[NYPost] But the media weren’t asking skeptical questions. The next day, reporting on a separate WHO conference, a New York Times ...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... headline blared: “New Ebola Cases May Soon Reach 10,000 a Week, Officials Predict.”
The “soon” in that warning from the WHO’s Bruce Aylward was “by the first week in December.”
Well, the WHO has now reported cases for that period. Total: 529. It was no fluke; the average over the last three weeks was 440.
The global health bureaucrats certainly won’t admit that their own numbers show that the epidemic peaked before the WHO had even begun to act.
They’ve gotten away with it time and again. With AIDS, SARS, avian flu, swine flu and two past Ebola hysterias.
And they’ll keep repeating this Chicken Little game as long as the media keep falling for it and the politicians keep rewarding it with billions of dollars.
Michael Fumento is a journalist and attorney who regularly contributes to Forbes and the French science journal Inference.
[Ynet] The global corpse count from Ebola has risen to 7,588 out of 19,497 confirmed cases recorded in the year-old epidemic raging in West Africa, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday.
The virus is still spreading intensely in Sierra Leone, especially in the north and west, with 315 new confirmed cases reported in the former British colony in the week before December 21, it said. These included 115 cases in the capital Freetown.
"The neighbouring district of Port Loko experienced a surge in new cases, reporting 92 confirmed cases compared with 56 the previous week," the WHO said.
#1
The author of this piece is dumber than a box of rocks. This epidemic is still out of control. All it would take is one case poorly recognized in Bombay, Johannesburg, or Rio for it to blow up into a modern plague.
First of all Becausethe mpoint of the article is the figureshave been grossly exagerated. Is that right? Yes. It was also the case with AIDS (they wereextrapolating hubdreds of millions deaths), aavian flu (in Frnace they wee expcting cngestions at the morgues) and so on.
Second: The Sanish nurse you pobably have heard about had at a stage where she wassupposed to be contagious going in the streets, went at the beauty parlor to have her legs shaved and also to a public doctor where she dutifully waited in the waiting romm and the doctor (she didn't warn he) checked her. None fell ill. Agreed the nurse was still not at the "spitting blood stage but she was contagious.
#7
Honestly, I think both sides are right: this outbreak is out of control AND its been hyped for funds. Part of the hype is the "we can control it, given the resources". They can't, because the infected population have no interest in controlling it.
And we HAVE been extremely lucky not to see another outbreak.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
12/25/2014 12:45 Comments ||
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#8
The reported cases in Sierra Leone were on an exponential ramp until the first week in December. Since then, reported numbers have dropped off dramatically, indicating a peak. Question is, do the numbers indicate that the situation is coming under control, or has the reporting system broken down due to the epidemic? Time will tell.
#9
"the infected population have no interest in controlling it."
From what I hear that is not the case in Liberia, which seems to be having some success in controlling the problem. Once the people realized that the government wasn't lying to them this time, they worked out home-brew quarantine systems that seem to work pretty well.
Posted by: James ||
12/25/2014 13:24 Comments ||
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#10
Once the people realized that the government wasn't lying to them this time, they worked out home-brew quarantine systems that seem to work pretty well.
[DAWN] THE Beautiful Downtown Peshawar ...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire. school attack has shown that concerns that TTP factions would surpass the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... in brutality are now a reality. Mullah Fazlullah ...son-in-law of holy man Sufi Mohammad. Known as Mullah FM, Fazlullah had the habit of grabbing his FM mike when the mood struck him and bellowing forth sermons. Sufi suckered the Pak govt into imposing Shariah on the Swat Valley and then stepped aside whilst Fazlullah and his Talibs imposed a reign of terror on the populace like they hadn't seen before, at least not for a thousand years or so. For some reason the Pak intel services were never able to locate his transmitter, much less bomb it. After ruling the place like a conquered province for a year or so, Fazlullah's Talibs began gobbling up more territory as they pushed toward Islamabad, at which point as a matter of self-preservation the Mighty Pak Army threw them out and chased them into Afghanistan... 's group, which targeted Malala Yousafzai ...a Pashtun blogger and advocate for girls' education from Mingora, in Swat. She started blogging at age 11-12. She was 15 when a Talib boarded her school bus and shot her in the head in 2012. She was evacuated to a hospital in Britain and the Pak Taliban vowed to kill her and her father. Among other awards, she received the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize, which she deserved more than Barack Obama, Jimmy Carter, Al Gore, Yasser Arafat, or Rigoberta Menchu... , grabbed credit. The TTP front man Muhammad Khorasani stated that the operation conducted was an act of reprisal for the ongoing Zarb-e-Azb ..the Pak offensive against Qaeda in Pakistain and the Pak Taliban in North Wazoo. The name refers to the sword of the Prophet (PTUI!)... operation in North Wazoo and was carried out to avenge the killings of family members of the TTP cadre. He stressed that the objective was to inflict pain by specifically targeting the school.
