The crazy lady strikes again for Thursday, October 5, 2006

This link was provided to me by Ariel70 in one of the comments on my entry on parents who will literally go to any length to prevent their adult offspring from making choices unacceptable to the parent. In the article to which I linked, Mary Ann Sieghart (who works for The Times of London) starts out by writing about honor killings, and goes on from there to discuss the attitudes Muslims and non-Muslims have toward each other. I would advise readers of this entry to go to that link. Sieghart... Sign in to see full entry.

The shooting at the Amish school made me think of an issue I haven't really covered in depth in my various Blogit blogs. Just how far are we willing to go to accept a given behavior or pattern of behavior? Coverage of the shooting portrays the Amish very sympathetically, which, in my opinion, is a good thing. The coverage of the man committing the murder-suicide portrays him in a less sympathetic light, which is also a good thing, in my opinion. Murder should never be acceptable, particularly if... Sign in to see full entry.

This has to be at least the second story I've heard about parents who take seemingly insane measures to force their adult offspring to bend to their will. Apparently, this particular mother and father disapproved of their daughter's choice of spouse so strongly that they were willing to kidnap her to forestall a wedding. The parents are currently facing kidnapping charges, and their daughter married her intended, anyway. The other story I'd heard recently - I wish I could provide a link to it -... Sign in to see full entry.

The latest in a plethora of school shootings occurred in an Amish school in Pennsylvania. The emphasis in the news has been on the Amish principles of nonviolence and forgiveness (in this instance, of the perpetrator of the Pennsylvania school shooting). Admiration for their forgiveness of the perpetrator is seemingly everywhere in the media. But only one interview I've seen posed the big question that probably bothers a lot of people: Doesn't forgiveness mean that the perpetrator is allowed to... Sign in to see full entry.

I've mentioned before that I live in a predominantly Mexican (said advisedly - most of my neighbors either come from Mexico or are of Mexican extraction) neighborhood. Because these people have a different cultural heritage - their ancestors are predominantly what used to be called American Indian, perhaps mixed with some Spanish blood - they have a different set of assumptions from those we have. They also have a different body of literature, a different way of looking at health care, and so... Sign in to see full entry.