Morning Report: September 13, 2005

Brown resigns as head of FEMA. CNN: 'Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Mike Brown resigned Monday after coming under fire over his qualifications and for what critics call a bungled response to Hurricane Katrina's destruction. President Bush chose David Paulison, the director of FEMA's preparedness division, as interim director, the White House announced.' (CNN)

Rice: Legacy of racism. CNN: 'Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the people who were stranded in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina are evidence that race and poverty can still come together "in a very ugly way" in parts of the "Old South." "The United States should want to do something about that," Rice said in an interview Monday with the editorial board of The New York Times. "There are still places that race and poverty are a huge problem in the United States, and we've got to deal with that." ' (CNN)

Batebi on Iranian regime. Free Iran posts an interview by The Scotsman with fugitive Iranian dissident Ahmed Batebi. The college student became an icon of the Iranian resistance when he was photographed holding a friend's bloodied T-shirt; he now lives on the run. Batebi is sharply critical of the European Union's accomodationist stance toward the IRI regime: '"Everyone knows how much the EU's wheelings and dealings with Iran have strengthened the lifeblood of the Mullahs," he says. "The majority of people see the EU as allied to the government of Iran and usually as contradicting in spirit what the US might do. They think that the EU is mainly looking after its short-term economic interests, rather than democracy." ' (The Scotsman via Free Iran)

A Finger Where It Belongs

Possibly the best death post ever. Baldilocks fights back at the forces of fear and destruction. Go read this post - whether baptism is part of your journey or not.

Random Katrina Blogging Gripe

Very white of you. I think I'm gonna puke if I see one more right-of-center blogger posting a bunch of pictures of Magnanimous White People Coming To The Aid Of Unfortunate Black People in order to prove the proposition "White People Aren't Prejudiced". (I'm not naming any names, you know who you are.) Geez, how condescending can you get? I've been the "token Jew" on a few occasions myself (smile for the camera!) and personally I really dislike being exploited this way.

If you want to show PEOPLE HELPING OTHER PEOPLE, or even AMERICANS HELPING OTHER AMERICANS, cool. Nothing wrong with that. But flashing a few photo-ops to sweep the race problem under the rug isn't cool.

Look, I said before that we've come a long way since the days of segregation and I meant it. I'm also going to tell you that I know America hasn't become the promised land of racial equality quite just yet. I was part of an all-white jury with an African American defendent just about three years ago. I'll post about that another time. But dammit, we - and by "we" I mean the pro-Bush people - need to get a clue and stop trivializing race issues.

This isn't about George W. Bush. Got that? This isn't about George Bush. Matter of fact, I've got my own criticisms of the Chief but I really don't think he'd stoop to this kind of posturing. This is about you and me.

The Gulf Coast and the Persian Gulf

From Greyhawk at The Mudville Gazette, here's an e-mail from the wife of a National Guardsman in Iraq:

My husband is in Iraq, with a battalion composed mostly of soldiers from the Mississippi Army National Guard. (By the way, 79 are being sent home on emergency leave because they know their homes were destroyed in Hurricane Katrina or because they have been unable to contact their families since the storm. The media has done a wretched job, truly wretched, of reporting on the devastation for THOUSANDS of square miles in Mississippi, from Jackson south to the Coast.) When he arrived in January, 2005, my husband met with and worked with the State Department representative in the province, who mentioned to a local female Iraqi veterinarian that our children were both veterinarians, so the doctor asked to meet him. A great friendship resulted.

Paul Bremer had “gifted” women’s groups and other non-governmental agencies with buildings to have centers from which to operate. However, he apparently did not have the authority to do that. When a more fundamental Islamic government was elected in January, the provincial council proceeded to make plans to evict the doctor from her Women’s Center. ...

