Sexism in America - a reader weighs in...

Note: Mary Sulzer is a "parent activist" - that is she is actively involved in her children's education, both at home and at school, in addition to an incredible array of other youth activities.

Mary wrote:
"I have felt for a long time that the cause suffragettes suffered and died for, all the strides feminists like Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem spent their adult lives working towards, have been totally erased by our current pop culture. One need only visit any local high school and view who these young girls choose to emulate... most of them look like they are auditioning for a hip-hop video!! And who can blame them; thanks to our sexualized society, they are getting that message at an early age thanks to movies, TV, magazines, Internet... what happened to striving to break the glass ceiling??? I think all of us of a certain age are totally disgusted with the way respect for women in general has been backsliding over the years... how did it get to this point, and how can we make changes??

"Sorry if the above seems to be a disjointed rant, but this subject is one we all should be concerned about. A whole generation of young people have less positive attitudes toward women. I spend a lot of time in the company of young males, and it seems as though "relationships" take a backseat to "hooking up." Was it always this way and I just didn't notice?"

Mad Malie answered:
"I think teenagers have always been at the mercy of their hormones. Despite that they also seem to want to make a difference and can be very idealistic. But the current generation has been assaulted by a barrage of unhealthy stereotypes and standards since early childhood. Add to that an education system that concentrates on creating automatons that pass tests without understanding the material and it is all part of the dumbing down of America. You can't argue with the idealism when you see those that enlist to fight for their country or the numbers that got actively involved in the Obama campaign. Unfortunately this idealism has sometimes been mercilessly used by cynical leaders."

Mary replied:
"You are so right on with regard to the current problems facing educators today. Good teachers are stymied and hamstrung by the rigid confines of the curriculum, which is one reason it is so hard to find inspiring, electric educators that students remember long after they have graduated. I am dismayed at how some teachers in the school system here choose to relate to the students... letting them call them by their first names, using inappropriate language (to seem cool to them). The claim is that SAT scores are rising, but what does that mean for kids who cannot learn the traditional ways, or worse think outside the box and are not encouraged and commended? It would be great if you could conduct a random poll to see what others thought of these issues, especially young women."

Mad Malie:
"Oh Mary, Mary quite contrary, you are making me think a series on education should be in the works!"

Hydrofracking - Full speed ahead or time out?

The time to conduct the research to determine what, if any, long and short term environmental damage is caused by this procedure is NOW. BEFORE corporate investment in the procedure is so vast, lobbyists can prevent action. BEFORE the environment and water supply are seriously damaged. BEFORE we are so dependent upon the product we are willing to sacrifice our environment for it. WHILE individuals and communities still have a voice.

There certainly is enough anecdotal evidence to justify caution.

Haven't we learned enough from the Deep Water Horizon disaster in the Gulf to make us cautious?

A NY Daily News column about the environmental threats of modern hydrofracking: http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2010/07/25/2010-07-25_natural_gas_unnatural_risk.html

A Chesapeake Energy document that describes the process:
http://www.chk.com/Media/CorpMediaKits/Hydraulic_Fracturing_Fact_Sheet.pdf

Sexism in Media - Where the left and right converge

"Feminism was established so as to allow unattractive women easier access to the mainstream of society." Rush Limbaugh.

When it comes to sexism, the liberal left and conservative right media are on the same page. The left coverage of Sarah Palin and the right coverage of Nancy Pelosi are equally despicable.

Liberal MSNBC's coverage of the 2008 presidential campaign was unremittingly critical of Hillary Clinton and began pressing for her withdrawal from the campaign long before the tide of primary results turned against her. Mike Barnacle, Chris Matthews, Pat Buchanan, Dan Shuster, and yes, even Keith Olbermann, all participated. MSNBC's egregious sexism rivaled the ultra-conservative Fox News - no mean trick.

Then there is popular pundit, "politically incorrect" Bill Maher. Rare is the "Real Time with Bill Maher" episode that doesn't include a vicious attack on women. It pains me that someone with whom I agree on many issues is a misogynistic male-gonad-head. (I tried to clean that up, but no other expression worked for me.)

Women are objectified in advertising. Rap music videos portray abuse of women as if it merits a badge of honor. Magazine covers at the supermarket and drug store checkouts force photo-shopped images of unattainable female perfection upon us as we pay for our groceries and suddenly remember we need hemorrhoid wipes. These are WOMEN'S magazines!

