chose to get rid of a lot of staff and overcrowd class by putting kids who could be extremely low-functioning autistic, behaviorally disturbed kids who NEED intensive teacher attention, and kids who are way behind grade level because of educational and linguistic deprivation, and pack them into "regular' classes.

Furthermore, she regularly had 'classes' with a ratio of 40 students to 1 teacher. This is so meshugge I can't begin to describe it. My biggest class at Gallaudet was maybe 25 students; the norm at deaf schools is to have less than 10:1 ratio because of the visual format of class, too many students and it's really hard to be sure everybody sees everybody else. Normally the seats are put in a half-circle or a 3-sided square so the students can see the teacher. When you get beyond 10 or more students, you have the students too far away from the teacher.

You can do an regular row by row seating, yes, but that tends to mean the students get visually blocked from listening to the lectures quite often during the day.

I've been to deaf meeting where at least 10 minutes are wasted arguing about how to set up the seating appropriately for anything over 20 people. Even at restuarants, take over 10 people and they'll be trying to find the best table fit etc. At those times I sometimes want to wear a brown bag over my head.

But back to the point-- any parent who knows what is needed for deaf education would have yanked their kids out of school pronto.

Just because the deaf can be mainstreamed in classes of 30 to 150 (university classrooms) does not mean you can have the same number of students all deaf. The most deaf in a single mainstream classroom that I ever attended, that was served by a single interpreter was 5.

Math exercise: Set up 40 seats so every student can see the teacher from the front with a reasonable 1-2 yards' movement capacity for the teacher, without any given student being further than 15-20 feet away, and none closer than 2 feet away. Theoretically you are confined to a single plane and cannot simply hang students from the ceiling in chains like beaded curtains.

I'm sure there's probably a brilliant math paper in that somewhere if the problem can be cracked.

perhaps Joel... but let's face it... men go crazy for Alpha Women today. It's that which drives women to become more alpha. It's a self-perpetuating system driven by those aging baby boomer studs you mentioned before. They need strong (young) alpha females to combat with so they can feel like The Man.

Check out Spike TV's women of action...

http://www.spiketv.com/interact/polls/womenofspike/

Miss Toronto, what you are describing doesn't have the movies as their best example.

I rather think the roots are in comic-book superheroine fixation by guys who have panic attacks at the thought of asking women out. Of course, I'm not ruling out that they may be aged, somewhat more confident, but still have an itch for women in lyrca and kneehigh boots.

yes Wilbrod--you have a good point. What is it that Seinfeld says? all men believe themselves to be low level super heroes. That's why you'll see a guy with a mattress on the roof of his car with his arm out the window, holding on to the mattress for dear life, while driving. Too true :)

Mudge,
Link to Fender obit in previous Kit.

Wow, venturing into Gender Politics. Now that's fearless. And I see the illustration has raised a few hackles. At least it didn't show one of the Valkyries riding in an out-of-date French car.

I think any gender that grows little people inside of their bodies and then raises them, is, by definition, fearless. That's why Mother's Day cards are always fancier than those for Father's Day. Where I lose patience is when women interpret "fearlessness" to mean the freedom to act recklessly self-serving, with no regard for the feelings of others, and then view it as a virtue. Although women clearly do not have a monopoly on this, I have known some who have raised it to an art form.

Where I really lose respect for this kind of woman is when they pretend that any objection is a manifestation of a "double standard." They assert that mindless ambition is considered a virtue in men, when, in fact, it is certainly not. Overly-driven self-centered men are typically called very rude names. The only people I have ever known who admire such men are the women who seek to emulate them.

I think men are attracted to strong women because insecure women who don't know what they want out of life are a lot more likely to break your heart. Give me a strong women without a lot of self-doubt any day.

But strong women don't have to be overpowering, out-for-themselves types. Too often very strongwilled women come across as soft and shy at first.

I do think wishi-washiness is just not that attractive in anybody. I don't dig self-doubt in daily life. I mean, if you're getting into something challenging, self-doubt is natural. But constant self-doubt means one REALLY needs to challenge oneself more.

What kind of rude names, RD? I miss all those locker-room conversations, and I'd love to know what I should properly call those pr****.

Please substitute car names as needed. Or computer software names.

... I dunno RD---I think strong women can also break your heart... well, maybe just the hearts of overly-driven self-centred men :)... if you're a smart alpha woman, you'll choose a more thoughtful man.

... but I disagree that we won't need men in the future. I think if there were no men, all the alpha women would fizzle away and we'd be left with a population of wishy washy wistful women.

... speaking of which, it reminds me of the Life of Pi. Boy versus Tiger... Woman versus Man. We need each other to survive.

also of interest, those "Women of Action" often describe their childhood in the same way.... very close to father, always a tomboy, loved sports, friends all men. There you go, we need men!

What, no women friends? I gotta cut out those clinging wishy-washy buicks who go on and on about their personal problems just to get ahead? Hmm, when I put it THAT way...

By the way, this is a very good argument against tuition vouchers. I just learned about the lost class of '59 and how Prince Edward county in VA shut down all their public schools rather than desegregate them. All the whites went to a private academy funded with Commonwealth of VA money, while blacks had to made do with makeshift education, no budgeting.

There is an entire lost generation of 'uneducated blacks' down there. I got this website link:

http://www.vahistorical.org/civilrights/pec.htm

Amazing. The schools down there still are segregated, with whites in private schools and the public schools for blacks, with continuing medicore education and high fail rates for student teachers.

What, no women friends? I gotta cut out those clinging wishy-washies who go on and on about their personal problems, if I gotta get ahead? Hmm, when I put it THAT way...

By the way, this is a very good argument against tuition vouchers. I just learned about the lost class of '59 and how Prince Edward county in VA shut down all their public schools rather than desegregate them. All the whites went to a private academy funded with Commonwealth of VA money, while blacks had to make do with.. nothing much.

There is an entire lost generation of 'uneducated blacks' down there. I got this website link:

http://www.vahistorical.org/civilrights/pec.htm

Amazing. The schools down there still are segregated, with whites in private schools and the public schools for blacks, with continuing medicore education and high fail rates for student teachers.

- Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County

Farmville was the source of Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County, a case incorporated into Brown v. Board of Education, the landmark case which overturned school segregation in the United States. Moton High School, an all-black school in Farmville, suffered from terrible conditions due to underfunding. The school did not have a gymnasium, cafeteria, or teachers' restrooms. Teachers and students did not have desks or blackboards, and due to overcrowding, some students had to take classes in an immobile school bus parked outside. The school's requests for additional funds were denied by the all-white school board.

As a result of the Brown decision in 1959, the Board of Supervisors for Prince Edward County refused to appropriate any funds for the County School Board at all, effectively closing all public schools rather than integrate them. White students often attended all-white private schools that formed in response. Black students had to go to school elsewhere or forgo their education altogether. Prince Edward County schools remained closed for five years.

Whoops, doublepost, hit the submit as I was typing.

"At least it didn't show one of the Valkyries riding in an out-of-date French car."

Padouk, you do have your moments. *laughing*

I can't see the picture, but I wouldn't mind being a Valkyrie. For one thing, I'd be much taller, plus use of that power of life and death (I mean without the subsequent incarceration etc.).

RD has it just right: "I think any gender that grows little people inside of their bodies and then raises them, is, by definition, fearless." Fearless or foolhardy.

Joel, Joel. Arianna may have arranged for the skies to clear, but do not be fooled. Pudge controls the weather.

Oh, Joel.
You might feel like women are in control in your immediate circle, but I am sure you realize that women are most definitely not in control of their own destinies in most parts of the world, and at most times in human history. I understand you were trying to be light, and I appreciate that people like Arianna Huffington might provoke a lot of strong feelings.

Here's a fun little editorial from Ben Stein about a different kind of inequality:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/15/business/yourmoney/15every.html?ei=5070&em=&en=7e1c57c10f182bb0&ex=1161057600&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1160943185-0UzaFIeYAQl8Mrnab5j0XA

And just to show that I do have a sense of humor, here are my current google ads:

Why Mommy is a Democrat
The book George Bush doesn't want your kids to read!
littledemocrats.net

Bush Did What?
We report what they don't want you to know.
www.alternet.org

Coffee Exposed
A shocking secret coffee co's don't want you to know.
www.coffeefool.com

Some kind of recurring theme: what doesn't Arianna Huffington not what you to know?

Great article, Joel. Atthough according to Maureen Dowd, it ain't all roses being an Alpha Woman these days either!

Also, great article by Murtha today:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/13/AR2006101301425.html

Strangely, Joel's column makes me very uncomfortable. I can see that he is being humourous, in spots, but I can't feel it.

Woman do not control the world; most women's lives are desperately oppressed by men.

Men are not foolish, most of them. Not the ones I live with, work with, boodle with...

The sort of strong women who advance only their own interests are no role model for me.

This unability to feel the lightness makes me feel, well, sort of French.

SF, I am *not* making fun of the French, nor stereotyping them. I am displaying understanding of the umbrage you took; that's how I feel about this column.

I am told that I am strong, but see myself more as a multi-tasking, pointy-sciencey--dabbler, faithful, honest type. I don't shirk from hard work and the curveballs of life.

But the Arianna/Hilary/Conde fearless stance a top a high pyramid of underlings does not interest me. Better that I learn to swim in the ocean, hang glide, or bluff-real stiff in poker.

Would much rather opt out of political/corporate power structures, and

coach soccer
teach
mow grass in double-diagonals
read tons
watch my carbon footprint
vote (of course)
make a home (not kidding)
walk my dog (scooping, too)
take my turn
cheer others
knit a bit
learn something new regularly....

Most of the men I know opt in/opt out at medium levels, too. They work very hard, but don't aspire to boardroom or high office.

This medium-version of both men and women makes for good circles of friends and nice neighborhoods.

There's a difference between being strong and fearless and being ruthlessly ambitious and sociopathic. As I mentioned in a blog long ago, they find many compensated sociopaths in fact are found on the top rungs of the business ladder in many circumstances. No pangs of guilt about firing people for the bottom line, for instance.

I'm getting a full doisser of Fernandes' background at www.gufssa.org. Page 1 and page 2 (letter from concerned parent and letter from clerc center staff) make it clear that she was about as good at leading a school as Dolores Umbridge was at Hogwarts.

Hands up, all you men who find Umbridge a sex symbol and are willing to confess to having read Harry Potter.

Okay. Nurse Ratched, anybody?

I just realized "Ratched" is a pun on "Wretched" and maybe "Racket".

Or maybe it's a real surname. Who would have thought Berke Breathed could possibly be a real name?

Wilbrod took up an axe
And gave the boodle forty whacks.
And when I saw what I had done,
I gave the boodle yet another one.

Wilbrod - Ratched? Umbridge? No way.

The sexiest woman in Harry Potter is Minerva McGonagall.

Polling is now offically open ;).

Where I work there are a lot of very powerful women. Very few of these follow the Huffington model of "fearlessness" as I understand it. The most successful of these women combine charisma, nurturing, and strong authority. In other words, they are uber-mothers - and it works very well. These women show me that successful women need not mimic the worst characteristics of successful men in order to be effective. They can find their own way.

And whenever Joel starts to complain about the trials of living around so much Estrogen, I think back to that wonderful picture he posted of his family some months ago. Those smiles make me suspect he has a secret weapon far more powerful than any silly book.

I get the feeling some of those ladies are pretty sweet on him.

In my age group, all of the alpha women seemed to smoke. Fortunately, at the time, cigars were associated with little old men who hung out around the supermarket meat counter, making it easy to be a vegetarian.

Hawaiian earthquake today on the Big Island at Kailua-Kona. From the WaPo:

Stuart Koyanagi, another geophysicist at the tsunami warning center, said the 6.6 magnitude earthquake was followed seven minutes later by a 5.8 magnitude temblor and by several smaller quakes. Seismologists warned of aftershocks through Monday.

Michael Poland, a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey's Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, said the earthquake was likely the largest to hit Hawaii since 1989, and possibly the largest since an even larger one measuring 7.2 hit in 1975. Those earthquakes struck less developed areas, Poland said.

Hawaiian Volcano Observatory website info about Titus Coan, Loomis descendant and Hilo, Hawaii missionary who studied volcanoes on the Big Island in the mid-1800s:

http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/observatory/hvo_history.html

First there was the continuing, friendly controversy in the American Journal of Science and Arts ("Silliman's Journal") between Rev. Titus Coan, a Hilo man who hiked to and described almost every flank eruption of Mauna Loa between 1843 and 1880, and J.D. Dana, one of the journal's editors and a famous geologist, who didn't always believe the testimony of the eyewitness. For instance, after Dana published Reverend Coan's graphic and detailed description of the source and flows of Mauna Loa's 1843 eruption, Dana followed with "Mr. Coan speaks of the lavas as flowing from an orifice in a broad stream down the mountain. It is probable that fissures opening to the fires below were continued at intervals along the course of the eruption, and that these afforded accession to the fiery flood. Any internal force sufficient to break through the sides of a mountain like Mauna Loa, must necessarily produce a linear fissure or a series of fissures, and not a single tunnel-like opening." (Dana, 1852, p. 256; see also Dana, 1850; T. Coan, 1871, 1882; L. Coan, 1884.)

Arguments such as this could only be resolved by volcanologists doing the observing, but they served to publicize the need for further study. The Coan-Dana controversy helped raise questions that needed to be answered about volcanoes, thus helping pave the way for such institutions as the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory.

When a hotel on the rim of Kilauea caldera became a permanent facility in 1866, its series of guest registers became a repository of reports and observations by the guests, an almost daily record (by observers who varied from the scientist to the joker) of earthquakes felt and unfelt and of volcanism seen and unseen on Kilauea and Mauna Loa. Both Brigham (1909) and Hitchcock (1911) mined the more reliable reports from the Volcano House guest registers, quoting them along with observations from their own visits and reports from many additional sources to yield histories of both volcanoes, comprehensive up to their dates of publication.

Reading by the light of volcanic eruption...imagine that!

http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/observatory/hvo_history.html

When the written accounts of witnesses to nineteenth century Mauna Loa eruptions are reviewed, one eruption is notable because its site has not been previously recognized. At 3:30 a.m. on February 17, 1852, citizens of Hilo were awakened by a Mauna Loa summit eruption. Reverend Titus Coan, Hilo's precise chronicler of Hawaii's volcanic eruptions from 1840 to 1881, wrote (Coan, 1852, pp. 219-220) that

immense columns of burning lava shot up heavenward to the height of 300 or 400 feet, flooding the summit of the mountain with light, and gilding the firmament with its radiance. Streams of light came pouring down the mountain, flashing through our windows, and lighting up our apartments so that we could see to read large print.... In two hours the molten stream had rolled, as we judged, about fifteen miles down the side of the mountain. The eruption was one of terrible activity and surpassing splendor. But it was short. In about twenty-four hours all traces of it seemed to be extinguished.

RD's two comments remind me strongly of my family, and me. Himself is surrounded by me, #1 and #2, Libby the Bernese Mountain Dog. Lots of estrogen around here. Of course, there is Yeoman (BMD), Broc (Rough Collie) and Strabo (Siamese), all "male" but all neutered. And all 7 of us are pretty sweet on Himself.

Last spring (snow still on the ground, but the sky with glimmers of light at 7:00 pm (March?)) I was invited to speak to a class of graduate business students at our local academy. I had asked the professor whether #1 could sit in on the class, as she had not had many opportunities to see me in full professional mode. He granted it. After my wee talk, I was taking questions from some students, while #1 was taking some from others. Then I was called back to the front of the lecture theatre to answer the question they all wanted answered because of #1's input. "Do you really cook dinner for your family, and go to parent-teacher interviews, and care whether the family has happy times, in the midst of travelling to developing countries and chairing conferences and..." Well, yes. I invited #1 to confirm or deny. All she said was, "My mother cares about her family first, and her work almost as much. The reason she is successful in international business is because she takes care to develop long-term relationships with her clients. She sends wedding presents, calls them to find out how a three-year-old is. She treats them as friends."

I didn't even need to coach or pay her! I was proud, that moment. Of her mostly, but also of me.

So yes, I would describe myself at both home and work as the uberMother. It does work.

That is funny to me, Dave. One of my best and most virtuous friends once asked me, as we were strolling through Montreal on a muggy summer night, "Why do all my favourite women smoke?!"

