Culture Warriors category archive

In the Navy, if your victim is unconscious, you have a “Get Out of Jail Free” card.

The former director of surgery at Portsmouth Naval Medical Center, who was brought up on charges that he had sex with an intern while she was too intoxicated to give consent, will not face a court-martial.

Senior officers at the hospital have accepted a recommendation by an investigating officer not to pursue a trial for Cmdr. Steven Cobery because his accuser could not remember the events in question, a hospital spokeswoman said Tuesday.

Words fail me.

Via BartCop.

Having been married twice, I have my own ideas, but, really, now, you can’t make this stuff up.

It would seem that little boys are okay, but big boys are not.

Full Disclosure:

I attended Catholic Churches for the 19 years during which I was married to a second-generation Italian Catholic. All the priests I knew were good men who did their jobs honorably.

They knew that we had both been divorced and that I was not Catholic, and they never denied either of us communion. They placed Christian love above doctrine. They understood the Gospel of Love.

They honored their God and I treasure my memories of them.

Their work has been dishonored by their management.

Karen Owen wants to know. A nugget:

How can we call ourselves — and practically insist that we are — a Christian nation when we seemingly ignore so many of the teachings of Christ?

Isn’t compassion part of it? Or was that just my imagination as a little girl attending Sunday school at the family Presbyterian church?

Read the rest.

Via BartCop.

Tony Norman wonders why, amongst all the fuss about the phony “war on Christmas,” no one seems to care about the war on Thanksgiving.

That’s why I’m astounded that many of the loudest voices against the watering down of Christmas have given some of America’s biggest retail outlets a pass for making their underpaid, non-unionized employees work on Thanksgiving, the biggest family-oriented day of the year.

If you’re looking for ways to engage your Tea Party-loving brother-in-law in an argument that actually means something, ask him what he thinks of the fact that several relatives and quite a few friends aren’t having dinner with their families because they have to work Thanksgiving shifts at Kmart, Target, Sears and Wal-Mart.

The last place you will find me on Thanksgiving is at a big box store, or any store, for that matter.

We are going to have a quiet dinner and take a nap, while being thankful we are not fighting crazed shoppers bent on acquiring this year’s must-have, next year’s must-donate.

Afterthought:

Perhaps the lack of uproar reveals what Americans truly revere.

Read more »

Juliana Breines wonders why we blame victims and concludes that it’s selfish self-protection. A nugget.

Victim blaming is not just about avoiding culpability–it’s also about avoiding vulnerability. The more innocent a victim, the more threatening they are. Victims threaten our sense that the world is a safe and moral place, where good things happen to good people and bad things happen to bad people. When bad things happen to good people, it implies that no one is safe, that no matter how good we are, we too could be vulnerable. The idea that misfortune can be random, striking anyone at any time, is a terrifying thought, and yet we are faced every day with evidence that it may be true.

Read the rest.

Not Birch Beer, birch tea. Robyn Blumner:

If you’ve ever wondered what happened to the John Birch Society, author Claire Conner of Dunedin can tell you. The radical right-wing group that was briefly a player in national conservative politics in the 1960s is back, under a different name: tea party.

The Koch brothers’ daddy was a Bircher.

They continue the tradition, but with more skillful P. R.

As I’ve said before, I’m not a big fan of Al Sharpton, but sometimes he’s right.

The generations raised to accept racism as normal and right, as, indeed, the will of Republican Jesus, are indeed shrinking, but they are not going out without a fight. If you doubt me, read today’s paper.

Via Tampabay dot com.

Strong in them is the capacity for stupid.

A few weeks ago, I stumbled across the Facebook group “Chicken Pox Parties — New York Metro Area.” It has 143 members, all of whom, I’m guessing, are parents who have chosen not to vaccinate their kids against chickenpox and instead hope to build their kids’ immunity the old-fashioned way, by directly exposing them to the germs of a pox-infected child. They are not alone: Facebook has 14 other chickenpox party groups organized by geographical region, and if you can’t get to one in person, you can always ask to be sent a lollipop with an infected child’s spit on it.

More from the You-Can’t-Make-This-Stuff-Up Dept.

Tom Long tries to figure it out.

According to the completely twisted standards of the Motion Picture Association of America’s rating system, you can murder 20 people in a movie and still get a PG-13 rating (which means anyone 13 and older can see the film) yet if you utter four harsh expletives, a movie draws an R rating (you have to be 17 or older to see the film, or be accompanied by an adult).

Sure that makes sense. It’s a bit like saying it’s better to punch someone than to curse at them. Neither is particularly admirable, but words won’t break a nose.

Movie ratings are even odder about the sexy bits (I nearly said “screwier,” but decided that that would be impolitic).

Since folks seem to fear that their little darlings will slavishly imitate whatever they see on the silvery screen, just the way that they did when they were young ‘uns, the message seems to be that it’s more acceptable to off people than to love them.

When someone speaks to you about the “Lost Cause,” ask him or her, “What exactly was the cause that was lost?”

Citation on request.

Via BartCop.

If there’s a war on Christmas, it looks to me like Christmas has won.

Reg Henry:

Yes, I know it has become part of some people’s cherished Christmas tradition to assume a Taliban-like intolerance to those who dare to use the word holidays in the hope of being inclusive to others who are not Christian.

But it seems to me the anger so inspired is hardly conducive to recruiting more Christians. Who would want to join a religion that goes out of its way to be obnoxious to outsiders, in stark defiance of its own beliefs? Goodwill among men? Bah, humbug.

Do read the rest, if only for the delightful bit in which he discusses Sarah Palin’s latest contribution to reducing the overall intelligence of the polity.

Punishment that fits the needs of the prison-industrial complex and keeps them folk in line–forget it.