Themes of violence perpetrated against women usually guarantee good sales for movies and television programs. Entertainment that portrays women as normal human beings struggling to survive in a difficult world (just like the other 49 percent of the U. S. population) is tough to find. Women who are not young and beautiful do not live on Planet Hollywood.

What we will not see in advertisements, movies or TV shows are women who resemble those you meet every day and know well. You will not see your mother, your sister, your favorite aunt, your friend, yourself unless you catch a newscaster's interview with family victims of a tragedy or natural disaster. Even there, attempts will be made to find the most desperate looking victims, the sexiest, or the dumbest - all preferable to a normal woman (or man either in this instance).

A student project from Santa Monica College I found on YouTube is a little long but you have to love them. I would like to give them all hugs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w44B1JzdwXY

Shows like The Bachelor, Real Housewives of Orange County (Atlanta, New Jersey, whatever) and CSI portray women as physically perfect, sex-crazed, intellectually challenged bimbos or tantalizingly dressed, impossibly thin, supposedly hard-as-nails detectives.

For news commentary, how about more Cokie Roberts, Christiane Amanpour, Candy Crowley and less Betty Nguyen, Alisyn Camerota and Maria Bartiromo (CNBC's "Money Honey")?

There are no more Roseannes. Roseanne Barr was my heroine. Her show was gutsy, in your face and its characters resembled people I could imagine actually knowing. She brazenly fought her producers tooth and nail until she achieved artistic control, willing to be called "difficult," "temperamental" and "controlling" to do it.

Disclaimer: Last season did bring us a handful of promising new sitcoms - The Middle, Modern Family and Parenthood. The situations are promising, but all but two of the female leads are the usual drop-dead gorgeous prototypes.

Women are not oblivious to the spurious nature of the media standards set for them. Check out the "Real Woman Fashion Show" at UC Davis.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nvu7uYQw-M&NR=1
Those California students are savvy!

Finally, a taste of what your pre-teen daughters and granddaughters are about to face:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ei6JvK0W60I&feature=related

Is there sexism in media? Is there anything else?

Possibly coming soon: Sexism - The Fellow Travelers

Sexism and the Working Mother: You've come a long way, Baby?

"There's a lot more to being a woman than being a mother, but there's a hell of lot more to being a mother than most people suspect." Roseanne Barr.

From Rosie the Riveter, forced out of the workplace when World War II ended, to the rigidly constrained housewives of the fifties, the bra burning sixties and the consciousness-raising seventies, here we are, poised to begin the second decade of the 21st century. Women no longer have to choose between homemaking and working - most must do both!

Wake up, get yourself ready for work and the children ready for day care or school; out of the house by 7:15 a.m.; drop off the kids; hustle to work. Work hard. At 5 - 5:30 p.m., race out of the office to pick up the kids; home about 6:30 p.m. if you're lucky. Make supper or, if you're running late as usual, grab takeout on the way home, feed the family and clean up. Try to spend at least an hour of quality time with the kids, check their homework and school reports, get them ready for bed. 9 p.m. choices - catch up on a few of those never-ending chores, an hour of relaxation or what your body is craving - SLEEP, so you can start the whole process over again the next day. Note: This is the easy schedule. If you work in the health care, emergency services or hospitality industries, your shifts will never match the day care center's and you will need to find a reliable babysitter, pull alternate shifts with your husband, or have a very helpful extended family (do they still exist?).

If you have to leave work for a child care issue - sickness, behavior, snowstorm - your employer will likely list every instance that year when you exercised this "privilege." You are constantly torn in different directions - at work worrying about the things you should be doing for your family; at home - thinking about all the things you need to get done at work. Saturdays are spent shopping, banking, paying bills, transporting kids to Karate, dance, soccer. Sundays are spent trying to squeeze church and family activities in between all those chores you never manage to get done during the week. Monday it all starts over again.

Most women have little job security and make considerably less than their male counterparts. Married moms occasionally have husbands who pull some of the weight. Many don't. Single moms carry a burden that would make Atlas Shrug (apologies to Ayn Rand).

Oh yeah, you've come a long way, Baby.

Coming as soon as I can boil it down to manageable proportions - Sexism in the Media.

Sexism in Politics

The day Hillary Clinton withdrew from the presidential campaign, I cried. I went next door and my neighbor Wanda and I commiserated with each other. For one brief shining season we thought the unthinkable was possible - we might have a woman president in our lifetimes. A woman whom we both admired and supported.

I do not forgive the obsessive media concentration on Clinton's hair, her clothes, her "shrillness," her "emotionalism." She was constantly and mercilessly belittled. While everyone was waxing ecstatic about the strong campaign an African American was running, Hillary was widely criticized for not bowing to the inevitable and giving in to the tide of history - as if her election would not have been equally historic.