I think it is because he admires rebels; he does not rebel himeself but feels the shine coming off those who do. When he and I were growing up, smoking was not entirely socially unacceptable but was still a line drawn. Smoker = free thinking rebel (if I'd been born 7 years earlier, rebellion might have involved listed drugs).

yoki: //This unability to feel the lightness makes me feel, well, sort of French.
SF, I am *not* making fun of the French, nor stereotyping them. I am displaying understanding of the umbrage you took; that's how I feel about this column.//

yoki, understood.

Now if you could only convince the other 11 Achenbloggers, who still think it had something to do with being thin-skinned... ;)

Personally, I have no idea why Huffington is portayed as a Greek in this illustration. To my knowledge, she has never claimed any "Greekness," has not lived in Greece since the age of 16, and (again, only to my knowledge) never brings it up. AFAIK, she's as American as anyone else.

Would Schwarzennegger be portrayed in the Wapo with lederhosen and a forest green hat with a feather on the side? I doubt it.

The cartoon depicts Huffington as a Valkyrie, which the last time I knew was Germanic, not Greek.

You're a fascinating guy, SF: both thin-skinned and dense all at the same time. A man of contradictions: very continental.

SF, that would be very funny. I want to see Ahnold in lederhosen in the WaPo.

And as one of the other 11 achenbloggers (at this moment), I'm rather offended at le back-stabbing.

Change of subject-- whom in Henrique Potier do you consider sexy?

Oops, never mind. She looked like a Greek Goddess to me (in the illustration...)

Good grief! Valkyries are Nordic, not Germanic!

Loomis, are you saying someone might be dense...? ;)))

The last sentence of the first paragraph: "last" not "latter" when more than two please.

Norse, not Nordic. But that sketch of the Valkyrie is CLEARLY an reference to Wagner's Die Walküre, viz the wine glass being served by Joel so the valkyrie can shatter it with a high C note.

Which makes it Germanic. Of course, it could be Arianna as a drag queen which would make it throughly New York.

But it was probably sketched with India ink, which makes it Indian. And perhaps the pen was made in China...

In other words, we have the SELF castigation club for a reason. Let's all play together in the sandbox very nicely.

You can declare war on France tomorrow. Right now, nourrir les puces, non?

I think that what Arianna Huffington fears is that we will recall that she once was a rabid right-wing commentator who decried the stupidity and cupidity of her antagonists and relied much on proof by authority. Now, she squawks from the other side. I find it hard to take seriously anything that she says. Arianna Huffington is all about the marketing of Arianna Huffington.

I did like, in Al Franken's book "Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot (and other observations)", his reminiscence of meeting her at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner. He mentioned her specifically as a fierce right-wing commentator, and that he wished that he could find it in himself to cross over to her side, just to make her pleased. But, he couldn't. Evidently, Arianna found it much easier to change her spots. I wonder if Franken takes satisfaction in that? I wonder how his wife feels about it?

I suppose I'm just being shallow, but that Fleur Delacour still works for me -- at least, the version of her that I have in my head. I like Hermione pretty well, too (please remember -- the story is told from Harry's perspective, so I imagine events and situations through the eyes of someone like my self-image at similar age). But I definitely like that Tonks a lot.

But I'm still bothered by all this wand silliness, and the rote memorization of spells. Is there no coherent theory of magic in which students are trained?

It seems that some basic martial arts would be extremely effective against a wizard, so long as you take the initiative in all conflicts. Take away that wand, and he's got nothin'. Of course, as soon as he gets a new wand, he has extraordinary abilities to make your life hellish, with no significant repercussions. Thus, logically, it makes a lot of sense for Muggles to attack and to kill wizards at every feasible opportunity. Your mugglish survival, free will, and self-determination are solely at the discretion of any wizards who might be present, so the only logical way that one can maintain one's human rights is by eliminating wizards without compunction. Harry, Hermione, and Ron may be nice kids -- but they are like nice teenage kids who have been handed a loaded bazooka with the suggestion that they will lose their bazooka privileges if they should lose their temper. That threat doesn't much help if you happen to be the person who gets one of them ticked off. The adult wizards are under even less control. So long as a wizard is around, your "rights" are merely privileges. Your sensory perceptions, your free will, your ability to make rational decisions, your ability to act on your decisions -- for good or ill, they are entirely at the pleasure of any wizard who may be present.

Note, in the fourth book, that there is a farmer who is actively being made stupid and brain-damaged by all the memory charms that have been thrown at him. This is treated as a pesky inconvenience, a regrettable situation, not a crime against humanity. The muggles who are tormented by the Death-Eaters in that same book are viewed as mistreated pets, more than as tortured fellow humans. Better to die on my feet than to live on my knees. You pull out a wand, I'll have to pull out a gun, a knife, a rock, attack with my bare hands. We'll have to see which of us can act faster.

Good thing it's fiction.

As you can see, there are some aspects of Harry Potter that have irritated me for a while. Don't get me started on J. K. Rowling's lunatic misconceptions about team sports.

The family, and I, eagerly await the 7th book, which I will read aloud, with vocal characterization, just as I have done with the preceding 6.

I've been thinking about superfrenchie's post. Maybe that costume depicted by Richard Thompson is supposed to be of a woman in Greek warrior garb? Perhaps superfrenchie is right? (I've had a day..hubby left for work at 6;30 a.m. and returned at 10:40 p.m., so no real breakfast, lunch or dinner for either of us as we kept assuming he'd be home shortly.)

Were there women Greek warriors who aped in costume the male breastplates? Where is our Greek TBG when we need her or mo, who knows the theater? I find the Arianna illustration overly silly and still dislike it immensely.

Wish Joel could have as sharp and as visually interesting an illustrator as Frank Rich does. His GOP elephant standing on a chair while the therapist's "elephant in the room" was sauntering across was priceless today--Rich writing about gays currently in top GOP administrative posts and Rove's adoptive father being gay.

And Science Tim is right. Arianna was married to the conservative GOP California Senate candidate Michael Huffington. He, Dallas-born, ran, at the time, the most expensive non-presidential race in history and was beat by a very narrow margin by Sen. Dianne Feinstein. Shortly after he lost, he came out of the closet as a bisexual. Michael and Arianna divorced.

And, as to superfrenchie's question of whether the Washington Post would run a picture or cartoon of Arnold Scwarzenegger in lederhosen? Who knows? But Austria's Kurt Waldheim gave Arnold and Maria a statue as a wedding gift depicting Arnold in lederhosen and Maria in a dirndl.

http://www.slate.com/id/2086742/

superfrenchie, I am quite fond of you. You, dense? Hardly.

Rowling freely admits she's no sports buff. But yeah, you'd think wizardly refs would be better.

Well, Pratchett wrote his wizards as being under control simply because wizards have the urge to build towers, suck up power, and try to destroy each other when they get really addicted to magic.

The system seems simple-- the word is the thing, the basis of all sympathetic magic. They memorize words in pseudolatin and learn to conceptualize/channel. Otherwise if they just said "bang, you're dead" instead of avada kavadera, then 1) the book would be inadvertantly funny, and 2) it raises the questions of "what if they say that by accident?" any kid would ask.

That said, not all magic is wandless. Didn't you notice that Harry performed magic before he was admitted to Hogwarts with wand?

Well, we've seen that not all wizards are that concerned with Muggle rights, to say the least. But remember, muggles have technology wizards barely understand as well, and that can be indistinguishable from magic when sufficiently advanced.

Science exists in the world of Harry Potter. The wizards simply don't DO it.

But then, I don't know if we want Harry Potter debating the finer points of magic in public. "No, Malfoy couldn't do that, because see, Rowlings says on page 245 of the Chambers of Secrets that fourth order spells must be done with with the frontal lobe unaffected by extreme emotion, and Malfoy would be rather emotional at being turned into a girl..."

"You're forgetting the suprachiasmatic nucleus effect modulating fourth and fifth order spells, and he would just CROSS his eyes...

SCC: Harry potter FANS.

Loomis, the women in Greece didn't normally go into battle. The society was sexist and women were chattel. However, the Amazons is a greek legend of warrior women, so called because they cut off their right breasts to shoot arrows better (or more likely, the higher muscle density on the right side vs the left made their breasts smaller on that side).

However if you want warrior goddess agalore, look at Irish mythology. Morrigan for starters, and she is also identified with 2 other goddess as a tripartiate deity sometines, but up to 4 other goddesses total.

Very tough broad. Cúchulainn fought with her as she changed shapes and was lucky to win.

http://www.shee-eire.com/Magic&Mythology/Gods&Goddess/Celtic/Goddess/Morrigan/Factsheet1.htm

I want to name a dog Valkyrie or Morrigan now.

Oh and Pat, I posted something about music and ADHD at wilbrodthegnome.blogspot.com

parched lips.

Butterfly wings removing caterpillar dreams.

Asking for a new page became he only way to be seen as an open ended fragment of excelsior.

puns on the frequency of quality fra graces....

n

velocity as a smil.

e

peaches of love.

After the first Valkyrie reference I was off checking depictions of Greek goddesses - Nike and Athena specifically. Nope, I'd have to say the metal breastplate and the winged helmet makes it a Wagnerian reference.

On the women of Potter, with the SciTim caveats, Hermione.

her conundrum, she laced up the fiddle with tight phrases chiding her zither....

leaning the distance to into her future, perfume rent the air with a light moan.

shrill echoes of earnestness, with small coats on.

mouse erps....raspberry jam frangrance filled the morning light with peach butteryness.
.

.
.

lilly pads sought her feet....

dharma, as sensuousness.

stunned sunlight wrestled with her shape,

embellishing her festiviness with avarice avoided.

Olympos

shot across the living room floor, angled into the television and proceeded to encampe upon her astrophysics notebook.

settling for a short one, she shot the new student a disaster prone access code.

nightengale frenzy....tossed between pillows of moistness

fresh with rose petals...

severance as a journey into sweetness...leaning just touching before

Great article and illustration. While we should all remember that Joel writes satire, it is sadly true that many women in the world remain oppressed because of subconscious fear of their strength.

The cartoon definitely does invoke the image of the valkyrie, and since it's common knowledge that Arianna's ancestry is Greek, I thought a Greek goddess image would be more appropriate.

But research reminds me that, in fact, Pallas Athena is frequently depicted with a winged helmet and spear, and there's a metal breastplate in the story, too (the aegis, which was made especially for Zeus, and which he consequently gave to Athena, his favorite daughter.) Athena is an appropriate symbol for the author of "On Becoming Fearless"--the goddess of wisdom, war, the arts, industry, justice and skill.

So that brings us back full circle to where Joel says, "check out Richard's great illustration"--Joel, I bet Richard would be delighted to know how much discussion he has inspired, and perhaps he'd like to add his viewpoint (?)

Here's Leonard Pitts on a related subject: "Men are more intelligent than women (not)"

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/living/columnists/leonard_pitts/15768929.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp

Wilbrod: //Change of subject-- whom in Henrique Potier do you consider sexy?//

I finally got the fact that Henrique Potier might be Harry Potter. Were you trying to translate the name in French? Potier might work, but Enrique is not a French name.

Anyway, to answer the question, I have never read any Harry Potter book. My son has, but I haven't (remember, I'm the dense guy (wide grin) )

Always nice to start the week discovering we've got our knickers in a twist. Let's see, where to begin.

The confusion between whether the cartoon lady is "Germanic" or Norse is understandable. She's clearly a Wagnerian reference, the classic Brunnhilde opera singer without which no event is finished until she sings (see Berra, Yogi, for source).

Now, the problem is this: while most of the characters in Wagner's Ring of the Biebelung cycle were indeed Norse, as Loomis points out, there was also a lot of German as well as "Germanic" material in it (the word "Germanic" encompasses Norse mythology, by the way, so something can indeed be both Norse as well as Germanic at the same time).

Wagner, of copurse, was German, as is the opera, but the problem goes even further. The first of the four pieces is called Das Rheingold, takes place on the Rhine River, and features Rhinemaidens--all pretty German. Yes, many of the characters are from Norse mythology, but they are swimming around the bottom of the Rhine (or Rhein, in the Deutsche).

At the (high) risk of quoting wikipedia, we find (under German Paganism):

"Germanic paganism refers to the religion and mythology of the Germanic nations preceding Christianization. The best documented of the Germanic Pagan religions is 10th and 11th century Norse Paganism. Scattered references are also found in the earliest writings of other Germanic peoples and Roman descriptions. The information can be supplemented with archaeological finds and remnants of pre-Christian beliefs in later folklore.

Germanic Paganism was a polytheistic religion with some underlying similarities to other European and West-Asian Pagan traditions. The principal gods are best known in English as Odin (from the Old Norse: Óðinn), Thor (ON: Þórr) and Týr."

and (under Der Ring des Nibelungen):

"Wagner created the story of the Ring by fusing elements from many German and Scandinavian myths and folk tales. The Old Norse Eddas supplied much of the material for Das Rheingold, which also contains the same plot device as the tale Puss in Boots, while Die Walküre was largely based on the Volsunga saga. Siegfried contains elements from the Eddas, the Volsunga Saga, Thidreks saga, and even the Grimm brothers' fairy tales The Tale of a Boy Who Went Forth to Learn Fear and Sleeping Beauty. The final opera, Götterdämmerung, draws from the 12th century High German poem known as the Nibelungenlied, which appears to have been the original inspiration for the Ring, and for which the cycle was named."

The fourth little dity in the cycle, the famous Gotterdammerung, which is probably irrevokably associated with Hitler and the end of WWII by now, takes place again along the Rhine:

"The act begins in the Hall of the Gibichungs, a people dwelling by the Rhine. Gunther, lord of the Gibichungs, sits enthroned. His half-brother Hagen advises him to find a wife for himself and a husband for their sister Gutrune. He suggests Brünnhilde for Gunther's wife, and Siegfried for Gutrune's husband. He has given Gutrune a potion to make Siegfried forget Brünnhilde and fall in love with Gutrune; under its influence, Siegfried will win Brünnhilde for Gunther."

And of course, the Ring Cyle features lots of names that we associate with German (rightly or wrongly), such as Siegfried, Sigmunde, etc.

So basically it appears we're stuck with both German AND Norse, not one or the other. And Germanic appears to be a proper generic term encompassing both, though I doubt Anon 11 knew that when he/she posted.

Thompson's cartoon, though, is pretty clearly based on the stereotypical notion of the (er, what's the politically correct phrase? "well-endowed"? "full-figure"? I'm trying not to go there) German (Norse) opera singer playing Brunnhilde belting out some aria while wearing her breastplate, and generally assumed to be a Valkyrie.

SCC: Biebelung should be Nibelung, also sometimes spelled Niebelung, though which is "more correct" I dunno. It appears both ways, depending on the source. My German ain't that good.

Karen, great idea, I'll email Richard and ask him to weigh in. He'll probably say, "No one sent me the column until 5 days after the deadline and I had 20 minutes to produce a sketch and defaulted to a Valkyrie." The usual excuse.

'Mudge, you got Wagner right, so no worries.

And to wander back on-topic... *gasp!*

Placing virtue in being "fearless" is a very misplaced idea. Having no fear often means not understanding what you're getting into, much like (fill in the blank) has done recently. As aphoristic as this might sound, you have to actually experience fear to overcome it. When I wore the uniform, I always kept an eye on the "fearless leaders."

:-)

The Ben Stein article was interesting in that I couldn't really tell how far his tongue was in his cheek. His advice that "You are always better off working in a field where torrents of money are sloshing through and you can grab a handful as it goes by." echoed a similar sentiment expressed in 'Good Bless You, Mr. Rosewater' by Kurt Vonnegut. Although a sentiment that obvious probably even predates my dear KV.

I do find it ironic to be lectured on how to become wealthy by a man of self-professed great intellect whose fortunes are based on his rather nasal and flat reading of a catch phrase from a popular movie.

SCC: God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater

sf,

Ridiculing a public figure's ethnic origin is a time honored tradition of caricturists and political cartoonists of all stripes. Not would someone portray Ah-nold in lederhosen, they would be remiss in not doing so if the context demanded it.

Slate magazine recalls a true incident where kitsch art has immortalized The Muscled One in traditional native garb.

http://www.slate.com/id/2086742/

"Waldheim didn't attend, but he sent a gift--a statue of Arnold, in lederhosen, bearing off Maria, who wore a dirndl."

