AN ESSAY ON BOOKMOBILES AND BOOK FURNISHINGS

                                                                            by Steve Kogan

In her post “The Un-Read Book,” Laura Wood remarks that “there’s something profoundly unsettling about the use of books for interior decorating.” In themselves, books can certainly adorn a room and have been doing so for centuries, but, as Penelope Green of The New York Times observes, the latest “artwork” by Lisa Occhipinti turns them into ornamental “accents,” both inside and out, which complement “the activities of set designers and store stylists who are throwing around what are known as ‘book bundles’ – stitched and ripped old paperbacks in neutral colors – the way they used to set out green apples or lemons in a bowl.” 

I belong to that generation when “they used to set out green apples or lemons in a bowl” (as did still life painters in even earlier times), and there was nothing edgy or hip about having classical music and interior decorating go hand in hand for the commercial appeal of the combination. This effect was promoted by the English actor John Williams, who played Chief Inspector Hubbard in Dial M for Murder (1954) and later hosted a successful TV ad for a box set of classical “hits” put out by Columbia Records. (more…)

  THE WEBSITE Bad Vestments recently featured this photo of an Episcopal canon on Easter at St. Mary's Cathedral in Memphis. A female commenter at Bad Vestments wrote: The feather boa, once a symbol of seduction and worn by women with loose morals, perfectly symbolizes the current state of affairs in the Episcopal Church and should be the required stole for officiating at same-sex (and third, fourth time around) couple blessings.... ... Feathers also being light and airy, express the air-head, breezy, flighty attitudes of TEC toward things rational, theological and Scriptural. Another commenter wrote: So, does the boa go with liturgical pole dancing? ....

AT Oz Conservative, Mark Richardson writes about an Australian man, Michael Fox, who forced the closure of Sydney Harbour Bridge on Friday after abseiling down the bridge and unfurling banners to protest being denied access to his three children in a custody case. Richardson writes:

He has successfully brought the issue of father’s rights to public attention. He told a Sydney radio station:

I’ve asked for help so many times – no one wants to help the blokes. The chicks get in first and start throwing stones, the blokes don’t stand a chance. (more…)

AT her blog Camera Lucida, Kidist Paulos Asrat reflects on slut walks, “sex positive feminism” and the trend of very short, itsy-bitsy skirts for women, which make it impossible to sit down without exposing oneself. She writes:

One thing I’ve noticed here is that young women are wearing extremely short skirts, and now in spring, they’re donning very short cut-out shorts, often (as though this will help) with dark tights. These skirts are dark, dreary, and ugly. At least the sixties brought color and pizazz with mini-skirt fashion. (more…)

  THE power and Promethean force of a space rocket never ceases to amaze. When the space shuttle Endeavour took off yesterday, it was impossible not to be awed as it rose from the rumbling earth in a pillar of flames and heaving clouds of smoke. A space ship suggests that all of nature - even human nature - can be transcended.  For homeschoolers who would like details on the mission, the NASA site has excellent descriptions of the particle physics detector, the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer-2, which Endeavour will be delivering to the International Space Station.

  HERE is an excellent letter to the editor in today's New York Times: Whatever the result of the case against Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the chief of the International Monetary Fund, his arrest is an exhilarating example of the evolution of justice. For most of human history, a servant accusing a politically powerful man of rape would have been laughed at. In much of North America and Europe this is no longer the case; if there is sufficient evidence, anyone can be tried and convicted. At this point Mr. Strauss-Kahn must be awarded the presumption of innocence. But the fact that the maid who accused him was given the respect she deserves and her accusations treated seriously shows that there can be dramatic progress in our ideas of justice and a just society. David Hayden In contrast, the men's rights blog In Male Fide rushes to defend Strauss-Kahn of what its writer says must be false rape charges from a maid seeking to victimize a powerful man. If men's rights advocates had their way there would be no rape charges filed by women. The male of the species is as pure as the driven snow.

  READERS of this blog know that history is divided into various phases: the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the Enlightenment and now, the Age of Pizza. A teenager I know is a student at one of the fanciest prep schools in the country. He recently attended his senior prom. No expense was spared for the event, which was held in a major football stadium. (A father of a student owns the team that uses the stadium.) Limos were rented. Girls agonized over their gowns. Corsages were purchased. Pre-prom and pre-pre-pre-prom parties were held. What, you might wonder, was served to eat at this first formal occasion for these excited students? Pizza. The students stood around in their formal attire eating pizza. The pizza-fication of America proceeds apace. It is only a matter of time before pizza is served at all state dinners and banquets. Pizza is to modern cuisine what socialism is to political life. It represents the leveling of aspiration. It is the only significant consequence of radical democracy that Alexis de Tocqueville failed to predict. Pizza is the denim of dining. It even tastes like blue jeans. Pizza is the anti-soul food.

