Do women ever direct films?

It dawned on me yesterday, as I was watching the closing credits of “An Inconvenient Truth” (which I actually found to be quite convincing), that I can’t think of a single prominent female film director in our country. Don’t women direct films? According to Wikipedia, the definitive source of all things true, they do. However, I barely recognized any of the names or film titles from their list (only a portion of whom are American). So let me revise my question: don’t any women become prominent film directors? I have to wonder what our films are missing out on by being directed primarily by men. Perhaps the abundance of trite and vulgar movies can be attributed to the fact that movies are primarily directed by men; perhaps a product becomes stale and mundane if it is consistently created from the same tired point of view. But beyond the effect of a male-overrepresentation, I wonder why it is that so few women hit it big in the movie industry. Hmmm…

Eastern Europe not a good place to be a fetus

Among the findings of a recent study published in the UK medical journal, The Lancet, was that there are 105 abortions for every 100 live births in Eastern Europe, outdistancing even the notoriously fetus-unfriendly region of East Asia (51 abortions per 100 births)! Man, it’s tough being a fetus these days. I wonder, how many of those (I’m guessing) millions of Eastern European abortions were for reasons other than sexual abuse and health concerns - probably the vast majority. I suppose poverty is, in fact, another factor to consider, because contraception costs money, as does raising a child, although I think abortion is a deplorable way to avoid financial liability. One bright note, however, is that the abortion rate in Eastern Europe is dropping rapidly as contraception availability improves. I hope that’s true; if people are gonna be hedonists, they at least ought to avoid killing babies along the way.

A link to the Washington Post’s article on the report can be found here.

What should we do about poverty?

This is a question I’ve been pondering lately. As is obvious, I’m a Mormon, and have been comparing the approach of our church to the approach taken by our government. One of the big differences seems to revolve around personal accountability i.e. the LDS Church stresses it, seeking to provide means for people to lift themselves up, while the government, as far as I can tell, mostly gives handouts with low expectations, if any. As is typically the case, I’m relatively ignorant of the cold hard facts, particularly as concerns the approach and current state of government welfare. What are your thoughts about poverty? Is socialism the answer? (I doubt it, but I’m always open to a convincing argument) Should we remove government welfare and hope that philanthropists come to fill the gap? Should we have merely temporary welfare? Place more emphasis on familial support? Questions, questions. Any ideas?