I am beginning to think the taking of fake umbrage around here is more popular than quidditch (indoor, outdoors, or Australian rules).

Here is a link to a classic SNL bit where Lindsay Lohan portrays the flowering Hermione:

http://www.blogography.com/archives/2004/05/snl_harry_potte.html

Enjoy.

yello: //Ridiculing a public figure's ethnic origin is a time honored tradition of caricturists and political cartoonists of all stripes.//

That's a good one!

It wasn't Slate that did that but Kurt Waldheim. And just try ridiculing a Jew or a Chinese or a black person's ethnic origin in hyper-PC conscious America and watch what happens next...

Here is a good description of a fearless woman (child), she is 13 and has been jailed in Afganistan for refusing the marrying the man her father arranged for her to marry. The groom to be was 50.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20061015.wxprison16/BNStory/International/home

Eh, I thought Thompson's cartoon depicted AH as a Brunhildic/Valkeric character in some Wagernian opera as well.

Joel, naturally, will consider cranial coaster implants for further elective/augmentation surgeries as a means of remaining attractive to the Ladies. His pioneering work in this area may land him a guest shot on "Nip/Tuck".

bc

Yes, teenagers can be surprisingly fearless.
But marrying off girls as young as 8 or so is unfortunately permitted by sharia law, which raises questions for Canada in how far you go. India has 4 separate marriage laws-- muslim, christian, Hindu, AND common law. There is a drive to simply replace the religious laws with common laws, since muslims are permitted 3 wives and hindus are only permitted 1 wife. Apparently some men are crazy enough to convert for this very purpose (SIGH).

It causes a lot of problems to have separate laws based on religion.

This quote from the blog (gasp! I'm on-topic!):

The latter tip culminates in a quote from a woman saying that when people interfere with her interests, "I cut them out like cancer."

Reminded me of an Kurt Vonnegut interview from 2003 in which he said

"PPs (psychopathic personalities) are presentable, they know full well the suffering their actions may cause others, but they do not care. They cannot care because they are nuts. They have a screw loose!

And what syndrome better describes so many executives at Enron and WorldCom and on and on, who have enriched themselves while ruining their employees and investors and country, and who still feel as pure as the driven snow, no matter what anybody may say to or about them? And so many of these heartless PPs now hold big jobs in our federal government, as though they were leaders instead of sick.

What has allowed so many PPs to rise so high in corporations, and now in government, is that they are so decisive. Unlike normal people, they are never filled with doubts, for the simple reason that they cannot care what happens next. Simply can't. Do this! Do that! Mobilize the reserves! Privatize the public schools! Attack Iraq! Cut health care! Tap everybody's telephone! Cut taxes on the rich! Build a trillion-dollar missile shield! F(ord) habeas corpus and the Sierra Club and In These Times, and kiss my a(ston martin)!

http://inthesetimes.com/comments.php?id=38_0_4_0_C

"But marrying off girls as young as 8 or so is unfortunately permitted by sharia law, which raises questions for Canada in how far you go"

Not quite sure what you mean, Wilbrod. There was some disscussion about sharia law in Ontario but I am pretty sure that there is no legal standing for sharia law in Canada. The law of the land is set by legislatures and parliaments, not religions.

yello: //Ridiculing a public figure's ethnic origin is a time honored tradition of caricturists and political cartoonists of all stripes.//

That's a good one!

It wasn't Slate that did that but Kurt Waldheim. And just try ridiculing a Jew or a Chinese or a black person's ethnic origin in hyper-PC conscious America and watch what happens next...
***

yello, you BOOed out of order. See my 12:23 with the same link to Slate about Waldheim's wedding gift to Schwarzenegger and Shriver.

I think the time-honored tradition of caricaturists and illustrators to ridicule a public figure's ethnic origins should be falling out of favor--hopefully. (I hope, I hope, I hope.) Is it necessary to revert to our old tribal states or nation-states for cheap yuks?

I'm sensitive on this subject since one of the thrusts of the Teacher Corps program I was involved with in Washington state, working toward my masters, was multicultural education. Mind you, this was 1975-1977! When TBG made some crack some time ago about Mexicans and sombreros, it sent me through the roof. I tried to post something in response--about what a nasty stereotype Mexicans think that is--but that was one of the posts that Hal ate.

By training, you know where I fall on this subject of ethnicity as fodder for the humor mill. Discussing it isn't a bad idea, IMHO--whether ethnic humor should enter the comedy graveyard? (The Russian jokes hurt last week because of the fate of Maksim Chmerkovskiy.)

I am enjoying this discussion, actually, and the links. Pallas Athena, born out of father's head. Now there's an old idea. And Wilbrod's link to the Celtic warrior women. Interesting to see Bridgit with her hair standing straight up in the air, on fire. That graphic was worth the price of admission. And now Arianna as part of the Niebelungenlied?

dr, is right Wilbrod, the Sharia law that was proposed for Ontario was rejected.

Here's a brief explanation of the situation.

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20050912/mcguinty_shariah_050911?s_name=&no_ads=

bc,
You're making me laugh about Joel and Nip/Tuck...only because Mario Lopez was blessed on camera on Tuesday by a local parish priest before his latest Latin dance on ABC's "Dancing with the Stars" program. (Nothing like interjecting religion into a purely secular activity!)

I admit to having posted there at Disney a handful of times last week and lurking a great deal. Those boards are *wild* (full of falsehoods, and allegations and innuendo)--compared to here--but someone did ask if Mario's priest also blessed him before he did the recent nude scene in Nip/Tuck?

But at least those boards offer italics, bold, and underline--ya readin' this, Mr. Shop Steward?

For a good example of how fearless the news media is in caricaturing anyone, see this story:

http://tinyurl.com/sjkvu

A broadcaster mocked his hispanic collegue by saying he was "hablaing Espanol," and added "I still can't find my wallet."

He was then promptly shown the door!

There's only one nationality that is safe for mocking. And that's because there's so few of us to respond...

They're not fearless, they're cowards!

I think in general it is both safer and more civilized to mock people for things that they can change (e.g., politics, behavior) rather than things they cannot (ethnicity, gender).

And you should ahem hit below the belt when the person is high status and in power, since that is less hurtful.

If a disliked CEO of a company falls on a banana, you might find a lot of people laughing. But take a frail old lady doing the same thing, you'll find people rushing to help the lady and call 911.

Therefore SF might be ok with making fun of Chirac but not the French people on the whole.

I'm glad that banning religious negotiations in Ontario was the final outcome. I was surprised this was even a possibility in Canada.

Loomis,

Mea culpa. It seems I had unconsciously Bidenized your Ah-nold link.

I think we are all missing Joel's point that men have been dominated at least since the time of Lysistra.

"Reading the other teams playbook" has been my longtime excuse for perusing Cosmopolitan in the grocery store check out line. Mostly I just like the smutty stories about getting caught naked or worse by strangers.

Wilbrod: //Therefore SF might be ok with making fun of Chirac but not the French people on the whole.//

Not only am I OK with making fun of Chirac, but I'll gladly join in.

At any rate, making fun is just fine. We have many foibles for which we deserve mocking. The problem is when hate becomes a factor, and facts and foibles are pure inventions.

Yin and Yang, when one gets out of balance, diaster follows.

Actually when Joel wrote "get out the kevlar underwear" that was a reference to how emasculating those women sound, I believe.

In short, women acting like men? What are men to do now to affirm their manhood and autonomy from their mommies?

That's where fathers come in, IMO.

Surely, lederhosen and breastplates are safe for mocking? What's next, will they take away our ability to mock the British for their umbrellas? Hawaiians for their leis? Jamaicans for their dreadlocks? Americans for our beer guts, tacky shorts and shirts, loud voices, etc.?

There is plenty of room left for caricature of ethnic traits/stereotypes without verging into bigotry. It is, of course, possible to go too far and to mistake the mocking distortion for a description of the actual thing. As with so many things in life, it requires moderation, nuance, balance. There is practically no-one who would become outraged by a lederhosen joke (maybe I'm wrong). Stereotyping Austrians as Nazis, on the other hand -- not funny. The navigation of social and cultural waters is not such an easy thing that a simple always-applicable set of rules can be defined. The most astute navigators can break the "rules", with appropriate applications of irony and self-deprecation, and win the audience's affection. This only works, however, if the navigator has correctly gauged his audience. That is the difference between an astute navigator and either a lethally boring clod or an outrageously offensive dolt. Nevertheless, it is rare to find a humorist who does not offend SOMEONE, because humor that doesn't sting in some way is humor that has nothing to say. So there.

"These women show me that successful women need not mimic the worst characteristics of successful men in order to be effective. They can find their own way."

HOORAY, RD Padouk, thank you for this. Like Yoki, I found myself getting uneasy with Joel's column, even though some of it made my laugh - probably from my bad training from the Mommy Blog I expected terrible results - but this comment made my day.

On another note, the always-interesting Shankar Vendantam's "Why Everyone You Know Thinks the Same as You", has some interesting Blogological implications.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/15/AR2006101500913.html

Hmph. If gender and ethnicity are no longer acceptable joke fodder on the Achenblog, prepare for a Weingarten-esque hail of poop jokes. Remember, you asked for it.

bc

loomis, what russian jokes are you referring to? i can only recall a discussion of russian humor being harder to understand, but i skim a lot and could have missed something.

Going wildy off topic, last week someone mentioned Helen Mirren as Queen Elizabeth 1. I found it in the video store Friday, and picked it up. Well worth the bucks.

Mirren's portrayal takes Glenda Jackson's superb turn as QE1 right out of your head, and plants this version forever as the definitive screen Queen.

Wilbrod, I don't think it's actually that surprising. We're going to face a lot of challenges between multiculturalism and established rights.

The fuss began when Muslims asked for binding arbitration based on religious principles in family law circumstances. The precedent was that apparently some Jewish and Catholic groups already had this. In the end they did away with all religion-based arbitrations.

It's a toughie. The starting point is if someone wants to live their life in a certain way, who are we to stop them? To go in and ban headscarves and polygamy and female genital mutilation requires us to say you're not "really" consenting to such practices, madam.

Speaking of which, thanks for that link, dmd. That girl is so courageous. That kind of story makes me pause a moment in support of the Afghan counter-insurgency (what kind of govt are we supporting), tempered only by knowing the alternative.

kb, I couldn't find any depictions of Athena with a winged helmet and metal breastplate. I thought the standard depiction was as can be seen on the Wiki site (no wings, goatskin breastplate), but I'm usually wrong more times by 9 am than most people are all day.

Yikes, what a morning. Been dealing with staff "personnel" issues. Among my least favorite of activities, akin to root canal without the laughing gas.

What Tim just said, twice over. In fact, there's a major body of thought that says humor is SUPPOSED to offend somebody or it isn't doing its job.

However, I am indeed umbraged unto new heights of umbragitude to learn the Disney message boards have bold, italics, and even (!!!!) underlining! Loomis, I shall summon an emergency meeting of the grievance committee to deal with this...this... ah, I'm trying to sort through the various feasances here...misfeasance? malfeasance? unfeasance? cross-feasance? ultrafeasance? humongofeasance?...well, whatever feasance it is (ivansmom, SofC, some of you legal types, help me out here).

On the other hand, I am utterly mystified how referencing an opera singer in a breastplate as a metaphor for a woman warrior constitutes some sort of "ethnic" slur. But I think anyone who finds it such needs to pull the stick out. Ditto Ahnold in lederhosen. Jeez.

Depends on how much you get out and mix. I was kind of surprised when a jocky coworker told me that most of his friends are pretty much the same as he is. Boring.

Sometimes we really do overlook people because they don't "interesting"-- or too different. I had a lovely conversation with an ATF agent on a plane after I realized she looked exactly like the type I had never talked to before, certainly very different from me. I learned a lot about the ATF and enjoyed every minute of it.

I think it is a shame that we may confine ourselves to picking friends based on a few facets of our personalities or a limited array of common interests.

If we really plugged into everything we were interested in, we'd still hang out with people we have things in common with, but get exposed to far more viewpoints.

I gotta admit, I really liked science because of the variety of people I met in my first lab job.

I should add here that even if I could read the Other Team's Playbook, I don't have the context, or speak the language, for that matter.

It's all GrecoNordoGermanic to me.

bc

Cartoon women....well, they are not as important to me as real women. Not to dismiss power of images, here. But what about real people, famous or not?

Can we post a comment or two about examples?

Although NOT a woman, Dr. Mather of recent-Nobel fame is by all accounts a fabulous person. Part of the fab is his ordinary kindness. Students adore him. His coworkers still can't get over what a nice colleague he is. His neighbors like him, too. All Route One is (was) agog for a week about the nice nerdy guy from Hyattsville....(GO PeeGee County).

So can we note cases of strong, yet human women? We can't know everything, so perhaps we notice a graceful action?

I think that Carly Fiorina's behavoir as she was leaving (ousted) from HP a few years ago, suggested some sort of class. Will a shoe fall regarding the snooping and pre-texting?

Meryl Streep stays above the celeb-fray. I see wrinkles and soft-middle age upon her. Lovely and real.

Dorothy Day worked for years among the homeless and thrown-away people of New York.

I think, as Wilbrod suggests, many of the best are simply our neighbors and colleagues, and subway companions....

Soc I have the same uneasiness over Afganistan.

Re headscarves ban, this one is tough for me as well, as a women I would hate to be told what I had to wear, but I would be equally troubled with the theory that someone can prevent me from wearing something that is not harming anyone else.

The attached article is concerning the situation in Britian, the question to myself is - is this too far. How about a nun, while many wear secular clothes now, not all, would they be told to dress differently? Is this freedom?

http://www.metro.co.uk/home/article.html?in_article_id=21296&in_page_id=1

I'm with you, bc. I suspect the other team's playbook is even bigger than the 700-pager that the Redskins allegedly have (but apparently aren't using...or perhaps maybe that IS their problem!). At any rate, the playbook you reference is undoubtedly full of trick plays, screens, crossing patterns, blocking maneuvers, stunts, end-arounds, fake passes, Statue-of-Liberty plays, blitzes, post patterns (is smoking a cigarette a post pattern? hmmm...), illegal shifts, motion plays, shifts, two-minute warnings, time-outs, holding, and of course illegal use of hands.

Er, I am talking about football, of course. Weren't you?

k-guy sighting over @ Raw Fisher!!!

:-)

Good morning, friends. It's the lady that loves the big box of crayons with all those beautiful colors. Pat, went to the lake this morning, and boy did the sky look like a Monet portrait. All those colors mingle together, the blues, the ash white, the different oranges and yellows, and the fall colors to the side. It was just too beautiful for words, and as you can see I'm sorely lacking of them this morning. And one duck sitting on the lake, moving about slowly as if lost. I thought, sometimes I feel like that duck. And just a very fine mist rising upward, a little white/gray to finish up the picture.

As to Mrs. Huffington, I believe at times perhaps she is compensating for making the bad marital choice, a husband that wanted the same thing she wanted. I believe she took the gloves off after that disclosure.

Strong women have been in the picture since the beginning of time, and I suspect the male's opinion of these women has been, and still is the same. A little fear, coupled with a desire to dominate. I have loads of respect for women that stand up for themselves and don't hide their talents regardless of how the male population may view that talent. I don't think women need to portray men's bad habits in order to be strong. Besides in my book, the ability to carry a child, and rear that child, put women right up there in God's play book. Scripture describes women as the weaker sex, but if one reads on, it will certainly be found out that God loves the weak things of this world. He loves to exault them.

None of the journalists that post comments touched the question I asked in the last kit about the Russian journalists and our situations here in this country. Perhaps that situation does not exist here?

Have a good day, and please know that God loves me and you more than we can imagine through Him that died for all, Jesus Christ.