Kristen Schaal's Daily Show segment on sexism during the campaign nailed it: http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-june-5-2008/sexism

Had Hillary been elected, her presidency would have been plagued by unabashed misogyny. Since Nancy Pelosi became Speaker of the House, commentary about her expensive clothes, Botox treatments and tightly controlled demeanor has been as vitriolic as the opposition to her policies. If Pelosi were not so rigidly controlled, she never would have risen so far. If she were not as tough-minded as Tom Delay (former Republican House Majority Leader), her legislative record would not be so successful. In Delay it was considered tough-mindedness, in Pelosi it is more likely to be labeled "bitchiness." (One indication of her power? She is as vilified by Republicans as Delay was by Democrats!)

The Clarence Thomas/Anita Hill debacle in the early 1990s still burns in my brain. All those self righteous members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, secure in their superiority - Hatch, Biden, Specter, Leahy come most readily to mind - treating Hill, a subpoenaed witness, with marked condescension. I would gleefully have thrown any one of them under the electoral bus if they had been running in my state. The bitter taste of those hearings endures to this day. One of the few things I feel Obama has gotten right is his nomination of two women to the Supreme Court.

I confess a reluctant admiration for Sarah Palin, who has managed to neutralize the sexism of the right and refudiate the misogyny of the left. I detest her political positions, but am awed (and terrified) by her success. Incidentally, I think refudiate is a GREAT word.

On April 10, 2001 Lieutenant Governor Jane Swift became the first woman governor of Massachusetts when Governor Paul Cellucci resigned to become the U. S. Ambassador to Canada. Swift made two huge mistakes - she came from the Berkshires, the western section of the state residents of the more populous eastern half tend to ignore except for leaf peeping excursions in the fall, and she had a young family (her twin daughters were born while she was governor). Staffers occasionally watched her children. This was considered a serious ethics violation. I guess no male office holder ever asked for help when they unexpectedly had charge of their kids? She once took a state helicopter home when a child was sick. Ugly behavior. Obviously far worse offenses than the wide scale corruption that plagued Boston's "Big Dig" project for years. The attacks from the media and good old boy politicians began immediately and did not let up until the day she left office. She might well have had an undistinguished term anyway. But she was never given a chance.

I think Margaret Carlson was a little harsh in this article: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,219749,00.html

Not all women in public life are admirable, competent, likable or interesting. All deserve to be judged on their merits, not sexual stereotypes.

Below is a link to a video of Senatorial candidate Ken Buck's response last week to the question why voters should choose him over his opponent (cursor down the page to see the clip): http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/The-Vote/2010/0723/Could-high-heels-joke-spike-Ken-Buck-Senate-campaign

I rest my case (temporarily).

Coming soon: Sexism - You've come a long way, baby?

Sexism in America - It's over, right?

"Why would anyone decide to alienate more than 50% of the population, cut their market in half (leaving out the half that makes the majority of purchase decisions), fail to capitalize on the intellect and abilities, not to mention the unique perspectives of the alienated half, without a reason? Perhaps there is a reason or a series of reasons buried in the collective minds of the human species. Whatever they are or were, they, much like other mental hubris from our Neanderthal past, have outlived their usefulness in today's world." Robert A. Wolf, July 24, 2010.

My friend Bob urged me to write about ongoing sexism in our society - a subject always simmering on the front burner of my thoughts. Given I have broached many other issues I care about with absolute gusto on these pages, this one should be a no brainer. It's not. My high blood pressure keeps getting in the way.

The health insurers that cover prescriptions for Viagra but not birth control pills. The failure of male-dominated legislatures to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment during the 1970s. The ongoing war against choice. The more than double cost for disability insurance premiums charged for female employees. The capricious decisions of a Supreme Court high on testosterone.

Unless she is draped in diamonds and furs or oozes sex appeal, a woman alone frequently is INVISIBLE. You enter a restaurant. You are shown to a table next to the kitchen door or behind a pillar. Your request for a better table is met with a "look" and either grudging acceptance or outright refusal. Once seated, you wait. And wait. And wait. Perhaps the staff is expecting a male escort to join you? Service is painfully slow, your order often botched. The staff addresses you as "dear" and "honey" to gloss over service shortcomings. Complaints are answered with impatient excuses and the implication you are unreasonable.

You walk into the car showroom. The sales rep wants to sell. You want to buy. Everything proceeds smoothly until it is time to close the sale and you are asked when your husband is arriving. They want the loan in both your name and your husband's, or his co-signature on your loan.

