My take on Northam
I know the whole world has been waiting for my opinion of the scandal surrounding the Virginia governor. Well not everyone in the world. In fact, hardly anyone in the world. The fact that nobody reads my log is so incredibly freeing. I can express my thoughts honestly without incurring hostility, or even criticism.
So here goes my opinion on the Northam sccandal: I think it's dumb. Undoubtedly he wore that outfit to a Halloween party and after a few drinks everyone thought it was hilarious. Or even transgressive, but in a good, ironic way. Drunks are easily entertained.
The problem is Hallloween parties and the fact that people who are presumably adults take them seriously enough to put on costumes and make jackasses of themselves. In my childhood, children dressed up in costumes and went around the neighborhood begging for candy. The adult role was to sit in the house and dole out the candy when the kids rang the doorbell. If the weather was nice, they might even sit out on the porch. In my opinion, the performed their role superbly.
In my day, folks, you can attend a party in regular clothes and have a good time. Actually, people dressed up in their best clothes. Women wore dressses and men wore something called a necktie. Parties are for socializing with your friends and having a good time. Getting drunk and/or hitting on a member of the opposite sex is optional, and was frowned upon in the best circles.
When I was a child I dreamed of growing up and dressing up and going to parties or nightclubs. My role model was Myrna Loy in the Thin Man movies. You can bet that Myrna did not dress up like Butterfly McQueen. She wore amazing long gowns and high heels. But by the time I grew up no one dressed up for parties. Most people wore T-shirts, The elegant ones wore T-shirts without slogans. The getting drunk etc part was still part of the scene. However they did not dress up as Batman or Cinderella.
So I say, cut the governor a bit of slack. Sure he advocated killing newborn babies, but no one minded that apparently. It's just abortion carried a bit too far, and we're all okay with that, aren't we? The fact that he is dr Gosnell light disturbed almost no one except oddball people with extreme religious views, like Christians.
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2 comments:
I read your blog! I'm so sorry I don't comment on every post, too.
I'm of the same mind as you, I don't care what Ralph Northam did when he was a grown man, about to finish medical school.
Oh, wait, the fact that he wore blackface at least twice in his adulthood proves that he was not raised by good people and that he is not a good person.
Further proof of his character flaws is that he is allegedly a medical doctor that advocates killing infants.
My being an immigrant to this country (27yr ago, but still) has certain advantages -one is nobody is shocked (annoyed, sometimes, but not totally flabbergasted) when I try to examine convention or point out to obvious, to me, flaws in collective thinking.
That includes the so called "blackface".
Pretending one is of a different race, in itself, is neutral. It is the attitude and purpose of disguise that matters. When "review" artists of 1890's made crude jokes parading in negro makeup - that was insulting and racist. On the other hand, when white jazz musicians of 1920s and 30s appeared in blackface onstage - it seems to me rather complimentary to the blacks, sort of admitting their superiority in the genre - and maybe even a means to get the gig (sort of like role Lemmon and Curtis played in Some Like It Hot). What's offensive in that?
I don't buy all that talk of "cultural appropriation" - as it seems to me a perfect example of double standard. People of European descent are not offended when blacks (or Asians, for that matter) wear European style of dress - why, then, blacks are insulted by dreadlocks?
As to a practice of masks and costumed parties - it's a thousand-yr tradition, or maybe even older, if we include pagan celebrations. Venetian or Brazilian carnavals are tremendous fun, and I don't see anything wrong in adults wearing masks and costumes at Halloween party. SO if someone comes as Ginghiz Khan, he will be wearing Mongol mustashe and slanted-eye makeup, among other things. By the same token, a guest coming in as Othello will be in blackface - very appropriately, I think.
SO in itself, I see no crime in it.
"Aborting" perfectly viable healthy 9-months in utero babies, on the other hand, is bloody-minded barbarity, an absurd corollary to a common sense principle, so characteristic of today's Left.
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