SonofCarl: I swear, this morning the very first picture that came up of Athena had a winged helmet and a spear. So I assumed...(uh-oh) but I would like to withdraw the phrase "frequently depicted" from my previous post, based on subsequent internet searches. This is a case where I would love to teleport myself to an actual library, that's where the oversize picture books about classical sculpture could really shed some light on this question. In the meantime, I did find a second picture (couldn't find the one I saw this morning)of Athena with a helmet that has Pegasus (and thus, wings) on it, and also a breastplate and spear. (scroll down, or search for "helmet" or "winged")

http://www.thecaveonline.com/WORLDHISTORY/ENRICHMENT/PARTHENON/parthenon.html

Wilbrod, I think the picking-friends-like-ourselves issue is interesting. I've always had a lot of friends that didn't like each other - I remember this making for some very awkward birthday parties as I got older, as the people that I really liked never seemed to mix. I think I've always tended to accept and enjoy the part of a person that I like and not worry about aspects I don't like. This can be good in that it lets me be friends with a wide array of people, but it also raises problems of its own in terms of how much you should be willing to tolerate in terms of things you find truly offensive. I have an aquaintance who I very much enjoy in some ways, but I think he does hold very racist views. He made a racist joke around me once and I told him what I thought of that and we had a tense couple of days. Now he doesn't make those statements around me, though he'll sometimes say things that push the edge but are not blatantly offensive, which I find harder to know how to handle. Other friends think that by continuing to be friendly with him I'm essentially condoning his views. I'm not sure what I think about that, to be honest. But I think that's one of the reasons that we tend to congregate with people who are like us, it avoids that level of dissonance between your values and your friendships.

O.K., let's talk Arianna. How old was she when she left Greece? Why portray her as the size of a Brazilian Amazon or a Norse Brunhilde or a Greek warrior goddess? How much money did she herself bring to the Huffington marriage? How much was she awarded as a divorce settlement? Are we to admire her for her wit, for her red hair, for her accent, smarts, that she's Bill Maher's friend, what? Anyone read her "Pigs at the Trough"? Like it or dislike it? Are we to be awed that she has a blog that has guest bloggers with impressive credentials?

Let me assure you, that Arianna and other powerful women, foreign-born or native-born, are hardly representative of the typical American female. I buttress this statement with some grafs from NYT Bob Herbert's column today on misogyny. I'm tempted to copy the whole durned thing:

Ten girls were shot and five killed at the Amish school. One girl was killed and a number of others were molested in the Colorado attack.

In the widespread coverage that followed these crimes, very little was made of the fact that only girls were targeted. Imagine if a gunman had gone into a school, separated the kids up on the basis of race or religion, and then shot only the black kids. Or only the white kids. Or only the Jews. ...

What have we learned since then? That there's big money to be made from thongs, spandex tops and sexy makeovers for little girls [previous graf spoke of JonBenet]. In a misogynistic culture, it's never too early to drill into the minds of girls that what really matters is their appearance and their ability to please men sexually.

A girl or woman is sexually assaulted every couple of minutes or so in the U.S. The number of seriously battered wives and girlfriends is far beyond the ability of any agency to count. We're all implicated in this carnage because the relentless violence against women and girls is linked at its core to the wider society's casual willingness to dehumanize women and girls, to see them first and foremost as sexual vessels -- objects -- and never, ever as the equals of men. ...

You're deluded if you think this is all about fun and games. It's all part of a devastating continuum of misogyny that at its farthest extreme touches down in places like the one-room Amish schoolhouse in normally quiet Nickel Mines, Pa.

(L.A. lurker, will talk Russian jokes later.)

Thanks kb! I saw that one, but thought those were her ears. Yeah, that's it. It's a little known fact that Athena Parthenos means "big eared Athena" as she was known on Mt.Olympus when she wasn't there. Even littler known is that Parthenon means "ear-o-drome" in Greek.

Some people say if you find yourself in a hole, stop digging. I say if everyone did that China would never have been discovered.

I'm with Cassandra about strong women and the unease they may provoke in men. I've always been amused at the idea that women are the more romantic, delicate types. When it comes to making hard decisions, from a business problem to estate planning and illness, I've always observed women to be far more pragmatic and less sentimental than their male counterparts (colleagues or family members).

Joel, I'm sorry, but Arianna's playbook is merely a feint, designed to distract you. We have a real playbook of course (something like the Parent's Manual I constantly quote to the Boy) but it is so secret I can't even tell you how I know we have it.

I find Arianna fascinating for her protean self-reinvention: right-wing commentator and trophy wife to outraged liberal. I like Cassandra's take, "compensating for making the bad marital choice."

As someone who can't see the infamous illustration I find the subsequent discussion fascinating. Would we have spent so much energy on it if Joel hadn't called it to people's attention? Are illustrations that important? I usually ignore accompanying cartoon figures (if I can see them) on the assumption that it is someone's comment on the article's content but not anything which will influence my own understanding.

Salon has an interesting interview with Andrew Sullivan. About why Iraq is going so poorly, he says:

"I think they [Rumsfeld and Cheney] essentially sabotaged the war out of their own arrogance, because they'd rather lose a war than concede a point. That's the pettiness of these people."

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2006/10/16/sullivan/

That is an interesting position since conventional wisdom is that doing well in Iraq would have been in the administration's best interests.

Sky report: Last night before sunset it had stopped raining but the sky was still covered with clouds. The clouds formed fluffy low rolls or ridges all over the sky, dark gray and trailing away at the edges on the bottom of the rolls (closest to the ground) and lighter gray in the crevices (up from the ground). By this morning we were back to smooth gray. For all I know, the tops of these clouds are having a fancy-dress party with prizes for the most interesting shape, and the part we can see is the stable bottom on which they rest.

Despite, or perhaps because of, years promoting feminism and equality generally, I thought the Kit was very funny.

Loomis, those incidents are not strictly misogyny, what they are is about control. Rape happens to men, abuse happens to men.

I'd wager that the whole little miss beuaty pageants is about feeding the mother's needs, not about a man displaying anything against any female. Women are doing this to their daughter's. In all I've read about the phenomenon, its never been about the dads of these little girls.

SCC beauty. daughters.

Anything else, please feel free to edit me.

I need new glasses, new eyes, and spelling lessons. Oh Finnola... are you taking private clients?

Is there a human behind the haiku (I know they aren't exactly haiku, but you know what I mean), or is this a form of spam that is new to me? They're sort of elegant, actually, although I haven't the foggiest idea what they might mean.

dr, I would have to agree with Loomis. The beauty pagents for toddlers are a symptom of what Loomis is talking about: females exist, in the eyes of much of the world, as accessories, auxilliaries, for males, not fully human in their own right. So Joel can write his kit and men all over read it and chuckle. But at the end of the day, while it's fun to pretend that there are all these long-suffering men corralled by their womenfolk, males still have physical strength and a will to power most women don't have. Recent studies about brain development in the fetus talk about how the influx of testosterone changes the developing brain. The female paradigm is cooperation, the male, dominance.

I know, there are always exceptions that everyone (including me) can cite. Arianna Huffington, for one. I'm guessing that I've probably managed to get a lot of you irritated with me. Go ahead, I can take it.

Hey, didja know that there's also a Comments section for Joel's Rough Draft article here...?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/comments/display?contentID=AR2006101101340

This discussion has some interesting context from last week, when Jane Fonda and Gloria Steinem went on "The Colbert Report" to promote the Greenstone radio
network. They did a cooking segment with Colbert that was - if I may say so - deliciously funny. A YouTube link to the segment here (I think):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WABjptOK5W4

An all-woman all-talk radio network, [joke here was removed by bc's sense of self-preservation, and the fact that his asbestos boxers are still at the dry cleaners].

http://www.greenstoneradio.com

bc

The return of the Lone Free Verser aka archy and mehitabel drop acid. All our old friends are coming out to play today.

whyrlegyge, the "loper" you refer to infested us about 6 or 8 months ago, doing this same kind of off-his-meds schtick. He (I'm assuming it's a he rather than a she, no umbrage to any named or implied genders intended) stuck aroiund for a few weeks and then went away. I'm guessing the hospital let him out on some sort of weekend furlough or whatever. He'll probably go away in a while. In the meantime, just ignore him, and skim through his posts like the rest of us do.

For a brief while, I was getting similar emails at work. We have a fairly sophisticated spam-blocker here, so I was always surprised they got through. They sort of remind me of this:

http://flytrapinteractive.com/%7Ecomplimentary/iching/index.html

'Mudge;

Speaking of off their meds, how 'bout that NLCS pitching??

And in a sorta-related-but-not-really theme, what did you think of the Steeler's Polomalu getting tackled by his hair yesterday, and his teammates apparently taking umbrage?

For those who might want an eyeful of sign language, here's a very nice vlog with pictures and some text interpersed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cU5FfCtV2xQ

Will submit the transcript.

Curmudgeon, thanks for the tip.

TBG, the most interesting thing about the comments section of the Rough Draft was that every post (okay both of them) has a "request removal" link.

I wonder how that works? If it only took one request without a reviewer you could end up with a very short comments section. Kind of a Mutually Assured Removal scenario. If you need more than one, or if there were x votes the reviewer would action it, you also get some interesting scenarios (next, on Comments Survivor...)

my, my -- I've missed out on weeks of boodles, and come back to a fracas about strong women and the rather stereotypical Valkyrie image.

It *is* stereotypical. I think Richard's use of it has more to do with the traditional idea of a strong woman, and the strength of the Valkyrie as image.

Imagine a cartoon of Arianna in a smart outfit. Or as Diana, dressed for the hunt. Both very feminine caricatures. Diana always looks beautiful -- which is an interesting point.

Strong women and beauty can be seen as incompatible. Can be -- not always. It's getting better.

I've always been happy I wasn't born blonde (no offense to blondes of both genders!). Somehow, I've always carried the idea that my dark, brunette tresses made me look, well, serious. A stereotype, for sure. Soemthing I probably picked up in high school when I was desperately trying to escape from my cheerleader days -- a sense of who I actually was as opposed to doing what all my friends were doing had had begun to develop --

There, I just exposed my own little bias. A relic left from the early 70s.

I used to have a streak of fearlessness in me -- and I broke a number of bones before I realized it was stupidity. Doing the kinds of things that gets one nominated for the Darwin awards.

Again, always trying to prove I was as tough and, yes, fearless, as any guy. I out-guyed the guys. Of course, this behavior was normally induced by high levels of intoxication!! :-)

I once fell nearly 50' off a steep slope and almost broke my neck while being fearless. I was working at an archaeological site in SW Wyoming; we were hours away from any town or medical care.

After work, we amused ourselves by "skiing" down steep slopes of very loose shale. It was really great fun. But it required a sense of balance.

And use of both arms.

Fearless as I was (and a wee bit drunk) I did a run down the shale holding a beer in one hand. Hit a big boulder, lost my balance and went head first down the rest of the slope, airborne. Ended up in a crumpled heap at the bottom, motionless.

Had to wear a neck brace for 2 weeks. Thought the whole thing was great fun.

Which is why I now equaate fearlessness with a sense of invulnerability. Most often found in the young. Some of whom get culled from the gene pool before procreating.

It's one thing to put yourself in mortal danger. It's quite another to put others in danger. I don't think our current "leaders" are fearless, as someone mentioned way up at the top of this boodle. Their own lives are not on the line. Arrogance, hubris, incompetence, all words that have been used time and again to portray them I believe to be accurate.

Fearless -- no.

On head scarves and Muslim women. I don't think policies like the one in France, or Jack Straw's recent comments are useful -- I see them as very counterproductive. The hajib, whether forced on women or chosen (as many women do)to be worn as a symbol of piety and culrure, is not something that Muslim women should have taken from them by force of European (or North American) law.

It's a sign of disrespect for another culture and religion. It's revealing for what it says about those wishing to ban the hajib. Discomfort with "other." Desire to "protect" women from being forced to wear one.

If any kind of women's wear should be banished by legislative fiat, I think pantyhose tops the list. :-)

g'day y'all!

Scotty, I hesitate to admit it, but I haven't been watching the NCLS. How has the pitching been?

Funny you should mention the Polamalu tackle. My wife and I were watching the Redskins game, and one of the Titans had his long hair and braids sticking out, and my wife commented on it. I said, "Oh, he's wearing a Polamalu." She said, "Wha...?" So I had to explain who Polamalu was, etc.
She said, "Isn't that dangerous, having your hair out like that?" I said yes, but there was no rule against it, and you take your chances.

So a couple hours later I'm making dinner (my patented cottage pie, delicious) and have the Steelers game on, and Polamalu goes down and they flag Larry Johnson and my wife gets all indignant. The two ironies are that if Polamalu had short hair he'd have probably had a touchdown, and second, the only guy who didn't much care about that tackle either way was Polamalu himself. But he's a heckuva player.

Cassandra,
I don't think American reporters are targeted by the government for assassination, as apparently is the case in Russia (at least, that is the rumor). The closest we have come to that is probably during Watergate, when it was revealed that Daniel Schorr and the wonderful Mary McGrory were on Nixon's hitlist - not to be killed (although who knows what Gordon Liddy might have done), but to be harrassed, through tax audits, etc. Now reporters are kept in line by their corporate bosses - and there have been reports of pressure from the White House - look at their demonization of the New York Times. But no actual murders, yet. (and maybe there have been some in the past, but I'm not recalling any)

Welcome back Nelson, and where do I sign the petition to ban pantyhose.

nelson,
Hi - nice to see you!

I have to admit, I didn't think Joel's column was that funny - but it may be because I'm too close to the subject, and far away at the same time, because the last thing I want personally is power. I do think it's a good thing for women in general to be climbing corporate ladders and getting elected to political office. But to call America a matriarchy - I think not.

nelson: //On head scarves and Muslim women. I don't think policies like the one in France, or Jack Straw's recent comments are useful -- I see them as very counterproductive.//

I've never been in favor of that law (conspicuous religious signs such as the veil, the kippa or oversized crosses are not allowed to be worn in public schools) as I find it unnecessary. To me, the problem was of very limited scope to begin with. So why bother.

However, I must admit that overall, the law has been fairly successfull, or at least has not generated any problem in its implementation: there is a large scale acceptance of the law by students and their families, and there have been very few problems (about a dozen last year, none that I'm aware of this year)

So what do you mean by "counterproductive"?

I also predicted more than a year ago than most of Europe would have similar laws within a few years. England might be the first to oblige.

Off topic, but I read this over the weekend and thought it was worth passing on - amusing and interesting article about Peru -
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/13/AR2006101300473.html

I think Polamalu knows it's not in his interest to raise a a ruckus about being dragged down by his hair. No doubt a KC player was standing by waiting to call him "Rapunzamolu" should he protest too much.

The refs flagged it, per the rules (roughly equivalent to a personal-foul level face mask and/or a horsecollar tackle), tacked on the 15 and moved on.

bc

I was never actually clear on what the foul was--I don't think it was the hair, but rather a tackle out-of-bounds. bc or scotty, do you know? Or was it Johnson not releasing his hair right away and then kind of yanking it when he let go?

Rebecca Hartong wasn't crazy about the column either. She's got a good blog item on it:

http://www.rebeccahartong.net/?p=1020

Excerpt:

'For some reason, all this "women being fearless" talk reminds me of those ridiculous books, magazines, and television shows created to supposedly help people lead "simpler and more satisfying lives". I remember one book I looked at contained the groundbreaking idea that a person might consider firing their cleaning lady and scrubbing the bathtub themselves. Whoa! What a concept! Clean your own house??

'I'll tell you how to simplify your life: give away about 90% of the crap you're holding onto. It's amazing how much time and money is spent taking care of your stuff. When you've got less -- when you've really REALLY got less -- you have a whole lot more free time for doing other things.

'It's not complicated. The same thing is true of "becoming fearless". It starts with taking a long honest look at who you are and why you do the things you do.'

Superfrenchie, what point do those laws prove, what is their purpose? Why is any type of cross permitted should it not be excluded completely. How does it promote tolerance?

Sorry superfrenchie, it was me unable to spell my own name again. I don't expect you to answer for a whole continent but laws like that really bother me.

I agree with Rebecca Hartong about ridding onesself of unneccessary belongings. It can be immensely liberating to do so. Accumulating things, worrying about them, maintaining them... makes me tired just thinking about it.

Joel----I read the link. Very strange what Hartong says...

"If you ask me, women with "fear" problems have psychological issues that go beyond simple gender differences. Who are all these supposedly "fearful" women, anyway? I figure they've got to be a bunch of neurotic rich-bxxxxes who haven't quite figured out how to do things for themselves."

---this comment is too weird to even consider. What's her problem? Everyone suffers from fear in some area of their life--nobody is perfect. Anyway, I guess she thinks she is perfect!

bc,
Interesting (re: your 1:02) that the two women in the youtube clip--Fonda and Steinem, who are most in favor of a women's radio network and women's voices and issues to be heard, each had a mother who was, in a sense, powerless. Fonda's mother committed suicide; Steinem's mom had agoraphobia (as she terms it), or social anxiety disorder (as my own mother did ever since I can remember--until my dad died).