However, back in April, a small church (about 200 members) in Sturgis, Mississippi – the Friendship Baptist Church – sent the battalion a gift of $4000 to buy goods from Iraqi vendors to help Iraqi people. They purchased a wheel chair for a crippled twelve-year-old girl; they purchased beds, linens, and food for crippled, blind twin four-year-old girls; and provided food, beds, and linens for a new girls’ orphanage that they had built. The battalion is moving to a new FOB but they still had about half the church’s donation remaining. He asked the pastor if he could use the money to help the doctor, who had personally borrowed the money somehow to pay six months’ rent in advance on another building for the Women’s Center. The church readily agreed, and my husband presented the doctor with $2000 for her Women’s Center. She recently sent a very kind e-mail thank you to Pastor Davis.

I am attaching that letter, along with a letter that Pastor Davis sent to an imam with the original gift. I know that all Iraqis are not pleased that the US is in their country, but I think many are happy that we are there and that we relieved them of Saddam’s rule. Of course, the anti-Bush MSM doesn’t want Americans to know that....

By the way, the poor people of North Mississippi have done many projects to help Iraqis. We sent 73 boxes (many very large boxes) of medical supplies that we gathered in a campaign back in the spring. We also conducted Operation Backpack and sent hundreds of backpacks to Iraqi children. Individuals, churches, clubs, and communities have generously donated books, medical supplies, toys, and clothes. Wonderful stories of generosity and appreciation abound but not a word appears in the MSM about any of it! A pox upon censors of the news!

*****
Dr. ___

My name is Junior Davis, and I am pastor of Friendship Baptist Church in Mississippi, USA. We hear everyday how hard the struggle is for Iraqi families, especially women and children, and greatly admire your courage and persistence to help those who are oppressed. I personally know {the commander} and most of his soldiers that are there to help you. They are all good men that have families eagerly waiting on them back home. We miss them a lot and pray for their safety every day.

We were so very sorry to hear that you are struggling to keep the women’s clinic open. I know the work you have done to help children and women in your country has made a huge difference. _______ has made us aware of the situation you are in and with your permission; we would like to be a part of your efforts. Please, accept this small gift from your friends at Friendship Baptist as a gesture that we care about you and that we support your efforts. Accept this gift in honor of all the soldiers that have been helping you get your country back.

What you are doing is a noble thing. Don’t give up. ...
Thank you for all you do to keep our soldiers safe. We consider you our friend and pray for your country every day. If you are ever in Mississippi, we would be honored to meet you and welcome you into our home.

*****
Dear Pastor Junior Davis
I am the director of women center. We do not know how we can thank you for your help, your help helps the center to continue, the center which many Americans and Iraqis people worked very hard to open it ,some of them sacrificed by their souls.

We knew that the Mississippi people are passing hard time we pray for them to pass this time safely , they are good people they did not help the center only but they tried to help all {the city} so we sure god will help them.

Please pray for us to pervade the peace in our country and the soldiers go back to their home safely.

Dr. __________
The director of women center.

I've edited slightly for brevity; please go read the whole thing (with photo) at the link.

Via Judith at Kesher Talk, PoliPundit has some predictions from National Guardsman "Oak Leaf""

Having just completed twelve days of active duty in support of “Joint Task Force Katrina”, six days on the ground in NOLA and six days in assisting with pre-positioning of Federal assets, I would like to offer the following predictions:

1. Mayor Ray Nagin (D) estimated that fatalities would be as high as 10,000. While it is conceivable that area wide fatalities could in theory approach 3,000, I strongly believe that fatalities in NOLA, directly attributed to Katrina will be less than one thousand, (1,000).

2. Pat O’Brien’s will be serving “Hurricanes” again before Thanksgiving of this year.

3. The Mardi Gras Carnival Parade will go on “as scheduled” for February 28, 2006.

4. Within thirty days, electricity will be restored to a majority of NOLA.

5. Within thirty days, 90% of the city will by dry enough to access by civilian SUV.

6. Dependent on the restoration of water/sewer service, of which I have no first hand knowledge to comment, large numbers of NOLA residents will be going home by Thanksgiving.

