I read a Curious George book to my children a few weeks ago. It was a library copy — one of the very old ones, wrapped in protective plastic with decades-old, handwritten due dates inside the front cover.

The story was typical H. A. Rey fare. The man with the yellow hat was exasperatingly clueless while George was up to no good with a family of ducks in the park. Gosh, we love that little monkey.

Suddenly, though, in the midst of the mischief, I noticed something: People were smoking.

There, on the pages of a children’s book, mothers and children picnicked on checkered blankets in the park while their fathers sat casually beside them, smoking cigarettes.

I don’t know how much time you spend browsing through the pages of children’s books, but I have put in enough hours to tell you this: Smoking is unheard of. Grownups do not smoke in the presence of children or monkeys. Not ever. That would be setting a bad example.

And yet here sat these vintage daddies, puffing contentedly away on their illustrated cigarettes, while women, children, and monkeys stood idly by.

I was enchanted.

Not because I’m a fan of smoking, mind you. In fact, a good way to fall fast out of my good graces is to light up a cigarette in the presence of my kids. And I have promised each of my children a good old-fashioned throttling if ever one of them dares to start such a nasty habit.

But I was enchanted nonetheless. Because men smoking in children’s books flies in the face of the modern day epidemic I would describe as “sanitized childhood.”

We’ve given our kids’ childhoods a power washing. We filter and sanitize their worlds and experiences in a way that past generations never thought to do.

Did you know, for example, that you can buy DVD copies of the original episodes of Sesame Street, but that they come with a disclaimer?

“These early Sesame Street episodes are intended for grown-ups,” the insert says, “and may not suit the needs of today’s preschool child.”

I think it would be far more accurate to say that classic Sesame Street episodes where Oscar the Grouch is truly grouchy, where children ride bicycles without helmets, and where Cookie Monster overindulges in saturated fats, may not suit the needs of today’s parents of preschoolers.

The needs of today’s preschool child are really not very different from those of children of previous generations. When we sanitize childhood, though, we run the risk of neglecting some of these needs. Here are three basic ones I think get lost in the “sanitation”:

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Pennsylvania Catholic priest Fr. Larry Richards, aiming to clear up “gender confusion” and to challenge men to pursue holiness, has released a new book titled “Be A Man: Become the Man God Created You to Be.”

In the book, Fr. Richards recounts his own efforts to learn “true manhood” and shares inspiring stories from men he has counseled and served in his decades as a priest, a press release from Ignatius Press says.

He encourages men to appreciate the differences between men and women, to set the right goals in life, to acknowledge personal faults and limitations, and to be masculine without being “macho.”

“Would you take a bullet if someone was raping your wife?” is one of his provocative questions to men.

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A pro-life group is criticizing pharmaceutical company Neocutis’ defense of its use of cells harvested from an aborted fetus in the development of burn treatments and anti-aging creams. While the company said it takes seriously concerns about the dignity of human life—going so far as to cite a Vatican document—the pro-life group is questioning Neocutis’ version of the facts.

Last week the organization Children of God for Life released a statement criticizing Neocutis’ use of cells harvested from an aborted fetus in the development of anti-aging creams. The group also called for a boycott.

The “Processed Skin Proteins” (PSPs) being used in Neocutis’ burn and wound treatments were reportedly taken from an electively-aborted 14-week-old male fetus donated by the University Hospital of Lausanne in Switzerland.

The baby’s cells were used to create a working cell bank by laboratory cultivation. The cells now number in the hundreds of millions.

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Cecile Richards, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, sent an email to her supporters on Monday, complaining of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) campaign against the abortion-funding health care bill. Richards begged for quick action from abortion supporters to counter the bishops’ influence and push the bill through Congress.

Richards’ attack was spurred by the nation-wide campaign the USCCB has recently launched, seeking to mobilize parishioners and clergy to call their representatives and senators to defeat the abortion-funding health care bill in Congress.

In the email, Richards breathlessly avers that “every group opposed to a woman’s right to choose is pulling out all the stops this week to bring all the progress we’ve made on health care reform to a grinding halt.”

