Op-Ed
EL PASO, Texas -- This is one of those stories, like drought,
that happens quietly over a long period, so no one quite notices how
horrible it is ... except those directly affected. Those who pay attention
to the Texas-Mexican border have known for years now about the murder of
women in Juarez.
Mexican and American feminists have tried to draw attention to what at first seemed just an extraordinary case, or series of cases. There was one arrest that looked good (and a bunch of cases of guys who confessed after the cops beat the crap out of them -- this has now become a standard claim), and for a time it seemed the police might have the right guy in custody. But the killing continued.
The newspaper Norte of Juarez bannered the story again last week under the headline, "State Justice Fails." Above it on the front page were the numbers: "More than 250 women murdered, 19 arrests, no one sentenced." The bodies of 274 women who fit the pattern have been found since 1993.
Mexican and American feminists have tried to draw attention to what at first seemed just an extraordinary case, or series of cases. There was one arrest that looked good (and a bunch of cases of guys who confessed after the cops beat the crap out of them -- this has now become a standard claim), and for a time it seemed the police might have the right guy in custody. But the killing continued.
The newspaper Norte of Juarez bannered the story again last week under the headline, "State Justice Fails." Above it on the front page were the numbers: "More than 250 women murdered, 19 arrests, no one sentenced." The bodies of 274 women who fit the pattern have been found since 1993.
AUSTIN, Texas -- President George Bush's foreign policy is
starting to look like a running gag on "Saturday Night Live." How inept can
he get?
On Tuesday, Bush teed off on Castro of Cuba, saying he "ought to have free elections," "ought to have a free press" and "ought to free his political prisoners." All of which is dandy, except Bush was standing right next to one of our more questionable allies in the "war on terrorism," the prime minister of Malaysia.
Malaysia is also in serious need of free elections, a free press and freed political prisoners. Mahathir Mohamad is a far more brutal ruler than Castro ever dreamed of being. His party has been in power since 1957 (love those free elections). He's been in office since 1981 and the subject of denunciations by human-rights groups the entire time. His ruling faction is far ahead of Castro on bloodshed points. And we're offering Mohamad whatever he wants.
On Tuesday, Bush teed off on Castro of Cuba, saying he "ought to have free elections," "ought to have a free press" and "ought to free his political prisoners." All of which is dandy, except Bush was standing right next to one of our more questionable allies in the "war on terrorism," the prime minister of Malaysia.
Malaysia is also in serious need of free elections, a free press and freed political prisoners. Mahathir Mohamad is a far more brutal ruler than Castro ever dreamed of being. His party has been in power since 1957 (love those free elections). He's been in office since 1981 and the subject of denunciations by human-rights groups the entire time. His ruling faction is far ahead of Castro on bloodshed points. And we're offering Mohamad whatever he wants.
A basic principle of democracy is that every person's vote
should have equal weight. So we might expect some public discourse
about the fact that the U.S. Senate is fundamentally undemocratic.
But it's a complete non-issue among politicians and journalists
alike.
One of the key roles of news media should be to raise important questions that powerful people in government don't want to ask -- or answer. However, while thousands of reporters and pundits stay busy with all kinds of stories about politics, they keep detouring around a central tilt of the national legislature's upper chamber.
Like the "purloined letter" openly displayed in a famous tale by Edgar Allan Poe, the Senate's huge structural flaw is right in front of us all the time -- but we don't see it as anything more than an eternal legacy of the nation's political heritage.
The past has ways of enduring. Today, in the 100-member Senate, cattle may be more equitably represented than people.
For instance, Montana -- with a total of 902,195 residents, according to the 2000 census -- has a pair of U.S. senators. So does California, with a population of 33,871,648.
One of the key roles of news media should be to raise important questions that powerful people in government don't want to ask -- or answer. However, while thousands of reporters and pundits stay busy with all kinds of stories about politics, they keep detouring around a central tilt of the national legislature's upper chamber.
Like the "purloined letter" openly displayed in a famous tale by Edgar Allan Poe, the Senate's huge structural flaw is right in front of us all the time -- but we don't see it as anything more than an eternal legacy of the nation's political heritage.
The past has ways of enduring. Today, in the 100-member Senate, cattle may be more equitably represented than people.
For instance, Montana -- with a total of 902,195 residents, according to the 2000 census -- has a pair of U.S. senators. So does California, with a population of 33,871,648.
AUSTIN, Texas -- We seem to be having a hail of news that fails
to amaze.
Israel has been attacked by another suicide bomber. Ariel Sharon, so memorably described by President Bush as "a man of peace," had to rush home to continue his policy of tit-for-tat, which he has so brilliantly demonstrated does not work.
