Friday, June 1, 2012
Recall Election
Thursday, May 24, 2012
Julia's war on feminism
The antidote to “learned helplessness” and its corollary unhappiness is “earned success,” according to economist Arthur Brooks, happiness authority and president of the American Enterprise Institute. In his new book, “The Road to Freedom,” Brooks explains that “people crave earned success, which comes from achievement, not a check. It's the freedom to be an individual and to delineate your life's ‘profit,'” whether measured in money, “making beautiful art, saving people's souls, or pulling kids out of poverty.”
Melanie Sturm
The Aspen Times
Aspen, CO, Colorado
When Gloria Steinem popularized the saying “A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle,” I wasn't old enough to wear a bra, never mind burn it. However, thanks to that feminist credo and its infiltration of 1970s popular culture, women of my generation grew up believing we could make it on our own, like Mary Tyler Moore. While her theme song cautioned, “This world is awfully big, girl,” our confidence rose with Mary's cap, tossed triumphantly to “You're going to make it after all.”
Indeed, we did make it, though presidential campaign operatives peddling the “War on Women” narrative want you to Think Again. They insist it's a war on women when it's actually a war for women's votes. This month's political ad “The Life of Julia” occasions the question: Which voter are they after, Georgia in Greece or Mary in Minneapolis?
Julia is a single, faceless cartoon — evidently an American everywoman — who depends on European-like, cradle-to-grave government assistance from preschool through retirement. As if being tethered to a dependency-inducing nanny state were attractive to American women (or plausible given mounting debt), Julia, like her entitled European cousin, is the anti-Mary — she can't make it on her own.
Sadly, this government-centered and soul-deadening narrative is as false and harmful to women as the notion that we should be barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen. Both beget a toxic cocktail of subservience, loss of identity and worthlessness — the antithesis of feminism. Franklin Roosevelt cautioned that dependence “induces a spiritual and moral disintegration fundamentally destructive to the national fiber” and “the human spirit.”
The antidote to “learned helplessness” and its corollary unhappiness is “earned success,” according to economist Arthur Brooks, happiness authority and president of the American Enterprise Institute. In his new book, “The Road to Freedom,” Brooks explains that “people crave earned success, which comes from achievement, not a check. It's the freedom to be an individual and to delineate your life's ‘profit,'” whether measured in money, “making beautiful art, saving people's souls, or pulling kids out of poverty.”
Earned success is what our founders meant by “the pursuit of happiness,” which is America's “moral promise” to its citizens. Brooks praises the founders' visionary insight because “allowing us to earn our success is precisely what gives each of us the best chance at achieving real happiness,” and his data proves it.
Feminists understood earned success, knowing self-reliance and freedom would yield more choices, achievement, self-respect and fulfillment if women had a level playing field. Now, four decades since Helen Reddy sang “I Am Woman,” women are “The Richer Sex” — the book by Liza Mundy documenting women's economic advancement. The New York Times book review noted that women hold 51 percent of management and professional jobs; wives at least co-earn in two-thirds of marriages; and women earn 57 percent of bachelor's degrees and make up 60 percent of graduate students.
Meanwhile, according to a March National Journal poll, three-quarters of women believe they can advance as far as their talents take them. Not surprisingly, women account for seven of the top 10 spots on Forbes' 2012 World's Most Powerful Celebrities list, including the top two, Jennifer Lopez and Oprah Winfrey.
Despite these spectacular achievements, economic stagnation makes otherwise self-sufficient women — especially single ones — insecure and uncertain. Preying on this anxiety, ambitious politicians cast themselves as compassionate by promising a lifetime of government benefits to a nation of Julias. Considering the tortuous unraveling of the eurozone, this idea is both fantasy and dangerous.
In Europe, hopelessly large social security and entitlement promises exceed governments' ability to tax and borrow, crushing those who believed economic security is a basic human right. Yet, as European leaders grapple with resentments caused by austerity measures, American politicians make the same promises that precipitated Europe's crisis.
Brooks would argue that even Julia knows it's wrong to make promises you don't intend to keep. He warns, “Americans today are experiencing a low-grade, virtual servitude to an ever-expanding, unaccountable government that ... has created a protected class of government workers and crony corporations that play by a different set of rules ... and has consequently left the nation in hock for generations to come.”
Thankfully, American women are watching and willing to act. According to a Rasmussen poll released this week, nearly two-thirds of women (and men) prefer a government with fewer services and lower taxes. So rather than foster dependency, why not encourage the fiercely independent and self-reliant ethic that originally motivated feminists and propelled women's economic advancement?
The real war on women is the one waged by those whose policies undermine our economy thus limiting everyone's choices, mobility and independence. As for Julia, she'd be better served by policies that empower her as an individual, not ones that encourage reliance on government.