You take your car in for service and the manager inundates you with highly technical jargon about why this visit is going to cost way more than it should. Question the charges and he suggests he talk with your husband.

In social situation women often are expected to "be seen and not heard." Recently two men, professional associates of my husband and me for many years, joined me and my mother at breakfast. After initial, de rigueur pleasantries, they blithely ignored my contributions to the conversation. No wonder women make so many communal trips to restaurant ladies' rooms!

Upon retirement a woman learns she was denied equal pay for decades. The Supreme Court of the United States denies her suit for reparations on the basis the Statute of Limitations had expired.

Every Hollywood actress and female news commentator is expected to show serious cleavage. Fashion and society have been obsessed with human mammary glands for decades. Yet women nursing in public have been arrested for "indecent exposure". On an airplane, she may be instructed to cover up (this obviously SHAMEFUL act) or use the lavatory - that's right - the stinky, tiny, often dirty lavatory on the plane. Would YOU want to eat there. Give me a break.
http://www.parentdish.com/2006/11/15/mother-kicked-off-plane-for-breastfeeding-sues-airline/

Sexism in America - It's over, right?

Coming soon: "Sexism in Politics."

Summer of Critters

It started slowly with occasional sightings of the familiar old woodchuck ("Woody"). His visits became more frequent and on several occasions "Woody" appeared much younger! Woody loves the green apples falling from an apple tree that last summer magically appeared entwined with my crab apple tree.

Then there was the odd cottontail rabbit or two hopping through the back yard. My yard is not large and I live in a city. Granted, it is a small city, surrounded by country, but still.

One night a few weeks ago I glanced out my back door into the fading light and spotted two adorable, white, fluffy-tailed creatures rummaging on the lawn. The light was not good and I was wondering what they were when one turned just enough so I could make out the black strip running down its back and up the tail - skunks! I was torn between continuing to watch and shutting every window. I shut most of the windows, then returned to watch through the open door, my hand at the ready to close it quickly. Shortly after I lost sight of them, a very mild tang of "skunk" wafted through the once again open windows. Very few signs of Stellar Stenchmaker and Polly Pungent since then.

Since that night, skunk sightings have increased throughout the neighborhood. Mercifully, the revealing scent has, for the most part, been subtle.

One afternoon about 6 p.m. I spied two black and white skunks wrestling in the yard, tails raised high. Torn between breathless fascination and worry about being sprayed, I bemoaned the fact my camera was downloading to my PC and I was unable to photograph Teddy and Tommy Tailbomber. I have spotted one or the other frequently since then, but never together and never close enough or in strong enough light to get a good picture.

No one seems to know why there are so many skunks around this year. I googled skunks and came up with some interesting information, including a wonderful brochure "Coexisting with Skunks" at http://www.nj.gov/counties/mercer/departments/pdfs/mcwc_skunk_facts.pdf.

The brochure describes the benefits of these frequently vilified creatures, safety concerns, and best of all, it contains a "Magical Skunk Deodorizer Recipe."

As for me, my camera is primed and handy, my hopes high that before the summer ends I will get some great pictures of my new neighbors. Need I add I intend to proceed VERY cautiously?

Racism on the Rise

Far from signaling the end of racism in our society, the election of Barack Obama seems to have reinvigorated it.

Fear of the "other" is as human as migration. Clans and tribes band together for protection against rival clans and tribes. The larger and more powerful tribes have better defenses that the smaller, weaker ones. Racism is an outgrowth of tribalism. For a diverse society like the United States, this presents a huge challenge. How do we unify as a "tribe," which we must do for self-protection and prosperity, when we are made up of such widely diverse elements? How do we identify fellow members of our tribe? Color does not work. We have many different shades of skin among us. Features don't work. We are made up of citizens from every corner of the globe. Language and accent don't work. Members of our society speak with a legion of regional and ethnic dialogs.

Faced with this uncertainty, we can become vulnerable to political factions that exploit racism. This behavior helps them cultivate their bases. Unfortunately, it also polarizes Americans into opposing camps and distracts them from real issues, weakening the fabric of our society.

The constant accusations that Obama is racist against whites are rationalized racism. Under this viewpoint, if he acts in any way that is beneficial to any African American or harmful to any white American he is pilloried in the media. That is an untenable code of behavior and yet many in the media hold him accountable to it.

There are many, many areas in which he deserves criticism. These accusations distract from more incisive analysis of the job he is doing.

