Month: February 2006

Zecher Tzadik Livracha

The memory of the righteous is a blessing.

RIP Betty Friedan.

In the racial, political and sexual conflicts of the 1960s and ’70s, Friedan’s was one of the most commanding voices and recognizable presences in the women’s movement.

As a founder and first president of the National Organization for Women in 1966, she staked out positions that seemed extreme at the time on such issues as abortion, sex-neutral help-wanted ads, equal pay, promotion opportunities and maternity leave.

My copy of The Feminine Mystique is about 20 years old now. Its pages are getting discolored and the spine is bent and cracked. And what bothers me most is, when you pick it up and read it some 40+ years after it was written, how little some things have changed since then.

We’ve made tremendous strides in women’s rights since 1963, but there is still a long, long way to go. I’m very grateful to Friedan for the work she did in laying out the path.

UPDATE 2/5: Curious as to what I mean when I talk about how little has changed? Go read chapter 9 of The Feminine Mystique, ‘The Sexual Sell’.

On Courage

The Heretik says today:

THE COURAGE TO BEGIN is one thing, the courage to continue perhaps greater.

Very true. Even the simplest acts, like starting to write, can be courageous. And we need more courage in this world.

Sometime I think fear is just as dangerous an emotion as hate.

Joan Sutherland Made Me Do It

And while we’re on the subject of “stupid things people do because of religion”, Shakes had a good one yesterday about a small-town teacher who tried to introduce opera to her students by showing a video about the opera “Faust,” and ran afoul of the local parents. It’s hard to excerpt, but here’s a bit of it. Go read the rest:

How pathetic is this? A children

Forget Norway

This is really getting out of hand. Cooler heads need to start prevailing, and fast.

Several thousand Syrian demonstrators set the Danish and the Norwegian embassies on fire on Saturday to protest at the publishing of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad by European newspapers.

The title of this thread comes from a Flash animated cartoon, by the way. Hopefully nobody will be offended by it.

Gimi and Bear

I caught this shot of the boys as I was heading out the door to class this afternoon. There’s nothing particularly unique or special about this moment; just two sweet kitties enjoying each other’s company.