She then urges abortion supporters to contact their senators and representatives and tell them to continue to work for the health care bill. “I know that you’ve likely e-mailed and called before,” she writes, “and I’m asking you to do it again today – and it won’t be the last time.”

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The house that Mickey Mouse built is taking a hit. The Walt Disney conglomerate that spans from Hannah Montana to most of Hollywood and from ESPN to sprawling worldwide resorts is giving up ground. It is minor turf, but still Walt and Team Disney’s lawyers are not used to losing.

Since 1998, Disney’s “Baby Einstein” videos and DVDs has been aggressively marketed to parents of young children intent on increasing Junior’s intelligence. For ten years, children from three months to three years (the target group) have been glued to screens and the Disney Empire has raked in millions. A 2003 study found that one-third of all American babies aged between 6 months and two years had been exposed to a Baby Einstein video. Disney’s success has spawned several competitors who promise to give Junior a leg up in the music world, the sports world and maybe even the world of making millions with phony promises.

But the spurt in grey matter hasn’t materialized. Folks at the Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood have been pressuring Baby Einstein for evidence that their materials were anything more than electronic baby sitters. Turning up the heat, the American Academy of Pediatrics, concerned with all the time infants are spending transfixed before television sets, has recommended no screen time. Under pressure, then, the Disney marketers are dropping the word “educational” from their advertising and providing refunds to disappointed parents.

While the $15.99 cheque from the Disney empire may appease the saddened parents of dull-eyed, TV-addicted kids, will this sop solve a larger problem? Will it lead parents to get more balanced goals for their children?

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A presentation given to a group of young people in Christchurch last week…
(The other five parts are linked to below)

Watch part three of this talk…

Watch part four of this talk…

Watch part five of this talk…

Watch part six of this talk…

When I was a physics major in college, my father happened to be a professor of Medieval Philosophy at the same institution. One day, after lecturing on Dante and the Music of the Spheres, he happened across my physics professor, Jim Lang: “Jim, can you hear the music of the spheres?” Lang: “Hear it? Hear it? Bill, I can’t turn the damn stuff off!” That ought to be our attitude toward the ways in which the invisible things of God are made visible by the things of creation, which I think is the crux of the question, “Are we beyond the conflict between science and faith?”

The question seems factual, almost a kind of sociological investigation – is it or is it not the case that most of a certain group of what? – intellectuals?, citizens?, common persons on the street?, religious believers? scientists? are beyond the conflict between science and faith? But I am a philosopher, a believing and practicing Roman Catholic. I am not concerned primarily about that sociological question. My focus is and ought to be the tacit normative claim. Ought we to be beyond that conflict? The answer, of course, is yes.

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The more television that a three-year-old watches, the more likely he or she is to behave aggressively, according to a US study.

Just having the TV on in the background, even if the child wasn’t watching it, was also linked to aggressive behaviour although the relationship wasn’t as strong, said the researchers.

“Parents should be smart about TV use,” researcher Jennifer Manganello from the University at Albany, State University of New York, told Reuters Health.

“They should limit the time that children use TV, pay attention to the content of TV programs, and consider how TV is used throughout the home.”

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The ACT Government, which oversees the capital area of Canberra within New South Wales, offered $77 million to hospital owners Little Company of Mary Health Care (LCMHC). It claimed the takeover would boost investment in the hospital and streamline services.

The LCMHC would be able to purchase the nearby palliative care center, Clare Holland House, for $9 million. It has provisionally agreed to the deal.

The Government’s claims of improved service and taxpayer savings, the Archdiocese of Sydney reported, are seen by many as “no more than smokescreen with many Catholics and non-Catholics in Canberra unconvinced by such claims.”

Cardinal Pell believes the Government’s offer should be seen in the wider context of hostility to religious participation in public life and service provision. He has warned that other religious-run public hospitals will be targeted if the sale of Calvary Public Hospital is successful.

“Whatever the peculiarities of the ACT, what happens at Calvary will inevitably have some effect on other Catholic health care institutions,” Archbishop Coleridge commented. He said the loss of the hospital would diminish the Catholic voice and Catholic contributions to the ethical debate concerning the adoption of a Charter of Human Rights.

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