The furor over the doctored video clip of Shirley Sherrod, the summarily dismissed Department of Agriculture Director of Rural Development in Georgia, was a case in point. There were no winners and it served to heighten racial tension.

For those interested, I have posted the link to the full speech below. I admit I have not watched the full speech, but have watched a longer version on a newscast.

http://www.naacp.org/news/entry/video_sherrod/

The NAACP was another target of the aforementioned clip. The NAACP's mission has always been the integration of African Americans into American society. It has always striven to be mainstream. It has not always acted wisely but to characterize it as a racist organization is another way of stating its goal is racist and black people are not equal. I don't buy it.

73,000 Blogs Ripped from the Internet

Last week Blogetry.com "voluntarily" shut down 73,000 blogs in response to an FBI investigation. (Click on the title for one version of the story.) The linked article reports it was done because according to the FBI tens of thousands of users shared extremist, al-Qaeda sponsored hit-lists and instructions on bomb making.

Before the FBI story emerged, the most common speculation about the reason for the shutdown credited a Federal crackdown on music and video piracy.

Several weeks ago (6/24/2010) I wrote a blog about the Internet being Dangerous for Small People and federal officials' interest in bestowing control of access to it to a tiny handful of communications giants like AT&T, Verizon and Comcast.

Several weeks before that Senator Joseph Lieberman suggested that the President needed the authority and means to "turn the Internet off" if the government believed this was necessary in the face of a terrorist threat. The alternative of fortifying this valuable resource against a cyber attack was not mentioned.

The Chinese have restricted Internet access from the get-go. Are they our model?

A cyber-terrorism attack that sabotages our banking, manufacturing, utility and defense grids is a real threat to our national security. To date, our federal government has done little to guard against it. There have been absolutely no indications that the massive blog shut-down had anything to do with that type of threat.

The widespread dissemination of personal information is another Internet threat, resulting in great part from security breaches of government and corporate databases. This serious hazard to individual welfare also goes largely unchallenged by the government. Instead we get constant, meaningless "Privacy Policy" statements from those who possess our most sensitive information.

But the government appears to be very concerned about the threat the Internet poses as a vehicle of free speech. The wild and woolly exchange of information in cyberspace is mind boggling. Its availability as a platform for expression of opinion, ideas, knowledge, experience and creativity is the last best challenge to the institutions that control our media, environment, lives, livelihoods and property. I am more than willing to share the space with those with whom I vehemently disagree in return for the right to express my own viewpoint. Besides, there is always the possibility I might learn something.

Controls can be put in place to prevent terrorist exploitation of this resource. But are there any controls to protect us from those who would muffle free speech?

In the meantime, it is probably a good idea to back up your blogs. I am.

Tough Times

Millions of Americans did everything right. They diversified their assets: purchased homes, contributed to 401ks or IRAs, worked hard, saved for rainy days, invested in bonds and stocks.

Millions of Americans made mistakes: they underestimated the cost of owning their own homes, used credit cards too freely, spent more than they saved.

Millions of Americans made one huge mistake - they bought into the dream. The dream that anyone could become rich. The dream that they would be better off than their parents. The dream that the real estate market and the stock market could go up forever.

The dream that all the cards were dealt from the top of a thoroughly shuffled deck. The dream the officials they elected represented THEM. The dream that a system based upon ever increasing consumption could go on forever.

Insurers Target Choice of Doctors and Hospitals

According a July 17, 2010 New York Times article, insurers are planning to limit choice of doctors and hospitals in the plans they offer under the new Health Care bill. (Click on the title of this blog to see the article.)

On the face of it, this makes economic sense for the businesses and individuals subscribing to the plans on the basis of cost. Perhaps it does.

Why do I doubt the policy will have any real financial benefit to the insured? Am I being too negative when I suspect the real intent of this policy is to force doctors and other health care providers to accept reduced compensation, while the insurance companies continue to reap outrageous profits?

If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck... .

Financial Reform: The End of Market Manipulation or Same Old Same Old?

This week Congress finally passed financial reform. Whether, after all the compromises, the bill has enough teeth left to end the kind of market manipulations that cause the financial meltdown remains to be seen. Critics are concerned that the legislation delegates most of the responsibility for writing the actual regulations to the oversight agencies.

Who did the financial market manipulators damage?

Homeowners, the retired, the gainfully employed, the unemployed, the underemployed. Small businesses, large businesses, local governments, state governments.

The moderately well-to-do, the middle class, the working class, the poor, the yet unborn. The United States, most countries around the world.

