Norwegian Wimps

Norway’s first female defense minister, Eldbjoerg Lowewer, criticized an army lieutenant colonel when he suggested that sons of single mothers grow up to be wimps.

“I’m both sad and upset that the armed forces can stigmatize a whole group in society in such a hurtful way,” Loewer was quoted as saying. Lieutenant Colonel Lars Frantzen said that sons of single mothers have a higher risk of failing to complete military service than boys with a father because they lack skills traditionally attributed to macho types. He said he feared that such people might spawn a society in which men were unable to climb trees, change car tires, sleep in a tent for a week or shoot a rifle.

He said society as a whole was drifting toward a lazier, sedentary lifestyle, but especially faulted single mothers, saying they preferred to take children to cultural events rather than diversions such as climbing or nature hikes.

One theme you may notice in pieces selected for this column is that of the organized amnesia that is becoming prevalent in our society, wherein history itself, especially its military aspects, is gradually being erased and revised. While it might make for ‘funny news’ stories now, we also owe it to ourselves to remember that what we may know of history is not automatically transmitted to our descendants.

Marsellaise de l’an 2000

A French singer-songwriter hopes to replace the bellicose lyrics of France’s national anthem, the Marsellaise, with a more politically correct version that does not threaten to fertilize the fields of France with foreigner‘s blood. Antoine Capella of Angers says he has won the support of Laurent Fabius, the Speaker of the French parliament, for his composition <>. Mr. Capella’s new version of the anthem veers away from what he called the “outrageous and fascist” elements of the original, which was scribbled overnight by Claude-Joseph Rouget de l’Isle, an army captain, whose men were defending Strasbourg from Prussian forces in 1792. Where part of the original proclaims:

“March! March!/ That [their] impure blood/ May drench our furrows,” Mr. Capella’s rewrite offers: “March! March!/ That an azure sky/ May shine on the horizon.”