Enjoying the comments on the cartoon and the lessons on Greek vs. Teutonic icons with the side trip into Wagnerian Opera.

More people seems disturbed with the image than the text. Many are bothered at the stereotype of the powerful-yet-humane women/man. Yet JA seems archly aware of this. (Not Archie!)

What image WOULD have worked?

What about Arianna as Rosey the Riveteer?

Or for GenXers, Arianna as Buffy the Vampire Slayer?

Re: fearlessness (and I guess bravery as well)

"Whoever stands firm against the right things and fears the right things, for the right end, in the right way, at the right time, and is correspondingly confident, is the brave person; for the brave person's actions and feelings accord with what something is worth, and follow what reason accords."
-Aristotle, "Nicomachean Ethics"

Fearlessness for the sake of fearlessness is not a trait to be admired, in male or female. Aristotle desribes virtue as being a mean or average between the vices of deficiency and excess. One can be too timid and cautious, and one can be too rash. It is how one acts in regard to fear that is most important. One can lash out to attempt self-preservation, one can seclude oneself and ignore the issue at stake, or one can enage with circumspection, reason, and sympathy. For me, the last option is the most viable.

Sorry for the philosophy. I guess I'm not really a sciency, pointy headed type, or whatever the "label" that I just misquoted is.

Re: Harry Potter from way up-Boodle: I always thought Ginny was kinda cute, but Prof. Lupin is my favorite character, except for that whole werewolf thing.

dmd, the no-obvious religious garnment law of France was inspired by a large public inquiry targeted at Muslim youth. Young muslim girls are pressured by their family and religious leader into wearing veils and other religious garb they would not wear voluntarily. Such pressure is not applied on the boys, of course. Having the law on the books brings them an argument against wearing such things, at least at school. The law has no effect on the street, at the work place or at home. Many of the politicos voted for this law with a pinched nose, the implication on the freedom of religion being quite obvious. But the law was basically aimed at helping the young Muslim women practice their freedom of religion i.e. not being coerce by the family and imam at wearing religious symbols they didn't believe in. Life is definitely not simple.

That Rebecca Hartong excerpt sounds a lot like some of the stuff I have gotten in trouble for saying, here and elsewhere.

=========

TBG, I can't believe you sent us over there to the comments and of course I couldn't resist the blank space--I FORGOT that I had sworn never to comment in that format again after I found out that it deletes your apostrophes, quote marks and hard returns. I typed "it's" and it came out "its" and I almost had a stroke. Next time you remind about the comments, remind me about "that" too.

Mea Culpa, and pass the proofreading salt since I should be more careful.

I meant to say the "powerful-yet-INhumane women/man stereotype."

----

dmd: //what point do those laws prove, what is their purpose?//

The official purpose was to promote secularism and avoid having students separate themselves from their peers with religious outfits. Which seems (to me) like a noble goal for a public school system.

The unofficial purpose was to fight extremism. Many of those girls were forced by their families to wear the veil. Sometimes as a religious belief, but most of the time as a provocative display of Islamism.

In fact, Jewish organizations, who were also affected since the kippa is part of what can no longer be worn, understood exactly what it was all about and never protested. It was in their best interest.

That reason was an excellent one (IMHO) and it has worked well. I was (still am) against it because the number of affected students was small. It just did not seem to justify a law. But overall, it has worked well.

Only large crosses (ostentatious displays) are concerned, so if you wear a small cross under your shirt, it's not a concern.

Also keep in mind that it is only public schools and only K-12 students (universities are not affected).

Superfrenchie perhaps it is just me that sees the irony in freeing women by telling them what they must or must not wear, no matter what other people are telling them what is right for them. How does this allow the women to choose whether or not they want to wear the veil. Why should women who wear the veil need to be embarrassed. In our culture we think women should not have to cover our heads, but there are other cultural norms we do have covering our chests, skirt lenghts.

Our goal should be to get women to be able to make up their minds what they would like to do, and part of that should be allowing them to express their religion if they wish and as they wish.

GREETINGS, TEAM. I share what appears to be the general underwhelmed reaction to Sunday's "Rough Draft." In my case, it's partly because (mirabile dictu) I am right there with Loomis, et al on the point that, of all the things to worry about in this world of ours, excess female power is surely not one of them.

But it's mostly because Arianna Huffington bores and annoys me, like David Brock or even Paris Hilton for that matter, and for the same reason. Every single thing they say and do is calculated towards one goal: attention. Whether it's being on the right when the left is dominant, or being on the left when the right is dominant, or selling a tape of yourself having sex with your boyfriend . . . people who do *everything* purely to draw attention to themselves should be banished to some coconut island without phones or internet connections until they can make a persuasive argument about why they should command the attention of busy people such as all of us, here on the boodle.

Instead, to see all those column inches -- of my beloved Achenbach! -- devoted to giving free publicity to Arianna's latest self-promotion . . . well, between that, and a week-long parade of houseguests, and various sinister developments at work -- my suffering has been intense.

I read the article about why everybody has friends who are just like them. Not sure how true that holds for me. I am a conservative and a Republican and a Christian, but I have a lot of friends who are liberals or Democrats or nonChristans (or all of the above). I am several people's token Republican friend, but I don't mind. The only times I get irritated are when I meet new people who tell me I seem too smart to be a conservative, or that I am not *really* a conservative: as if I were some sort of phoney or (worse) some silly little thing who just doesn't know *what* she believes. As someone once said, a lot of liberals really seem unable to believe that anyone who disagrees with them politically could possibly be a decent person.

Interesting discussion re. whether female "fearlessness" does, or needs to, resemble the complete "it's all about me" approach to life that characterizes so many alpha males. I think it's more subtle. Sad to say, for a lot of alpha females I think it's not enough to succeed in a man's world. They also want to be the *only* woman who succeeds in that world. For every powerful woman I know who takes genuine pleasure in sustaining an "old girls network," I can count another who has made it to the top and whose only desire at that point is to pull the ladder up after herself and be the only girl in the tree house.

The political scientist Frank Fukuyama (speaking of people switching sides to prolong their 15 minutes) made an interesting point a while back. He noted that every society has its megalomaniacs -- it's part of human nature and it cuts across cultures and centuries. The crucially important thing is the societal context in which they operate. In militaristic societies, megalomaniacs gravitate to the military. And you end up with your Saddam Husseins and your Hitlers and your Pol Pots. In religious societies, megalomaniacs seek power in religious life. And you end up with the mullahs and the Taliban. In capitalist societies, megalomaniacs go into the business world, and you end up with Ted Turner, or the guys who gave us Enron. The point is, whatever the game is, the power-hungry want to win it. So it kind of matters what the game is. Horrible as Enron and WorldComm and Tyco et al have been, it beats the friggin' Taliban.

I've noticed that here on the boodle, and also in a lot of other commentary, "fearless" is being very nearly equated with "physically reckless." I don't think it takes courage so much as daring to bungie jump or ski off-piste or whatever it is that gets the adrenaline flowing.

Courage, or fearlessness, it seems to me, means taking significant emotional or social risks - like speaking out against the majority view, getting married, having a child, submitting a manuscript to a publisher...

How about the description of fearless, to include honesty, when honesty may not be what people want to hear. Several situations currently come to mind where some up front honesty would be a refreshing change. A simple we screwed up, here's how we plan to fix it would be nice.

kbertocci, it would not surprise you that I have registered my complaints regarding the WaPo article comments fields and the lack of support for a wide variety of HTML characters (including a significant fraction of English *punctuation* marks) with the WaPo.com technical staff.

One has to wonder what WaPo writers think of their readers when they read that Cormac McCarthty-esque punctuation-lite prose.=:

"Ha! Look at what *this* monkey threw at the wall!"

Good thing the WaPo.com folks haven't implemented scratch 'n sniff comments yet.

Mudge, the hair-tackle was flagged as personal-foul/"unsportsmanlike conduct" penalty.

From NFL.com: "Polamalu said, 'It doesn't matter to me if he tackles me by my hair or my ankles.'"

bc

SCC: "Cormac McCarthy-esque punctuation-lite prose:"

Not that that really makes my comment any better...

bc

'Mudge, bc;

Sorry for the delay -- damn meetings!!

IIRC from the Steelers game, LJ was flagged for "taunting," although I can't see how flipping the hair out of your hand qualifies. And yes, if Polomalu makes it a part of his uniform by letting it flow past his helmet, it's fair game as far as I'm concerned.

NLCS pitching??? Apart from Suppan Saturday night, there ain't been much to discuss.

dmd: well, separation of church and state is taken seriously in France. We just don't mix them...

When I think that we get criticized for that when a company like Disney (or many others) would not even allow ANYONE to wear facial hair!

And speaking of women power, why would you want girls to grow up with the belief that the customary dress of women in the majority culture is immodest and to be scorned?

Also, just a reminder that you have some Americans on the same wavelength. See for example this 11-year-old Oklahoma girl being suspended from a public school because officials said her Muslim head scarf violates dress code policies.

http://www.cnn.com/2003/EDUCATION/10/11/scarf.reut/

I've never felt that women, any kind of women, do the beauty pagent thing for men, or because it is an image which is foisted upon us. I rather think I agree with Gene W's premise that women dress to be seen by other women.

I'm sure I am in the minority, but then that is just me. I rather think that as long as anyone assumes all these things are just problems women have because of men, the inequalities, the glass celings, then we have missed the whole point of feminism. It's about having the right to choose.

Because my choice, personality and interests mean that my role has been more traditional than many, that does not make it any less my free choice.

To blame men feels like whatever the opposite of misogyny is. If I am willing to lay the blame at the feet of men, do I not also have to lay the benefits at the feet of men? My wins, my looses, my full responsibility.

I'm really really really glad that this is not the mommie blog.

Yes, bc, I knew it was a personal foul. But my question remains, was it because of the hair or because it was out-of-bounds, or the post-tackle yank? (It's the same penalty any which way; my guess it it had to be out-of bounds, or the post-tackle yank. I can't see where pulling him down by the hair, per se, is a foul.)

Superfrenchie, I don't think the majority dress is to be scorned, it just that I think a minority should have the right to choose how they wish to dress.

I read a letter to the editor recently, by a Muslim woman in Toronto, she choose to wear the hajib, in her high school years, against her families wishes. Isn't that freedom of expression and religion?

I will grant you that her ability to choose her manner of clothing is not the norm, but in western culture how free are we to choose the pressures are more subtle but they are everywhere, in the media, cultural norms etc. What should matter is the person themselves, their conduct, not their dress

This just in from Richard Thompson, via email (verbatim quote):

"Valkyries are fun to draw."

I too found the Rebecca Hartong blog peculiar. Annie's criticism of Arianna and the column makes sense to me, and not just because I think it describes the Arianna phenomenon well. On the other hand, I thought that Hartong used the Arianna/Kit to spring off into what seems to be her own personal obsession. While I have some sympathy for it as well (too much stuff, too little self-knowledge), to me at least one does not follow from the other.

Fearlessness can be physical, mental, moral -- courage comes in all flavors. As I don't plan to read Arianna's book I don't know what she emphasizes. I do think that the gift of the women's movement has been our right to choose. My choices may have been more ambitious than those of some other women, or men, but I don't think any less of women who made different choices (okay, with the exception of women who married certain doofuses, showing stunning lack of judgment, but both genders are subject to that criticism). If I had a point to this I forget it, so I'll stop now.

Howdy, Nelson!

mysoandry, I should think.

Hmph. I'm not surprised. Artists are right-brain people, and aren't often subject to all this left-brain analysis.

Of course, it would have been much better if the Valkyrie was riding in a very out-of-date Citroen DS.

Valkyries are fun to sing, too! Admit it, you've lurked in the shower singing "Yo yo yo YO! Yo yo yo YO!" until your family gently indicates you're not alone.

I hope no one minds if I zap the nonsense ramblings in the boodle. They are wasting my time even when I'm in skim mode.

[This comment intended for the Mommy Blog but we're going to keep it here as a pet.--JA]

Alex.Mom: what is "GTA"?
----
The Buckley Act protects adult privacy on campus. Adult = 18. Having said that, I field one or two calls/emails a semester from a helicopter parent.

One parent informed me that he was a lawyer and he knew all about the Buckley act, saying still, "Tell me why you gave my child that grade on his paper. I read it. The paper was good. I think it is worth an A."

Parents: Let your child learn national and logical consequences in 7th grade, or earlier. If they don't take the garbage out, then no movie on Friday. Consequences later are very expensive, financially and socially.

Perhaps the critical period for learning responsibility ends at about 15-17. At any rate, I find it hard to teach teens much. The parenting battles may be won or lost much earlier than we think.

Closing note: UMCP now gives tours to parents and prospective students separately. Who asks the questions, in both tours? Parents!!!!

WaPo.com doesn't trust us with tools like italics and in-line HTML links for the same reason Kindergarteners have to use rounded tip scisssors.

Nonsensical Boodle ramblings??? Say it ain't so!!! *L*

Valkyries also have a kick-butt theme song (to Mudge's point, I think).

"I love the smell of Aqua Net in the morning. It smells like...victory."

bc

JA, and you can remove my post meant for the MOMMY BLOG!!!! Mea culpa.

Helicopter parents.

Yes to whoever said this earlier: the mommy blog would hoist JA on his petard. (I always wanted to say that).

They would flog you, flay you, and then, in Carolyn Hax-parlance, throw you into shark infested waters with you sporting locked bacon pants.

Now we need to coin a term to describe the posting of a comment for one blog on another. Discombloguate?

dmd: //Superfrenchie, I don't think the majority dress is to be scorned, it just that I think a minority should have the right to choose how they wish to dress.//

Go tell that to almost any employer in America (or in France, for that matter).

There are all kinds of restrictions on what people are allowed to wear in public spaces. For example, kids cannot wear cowboy hats in class, can they? Some speech is also forbidden on garments in American public schools. Why would religious garb be any different? Especially when there are strong suspicions that such garb is used to promote religious fundamentalism, which is a form of hate.

Like I said, I was (am) against the law. But more because I felt that the problem was too small to be dealt with a specific law in the first place. On the other hand, it's probably a law that's ahead of its time. England, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, the Scandinavian countries, I think they will all adopt some version of that law sooner than later.

Oops, I may have zapped all 71,000-plus boodle comments...Testing...testing...

Thank god for backups. You do backup, right?

Joel writes:
This just in from Richard Thompson, via email (verbatim quote):

"Valkyries are fun to draw."

***
Richard Thompson is a cartoonist and illustrator living in Virginia with his lovely wife and two daughters. His cartoon Richard 's Poor Almanac appears weekly in The Washington Post, sometimes in color, but most often not. His work also illustrates Francis Heaney's Holy Tango of Literature, published by Emmis Humor, and is featured regularly in US News & World Report, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, National Geographic and many other publications. It has also found its way onto gallery walls, won coveted awards such as the Society of Illustrators Gold and Silver Funny Bones, and made enduring presents for his aforementioned lovely wife and two daughters. In 2004, Mr. Thompson took home the Milton F. "Sonny" Clogg Alumni of the Year Award from his alma mater, Montgomery College. (And did he even graduate? No!) Since breaking his toe in a dance-related accident nearly twelve years ago, Mr. Thompson has been forced to draw with his hands.
***

Never trust a man from an estrogen-saturated household who draws (or writes)with his hands.

That said, I sometimes seriously pray that God backed up the universe before he even started running the program.

Maybe if a woman stepped on Rick's toe and broke it while dancing, he has anger issues with Valkyries? *w*

Thank you Yoki.

Yoki, I might call that malablogism.

bc

Mudge: //it would have been much better if the Valkyrie was riding in a very out-of-date Citroen DS.//

Biker chicks walkyries would disagree:

http://www.hondabikes.net/honda-valkyrie-rune.html

I holding up?

