Question: is it “normal” for a small boy to chase and try to catch birds? Because every child development manual I’ve consulted pointedly ignores the subject — except to note, peripherally, that should my son manage actually to catch the thing and, for example, bite its stupid bird head off before using the petrified beaktip to carve a swastika in his forehead and recruit a cult of libertine hippie chicks looking for a strong daddy figure, he “most likely” has what they call “sociopathic” tendencies.
— Which, it seems to me, is rather politically presumptuous; after all, were my son to catch the bird, pretend to sympathize with its bio-cultural oppression, then release it with the promise that, in exchange for its permanent fealty, he would one day, in the name of “diversity,” make sure the legislature and the courts “evened out” the “unfair disparity” of “specism” that has institutionally prevented the majority of birds from landing jobs batting about balls of yarn or catching kitchen mice — I seriously doubt these same “experts” would rush to label him an “enabler” with authoritarian leanings.
Instead, they’d probably just call him a “progressive” and offer him a column for, say, the Rocky Mountain News, or Salon…
Developing…
****
update: Darleen engages in an email exchange with the RMN’s Mike Littwin.
Or his hair. Hard to tell from the quality of the response Darleen gets, to be honest with you.
Who the hell is RJ Eskow? I can’t tell from his (seemingly) media flack-written bio.
This Litwitt–is it absolutely necessary to show his picture?
Hmmmm…. I’ve consulted my copy of The Dangerous Book for Boys… nothing about birds but it does have a section entitled “How to hunt and cook a rabbit” plus tanning the rabbit hide.
I suppose RJ would call me a sociopath, too, for purchasing this book with the intention of introducing my grandsons to it.
Guess that makes me an inauthentic conservative
bother
But, let’s imagine that the “so-called failing schools”, are failing not because of inherent racism, but due to failures in the (often) urban, economically challenged culture that may be tangentially related to , but not caused by, one’s race.
I know, blaspheme.
Would someone please point Littwin to the part of the Constitution that guarantees freedom of association?
Or does he want Affirmative Action for real estate and rentals?
I’m sorry, Mr and Mrs Jones, while your finances are in order and the home you wish to bid on is well within your budget, the neighborhood just doesn’t have the right racial balance yet. You cannot legally tender an offer on the house.
is it “normal†for a small boy to chase and try to catch birds?
God I hope so.
http://maddad.blogspot.com/2005/06/gabe-caught-bird.html
Oops, I have no idea what happened there. My HTML foo went up the spout.
Silly, Darleen. We’re not interesting in limiting the options of those who can afford to take their “school choice” to another level (by moving, or paying private tuition.) Obviously, those people -since they make enough money – are entrusted with the power to determine their future. We’re talking about the impoverished. They can’t be trusted to make important decisions regarding their children’s education.
That someone could call a statement like, “The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race,” “nonsense” is deeply troubling.
That he was paid to write something like that…well…
in an email I just shot off to Litty
JeffG
Check your email.
To quote myself on Althouse:
Most of those 58% that are not in the middle class are stuck in poverty not because of racism, but because they are victims of the culture of failure perpetuated in large part by those who think like you. A culture in which over %50 of black children live in single parent families. A culture that in large part brands academic success as “acting white” and celebrates gang life, involvement with drugs and the cult of victimology.
As for those failing, largely inner-city, minority-majority schools:
Who do you think the teachers and administrators are? Who do you think the schoolboard members are? Who do you think is sitting on the city councils, and are the mayors? The vast majority of these schools are being run by minorities. Are they racist? These aren’t schools being neglected by racist whites.
Hold on:
People don’t slavishly obey and follow every whim of Messrs. Bush (and now Cheney) because they revere them
Has this person been on Mars for the past week?
Jeff – I think you should have simply asked the altogether different kind of parenting advocates at Unsprung, Leakspring or whatever the heck they are calling themselves…
Darleen, I believe it was Chris Rock who said, “Screw that, I want my kid sitting next to the Chinese kid!”
If you really want to lower your IQ, wade through the comments to that lefty twit’s post.
The email exchange so far between Littman and me:
And this moron gets paid to write? Shouldn’t you know a bit about reading before they pay you to write?