Think Again, Julia — you can “make it on your own.”
Melanie Sturm lives in Aspen. Her column runs every other Thursday. She reminds readers to Think Again. You might change your mind. Melanie welcomes comments at melanie@thinkagainusa.com.
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Women, Stay away from a Kennedy!
A WARNING! Drop the nearest Kennedy and walk away, fastly!
via The New York Post <SNIP> A grim-faced RFK Jr. showed up at the house at around 8 p.m.
The third of 11 children of former US Sen., Attorney General and presidential candidate Robert Francis Kennedy, he married Mary Richardson in 1994, one month after his first marriage ended following 12 years.
The ceremony took place aboard a research vessel on the Hudson River, a fitting spot for the couple, who were environmental advocates.
A family friend said Mary had known the Kennedy clan long before she married Bobby, and had been a close pal of his sister — also named Mary, but known as Kerry — since they were 15-year-olds.
“She had grown up with the Kennedy family, having been Kerry’s best friend since they were teenagers,” the friend said.
The marriage broke down amid reports of her addiction and rumors of his involvement with other women.
“She knew Bobby her whole life, and now he rejected her. Tragic,” the family friend said.
Kennedy, 58, filed for divorce on May 12, 2010, two days after Mary called police to complain about her husband — but she appeared “visibly intoxicated” when officers arrived, according to police reports.
As of yesterday, the divorce was not finalized, TMZ.com reported. But Kennedy has since been dating actress Cheryl Hines, sources said.
A day after the divorce filing, Bedford police were again called to the home because of a report of a “domestic incident” in which Mary was reportedly drunk.
Two days later, she was charged with driving under the influence when she was caught speeding down the Taconic State Parkway. Her license was suspended.
SAD SPIRAL: Mary Richardson Kennedy (above, in the home where she died) was found at this Mount Kisco estate. Her ups and downs included time with her family in 2008 and an appearance at a Westchester court in 2010 after a DWI arrest.
But members of the family rallied to her support, even during her steep decline.
Ethel Kennedy, her mother-in-law, sent a handwritten letter, seeking leniency and calling Mary a “kind, loving and generous person.”
Cops confirmed then that they had been called to the estate several times in the previous years. Mary’s close friend pointed to the strain of her 18-year marriage.
“She was lovely. She always looked out for you,” she said, but added, “She did not have it easy, being Bobby’s wife.
“I remember being seated at a dinner next to Bobby around 10 years ago that she was also at — it was the first time I had met either of them — and he put his hand on my thigh under the table. We hadn’t even spoken but to say hello. He is such a dog that way.”
The friend, who requested anonymity, alluded to the problems of other women who have married into the fabled clan: “Like all Kennedy wives, she was expected to tow the line. Stay quiet, take care of the kids, tolerate the affairs and look happy. She took solace in yoga and meditation.”
Still, the philandering took “a terrible toll,” the source said, adding, “He got all the glory, and she got no acknowledgment for what she did: holding it all together at home.”
Kennedy rarely spoke about his private life, but opened up to Oprah Winfrey in a 2007 interview.
“Pretty soon after my dad died” — referring to his father’s assassination in 1968 — “I started taking drugs,” he said. After overcoming his addiction he became an environmental advocate.
Mary, who had worked as an architect before her marriage, took up the same environmental causes and tried to turn the Bedford estate into a showcase, according to her friend.
“She was a gentle soul. She was very proud of how she had turned their family home into the truly greenest/eco-friendly home ever,” she said.
The friend said Mary took over caring for the two children from her husband’s first marriage — and then raised four of her own.
“Like so many parents of Kennedy kids, she was dealing with a wild bunch,” she said. “The kids were always getting into scrapes, and Mary was forever rescuing them.”
Additional reporting by C.J. Sullivan and Lois Weiss
The next victim! 
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Heresy by a Liberal
The article below is from the Brainstorm blog at chronicle.com mag and does not fit with what the bloggers there usually get to read and most of them and the Chronicle staff don't like it at all. She has been asked to leave the blog, never to return.
The Most Persuasive Case for Eliminating Black Studies? Just Read the Dissertations.
NB: To see Chronicle editors’ final response to the below post, please read “A Note to Readers.”
You’ll have to forgive the lateness but I just got around to reading The Chronicle’s recent piece on the young guns of black studies. If ever there were a case for eliminating the discipline, the sidebar explaining some of the dissertations being offered by the best and the brightest of black-studies graduate students has made it. What a collection of left-wing victimization claptrap. The best that can be said of these topics is that they’re so irrelevant no one will ever look at them.
