Great article in the WSJ about the debate over today’s high school kid’s dancing.

They’re oblivious no longer. A new resolve by school officials in this booming Dallas suburb to crack down on sexually suggestive dancing — and skimpy clothing — has sparked a rancorous debate over what boundaries should be set for teenagers’ self-expression. Argyle joins a long list of other schools around the country that have banned the hip-hop inspired dancing known as “grinding” or “freak dancing.”

… The dancing dispute is proving tougher to resolve. “Our community needs to show these students how much we value them by not allowing them to devalue themselves,” says Spencer Jefferies, father of a sophomore girl, who supports Mr. Ceyanes’s efforts. Others disagree. “We never had a problem before,” said one of the more outspoken parents, Barbara Roberts. She says she spent $400 for her 17-year-old daughter’s dress only to have her leave the dance after a few minutes because it was such a dud.

Students defend their style of dancing, blaming the disagreement on the same sort of generation gap that turned Elvis Presley’s swiveling hips into a public controversy in 1956. Some Argyle teens say they realize grinding might look erotic, but they insist it’s just dancing, not sex. “We don’t think of it that way,” says Ferrin Bavousett, 17. “When we dance, we don’t mean, ‘Hey, after the dance you want to go to La Quinta?’” referring to a nearby motor hotel.

Yeah, it’s hard to object to this and not sound like a prudish parent. But, come on — these kids are dancing together like strippers giving a lap dance! Can’t we find a little common ground here?

Interesting article about the disinterest of email for the younger generation:

Those of us older than 25 can’t imagine a life without e-mail. For the Facebook generation, it’s hard to imagine a life of only e-mail, much less a life before it. I can still remember the proud moment in 1996 when I sent my first e-mail from the college computer lab. It felt like sending a postcard from the future. I was getting a glimpse of how the Internet would change everything—nothing could be faster and easier than e-mail. Ten years later, e-mail is looking obsolete.

According to a 2005 Pew study, almost half of Web-using teenagers prefer to chat with friends via instant messaging rather than e-mail. Last year, comScore reported that teen e-mail use was down 8 percent, compared with a 6 percent increase in e-mailing for users of all ages. As mobile phones and sites like Twitter and Facebook have become more popular, those old Yahoo! and Hotmail accounts increasingly lie dormant.

A couple of months ago, I had to tell a student that I really didn’t check my MySpace page that often and was unaware that she’d been posting stuff to it. I then (politely) told her that the best way to contact me was via email — since I really didn’t need yet another place to go to look for messages (I’ve already got three email accounts.) Guess I shouldn’t have a MySpace page if it’s only for show.

I’ve also got a friend who seems to really like text messaging me on my cell phone. He’d love to have long conversations via text message, but lately I just ignore the text and send an email in reply. I’m so old school.

When you’re ready to throw in the towel.

From Craigslist, some advice from a public defender:

When you come to court, consider your dress. If you’re charged with a DUI, don’t wear a Budweiser shirt. If you have some miscellaneous drug charge, think twice about clothing with a marijuana leaf on it or a t-shirt with the “UniBonger” on it. Long sleeves are very nice for covering tattoos and track marks. Try not to be visibly drunk when you show up.

Consider bathing and brushing your teeth. This is just as a courtesy to me who has to stand by you in court. Smoking 5 generic cigarettes to cover up your bad breath is not the same as brushing. Try not to cough and spit on my while you speak and further transmit your strep, flu, and hepatitis A through Z.

I’m a lawyer, not your fairy godmother. I probably won’t find a loophole or technicality for you, so don’t be pissed off. I didn’t beat up your girlfriend, steal that car, rob that liquor store, sell that crystal meth, or rape that 13 year old. By the time we meet, much of your fate has been sealed, so don’t be too surprised by your limited options and that I’m the one telling you about them.

(Hattip: Instapundit.)