7. Ninety percent, or more, of the residents that were displaced in NOLA will eventually return to the city in search of the now greatly expanded employment prospects in construction. However, the small percentage that does not return will change Louisiana politics permanently. Louisiana will join the rest of the “South” as a solid Republican State.

8. The funds allocated by Congress will not be completely used.

While not of a predictive nature, I would like to offer a few more thoughts. The unofficial motto of the Infantry is “Lead, Follow or Get Out of the Way.” The elected local politicians in Louisiana are not “leaders” and should have stepped aside. You do not elect a “leader”, a “leader” is developed over time and experience.

In spite of herself, Gov. Blanco had significant military assets available to her, of which she had little knowledge to effectively utilize. The people of Louisiana would have been better served had the Governor ceded control to one of the many Platoon Sergeants in the Louisiana Army National Guard that she commands.

In six days in NOLA I have seen ignorance, paralysis and blatant/shameless corruption, ALL at the “local” level of government. Should the Congress pursue an “investigation” or appoint a Commission, I would pray that the members are not current/former Louisiana politicians or family members. The military term FUBAR is an apt description of the “emergency management plan execution” by the NOLA Mayor, the NOLA Police Department, the LA Governor and all of their emergency management appointees.

I look forward to getting home this weekend.

– Oak Leaf

From Iraq the Model, Iraqi soldiers donate to Katrina victims:

Iraqi soldiers donate to Katrina victims:
(Hat tip:ITM reader).

“On behalf of myself and all the People of Tadji Military Base; I would like to console the American People and Government for getting this horrible disaster. So we would like to donate 1.000.000 Iraqi Dinars to help the government and the People also I would like to console all the ASTs who helped us rebuilding our country and our Army. We appreciate the American's help and support. Thank you".


These were the words of Colonel Abbas Fadhil, commander of the Taji military base.
The donated money is little, less than 700 $ and it can do practically nothing but the spirit and and words mean quite a lot.

Michelle Malkin has a letter from a Marine infantryman:

An infantry marine talks back to the NYTimes' Frank Rich (published in yesterday's NYTimes letters section):

To the Editor:

I am an infantry marine with 12 years of service, and I am presently stationed in Falluja, Iraq. I am also a New Orleans native and my parents live in Mandeville, which is on the North Shore of Lake Pontchartrain. They have lost everything.

I take issue with "Falluja Floods the Superdome," by Frank Rich. Falluja is doing quite well. I know because my marines are out on the streets every day. We've been here for almost seven months, and the difference is night and day since we got here.

Secondly, I have 20 other marines in my battalion who are from Louisiana, and not one of us considers himself a "have-not." In fact, every marine in this battalion is proud of what we have accomplished, and we are proud to be marines. Military service was a choice, not a last resort for us.

(Staff Sgt.) Jeff Harilson
Falluja, Iraq, Sept. 5, 2005

Brown resigns ...

... as director of FEMA.
CNN:

Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Mike Brown resigned Monday after coming under fire over his qualifications and for what critics call a bungled response to Hurricane Katrina.

"Today I resigned as director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency," Brown said in a news release.

"As I told the president, it is important that I leave now to avoid further distraction from the ongoing mission of FEMA." ...

Iranian Solidarity Rally - New York, September 14

Freedom-loving Iranians and their allies will hold a rally at the United Nations on September 14, according to this item at Free Iran:

Wednesday September the 14th
In Front of the United Nations Offices
From 9 AM to 5 PM (local time)
At the Dag Hammarskjold Plaza (by the UN Building)
Located at 1st Ave and 47th East (Entry to the park and the "Iran UN Protest 2005" section must be made from 2nd Ave and 47th East.)
Contact information: 214-906-8181

A Plea for Rally Support & Demonstration Attendance from all Freedom-Loving people of the world against Terror and Torture Masters and Fanaticism who are coming to NEW YORK For 60th ANNIVERSARY Of UNITED NATIONS!

