Letters to the Editor
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Do you have evidence that pot is bad for fetuses?
Because I don't think there is any. While she was probably a recreational user, there are lots of medical conditions (pregnancy-related and otherwise) which respond best to marijuana. And if you had any idea some of the drugs that are being prescribed for pregnant women these days, you might not be so judgmental.
Of course, I do think that people who have just smoked or are actively smoking pot should not drive. However, I don't see how pregnancy makes this a worse crime.
Also, Rob Lowe and that Austrian freak are fathers, not mothers.
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Come on
How can you include a woman smoking pot while pregnant in the same post as the story out of Austria? I don't want to be the first poster on this thread, all, "pot? no problem!" but you do realize that pot is like 1000 times (or exponentially) less harmful for a developing fetus than alcohol? That in spite of very determined and motivated studies attempting to find long-term damage, very little is found? Not to mention, um, not as dangerous to drive under. I'll probably be pregnant one day, and I won't do any drugs. But if I were going to pick one, it would be weed. Over cigarettes any day.
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Sorry, I see it was Rob Lowe's wife who was accused.
Sorry.
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Don't forget about 200 posts from Broadsheet this week
that assume women are helpless except when they're just oppressed.
Joanne Walsh also said this week, (last week?) that's she not a humorless feminist and doesn't hire them.
She owes me a keyboard. And a sammich.
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Jane Eyre-meets-John McCain situation going on right under their feet
Can you explain what you mean by that reference?
It certainly seems offensive beyond the extreme to try to link John McCain to any of this.
At long last, have you no sense of shame? James, have you considered you may be a douchebag? (And I say that as a supporter of Hillary Clinton.)
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John McCain the torture victim
Not politician.
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James, seriously:
...forcing seven rape-children on her...
...Holocaust-y overtones...
...Jane Eyre-meets-John McCain situation...
The jaw-clenching terror...
...the Texas polygamists with the Blade Runner hair...
This is bad writing. Bad, ugly, silly and offensive. You are trying and failing to be creative and clever. Stop. Try being clear and concise instead. Save the fancy writing for your fancy novel.
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A little respect?
Calling the unfortunate children who were victims of abuse "feral" and "rape-children" is so disrespectful and nasty I can't believe Salon published the piece. Feral? Their conception was an act of terrible violence, but that doesn't make them subhuman wild animals. Moreover, their mother seems by media accounts to have loved them and cared for them as best she could; doesn't basic human respect for her preclude this kind of language?
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I'm a little sad
At first I thought, "omg, they let a dude post on broadsheet! yay!"
But there was something in this post that rubbed me the wrong way, and I'm no mommy-sympathizer. Maybe the last sentence? Some moms and dads abuse their kids in all kinds of ways, no need to throw the whole Mother's Day into the trash heap...
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Wait ...
This is Broadsheet?
Why is a man writing a rant against evil women on Broadsheet?
(You know -- women who idly stand by while their husband imprisons and rapes their daughters, and women who smoke pot while pregnant.)
What is going on here? Have I entered the Twilight Zone, where misogynist commenters are suddenly posting articles?
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seconded, thirded, and put to a vote..
this was a terrible Braoadsheet post, insulting to so many groups in oh-so-many ways.
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the Jane Eyre-meets-John McCain situation
Come on, it was really more of a 'Flowers in the Attic situation'
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The single largest cause of preventable birth defects
In the USA today?
Fetal Alcohol Syndrome.
Caused by the ingestion of ethyl alcohol by a pregnant woman.
But of course, James Hannaham has to talk about pot.
Speaking ill of the drug war is simply not done on Salon.
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I'm not offended by "feral."
I'm not sure it's accurate, though. Though they grew up outside civilization, they weren't raised in the wild; they were confined.
James, I do appreciate your attempt to make what is essentially a Broadsheet roundup into a single narrative, but I don't think it actually worked this time. These are all very different stories and not all of them involve mothers. And some of them actually deserve a post of their own. A follow-up about the polygamist ranch now that we know the mothers I stupidly felt sorry for last week were actually coaching their multiply-fractured, sexually abused kids not to talk to authorities would be a great idea. And I know all that just from looking at AP wire headlines, so someone who actually looked into it further could really go to town.
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LeCastor, not to pick old scabs, but...
do you remember Farhad Manjoo's Broadsheet debut, back in the day? I would love to see more guys writing here (personally, I think they should just give the Middle East beat to C-Bob), but there appears to be a bit of a hazing process. (And I appear to be participating. Maybe I am more "feral" than I realized!)
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@ melthough
I don't! When was that? i missed it.
It just seemed like this post was really mean, no redeeming humor, just bitterness and bad feeling.
I don't want to haze anyone, I'm just sayin'...
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It used to be that sociopath moms weren't newsworthy
It was assumed those fragile beast were prone to flipping out. Now what with equality you get your comeuppance just like everyone else. I don't think I've NOT read a story of some female teacher caught screwing some student repeatedly, every day for the past 2 or 3 weeks. I am woman, hear me.....moan?
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nice
rape-children? seriously? how nice for them.
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@LeCastor
http://www.salon.com/mwt/broadsheet/2005/12/01/conley_take_two/index.html
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feral children
Have to point out that Hannaham didn't coin that one. Researchers commonly refer to children who are imprisoned for years and prevented from being socialized as feral children. I'm not sure the children in the Fritzl case should be called feral, since they were with their mother, who educated and socialized them.
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regarding Rosemarie
My first question when I read about the Fritzl case was, "Where was the mother?"
But having read some more about the subject, she seems to be less culpable than I first imagined. The space under the house is practically sound-proofed. Husband didn't let her anywhere near it. The door is so well concealed that the police weren't able to find it when they knew it was there and were looking for it. She seems to be something of a weak-willed nonentity who allowed her husband to bully her in many ways, but that's all too common.
And let me add my voice to those saying that saying the Fritzl case had to do with bad MOTHERS is up there with the worst misogynistic paranoia we get from male trolls in Broadsheet. WTF?