Went on holiday. Not terribly good at it. I was "supervising" the kids in the pool. Another middle-aged lady was supervising her aged mother. She plops down beside me and makes lots of inviting-conversation noises. Then she starts peering over my shoulder. "That looks like heavy holiday reading", she says.
I stop. Think about it. Not unkindly, I said, "It's the only kind of reading I do. "
"It's the only kind of reading I don't do," she replied.
That was the end of that budding relationship.
I was reading the Bell Curve, by Charles Murray and another guy who died before it was published. Fascinating. Only half way into it but the hypothesis is that IQ (or lack of it) is driving a deepening strata in society. They build a compelling case.
Couple of things I noticed while away.
The witnesses to the lion-mauling at Wellington Zoo received counselling. I wonder which training module specifically covered counselling people who witness lion attacks? And did you notice the absence of condemnation of the male juvenile-deliquent lions?
Ex Labour MP, Mark Peck became the Smoke Free Coalition boss. How awful. He admits to fighting his own addictions of gambling and alcohol yet has no compunction about making a living out of heaping more guilty misery onto addicted smokers.
And finally, Judith Collins beefing about CYFS spending at least $300,000 on conferences for their social workers made me feel an uncharacteristic pang of sympathy (stopping short at Ruth Dyson) for this dogsbody of an agency. The National opposition is about as effective as a hawk hanging over a road-kill but none-the-less keeps CYFS name in the public's bad books, their "clients" hate them, and the government hates them (let's contract out to the private sector so we can't be blamed for the tragic and predictable failure of bottom-of-the-cliff services.)
What JC should be talking about is the government's ongoing encouragement of widespread illegitimacy (it's as good a word as any to convey my meaning) and associated woeful parenting. She has seen enough of it in her electorate.
Politically, I haven't missed much of moment.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Welcome back from what I hope was an enjoyable holiday!
I have just witnessed yet another fall into the 'illegitimacy' trap.
18, no qualifications and a deatbeat sperm donor who can't/won,t hold a job. Not doubt he will decamp shortly.
Of course she will keep the baby- poor bloody thing!
How to flush your life down the toilet- at our expense.
There definitly was something to be said for this being a shameful condition...
Been meaning to read that for years, The Bell Curve. But it's so damn thick.
Lindsay, better to say "irresponsible breeding" rather than "illegitimacy" - the latter effectively labels the child as not being "correct" and has legal history until the late 60s in denying the child the rights of succession, or even to claim the parents are of the child.
Illegitimate as a term has origins around a child being in a state of sin having been born of sin - which is a rather vile concept.
Post a Comment