This is an invitation to join a call by all Iranian-American opposition groups, Former U.S. Hostages in Iran and freedom loving people of the world for New York and worldwide demonstrations against the Mafia Mullahs, Terrorists, Islamofascists, and Fanatics who intend to stop and kill the spread of FREEDOM, SECULARISM & DEMOCRACY around the World!

...If you are against GENOCIDE,
If you are against TERRORISM,
If you are against FANATICS,
If you are against the MAFIA MULLAHS,
If you are against ISLAMOFASCISTS,
If you are against ALL HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS,
If you are against UNITED NATIONS poor performance on human rights and Free Societies.
If you are against UNITED NATIONS accepting many of 191 governments as official members of UN that are not respecting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which they have signed as member of UN.

If you are against current UN leadership which is hosting a Former hostage taker and terrorists

If your family has been victimized by any act of terrorism (Sept 11th Terror Attacks, Terrorism in Europe, Middle East, Asia and throughout the world), please bring a picture of your loved one/s to the demonstration.

If your family has been victimized by the Islamist Mafia Regime in Iran or is a family member of one of the over 120,000 freedom-loving political prisoners, torture victims, or Iranians who have been executed in the past 26 years, please bring a picture of your loved one/s to the demonstration.

If you oppose all terrorism and acts of violence against those who wish to live in freedom, then your support and unity with the Iranian people should not be based on whether you are a democrat, republican, libertarian, conservative, independent, green, left, right, or center, but should be based only on your belief that the destiny of the human race is freedom and the unending pursuit of our wishes and our dreams.

Read the full post at the link.

Corrupt of the Earth

Miriam, the lesbian, had been branded "corrupt of the earth" by religious police in her homeland. I ran video footage smuggled from Iran to prove what would have happened to her if she'd stayed and been arrested. The tape showed two women, bundled alive in white sheets, being lowered into freshly dug pits. A mob of men and boys gathered around them and began to hurl fist-sized stones at their heads. Most hit the mark and bounced off to reveal crimson spurting from the material. Miriam explained that, by law, every rock-hurler was supposed to tuck a Koran under his arm to restrain the force fo the blow. That decree didn't always stick. Still fearing for her life, Miriam told her story in silhoutette. - The Trouble with Islam Today

"I told them not to talk about their dreams."

He told me a year ago: "I saw in a dream, we were playing a soccer game against the Americans. When our team showed up in the field, they were all pilots!" ...

We were at a camp of one of the brother's guards in Qandahar. This brother belonged to the majority of the group. He came close and told me that he saw, in a dream, a tall building in America, and in the same dream he saw Mukhtar teaching them how to play karate. At that point, I was worried that maybe the secret would be revealed if everyone starts seeing it in their dream. So I closed the subject. I told him if he sees another dream, not to tell anybody ...

- Osama bin Laden

When someone tells you not to talk about your dreams, do not listen.

Each of us bears inside a spark of the Divinity. We each carry a small piece of our Creator's vision for us. When we listen to this inner voice and find the courage to share it with others, and when we find the courage to listen to other people's visions without prejudice, we begin to weave the great web of humanity's collective dream. Those who would shut down this process are the ones who would kill our right to dream. They are the enemies of humanity.

On one occasion, only days before the Shah left Iran, Khomeini's minions made the shocking statement that Khomeini's image was on the moon. We all gathered on the roof. I was a child, uninfluenced by the hysteria of politics, and kept asking, Where is the image? Adults from all walks of life gazed at the moon's pockmarked face and everyone started saying, "Yes, there he is. He is on the moon, can you see him?" pointing at the same pimples on the moon's face that have been there for over four billion years. Some even shed tears of joy and bowed and prayed, declaring that God himself sent Khomeini and that is why his image appeared on the moon. - "Living in Hell" by Ghazal Omid

Here is what happens when people allow themselves to be brainwashed by political elites or by the mass media. In extreme cases they can be persuaded to commit atrocities against others, believing that they will gain Paradise as a reward. As Ghazal Omid says in the Introduction, "These brainwashed individuals have been promised Utopia, not recognizing that it was the face of Satan who appeared to them, not promises from the Angel Gabriel."

