You know, I really was planning to post something substantial today. And yet, somehow, it’s nearly time for me to go to work and I haven’t posted much of anything. Sigh…
- Matt Yglesias on Maggie Galagher’s case against gay marriage:
It’s interesting to see that Maggie Galagher is not longer even attempting to offer arguments that allowing gay marriage will have bad consequences. Instead, she argues at length that it would be bad if people ceased to get married and takes as an unstated assumption that gay marriage will lead to this result. The most natural thought might be that expanding the class of people permitted to marry would increase the proportion of people who are married, but, you know, whatever.
- The UK National Health Service has some tips on staying safe this holiday season. Very funny (if you’ve got an immature sense of humor, which, happily, I do), but probably not safe for workplace listening. Via Crooked Timber.
- Australian Feminist Michael Flood thinks that there are more important priorities in encouraging fatherhood than reforming divorce laws.
- Laura of Apt. 11D argues that – the “choice” to have kids isn’t really a choice for some people, the desire to become a parent is as intractable as, say, sexual orientation. It’s an interesting point, and I might agree with it. (If the permalink doesn’t work, look for the entry on December 1st).
- An article on Bill Watterson’s current, mysterious life in Ohio.
- A good article in today’s Washington Post discusses ways to improve the lives of girls and women in prostitution. Via MarriageMovement.org.
- The situation in Iraq moves from bad to terrible to incomprehensible. From a New York Times article:
As the guerrilla war against Iraqi insurgents intensifies, American soldiers have begun wrapping entire villages in barbed wire. In selective cases, American soldiers are demolishing buildings thought to be used by Iraqi attackers. They have begun imprisoning the relatives of suspected guerrillas, in hopes of pressing the insurgents to turn themselves in. …
Via Crooked Timber, which has more quotes from the article.
- And it just keeps on getting worse… A good Lying Media Bastards post about the continuing abuse of justice at Guantanamo Bay.
- This Tom the Dancing Bug cartoon kicks serious behind (George W. Bush’s, specifically). Via Lying Media Bastards.
- An article on the economic penalties of parenthood, including some specific budget numbers.
- Sometimes I wish I lived in a different world… from The New York Times:
With vanity always in fashion and shoes reaching iconic cultural status, women are having parts of their toes lopped off to fit into the latest Manolo Blahniks or Jimmy Choos. Cheerful how-to stories about these operations have appeared in women’s magazines and major newspapers and on television news programs. … But the stories rarely note the perils of the procedures. For the sake of better “toe cleavage,” as it is known to the fashion-conscious, women are risking permanent disability, according to many orthopedists and podiatrists.
Sure, some of them give up the ability to walk barefoot without pain, but at least their feet will look good in stilettos….
Great article by Michael Flood. I regularly get hate mail for earlier posts in which I stated similar aims for father’s rights groups, aims that seem much more effective than abusing ex-wives into submission for custodial rights.
That last article is sickening. What, are we as a society moving toward 12th century China now? Ugh.
[for those who don’t get the reference, it’s about the whole women binding their feet thing]
It’s linked to footbinding, and also to breast enhancement surgery, and even FGM. Or so I believe. Something to do with being perpetually dissatisfied with how the female body naturally looks. Men get this, too, but in much smaller numbers.
Echidne