Insane Interview of the Day
National Review interviews James Bowman, author of Honor: A History, and explains why knocked up British quadriplegics portend a culture in chaos:
Q: In your book, you mention an unusual recent addition to London's Trafalgar Square. The Square, designed in 1844 as a tribute to Admiral Horatio Nelson for his victory at Trafalgar against Napoleon, includes a number of statues commemorating British war heroes. But last September, the commission in charge arranged for a large marble sculpture of a naked, armless, pregnant woman to be placed in the square. It is entitled "Alison Lapper Pregnant." Alison Lapper is a British single mother who was born without arms and with underdeveloped legs. Ms. Lapper hailed the sculpture as a tribute to "femininity, disability and motherhood." The Mayor of London said that Lapper had to struggle to overcome "much greater difficulties" than the men celebrated in the square. What does this addition to Trafalgar Square tell us about the fate of the Western honor culture?
Nothing Bowman says can possibly live up to that question, but it's worth a read if only as a particularly bizarre example of how quickly social conservatives can twist any topic into an expression of anxiety about gender roles. For women, "honor" is apparently about sex; namely, not having much. For men, it's about guns; namely, pointing them at other people because "someone's got to pay a price for insulting Uncle Sam." And who are the biggest obstacles to a "revival of honor"? Suicide bombers? Third world dictators? Congressmen with $90K sitting in the freezer? Nope, explains Bowman: Feminists.
