Consider This

There were two excellent op eds in the Wall Street Journal yesterday, and just in case you didn't see them. I am linking them here. The first one I read explains alot about how our lovely state, and maybe yours, can not be bothered to balance a budget. All of this is very relevant to today when we know we all will have a challenge ahead of us. Our economy is officially in a tail spin. If we want to pull it back to fly straight and level, we better think of why--during the biggest period of growth and higher revenues we couldn't manage. Our budgets for the State will most certainly be less for a while.

This article lays out the difference between real policy differences related to Obama's plan for our economy. It is an extremely important read, and even if you ascribe to a different political view, the facts speak for themselves.

So, as I talk to all the women of my town who keep crowing about Palin and anti choice, I keep saying there is a million to one shot that she can affect any change on that front, but a much greater chance that Obama on the top of the ticket, could wreak major economic havoc and it may be a tough blow from which to recover.

Political Leper

I was waiting on the train platform this morning with a friend who is a die hard democrat and another person (who I recognized from spin class) came up and started trash talking Palin. My friend shushed her and told her in a loud whisper "they are for the other side". The music almost played behind her....duh duh daaahhhh. The woman looked at me like I had three heads and then said, "You are kidding! FOR Palin?" All of this and I hadn't said a word yet.

She walked on the train with M and I and quickly hurried away. "I just can't talk politics with....it is just to anxiety provoking for me". I turned to M and said, "this is a tough time to live in this town for me". She asked what I meant and I told her, "look, you introduced me as a Palin supporter(which I am not yet certain of by the way--we don't know enough yet before she talks to the press) and she immediately started talking about politics, did not hear a word from me and stalked off." M said, but she had to work. After a sidelong glance, she had to agree. and to her credit she apologized. What for? For putting me in that position, for putting me in a box etc.

She still didn't quite understand though. She gave me a Anna Quindlen article to read and when I told her what I thought, she said "we can't talk politics". I said she can not give me something to read, ask my opinion and then tell me she doesn't want to talk about it. I think she gets it now.*

It is always so interesting to me that people really want to dare you to tell them what you think, but they don't want to listen or even hear what you have to say if you don't agree.

*Here is an email she just sent me. She is a lovely person and, while we do not agree, I totally respect her.
Dear ____, I want to apologize for the way I introduced you to Robin this morning, it was totally in appropriate.
My consciousness was raised today, I am sorry that it was at your expense.

Disgusted by the Democrat Spam Machine

OK. I have been waiting on my rants about the elections. But I must say I am completely disgusted. Why does everyone in my town believe that anyone supporting McCain or Palin is a complete moron? Why do they believe they are the only ones "in the know" and they need to "save" the rest of the country? Plus all of my overeducated, over indulged, over media hyped friends honestly believe everything they read on the internet. I actually got an email from someone yesterday, ASKING FOR A BUSINESS REFERRAL, who then started bashing Palin in the email and calling her a bimbo. Give me a break. It was so completely unprofessional and sent to a large group of people. (And she knows I wouldn't necessarily agree!) I was soooo tempted to write back that bimbos in glass houses....

Now, I am a reasonable person and I am always up for hearing a different opinion from someone who actually bothers to read the paper, who might care about the actual facts. This is going to be one white hot election and it is important to consider all the issues.

It is also important to consider both parts ot the ticket--and while the media blitz is currently focused on Palin, I am wondering who is noticing Lehman sinking fast, the dollar, our economy...hello? Who is going to be ready to talk to Putin? Who is going to defend our country?

I am pro choice--which does not mean I am not "pro life" but it does mean I am for the death penalty, for euthanasia, and for abortion in the first trimester and maybe after. I had to have one at 14 or so weeks. It stinks but when you know the fetus you are carrying is not likely to be viable, or if it is, will have no real kind of life--well it should be a free decision in our free society. I also know that Roe v. Wade was a decision pulled out of a paper bag. (If you really read the dissent, it becomes pretty clear.) Being a former lawyer, most people who know "Con Law" all know that the Right to Privacy is not really explicitly stated in the Constitution. Personally, I would like to see an amendment to preserve this right...but barring that....if gosh forbid Roe v. Wade is ever overturned, well it will be up to the states. Anyhow, the odds of all this happening are slim. And the decision of a VP is not going to affect it much.


