Right As Usual

As usual, Mark Steyn explains why Human Rights has become so - well - NUANCED. It used to be so easy - if the bad guys didn't behave themselves around civilized (i.e., non-threatening) people, well, then, John Wayne (or his real-life equivalent) would ride into town and smack them around until they DID behave themselves. At least in public. No concerns about how the bully was feeling. Or what his/her psychological issues might be. Just behave properly, durnit, or get slapped upside the head. The other day National Review’s Jay Nordlinger was musing about our habit of referring to some benighted part of the world’s “humanitarian needs”, and wondered when we’d stopped using the term “human needs”, which is, after all, what food, water and shelter are. And his readers wrote in to state the obvious: That “humanitarian” prioritizes not the distant Third World victim but the generous western donor — the “humanitarian” relief effort, the “humanitarian” organizations, the NGOs, the we...

Haven't posted for a few days. My husband and I were busy with end of the year clearing up at school (basically, you have to turn in all paperwork, and get everyone to sign off that you have done so). We also were busy organizing our physics equipment, because we will both be moving to the northern part of the state. We will be teaching at the same school next year. We spent the last two days traveling from South Carolina to Cleveland. By last night, all I had the energy to do was veg out on the couch, and watch the John Wayne marathon. I'd normally have a picnic, but the weather isn't cooperating. It's been storming in Cleveland. This morning, I went outside to the van to get something, and was drenched. This isn't a happy holiday - unlike most holidays, Memorial Day is for the dead. Often, the very young dead. Those who are remembered were generally too young to have accumulated a lifetime of memories. Their lifetime was too short. As the graphic above in...