Unquestionably, the TTP has committed war crimes. International Humanitarian Law (IHL) mandates that all actors -- state and non-state alike -- are bound to obey this body of law. Further, transgressions are not affected by reciprocity. War crimes, whether committed in retaliation or otherwise, are equally violative of international criminal law and subject to the same punishments, which can be awarded by either international or national criminal tribunals -- arguably even military tribunals -- constituted under Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions. This is without prejudice to the fact that non-state actors including turbans can also be tried under the domestic criminal justice system.
Under Article 51 of the Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions, now a part of customary international law, civilian populations and individual civilians cannot be made the objects of attack, and attacks against such person(s) by way of reprisal are prohibited. Under Article 3 common to all Geneva Conventions persons taking no active part in hostilities cannot be targeted; murder and the taking of hostages are strictly prohibited.
Children as a sub-category of civilians, in fact, enjoy the greatest amount of protection during conflict. International law often requires proactive measures for guaranteeing their safety and well-being. These forms of protections are explicitly mentioned through numerous provisions of the fourth Geneva Convention, Article 77 of the First Additional protocol to the Geneva Conventions, Article 38 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict. Further it is a contravention of the Islamic law of nations to target non-combatants including children, women and old men.
Hence, it is beyond contestation that the cold-blooded murder of children and school staff members is a grave war crime punishable under a variety of adjudicative forums.
With regard to the child, the TTP is guilty of another war crime: conscripting, enlisting or using children under 15 to participate actively in hostilities.
Additionally, if it is confirmed that the attack was carried out by TTP members wearing military uniforms while using lethal force, and if the uniforms worn establish that these turbans were feigning as members of the Pakistain armed forces, then the group is also guilty of the war crime of perfidy -- killing or wounding treacherously individuals belonging to a hostile nation or army. Treachery in war is also prohibited under Islamic law.
Condemnations of the attacks from world leaders are pouring in. The UN secretary general has termed the attack as 'blood-curdling', and Leila Zerrougui, the special representative of the secretary general for children and armed conflict, has issued a statement calling the targeting " a heinous crime ... senseless and intolerable".
This incident, while devastating, was not completely unexpected. The nation has witnessed a spate of gruesome attacks by the forces of Evil against ethnic and religious minorities. The latest attack is serving as a catalyst for the nation to introspect. Many are now openly questioning Pakistain's foreign policy and national security imperatives. The prime minister has lifted the moratorium on the capital punishment of convicted terrorists. Public pressure will surely push the state to switch to a war footing. The revamping of the security apparatus to more effectively tackle the menace of terrorism and the Taliban seems imminent.
The key, however, is to make any structural changes after careful deliberations. The criminal justice system is already under enormous stress. Further draconian adjustments in the criminal law on the premise of national security will undermine the fragile constitutional framework of human rights ...which are often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless... in Pakistain. While criminal law as a general body of law is not best suited for dealing with the fallout of Zarb-e-Azb, the specialised body of IHL is. IHL provides a transparent, accountable, yet effective mechanism for fighting and bringing to justice the forces of Evil and Death Eaters involved in large-scale terrorism.
It is, therefore, imperative that the state more effectively employs international humanitarian law to fight this war. Such an approach will allow the armed forces the space to act without stressing the constitutional protections and safeguards that prevail in times of peace and in normal criminal settings.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/25/2014 00:19 ||
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#1
ironically, the TTP don't actually use toilet paper very often
Posted by: lord garth ||
12/25/2014 20:04 Comments ||
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[DAWN] SINCE its earliest days, Pakistain has been a prize to be claimed by those who wish to turn it into a religious state. The Objectives Resolution was the first victory in this battle. A slow, steady, incremental path of reform was adopted to keep inserting clauses in the Constitution and organs in the body of the state to subordinate the functions of the state to edicts passed down by the Learned Elders of Islam. The process acquired great momentum during the years of Gen Zia's dictatorship, because this was the first time that this process found ownership at the highest levels of the state.