In the summer of 1963, an American pro-democracy leader named Martin Luther King addressed a quarter of a million freedom activists in the nation's capital. A hundred years earlier, America's bloodiest war had broken the back of the slave regime, but equality under the law still eluded African Americans. He called on activists to demand payment on an old promissory note, and to reject "the tranquilizing drug of gradualism." He warned against bitterness, hatred, and despair. In his famous peroration, he declared: "I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream." Creatively interweaving the language of the Biblical prophets with his own message, he spelled out a vision of a world where the dream of freedom and justice would be fulfilled. No one can say that Dr. King's dream has yet been fully realized in America. But to deny the great strides that have been made since then would be to deny the achievements of brave activists like Dr. King and his followers.

You, too, have a dream. It is uniquely yours, buried within the depths of your soul. And while your dream is unique, you have the chance to share it with other people and to learn of their dreams. This is the kind of dreaming that leads to a world where people speak and listen to one another with respect and without fear.

When I was in my mid-teens, my mother gave me some books on Jewish spirituality and mysticism - called the Kabbalah in Hebrew - which would become an important step in my own spiritual journey. Here, Rabbi Lawrence Kushner draws a parallel between understanding sacred Scripture and understanding a dream:

1. Begin with that most difficult and subtle question of all ... what is the underlying emotional dynamic of the story?
2. Recall our own recent, immediate experiences. Since dreams are often initiated by something that happened only recently, we must ask about yesterday's residue.
3. Isolate and identify the primary elements of the dream text before us. What are the dream's components?
4. Pay especially close attention to the seemingly trivial details and the little discrepancies.
5. We must not allow embarrassment to distract attention from elements that make us uncomfortable.
6. If this Scripture dream is actually ours, then our associations are also relevant. Often, they will be of only personal validity, but at other times they will open new dimensions of understanding as compelling as those of commentators of old.
7. Assume full responsibility for the dream. For "through the dream the man makes the matter his own; it is in his will, and he is responsible for it." [Johannes Pedersen, Israel.] ... We are responsible for the evil impulses of our dreams.
8. The dream can condense opposites into one truth.
9. The many selves, who together comprise the one self, are separate. ... We must therefore be all the parts of our dream.
10. Through the dream/Scripture we slip back to our origins. Through that infinity of meanings we return to the undifferentiated ness of all existence. ... This is the great dream of which each individual dream is a personal manifestation.
- excerpted from "The River of Light" by Lawrence Kushner

What I like about this approach is that it calls on us to take our visions seriously - and responsibly. It asks us to be true to our individual visions, but also to seek common ground with the visions of others. It recognizes that absolute truth belongs to the Creator alone, but that the search for truth belongs to all of us together. Muslim activist Irshad Manji draws the following lessons from her Islamic studies:

After so much exploring, my personal interpretation of the Koran leads me to three recurring messages. First, only God knows fully the truth of anything. Second, God alone can punish unbelievers, which makes sense given that only God knows what true unbelief is. (And considering the Koran's mountain range of moods, it really would take the Almighty to know how it all hangs together.) Human beings must warn against corrupt practices, but that's all we can do to encourage piety. Third, our resulting humility sets us free to ponder God's will - without any obligation to toe a dictated line. "Let there be no compulsion in religion," states a voice in Chapter 2 of the Koran. "Unto you your religion, unto me my religion," echoes another voice in Chapter 109. In between, there's this: "If God had pleased, He would have made you all one people. But He has done otherwise..." Ain't that the truth.
- "The Trouble with Islam Today" by Irshad Manji

The war that was declared on America on September 11, 2001, was a war against dreams. It was a war of brainwashing against inquiry, tyranny against democracy, enslavement against freedom. We won't win this war by force of arms alone. Our most important weapons are the weapons of the spirit - the "soul force" that Dr. King spoke of. Physical tools like the internet are of great value, especially when we use them to reclaim control of our minds and engage in open discussion with one another - here we are wresting our right to dream back away from the propaganda masters who would kill it. But most importatnt, we must reach out to one another in real life. We will win the war against fascism by speaking our dreams to one another face-to-face, and by finding common ground with the dreams of our neighbors. We must find the courage and the humility to go onward, remembering that we ourselves are but the dream of God.

