It’s possible that I am a cynical, grumpy, overly critical, person. I accept that criticism ahead of time. This may come off as a little bit of a rant. Blogs are good for ranting. Ranting is good for the soul. Here’s my take: The unbearable cuteness of kids with Down Syndrome is real. It’s fun…
My daughter has been inundated with Columbus this year, and apparently someone dressed as Columbus came to visit her school. I’m sure my son has gotten plenty too. I’ve been pondering how to de-mythologize Columbus to kids without resorting to hyperbole, facts not in evidence, retroactively imposing modern standards on him, or otherwise creating an…
Matt Walsh is a conservative blogger and radio host. He has a strong readership. I’ve talked about him before. He wrote a letter to his son in the wake of the Miley Cyrus-Robin Thicke VMA show, which assumed his son would be heterosexual, find one woman, marry her, and worship her forever. I wrote: Victorian…
Well, it’s been a week of plague and travel in my household. Later today, I will talk about the angel in a conservative blogger’s house, and how he imprisons women through praise. Here are this week’s links: Last Sunday I offered some continuing thoughts on my essay: How To Talk Like a Feminist (If You’re…
Ok, we don’t have cholera. My wife has pneumonia and a strained ribcage from coughing. I have bronchitis. Nico has conjunctivitis and perhaps a chest infection. We’re all on antibiotics. Ellie is fine but, between you and me, kind of hard to take sometimes with her constant questioning. We know this is what four-year-olds are…
My four-year-old daughter was standing in her room yesterday morning, wearing only a pair of pants, squeezing her chest, and saying, “I wish these were bigger.” My first response was panic. My second response was to pass the buck, “Go talk to your mom about that,” I said. She ignored me and said again,” I…
Jonathan Turley brings us another example of what I call the Cult of Compliance: In this article and attached video, police throw a woman into a concrete bench, breaking several bones in her face. A lawsuit has followed. They arrested Cassandra Feuerstein in Skokie after finding her asleep at the wheel, and charged her with drunk driving….
One of my concerns with the language about disability and violence, whether domestic, in institutions, or in public, is an easy tendency to link the violent outcome to the disability, rather than focusing on the perpetrator of the violence. Such rhetoric doesn’t tend, or in I think intend, to excuse the violence, but it does…
This is Down Syndrome Awareness month. I will have more to say about awareness as the month goes on, as I’m thinking hard about how to defend the utility of “awareness.” The real problem is that it is, by grammatical nature, passive. To be aware. A lot of parents, like me, are skeptical about the…
Yesterday, my daughter said: “Daddy, let’s make a rocket ship!” She had her eye on a cardboard box that used to hold puzzles. I said, “Let’s go!” Ok, well, first I said, “I have to finish re-arranging my bedroom so I have a place to sleep tonight,” then I did just that, then I said…