That’s what I would say about Ruth Hayes’ dissertation, “‘So I Could Be Easeful’: Black Women’s Authoritative Knowledge on Childbirth.” It began because she “noticed that nonwhite women’s experiences were largely absent from natural-birth literature, which led me to look into historical black midwifery.” How could we overlook the nonwhite experience in “natural birth literature,” whatever the heck that is? It’s scandalous and clearly a sign that racism is alive and well in America, not to mention academia.
Then there is Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, author of “Race for Profit: Black Housing and the Urban Crisis of the 1970s.” Ms. Taylor believes there was apparently some kind of conspiracy in the federal government’s promotion of single family homes in black neighborhoods after the unrest of the 1960s. Single family homes! The audacity! But Ms. Taylor sees that her issue is still relevant today. (Not much of a surprise since the entirety of black studies today seems to rest on the premise that nothing much has changed in this country in the past half century when it comes to race. Shhhh. Don’t tell them about the black president!) She explains that “The subprime lending crisis, if it did nothing else, highlighted the profitability of racism in the housing market.” The subprime lending crisis was about the profitability of racism? Those millions of white people who went into foreclosure were just collateral damage, I guess.
But topping the list in terms of sheer political partisanship and liberal hackery is La TaSha B. Levy. According to the Chronicle, “Ms. Levy is interested in examining the long tradition of black Republicanism, especially the rightward ideological shift it took in the 1980s after the election of Ronald Reagan. Ms. Levy’s dissertation argues that conservatives like Thomas Sowell, Clarence Thomas, John McWhorter, and others have ‘played one of the most-significant roles in the assault on the civil-rights legacy that benefited them.’” The assault on civil rights? Because they don’t favor affirmative action they are assaulting civil rights? Because they believe there are some fundamental problems in black culture that cannot be blamed on white people they are assaulting civil rights?
Seriously, folks, there are legitimate debates about the problems that plague the black community from high incarceration rates to low graduation rates to high out-of-wedlock birth rates. But it’s clear that they’re not happening in black-studies departments. If these young scholars are the future of the discipline, I think they can just as well leave their calendars at 1963 and let some legitimate scholars find solutions to the problems of blacks in America. Solutions that don’t begin and end with blame the white man.
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Saturday, May 5, 2012
How Sad
Not only how sad this video is but the worst part is that so many people still believe this.
The video above is from 2008. The picture below is from this week. What could these women be thinking, what is going on in their minds?
Scary!
The Life of Zachary
. . . via City Journal and Nicole Gelinas
Imagining how the next generation will fare in the Obama administration’s scenario
4 May 2012
The Obama reelection campaign has created a fictional character, “Julia,” whose starring role in an online slideshow, “The Life of Julia,” has gone viral online. Julia’s story is meant to show voters “how President Obama’s policies help one woman over her lifetime.” Viewers are supposed to understand that Obama-administration policies—including funding Head Start for pre-kindergartners, mandating that insurers cover birth-control prescriptions, and preserving Medicare—have made Julia’s life better. For instance, at age 31, Julia “decides to have a child,” benefiting from “maternal checkups, prenatal care, and free screenings under health care reform.”
How might Julia’s son, whom she names Zachary, fare in a post-Obama world? Herewith “The Life of Zachary.”
Age 0: Zachary is born. Nine months earlier, Julia’s government-provided birth control failed. Unprepared for this development, Julia’s sexual partner texted her that he was not ready for a child. Julia went ahead and had the baby, and so Zachary has entered the world without a father. He starts off with disadvantages because of Julia’s “choice.” But luckily, he’s a smart, sturdy tyke.
Age 3: Zachary gets an earache. Though distressed that Zachary is in pain, Julia is relieved that her government-provided health care will take care of everything. She calls up Zachary’s pediatrician to make an emergency appointment. Zachary’s doctor’s assistant reminds Julia that the doctor’s practice sent out letters months ago to patients informing them that the practice no longer accepts health insurance. Reimbursement rates are far too low for the doctor to make a profit that way. The assistant gently suggests that Julia sign up for the doctor’s concierge service, which offers visits for a $5,000 annual retainer and a $200 per-visit fee. Otherwise, she can go to the local emergency room. Julia opts for the emergency room and waits seven hours for a check-up and prescription. Because she has no spouse to share this burden, she misses work and loses a day’s pay.
Age 5: Zachary starts kindergarten.
Friday, April 27, 2012
"If I Wanted America to Fail"
ORLANDO, Fla. -- Based on Paul Harvey’s seminal essay, “If I were the devil,” Free Market America’s provocative video-letter to America rings with the same thoughtful intensity. “If I wanted America to fail” addresses the perilous side-effects of hitching our nation’s economic well-being to the bandwagon of environmental extremism.