Gender and Friendships

Oh, the horror. What is a parent to do when a boy's friends are girls?

Q: Our high school son’s friends seem to be overwhelmingly female.

We think he's still too young to be spending so much time with the young ladies. In his young teen years we would prefer him to be playing ball with guys his age.

Is there anything unusual about this?

Notice the easy segue from what "we would prefer" to the question of what is "unusual".

MSNBC Today's parenting guru, Dr. Ruth Peters, hedges.

A: The response depends upon how your child fits in with other kids his age, especially at school.

Many teenage boys that I’ve worked with maintain “special friendships” with girls, mainly because they feel that females tend to be better listeners than guys. Your son may be more comfortable talking on the phone with girls as well as engaging in social activities, rather than playing ball or hanging out with guys his age.

There's nothing wrong with this, especially if the young ladies are appropriate, good and loyal friends. The question, though, is one of balance.

Ah, so it's "balance" that matters. Should we set a goal, then? If "balance" is what we're after, perhaps a 50/50 gender ratio would be optimal. So, Dr. Ruth Peters, are you now ready to tell every mother in America that fifty percent of her son's buddies should be girls? Didn't think so. It's only when the boy's friends are the "wrong" gender that balance is an issue, isn't it?

If your child focuses his friendships totally upon females because he feels that he cannot make and keep friendships with guys, there may be a problem.

So now we're going to start looking for all the reasons having female friends might be a problem.

Perhaps he is not athletic and feels self-conscious hanging around with boys. Or, an embarrassing event earlier in life may have shaken his self-confidence and he fears that he will be rejected if he tries to socialize with them.

Did the writer mention any of these things? I missed it. But that doesn't stop Ruth Peters from trying to pathologize the boy's friendships with girls, just as the reactionary "experts" of a generation ago came up with all kinds of theories about the "cause" of homosexuality (domineering mother, absent father, blah blah blah). Some of them are still at it.

In my experience, I find that most teens realize that a mix of both male and female friends works best and they tend to move within mixed groups of boys and girls.

Here's the one statement in Peters' column that I can unequivocally agree with. Everyone should, I think, strive to maintain an inclusive circle of friends. It's especially important to learn to deal socially with people of both genders, and this is an essential skill in a gender-integrated society such as ours. Anyone growing up in the Western world will likely have both female and male co-workers, male and female social acquaintances, female and male mentors, and so on. More broadly, it's good to get to know people from a wide range of gender, social, geographical, ethnic, political, religious, and economic backgrounds. Human beings are diverse, and when we enrich our social circle we enrich ourselves. And young adulthood isn't a bad place to begin - I said begin - this process.

But that isn't really the issue for Ruth Peters and the concerned mom.

Try talking with your son in order to understand his motivation as to why his friends all seem to be girls. If he is lacking in self-confidence when dealing with guys, help him to understand the basis of this problem and to put it in proper perspective. If he was teased years ago for lack of athletic ability, that may not be as important now as a teenager. In addition, he may have developed a new interest or skill that would now enhance his importance in a group of guys but he hasn't yet realized that he can use this new skill to develop male friendships.

Pathologizing again. How about this novel concept: "Try talking to you son ... and then JUST LISTEN." That's right, just listen without projecting your own phobias on the kid.

Another type of situation in which I see boys maintaining most friendships with girls is, of course, that they are very attracted to the opposite sex. Although having a girlfriend as a teenager can be exciting and a ticket to popularity, your son needs to learn how to set limits upon this behavior. Not only am I suggesting setting sexual limits, but also acknowledging that having a girlfriend tends to be a distracting, time-consuming affair which can take precedence over completing chores and studying.

