Rick Perry's pay-for-play

Rick Perry. “I raised about $30 million. And if you’re saying that I can be bought for $5,000, I’m offended.”

This begs the question: If I suggested that he could be bought for (say) $1,000,000, would he not be offended? Is there a threshold for this? I'd like to know what price Mr Perry goes for.

Apparently, I am not the only one who is wondering the same thing...

Police Parisienne

A Paris, il est fréquent que les automobilistes, animés par un égoïsme qui n'a d'égal que leur impatience, se garent en double file pendant qu'ils vaquent à leurs activités plus ou moins importantes. Pendant ce temps, les autres attendent, le plus souvent énervés, et se défoulent, fréquemment à l'aide de leur klaxon. La police, elle, ne se montre que rarement.

Il arrive même ce soit la police elle-même qui bloque une rue! Dans le cas illustré ci-dessous (Paris 9), l'officier de police a expliqué au monsieur qu'il bloquait, qu'il devrait reculer et faire le tour du pâté de maisons. Au-delà du caractère ahurissant de l'attitude du fonctionnaire qui suggère une solution illégale, on remarquera que la maneuvre suggérée était extrêmement dangereuse, car le brave monsieur devait reculer jusqu'à la rue de Clichy à une heure de pointe. Rue dans laquelle, d'autres parisiens énervés lui auraient sans doute réservé un acceuil chaleureux.

Je suis parti avant la fin de l'histoire, et je pense que le policier a déplacé sa voiture. Malgré tout, on croit rêver!

Smoking in Ljubljana

On my way back from Kosovo, I had a stopover in Ljubjana. The airport is non-smoking, and is equiped with small cabins into which people will cram to smoke before a flight.


It looks like a ton of fun, and I really feel sorry for people who have to smoke so badly that they'd submit themselves to such an environment.

 And then, once in a while, you're privy to an astonishing feat of parenting...

For the record, I do not know the nationality of this mother, and believe that no generalizations can be made on the basis of the location of the picture. It is, after all, and airport, where you might find pretty much anyone with enough money to travel and access to visas.

Diaper changing - a political act?

Changing a diaper in a public place is always a fun undertaking. Be it a car seat (car stopped, of course), a lurching train, a shaking airplane, or just a dirty public restroom, I've done it all. I've noticed, over the years, that the symbol for a changing pad/area/room can vary. See below.

Image 1:

Image 2:

I apologize for the low quality of the photos (one taken in an airplane and the other in a train), but they raise interesting questions: does it matter who's changing the diaper? Should I be offended when I see the figure of a woman (Scotts notwisthstanding) used to depict this activity? Is it preferable to use the more gender-neutral figure wearing trousers?


Here are some answers:
1) as a man of Western culture, I find it regressive, more than offensive, that the act of changing diapers, and by extension of caring for children, should be seen as the purview of women alone. Not only does it confine women in their role as mothers, but it denies the fact that many men want to and can take care of children just as well as any woman. Signs as the one shown in Image 1 reinforce gender-stereotypical child caring roles to the detriment of both men and women, and of equality.

2) In a culture where women cannot or do not wear trousers, Image 2 raises the issue in the other direction... Are men then the only ones who can change a diaper? One could surmise that a culture barring women from wearing trouses would frown on men's changing of diapers. However, I can't be sure of that, so the issue will have to remain unresolved. In addition, the notion of what constitutes a gender-neutral figure is clearly more complex than meets the eye.