Of course, Sharon is also demanding that Yasser Arafat Do Something about the terrorists. This adds an even more surreal element of black comedy to the tragedy. Assuming Arafat is not himself the head terrorist, as Sharon claims, with what, exactly, is he supposed to do about anything? Sharon has been destroying Arafat's Palestinian Authority piece by piece for months now and has just finished an attack that demolished the last elements. Even assuming he had the will, Arafat has no way. Sharon has put Hamas and Hezbollah in charge. Anyone who is surprised by the result probably thinks Sharon IS a man of peace.
Israel has been attacked by another suicide bomber. Ariel Sharon, so memorably described by President Bush as "a man of peace," had to rush home to continue his policy of tit-for-tat, which he has so brilliantly demonstrated does not work.
Of course, Sharon is also demanding that Yasser Arafat Do Something about the terrorists. This adds an even more surreal element of black comedy to the tragedy. Assuming Arafat is not himself the head terrorist, as Sharon claims, with what, exactly, is he supposed to do about anything? Sharon has been destroying Arafat's Palestinian Authority piece by piece for months now and has just finished an attack that demolished the last elements. Even assuming he had the will, Arafat has no way. Sharon has put Hamas and Hezbollah in charge. Anyone who is surprised by the result probably thinks Sharon IS a man of peace.
AUSTIN, Texas -- In 1901, a Henry T. Finch, writing in The
Independent, reported: "Women's participation in political life would
involve the domestic calamity of a deserted home and the loss of the womanly
qualities for which refined men adore women and marry them. ... Doctors tell
us, too, that thousands of children would be harmed or killed before birth
by the injurious effect of untimely political excitement on their mothers."
I'm trying to imagine an Al Gore speech that would provoke "untimely political excitement."
Actually, what I'm trying to do is remind y'all of the fine American tradition of everybody and his hamster feeling free to make vast, sweeping prescriptions for the entire female gender. We have just been through a modest little media orgy over both Karen Hughes' decision to resign from the White House and Sylvia Hewlett's book pointing out that it gets harder to have babies as we get older.
I'm trying to imagine an Al Gore speech that would provoke "untimely political excitement."
Actually, what I'm trying to do is remind y'all of the fine American tradition of everybody and his hamster feeling free to make vast, sweeping prescriptions for the entire female gender. We have just been through a modest little media orgy over both Karen Hughes' decision to resign from the White House and Sylvia Hewlett's book pointing out that it gets harder to have babies as we get older.
In a twist of fate, obituaries appeared for the inventor of the
Barbie doll just as a $50 million advertising campaign got underway
for an anti-wrinkle drug with a name that memorably combines the
words "botulism" and "toxin." Expensive injections of Botox are
already popular among women eager to remove lines from their faces.
The ad blitz of mid-2002 is certain to boost the practice.
American women between the ages of 30 and 64 are the prime targets, and 90 percent of them will be hit with Botox pitches a minimum of 10 times. Launched with a paid layout in People magazine the first week of May ("It's not magic, it's Botox Cosmetic"), the print ads use before-and-after pictures. Network TV commercials are also part of the campaign.
To many minds, we live in a post-feminist era when denouncing sexist strictures is anachronistic. People who complain loudly about media images of women are apt to be derided for "political correctness." But another sort of PC -- what might be called "patriarchal correctness" -- continues to flourish today as a media mainstay, and not only in the realms of advertising and mass entertainment.
American women between the ages of 30 and 64 are the prime targets, and 90 percent of them will be hit with Botox pitches a minimum of 10 times. Launched with a paid layout in People magazine the first week of May ("It's not magic, it's Botox Cosmetic"), the print ads use before-and-after pictures. Network TV commercials are also part of the campaign.
To many minds, we live in a post-feminist era when denouncing sexist strictures is anachronistic. People who complain loudly about media images of women are apt to be derided for "political correctness." But another sort of PC -- what might be called "patriarchal correctness" -- continues to flourish today as a media mainstay, and not only in the realms of advertising and mass entertainment.
AUSTIN, Texas -- Great, now everyone who thinks Ariel Sharon is
a screaming disaster for Israel has been read out of the pro-Israeli camp.
This excommunication comes not from Israel -- where quite a few people think
exactly that -- but from William Safire and his fellow grandees of the
journalistic right, who apparently have no doubt about their own authority
to decide who is for Israel and who is not. Some of us who think Sharon is a
walking catastrophe have been under the apparently misguided impression that
we, too, were devoted to Israel's best interests.
But ever since Attorney General John Ashcroft informed me that worrying about cancellation of the Constitution was the same thing as aiding terrorists, it has been clear to me that I mustn't think what I think. I need to be instructed what to think by people who think the way he does. This is the same attorney general who spent $8,000 to cover up the tits on a statue and who believes calico cats are a sign of the Devil, but I am not allowed to conclude that the attorney general is something of a nincompoop because that would aid terrorists.