Who did the financial market manipulators benefit?

Market insiders, the super wealthy, "too big to fail" corporations.

Same-sex Spouses denied Annuity Benefits Under DOMA

My employer-sponsored annuity's last statement contained a disclaimer page. Under Section 3 of the Federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), same-sex marriages currently are not recognized for purposes of federal law; therefore, same-sex spouses do not qualify for the favorable income-deferral options afforded to opposite-sex spouses under Internal Revenue Code sections 72(s) and 401(a)(9).

To the extent annuity contracts and certificates accord spouses other rights or benefits not affected by DOMA, same-sex spouses remain entitled to such rights or benefits to the same extent as any annuity holder's spouse.

A short and sweet statement that not everyone is equal under the law.

It is so reassuring that the same Congress that brought us an illustrious assembly of adulterers, sexual harassers, lobbyist errand boys and party hacks is assiduously watching over our morals.

Let's hear it for the good old boys.

Mountaintop Removal for Coal

The Obama administration's EPA is considering more stringent enforcement of the Clean Water Act and a crack down on the coal industry's mountaintop removal mining. It's about time. (Click on the title for a New York Times article on the subject.)

The mountains of West Virginia and Kentucky are being sacrificed to our need for electricity. While windmill farms in upstate New York are contested by environmentalists, entire mountains are disappearing, waterways are fouled, habitats are erased from existence to extract coal and feed our insatiable appetite for energy.

We have watched in breathless horror the destruction of wildlife, fishing and environment in the Gulf of Mexico. The mining industry's devastation of huge swathes of two Appalachian states has been ongoing for years, pretty much off the radar screen. From a window seat on a transcontinental flight, you occasionally get a shocking view of it, if you care to look. Apparently no one cares about these two rural states. Even many of their residents support mining -- for the same reason many Gulf State residents support offshore drilling operations -- their livelihoods. When does the tipping point occur when the jobs by which we make our livings and our obsession with an ever more complicated standard of living render human life itself unsustainable?

President Carter was ridiculed and criticized for urging Americans to adopt more conservative habits, including lowering thermostats in winter and wearing sweaters.

What is wrong with a little self sacrifice in our own self interest?

Did he just call me DEAR?!

Sometime in the last six months, total strangers have started addressing me as "Dear." Do I LOOK like I'm 110? Cause that sure makes me FEEL like I am.

If I am not already a senior citizen (isn't 60 the new 40?), I see it approaching at warp speed -- sort of like a runaway semi barreling down a steep Colorado mountain, or the light at the end of the tunnel that is an oncoming train. More and more people ask me if I am retired (like THAT is possible after the financial meltdown). I have belonged to AARP for several years, but they start trying to enlist you when you turn 50.

Jim does a great job styling my hair and coloring it brown. Surely that counts for SOMETHING? I drive a nifty little sports sedan. SHOOT, does the fact it's a sedan weigh against me?

I used to hate being called "Hon" or "Honey" by people whose only connection to me was the line at the bank or the restaurant in which I was eating. The southern and western use of "Ma'am" always sounded so much better.

But DEAR?

That makes me want to go out in the garden and eat worms.

Up, Up and Away - The Solar Impulse

Last week the "Solar Impulse" made aviation history when it stayed aloft for 26 hours, at altitudes exceeding 28,000 feet, proving a solar-powered aircraft could fly through the night.

Pictures of the craft show a beautiful, fragile silhouette against the sky - the stuff that dreams are made of. (Click on the post title to see a picture gallery.)

While part of me wishes this extraordinary feat had been accomplished by a U. S. team, sponsored by U. S. companies, that cannot detract from my excitement and admiration for the visionaries that accomplished it.

According to UPI.com, "The plane has a wingspan of more than 208 feet. The wings are covered with 12,000 highly efficient solar panels that charge the craft's 880 pounds of batteries. The plan was flown...over western Switzerland during the test."

And Reuters.com, "The projects budget is $100 million Swiss francs ($94 million), 80 million francs of which has been secured from sponsors, according to spokeswoman Rachel de Bros. Belgian chemicals company Solvay, Swiss watchmaker Omega, part of the Swatch group, and German banking giant Deutsche Bank, are the three main sponsors. Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL), one of two Swiss federal polytechnical universities, is scientific advisor."

The development team hopes last week's achievement will bring in additional funding for future plans for transoceanic and trans global flights.

