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Showing posts from July, 2014

Of libraries and children

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The current debate on same sex relations has engendered (ha!) some superficially attractive, but fundamentally flimsy myths.  Let's examine them. MYTH 1: Family structure doesn't matter.  Love matters. Do you agree that in the majority of cases, the interests of a child are better served by having a father and a mother, than in a single parent or same sex parent family?  If you're honest, the answer is, yes. Why?  Because a father has a father's role, and a mother hers.  There are some astoundingly capable and loving single parents out there.  But a mother, as capable as she is, can never be as effective as a father.  A father, as loving as he is, can never truly play the role of a mother.  If you're a parent, you just know that.  Otherwise what you're really saying is that you're actually better off without a good father, or better off without a good mother.  I don't think anyone out there is loopy enough to actually take this pos...

Paying the price

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In a scene in Les Miserables, the escaped convict Jean Valjean, who has by now become a respectable mayor, comes to know that another person has been wrongly arrested for Valjean's own crimes.  As Valjean struggles with his conscience, he sings: Why should I save his hide?   Why should I right this wrong, when I have come so far and struggled for so long? If I speak, I am condemned; If I stay silent, I am damned! I am the master of hundreds of workers. They all look to me. How can I abandon them? How would they live if I am not free? How can I ever face my fellow men?  How can I ever face myself again?   My soul belongs to God, I know I made that bargain long ago.   He gave me hope when hope was gone; He gave me strength to journey on [Then appearing in court to confess his true identity] Who am I?  Who am I? I am Jean Valjean! Like the escaped convict Jean Valjean made good, I made that bargain with God too.  Today, by God's gr...