What I’m Discussing Today:
Kareem’s Daily Quote: Theologian Thomas Aquinas preaches about free choice and the rational mind.
Sarah Huckabee Sanders knocks Harris for not having biological children: Sanders makes a ridiculous statement that insults women, step-parents, and anyone who can think.
Homophobic speech in youth sports doesn't just harm gay boys. It harms straight boys too.: The stereotypical coach who uses slurs to “motivate” athletes must be forever removed from our schools. They are lousy coaches and even lousier human beings.
Kareem’s Video Break: This baby elephant does what every little kid loves doing.
Kareem’s Kvetching Korner: Rob Schneider uses his celebrity platform to ridicule the death of basketball great and humanitarian Dikembe Mutombo.
Kareem Gets Artsy: A Soldier's Journey by Sabin Howard is a stunning World War I memorial that gets it right.
What I’m Reading: Novels: Two mystery novels. One is an enjoyable Agatha Christie clone. The other is a wonder of charming characters and intense suspense.
Kris Kristofferson: “Loving Her Was Easier (Than Anything I'll Ever Do Again)”: He was a true Renaissance man: athlete, scholar, and artist.
Kareem’s Daily Quote
A man has free choice to the extent that he is rational.
Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274), Italian priest, philosopher, and theologian
Thomas Aquinas said this during the Dark Ages when ignorance and irrationality were the twin forces that guided people’s opinions and actions. As a result, they were easily manipulated by royalty and religion to act based on traditions forced upon them by those who benefited most from those traditions. As a result, the royals and the Church increased their wealth and power. The commoner? Not so much.
What has changed in 800 years? A lot, actually. Developed societies value education, science, and reason more than they ever did before. But those who practice rational thought in everyday life seem to be diminishing. This is understandable in underdeveloped countries where they have less education and literacy. But to see it happening in the United States is a danger to the country.
Rational thought doesn’t come as naturally as emotion, which is why we teach critical thinking in schools. We were taught to not form opinions before gathering all possible information, weighing the evidence, and then making a rational conclusion by avoiding logical fallacies. The attacks on our schools’ reading and curriculum (as in Florida and Oklahoma) by conservatives eager to choke off critical thinking because the more educated a person is, the more likely they are to vote Democratic. Those with a college degree vote Democratic 55% to 42%. This is a recent phenomenon because twenty years ago it was the opposite, with the more educated voting Republican.
So, what Aquinas means is that unless people have the ability to think rationally, they will be doomed to be enslaved to “going with your gut,” which is made up of social traditions, religion, parental pressure, peer pressure, a need to fit in, and more. They will never be on the road they choose because they’ve been shoved on the road picked out for them by others. The only way to endure the horror of their “choice” is to convince themselves it really was their choice. This is accomplished by hanging out with others enslaved just like them (most who like to proclaim themselves as rebels).
The problem is that everyone thinks they are more rational than the next person. They don’t base this conclusion on rational thought—evaluating their thought process—but rather only on the desire to see themselves as rational. The first rule of every con game is to make the mark think they are choosing freely.
Free choice sometimes means rejecting those people and institutions that insist on choosing for you. That can be very difficult. But the reward of being your own person—not just pretending—is worth it.
2024 Election Bites
Sarah Huckabee Sanders knocks Harris for not having biological children
SUMMARY: Speaking at a campaign event with former president Donald Trump on Tuesday, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R) took a dig at Vice President Kamala Harris for not having biological children.
Sanders, who was White House press secretary under Trump before she was elected governor of her home state in 2022, said at the event in Flint, Mich., that being a mother was her most important role.
“My kids keep me humble. Unfortunately, Kamala Harris doesn’t have anything keeping her humble,” Sanders said, while also mispronouncing Harris’s first name.
The comment drew a quick backlash from Harris supporters, who noted that the vice president has stepchildren with her husband, Doug Emhoff.
