Culture Briefs

Death by ‘honor’

“They have dishonored our shores for quite some time and more keep coming our way.

“I am talking about honor killings in North America. In ‘The Death of Feminism,’ I write about honor murders in Missouri, Ohio, and in parts of New Jersey, New York, and Canada which took place during the last quarter-century.

“[On Jan. 1], an Egyptian Arab Muslim father in Dallas, Texas, allegedly shot his two beautiful teenage daughters to death because he disapproved of their American-style ways. Their names were Amina and Sarah Said and their father’s name was [Yaser] Abdel Said. The girls looked sassy and full of life; they looked like Dallas teenagers. They were 17 and 18 years old and their friends considered them ‘geniuses.’ …

“Apparently, Amina and Sarah not only had ‘boyfriends,’ their boyfriends were non-Muslims. They told their friends that their father was angry with them for ‘not acting like proper Muslim girls.’

“Thus, these beautiful and now murdered sisters feared for their lives.”

— Phyllis Chesler, writing on “Honor Killings in Dallas: Made in the USA,” Thursday at PajamasMedia.com

Progressive gloom

“Progressive ideology relies on the capacity of human beings to live fulfilled lives in a just and co-operative society. That people whose beliefs imply optimism seem to spend most of their time wallowing in pessimism is one reason that leftists sometimes lack personal credibility (another reason being that egalitarians so clearly enjoy being very well-off). But miserable idealists need to make a New Year resolution to look on the bright side. Pessimism is becoming an impediment to progressive politics. It is 50 years since J.K. Galbraith coined the phrase ‘private affluence and public squalor’; today, the dichotomy is between private hubris and public pessimism.

“It is pessimism of a particular and pernicious kind. People are not generally negative about their own lives. …

“In contrast, we are unduly negative about the wider world. …

“We tend to like the people we know from different ethnic backgrounds but are less sure about such people in general. We think our own prospects look OK, but society is going to the dogs.”

— Matthew Taylor, writing on “Why Life Is Good,” in the Jan. 3 issue of the New Statesman

Dog didn’t hunt

“During one of the 1996 presidential debates, Bill Clinton delivered a skillful rejoinder to Bob Dole when the Republican candidate accused him of running ‘a very liberal administration.’

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