This morning, while looking for a link to my book about South Africa (https://amazon.com/dp/B08SCK2S16) to send to a friend, I noticed an old tweet from a person who describes herself as a writer for the New York Times and the Washington Post. In it, she (correctly) identified a typo on my book cover (oops!), but then launched a bizarre personal attack on me and my wife. (Ironically, her attack also included a typo.)
She wrote: "I remember you from Harvard [I have no idea who she is -- Harvard College? Harvard Law?]. I know you struggled to be taken seriously by your community when you were young [I have no idea what that means]—and when, in your 20s l, you realized you’d never measure up [LOL], you started dating a teenager ten years your junior (is that even legal in SA?) [my wife was 18 and I was 27 when we started dating] & became a right-wing provocateur [I'm the guy who wants to debate, not "provoke"], which you knew would get the attention you craved [sure, that's why I became a conservative, LOL]. (But it’s not like there was competition, since possessing basic literacy skills makes you stand out! [among whom? Conservatives?])"
This is the sort of low-grade personal abuse to which conservatives are subjected all the time. My wife and I are enjoying our 12th year of marriage and we are expecting our 3rd child next month. Yes, we started dating when she was 18. We dated for almost five years before getting married. So what?
This is what they do when they can't argue the issues. Rather mundane, which is why I didn't notice it at the time. But it's not the first time I've run into it -- including at Harvard. The moment you "come out" as a conservative, you're a target.
It's demoralizing at first, but ultimately liberating, because once you lose your fear of being attacked by these people, you can think and say what you like.
The story of Noah is familiar; the details, less so.
Noah is often seen as an ambivalent figure. He was righteous -- but only for his generation. What was his deficiency?
One answer suggests itself: knowing that the world was about to be flooded, he built an Ark for the animals and for his own family -- but did not try to save anyone else or to convince them to repent and change their ways (the prophet Jonah, later, would share that reluctance).
Abraham, later, would set himself apart by arguing with God -- with the Lord Himself! -- against the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, saying that they should be saved if there were enough righteous people to be found (there were not).
Still, Noah was good enough -- and sometimes, that really is sufficient to save the world. We don't need heroes every time -- just ordinary decency.
Hi all -- as I noted last month, I'm going to be closing down my Locals page, at least for tips and subscriptions -- I may keep the page up and the posts as well, but I'm no longer going to be accepting any kind of payment.
Look for cancelation in the very near future. Thank you for your support!
An interesting weekend -- one of the last of Daylight Savings Time -- in which there is much to celebrate, much to contemplate, and a bit to worry about.
The Gaza peace deal is shaky, but holding, after the living hostages returned; the shutdown is still going on, with no end in sight; the China trade war is heating up; and the confrontation with Venezuela continues to escalate.
The "No Kings" protest was a dud, despite the media's attempt to inflate it. What I find fascinating is that the Democrats have basically stolen the rhetoric and the imagery of the Tea Party protests, circa 2009. They claim they are defending the Constitution -- just like the Tea Party did.
On the one hand, this is good. How wonderful to have a political system in which both sides, bitterly opposed though they are, articulate differences through the Constitution -- and not, as in so many other countries, outside it.
On the other, this is sheer hypocrisy for the Democrats. Not only did they malign the Tea Party as ...