The Council of Islamic Ideology, for instance, gave its first and historic decision to convert the financial system along Islamic lines, and had ownership from the top leadership at the State Bank, the deputy governor at the time. The Federal Shariat Courts were created to supervise the operation of the judiciary, and also intercept the authority of parliament, by empowering the religious lobby to shoot down any laws they didn't like. And of course the blasphemy law empowered the religious lobby to declare anyone an accused irrespective of the veracity of the evidence.
This was the slow and incremental path towards converting Pakistain into a type of a state more akin to a caliphate than a modern-day republic. The operation of the state and economy had to be made subservient to edicts of religious scholars, rather than the will of the people. Of course, it was not easy to implement, clear proof of which lies in the fact that these words can still be written more than six decades after the effort was launched.
The effort encountered deep opposition from within the society in some places, and ran aground on purely pragmatic concerns in others. The political parties, both the avowedly secular ones like the PPP and the more opportunistic ones that sought to ride this force without granting it full sway over the operation of state and economy, like the IJI and later the PML-N, all opposed the vision even when granting its wishes from time to time. Proof of this is in Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... 's first government, that passed an Enforcement of Sharia Act 1991, but also stalled the Islamic banking directive issued by the courts. The IJI government granted the wishes of the religious lobby in word, but stymied them in deed.
The Islamic world is burgeoning with groups demanding the imposition of their strict version of religious law. Some advocate the path of steady reform that slowly converts the existing modern state into a caliphate, whereas others take a more insurrectionary route, like the so-called Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... and Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... . Pakistain is one country where a powerful civil society, mobilised primarily through political parties, has consistently opposed this vision. Every election in our country has marginalised the religious parties. This is the main reason why democracy continuously comes under such vicious and unrestrained assault in our public discourse, because it is the exercise of democracy and its principal stakeholders, the political parties, that have stymied the ambitions to convert Pakistain into a theocracy.
As part of this constant stream of attacks against democracy, terming it a Western construct, the discourse has swivelled to also attacking secularism. As part of these attacks, we are told that secularism is about removing religion from all spheres of life. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Secularism is actually about rescuing the fundamental truths of religion from the fires of sectarianism. It arose in the aftermath of the most intense sectarian war ever fought in human history ‐ the Thirty Years War in the European mainland. In the depths of this conflict, the first philosophical searches began for a foundation for politics that would not grow out of religion to avoid the problem of sectarianism. Thomas Hobbes was the most successful amongst those searching for an alternative in these times, and his system of philosophy is grounded in values that mirror those preached by the main monotheistic religions.
"Faith has no relation to, nor dependence at all upon, compulsion and commandment," he wrote. No value is more important than the maintenance of peace, he said, and any ruler must supervise his realm to ensure opinions inimical to peace were not being propagated by any group. In fact, Hobbes went so far as to advocate a national church, a state sanctioned denomination, where religious figures would be appointed by the government, and would be made to adhere to doctrinal teachings in line with state sanctioned dogma.
This was not separation of church and state, nor a banishment of religion from public life. It was a subordination of religious authority to the state, to make the clergy subservient to the ruler rather than giving them a position where they can issue directives to the ruler.
We need to find our way back to a philosophic ground that reclaims the authority of the state. The fight for the soul of Pakistain will not be won until there is clarity of purpose. In the long run, this fight cannot be left to the pragmatists or the deviousness of the opportunists, who have perfected the art of granting a wish in form but not in substance. That path has kept the fortress of the state from falling before the forces of disorder that are vying to claim it, but it has also spread confusion about the real purposes of the rulers, and opened the window to their endless vilification.
The unity that the political parties have forged in the moment is the best and most potent weapon in their hands. They must not be afraid to wield it. This is a long war, and can only be won if there is clarity of mind about the kind of Pakistain we are fighting to save.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/25/2014 00:18 ||
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[DAWN] HAD they had the wisdom years ago to do what they seem to have resolved finally to do now, Pakistain and Afghanistan would have been much better off in terms of their ability to crush a common enemy.