I Think, Therefore I am Human

Having a thinking brain is unsettling. Our thoughts turn to mysteries - how does the world work? How did we get here? What is death - is it the end or a new beginning? Why do some people hate other people? What are the rules - of nature, of behavior, of society? How can we live well? What is valuable to life and what is damaging to it? Why are some people healthy and some sickly? Why are there rich and poor, strong and weak? Why are some people survivors and some not? How can we make things better? What makes them worse?

In the absence of absolute answers, we supply our own theories or adopt those of others. To supply our own takes work. Adopting others' should also take work. Easy explanations are seductive, but often too simplistic. To accept them uncritically is a betrayal of our gift - a thinking brain.

Education should stretch the capacity of the thinking brain, not stifle it.

Environmental Activism

It's not about saving the planet. It's about saving ourselves, our children and our grandchildren from indescribable pain and suffering. It's about preserving civilization and the wondrous science, technology, art, music and literature it produces.

Who wants to emulate the poor fool who cut down the last surviving tree on Easter Island?

Where's the Beef?

Where does power reside in our society?

Unemployment benefits for the long-term unemployed were allowed to lapse when Senate Republicans, abetted by nominal Democrat Ben Nelson of Nebraska, blocked the passage of an extension before they adjourned for Independence Day. Conservatives insist these benefits are a disincentive for looking for work... right -- folks prefer to struggle along on an income that does not even cover the essentials of food, shelter, utilities and transportation rather than work. Yeah, that must be the explanation for 15 million unemployed.

Meanwhile, massive layoffs of teachers, firemen, police and other public workers loom large on the horizon as states across the country face catastrophic budget cuts or insolvency.

Our government wages two wars on the credit card, while granting the highest tax exemptions in history to the wealthiest among us. The justification? This is the entrepreneurial class that produces the jobs. Sure they do. Of course those jobs are in China, India, Thailand, just about anywhere but the U. S. of A.

The Federal Reserve lends trillions to giant financial institutions at 0 percent interest. Institutions that turn around and invest those same funds in U. S. Treasuries, creating double-whammy raid on our country's assets. Almost NONE OF IT is used to extend credit to struggling small businesses or individuals. The same institutions that continue to place bets on credit default swaps and other indecipherable, esoteric financial instruments are terrified of the risk of lending to small business? Of course they are.

The clout wielded by the largest corporations, bolstered by the Supreme Court and unchecked by the government supposedly elected by the people, dwarfs the power of elected officials or the voters.

A good friend once explained her business success, "First, you need to understand that the laws are made by the rich, for the rich."

Size Matters

Why is it that...

Every time a conglomerate buys up another segment of its industry, we become further removed from controlling our lives?

The larger the institution, the more sluggish and ineffective its response to emergencies? And the less social responsibility it exercises as it conducts its daily business?

Goldman Sachs got a free ride on the TARP gravy train, while General Motors, a corporation trembling on the brink that provided real jobs to hard working people, was forced to grovel?

The quality of customer service deteriorates in direct proportion to the size of the company?

When a multinational corporation buys out a small company, competition is stifled, more jobs migrate to third world countries and technological advances made by the small company that might conceivably further the exploitation of renewable energy frequently are buried?

I am approaching a place where I see large, powerful institutions, be they corporate, bureaucratic/government, unions, or even charitable (yeah, them too) as ALL complicit in the erosion of our power over our own destiny. What is more, they trust us with ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.

Note: I included labor unions above although, with the exception of public employees unions, most of them have had their teeth extracted over the past 30 years. The unions are often less about what is good for the membership than about the power of the union itself.

The Apple Fell Close to the Tree

When my mother feels intensely about an issue, she sometimes clenches her right hand into a fist and SMASHES it down upon a hard surface for emphasis. I am always terrified she will break every bone in her hand. Mom and I are usually agreeing on the issues that so disturb her!

About a week ago, during a political discussion with someone else, I slammed my own clenched fist down on the side of my (thankfully upholstered) chair and had an epiphany -- I have turned into MY OWN MOTHER!!

I could do worse. At 95 Mom remains very actively engaged in and well informed about the world around her. The only sign of mellowing in this unrepentant liberal is her reluctant acceptance that some things are unlikely to change during her lifetime.

Democrat or Republican?

Surfing the web, I was trying to figure out Democratic and Republican positions. I decided it did not matter. Candidates from both parties will remain blatantly disingenuous before and after the votes are cast. Before the voting, they will promise the moon, the stars and everything in between. After serving, they will claim that is exactly what they delivered!

It used to be easier - Democrats would not stay out of your wallet and Republicans would not keep out of your bedroom. Not so simple now. Both parties have supported domestic surveillance (The Patriot Act), both like to spend other people's money, both seem to despise the people they supposedly serve. Neither party is willing to pay as it goes, preferring to accumulate debt for future generations.

