{"id":1440,"date":"2002-01-05T01:04:44","date_gmt":"2002-01-05T06:04:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/?p=1440"},"modified":"2002-01-05T01:04:44","modified_gmt":"2002-01-05T06:04:44","slug":"calling_a_spade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/01\/05\/calling_a_spade.html","title":{"rendered":"Calling a spade a spade (so to speak)"},"content":{"rendered":"

James Lileks rants<\/a> on Peace Schools and the idea that all cultures are equally wonderful.<\/p>\n

There are some people whose hackles prick up and twitch if you say the West is culturally superior to the Arab world. … As if freedom of religion, freedom of property, freedom of artistic expression, astonishing technological innovation, gender equality and democracy are somehow subjectively defined in this context. In this country, women can not only drive, but be National Security Advisor. I mean, the United States put a robot on a Martian moon, and Saudi Arabia chopped off the heads of three guys last week for being gay. I think we have the slight edge in the cultural development department, but that\u2019s just me.<\/p>\n

Lileks’ site is always entertaining, provocative, hilarious and poignant. If you aren’t reading it, you should.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

James Lileks rants on Peace Schools and the idea that all cultures are equally wonderful. There are some people whose hackles prick up and twitch if you say the West…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-geopolitical-brouhaha","category-zt-pc"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":38103,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/07\/02\/movie-review-cast-a-deadly-spell-1991.html","url_meta":{"origin":1440,"position":0},"title":"Movie Review: "Cast a Deadly Spell" (1991)","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 2-Jul-13 9:28pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Sam Spade (or is it Phillip Marlowe?) meets Harry Dresden , as Fred Ward plays a noir detective mamed Phil Lovecraft who's the only one in 1948 Los Angeles who doesn't know magic. 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