The state of the culture

This is apparently a story from last year, but I just saw somebody post about it today and decided I had to share it:

When people say things like "40 is the new 30" or "60 is the new 40," I know it's to make us feel better about getting older (and to reflect the fact that people are living longer, healthier lives these days). But when they say "25 is the new 18," is that a way to make people feel better about trying to avoid adulthood?

Talk about brave souls:

If you ever need to know who was the prime minister in 1960 and you’re willing to wait 10 minutes for the answer, Blair McMillan is your man.

He’ll take his time carefully thumbing through a volume of his vintage encyclopaedia set, donated by a bewildered soul who probably wondered why the 26-year-old father of two couldn’t just get an Internet connection.

Didn't think I could still be shocked by anybody's opinion of sex, butI guess I can be. In a column for The Wshington Post, writer and former lawyer Betsy Karasik weighs in on the case of the Montana teacher who got just a 30-day sentence for the rape of a 14-yeaf-old student. Was she, like many, horrified at such leniency?

Hardly:

The last word on Miley Cyrus:

There seems to be a slight imbalance here. Elizabeth Paige Coast made a false accusation of rape, and then:

Coast, 26, accused Johnathan C. Montgomery, a former neighbor of raping her in 2000 when she was 10 years old and he was 14. She later admitted that she made up the story and lied on the witness stand at his June 23, 2008, trial.

If you're a wedding photographer in New Mexico and refused to take pictures at a gay wedding, too bad for you -- you've just violated your state's human rights act. So says the state Supreme Court, which cited the need to compromise in a multicultural, pluralistic society "to accommodate the contrasting value of others." This strikes me as an evenhanded response:

Guess we knew this was coming:

Even before the school bells are ringing for many families, retailers are sounding sleigh bells.

Yes, that's right. With 120-plus shopping days left, stores are already talking up their holiday offers.

I know complaints about the earlier and earlier start of the Christmas season are getting tirsome, but, c'mon! August? This just in: Black Friday sales are being moved to the labor Day weekend.

Here's a good argument starter from Charles Krauthammer:

So finally it's come to this. Daniel Boone is seen by some as offensive:

Is a cartoon-like college mascot reminiscent of Daniel Boone -- right down to the legendary coonskin cap -- racist, sexist or otherwise offensive?