The fact that Isaf commander Gen John Campbell and Afghan army chief Sher Mohammad Karimi should have come together to meet army chief Gen Raheel Sharif shows the realisation, albeit late, that only a joint strategy and coordinated action undertaken with sincerity can produce results and eliminate the safe havens which enable the Taliban on both sides of the Durand Line to spread death and destruction.
Tuesday's meeting between the three generals comes in the wake of several high-level sessions held to chart out a new course at a time the stakeholders consider ideal to undo the follies of the past.
The first of these was Afghanistan's Caped PresidentAshraf Ghani ...former chancellor of Kabul University, now president of Afghanistan. Before returning to Afghanistan in 2002 he was a scholar of political science and anthropology. He worked at the World Bank working on international development assistance. As Finance Minister of Afghanistan between July 2002 and December 2004, he led Afghanistan's attempted economic recovery until the Karzais stole all the money. .. 's visit to Islamabad and his meetings with the Pak political and military leaderships; then we saw American Secretary of State John F. I was in Vietnam, you know Kerry Former Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, self-defined war hero, speaker of French, owner of a lucky hat, conqueror of Cambodia, and current Secretary of State... 's meeting with Gen Sharif in the US, and lately, the latter's dash to Kabul in the wake of the massacre at the Army Public School in Beautiful Downtown Peshawar ...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire. .
The last visit was especially significant because Gen Sharif reportedly shared with Kabul incriminating evidence Pakistain had obtained about the involvement of the Afghanistan-based TTP leadership in the Dec 16 carnage.
An even more significant development was the Afghan National Army's operation earlier this week against the Talibs in the Dangam district of the Kunar province ... which is right down the road from Chitral. Kunar is Haqqani country..... bordering Pakistain.
By any standards this is a good beginning, which needs to be built upon. While the world had legitimate concerns regarding the presence of turban sanctuaries on Pak soil, Islamabad's protestations that there were safe havens on the other side, too, seldom evoked a sympathetic response.
With Hamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai ... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a Pashtun face on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use... gone, there are reasons to believe that President Ghani is sensitive to Pakistain's concerns and realises that the common enemy cannot be neutralised without wholehearted cooperation at the political and military levels.
The latter breaks down into details that include operational matters and intelligence sharing. Afghanistan is in transition in more ways than one, so it would be naive to believe that there is going to be total harmony between Islamabad and Kabul on the shape of things to come. But elements that have the frightening potential to divide them are less pervasive than the multiplicity of common interests uniting them.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/25/2014 00:16 ||
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#1
Sorry, but unless General Sharif has control of all the Pak military, this is just window-dressing.
[DAWN] PAKISTAN is on trial. It is being tested for its capacity to overcome the threat from religious murderous Moslems/Lions of Islam without losing sight of justice and its ideal of peace in the land.
The Beautiful Downtown Peshawar ...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire. carnage has awakened the government and political parties to their foremost duty -- protecting the life and liberty of citizens. This may not be the time to question them for their failure to see the terrorists' threat earlier. At the moment, the people must concentrate on ensuring that the response to the Lions of Islam is sound, just and effective. A national consensus on denying any quarter to Lions of Islam is welcome but what matters more is the kind of action plan this unity produces. Sadly enough, the signs so far are not wholly reassuring.
The dominant sentiment throughout the country is a mix of grief and anger and excess of both interferes with one's ability to produce the right response. What has been done so far is that: a) the military operation will be intensified; b) all Lions of Islam on death row are to be executed; c) the anti-terror laws are to be tightened; and d) creation of military courts to try Lions of Islam is under consideration. Let us look at these steps one by one.
That the military operation should be adequate the army high command alone can ensure. The public only asks for greater transparency, safeguards against non-combatant casualties, and even-handed treatment of all terrorist formations. The interior minister has referred to consideration shown for women and kiddies in Miranshah ... headquarters of al-Qaeda in Pakistain and likely location of Ayman al-Zawahiri. The Haqqani network has established a ministate in centered on the town with courts, tax offices and lots of madrassas... . This record must be maintained. However, if you can't say something nice about a person some juicy gossip will go well... nobody can believe that the military operation alone will rid Pakistain of the terrorist threat. This is the most important lesson of the US-led coalition's war in Afghanistan and it can hardly be ignored.