Truth is both parties are far better at talking the talk than walking the walk.

What's a poor voter to do? As a pro-choice advocate of gay rights who urgently wants financial reform, an energy policy that conserves our resources and bolsters our self-sufficiency, and an economic safety net for folks who work harder and harder at fewer and fewer decent jobs, I suppose I am still a Democrat.

Write in Governor David Paterson in November?

The only elected official in Albany with spine is Governor David Paterson.

The Gov spent two agonizing days last week exercising his line-item veto 7,000 times, while our state's senators and assemblymen fiddled in the dark, pushing the state budget problems on down the line to local communities by refusing to make the deep cuts the deficit demands. They then pronounced the job done and left town. Meanwhile, the attorney general, Democratic candidate for governor, remained steadfastly on the sidelines except for vaguely-worded generalities that could offend nobody.

Paterson did not do this for the fun of it. It could not have been any fun at all. He did it because no one else in state government is willing to make difficult decisions. They have chosen to let the "lame duck" governor carry the burden and take the blame.

Come November, maybe in addition to voting AGAINST every other Albany incumbent, I will WRITE IN David Paterson's name for governor. In 40-plus years of faithful voting, I have never written in a candidate's name. It may well be time to start.

Albany has become an abomination.

Excerpt from "The People" by Carl Sandburg

The people will live on.
The learning and blundering people will live on.
They will be tricked and sold and again sold
And go back to the nourishing earth for rootholds,
The people so peculiar in renewal and comeback,
You can't laugh off their capacity to take it.

The mammoth rests between his cyclonic dramas.
The people so often sleepy, weary, enigmatic,
Is a vast huddle with many units saying:

"I earn my living
I make enough to get by
And it takes all my time.
If I had more time
I could do more for myself
And maybe for others.
I could read and study
And talk things over
And find out about things.
It takes time.
I wish I had the time."

Keeping Independence Alive

"Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people."

So said John Adams, signer of the Declaration of Independence, defense attorney for the British soldiers accused of the Boston Massacre, second president of the United States of America, strong supporter of public education, husband of Abigail Adams.

Independence Day

On July 4, 1776 a group of activists from 13 colonies as diverse as Massachusetts and South Carolina, New York and Virginia, managed to agree long enough to sign one of the most radical documents in human history. An excerpt from the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence is reproduced below. Click on today's Title to link with the entire document.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness -- That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, -- That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on the principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. ..."

Recommended on the subject: Beyond Bells and Bonfires, Philadelphia Inquirer:
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/opinion/20100702_Beyond_bells_and_bonfires.html

Wanted: Dumb, Docile and Dependent -- American Self Sufficiency Under Siege

New York City after 9/11. American self sufficiency's finest hour. Everyday folk poured into the World Trade Center neighborhood and created an improvised city within a city. Food services, first aid stations, supply stations, massage units and rest stations appeared for personnel working 12-14 hour days, all done without government help.

Pennsylvania steel workers with the expertise to safety dismantle the remaining, dangerous structures just showed up. People from all walks of life put their lives on hold and headed to lower Manhattan to tremendous, positive effect. Across the country Americans lined up at blood banks. Charitable coffers swelled with donations.

This stellar example of how well Americans could deal with trauma and disaster empowered us as individuals and was good for the country. Apparently it did not sit so well with society's established institutions. Can anyone forget President Bush's suggestion that if people REALLY wanted to help, they should go SHOPPING?

When Katrina struck New Orleans, volunteer doctors, nurses, certified emergency personnel and rescue workers were firmly turned back or hand-tied by bureaucratic red tape that amounted to obstruction. Attempts, not always successful, were made to discourage "unauthorized" independent boat operators from rescue operations. It wasn't until the military arrived under the command of a harsh-spoken, no bull-shit Lieutenant General named Honore that conditions began to improve in the City.

In the disaster's aftermath, rescue and reconstruction was taken out of the hands of the people and placed securely in the hands of huge charities, bloated bureaucratic agencies and lumbering, turf-protective officialdom. The results were not good for America, impeded recovery and effectively put "can do" Americans in their place.

Our corporate and government institutions want the American citizenry dumb, docile and dependent. Are we going to let them get away with it? Or has Brave New World finally and irrevocably arrived?

Hmmm. Maybe the recent Supreme Court decision on the individual right to bear arms makes sense after all.

How does "Liberal and packing" sound?