The video has become an Internet phenomena with over one million views in just five days, and there have been numerous requests for its publication as a guest column. The video is the launch of Free Market America, a project of Americans for Limited Government and Citizens for Lower Taxes and a Stronger Economy.
Thursday, April 19, 2012
Walker Educates Obama's Illinois On Benefits Of Tax, Labor Reform
via Breitbart.com Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI) took his campaign to stave off a Big Labor-led recall to neighboring Illinois today to extoll the virtues of his labor and tax reforms in Wisconsin. This, in stark contrast to the increased taxes and continued stagnation in President Obama's home state.
Saturday, April 14, 2012
Blue Rodeo - Don't Let the Darkness In Your Head
This is a fairly good song and performance; I was being facetious, This is fantastic.
Blue Rodeo has made a lot of great music and they have stayed together for many years also, which is very unusual. They must have some good chemistry together.
Thursday, April 12, 2012
Zimmerman v the Black World
As far as the prosecutor in Florida goes I thought that it was a terrible performance. When she came out she gave a huge smile to the family of Martin and then came the long caring look, at the family, that the liberals are good at. That is another way to cover your ass is to show that you care about a black and your pretty much home free. It takes no courage to do that and usually does not bode well for that black group or person. But it does wonders for the white person doing it. You get the adulation and the pats on the back at the cocktail parties and the am I a great person feeling for such a great person I am.
Life easier if you are a lib!
I have discovered 'Rabindranath Tagore'
I will have a Quote of the Day by Rabindranath Tagore to get our heart started in the right way in the morning.
A mind all logic is like a knife all blade. It makes the hand bleed that uses it.
Rabindranath Tagore
Monday, April 9, 2012
Voter Photo I.D.
The Meme about Voter ID is that it would deign, disproportionally, minorities and another meme is that they might not have addresses or other information that you need to get a photo ID. I assume that they mean a group of people who are on the lower end of the economic scale.
Looking back on my life, I had, among other things, a negative that kind of kept me on the lower half of the income scale; it was a lack of ‘delayed gratification’ and I also assume that some of these people that don’t have the required documents suffer the same ailment. This could be one way of teaching those who suffer from this malady; I want to vote in the next election sometime in the future and for me to be able to vote in the future I am going to have to do something now so I can do something later. There might be something else that these people might want to do in the future and some of them might have learned, from having to get a voter ID, that there might be other things you might want to do in the future so now I know I should do something now so I can get it.
Sunday, April 8, 2012
Thursday, April 5, 2012
Barry: 'We’ve got to do something about these Asians coming in'
by David Obst
If you listen closely about 30 seconds in the video Barry starts to say 'and we've got to get these Asians out and give. . .', he stops about 3/4 of the way through the word 'give ' like he was thinking of saying ' and give the businesses to black business people and instantly new he couldn't say that.
Just like Mugabe did in Zimbabwe and take the farms away from the white farmers and give them to black guys. Now the people are starving. If O'bama gets another term, I wonder to what degree some of this stuff might be actually be happening here?
Monday, April 2, 2012
The First Apple Keynote
by David Obst
And, as they say, The rest is history.
A few months later
Some people say he was nothing more than a salesman and some of us say he was probably not a real nice guy but I think history will say he was a great CEO; who had a vision and surrounded himself with great minds and doers who could put those visions in the hands of consumers and give us what we didn't know we wanted.
This was posted on a Windows 7 PC
Saturday, March 31, 2012
Coming Soon: The Washington Guardian!
I hope this is an accurate description of a new online Newspaper.
An old style news reporting with a modern format.
This is a sneak peek at the kind of story that will be covered in the Washington Guardian -- a new online newspaper that will launch in the coming months.
It's time to start asking the tough questions again.
What ever happened to the days when Sam Donaldson would relentlessly press the daily spokesman at the White House podium for clear answers to the hard questions the country wanted answered? Famed investigative reporter Jack Anderson's Washington Merry-Go-Round column made the ethically challenged shudder because they would be exposed. Democratic Sen. Bill Proxmire's weekly Golden Fleece award made federal agencies think twice about wasting the taxpayer's hard-earned dollars.
The Washington Guardian wants to return America to that golden era of accountability journalism, with a uniquely 21st century update that let's you, the news consumer, interact with the news and be part of the effort to police the ethics, spending decisions and infringements on liberty carried out in Washington. And don't think we're using partisan code words here: The Guardian will be devoted to accurate, unbiased, fair, balanced and transparent reporting. We have only one agenda: holding the powerful accountable and giving you the tools you need to dig as deeply as you want into any story we break.
Click here to find out more and sign up for updates!
