Month: December 2004

Here’s under-age sexual behavior endorsed by the “abstinence-only-until-married” school: teen marriages. This article in the Chicago Tribune suggests it’s becoming more popular with the rise of abstinence-only education programs. The nut-graf explains:

One of the few studies of teen marriage in the United States, carried out by the Center for Law and Social Policy, a Washington think tank, found that the number of married teenagers in the U.S. surged by almost 50 percent during the 1990s–the most significant jump in early marriage since the 1950s. The report pegs the growing attractiveness of early wedlock in the U.S. to a complex variety of factors: the spread of abstinence-only-until-marriage sex education at American schools, a shift toward cultural conservatism among some teens and a growing fear among youngsters of contracting AIDS through promiscuity.

Question: is it pedophilia for a forty year old man to have sex with a fourteen-year-old girl – or is it marriage? I was struck by these stats:

According to records at the Texas Department of Health, Liset was one of nearly 60 girls in that state who married in 2002 at the tender age of 14–the minimum age in Texas with parental consent. (A handful of other states sanction extremely early marriages with parental consent: In Alabama, South Carolina and Utah, girls can marry at 14; in New Hampshire it’s 13; in Massachusetts and Kansas, 12.)

Twelve? Shouldn’t these laws be repealed?

BETTER LATE THAN NEVER: A major AIDS summit for African-Americans. Here’s a quote that tells you a lot: “I’m a straight guy. I can get their [the churches’] attention.” The scandalous role that black pastors have played in minimizing AIDS, perpetuating homophobia and shunning the truly needy is something that needs real attention. ACT-UP was too p.c. to say anything. Maybe now some black spokesmen will take these charlatans on.

MARTYR WATCH: “You criticize anybody, you challenge anybody, then you are a bigot. And that’s the — that’s why nobody does it. That’s why nobody sticks up for Christmas except me. Did Peter Jennings stick up for Christmas last night? I don’t believe he did. How about Brian Williams, did he? Did Rather stick up for Christmas? How about Jim Lehrer — did he? Did Larry King — hello — I love Christmas — did he? No.” – Bill O’Reilly, bravely taking a stand for Christmas.

Peter Scoblic buries Rumsfeld’s inane rhetoric.

MALKIN AWARD NOMINEE I: “There are certain things you want to avoid like an aloof Beacon Hill windsurfer with a crazy gypsy wife, crazed lunatics like Michael Moore sitting in the seat of honor at the convention, shadowy billionaires like George Soros paying for everything — I mean, why that didn’t play in the heartland I’ll never understand.” – Mark Simone, WABC radio host.

MALKIN AWARD NOMINEE II: “Criminal lawyers and all the mushy rabble of do-gooders and bleeding hearts in society and politics have marched under the Freudian flag toward the omnipotent state of Karl Marx.” Newburgh City Manager Joseph Mitchell, as cited by Mickey Kaus.

JIHADISTS VERSUS WHORES: You know whose side I’m on, don’t you?

National Lampoon lists the ten least sucessful Christmas specials of all time. My favorite:

This PBS/WGBH special featured linguist and social commentator Chomsky sitting at a desk, explaining how the development of the commercial Christmas season directly relates to the loss of individual freedoms in the United States and the subjugation of indigenous people in southeast Asia.
Despite a rave review by Z magazine, musical guest Zach de la Rocha and the concession of Chomsky to wear a seasonal hat for a younger demographic appeal, this is known to be the least requested Christmas special ever made.

Michael Moore was unavailable for Santa?

It lives! What a great compromise: allow fox hunting to chase foxes into a spot where they can be shot humanely. Now, for England …

I’d say this Jonah column is a home run. If Kevin Drum still needs to be persuaded that Jihadist terrorism is a real and contunuing threat to the U.S., then he is essentially unpersuadable. I would have thought that 9/11 alone was enough. Alas, not. A nuke in a major city maybe? If that’s what it will take to get the Democrats to take the threat seriously, you can’t blame the American people for deciding not to wait.

