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Mona Charen's Posts
Victim Shock Troops
“Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, Religion and Morality are indispensable supports. — George Washington
Until almost literally the day before yesterday, it was universally acknowledged that religious faith and expression were bedrock American freedoms — enshrined in the Constitution, protected in law, and honored in custom. But now, because the left has been victorious in convincing the elites that upholding traditional marriage is low bigotry, religious freedom will have to yield.
Not all religious freedom though. Just last month the Supreme Court heard arguments in the case of Elauf v. Abercrombie, which concerned a young Muslim woman who was denied employment because she wore a headscarf. Abercrombie has a policy against headwear. The argument turned, as it should in our republic, on how Abercrombie and others should handle the delicate matter of religious garb. Should the employer ask, and possibly commit ethnic and racial profiling, or should the employee be under an obligation to volunteer that his/her appearance was dictated by religion? Such are the cases we navigate in a nation that respects individual conscience and also seeks to avoid the appearance or reality of religious discrimination.
Death to America
Maybe I’m too sensitive, but when a foreign autocrat leads his people in chants of “Death to America” I take it personally.
President Obama and Secretary Kerry apparently don’t. The chant, which became a staple of the Islamic Republic during the 1979 revolution, is not a relic of the past. Just last weekend, at a rally in the northern part of the country, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was interrupted by the chant as he was denouncing American “lies” and “arrogance.” He smiled and responded, “Of course yes, death to America, because America is the original source of this pressure.”
Some in Iran have urged that the “Death to America” chant, common after Friday prayers and at political rallies, be downplayed during negotiations over a nuclear deal, but the IRGC (Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps) rejects this, insisting, according to the semi-official Fars news agency, that the United States “is still the great Satan and the number one enemy of the (Islamic) revolution, and the Islamic Republic and the Iranian nation…”
Does Starbucks Really Want an Honest Conversation?
Starbucks is hoping to lead a national conversation about race. According to a video released by founder Howard Schultz, Starbucks barristas are encouraged to scrawl “race together” on coffee cups before placing them in the hands of customers. This hollow bit of moral exhibitionism is supposed to encourage “compassion,” “honesty,” “empathy,” and “love.” Does Starbucks sell caffeine-free compassion?
Each and every time we’re hectored to engage in an “honest conversation” about race, it’s a sham. What’s wanted is not honesty, but confession of sin by white people and expressions of pain from blacks and others. Decade after decade, despite vastly diminishing levels of white racism (and the rapid growth of non-white populations), we are told that the old stain of racism continues to poison the lives of minorities. By encouraging that fiction, Starbucks is subtracting from racial understanding.
For what it’s worth, here’s my little contribution to the “honest conversation.”
Bombard the College Board
I’m not usually the campaigning type, but I’m making an exception. I’d like to alert Ricochet’s community to an opportunity to influence the College Board about its proposed new standards for Advanced Placement US History. The best students across the US take AP history, and what is taught in AP also affects the teaching of all US history.
Busy busy leftists have taken out their little pencils and begun revising what high schoolers should know about their past. Last fall, Frederick M. Hess and Chester E. Finn Jr. recounted the changes for NRO:
Let’s be clear that a number of the oft-heard criticisms are over the top and ill-informed. The new framework does not remove historic personages like Benjamin Franklin or Martin Luther King; they were not in the old five-page framework and are not in the new 50-page one (both of which focus more on overarching topics than on naming individuals). And the new standards do not ignore the Constitution or the Declaration of Independence.
Recipe for Unhappiness?
The always trenchant Brad Wilcox has a piece at National Review analyzing the new Pew research on Millennials. (BTW, this naming and timing of generations is so arbitrary. Why are Baby Boomers stretched over 20 years but other generations are only 15 years long? Bizarre convention). But Wilcox offers some pretty worrying thoughts.
His final paragraph makes a very important point, in my judgment, namely that so many Millennials are rejecting the institutions — family, church, work — that are the foundation of society. More than that, those institutions are the foundation of personal happiness and fulfillment. Wilcox scours the data and finds this:
This Sends Me
Okay, people, Cruz Schmuz. Here’s what makes life worth living. A little girl appeared on Holland’s Got Talent and sang Puccini. I admit to being a sucker for these things. And is there anyone with soul so dead that he can watch this without wonder?
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Miley Cyrus — America’s Sweetheart
Everyone is cringing in response to Miley Cyrus’s porn display at the VMAs, which is something. Thanks Miley, for proving that our decadent culture even retains the capacity to cringe.
We don’t have to examine her motives – cash is a good shorthand. Being shocking worked for others, and it will work for her.
Sheryl Sandberg: Perfect Media Product
She’s an attractive, liberal billionaire who’s worried about women not taking their share of top corporate and government posts. Naturally, the press is agog. I have a different take.
About the Boys
Christina Hoff Sommers has a great piece in today’s New York Times about how to improve boys’ school performance. Christina was ahead of the curve on this, publishing The War Against Boys in 2001.
Here, she argues that the huge push 20 years ago to help girls with math and science was successful, and that boys, who are struggling compared with girls at every level of education, deserve no less.
Don’t Let Your Preschooler be a Gentleman
So here’s a priceless example of the wonderful world feminists have created. This mom is dismayed that her preschooler son is being encouraged to let girls go first to the bathroom.
Writing in the New York Times (of course) Lynn Messina complains that” he’s actively being taught to treat girls differently, something I thought we all agreed to stop doing, like, three decades ago.” Later she says, “Letting girls use the bathroom first isn’t a show of respect. It is, rather, the first brick in the super high pedestal that allows men to exalt women out of sight. A true show of respect is paying us equally for the same work, not 77 cents on the dollar, which is the current average.”
New Podcast: Need to Know with Mona Charen and Jay Nordlinger
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We’re delighted to announce the launch of a new Ricochet podcast. Jay Nordlinger and I — sometimes just the two of us, sometimes with guests — will explain what’s wrong with the world (usually liberals) and how to fix it. Join us! 
EconTalk — A Confession of Addiction
Thanks to the Ricochet podcast of a couple of weeks ago, I’ve become a fan — ok, maybe an addict — of Russ Roberts and his podcast EconTalk. Actually, there’s a podcast on addiction, as there are on nearly all subjects of interest to intelligent and curious listeners. I’m acquiring an economics education by listening every day. Additionally, the older podcasts are available and downloadable on iTunes.
Thanks so much to Peter, Rob, and James for alerting us to this resource. I’ve got a long car ride today and am loading up my iPod!