The Periscope Post

Opinion-makers: Who to read today.

Sarah Palin against Koran-burning and Manhattan mosque
Sarah Palin, erstwhile governor of Alaska and general font of frequently spurious knowledge, weighed in on the outrage over the Dove World Outreach Center’s plan to burn copies of the Koran on the anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks. Palin posted her two-cents on her Facebook page: “Book burning is antithetical to American ideals. People have a constitutional right to burn a Koran if they want to, but doing so is insensitive and an unnecessary provocation – much like building a mosque at Ground Zero.” [Ed. note: The “mosque” is neither strictly a mosque (it’s a community center) nor at Ground Zero (it’s about two blocks away and around the corner).]

Palin continued with a direct appeal to Dove World pastor Terry Jones and his congregants, admonishing, “If your ultimate point is to prove that the Christian teachings of mercy, justice, freedom, and equality provide the foundation on which our country stands, then your tactic to prove this point is totally counter-productive.”

Bringing it back to the Islamic community center, “We don’t need to agree with each other on theological matters, but tolerating each other without unnecessarily provoking strife is how we ensure a civil society. In this as in all things, we should remember the Golden Rule. Isn’t that what the Ground Zero mosque debate has been about?”

Palin has a point, if one assumes, as much of the American right does, that the building of the community center is intended as a provocation. And not everyone’s buying it: “As it is, comparing burning a religion’s most sacred book to building an Islamic-themed community center in a Burlington Coat factory near Ground Zero is like comparing an apple placed on a table next to someone slightly allergic to apples with Daisuke Matsuzaka pitching an orange in the face of a person just released from the hospital with a broken nose. But, oh well, I guess we should just be thankful Sarah Palin isn’t the Koran-burning’s keynote speaker,” wrote Gawker.com’s Adrian Chen.

Despite the snarky disapproval of folks like Gawker, Palin’s post has garnered 20,230 likes so far.

The wisdom of The Preppy Handbook
Thirty years ago this fall, a dapper, plaid-covered bomb landed in the American social structure: The Official Preppy Handbook. And it changed lives, including but certainly not limited to, LA Times columnist Meghan Daum. “As I got older, everything from my college choices to my taste in cars (rusty Saabs) was influenced by the tongue-in-cheek yet strangely practical advice doled out by coauthor and editor Lisa Birnbach and her able collaborators,” Daum confesses. And now, Birnbauch, along with her co-writer, Chip Kidd (no, really) have penned a sequel, True Prep, which stays loyal to the “WASP-worshipping, summer-house-owning, seersucker-loving milieu so deliciously deconstructed in the first book”. But is it relevant, especially for recession dogged America? Yes, it is. It’s no longer a field guide to spotting preppies, but a how-to on being one, at least in spirit. “Over the course of 30 years, it seems this has become more of an equal-opportunity venture. One need no longer be white, Protestant, heterosexual — or even accomplished at tennis — to be a preppy,” wrote Daum.

And now, she opined, “Perhaps preppiness is less about demographics and style than it is about living decently in an often indecent world. As stuffy and elitist as its preoccupations can be, preppiness at its core is ultimately about self-respect. It’s about pulling your pants up. It’s about being able to come up with an acceptable answer when asked what book changed your life. It’s about knowing that you don’t necessarily need to have money to have class. And what better time to be reminded of all this than now?”

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