MY TAKE: I remember being shocked when Sanders was elected as governor of Arkansas because as Trump’s press secretary, she proved herself to be a clumsy and inarticulate enabler of his lies and destructive policies. She comes across as more of an annoying HOA president bugging residents about the height of their lawn than a governor. Turns out, that’s exactly what she is.
We can start with her proclamation that she’s humble, which her statement proves is inaccurate. It is the opposite of being humble to describe yourself as more humble than someone else because you have something they don’t.
Her statement is factually inaccurate because Harris has step-children, which means Sanders is insulting step-parents by declaring they aren’t “real” parents like her (more of that humility she’s bragging about).
She disparages people who don’t have children—or can’t have children—as being incapable of being humble. What if your child died in infancy? What if you are physically unable to have children? Sorry, you have no shot at being humble.
Bottom line: Sanders showed a complete lack of humility, compassion, and basic intelligence in her statement. The same shady characteristics she showed as press secretary.
FYI: After backlash for her irresponsible statement, Sanders tried to explain her way out with equally vague and contradictory claims. It is a peculiar trait of Trump, Vance, and many other Republicans that make outrageous statements and then have to go back and explain what they really meant. That means they are either extremely inarticulate at making their point in the first place, or they just say dumb stuff for the publicity—as Vance admitted when he said he continued to lie about Haitians in Ohio because it got media attention.
Homophobic speech in youth sports doesn't just harm gay boys. It harms straight boys too. (USA Today)
SUMMARY: A culture of masculinity marked by anti-LGBTQ and other harmful language pervades youth sports environments, according to a study led by Fordham University researchers – signaling a public health concern whose implications, experts say, are both wide-ranging and long-lasting.
While sports generally offer great benefits for youth, the study found those benefits are increasingly eroded the more that youth are exposed to such language ― even if they aren't the targets of it. Such environments hurt not only LGBTQ youth but all youth, the authors say ― with no group suffering more harm than straight white boys.
“It harms the wellbeing of everyone,” said Laura Wernick, one of the study’s lead authors and an associate professor of social service at Fordham's Graduate School of Social Service, located in Manhattan, New York.
Whether as joke or insult, homophobic, transphobic and misogynistic language is often wielded in boys’ sports environments, used as motivation or one-upmanship to enforce ― or "police," as the researchers write ― traditional standards of masculinity. Such locker room vernacular includes phrases like "man up" or "don't be such a sissy," with boys pressured to meet expectations so as not to be thought of as gay or feminine.
The study found that youths exposed to higher levels of such language were less likely to reap the benefits of youth sports environments, particularly self-esteem. The decrease in self-esteem was significantly greater among straight white cisgender boys than any other subgroup, Wernick said.
MY TAKE: Yes, the study concludes that straight White boys are the most harmed by the culture of hate speech that some coaches would merely call part of the tradition of male bonding. These coaches aren’t very smart and should be nowhere near impressionable children. Students have to see that misogyny, anti-semitism, or anti-LGBTQ+ comments are unacceptable, and using or tolerating them will be punished.
Using anti-LGBTQ+ and misogynistic slurs as insults to motivate kids to perform better may be part of the athletic tradition, but so is the dumb jock coach stereotype, which these coaches are making a reality.
FYI: “Gettysburg College student allegedly carved racial slur with box cutter onto another student's chest”
A college student at Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania used a box cutter to carve the N-word into the chest of a fellow member of the swim team. The victim’s family stated: “The reprehensible act was committed by a fellow student-athlete, someone he considered his friend, someone whom he trusted.” The victim was the only person of color at the gathering. The attacker has since left the college and the incident is under investigation.
We don’t have all the facts yet, but what we want to look at is that even if there was a disagreement between the two students, why is the default action to commit a violent hate crime? Part of the reason is that there is implicit support for this racism in society. Yes, most of us condemn the action but do little to crush the systemic racism that encourages people to behave this way. Republicans go so far as to deny that systemic racism exists, the way they deny climate change is happening. Both of those denials have tragic consequences for Americans.