The decision to hang a large number of condemned prisoners is a tricky affair. Besides the well-known arguments against death penalty two points need to be considered. First, the world, especially the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... , does not like resumption of hanging. They may accept exception from the moratorium in a few cases but they will find several hundred executions hard to stomach. Will Pakistain gain from antagonising friendly states and further brutalisation of society?
Secondly, the hangings are unlikely to bring the terrorist groups to their knees. Those on the death row have been out of action for a considerable period. Has their absence materially reduced the terrorists' challenge? Pakistain is unlikely to match the pounding the Lions of Islam have received from the US-led coalition. What is the guarantee that the hangings will significantly affect their capacity to recoup and regroup that they have amply demonstrated?
As for tightening of anti-terrorism laws no opinion can be expressed till concrete proposals are advanced but the move for military tribunals to try suspected Lions of Islam is unlikely to find favour with the legal fraternity or the general public. Apart from other standard objections to military trials and the long history of the judiciary's resistance to encroachments on its domain, the whole idea is derived from an arbitrary conclusion that the judicial system has failed to deal with terrorists.
The judiciary may have created some space for critics but for the failure to tackle terrorism the administration is more to blame than courts. The judges cannot convict Lions of Islam or endorse their leaders' detention if the administration does not produce the necessary evidence before them. If the shortage of courts is removed and the administration stops protecting its favourites the normal courts can effectively deal with cases of terrorism.
It is worth noting that all the steps taken or under consideration replicate the US plans under the banner of 'war on terror'. But no western power has won credit for making laws that deprive its citizens of the right to due process. Besides, the US was dealing with alien enemies living far away from its territory. We are facing an insurgency from Lions of Islam who describe themselves as a Pak movement.
Pakistain should hope to reclaim the large body of people at present living under the control or influence of holy warriors/Lions of Islam not only in the areas of conflict but across the length and breadth of the country. Islamabad has to find its own path to safety.
Many voices have been raised in support of devising an effective strategy that goes beyond military operation and pakar-dhakar (general round-up) in cities, villages and camps. But first the state actors and civil society both need to replace emotionalism with reason. Only a sharp line separates solidarity with the military from jingoism and crossing that line will be dangerous for all. At the moment all initiatives seem to be coming from the military side.
It is unfair to the defence forces to put the entire responsibility for saving Pakistain on their shoulders, however broad and tested they may be. The civilian part of the nation must play its part in steering the ship of state out of the storm.
The media has a clear duty to bring down the temperature of debate. Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan ...Currently the Interior Minister of Pakistain. He is the senior leader of the Pak Moslem League (N) and a close aide to Nawaz Uncle Fester Sharif. He is noted for his vocal anti-American railing in the National Assembly. However (comma) Khan told the U.S. ambassador that he was in fact pro-American but he and the PML-N would have to be critical of US actions in order to remain publicly credible. Khan cited his wife and children's US citizenship as proof, which means he's lying to one side or the other and probably both. He wears a wig, but you probably guessed that. since hair doesn't grow naturally in that shape or texture... is right in advising the media to avoid making Lions of Islam popular though the ministers and politicians also need a dose of this medicine. The media has certainly invited censure for displaying pictures of dead and mangled bodies and hangings, in violation of all codes of decency and propriety. Such aberrations further brutalise society and have an extremely harmful effect on children's minds.
Above all, the media should set the stage for a sober, intelligent and humane discourse on terrorism and the factors contributing to its birth and rise. It must keep warning the people in command that nothing can be achieved by anger alone.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/25/2014 00:14 ||
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Insanity from the feminist left
[THESPEC] Pity the poor mother who wants to enjoy the holiday season and pass along the delight and warmth of various yuletide traditions but who doesn't particularly want to put the Christ back in Christmas, as it were, or reinforce the notion that men are the foundation of the most important things in the world, like school vacations and presents. "I deny their reality! They don't exist! They never existed!," said the Solipsist. And you're a figment of my imagination, too!