EMAIL OF THE DAY: “You wrote that David Brudnoy’s ‘final and heartiest laugh’ was that his HIV didn’t kill him. I don’t mean to ruin this lovely thought, but as you know, people with HIV often don’t die as a result of primary HIV infection. They often do, however, die of some illness to which they become vulnerable by virtue of chronic immunosuppression. Brudnoy died of Merkel cell carcinoma, a rare form of cancer that occurs between five and thirty times more frequently among HIV-infected individuals than in the general population (see Engels, EA, et al. (2002), “Merkel cell carcinoma and HIV infection,” Lancet 359:497-8). So I’m afraid it’s not unlikely that HIV did kill him. May he rest in peace.” Go ahead. Ruin my little piece of denial. More feedback on the Letters Page.

“Who really cares what Hollywood thinks? All these hacks come out there. Hollywood is controlled by secular Jews who hate Christianity in general and Catholicism in particular. It’s not a secret, OK? And I’m not afraid to say it. That’s why they hate this movie. It’s about Jesus Christ, and it’s about truth. It’s about the messiah. Hollywood likes anal sex. They like to see the public square without nativity scenes. I like families. I like children. They like abortions. I believe in traditional values and restraint. They believe in libertinism. We have nothing in common.” – Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League, Scarborough Country, December 8.

Here’s some great news from the real success story of the war on terror: Afghanistan. Money quote:

The US-led military in Afghanistan said on Wednesday that it had been contacted by Taliban members willing to lay down their weapons following an arms-for-amnesty offer by the US envoy to the country. US military commanders operating in south and southeastern Afghanistan have been contacted by Taliban members declaring their desire to ‘join the peaceful political process,’ the US-led military spokesman, Major Mark McCann, told a news briefing in Kabul.

I sometimes wonder how big Bush’s margin of victory would have been if he had never invaded Iraq. Which, of course, redounds to Bush’s favor. Iraq turned out to be a big risk for him politically. He deserves credit for taking it on. But that doesn’t mean he should evade criticism for screwing so much of it up.

Moves are afoot to provide civil unions for gay couples in this historically Catholic country. I’d favor full marriage rights myself, for all the usual reasons. Not least of which: divorce in Ireland is an extremely tough process. Meanwhile, here’s a good story on the Canadian decision. Canada’s parliament will have the last word early next year, with a free vote on the matter. David Frum argues that this is not democratic. A free vote in the national parliament? And the Supreme Court essentially deferring to an existing government decision? Undemocratic? Let’s just say it’s a lot more democratic than, say. Brown vs Board of Education.

The issue of unprotected troops seems finally to have caught the administration’s attention. John Kerry didn’t manage to get them to notice. But a reporter-goaded soldier did. Part of Rumsfeld’s response was :

Rumsfeld said the problem was “essentially a matter of physics,” with production of armored Humvees taking time to catch up to demand.

Hmm. Here’s a story about the sole company assigned to make protective plates for the army. Money quote:

Armor Holdings Inc., the sole supplier of protective plates for the Humvee military vehicles used in Iraq, said it could increase output by as much as 22 percent per month with no investment and is awaiting an order from the Army.

So is it physics? Or is it the army bureaucracy?

David Brudnoy was and is a class act. He was a Tory libertarian, a loyal Republican, ornery in a gentlemanly way, and a brilliant, emollient radio personality. I was on his show a few times, broadcast from his cozy, Victorian-style Back Bay apartment, with friendly and unfriendly callers all treated in the same courteous but unsparing manner. His own openness about his struggle with HIV was a real boon to others, like me, who dealt with this alone to begin with. He also proved that it isn’t simply possible to be a conservative and to favor gay dignity, but that it is quintessentially conservative to do so. Homosexuality is like the weather: an unalterable part of the human condition, as noble and as tawdry as every other facet of human life and experience. Conservatives should seek to understand it, and to bring it within the boundaries of civilized life. David was an emblem of that civilization: a prince of a conversationalist, a charmer and a friend. His final and heartiest laugh? That HIV didn’t kill him. God bless him.