May 22, 2008
Unintended consequences?
Oscar Pistorius, a double amputee whose protheses have been considered an unfair advantage by the Olympic Committee, has finally gained permission to compete.
"I am ecstatic," Pistorius told reporters in Milan, Italy. "When I found out, I cried. It is a battle that has been going on for far too long. It's a great day for sport. I think this day is going to go down in history for the equality of disabled people."
My question is: are there athletes out there who are so competitive that they will voluntarily undergo amputations in order to gain a competitive advantage?
Sounds farfetched? I wouldn't be so sure, if I were you . . .
January 31, 2008
What's wrong with the world?
The Anchoress asks What's Wrong With the World?
Since "not enough prayer" was already taken, I'd like to float my second choice:
Not enough fiber . . .
August 29, 2007
August 28, 2007
August 27, 2007
February 23, 2007
On Britney, Nazanin, and sin -- in light of Lent
The Anchoress recounts a conversation with her son about current events and America's endless fascination with objectifying others to make ourselves feel better, and expands upon it in a wonderful essay. She brings up the media's focus on Britney's breakdown, the courage of an Iranian ex-pat who fights for the life of a young Iranian woman -- and why the media immersed itself (and us) in reporting the story of humiliation and shame while failing to report the story of morality and courage.
At the end of January, Nazanin Fatehi was released from an Iranian prison. She had been there for almost two years for the “crime” of self-defense against would-be rapists. Nazanin, then 17, fatally stabbed one of the attackers.[…]
Her guardian angel was a former Miss Canada (2003), Nazanin Afshin-Jam. Afshin-Jam is a native of Iran — her family fled in 1981, her father having been victim of the Revolutionary Guard’s tyranny. In Fatehi, Afshin-Jam very easily saw what could have been her fate and resolved to help her.
Afshin-Jam, an aspiring pop singer whose first record’s release has been delayed as she has worked on saving the life of this young Iranian Kurd, shows what a little star-power and a lot of determination can do. Read the whole thing.
Afshin-Jam uses her influence to bring about the release of a woman imprisoned for the crime of defending herself against rape, and she is no one’s hero. The feminist left does not lionize her and shout her name and call her “good for women.” The press doesn’t cover her. But Britney…she’s ubiquitous, she’s and her sad, desperate bald head are all over the place…not for doing anything heroic, mind you, but for entertaining us with her misery, for allowing herself to be consumed, if that is what it takes to get our attention.
Finally, Anchoress pulls it all together and tells it like it is: our sin is the root cause. Our overwhelming tendency to put our Self first -- to the point of viewing others as objects to be ridiculed and scorned and otherwise treated as *objects* in order to make us feel good about our Self. She defines sin with a quote from, of all places, a Terry Prachett book:
“There’s no grays, only white that’s got grubby. I’m surprised you don’t know that. And sin, young man, is when you treat people as things. Including yourself. That’s what sin is.
She does a great job of tying it all together, and she's got the spiritual insight to lay it out in a clear moral context. Regardless of your religious persuasion (and everyone has a religion, whether we care to admit it, or not), you will find that she has nailed it in many ways.
Go read the whole thing. I highly recommend it.