ERIC writes, in response to the entry “When a Daughter is a Lesbian:”

I had a grade school chum once who grew up into a homosexual man after I had moved away and dropped out of touch. I returned to my boyhood town and inquired about him. (more…)

AT Galliawatch, a blog which reports the latest in French news, Tiberge writes about the sexual assault charges against Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund who has been accused of attacking a hotel maid in New York City. She writes:

In a culture weakened by so much rot, Strauss-Kahn is just another symptom. But the problem is that he is an international celebrity and he has temporarily dragged France down with him. And he may have committed a crime, not merely an immoral act.

I should add to the above that the United States strongly approved Strauss-Kahn’s nomination to head the IMF. This was in September 2008.

Second, I really do not think any French person should feel ashamed. This was a scandal waiting to happen. The best thing for the country now is just to get rid of the worst politicians and put in people who have some integrity. (more…)

IN A brief essay titled “The Internet and the Dangers to the Soul,” the Rev. James Jackson discusses the spiritual dangers of blogging. The essay appeared in 2007 in the parish bulletin of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in Littleton, Colorado. Father Jackson’s bulletin inserts often include interesting meditations on moral and cultural questions. His essay on tattoos was previously featured here. He wrote of blogging, “Firing off ignorant opinions about everything is a self-destructive exercise in the vice of pride.”

Father Jackson wrote, 

Blogs—short for “weblogs”—have become a standard form of communication among Catholics in the English-speaking world, especially in America. Mr. R. J. Stove wrote a feisty article attacking this phenomenon of blogs, and Internet discussion groups, which appeared in the Spring 2006 issue of Oriens, a fine Australian traditionalist journal. He asked the question whether Catholics should be blogging at all, and argues that for the most part, they should not. (more…)

  AND, yet Obama continues to support and work for amnesty for illegal aliens. Brenda Walker writes about the latest numbers at Vdare.com and about the likeliood that Obama won't lose support by black voters despite his positions on immigration.

THE CITY OF CHICAGO, as a result of a federal appeals court ruling issued yesterday, will pay about $30 million to blacks who were not hired as firefighters because they scored significantly lower on entrance tests than white candidates. Not only must the Chicago fire department compromise standards and hire less qualified candidates purely because they are black, thus discriminating against more qualified whites, but it must pay millions in compensation to men who have never worked and will never work as firemen. These never-hired beneficiaries of the suit will receive compensation for one reason: they are black. (more…)

  AT VFR, a commenter Jeanette V. writes: Fifty years ago, it was easy to associate with homosexuals in the workplace, because a person's sexual proclivities were either unknown or known but never mentioned. These days the bedroom door is wide open and we are forced to acknowledge a person's perversions. This is a direct result of the decriminalization of homosexuality. I have done a complete 180 on what I feel about homosexuality. My best friend in high school (this was the 1970's) was a homosexual and I remember the horrible abuse he got from his peers. So I have lived in a time when homosexuality was illegal and now when it is celebrated. I have seen homosexuals stalk and harass people at home, online and where they work simply because they believe marriage should be redefined. I have friends with school-aged kids who tell me about the pro-homosexual propaganda being fed to their children. It is actually fashionable these days for women to consider themselves lesbian. They get lots of positive feedback for "coming out." I read that 40 percent of high school seniors now identify themselves as lesbian or bisexual. It seems the queering of our schools and entertainment has been successful. The decriminalization of homosexuality has had some very detrimental side effects indeed.

SARAH LAPLANTE writes:

I was reading your May 12th post on gendered pronouns, which I mainly have nothing to say about. But as a linguistics student I have to disagree with one sub-sub-sub-claim, namely:

Human beings have a hard time speaking in terms of non-sexed individuals.

This is pretty easy to be confused about, English does have mandatory sex differences in third person singular pronouns, as do most of the languages taught in American schools. But it’s easy to see on a map that this distinction is hardly a human universal, in fact it’s the exception.

The map is a bit unclear, so here’s a rundown: (more…)

HOLLY writes:

A friend and I regularly trade e-mails about what we’re reading. Your blog is often one of the topics I bring up for discussion. (I agree with you most of the time; she does not.) (more…)

ALEX A. writes from England:

Your observations on masculine and feminine pronouns caused the following reflection to jump into my brain.

One of the crazy and patronizing feminist notions that’s taken hold is that women in general are “vulnerable” to an extensive array of psychic injuries. They are not. This idea is a ideological lever
intended to force radical sexual adjustments that would reduce the incidence of so-called injuries to the female psyche, and at the same time, to use a coarse expression, put women in the driving seat.

I’ll risk a generalisation and say that most women are, as a rule, mentally tough. What’s more, as your blog and its female readers illustrate all the time, the life of the mind that a thoughtful woman
enjoys is just as varied and intellectually stimulating as a man could hope for.

(more…)