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Thursday, July 03, 2003Following the recent Supreme Court decisions, Ward Connerly is launching a petition banning race-based preferences in the state of Michigan. I assume that this will be similar to Proposition 209 in California. Despite the rather slanted article, the online poll shows 79% in favor of the petition. Internet polls are anything but scientific, but still-- this is Detroit / Ann Arbor, where Ward Connerly was shouted off the stage by activists when I was a student at UM. In case you missed it, some of my thoughts on affirmative action are here. posted by Nate on 6:40 PM link This is terrible. Kathryn Lopez writes about Norma Khouri's book Honor Lost: Love and Death in Modern-Day Jordan. Her best friend, a Jordanian Muslim, was stabbed twelve times by her family to preserve their honor. Her scandalous behavior? She was seen in public with a Catholic man. Khouri, who is Catholic, states that this is a cultural phenomenon, not just an Islamic one. From the book: Our mothers, like all mothers of daughters, did their job by training us to live in an unsympathetic, protected, male-dominated world. I’m certain no woman raised in Jordan has escaped her childhood and young adulthood without hearing things like: "A woman’s honor, once ruined, can never be repaired," or "Better to lose your life than lose your reputation.”" They told us about the woman who chose to kill herself and die honorably rather than allow a potential rapist to assault her, and of the woman who didn’t preserve her honor and was raped only to be murdered by her own family who were protecting her 'good' name. Khouri, in exile in Australia, is currently translating her book into Arabic. The United Nations estimated there were 5,000 of these "honor killings" in 1998. posted by Nate on 6:26 PM link P.J. O'Rourke writes a review of Hillary Clinton's recent book for The Weekly Standard. The book neatly embodies the Seinfeld decade, the self-absorbed musings of a big city liberal. And not only has the personal become the political-- the personal is acutely boring. He writes: Boring others is a form of aggression, and Hillary attacks her public with the weapon of brutal dullness... "Living History" traps us in the heated daydream of an earnest and lofty-minded high school student--the kind who belonged to the Methodist youth group, sat on the student council, was elected junior-class vice president, got appointed to the principal's Cultural Values Committee "to promote tolerance," and would go on to become president of student government at some college for girls... it says something unflattering about our era that prominent political figures--who used to write declarations of independence, preambles to constitutions, Gettysburg addresses, and such--now use the alphabet only to make primitive artifacts, like the letter-inscribed tablet that Charlemagne is said to have put under his pillow each night, in the hope he'd wake up literate. Conservatives, including most of the Founding Fathers, have always worried that the price of a democratic system would be a mediocre nation. But George Washington and William F. Buckley Jr. put together could not have foreseen, in their gloomiest moments, the rise of Clinton-style über-mediocrity--with its soaring commonplaces, its pumped trifling, its platinum-grade triviality. The Alpha-dork husband, the super-twerp wife, and the hyper-wonk vice president--together with all their mega-weenie water carriers, such as vicious pit gerbil George Stephanopoulos... posted by Nate on 6:14 PM link ESPN reports that free agent Sergei Fedorov will not re-sign with the Detroit Red Wings. Fedorov has always been a disappointment to me, as he showed amazing potential but never took "the leap." During his first few years in the league he flashed ridiculous skating and goalscoring skills and won the Selke for his defensive prowess. The Wings went to the Finals in his fifth season, and we figured he'd continue to develop into a Hall of Famer. Instead, he became a #2, a Scottie Pippen second banana type, except that Pippen was a consistent overachiever; Fedorov had the Jordanesque skills, but never put it all together. He's a darn good player, but replaceable. Free agent Paul Kariya would be a nice replacement, if not an upgrade. UPDATE: Twelve hours after I wrote this, I find out that our chief rivals, the Colorado Avalanche, have signed Kariya and Teemu Selanne to one year deals. If Colorado remedies their goaltending situation, they'll be the favorites next year. On the bright side, the Wings signed defenseman Derian Hatcher to a five year contract. posted by Nate on 3:45 AM link Tuesday, July 01, 2003My telephone line has been dead all day. SBC is supposed to come take a look at it tomorrow, but in the meantime there's no Internet access until it's fixed (I'm at my sister's right now). Oh well, I guess my timing could be worse; Instapundit's on vacation this week, and I doubt I'd find half my normal amount of online reading material. In fact, it's like the whole Web is down due to the Prof's vacation. He's like Yahoo! in 1995-- if he doesn't link to a site, it doesn't really exist. As for me, I'll have to amuse myself by reading a newspaper that's actually printed on actual paper. How twentieth century. posted by Nate on 9:53 PM link Monday, June 30, 2003I like crime dramas, and I like 1980's pop culture, but they are two great tastes that DO NOT taste great together. The other night on Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Mark Lynn Baker played a criminal mastermind who killed sixteen people. If the name doesn't ring any bells, Mark Lynn Baker was Cousin Larry on the sitcom Perfect Strangers. This is part of a growing phenomenon in which typecast 80's actors make unnerving appearances in edgy roles as killers and thieves. It all started with Bronson "Balki Bartokomous" Pinchot inhaling lines of cocaine while getting mouth sex and driving a hundred miles an hour in a convertible in True Romance. Full House stars Uncle Jesse Stamos played a rapist murderer in a made for TV flick and Danny Tanner "sucked dick for coke" in Half Baked. The Saved By the Bell girls started taking their clothes off on camera, and before you know it, Michael Gross, the unassuming dad from Family Ties, is killing people on ALL THREE Law & Order series. At least the show has Angela Bower from Who's the Boss? as an Executive District Attorney to put away these miscreants. After NYPD Blue's Detective Zack Morris tracks them down, that is. Perhaps I should write a crime drama: Well-dressed con man Screech pimps out Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen to support his meth habit, but then they get kidnapped by serial rapist / murderer Mr. Belvedere. Two brave policewomen-- Tootie from Facts of Life and Lynn from ALF-- act as bait for the fiend but are also captured. After several tense moments, FBI Special Agent Punky Brewster shows up and busts caps in his English butler ass, thereby saving the day. posted by Nate on 3:44 PM link
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your stolen base are belong to Rickey Henderson. Questions or comments? Email nate@swankypimp.com |
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