Balance, again, is key — he needs to learn that other things in life are of equal importance as having a bunch of girls to hang around with.

Let's read that last sentence again (and we'll try to ignore the atrocious grammar):

... he needs to learn that other things in life are of equal importance as having a bunch of girls to hang around with.

Here, Dr. Peters has finally answered the question: Yes, there IS a problem, because the boy's friendships are a sign that there is something "he needs to learn". Once again, she is zealous in finding all the things that might be "wrong" with this poor boy's life.

In addition, he may find that guys cease to be friends with him if he focuses most of his time on the ladies. When his relationships break up, your son’s guy friends may not be there to buoy his spirits or to help him recover from his lost love. It may be a good idea to bring these issues to his attention now so he can begin to regain some balance in his life.

... "Balance" that, in the estimable Dr. Peters' judgment, he clearly lacks. But wait! There's one more possibility.

A third reason why some teenage boys tend to surround themselves with girls as friends is that they are questioning their sexual identity. Be cautious about jumping to this conclusion, as your child may be comfortable with a heterosexual lifestyle. However, some teen boys find that they are much more comfortable with girls their age — they may be able to relate better conversationally, and they are not distracted or threatened by sexual feelings if their friends were boys. If this is the case, I hope that your son can begin to discuss his sexual identity conflicts with you, and I do hope that you are supportive of his feelings. He may be convinced that he is gay, or perhaps confused due to feelings of attraction that he’s had toward members of the same sex. If he desires, counseling may help him to clarify his feelings, to see that he is accepted by his family regardless of sexual orientation and to be able to keep this aspect of his personality in balance with responsibilities found at home and at school.

If there's an award among advice columnists for "breaking the bad news slowly", Dr. Peters ought to get it for this paragraph. Credit where due, she senses that her correspondent might just be, well, a teeensy bit uptight about the boy's sexual identity. So to avoid scaring the poor woman, she bends over backwards to avoid saying, "Y'know, hon, your son might be gay." But she does ask the mother, ever so gently, to be "supportive of his feelings." Good.

The fourth possibility, which Dr. Peters overlooks, is that the young person may be transgendered or differently gendered. He may identify with girls more than with boys; he may enjoy female friendships because he feels he has more in common with girls than with boys, or because their companionship, friendship, and respect are the things he values. In short, he may be physically male but psychologically female. That is, transgender or transsexual. But that's an eventuality that even the ever-so-broad-minded Ruth Peters is unwilling to confront.

Whether or not this is the case, he will not be helped by adults' contemptuous attitudes toward "having a bunch of girls to hang around with." Whether these two women recognize it or not, the boy's ability to form platonic friendships with girls is a wonderful thing. He will be less likely to engage in sexist or predatory behavior against women, because he will think of women as friends rather than sex objects. But if he's condemned for "hanging out with a bunch of girls", he will scarcely be learning respect for women.

Why is it still so easy for people in our culture - even educated, intelligent women like Dr. Peters - to devalue the role of females and female friendships? Are girls simply worth less than boys? Or is it a fear of transgressing socially assigned gender constraints? Sadly, sexist attitudes may be internalized by women, just as (for example) gays may internalize homophobia, or Jews anti-Semitism. And it's also true that much of the older generation is still carrying, subconsciously, centuries-long prejudices against people who do not conform to their socially assigned gender.

Social conservatives are not wrong when they recognize that, for most of the population, traditional gender roles are reasonably comfortable and meaningful. No one should expect women to stop being women or men to stop being men. In fact, the early feminist movement bears the blame for denying the existence of innate gender identity altogether, and thus muddying the debate for a whole generation. Nor do I dispute for a moment that there also exists such a thing as "misandry", or reverse sexism, among both men and women who have been overdosed on a certain kind of feminist dogma. The existence of one kind of prejudice does not negate or cancel the other. It is certainly true that "women and men are different"; it is also true that people are different, each one of us a unique individual.