Kareem’s Video Break
Has there ever been a little kid who didn’t chase after birds and delighted at them running away? Well, here’s a delightful variation of that.
Kareem’s Kvetching Korner
This is where I can indulge my pettiness about minor things that bug me but aren’t worth getting outraged about.
When basketball great Dikembe Mutombo died of brain cancer last week at the age of 58, I posted the following:
At 7’2”, Dikembe Mutombo and I were the same height, but to me he’ll always be a towering figure as both an athlete and a humanitarian. He and I traveled together a few times promoting the NBA worldwide and his kindness, good humor, and commitment to making a better world inspired everyone who knew him. He loved humanity and humanity loved him right back. There is no better legacy.
However, comedian Rob Schneider decided the best way to pay homage to the great man and his tragic death was to use him to make a political statement: “Rest in Peace…” he wrote on X, reposting a video of Mutombo encouraging people to get vaccinated. “I’m sure this is just (another) coincidence. But I took a pass on the Jab and I’m not gonna let anyone I know (and who will Listen) get it either!” (“Rob Schneider’s ‘monstrous’ post about Dikembe Mutombo’s death causes social media stir”).
It’s enough to say this: Dikembe used his celebrity to help people around the world live healthier and better lives. Schneider uses his to put people’s health and lives in jeopardy. He implies that the vaccine caused Dikembe’s brain cancer, a medical impossibility. This is the part where people like Schneider complain that they were canceled for speaking their opinions. But people who spread dangerous life-threatening opinions that have no basis in science make anyone who gives them a platform accomplices to their ignorance. It’s not so much he should be canceled as it is he should be ignored, the way you ignore the kid in class picking his nose for attention. What comes out of his brain is pretty much what comes out of his nose.
Kareem Gets Artsy
Another one of my occasional series discussing artworks that interest me.
A Soldier's Journey by Sabin Howard was unveiled at the new National World War I Memorial on September 13. It’s 58 feet long and weighs 25 tons. The artist explains, “It took 9 iterations over 12 months, with 12,000 pictures taken of re-enactors in my Bronx studio to create a story of transformation and change that would explain this War to the Memorial visitor.” During the process, he discovered that he was really depicting the hero’s journey that mythologist Joseph Campbell describes in his influential book The Hero with a Thousand Faces (which I highly recommend). In the book, Campbell shows how the hero’s journey follows a precise template, no matter what culture or time period. We are always retelling the same basic story of struggle and metamorphosis.
I’m not a fan of war monuments because I agree with the character of history teacher Tom Irwin in the magnificent play and movie The History Boys who takes his high school students to visit a war memorial and offers them a unique assessment:
Tom Irwin: The truth was, in 1914, Germany doesn't want war. Yeah, there's an arms race, but it's Britain who's leading it. So, why does no one admit this?
[approaching a war memorial]
Tom Irwin: That's why. The dead. The body count. We don't like to admit the war was even partly our fault cos so many of our people died. And all the mourning's veiled the truth. It's not "lest we forget", it's "lest we remember". That's what all this is about -the memorials, the Cenotaph, the two minutes' silence-. Because there is no better way of forgetting something than by commemorating it.
The idea is that by celebrating those who died, we also romanticize their deaths as unavoidable thereby turning them into martyrs. This influences the next generation to want to partake in the glory of war. All the while we’re distracted from asking ourselves whether the fighting and death really were inevitable, or did our leaders put us on an unnecessary path. This question in no way diminishes the very real sacrifices and bravery of the fallen, it just asks whether they had to fall in the first place. Could Hitler have been stopped long before he invaded other countries? Revelations about Vietnam showed the public had been lied to for years about our role in the war. Is a monument a way of washing clean our collusion in deaths that might have been prevented if we’d spoken up sooner?