But ever since Attorney General John Ashcroft informed me that worrying about cancellation of the Constitution was the same thing as aiding terrorists, it has been clear to me that I mustn't think what I think. I need to be instructed what to think by people who think the way he does. This is the same attorney general who spent $8,000 to cover up the tits on a statue and who believes calico cats are a sign of the Devil, but I am not allowed to conclude that the attorney general is something of a nincompoop because that would aid terrorists.
AUSTIN, Texas -- Sometimes I forget how truly simpleminded the
Bushies can be. The front-page of The New York Times reports, "The Bush
administration seems to accept and even relish (Attorney General) Ashcroft's
role as lightning rod on difficult criminal justice issues."
Since the attorney general has so amply demonstrated his clueless incompetence, it may seem difficult to plumb why it should be so. But it is precisely, you see, because liberals consider John Ashcroft a dangerous nincompoop that the administration thinks he's doing a good job. They really are that simple.
In the Texas Legislature, the press occasionally gives the If-He-Votes-Yes, I-Vote-No Award for some egregious example of this particular strain of non-thinking. Any halfway smart politician loves to have another pol in this position. That's when you introduce a resolution in favor of Motherhood just to watch the other guy vote against it.
Since the attorney general has so amply demonstrated his clueless incompetence, it may seem difficult to plumb why it should be so. But it is precisely, you see, because liberals consider John Ashcroft a dangerous nincompoop that the administration thinks he's doing a good job. They really are that simple.
In the Texas Legislature, the press occasionally gives the If-He-Votes-Yes, I-Vote-No Award for some egregious example of this particular strain of non-thinking. Any halfway smart politician loves to have another pol in this position. That's when you introduce a resolution in favor of Motherhood just to watch the other guy vote against it.
Weeks before the 20th century ended, the pundit Michael Kinsley
was uncommonly direct in a Time essay that defended the virtues of
the World Trade Organization with these closing words: "But really,
the WTO is OK. Do the math. Or take it on faith." Delivered by the
flagship magazine of the Time Warner conglomerate (soon to merge with
AOL), the message was more overt than usual: We should devoutly
accept certain pronouncements as conclusive.
Such rigid faith is dangerous. It undermines critical thinking. And it's wide open for manipulation -- by mainstream news outlets as well as by some who present themselves as anti-establishment.
Many decades before the invention of television, the American historian Henry Adams was essentially correct when he wrote about the dominant media of the day: "The press is the hired agent of a monied system, and set up for no other purpose than to tell lies where their interests are involved." In substance, there is much truth to that observation in 2002.
Such rigid faith is dangerous. It undermines critical thinking. And it's wide open for manipulation -- by mainstream news outlets as well as by some who present themselves as anti-establishment.
Many decades before the invention of television, the American historian Henry Adams was essentially correct when he wrote about the dominant media of the day: "The press is the hired agent of a monied system, and set up for no other purpose than to tell lies where their interests are involved." In substance, there is much truth to that observation in 2002.
MARATHON -- In the annals of West Texas law enforcement, few
episodes rival the recent (well, relatively recent) unfortunate occurrence
involving the mayor of Lajitas. As visitors to that border metropolis in the
Big Bend are aware, the mayor of Lajitas is an alcoholic goat named Clay
Henry.
The incumbent Mayor Henry is the third of his line, making this, we believe, the only democratically elected dynasty in the country. If you give the mayor a longneck bottle of beer, he'll swig it -- just like most of his constituents. The Sober Party ran a canine against him in the last election, but it didn't have a dog's chance.
So first thing one morning just a few months ago, Steve Houston, the county attorney, gets a call from Richard Hill, constable in Lajitas, announcing they're dealing with a serious situation: Someone castrated the mayor. A vet is en route at high speed from Alpine, but it's unclear whether the goat will live or not. Local feelings were running high against the perps. Some felt there was danger of a possible lynch mob. Constable Hill got right on it.
The incumbent Mayor Henry is the third of his line, making this, we believe, the only democratically elected dynasty in the country. If you give the mayor a longneck bottle of beer, he'll swig it -- just like most of his constituents. The Sober Party ran a canine against him in the last election, but it didn't have a dog's chance.
So first thing one morning just a few months ago, Steve Houston, the county attorney, gets a call from Richard Hill, constable in Lajitas, announcing they're dealing with a serious situation: Someone castrated the mayor. A vet is en route at high speed from Alpine, but it's unclear whether the goat will live or not. Local feelings were running high against the perps. Some felt there was danger of a possible lynch mob. Constable Hill got right on it.