List o' rants--going cheap!
1. Been sick for a week now. This is the fifth time I've been sick since early November--I don't think I ever remember being sick so often, even when our kids were small. This one intersected Passover nicely, meaning we missed the second Seder. Should have missed the first one, too, but I was too set on doing it--and didn't have enough brain to be sensible. In the meantime, I have very little voice and had to put together a non-speaking lesson plan for the week. Which actually had good results...
2. I'm reading Haidt's The Righteous Mind. He's a cultural psychologist, meaning he combines psychology and sociology/anthro/culture. I find his writing pretty annoying, but some of what he says pretty good. For example, he identifies six areas of morality that humans deal with: care, fairness, liberty, loyalty, authority and sanctity. Liberals tend to be pretty good about understanding, describing, defending the first two, but fairly oblivious to the last four. Which brings me to Santorum's (in)famous comment on how, even if it were his daughter who had been raped, he would not allow an abortion. This remark has been the source of much anger, but it is completely consistent with a view that holds that human life is sacred and that it begins with conception. I don't agree with where he places the beginning of (sacred) human life, but I have to respect the consistency of the view of what it means to hold human life sacred. It bothers me that criticism of this remark centers on how he doesn't respect women's rights--which simply misses the point. I certainly come down on the side of allowing abortions, but trivializing and twisting this kind of argument serves no one well.
3. The orange on the Seder plate is just dumb and thoughtless. It is supposed to represent (according to Susanna Heschel, who originated it) excluded groups (LGBT, specifically). It has changed to represent women in Judaism. Here's the thing: none of the items on a Seder represent people. They represent symbols of slavery and freedom. People are very deliberately excluded from the symbols--up to and including Moses. It is about moving from slavery to freedom through G0d's redemptive action. Adding symbols of groups of people twists that meaning. I'm pretty damn feminist about my Judaism, but I say screw the orange.
2. I'm reading Haidt's The Righteous Mind. He's a cultural psychologist, meaning he combines psychology and sociology/anthro/culture. I find his writing pretty annoying, but some of what he says pretty good. For example, he identifies six areas of morality that humans deal with: care, fairness, liberty, loyalty, authority and sanctity. Liberals tend to be pretty good about understanding, describing, defending the first two, but fairly oblivious to the last four. Which brings me to Santorum's (in)famous comment on how, even if it were his daughter who had been raped, he would not allow an abortion. This remark has been the source of much anger, but it is completely consistent with a view that holds that human life is sacred and that it begins with conception. I don't agree with where he places the beginning of (sacred) human life, but I have to respect the consistency of the view of what it means to hold human life sacred. It bothers me that criticism of this remark centers on how he doesn't respect women's rights--which simply misses the point. I certainly come down on the side of allowing abortions, but trivializing and twisting this kind of argument serves no one well.
3. The orange on the Seder plate is just dumb and thoughtless. It is supposed to represent (according to Susanna Heschel, who originated it) excluded groups (LGBT, specifically). It has changed to represent women in Judaism. Here's the thing: none of the items on a Seder represent people. They represent symbols of slavery and freedom. People are very deliberately excluded from the symbols--up to and including Moses. It is about moving from slavery to freedom through G0d's redemptive action. Adding symbols of groups of people twists that meaning. I'm pretty damn feminist about my Judaism, but I say screw the orange.