Current Wisdom
Jackasses, Assorted
C U R R E N T W I S D O M New York Times Miss Letty Cottin Pogrebm writing under the pen name Letty Cottin Pogrebin uses the Socratic method to devastating effect. Such a mind! Such a...
...It has been fascinating for me to observe what has happened in South Vietnam in the past year...
...July 26, 1976] Mr...
...Way in, I guess," he'd mumbled, and passed me a hunk of his hot dog...
...At the Mobilization that brought half a million Americans to the Capitol in the fall of 1969, I'd walked a stretch of road with Boston supporter Harvey Cox, chanting, "All we are asking is Give peace a chance," with the mesmeric monotony of a rosary...
...Terrorism-which has claimed fewer lives in a decade than one day of traditional, regular warfare--is the poor man's, the poor country's last desperate attempt at stopping the big powers and their much more efficient and brutal methods of imposing their will...
...If any further evidence were needed as to the essential vulgarity of Ford and his administration, it is there in that smarmy language...
...June 18, 1976] 38 The Alternative: An American Spectator December 1976...
...What has happened in Munich, at Lod Airport, in Cairo, and Bangkok over the past few years is the outcome of terrible frustraat ion and weakness in Third World nations and states, some o f which, like Palestine, are so weak that they do not even exist...
...But men have no such accessible enemies...
...October 16, 1976] Chicago Tn'bune Magazine As invincible to reason as she a p p a r e n t l y is to Valium, Madame Shirley MacLaine heaves up another screed on political economy and mysticism: Anyway, I think the sex talk is a diversionary tactic from the real issue, which is economics...
...March 18, 1976] The Nation ADodiabolosis, as practiced by the worldrenowned humanitarians a t The Nation, for over a century the voice of the ethically besotted: ...in letting Butz go for what he called a "gross indiscretion" (meaning: it's all right to think that way, but not to say it out loud), the President lavished such words of praise on him as "decent," "good," "courageous," and said he remained "a close personal friend...
...I don't know what they're talkin' about...
...The message from there is clear: Through the proper use of money and a positive attitude, we can stimulate self-development and give the people a vision...
...They did it with military authority and a liberated attitude...
...Except the people...
...All the candidates seem to be fearful, probably because the changes that have to be made in this country would be so harsh, so drastic, no one wants to tackle them...
...Franklin, Wenatchee, Washington 98801 [April5, 1976] Chicago Tribune Vietnam's wonderful symbiosis of "military a u t h o r i t y " and " a liberated attit u d e , " as elucidated by the Rev...
...Commission on Civil Rights, manfully s t e p s to the microphone and launches this stunning revelation: ...where there is initial hostility it disappears very quickly because of the fact that t h e community, the school administrators, the teachers, and the students begin to realize that first of all, they're having the opportunity of participating in the implementation of the Constitution of the United States and in the second place they begin to realize that the're are very significant benefits that flow from this particular process...
...The very notion of capitalism makes exploitation necessary...
...We are our enemy: other men and parts of ourselves...
...After ten years of consciousness-raising, hearings and legal battles, why are some people still debating whether or not mlust~ce extsts...
...Bjom Kumm, apuy named r e p o r t e r for the world renowned Swedish gazette Aflonbladet, cheerfully offers a specimen of Swedish casuistry, the kind that stimulates prodigies of thought in his imbecile _9 homeland: The Third World is not much of a threat, I am afraid, and I feel deeply distressed by this fact...
...The traditional oppression of women, as murderous as it is, can be frontally assaulted...
...September 15, 1976] Commonweal The s t a t e of economic education in the land of the J e s u i t s : Indeed, many of the Postal Service's problems would disappear in the morning, if just one or two of the $100 billions being pumped into the military this year were diverted to help solve its problems...
...April 18, 1976] New York Times Magazine The pious and profound Francine du Plessix Gray r e n d e r s a remarkable account of Christian endeavor in the late 1960s and chronicles the theological deliberations t h a t obtained: As a member of a small New England chapter of Clergy and Laity Concerned About Vietnam, I had worked closely with activist churchmen in the 60's, written manifestoes, marched, fasted, sat in with them...
...September 1976] Mother Jones A confession of the utmost moment, from a palpable, olfactible, audible, and unreadable jackass, Robert Lipsyte: We need an End to Masculinity--a revocation of that illegitimate birth certificate that imprisons the biological male in a web of burdens and responsibilities that limits his options as a human being almost as severely as his sisters have been limited by sexual discrimination...
...The real thing is that the system we're living under is unfair, not just to women but to everybody...
...Randell Thomas, 202 So...
...Wake up America: As Chinese, Koreans, Indians and, of course, Mexicans victimize this republic yearly by their arrival, Time blithely suggests that these people are valued additions to our gene pool...
...I'd asked during a pause in the singing, searching for some title...
...September~October 1976] Harper's Weekly The public announcement of " a single, 35year-old male in perfect h e a l t h , " published in Harper's Weekly, a self-proclaimed " J o u r n a l of Civilization": I am a single, 35-year-old male in perfect health...
...Therefore, I wish to channel these energies elsewhere...
...And the women's movement--which talks about things like equal pay--has not joined that issue...
...I measure myself only against other men...
...It's happening...
...However, my so-called natural, intrinsic, sexual drives, urges, and appetites have long proven themselves to be useless burdens which shall never realize their supposedly hedonistic manifestations...
...Arthur S. Flemming, exalt~ of the U.S...
...J e s s e Jackson, in a discourse full of hope: I believe we should look to the Third World for an answer...
...Ida Mac Howland sounds the tocsin a g a i n s t grayness and decline in Time's "Forum...
...What's the absolute opposite of far out, Harvey...
...The size of my bank account, the size of my penis, the imagined size of my obituary when it finally shouldn't matter anymore...
...Instead they have concentrated on rebuilding, putting people to work, inculcating new values and attitudes...
...For many women righteously storming the castle, the battle will provide a fulfillment ahnost as rich as equality...
...This is an infamy...
...Such a bodv!: With so much real suffering in full view, why has news-media attention been lavished on the inevitable pockets of dissension in the women's movement itseff...
...You and your irresponsible cohorts want to bastardize it into a miscegenationist grayness that will lead it to an inescapable decline...
...The new Saigon leaders have spent little time talking about the Americans who carpetbombed and defoliated their country...
...But first, I would appreciate hearing from any individuals and organizations who may be able to recommend to me any medical, naturopathic, or mental procedure, be it surgery, chemotherapy, medications, will power, meditation, diet, etc., which shall result in a complete elimination and permanent suppression of my sexual urges...
...une 27, 1976] Washington Star After years of illusory tumult over busing Mr...
...During hara umes (war, reconstruction, depression, unemployment) why is it always women who are asked to step aside in favor of men, no matter what the real need of the individual may be ? Nobody had to teach blacks how to recognize racism, yet millions of women are still unable to identify sexism...
...This nation was established in 1776 as a white republic...
...That's why I'm not involved in this election...
...Attacking the idea of Zionism through ON resolutions or even through occasional hijackrags and airport massacres is not the result of some Machiavellian, world-wide, totalitarian conspiracy...
...June 6, 1976] Time Mrs...
Vol. 10 • December 1976 • No. 3
