Hairbrained

Far be it from me to defend North Korea's leader, but I think it unseemly to keep making fun of his physical appearance. I'm sure that there are valid reasons to criticize him, but it seems to me that his haircut -- weird as it may be -- is not one of them. Picking on him for that is, frankly, sophomoric, frat-house stuff.

Once you go down that path, no one is safe from that kind of criticism. The world is full of people with all kinds of crooked, strange, twisted and ugly features. Many have a dubious taste in clothes or personal accoutrements. But, these things are beside the point, unless you're part of the so-called "fashion police."

The world is complicated enough, without  this trivial stuff about how political figures or government officials look. Nobody likes to be made fun of, and this is no way to improve international relations.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Belgian Buggery

The Catholic Church's sex abuse scandal won't go away; instead, it keeps growing every day.  Take the story out of Belgium, where a report has been issued that details what went on, including more than a dozen suicides linked to the abuse perpetrated by priests and  a cover up that continues to this day, when a Belgian bishop suggested that a complaint be withheld until 2011, when the bishop who covered up for the offending priest will retire.  With each passing day, it becomes more and more difficult to hold that this behavior was just the work of a few rogue priests.  There are just too many cases all around the world, for anyone to believe such a thing. This is clearly a major problem which the church tried to hide from the authorities and recklessly let it continue, without any regard for children elsewhere, by transferring priests.  There is no excuse for this unpardonable sin.
Read more

I Won't Be Charlie

I suppose that there are people who have a death wish. Even those who support the French satirists will come to realize that Muslim-baiting of this sort cannot continue. It is simply untenable to go on provoking Islamic people in this way. Let's get one thing clear: there are no absolute rights . Every freedom or right has limits. People have begun to make the point that in Europe, including France, negating the Holocaust is a crime. Why can't someone express that outrageous opinion, and yet make fun of a deeply-held religious belief? Either both things should be allowed or none should be permitted. The double standard is clear. Different media around the world have abstained from publishing the latest cartoon, surely out of concern for their safety, but also because, as The New York Times has argued, they will not publish something that is "offensive and gratuitous." Eventually, if the French cartoonists insist on this course of action, others will come around to
Read more

Why Am I Not Surprised?

By now, everybody and his brother knew that Mark McGwire had used what euphemistically are called "performance-enhancing drugs", at some point in his career. There is just no way that someone, through exercise and nutrition alone, can get to be that strong in such a short time. But, Major League Baseball , ever hungry for revenues, looked the other way because the show that he and Sammy Sosa were putting on was too good to put a stop to. And then, José Canseco, "crazy Cuban" that he is, blew the whistle on everybody, and the whole pretense went to hell. Of course, he is a Latino and an admitted steroid user, so that made it easy to assassinate his character. But, ever so slowly, time has proven José right. All those who doubted him or damned him for being a snitch, now sing a different tune. For his part, McGwire has come clean half-heartedly. His was a "low-dosage use", taken only to heal faster from injuries and not to hit those mammoth homers day
Read more