Having said all that, I actually really like this memorial. Aside from the stunning artistry, I appreciate the realism of showing the suffering of the soldiers, the inclusion of women and their role in the war, the sense of the chaos of battle, and the maturation and learning from the experience. It is at once moving and frightening and sobering. It pays homage without romanticizing. I recommend you read the artist’s blog in which he details his process of creating the sculpture.
What I’m Reading: Novels
How to Solve Your Own Murder by Kristen Perrin
This is Perrin’s first adult novel (she’s written middle school novels), so I’ll refer to it as a first novel. The thing I like about first novels is that what they lack in technical skill, they usually make up for in enthusiasm and boldness. That’s true here. I like the premise: a rich old English woman is murdered, which she has been anticipating for decades, and leaves her fortune to whoever can solve her murder within one week. One of the sleuths is our heroine, a charming young woman who wants to write mystery novels.
It’s a very Agatha Christie-like story with a large cast of quirky suspects. It’s enjoyable to read, though not as complex or clever as I’d like. The protagonist is cheerful and likable but could be smarter and more capable in dire situations. It’s a fun confection.
We Solve Murders by Richard Osman
Read this book. Don’t hesitate, go get it now. I was worried because I love the author’s The Thursday Murder Club series so much that I thought this novel, which introduces an entirely new cast of characters, would be a disappointment. It is not. I was hooked right away by the humor, the suspense, and the delightful characters. Osman makes you like every character, no matter how despicable their behavior, by giving them a compelling voice. There is a love of humanity and its strange quirks that flow throughout the novel that make me hopeful. I smiled a lot while reading it. It’s like The Great British Bake Off, but instead of lovely home bakers, we have lovely spies, assassins, criminals, retired detectives, bodyguards, and more. I was torn while reading this book: I wanted to read it faster to find out what happens next, but I also wanted to slow down to make it last longer. I can’t wait for his next novel.
Kareem’s Jukebox Playlist
Kris Kristofferson: “Loving Her Was Easier (Than Anything I'll Ever Do Again)”
Singer, actor, and writer Kris Kristofferson died last week at the age of 88. Lately, I’ve been starting a lot of my Jukebox Playlist videos with so-and-so “died last week.” But I want to honor these wonderful people who enriched our lives with their art.
To many people, Kristofferson seemed like a mumbling good ole boy, but there was a lot more going on with him. He always wanted to be a writer and when he was still a teenager, wrote two essays that were published in the prestigious The Atlantic Monthly. He was also an accomplished athlete, appearing on the cover of Sports Illustrated because of his success in collegiate rugby, football, and track and field. He was also a scholar, graduating summa cum laude and attending Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar to study English literature. He took up songwriting in preparation for writing a novel. Having come from a military family, he joined the military and became a helicopter pilot. When he quit to write songs and perform, his family disowned him.
His own recordings of his songs didn’t sell that well at first, though others recording them did, including Johnny Cash and Roger Miller. Kristofferson dated Janis Joplin briefly and her recording of “Me and Bobby McGee” was a number-one hit for many weeks. He went on to become a successful actor as well as a performer.
Obviously, I had a lot of songs to choose from to celebrate his life, but I chose “Loving Her Was Easier (Than Anything I'll Ever Do Again)” for its purity and emotional impact. Kristofferson never believed he had a good voice, but I’ve always liked the ragged edges of his voice that made each story more believable.
You have once again completely blown me away, Kareem. I had no idea Kris was such a Renaissance man—and I am very glad you’re still here sharing your brilliance with us. The depth and breadth of your knowledge brings me hope. Peace and Joy to everyone this morning.
Grrr.....when are the awful statements about childless women, and now women without biological children, going to stop? It's demeaning and inappropriate to hear male politicians make misogynistic comments, but to hear a woman making such statements about another woman is totally disheartening and particularly hard to accept.
As women, we should boost each others confidence by celebrating each other and supporting our diversities. We should defend and protect each other - NOT use such tasteless put downs to infer unworthiness. I just can't stop shaking my head.
Am I any less of a woman because I am childless? Absolutely not.
Women unite, be brave and support each other.