So CNN chose to close the debate with a ridiculously inane question to Hillary — “pearls or diamonds?”:

Specifically, a CNN spokesperson confirmed to me that the network chose that question and asked her to ask it.

But in the network’s defense the spokesperson also says that the girl wasn’t “forced” to ask it. She submitted the question in advance — it was her question — and voluntarily agreed to ask it. CNN selected the question and asked her towards the close of the debate if she wanted to ask it. She said yes.

As you may have heard by now, the girl said on her MySpace page that she was forced to ask this question and that she would have preferred to ask one about Yucca Mountain. She said this in response to the storm of criticism and ridicule the question has since received.

And it looks like the girl is right: Though she did submit the question, CNN did select it and ask her to pose it.

Hillary’s rivals are accusing CNN of going soft on the frontrunner, and they’re pointing to this question, among other things, as proof of this.

Seems like this is a bit overblown — but I don’t understand why the producers chose to waste time with that question in the first place.

To point out how incredible it is that MySpace led to this story would be trite, I guess. You know, media convergence and the self-publishing revolution and all that. (But, it is pretty incredible.)

Very good overview of the French public service strikes from the Economist.

A correction from the Associated Press:

In a Nov. 13 story, The Associated Press incorrectly reported that Paris Hilton was praised by conservationists for highlighting the problem of binge-drinking elephants in northeastern India. Lori Berk, a publicist for Hilton, said she never made any comments about helping drunken elephants in India.

Draw your own conclusions.

The danger of the prosperity doctrine

Great column from a high school teacher in today’s Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Dana Goldman takes aim at the “prosperity church” movement — where preachers effectively tell their constituents that God wants them to be rich. Her column starts with a quote from The Rev. Creflo Dollar, the leader of Atlanta’s World Changers church: “Without a doubt, my life is not average. But I’d like to say, just because it is excessive doesn’t necessarily mean it’s wrong.”

Goldman points out:

Eating too much and having a nice car are neither secular sins nor spiritual crimes. But what if people around us have nothing to eat and no mobility beyond their two legs? A 2006 census of the homeless in Atlanta showed almost 5,400 people with no place to lay their heads (a situation the Gospel of Luke tells us Jesus struggled with) — and that’s just within the city limits.

Even if Jesus was speaking metaphorically about his own homelessness, as Dollar has said, we still look to his teachings — and those of Muhammad, Moses, Martin Luther King Jr., the Dalai Lama and countless other religious leaders — for a guide to a moral life. As we begin to learn before kindergarten, morality isn’t just about avoiding ‘wrongs’ like stealing or lying, but choosing what’s most right in complex situations. Do I help a friend in need even if she got herself into this mess? Do I speak out if my boss says something racist, thinking I won’t mind since I’m white? Do I choose self-proclaimed excess even when many around me have little or nothing at all?

Religion isn’t necessary for ethical behavior, but it sure does help. When we look to biblical and living elders for advice on how to fill our lives with meaning, community and joy, very rarely do their answers involve big houses or big bank accounts. And while Dollar suggests that his wealth shows good standing with God, that insults those who have intentionally chosen middle-income helping professions — like nurses, social workers and teachers — because of their relationships with God.

Well said.

I fear that many in our culture have supplanted traditional spiritual pursuits — helping others, practicing kindness, being selfless — with the pursuit of money and wealth. And now they have churches that reinforce this view. That’s too bad.

Sorry for the poor quality of the photo, but I found this to be an interesting scene.

The women by the bus are sending off the Georgia Perimeter College soccer team as they head to the national finals in Texas. These two female students got a little rowdy and are — let’s say, “performing” — for the male team members. In the foreground sits a muslim student dressed in a full burka — with nothing but her eyes showing. I wonder what she thought of this show?

In the background, of course, is the American flag. As Yakov Smirnoff would say, “What a country!”

Donda West, performing artist Kanye West’s mother, has died during plastic surgery. That she died while undergoing a “tummy tuck” should prompt us all to think about our culture — where some value their appearance more than their life.