Who plans their pampering so far in advance?

Not I, said the cat.

Ha! So glad you guys were talking about Christina Hoff Sommers, b/c Bob & I argued about this last night at length. I thought the tag thing was total bullshit, and Jon was going after her pretty aggressively. This is how I heard the interview:
Sommers: We've looked at classrooms...in playgrounds they've replaced tag with "circle of friends."
[laughter]
Sommers: [some description of this ridiculous sharing game to much derisive laughter]
Jon: Really?
Sommers: Well it's in this book, Quit it!...
[later]
Jon: So this is pervasive?
Sommers: These are trends, happening everywhere.
Jon: No tag in schools.
Sommers: Well, there's tag, but they eliminated dodgeball...
Jon: What about inner city schools?
Sommers: [evasive]

I thought the whole idea that tag had actually been replaced sounded just irrational and stupid and it seemed clear that she was citing to something recommended by the government (we googled, Quit It is a DOE pub) without actually having seen this phenomenon. It sounded too good to be true for her purposes. And then when she was challenged, she was ridiculously mealy-mouthed throughout the entire interview!

FTR, Bob didn't think eliminating tag in favor of this game was completely unthinkable and so the fact that she avoided actually affirming that she'd seen this empirically wasn't persuasive to him. I asked him to google and he couldn't find any evidence that any school had eliminated tag.

I finally got teh voice mail set up on my new phone. AND got the IM feature to work (except I am not sure how it works). everyone should caontact me.

supposedly I can get on some webpages through my new phone. not sure how that works. clearly I need to read the book.

That happened here a few years ago...the girl was fourteen.

It's the new Republican party. Government doesn't need to regulate corporations, it needs to regulate the moral decisions of individual people. Also, forget all that fiscal responsibility crap, that's passe.

Oh, that poor girl. I can't imagine what she's going through right now.

Pray that she isn't used to the extent that Terri Shaivo was. This poor child will have the rest of her life to suffer the consequences of whatever decisions are made. I'm hoping Jeb is gone on vacation somewhere and not paying attention. It would be so nice if DCF cared as much about the welfare of this girl as they do about her fetus. I'm sick for her.

Hec and I were rolling our eyes forever at Sommers, and when she was mourning the untimely death of that glorious good sportsmanship teaching tool dodgeball, we were pumping our fists in the air and saying, "ABOUT FUCKING TIME. DODGEBALL DELENDA EST."

My personal favorite moment of the entire show came earlier, though, when Stewart mocked the tee-heeing giggly us-girls ineptitude of the CNN co-anchors at the end of a serious, depressing story in which a spokesflackster had just lied on-air: he flailed, he giggled, he exploded into righteous expletive-laced fury. I would've had his baby right then and there.

This is how I heard the interview:

That's pretty much how it sounded to me, too.

I'm not sure how tag could be eliminated from public schools. In gym class, sure, but at recess? It's ridiculously impractical.

This poor child will have the rest of her life to suffer the consequences of whatever decisions are made.

Not to mention the spotlight that's being trained on her situation.

I saw TDS with Christina Hoff Summers. I agree. She's too vague and evasive. She should have came to the interview better prepared. But it could very well be her book is all based on this kind of anecdotal observation rather than solid research. I like how John pushed her about the red ink issue. She should have been more specific in her examples.

I also finally caught up and saw Reza Aslan. DAMN! That boy's a hottie. I heard his interview on Fresh Air. It doesn't surprise me. I know some extremely hot Iranian men here in town. Persian boys are too adorable.

I'm going back to the library to get his book. I think I'll skip the Summers' book.

13 years old is too young to have a baby. It's physically dangerous and cruel to put her through it. I hope they tracked down who the father is and beat him in the head with a giant brick.