Yesterday subbing in high school English (I know!), we were discussing “flat” versus “rounded” characters. The kids noted that one of the conveniences of slapping together a stereotype or two, giving it a name, and making it a bit player in your story is that it is easier to kill that character. Neither the author nor the readers feel much loss in the passing of a character they never loved to begin with. It’s a germane topic for high school... Read more
Apparently California has passed a law requiring stores to create gender-neutral toy sections? (H/T to Salon Beige of all places for the heads up. If you’re both a Francophile *and* want to see an exceptionally cute plea for restoring the Latin Mass, look here.) So . . . on the one hand I was the teenager who wrote an angry letter to the editor when Lego first debuted pink, simplified, domestic-themed sets explicitly targeted at girls, because: Insulting and unnecessary. (But,... Read more
Take at look at the photo Vox used to illustrate an article about remote workers: It’s a woman sitting on the beach with her laptop and phone headset, looking at two young children playing at the edge of a lake or pond (or some other flatwater). Presumably it’s a stock photo designed to capture the idea of working remote. Okay, sure. Except: If you are the parents of an otherwise-healthy American child under the age of five, of all the... Read more
When my kids were little, sometimes we’d be out and people would congratulate me on what well-behaved children I had. My children did not love my usual response: “They’re normal kids. They just know that we’re going home if they don’t behave.” It gives the impression of amazingly well-trained children if, week after week, people at church or restaurants or other public places only see your kids when they have their act together. We didn’t do anything dire, by the way, if the... Read more
There are quite a few hot-button topics being litigated right now, with varying results. Whether or not a given law or ruling is upheld, and how, is a question for the legal profession. Whether this or that outcome should be the law is a different question entirely. Judges are tasked with deciding: Does the law, as it stands today, support this or that outcome in a given case? That’s a question of interpreting and applying existing laws. Citizens, all of... Read more
This is a rebuttal of Michael Fumento’s “The Myth of ‘Long COVID'” at The American Spectator. Per his author bio, he’s a guy who studies the phenomenon of epidemic hysterias; I absolutely agree that there exist some documented cases of localized symptom-outbreaks that fit that definition, so I don’t categorically dismiss the possibility. I further agree that there is a cultural aspect to disease-naming and disease-categorizing. Finally, as this lengthy essay will affirm, I agree that there is no doubt a... Read more
In my goofing off today: “The First Instagram Filter” from Jeff Miller at The Curt Jester. He jokes about the popular meme that depicts the Shroud of Turin and the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe as the original selfies, saying, “Today I realized Mary used the first Instagram filter with ‘indigenous women’ mode.” And of course that’s one point of view. As Catholics we’re free to not believe in the miraculous nature of either image. Approved apparitions and miracles... Read more
Crux reports on a group of Christian healthcare workers fighting New York’s COVID vaccine mandate because there is no religious exemption. The article observes, as others have elsewhere in this debate (including some friends whose opinions I value greatly), that multiple states don’t offer religious exemptions for vaccination in general, and that this lack of such protection has been held up in court. Well, okay, there we are. And yet . . . I’m still an American of a certain... Read more
At Catholic Vote this morning: “Bishop Orders Unvaccinated Priests Not to Minister to the Sick.” I’m not going to comment on the details of that case, which others know far more about than I ever will. What I want to discuss is the concept in general, and why it deserves serious scrutiny. To do that though, let me tell you about my parish priest. Who are we talking about when we say “unvaccinated priests”? I have no idea whether my... Read more
My daughters’ friend lost her father to COVID this week. 50-something, father of five children, two teens still at home . . . I am very aware of how serious this disease is. I have been urging people to take this seriously since it first came on the radar in early 2020, I have supported a wide range of public policy initiatives to mitigate the effects of the pandemic, and I am in favor of vaccination. I am myself vaccinated. My... Read more
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