Current Wisdom
Jackasses, Assorted
CURRENT WISDOM The Great Books Series Inconceivable reflections of an adult American female—presumably free on her own recognizance—and these reflections have actually been published in a book, and...
...I stroked the fur, delighted in the large paws and the dark spots in the ocher-colored belly of the pelt...
...CURRENT WISDOM The Great Books Series Inconceivable reflections of an adult American female—presumably free on her own recognizance—and these reflections have actually been published in a book, and other adult Americans buy the book: One day, when I went to a small Indian store in Santa Fe, I spotted the most beautiful bobcat pelt I had ever seen...
...When they recited the 10 plagues, they were not the plagues inflicted on the Egyptians, but those endured by women through the ages...
...I think that it's another example of the Left in this country, the people who purport the right to do what they want with their own bodies, now trying to deny me the right to do what I want to do with my voice and vocabulary...
...When they opened the door, it was to welcome not Elijah, but Miriam, the prophet and sister of Moses...
...With the security question receding, the cultural factor may be more salient than anyone in the philistine Bush administration grasps...
...Toxic chemicals dumped into the ocean poison fish, which are caught and eaten by humans...
...At this moment I experienced a feeling of recognition and sensed the same coming from the bobcat's eyes...
...the damage is irreversible...
...I wanted to buy it...
...How well can America stand for the new when it insists, through repressive gestures, on sustaining the old...
...So at the stage when the boys were off playing with each other and going, `Yuk, girls,' I was off with the girls going, `Yuk, boys.' Years later, when my wife left me . ." [April 6, 1990] New York Progress: Attunement to nature and one's own inner wisdom, the idea that "every woman is an extension of the Earth Mother," as [Susun] Weed [who runs the Wise Woman Center in Woodstock, New York] proclaims, is an attractive ideal to harried, fragmented urbanites, especially at a time when the death of nature is being prophesied...
...Censorship, she said...
...You can't flush the indoor toilet often because it will overflow and there's just one portable toilet outside, so women have to squat on the ground," she says...
...Living conditions at the center are said to be less than idyllic...
...A what...
...The occasion was the annual seder conducted by a group of feminist . . . [April 9, 1990] Denver Post Another "racial incident," this time committed by clowns of the Negroid and Caucasian variety: A rally by peace and social activists sparked uncomfortable moments yesterday after about half a dozen homeless people literally stumbled onto the scene and told the small crowd to go home...
...Anthony Lewis of the Goo Goo Institute gives credit where credit is due: There are Americans on the extreme right who will not be content unless Moscow is ruled by a Romanov restoration or turned into a salt plain...
...Limbaugh, widely known for his outspoken, often outrageous comments, today called their efforts "an example of the new fascism...
...June 4, 1990] New Republic Greetings from exotic Europe from Sidney Blumenthal, connoisseur of urine in a jar, bullwhips in an anus, and all the other marvels of America's modern Caravaggios: Outside, one can spot a few grizzled old men, who probably remember everything, slowly walking past fashionable boutiques...
...from The Healing of Emotion: Awakening the Fearless Self, by Chris Griscom, Fireside/Simon and Schuster, $8.95 paper] Times-Union (Rochester, New York) A loyal member of The American Spectator audience suffers his very own Kristallnacht via the goose-steppers of the National Organization of Women: NOW's local chapter claims ultraconservative Rush Limbaugh's radio talk show is "spewing out virulent sexist language and sexist comments," and they've called upon WHAM (AM-1180) to cancel the show...
...Well," he laughs, "I like women, I like them in general better than I like men in general, and I always have...
...It "is really just a shack on a former stone quarry," says one participant, "but there's a beautiful stream and waterfall—you should have seen us, about twenty women all nude at the waterfall...
...We stopped, went back, and found a large, beautifully marked bobcat in the last throes of death...
...With the demise of the cold war, American conservatism may turn out to be mainly a form of cultural isolationism...
...But no...
...How do you manage to have so little garbage...
...For dinner, it's great—Susun just goes out and picks all sorts of greens and flowers for a big salad...
...May 2, 1990] New York Times Dr...
...cultural conservatism...
...He expanded on that confession earlier this week during a visit to Toronto to promote his latest comedy-drama about relationships, New Year's Day, which opens here today: "I have the bedroom of a teen-age girl, frills along the side of the bed and stuffed animals on it...
...For example, garbage thrown into the ocean can kill dolphins or other marine life...