It's impossible to "do" Christmas without running into one patriarchal construct after another. Probably because most societies have been patriarchal. It was a kind of natural arrangement until birth control was introduced by some patriarchal corporation that made money from it.
Aside from singing the praises of a man who rules over everything (there really are the most gorgeous choral renditions out there), even the secular Christmas songs are ubiquitous in their praise of male characters: "Frosty the Snowman," "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer," and of course, Santa Claus. Santa Claus, a white male who, by the way, gets all the credit for labour overwhelmingly done by women (I'm picturing my friend Kathleen, for example, describing her Plan A and Plan B for getting Minecraft Lego in her hands by Christmas Eve, hoping like hell that one plan works out, wondering if she should instigate a Plan C). Santa Claus is an ideal, epitomizing love for good little girls and boys. Saint Nicholas was, as I recall, a bishop, which was a male position, who lived in the third century. Obeying Jesus' words to "sell what you own and give the money to the poor," Nicholas used his inheritance to assist the needy, the sick, and the suffering. He was made Bishop of Myra while still a young man. Bishop Nicholas became known throughout the land (Anatolia and further) for his generosity to those in need, his love for children, and his concern for sailors and ships.
When I was a tad we opened our presents on Christmas Eve. At midnight Santa Claus would come with a second, smaller batch that wasn't wrapped. Maybe you're doing it wrong.
We also had a visit from La Vecchia-- aka La Befana -- who came on Epiphany and left fruit and what we'd call stocking stuffers today. She didn't have any reindeer; she rode a broom.
I don't think I've ever heard anyone disapprove of Frosty the Snowman; he "laughed and played" with the children, plural, and his gender was either irrelevant or non-existent. If you don't like snowmen build a snow woman; make a cone of snow and put two balls of snow on it... Oh, wait. A skirt would be a gender stereotype, wouldn't it?
But I still don't see how Rudolph -- I believe first sung in the 1940s by Gene Autry -- fits into the concept of patriarchy; he could just as easily have been named Gertrude or Ramona, but the song writer likely considered Rudolph the more ridiculous.
If you don't like that sort of Christmas music, sing Ave Maria. Or sing the John Lennon abomination "Imagine."
The holiday feminist challenge extends to every Christmas category. "All of them need to go! All of them!"
Sure, I have fond memories of watching movies of the season with my brother and my mother but now? Now I realize that Maria from "The Sound of Music" finds her true calling as a nurturing caregiver and ends up responsible for a man's emotional rehabilitation. ... rather than becoming a nun.
Similarly, "White Christmas" resolves with the Hanes sisters teaching Bob and Phil that what they need is the love of a good woman to be happy — enough already with the emptiness of workaholism and playing the field! On its own, this might not be so problematic, but when you run into the same thing in myriad other classics, you wonder if it's possible for kids to grow up NOT believing that girls should be men's emotional handmaidens. Just ignore the thousands, maybe millions, of stories in which it's the men who're the saviors. And ignore the stories where they've achieved comfortable parity, like for instance Nick and Nora Charles in The Thin Man. All relationships can be pushed into an ideological straight jacket.
But does this mean that I should deny my kids the pleasure of "White Christmas"? Sure. Just gut the kid's awareness of a bunch of aspects of culture so she can be a Stranger in a Strange Land. You can probably grok the fullness of the stunted result.
Of memorizing and performing its song "Sisters" the way my brother and I did? On one side: fun, long-cherished musical with fabulous production value. On the other: women in low-cut gowns throwing themselves at men for the sake of getting hired (and it works!). It's no reflection of anything that ever happened in real life, of course...
But, in searching for alternatives, can we think of any Christmas films that feature women protagonists? Are the only Christmas stories worth telling about men? "A Christmas Carol," Old, grouchy, stingy Ebeneezer Scrooge has his tiny soul inflated by the spirits of Christmas Past, Present, and Future. "Are there no poor laws? Are the workhouses all full?" Go ahead and cast it with a woman playing the Scrooge part. It could work. And don't forget Tiny Jane.
"It's a Wonderful Life," A nice man gives up what he wants for the people around him, marries the love of his life, has beautiful children, and regains his self respect from the love of the people around him. How ideologically depressing.
