The media’s prayers have been answered once again. Another Spears girl have made the news. Everyone is supposedly shocked, if we choose to believe our news sources. I understand the confusion, the rage, the demand to take her show off the air, but one thing I do not understand is this supposed shock. What precisely is so shocking? That a sixteen-year-old has a steady boyfriend? Or that they have sex? Or that a female who regularly engages in sex got pregnant? Or maybe, that instead of getting a quiet abortion, she decided to risk her career and keep the baby?
Which one of those is shocking? Dating for teenagers has long become a norm. While not encouraged and probably not as wide-spread as many believe, teenage sex is not out of the ordinary either. If we accept all the things leading to pregnancy as normal, then pregnancy, as a natural consequence of dating, should be viewed as normal too. But noooooooo, that is taking it too far. To me – that is hypocrisy. To me – that particular attitude is shocking. The parents’ message that is given to girls seems to be as follows: I know that you guys are dating for a while, I trust you to do the right thing, but if you choose not to (and statistically you are very likely to not do the right thing), make sure the neighbors don’t know and you don’t get knocked up.
Personally, I find the whole situation tragic. 16-year-olds should not be having kids for many, many reasons. They should not be having sex and they should not date. But since parents are unable to stop their kids from dating, the only responses they can offer are either denial or the sheepish, “As long as you are using protection…” Some choose to trust their kids, and if it works, then wonderful, but I personally don’t see how a teenage boy with raging hormones could be trusted in this particular area. I don’t blame parents, their job is particularly hard nowadays. Maybe, nothing had changed over the years, but the world where I grew up seemed to be so much more innocent and chaste.
But back to Jaime Lynn. Media should just leave her alone and should stop making sensation where there is none. (For goodness sake, they are already discussing what maternity clothes she should wear.) The recent statistics that teen pregnancies are on the rise went almost unnoticed, at least in comparison to the news about the other Spears sister. But one particular teenager's pregnancy is causing the raucous - simply because she is famous and has a famous sister. Pregnant sixteen-year-old is hardly uncommon or newsworthy. Let her be and deal with the consequences of her actions in private. And stop being so shocked, it’s annoying.
This just enforces the fact that Americans are stupid, have an attention span of a fruit fly and as easy to entertain as a hyperactive kitten. Celebrity marriages, celebrity divorces, scandals, pregnancies, abortions, he did that, she did this. Most of them have no lives so they sit in front of TV and live vicariously through what they see on the screen.
ReplyDeleteYou know, you really should see Idiocracy. That movie perfectly portrays the common American idiot.
The movie is a Comedy/Sci-Fi about a guy being put in hybernation and waking up 500 years later. Movie is by Mike Judge, King of the Hill, South Park, Beavis and Butthead, Office Space.
Why are you so angry?
ReplyDeleteStupid people make me angry.
ReplyDeleteI suggest reading Jackie Mason's "Shmucks" , the chapter on meteorologists. I think it may aid in answering your post's rhetorical questions and Moshe's comments...
ReplyDeleteI start my comment with this: "facts" don't need to be enforced. They either exist or don't. It's opinions that need reinforcement.
ReplyDeleteI personally don't get this whole Russian superiority thing. You know, if they are so smart, educated, wonderful, etc. why are you here? And why life in Russia sucks when everyone there is so smart and wonderfully educated?
I really hate it when people say that Americans are stupid. If you are judging by the popularity of tabloids, then British are the dumbest nation, and they are not. Americans are by far the most generous (judging by their charitable giving in any given year), hospitable and generally wonderful nations in the world. I will forever be grateful that I am here, with all the benefits and privileges of any native born American, freely practicing religion of my choice. Yes, America has its weak points (education, healthcare just to name a few) just like any nation, but overall America and Americans rock!!!
That's because it's Russian Jews who mostly left. I'm obviously not talking about the common Russian drunk or someone from деревня.
ReplyDeleteLike you said, education is a weak point. Which means stupid. Now, thinking about American's ranking in math and reading and writing, remove all immigrants from the equation, what do you think the ranking is gonna be now?
