Monday evening roundup

The most balanced perspective I've seen with regard to who owns the death camps. The most balanced perspective I've seen with regard to debating intervention in Syria. When "well-meaning" revolution went wrong in Nicaragua and Cuba. Alright, let's talk about this kids-on-planes issue, which you know is close to my heart. I would be lying if I said I were posting this without even a trace of sanctimony--sometimes there are no-$hit consequences of your kid's not settling down--but even I'm not as hard-core as this writer, who is actually a parent. I will address the iPad issue: you know you're gonna have to turn the iPad off so why not try something low-tech to keep them amused? At the same time, we all know that sometimes kids will be uncontrollable (and yet, (many) parents these days don't seem to acknowledge that that shouldn't be everyone else's problem). I also have no sympathy over the CTA argument about how luggage fees punish parents:

“Families traveling with infants and toddlers often can’t avoid checking extra bags filled with everything from the many clothes changes needed for small children to diapers, toys, special blankets, and baby bottles,” says Charlie Leocha, director of the Consumer Travel Alliance. “Meanwhile, elderly passengers who lack the upper-body strength to get carry-ons into access overhead bins, also must check baggage and pay extra fees.”

Really? I have to subsidize what may be four different strollers, and any amount of special toys? Pay for that $hit yourselves. Where does it end? Now, I know you're going to tell me you try but sometimes you can't help it, and I believe you, but not all parents are you, and please believe me when I tell you I've been on the same flight with more than my fair share of unruly kids whose parents let them run wild (sometimes literally). I have to agree that there needs to be more of the onus has to be on parents, i.e. your kids are your responsibility. If you can't think of a way to manage them, you can't just make them everyone else's problem. Here's something more infuriating than a screaming child on a plane: hypocrisy, coal, and interpreting bathtub pictures as child pornography. Oh, also, some people think birth control is entirely a woman's responsibility. Any other Smithies think it's hilarious that, for the aging hippie, the Journal recommends Northampton. Lots of good stuff in this article about conscious separation. I loved this:

We took a Calvinist approach to our union, as if “hard work” could yield a better match. Or he did. I was probably channeling the sculptor Rodin. As if by constantly chipping away at each other, we would reveal an edifice of perfect love. Other times, I felt we were erecting a scaffolding of a life — beautiful home, nice parties — and hoping the snug interior would fill itself in. My husband is a good person: hard-working, committed to social justice. But I’ve come to a startling truth about myself: I might be happier with a less ambitious partner, someone less focused on his career and curing the ills of the world and more focused on me, actually, and the piddling details of our family life.

Do also read the last letter here, but I also appreciated this response to the first one:

If anyone claims to have made it to middle adulthood without being able to cite a moment when s/he, wittingly or not, treated someone cruelly, then that person is either delusional or a saint.

On a lighter note, I'm thinking about what to wear to this wedding I'm going to in just over a week. I quite like some of these--though not the first one recommended for a garden party--and I think I have a dress that's not unlike some of the nicer ones in style.