"A Christmas Story," An amusing story about a little boy built on common experiences of kids who grew up in the 1950s. Girls and boys of that age in that time lived separate existences, though often only in theory. Had Scut Farkus been a girl Ralphie would have had to retreat or take it because boys didn't hit girls, not even back. When Karen Long was punching me when I was eight I didn't realize it was because she "liked" me. If I had, I'd have proposed on the spot and we'd have lived happily ever after when we grew up. Y'gotta admire a girl with a good left hook.
"National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation," I guess it's ideologically harmful, since the Griswalds are on approximately the same level of dull normality.
"The Grinch" Substitute a Grinchette and it would still work the same, despite having to modify a few lyrics.
… right on up to "Elf" Never saw it, but there were female elves in The Santa Clause.
and "The Polar Express," I'm trying to remember the plot, but I remember there was the boy who was the protagonist, a know it all boy, a black girl who lacked self confidence, and a boy from the wrong side of the tracks whose faith was renewed, or maybe newed. I suppose it could be easily rewritten to make the black girl the protagonist. But as it was written it was a nice story.
it's all guys at centre stage. Jealousy thy name is feminist woman. The writer is no Eleanor of Aquitaine, Anna Comnena, Elizabeth I, Catherine the Great, Galla Placida, Marie di Medici, or even Lucrezia Borgia.
"Miracle on 34th Street" is the exception that proves the rule: little Susan and her mother get a house in the 'burbs, a husband and a baby (pending) for Christmas. I missed tthe part where Fred (or Santa?) knocks Doris up.
Gee thanks, Santa — that fabulous Manhattan career and Central Park West apartment were such a drag. I guess it depend on what you want out of life.
Things don't get any easier in the gift department. Christmas toys are so rigidly defined by gender stereotypes that finding gender-neutral options feels not unlike an Arthurian quest. Shall it be the pink princess fairy aisle or the guns 'n' ammo aisle? Do you dress your child in glitter and tulle or camouflage? Because there's no middle ground here, folks: interactive electronic globes are marketed to boys and International Travel Barbie is marketed to girls. Boys get ant farms and girls get makeup kits. They're children but they've still got hormones. Little boys who aren't given toy guns are prone to make them out of Legos. They'll use random sticks as swords. I've seen it happen. My ex finally gave up and myson's an economist now, going on 30 now. The only mental damage he's got is from watching too much TV as he grew up. Little girls whose mothers are executives on a good career path still want to be princesses. I saw that just in the past ten days; the good career path is my daughter-in-law and the princess if my granddaughter. At almost age six she can ski and surf, and she's learning Mandarin.
How far we've come. How far, indeed. Why, it was only 150 years ago when outstanding men were oppressing women, who weren't allowed to be outstanding... Ummm. Nope. Read Bret Harte's A Maecenas of the Pacific Slope, which is as pretty a love story as you're likely to find, outside of the mush I write.
Latham Hunter is a writer and professor of communications and cultural studies. She wears ideology lenses.
#2
“The feminist movement taught women to see themselves as victims of an oppressive patriarchy....Self-imposed victimhood is not a recipe for happiness.”
― Phyllis Schlafly
Posted by: Whaith Prince of the Goats3526 ||
12/25/2014 14:59 Comments ||
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#4
Oh, for the love of the Deity ... is there not anything - any day, celebration, event or spot of entertainment that we can take pleasure in, derive a bit of joy from without some sourpuss, pinch-faced Puritan scold getting up on their high horse telling us how bad, sexist and raaaaacist it is and what horrible people we are. Begone, though moon-faced assassin of joy. Let us have our celebration in peace.
#8
For just one day, will you and and your lunatic bitch brethren leave the rest of us alone and just shut...the...fuck...UP!
Go feed your cats or sumthin. Crazytown will still be there tomorrow.
#9
There's always St. Patrick's day...or as I call it "Oppress the Irish day" cause that's what my ancestors were busy doing. They're so much fun to pick on, what's not to love?
#11
Creatures like this need to be forced marched through Arlington in that cold body heat sucking winter rain so she can see up front and close what real male privilege is about while someone reads the passages from those sited above about the Bulge and Christmas.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Currently the Interior Minister of Pakistain. He is the senior leader of the Pak Moslem League (N) and a close aide to Nawaz 