In Russia, I finished 3 grades and started 4th. We left in winter. When we came here, I went to public school for 1 year before going to yeshiva. When I went to public school, I skipped to 6th grade. In 6th grade, they were doing what we were doing in 3rd!!! My engineering professors in college couldn't do simple division without a calculator! My entrance math exam to Brooklyn had a multiple choice question of writing 50% as a decimal and adding 2/3 and 3/4!!!
I'm not even gonna talk about the advanced math placement test.
Uneducated is not synonymous with stupid. A person of your intelligence should know the difference.
ReplyDeletehow about uneducatable.
ReplyDeleteif someone is uneducated because of outside factors, fine. But if it's because they don't want to be educated, they're stupid. Simple math is a great way to test for stupidity. If you can't add 23 and 46, you're stupid.
http://www.carlosmencia.com/content/videos.php?id=66
Hmmm... Ditto for America and Americans as a nation being the greatest and most generous.
ReplyDeleteAnd, as part of American freedom, people have a choice of being ignorant (unfortunate, as this choice would seem to be).
OK, here goes my Jewish opinion. One, ditto for wonderful America and Americans. Two, ditto for uneducated does not equal stupid. Three, the need to gossip so much about everything and anything is an unfortunate human condition, and the age of technology just intensified it; incidentally, I think that is one of the main reasons Torah cautions against it. Four, the non-desire or general inability to use the brains is another unfortunate and widespread human condition. Rabbi Hirsch noted that that accounts for a generous amout of sins committed by people (sorry, do not remember the exact quote or exact chapter and verse, but it is either in chapter Bereishit or Noah). Six, do not even start me on the subject or Russia, Russians, and Russian Jews. Seven, as deplorable as our medicine is today, we do not have people waiting for laporoscopic knee surgery for ten months, or worse, people denied chemo after the age of sixty five. Eight, before hippies and other dregs of society got busy, this country had a great educational system, and a lot of our Fouding Fathers were, aside from all other accomplishments, highly educated people. Nine, and the most important: it is very easy, if not therapeutic, to just sit around and bemone something. The first step in the fight is identifying the problem; the rest is actually doing something about it. As I said before, leftist, hippies, darwinists, homosexual rights activists, and other vermin are actually very small in numbers, but they are extremely proactive, vocal, and organized. The educational system is only one segment they have hijacked; but the hijacking was extremely successful; and if all the rest will just sit around and complain, they will just march on triumphantly. We, all of us, have to do something. It does not have to be big, but it has to be done. Support the efforts of David Horowitz by simply signing one of his petitions. Write, call, or e-mail Congress, Senate, and the White House: just imagine if every family who has a child in parochial school wrote in support of school vouchers to all three! As for poor future child of Jamie Lee and his/her two cousins, good luck to them from the bottom of my heart! The appalling state of our schools and colleges is, unfortunately, the least of their problems!
ReplyDeleteWell, in 10~20 years America will get taken over by China and we'll have normal education again.
ReplyDeleteWell, Moshe, put you money where you mouth is and start memorizing the minimum of 7,000 hieroglyphs (sp?) required for basic Chinese literacy. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteBarb, just to add greace to fire, what would be your solution to teenage pregnancy. I am bemoaning the fact (though indirectly) that 16 yr old knocked up is not news, but have few solutions. Any suggestions?
Chinese too hard, Japanese much easier.
ReplyDeletebtw, pregnant at 16 is not news. There was a fad in England where 12 year olds would intentionally get pregnant so they'd have a baby to play with.
Japanese won't help you if China takes over. Re: teenage pregnance I asked about solutions, not reiterating the problem/facts.
ReplyDeleteOk, I wanted to be like that dude from the story with Abraham Lincoln, but, since, unlike that dude, I know I will not cool off or cool off and get really angry again, here goes: Moshe, forgive me, but you simply do not appreciate the great and wonderful thing that is America if, even as a joke, you would suggest the Chinise take over. What good is a great education if you are not free as a human being? Self-education and home schooling are wonderful things, so, how about forgetting the great subject of Mathematics that Russian Jews are so hung up on, and self-educating yourself on such subjects are American Constitution, Declaration of Independance, and the whole murky idea of self-determination, which homo soveticus usually does not compehend. And inability to add 23 and 46 does not necessarily denote stupidity: it may be lousy arithmetic teaching, or simply dyslexia.