Indeed, ivansmom. And here's an interesting (?) little piece of trivia: "The Ride of the Valkyrie has appeared in at least 27 movies, from Griffith's Birth of a Nation, to (of course) the classic napalm attack scene in Apocalypse Now to The Blue Brothers. And then of course there is "What's Opera, Doc?" described herewith from Judd Blaise, in the "All Movie Guide" (for all you lagomorph-loving or lagomorph-hating boodlers out there):

"One of the most beloved of all Warner Brothers cartoons, What's Opera Doc? re-imagines the Elmer Fudd versus Bugs Bunny conflict as a German opera, complete with expressionist sets, tragic romance, and a majestic chorus of "Kill the wabbit!" Director Chuck Jones and writer Michael Maltese combine the usual wisecrack humor with a real appreciation of the classical form, crafting a loving parody of Wagner's Ring Cycle that manages to condense the massive four-opera work into a single, seven-minute story of a hunter, a rabbit, and a spear and magic helmet. Elmer takes on the Siegfried role, planning to use the magic armor to capture the rabbit. However, Bugs, as always, has countless schemes to foil Elmer -- including posing as his true love, the warrior maiden Brunhilde. When Elmer discovers this deception, however, he uses the full force of his magic to call up the power of the weather -- including winds, hurricanes, and the worst horror of all, smog. But for a few comic asides, all the dialogue is sung. Brilliant voice characterizations, wonderfully designed backgrounds, and smart writing all combine, under Jones' guidance, to create a hilarious classic."

Yearning for a sound clip? http://www.gutenberg.org/files/10177/10177-m/10177-m-001.mp3

I seem to remember it being in Flash Gordon, too, when Prince Vultan and his Hawk Men were flying. Anybody else remembering that?

Now we need to coin a term to describe the posting of a comment for one blog on another. Discombloguate?

----
Yoki -- funny! But Mommy-Posting here is relatively safe. Posting by accident about today's kit on Mommy-flog: sheesh. The discussion here about visual communication, humor, women and power, pink vs. blue, etc. would spark an intense FURIES-fest. Aren't those the vengeful forces that pull bodies apart? Harpies? Greek mythology?

But now I am flashing on the Winged Monkeys in Wizard of Oz who TORE SCARECROW into whips of straw. Very scary!!!

Sorry I'm late. My trusted assistant, who was doing 50% of our work, was sent to bed by her OB/GYN last week (twins on the way), so I'm doing double duty. Picked this up from Froomkin today--it's from a new political ad which I guess must be airing in the New York area:
"[the ad]shows a variety of Americans standing in a park asking questions of a piece of shrubbery. 'So what's our exit strategy from Iraq?' the first person asks. 'Why did we let down Katrina victims?' asks an African-American man. 'Why are we losing so many jobs to overseas?' asks an elderly citizen. The narrator then says, 'Okay, it's kind of ridiculous to think you're ever going to get an answer from this (pause) bush. But it's also kind of ridiculous to think you're going to get an answer (cue a picture of President Bush) from this one.'"
Arbusto lives!!

nucks...rcrackling...tearing loose from the prom ethean chains of aggression.

Mudge, thanks for bringing up "What's Opera, Doc?".

Now, I'm imagining Bugs in the Brunhilde outfit, and Elmer singing "Kill the wabbit! Kill the WA-bbit!" to "Ride".

bc

A motion has been made to amend the official blog motto from "Clouds are hard" to "Clouds are hard. Valkyries are fun to draw."

Do I hear a second?

Second! :-)

Mudge, aye!

bc

And I have a Barber of Seville tune cootie. There ought to be a lwa against operatic tune cooties.

If not for Bugs would there be such a thing as an operatic tune cootie?

ebtnut;

Yer slippin'... HOW could you have missed this in Froomkin???? *L*
_____________________

All of this reminded one faithful reader of my column of that running joke in the movie, "The Princess Bride," where the evil Vizzini, played by Wallace Shawn, repeatedly splutters "inconceivable!" in the fact of the implacable advance of the Dread Pirate Roberts. Eventually, Mandy Patinkin as Inigo Montoya tells him: "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."

(See IMDB 's list of memorable quotes from the movie.)

on beauty pagents and misogyny, I don't think that saying we have a misogynistic culture, or that our culture tends to place women as objects, is the same as blaming men. Women and men together determine culture - but the fact that women perputuate these problems doesn't make them any less problematic.

BC said 'malablogism' after Yuki said 'discombloguate.'

I hope the two or three A-blog historians add these terms to the secret cache of special things.

I guess I have bi-blogal disorder.

dr, I think Bugs isn't the only or sole source of the operatic tune cootie. I can never rid myself of the image of Mickey Mouse whenever I hear the Sorcerer's Apprentice--or the cartoon of Peter and the Wolf--or a couple of the ditties from Fantasia. I'm not a classic music buff by any means, but if it wasn't for those old cartoons I'd be stone ignorant of classical music.

Re: "The Ride of the Valkyrie", it was also used in one of those science shows on TV, sponsered by Bell Telephone. I believe the episode was entitled "The Great Cosmic Ray Mystery". The show featured some of Jim Henson's Muppets. Anyone remember the name of this series? SciTim, you probably kown them verbatim ;-)

SCC law.

Its a darn good thing that my work today does not involve anything that can't be repaired.

Joel, your power to "clean up" the Boodle is godlike and befitting a Head of Household. Alas, as with so much in parenting -- or marital relationships -- it cannot control the future.

Superfrenchie, that Valkyrie bike looked so cool I almost could forgive the fact that it was a Honda (I drive a Honda car, but not a bike!).

Aye!

College Parkian, I wasn't honestly trying to pull your chain; I have this thing about words, as you will understand. You know, like the endlessly entertaining "Word Watch" in the Atlantic's Pursuits and Retreats section. And who better than the boodlers to play the game?

I have read the On Balance blog a couple of times, and I honestly don't know where those people get their vitriol. If there is a pleasant way to express a thought, a neutral way and a pejorative way, which do they invariably reach for? I don't know how you stand it, since we know you are articulate and pleasant. Is it the educator in you incapable of abandoning hope?

Hmm, now I'm wondering what a vitriol-vendor would be called. Stop me before I coin again!

Of course, my favorite piece of classical music is "Beef--It's What's for Dinner," by Aaron Copeland, which tells you all you need to know about my level of musical sophistication.

SCC: Word Fugitives, not Watch

Hm-m-m. Got a Movable Type failure report. Try, try again. Re: "The Ride of the Valkyrie", it was also used in one of those science shows back in early '60's, sponsered IIRC by Bell Telephone. I don't recall the name of the series, but I believe the show in question was entitled "The Great Cosmic Ray Mystery". The show featured some of Jim Henson's Muppets. Anyone recall this? SciTim, you probably know them all verbatim. ;-)

Curmudgeon, Himself is a big fan of classical music, and he says it is because of the classic cartoons. He would never have heard the oeuvre without them.

I don't think courage comes from a place of fearlessness. The best definition I know of courage is being scared to death, but doing the *right* thing anyhow -- be that an act of incredible bravery in battle, or coming clean about something in one's past that could be a source of shame.

Fear can be a very health motivator. I guess when I think of absolute fearlessness, a psycopathic personality comes to mind -- literally a clinically defined personality who does not experience fear. Or remorse.

Regarding the law in France re: headscarves -- what I meant by counterproductive, SF, is that mandating the dress of a religious minority can serve to antagonize. I've read stories of many Muslim women who have taken to wearing the hijab in defiance of such laws.

Yes, there are lots of girls and women who are forced to wear the hijab by their male relatives (and probably female as well) and their imams. I'm just not sure making it illegal helps them. It would not protect them in the home.

Wearing cowboy hats in public, or other secular forms of dress that society deems improper is very different than religious forms of dress.

Religious attire is worn to express piety; behavior that isn't "rational" in the sense of being a fahsion choice. People's deep beliefs, world views, faith, traditions that may be centuries or millenia old are all tied up in what the more secular sociey sees as "just" a headscarf.

As an American raised with the implicit idea of freedom of religious expression -- including clothing -- I don't think making such expressions of faith illegal works.

I understand France is not America. It just seems to me that this law will only serve to create animosity and further misunderstanding. Whether women wear headscarves in public or not, the seeds of further conflict are sown.

IMHO, very much IMHO. What do I know?

ebtnut, that's a cute ad. I wonder why it took so long for someone to use the shrubbery motif.

C. Parkian, the Furies were the three female immortals who would torment unlucky mortals as a punishment for one sin or another. The Harpies were the flesh-tearers you're thinking about. Either one seems to fit. The Harpies were bird-like creatures (vultures, I think) with the heads of women. The Furies took the appearance of elderly women, but not the grandmotherly types. There are three Furies, but Harpies are more like animals - could be any quantity of them.

Anything I am wrong about, feel free to correct me.

Yoki, off the top of my pointy-sciency (but somehow still curly) head:
Vitriolics?
Vitriolism?

Hmmm.

bc

Ruh-roh - if Joel has cleaned up the "nonsense" comments, does that mean mine are gone? I'm not going to look.

I love Bugs Bunny and his wisecrack humor. Very funny Seinfeld episode where they refer to knowing classical music because of bugs (the one with the opera and Crazy Joe whatever-his-name-is).

I am in more sympathy with the French law than many of you; as I understand it (SF?) it bans religious gear in state-funded schools; it's not an outright ban at all times in all places, just a clear if symbolic separation of church and state, which I fully support. Freedom of religion is not infringed; nobody is saying anyone has to convert to a majority-sponsored religion. The trouble I do have with it is that is motivated by a desire to reduce the outward appearance of Muslim-ness, and the other expressions (crosses, turbans or kirpans) captured are window-dressing.

I can think of a couple of examples in Canada where state-funded institutions would benefit from a clearer separation (none of them relating to the customs and practices of Islam).

SCC -Bugs (fer cryin' out loud)

Vitourette's Syndrome?

bc

nelson: //I understand France is not America. It just seems to me that this law will only serve to create animosity and further misunderstanding.//

I understand what you're saying. In fact, that's part of what I feared would happen with that law. But it hasn't happened and 59% of Muslims say they are in favor of the law. In fact it has made Muslims integrate better. They are now by far the most integrated of any West Eruopean societies.

http://pewresearch.org/obdeck/?ObDeckID=50

Yoki, would a vitriol vendor be a "bilesmith"?

yoki: //The trouble I do have with it is that is motivated by a desire to reduce the outward appearance of Muslim-ness, and the other expressions (crosses, turbans or kirpans) captured are window-dressing.//

No question! The target was Muslim fundamentalism. The rest was for show.

Apologies if I'm offending anyone with my vitriol-related stream of semi-consciousness.

I'm just flingin' some of my thoughts against the wall here, to see if anything sticks.

bc

Re the French law, would that include Regligous garb for Jews and any other religions Bhuddists etc. I only ask as the three referenced were Christianity, Moslem and Sikh.

Yoki I humbly disagree, if you remove a symbol someone believes is important to their religion you are infringing upon them.

Bilemonger?

Hmm, "biletender"?

bc

Nautically, a vitriol vendor might be a bilgewright.

How about just the simple "spewter"?

I'm loving 'Mudge's and bc's suggestions. But isn't vitriol actually sulphuric acid? Perhaps a vendor is simply a chemist (UK usage)?

Bilesmith should win, though. Just think of the punning possibilities! Discord biled over on the MB today. They were so angry, their blood was biling.

dmd: yes, it includes everything ostentatious. But I did mention the kippa.

Do Bhuddists have ostentatious religious signs? At least they don't have a God...

Thanks superfrenchie.

My favorite lines from the Princess Bride:
"You fell victim to one of the classic blunders! The most famous is never get involved in a land war in Asia, but only slightly less well-known is this: never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line!"
Still applies.

On the headscarf issue - what I have a problem with is the type that hides the entire face except for the eyes. I find that demeaning to the person wearing it and hard for someone trying to communicate with that person. And as someone who went to school when girls had to wear dresses, I am not a fan of dress codes, much less laws mandating what someone can wear. So I have conflicted feelings about the whole issue.

Vitourette's Syndrome. Classic. In fact, all these are so lovely perhaps some brave soul should post them on the Mommy Blog. Not me, though. That definitely crosses the line from fearless to foolhardy.

Speaking of fearlessness, I've already said I don't plan to read Arianna's book so can't be sure what she means. However, her explanation to Joel does suggest a particular reference, and one with which I can agree. She said that some Congresswomen did have power, but did not exercise it "because they are not fearless". Part of failure to exercise power comes with being a minority, and god knows that women are a minority in Congress. However, it is also true that some women in positions of power do not speak up, do not take the initiative in public or, more importantly, in committee, do not, in short (sigh of relief) acknowledge and use their own positions as they could. I have seen this in all kinds of organizations, including government. Power not used is power wasted, and women who are timid about speaking up and assuming powerful roles when they can take or make that opportunity do themselves, and us, no favors. This is what I understood Arianna to mean, insofar as she may have meant anything beyond "Everyone should buy my book."

mostlylurking, I agree about the veils, and I feel similarly about in my area the Mennonite or Hutterite dress I just strongly feel they should be allowed their customs.

I went to a school with a uniform, but within the uniform some expression was allowed. Some would say the uniforms in themselves were sexist.

dmd,

Surely you meant to say the uniforms were sexy. Britney Spears tapped into that schoolgirl uniform fetish in a particularly unseemly way.

Howard County had a controversy a few years ago because an African American student wanted to wear a head wrap for cultural, not religious, reasons. After much controversy, the "no headgear" rule was determined to apply to her as well.

Some Muslim groups in HoCo are lobbying for early dismissal for Muslim students so that they can attend Friday prayer services.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/21/AR2006062101818.html

The moral equivalency thrown around is the practice of scheduling school vacations around Christian and Jewish holidays.

"if you remove a symbol someone believes is important to their religion you are infringing upon them."

Sometimes you have to infringe upon a percieved freedom for the good of all. I'm sure there are dozens of laws that SofC and Ivansmom could give as examples.

The Crusades led to the Swan Night to "Here Comes the Bride" to the Valkyries? Mudge, look what your cartoon song link led to (what you learn on the Achenblog!):

From Wikipedia:
The story of the Knight of the Swan, or Swan Knight, is a medieval myth about a mysterious rescuer who comes in a swan-drawn boat to defend a damsel, his only condition being that he must never be asked his name.

Today, the story is probably best known as that of Lohengrin, son of the Grail knight Percival. The Lohengrin version forms the plot of Richard Wagner's opera of that name, which is based on medieval German romance. However, the Knight of the Swan tale was originally attached to the family of Godfrey of Bouillon, first conqueror of Jerusalem in 1099, in the French chansons de geste known as the "Crusade cycle".

Also from Wikipedia:
Lohengrin is a romantic opera (or music drama) in three acts by Richard Wagner, who also wrote the libretto. The first production was in Weimar, Germany on 28 August 1850 under the direction of Franz Liszt, a close friend and early supporter of Wagner. The story of the eponymous character is taken from medieval German romance, notably the Parzival of Wolfram von Eschenbach and its anonymous sequel, Lohengrin. It is part of the Knight of the Swan tradition.

Lohengrin was an immediate popular success. Several excerpts have become famous, including the preludes to the first and third acts, Lohengrin's aria In fernem Land, and the Bridal Chorus, which is traditionally played at Western weddings, and is commonly known as "Here Comes the Bride."

Among those deeply moved by the fairy-tale opera was the young King Ludwig II of Bavaria, who later built the ideal fairy-tale castle and called it, after the Swan Knight, "New Swan Stone," or "Neuschwanstein". The opening scene of the opera may be interpreted as a thinly veiled exhortation to Ludwig to unite Germany under his own flag. It was King Ludwig's patronage that later gave Wagner the means and opportunity to build a theatre for, compose and stage his Ring of the Nibelung.

Re the head-scarf ban (and yes, let's call it what it really is, even if yarmulkes and rosaries were thrown in for the sake of political correctness): How long has it been in effect? With all respect, Superfrenchie, I don't think it has been long enough to discern whether it has contributed to, much less caused, the Muslims in France to be "the most well integrated in Western Europe" (not, sadly, that that is such a high bar to clear).

Even before all this head-scarf drama, I have always been a big proponent of uniforms for school. For families where money is an issue, school uniforms are a gigantic relief from the pressure to keep the kids' fashions up with the Jones' kids'. Even if you're good at resisting that pressure, who needs another pointless battle?

Most kids haven't got the whole time-management and planning thing down pat yet. Uniforms eliminate the "What should I WEAR today, and WHERE is that ONE belt that I simply NEED for this particular outfit?" that makes them miss the bus.