Here is the copy of an email I got yesterday from the all knowing women of my community.

"To be neutral, to be passive in a situation is to collaborate with whatever is going on" Howard Zinn We are writing to you because of the fury and dread we have felt since the announcement of Sarah Palin as the Vice-Presidential candidate for the Republican Party. We believe that this terrible decision has surpassed mere partisanship, and that it is a dangerous farce on the part of a pandering and rudderless Presidential candidate that has a real possibility of becoming fact. Perhaps like us, as American women, you share the fear of what Ms. Palin and her professed beliefs and proven record could lead to for ourselves and for our present or future daughters. To date, she is against sex education, birth control, the pro-choice platform, environmental protection, alternative energy development, freedom of speech (as mayor she wanted to ban books and attempted to fire the librarian who stood against her), gun control, the separation of church and state, and polar bears. To say nothing of her complete lack of real preparation to become the second-most-powerful person on the planet. We want to clarify that we are not against Sarah Palin as a woman, a mother, or, for that matter, a parent of a pregnant teenager, but solely as a rash, incompetent, and all together devastating choice for Vice President. Ms. Palin's political views are in every way a slap in the face to the accomplishments that our mothers and grandmothers and great-grandmothers so fiercely fought for, and that we've so demonstrably benefited from. First and foremost, Ms. Palin does not represent us. She does not demonstrate or uphold our interests as American women. It is presumed that the inclusion of a woman on the Republican ticket could win over women voters. We want to disagree, publicly. Well, alrighty then! Maybe you want to check things out yourselves! Even CNN, not a bastion of conservatism, had a huge chunk of time devoted to how ridiculous some of these claims are. And it makes it tougher to sort through what people have actually said and done. Someone I know forwarded me an LA Times article stating Palin is for sex ed and teaching about condoms along side abstinence....but I think I will check it out for myself. Stay tuned!

School crossing

So school starts tomorrow and I find I am extremely depressed. I think that all of the last 15 years of my older son's life I waited with apprehension and excitement as he got ready to leave me and now I know that this is the last year he will "leave me" his first day but will return home.

When I mention this to him, he smiles that damn beautiful broad smile of his (hey--we paid for the orthodontist big time) and I know he is happy. He says, "mom you are just getting old". Zing. Thanks kid. He is happy to be getting ready to take flight. And that is how it should be but still....

And the younger one is nervous. Mostly because he knows that all eyes will soon be turned on him.
Truly, it is a wonderful time of year. The smell of newly sharpened pencils and fresh notebooks with blank pages filled with promise.

This year both will be in the same school. We have two in High School. Unbelievable.....As a headhunter, I see all kinds of people who really think that life is set in High School. Or College, or grad school. They think they know what they will become but I kind of like the words to the John Mayer song, so read and think.

Welcome to the real world
She said to me kind of condescendingly
Take a seat, take your life
Plot it out in black and white
Well I never lived the dreams of the prom kings
And the drama queens
Id like to think the best of me
Is still hiding up my sleeve

They love to tell you stay inside the lines
But somethings better on the other side

I wanna run through the halls of my high school
I wanna scream at the top of my lungs
I just found out theres no such thing as the real world
Just a lie youve got to rise above

So the good boys and girls take the so-called right track
Faded white hats grabbing the credits and making transfers
They read all the books but they cant find the answers
And all of our parents, theyre getting older
I wonder if theyve wished for anything better
While in their memories, tiny tragedies

They love to tell you stay inside the lines
But somethings better on the other side

I wanna run through the halls of my high school
I wanna scream at the top of my lungs
I just found out theres no such thing as the real world
Just a lie youve got to rise above

I am invincible
I am invincible
I am invincible
As long as Im alive

I wanna run through the halls of my high school
I wanna scream at the top of my lungs
I just found out theres no such thing as the real world
Just a lie youve got to rise above

I just cant wait till my ten year reunion
Im gonna bust down the double doors
And when I stand on these tables before you
You will know what all this time was for