ReplyDeleteSubwife, the teange pregnancy has only one solution: decent parents or gurdians who install basic morality and common sence in both boys and girls. Media is controlled by the roaches from the left, and they make it normal to have sex when and how and as much and with whom you please. Acually explaining to teens that is not so, that having sex like animals has repercussions on many different levels, and just being save is not the solusion, is the only way.
American Constitution? Declaration of Independence? Perhaps you should educate yourself on those subjects.
ReplyDeleteGun control, hat happened to the 2nd amendment? Making weed illegal because "Mexicans are raping and killing white women after smoking weed." Marijuana Tax Act. Making absinthe illegal, finally legalized this year, because of an unverified rumor. Income tax was ever ratified? Against constitution, no? RIAA steals money from independent artists by collecting fees on their behalf and if the artist wants his money, he has to join and pay membership fees. Polygamy illegal, doesn't that go against freedom of religion in case of Mormons. Electoral college is constitutional? Thief suing the guy he was robbing because of cutting his foot on broken glass and winning is not against constitution? Trial by jury of your peers, ever seen that in real life? et cetera, ad nauseam.
Go reread the Preamble and afterwards think about what you read/heard/seen on the news this month, or even this week.
Moshe: Yeah, I get you, everything sucks, blah blah blah...especially outlawing pot. You know, if it's so bad, you don't have to live here. But somehow I think it wouldn't make any difference because you would finds faults everywhere and complain ad nauseum. Start your own country...
ReplyDeleteI would, no land left, sux
ReplyDeleteThank you, I actually did read the Constitution and the Declaration. I never said the Constitution is observed today to the letter; what I did say was "remember what it actually means". It is much harder to fight for your rights, then just sit around , complain, call the whole nation stupid en mass, and imagine what would happen if we are overtaken by a Communist regime; but resisting actually raises the blood pressure of your enemies, not just your own. As for our own country, we do have it, but that is another unending discussion.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Barb, I knew I could count on you!
ReplyDeleteI just got a confirmation for my "Americans are stupid" belief, in the mail, from Prospect Park Yeshiva. They sent me a booklet and the whole first page was dedicated to an article about how proud they are of eliminating written homework on Tuesdays and all homework on Thursdays. Why? On Tuesdays, because kids need to be kids and homework interferes with that and on Thursdays because they need time to play and to help their mothers with cooking.
ReplyDeleteI won't delve too much into the fact that 6-yr olds in Prospect Park leave school at 4.30, not 2.15 like we did (at the age of 16!), and therefore have less time for homework and being kids. I won't try to pursuade you that teaching kids helping their mothers is important in my view, is not such a terrible idea and will not make kids dumb. I do not think that your "evidence" of American dumbness confirms anything.
ReplyDeleteLook, I get it, you think that Americans are stupid. I also want you to get that I don't agree with you. I think at this point we should agree to disagree because at it is quite obvious that I won't pursuade you and you won't pursuade me. Can we just leave it at that?
I second the Subwife's motion.
ReplyDeleteSpeak for yourself, I was in yeshiva here for 6 years and I wasn't leaving at 2:15.
ReplyDeleteIf they want kids to be kids, cancel Sunday classes and have the Thursday homework pushed to Monday. If any of those kids end up going to college, they gonna have 3 times more homework and every day and they not gonna be prepared at all for something like that. And they didn't seem to be talking only about 6 year olds but all classes.
I WAS speaking for myself. I was referring to Russian schools where kids get out at 1.30-2.15 at the age of 16. We in yeshivas have kids as little as 6 staying there until 4.30. As for college, please! I have never had to do so little homework in my life! I barely did any while maintaining decent GPA.
ReplyDeletedunno which college you went to, I went to Poly and my wife went to Pace. We had plenty of homework from insane teachers who decided that students only take 1 class per semester.
ReplyDeleteFordham
ReplyDeleteI won't comment on anything but the last comment. And I believe just about any and every professor thinks that each student in her/his class is staking one class that semester
ReplyDelete