Uniforms mean that no kid gets bullied for dressing funny (admittedly, bullies will always find something to bully about, but uniforms take away what is arguably the richest target).

Best of all, uniforms eliminate what may be *the* biggest distraction that kids focus on instead of their schoolwork. Their attention spans are finite. Any mental energy funneled away from fashion is that much more they have to apply to algebra. Plus, few things are more flat-out creepy than fashion-consciousness in children.

I'm a big believer in freedom of religion. I'm a big believer in freedom of speech, too. But a few years ago, here in the States, there was a big flap in one school district because a black kid wore a hat to school that said "It's a black thing. You wouldn't understand." A few days later, a white kid showed up with a hat with "KKK" on it. The NAACP got into the act with the usual expressions of outrage. The ACLU weighed in with its predictible POV -- it's a government school, what about the KKK kid's freedom of speech?

My take on it: It's a school, and nobody gets to wear any hats.

Again, the beauty of the uniform. Instead of ever-more-finely sliced dress codes dictating what you *can't* wear, which inevitably become subjective judgment calls (how low is too low cut? how short is too short?) -- the uniform guides what you *do* wear. You don't ever waste five seconds wondering what you should put on, no one has to police it, you just show up, sit down, open your books, open your mind.

Sky report: pewter, pewter everywhere but not a drop of blue. But this is not the hard-edge grey skies of winter. Just tentative fall, drawing a curtain close on Indian Summer.

Smell report: crock pot with cheap boneless chicken thighs doused in 1 part H2O, 1 part store-band barbeque sauce. See Pat for more one-dish, eyeless wonders.

I should also note that these are the reasons we can disscuss this stuff forever and there will never be one single right. It is shades of right and wrong and the best we can hope for is laws that apply the same standard to all of us equally no matter our relgion or ethnic or racial origin or our sex.

Overall I think we do pretty well on this continent.

interesting coincidink re: KKK

http://www.mortiifera.com/

(still trying to catch up on the boodle - sorry, loomis - the illustration was an opera reference of which i know little to none about... )

I cared what I wore only for a couple years, when I was teased for it. HS was bliss since the one fashion-conscious bully transferred out on me.
I still at heart prefer to dress like a thrift-shop addict. I like clothes that look good on me, but I don't give a nickel for fashion trends.
I figure if I look great in 19th century fashions I'm better off wearing that than looking bad in 21st century fashions.

BTW, I mean 19th century B.C. I've been raiding Mudge's closet.

and a good article on bats - i LOVE bats...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/15/AR2006101500584.html

Wilbrod, I envision you in a tunic, with a wreathe of olive branches. Wilbrodog has a wreathe of olive branches as well (but no tunic).

I was thinking "toga", but typed "tunic".

Mo, there was one great evening out on a patio at evening in India where the bats came away from a water tower some distance away to swoop and catch insects. It was surprisingly peaceful, especially since none of them wound up anywhere near us ;).

Whyrlegye, I also borrowed a Phyrigan cap from Mudge, but decided it looked a bit Smurfy.

Phrygia is the original home of smurfs.

At one point I had opinions on the uniform question; now I think the whole thing's a wash (or "push", for you gamblers). The Boy used to go to a school which had uniforms. Now he doesn't. I used to think that uniforms stifled freedom of expression until my child had to wear one. Then the sheer convenience and social equalization was mighty attractive. His current school has lots of restrictions on types of clothing, messages, hats, etc., and it is not a fashion-conscious crowd, so everyone pretty much wears innocuous t-shirts and sweat pants, etc. Not much self-expression there, but fortunately not too expensive either. The Boy doesn't get fancy clothes anyway, since he grows too fast, and he's already learned that anything with someone else's name or logo is vulgar, so we avoid some social issues.

I can't help it, I am disgusted and appalled by the KKK too. But whenever I think of them and their stupid rallies, all I can think about is that classic scene from the Blues Brothers where the Nazis are rallying in (heavily Jewish) Skokie.

Jake (to traffic cop): "What's the hold up?"

Cop: "The g-dmned Nazis. They won their court case, so they're marching today and there's a big protest."

Elwood (snorting): Illinois Nazis.

Jake: I hate Illinois Nazis.

Vroom . . .

As someone who is completely fashion challenged, I'm so with you Annie. Although I never went to a school with uniforms, I actually found that I liked working in places where suits were the dress code because they are so uniform-ish. All I had to do was choose the color shirt, and voila, I was dressed for the day. So easy, even if it's not the height of comfort. Business casual, on the other hand, is a trial each morning and not really that much more comfortable. Of course, today I'm still in my bathrobe - working from home is the best of all...

Easy Yellojkt nothing sexy about the uniform I wore, unless you were into brown/blue/beige combos, it was late 70's the skirts were well below the knee, more blanket than skirt. Complete oppsite today, same school has changed the colours to something much nicer skirts however are micro mini at best. I know some school are resorting to skorts to address the issue of short skirts on stairways.

If you look at it another way how many children get to choose, their religion, clothes. All societies push their influence on children, and all children when they are old enough have the option to continue or change its just that is some societies varying from the norm can involve more courage than others.

I wore a uniform for seven years. White shirt. Charcoal corduroys. Green V-neck sweater. Once, many years later, I accidentally put on a similar ensemble and looked at myself in the mirror.

The screams.

Oh, the terrible, terrible, screams.

RD I can relate, its been over 20 years since I stopped wearing that uniform and and I can't think of many times I have worn a plaid skirt since, a kilt never.

I kinda think Wilbrodog would only want to play fetch with the wreath...

And OMG, look @ the Google ads!!!! Talk about fearless women!!!! *ROFL*

Into Cross-Dressing?
Do You Enjoy Cross-Dressing? Meet Women Into Cross-Dressing Too.
ArtOfApproaching.com/Cross-Dressing

Be A Successful Woman
It's The Must Read of the Year. Order This Bestseller Online Now!
www.ThePowerOfNice.com/Women

BMW Performance Center
Get the Ultimate Driving Experience in a Special Class for Women Only.
www.bmwusa.com

And mo, I love bats too. Once, a long time ago now, my son and I spent a memorable evening tossing bits of dried fruit up to an elevated streetlight. Watching the bats catch the fruit in mid-air caused much joy. Of course, when we had to explain to my wife that we had fed all of her fruit snacks to a bunch of bats, well, there wasn't quite so much joy.

annie: //Superfrenchie, I don't think it has been long enough to discern whether it has contributed to, much less caused, the Muslims in France to be "the most well integrated in Western Europe" (not, sadly, that that is such a high bar to clear).//

It's just been 3 years so that's a good point. So let's just say that the predictions of the law making relations worse or much orse have so far not been borne out.

Although it did bring us the status of "crusader nation" from Al-Quaeda... {roll eyes):

http://tinyurl.com/y3pv5v

Loomis, re your 5:29, I'm just a Pied Piper of Musical Eruditionliness.

Howdy, mo. Been missin' ya all day.

I think the uniform fetish has something to do with the alleged lasciviousness of teenaged Catholic schoolgirls. Yet, if memory serves, the Catholic schoolgirls I knew were hardly simmering sexpots. I guess I just hung around with the wrong schoolgirls.

And since we are on the topic of misconceptions, the nuns who educated me were not at all the rigid ruler-wielding tyrants of yore.

The good sisters of OSB that I knew were independent, intelligent, and kind. I imagine it was tough to be a nun in the seventies, but these ladies pulled it off in a way that, to me, truly defines the word "fearless."

I too have fond memories of the few experieces I had with nuns, I had one teacher who was a nun, a great aunt and a few small dealings with nuns. All were pleasant. My great aunt was a real force to be reckoned with, she ran a hospital and lived to over 100.

I have never understood their role in the church or why anyone would choose their lifestyle but I admire their convictions. Like all professions there are good and bad, its just that we expect them to be good.

So if a kid wants to dress the way he/she wants in school, can he/she just claim his/her religion requires him/her to?

Expel moorish invaders from capturing all of Europe, do a few ballads about that, then dabble in a few crusades now and then, and France gets labelled a crusader nation forever.

All because of one headscarf. Will the prejudice never end?
;).

Let's face it, Al Qaeda isn't really that interested in the welfare of Muslims, just its own twisted agenda.

Definitions: Commenting here about another blog:

blog-piling.

French hijab law - I'm in favour of it. One of the benefits of French republicanism is that it is easier to take a stand in direct defence of secularism. Call it what it is - it is a law about who calls the shots for impressionable minds: your cleric or the state.

Wilbrod I completely agree about Al Qaeda, however, I believe too many muslims are being caught up in the backlash. We are still speaking about a minority of muslims who are actively trying to hurt western culture.

I can only imagine what it would be like if I had to fight for the right to wear a cross on my neck or for the right for my children to do so. I am not talking about the right to wear T-shirts with F U on them, I am speaking in context of universally accepted forms of religious expression that to those individuals are important to their faith and the way they express their faith. As for crosses there is not requirement that I am aware of to wear one if you are Catholic but many people choose to as it matters to them.

My children may choose clothes they like, there are definitely boundaries as there is to most things in life. My daughter is currently choosing to wear a celtic cross, given to her at her baptism by her grandmother, she wears it because her grandmother recently died, it reminds her of the love her grandmother had for her, to have that stripped away because someone demands secularism to me would be wrong, that sentiment I apply to others of various religions.

SoC, isn' tht the reason some of the first Western North Americans came, they had a choice the state imposed version of what was correct in terms of religion or leaving.

What is the differnce between the state telling you what you can do and a cleric.

Nuns and Monks. Now this is something I have thought about, quite deeply (for me), for many years.

I was not raised Catholic, but when I was a kid in Switzerland the nuns whose abbey was up the mountain were highly respected in town. We lowered our voices and greeted them politely (Gruss Gott, Schwester). We only went back to our wild worldly ways when they had passed well beyond earshot.

Their function in the Church is, I think, the same that women have served forever in the patriarchy. They are the givers and carers, everything from nursing to teaching to housekeeping for celibate priests. Everything the male members of the Church find so earth-bound and often filthy as to be beneath their dignity.

The attraction of the lifestyle though (I am most acquainted with sequestered, cloistered orders) is clear to me. Imagine being free, other than keeping the house clean and the household fed, to live the contemplative life. Very few possessions to care for, long stretches of quiet to read and study, a simple diet and no competition regarding fashion, beauty, cleverness (I'm neither clever, nor fashionable, nor good-looking, so this appeals very much). No relations who *need* you to be other than you are, for them. A very clear and short list of the things you must or must not do. A community which, though individuals vary, as a community values the same things you do, and and which you don't have to work very hard to create.

All you need is simplicity and hard work, and a mind certain of your own choices, relieved by singing every now and then, and more hard work, and more study.

If I could only get my mind around the whole supernatural thing, and if the practice matched the theory, and if I could shut off the sceptical spirit....

OK, so it is totally not for me, but I *do* see the attraction for those who can believe they are called to it.

The closest thing for me might be being invited to live a library. And go out with friends every four to six weeks for my dose of sociability. And have kids and husbands and dogs and friends and good food and drink and some laughs and regular...

I do believe I am unfit to be a nun.

Wilbrod, don't you think "crusader nation" in terms of prestige is way below "Great Satan"?

Al-Quaeda, the new French-bashers! (grin)

dmd: //universally accepted forms of religious expression//

dmd, count me out of the universe for respecting any form of religious expression. To me, they're all irrational (by definition), senseless, stupid and dangerous. Although it is true that Islam deserves special mention, while Buddhism, as a godless religion, deserves some half-hearted unenthusiastic credit.

Fair enough, but the hijab and more dramatically, a full veil, is primarily an (enforced) expression of female modesty (because, you know, showing your bangs is just asking for it).

If someone knows a better way of telling 15 year old girls that there really is a choice whether to wear it (because for a lot of them, I suspect "your choice" isn't exactly the narrative at home) than to let them hide behind a state ban, I'd be happy to hear it.

But Superfrenchie I would have to the same about what you believe, irrational, senseless, dangerous, etc. You want to limit people because you disagree with what they believe it, that to me is very dangerous. Limiting my ability to choose what I believe in I take very seriously.

Am I the only one who objects to the whole narrative (not confined to Islam, but prevalent in Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism, Parsi-ism, even Shinto, for pity's sake, and any number of other religions), that informs us that men are so unable to control their animal passions that to keep them damped, women's behaviour must be deformed? Women, cover your hair/eyes/shoulders/ankles/hips.... or else you are responsible for men's bad behaviour?!

I am incensed by this. For women, but even more for men. How patronizing! The men I know and admire are fully capable of rational thought and controlled behaviour.

I will work on an answer SoC, I have girls trust me having girls subjugated in anyway is not something I support. However many religions include a form of dress as part of their religion, some more relaxed than others.

I am aware of the problems that have occured in the name of religion, many of them when one form tried to control the other. That said being secular as a way to solve the problem, good luck, we would just revert to the regular reasons to fight, water, oil, land, power etc.

dmd: //You want to limit people because you disagree with what they believe it//

No, no, no. I have made it clear, I'm against that law, and in most cases would be against limiting anyone's religious freedom. What I have tried to explain is what the law is about, and the fact that it has worked mostly as intended, and has not backfired as was predicted (save for the Al-Qaeda threat). Just because I think it the height of stupidity to think you're going to improve your chances at eternal life because you hide your hair doesn't mean I want to prevent people from doing so.

At the same time, I do think there are reasons to question the limits of religious freedom in modern societies. Would you accept someone dressed as a witch in an American classroom? Yet, isn't witchcraft considered by many to be a religion? And on what basis would you deny it the status of a religion, since you said that limiting people their ability to choose what they believe in is a serious matter?

I'm not sure where the limit should be. But I'm pretty sure there should be one.

Yoki:

"The men I know and admire are fully capable of rational thought..."

*SIGH* Guess that rules out we band of Boodling brothers...

:-)

Nah, S'nuke, my boodle-bros are grandfathered under the new legislation.

As well, we're only talking about public schools here. Private schools and private life should of course be completely off limits to any kind of religious restriction (provided it doesn't include killing me, obviously)

*GETE*

Too kind, Yoki, too kind...

:-)

SF, didn't I say that? That we are talking only about state-funded public schools? Public schools restrict "speech" all the time; why should religious expression be any different?

Ooooh, if #2 will let me, I will post her essay (thank you, Boodle, for your help over the weekend) on the right to free expression and the limits thereon.

dmd, in answer to your 8:21 I agree that early Christian settlers of N.A. would probably see eye to eye with the Taliban on a lot of issues (were they not infidels and heathen, respectively).

"What is the differnce between the state telling you what you can do and a cleric."

My answer: One of the functions of the modern state, with our Charter, is to protect the rights of all citizens. A cleric doesn't have that mandate, and I would argue his/her role is to promote and enforce the traditions and rules of the religion among the followers. Where those traditions and rules differ from the state lies the tension.

?? GETE ??

Grins evilly, then explodes?

Goes extremly thin eternally?

Groans evocatively, terribly enteric?

dmd -- I second your 8:21. You cut straight to the point I had tried to make earlier.

Also, thanks to you, mostly and Ivansmom for saying hey to me. I've been absent from the boodle for so long -- I haven't even been lurking 'cause I know I'll get sucked in and hours later I'll get up from my computer, dazed, realizing the sun has gone down, the cat is crying to be let in, I haven't eaten, and the washing machine is stuck on the rinse cycle . . . :-)

yoki -- I liked very much your post about the nuns in Switzerland. Very beautifully written.

My life is nearly one of perfect solitude -- not that I want it that way. I would rather be in the thick of things, with work and gaggles of friends. I used to have all that.

But there is something to be said for solitude (I realize you were writing about a cloistered community, which is different from solitude -- but it struck me anyway).

RD Padouk -- I'm glad you had such a good experience with the nuns in your school. You've spoken well of them before. I only went to Catholic kindergarten. After that year we moved back to the sticks and I was back in the public system again.

I remember being terrified of the nuns. I think a lot of that fear had to do with the great swooshing of black habits -- as a wee five year old I was very afraid of those adult women in black. I also routinely wore masking tape over my mouth -- I tended to talk endlessly -- the masking tape worked only as long as it was on. I can't imagine what would happen today if a teacher put masking tape over the mouth of a gabby kid.