Self-acceptance is the first step toward personal responsibility. When I can say, "I am not you, I am different from you", then I can acknowledge that you and I do not have to be identical to be worthy of one another's respect. I often hear today's "liberals" say things like, "I know you're Jewish/gay/black/evangelical/whatever, but it doesn't matter to me." This is the most illiberal thing we can possibly say - it's saying "I have to overlook an essential part of your identity for you to be OK". It's denying that we can embrace diversity as a positive thing.

When we acknowledge all of who we are, we acknowledge all of our potential for good and evil. If we are gay, we reject the idea that our love is a "disease" and embrace the responsibility of a committed relationship with another person. If we are differently gendered, we welcome the gift of seeing across the void between "Venus" and "Mars", and we reject sexism in all its forms.

I've been quoting Dr. Peters' column in full because I want you to know that I am not "cherry-picking" her words to support a particular viewpoint. You should also know that I don't mean to single out one columnist; I have no doubt that Dr. Peters is a fine, compassionate person and highly competent in her field. The attitudes I've criticized are widely shared and socially respectable among educated, "liberal" people. It is part of the broader problem of a liberal establishment so self-satisfied that it is blind to its own prejudices. (And conversely, some of the most open-minded people I've known have been housewives, combat soldiers, conservative bloggers, recovering addicts, and Orthodox rabbis.)

Here is

Dr. Peters’ Bottom Line: If your son is like many teens, he may meet your concerns with eye-rolling, a heavy sigh and an attitude that suggests that you're just not in tune with today’s kids. By asking him questions, getting to know his friends and staying open to all possibilities, perhaps he’ll feel more comfortable in expressing his concerns or helping you to understand what it’s like walking in his shoes. Be patient, supportive and available so that he’ll begin to open up to you and perhaps heed some of your advice.

And here's my bottom line: The kid's OK. Period. If his biggest problem is having mostly female friends, you should consider yourself the envy of a great many mothers of teenagers. He may have special challenges: If girls in his age group relate to him as a friend or "girl friend", then they may not see him as "dating material". Many straight women are not romantically attracted to men who are feminine, effeminate, or otherwise strongly female-identified - and we shouldn't expect them to be. But people are not all alike. (Of course, if he is gay, then none of this is a problem!) And then again, he may just be a regular straight guy who gets along well with girls, end of story. If your son can learn to interact socially with people of all genders, if he can respect himself and behave responsibly and compassionately toward others, if he can earn his place in the world and form a committed intimate relationship with another person - you should not ask for more than that. G-d created humankind, male and female, in the Divine image.

Two of the best conservative bloggers on the internet ...

... are in rare form. Sherri Reese has a cool new spot called Bring Your Brain. (Update your browser!) She has a terrific post on individual responsibility. And don't miss LaShawn Barber. You'll have to wait for her post on Katrina, but you can catch her piece on non-citizens and the law now. Go check it out.

Moussa Arafat Killed

Moussa Arafat, nephew of the late Palestinian strongman Yasser Arafat, was killed today by Palestinian gunmen. Arafat was a chief rival of Palestinian Authority leader Abu Mazen. Debka reports:

Before dawn Wednesday, Sept 7, dozens of armed Palestinians burst into the home of the former chief of Palestinian military intelligence, nephew of the late Yasser Arafat and one of Abu Mazen’s main opponents. They killed him after a gun battle with his bodyguards.

According to some reports the gang abducted his son. The assassination of one of Gaza’s strongmen marks the onset of the Gaza Strip's armed contest for power between the Palestinian Authority, Hamas and the Popular Committees, which were part of Arafat’s power base. Reprisals are expected.

Stay tuned here for more as this develops.

"I had never even heard of him until a couple of days ago ...

...and I don’t ever want to hear about him again." So says Michael Totten of FEMA's head idiot in charge, Michael Brown; and so should you. Michael Brown needs to be fired. Just in case there's any doubt in your mind, go read MJT's post.

UPDATE: Mythusmage opines that "termination doesn't go far enough" - FEMA should be abolished. And that's just the beginning. Read the post.