...Garbage thrown on the ground can kill squirrels or chipmunks who eat it and can't digest it and die...
...Some of the events at Weed's Woodstock center are earthy, indeed...
...Depending on personal beliefs, God or nature made one big mistake, and that mistake is humans...
...they were talking about money, power, the structure of things outside themselves...
...At last year's "Blood of the Ancients" retreat, held over Labor Day weekend, "we re-created the sacred moon lodge, or menstrual hut," recalls Weed, "and reawakened the old blood mysteries of woman's creativity—pregnancy, birth, lactation, menstruation, and menopause...
...I had had a great desire to have a bobcat pelt but had not wanted to be responsible in a direct or indirect way for the death of any animal...
...Consequently I left the store without buying the pelt...
...The neighbors, however, did...
...There is no fascism and no communism...
...What do they now think about the Spanish Civil War...
...One of Spain's best and brightest, a woman who had worked in a high-level job in the Ministry of Defense and who now develops policy for the whole Cabinet, was asked for her impression of contemporary America...
...But when they asked the questions usually posed by the four sons, they asked them as daughters...
...Go sit on your portable lounges and watch your big-screen televisions," Charles Taylor, a bottle of wine stuck in his belt .. . [May 9, 1990] Toronto Globe and Mail An American Shakespeare makes another misagelastic point: Independent filmmaker Henry Jaglomthe most successful independent filmmaker in the United States, according to Newsday—recently confessed to the New York Times, "I'm still trying to become one of the girls...
...Three days later I was riding with another person, in a large Dodge van, when I saw something like a large animal crossing the highway...
...When I was growing up, I would listen to the conversations of my father and his male friends...
...The women were talking about who loved whom, about feelings, about what things mean...
...I don't express the proper sensitivity they would like to hear on the radio...
...Many caring people are trying to save this planet, but I believe it's too late...
...We eat our garbage," she would reply succinctly...
...Think how nice this planet would be with no humans...
...The rest of Spain thinks about Pedro AhnodOvar's latest film, and why the culturally conservative Americans have such a thing as an X rating for it...
...Get out of our park," several homeless blacks shouted to the gathering of whites during the outdoor gathering in Sonny Larson Park, 24th and Welton streets...
...There are lots of goats, so you're walking in human and goat s--- all the time...
...I am . . . a male lesbian...
...We reclaimed the blood of peace, thereby bringing an end to war...
...I think many heterosexual men, and some gay men, don't really like women...
...They celebrated the deliverance of the Jews in Egypt from slavery more than 3,300 years ago, they prayed over the four cups of wine and the matzoh, they ate the ritual foods of bitter herbs and haroseth that symbolize suffering...
...After a few days, they stop wearing underpants...
...Throughout the leadership classes of Europe, America's reputation has been badly tarnished by the crusades of right-wing primitives...
...Charles LeCompte Santa Barbara [April 22, 1990] 50 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR JULY 1990...
...On the other hand, it was important to me not to help create a market that would perpetuate the killing of these wonderful animals, as there are not many bobcats left in the mesas of New Mexico...
...Humans came along with their ignorance and greed and have just about destroyed this planet...
...May 29, 1990] San Jose Mercury-News The advance of civilization as reported by Miss Laura Baione Hayden in the Hartford Courant and reprinted in the San Jose Mercury-News, God knows why: When I was a child I never counted trash cans...
...my mother was asked more than once...
...April 17, 1990] New York Times Religious news on the emotional development of twenty-seven problem children, chewing their nails in downtown Manhattan: Twenty-seven women gathered in a downtown loft this weekend for a seder...
...The plumbing is problematical...
...June 11, 1990] Santa Barbara News-Press A communique in the correspondence section of a great daily from a fellow who would not make a very good neighbor unless, of course, you had a bushy tail: The reason this planet is in such bad shape environmentally is most people are ignorant as to what's going on, or even worse, they don't care...
...In Europe cultural conservatism is part of the discredited past...
...in some places, including Central Europe, this is a very recent, very miserable past...
...The air would be super-clean, the oceans super-clean...
...I noticed it hide itself in the shrubs on the meridian...
...Her view was not an aberration...
...Strangely enough, just as we were passing the animal's hideout, it purposefully jumped directly in front of the car and was caught by the wheels...
...The new fascism is sensitivity," said Limbaugh in an interview from his New York City office...
...Now this bobcat had caused its own death by intentionally and in full consciousness throwing itself under the wheels of my car...
Vol. 23 • July 1990 • No. 7