Glad to be back, if only for a day. I've pulled together some pix of my garden -- I'll post them eventually. I sure have babbled on the boodle quite a bit about my botanical adventures.

yoki, we're in agreement. On that and on the patronizing aspect of the religious requirement of wearing the stupid scarf.

I do agree SoC I just see the charter differently in that by allowing freedom for all, you allow, even if you disagree with the reason, expression of religion. The limits for me would be based on physical harm, under the law technically no woman can be forced to dressed a certain way (or man for that matter), however if it is custom for their religion they are allowed to. Lets be honest there is a lot of bad things in society, spousal, child abuse that has no religous basis it is outlawed but continues. We have a tendancy to think these problems are solved in our society, they are not.

Solutions are difficult, but I believe education, enpowerment, and open communication helps.

Yoki, I liked your post about the nuns, particularly the end it made me laugh.

One more thing before I go to bed as I have an early all day meeting so I will not be hogging the blog tomorrow. Aren't publicly funded school paid by taxes from the public, not all of whom are the majority religion. In fact in this area some schools (public) christianity is the minority. Are their taxes worth less? Just a thought.

I lurk everyday on this blog thoroughly enjoying all of your posts. And, of course, the kits. It was a miserable two days without the blog as I was without power and internet connection for the last two days. I have no idea how the rest of the world saw our Aloha State in it's day of crisis. What was the coverage like on our earthquake? I missed pretty much all of it, actually had very little means of local coverage as most news orgs don't have back-up power here in Honolulu. Some of us got our updates from friends and family on the mainland. How did we look for way over there?

dmd, nice comment. I also agree that at the very least where the state's law conflicts with a religion, it should do so with respect.

*blog hug*

Good night, all. It's been a long Monday. Hopefully we will somehow get through this year without Joel offending every known segment of humanity.

Aloha, somewhat like buildings have gone through a tornado--matchsticked but still standing. Truthfully, not as much coverage as I'd expect.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/10/16/hawaii.quake/

Food, water, shelter, remote access--all necessities! And how have you come out of it?

Greetings, Aloha!

Lots of coverage in Canada of your earthquake. Perhaps because, since the snow flew this morning, we long to flee thither?

I commiserate with your loss of internet. Horrors.

Nelson: "My life is nearly one of perfect solitude -- not that I want it that way. I would rather be in the thick of things, with work and gaggles of friends. I used to have all that."

Hello dear Nelson. If you haven't chosen it, what can be done? What happened between now and used to?

Aloha, Aloha!
I thought of you yesterday. I turned on the TV about noon to CNN, and they had the early report of the quake. After a bit they showed the local coverage from Honolulu. Not many pictures, because of the power outages, but reports of roads closed because of landslides, airport delays, minor damage. Pretty big quake - 6.7 is what they say today - what was your experience like?

Here's a link to an AP article in todays Seattle Times:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2003306691_quake16.html
Large Hawaiian comunity here - I've been to Maui once, my husband has visited Maui and Oahu several times.

College Parkian, I did receive your comments and posted them. They are found at the specific entries you commented at. I found three:
http://wilbrodthegnome.blogspot.com/2006/10/by-way-i-should-also-link-to-some.html

http://wilbrodthegnome.blogspot.com/2006/10/achenblog-is-all-agog-about-new.html

and the latest is under "favorite zoo animals at the wilbrodog blog.

yah, blogpiling. Sorry about that, but the comments section seem to be befuddling people and it's sometimes easier to discuss it here.

S'nuke, what is GETE? (Grinning Evilly Thinking Evilly?)

And I may have beaten Achenbach to the wonders of studying superheavy elements.

But I'm sure he'll blog about something really obscure that somebody just wrote a very interesting book on, instead.

Yoki,

It certainly is warmer here than where you are. It's currently 82 degrees and very muggy here, the sun shining and our power is back on!

Lots to clean up on the Big Island but, thankfully, no loss of life or serious injury. Personally, I had to have a busted pipe fixed and will have to get our house looked at by an engineer as our foundation shifted a bit. Other than that, I'd say we all came through this pretty well. The shaking was incredible, haven't felt anything like that since I lived in Los Angeles. Gotta get back to strapping things to the wall and not hanging stuff over my head.

Thanks for the response Yoki.

Stuff seems to happen in the mornings for us a lot. 9/11 happened while we were all still fast asleep and yesterday's quake occured just as we were waking up. It was a jumpy quake with a loud rumbling just before it. Not the soft rolling quakes we usually get from the volcanoes. This one came from the earth's crust and had similar characteristics to those on the west coast. Thankfully, no tsunami.

Having lived in L.A., the land of immediate news coverage of everything, I found Honolulu's slow response to getting information out rather frustrating. Granted there was no power but even the civil defense announcements took a full 30 minutes to get on the radio waves. I didn't see pictures of the damage on the BI until this afternoon.

Thanks for thinking of me Mostlylurking.

Don't you all just love Wilbrod's blog? But Wilbrod, why the extreme anti-smoking stance?

It would have made a cat laugh, when we were in Chicago a couple of weeks ago. Himself and I went out for dinner with some friends. She-friend and I went to the ladies room together (of course) and discussed smoking while relieving ourselves. I said, "I don't understand why everyone demonizes smoking. There are worse things than killing yourself. Hitting your kids is worse than smoking."

And a woman at the sinks (whom we could not see) said, "Oh. Can we not do both?"

It's not extreme to not smoke around kids. I manage it daily, always have.

Smoking can cause ADHD, deafness, and it tends to get your kids hooked themselves later. My dad quit smoking when I was 6, because all of us kids pressured him to.

None of us started smoking. He's been smoke-free ever since.

However, HIS dad smoked all his life. He was the only of his family to manage to quit the habit, and I think it took his kids complaining daily to make him do it.

My uncle remains a heavy smoker and he's had surgery for clogged arteries and just not the most healthy specimen around.

It's just sensible not to subject your kids to second-hand smoke if you don't want them to inherit the habit.

Many kids, such as my dad may start smoking in defense because they're continually riding nicotine exposure and withdrawal at low dosages (hence the ADHD... smoker's jitters really).

That's the problem, second-hand smoke is actually fairly toxic to bystanders. Otherwise, I'd say knock yourself out.

http://www.vaccinationnews.com/dailynews/July2002/smokingmoms26.htm

That said, I remember watching Blue (a French film) and when the mistress said "oh I want this baby" and then she took out a cigarette and took a drag, every single person watching in the room recoiled in disbelief.

I'll have to ask SF if the irony was delibrate in that movie, or the French truly don't care about smoking during pregnancy.

Aloha,
I have been thinking of you. I have forgotten what island you are on. I thought it was Oahu, perhaps the Big Island? Glad you are still with us, lurking or otherwise. Also glad there was no loss of life or serious injury. A 6.6 quake is more than a hiccup, certainly.

As to your question, there has been good network coverage on NBC and ABC and print coverage--several wire stories--in both the NYT and Washington Post. Ditto for our local paper and local TV broadcasts.

Oahu looked like its major trouble was the power out, as well human traffic backing up--staying there one or two days, in a sense camping out--at the Honolulu airport because of flights cancelled (mostly United, I believe).

Hawaii, the Big Island, is another story. Most of the film footage shows boulders on a highway into the hills, probably up into Waimaia or Kamuela. Other shots are of stone walls that have collapsed--lots of lava-looking rocks, and, of course, the structural damage to the Kailua-Kona hospital, as well as some homes. There have also been reports that three large hotels in the Kona area were evacuated. There have seen pictures of people in line for fast food, but I'm not sure if that's Oahu or Hawaii.

ABC News had a interesting science angle to its reporting tonight--showing how the quake was caused by the weight of volcanic material being too much mass for the island to bear--hence the quake. It also showed how Hawaii is not near any major fault lines that fall esentially along the Ring of Fire. Also, more quakes are predicted for Hawaii's future--near or far, who's to know?

One gentleman interviewed on the Big Island said the quake was notable because the shaking seemed to last for such a long time. I know the shaking was felt on Oahu.

So what did it feel like? Was the Los Angeles quake you expereinced less intense? Why such a slow response time for info locally about the quake--30 minutes from civil defense authorities? Anyone saying or giving reasons for the slow announcement?

I have what I consider amusing material about family member Titus Coan's reactions to the 1837 Big Island quake. It's getting late here, so perhaps I wil post it tomorrow.

Wilbord: Don't know a movie called "Bleu." Are you talking about Le Grand Bleu?

At any rate, doesn't matter. I haven't seen it :(

Smoking until recently has been more acceptable in Europe than it has been in the US. France is in the middle of the pack in Europe in terms of smoking. Things are rapidly changing though. We're down to around 25% smokers (US 20%) and a new law restricting smoking in public has just been voted. 80% of the French are in favor of it.

I say it's about time we do something about it. I share your extreme dislike of smoking. If it were up to me, smoking anywhere where kids are (including in homes) would be disallowed. There's up to 4,000 harmful chemicals in a cigarette. You're not allowed to inject poison to kids through needle injection. Then why are you allowed to do it by blowing cigarette smoke in their face?

Smokers can destroy their health all they want. They should do it in a way that doesn't expose anyone else to their garbage.

The movie was called "Blue" and it is shot in a lot of blue. Typo, sorry.

On packs of cigarettes in the US, there has to be health advisory and the number one is that don't smoke when pregnant etc... so it's really soaked into the subconscious, which is why the instant reaction of EWWW.

I wasn't sure if France had such labelling on their cigarettes and similar awareness campaigns, and thus the irony was delibrately meant, or it was just an american reaction.

I know. Smokers are in MAJOR denial. However, chewing tobacco while smokeless is more addictive and quickly lethal. Still, I'd rather see somebody chaw their plug of baccy than smoke.

I think that's two votes for a smokeless BPH in Montogomery county? There's a M&S right next to the bethesda metro, incidentally.

Linda,

I'd say the earthquake was much like those that I've felt in L.A. It had a sharp, up and down motion that rattled my house and shook us up pretty good. Most of the earthquakes in Hawaii (and I've felt these in L.A.as well) have that rolling motion, kind of like you're on the ocean. This was different, much harder and severe. It was scary mostly because I live in a single-wall, post and pier house, which was the common type of home construction prior to the mid-60's. Two of the posts that make up our foundation slid off their blocks. Luckily, the rest of the posts are still in place so the house is stable (for now). I had visions of the house caving in with me and my family.

As for the slow response of communication, I don't know. It seems like I'm one of the few who felt it was slow. Govt. officials are praising the response of civil defense saying they were in action quickly. Perhaps, but still, a half hour to hear any information on what happened and what to do is a long time for us to wait. I think on a Sunday morning, there just isn't anybody around. Most all the radio stations run computer fed recorded shows during that timeslot so there are no live bodies to get on the air quickly. Without power, all but two stations were not able to broadcast for most of the day.

The thing we were all waiting to hear is if the tremblor generated a tsunami. Much of Honolulu is built on the coast, or in the innundation zone, as it's called by our civil defense. That would mean trying to evacuate thousands who would be in harms way. All of Waikiki is in an innundation zone. With tsunamis, you have very little time to warn people. Being that this quake happened within our islands, we'd have only minutes to alert everyone. Thankfully, that wasn't the case.

i think wilbrod is referring to this movie:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108394/

bc, the colbert clip was awesome!

cassandra, re: your journalist question, the level of danger russian journalists regularly face would be something like if a journalist tried to go after police corruption and organized crime in this country, especially crime families or other entities that control large fortunes.

as a result of the magnitude of post-soviet economic changes (a sort of robber-baron phase) and the way large economic sectors were privatized, enormous wealth ended up in the hands of a few, who have come to be known as the russian oligarchs. there is even a semi-reasonable wikipedia article on this topic:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_oligarchs

having said all of that, politkovskaia's death was really more a result of her criticism of the government's policies, whereas other deaths or russian journalists have been more obviously tied with economic corruptions - for example, the murder of Paul Klebnikov, editor of Russia Forbes.

http://www.forbes.com/2004/07/12/cz_sf_0712steveforbes.html

whooaaaa...three links! i guess previewing helps.

scc: "deaths of other russian journalists"

Good morning, friends. Up so early, could not sleep. Thanks Lurker, and mostly for answering my question. Nelson, hello, and can't wait to see your pictures. Aloha, glad you're okay, I saw a couple of pictures on CNN, and it looked bad.

Superfrenchie, I know you feel sorry for me because of my belief, but somehow I feel the same way about you because of your lack of belief.

In my community, women have always been the backbone of the church, and it's still that way. We have a few men in the church, but the majority don't find comfort in the church. I don't know if this is because of unbelief or a man "thing". As young boys, church is a part of their lives, but as they get older they usually drop out. Also, we don't have as many children attending Sunday school as pre-Civil Rights Era. And I suspect there are a lot of reasons for that. I believe Sunday school translates to the school house.

I think it's raining here, don't know if I'll get the chance to walk this morning.

Have a good day, folks. And remember that God loves you so much more than you can imagine through Him that died for all, Jesus Christ.

Morning, everybody!

Aloha, glad to hear you're okay. My husband saw a news story that the hotel in Kona where we stayed on our honeymoon was damaged. That brought the news home to us. Hope your recovery from the event is quick and easy. Also hope there are no more quakes!

Nelson and Wilbrod, when I consider the damage done in my family by tobacco, I am glad for what has been done to discourage it. My mother died of respiratory arrest due to COPD from smoking for 50 years, my oldest half brother died of lung cancer, as did his wife. My father became alcoholic as a result of my brother's death. I grew up with tobacco smoke but can't stand to be around it now.

Rain here this morning. Fortunately my husband got the newly sprouted grass mowed yesterday. We've had a couple of frantically busy weeks but life should be slowing down a bit now.

I go this afternoon to complete my application to retire. Yay!

Morning all!! *wave*

Aloha, glad to hear the islands haven't pulled an Atlantis on us. I saw TV coverage Sunday, not a great deal in print, but I did read what was there.

nelson, good to see you back. And remember, none of us are Achenaddicted, we can stop whenever we want... *ahem*

And GETE is Grinning Ear To Ear, of course... :-)

Wilbrod: Here are the signs that appear on cigarette packs in France:

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avertissements_sur_les_paquets_de_cigarettes#France

There are 2 of them per pack, one of the top 2 in the front and one of the bottom 6 in the back. What you see is close to actual size (width of a pack). They have to fill up a minimum of 30% of a pack's surface.

One of them says that "Smoking during pregnancy hurts your child's health." Another one says "Protect children, do not let them breathe your smoke."

Here is a sample pack:

http://panpan.scorpiooblog.com/uploads/a/amandine/15.gif

Cassandra, I don't feel sorry for you (or I would have to feel sorry for quite a few people (wide grin). It's like when you criticize someone's politics, I don't think that you automatically feel sorry for people you don't agree with (I hope you don't). Besides, believers have at least as many reasons to be happy as non-believers, probably more, so there's really no reason to feel sorry. As far as I can judge from a few comments on a blog, you seem to be one of those happy persons. So no, no such feeling on my side.

There was a mackerel sky earlier this morning but now the blue patches are being crowded out by the clouds which now look like slushy ice. The trees are reaching their peak colors here, with one maple outside my window an absolutely screaming red. Bittersweet time of year as I know that drab brown and grey comes next.

I haven't been able to keep up with the boodle for a few days as the kitchen project is nearing completion. At least it's supposed to be. "S" and I have been working our a$$es off hanging sheetrock and mucking about in joint compound, sanding and painting. Now if I could just be sure the electrician and carpenter would show up to finish their stuff... I have been patient and accepting since this started right after Labor Day, but I feel like a volcano that is starting to rumble and spew smoke. The antidote for this is more sanding and priming and painting. I'll try to check in between coats.

From the home page:

Soylent Green is... clones???? :-)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/16/AR2006101601337.html

I just had the oddest sense of deja-vu...

I needed to spell blancmange correctly, so I Googled "Skyron in the Andromeda Galaxy" to get the Python reference.

I got MYSELF back as a hit from an earlier Boodle. Talk about Ouroborsian...

:-)

And all averred
I'd killed the bird
That caused the Boodle to blow...

I sowwy. *slinking away*

New Kit folks.

Not quite a full kit but Snacks for Thoughts.

I'm saved!!! *L*

Great stuff. I've been waiting to see this approach in one of your Natl. Geo. articles. Hang in there.

Dutch