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January 24, 2011
January 23, 2011
Advice from Dad
1. Be the doctor - don’t marry the doctor. My Dad is a closet feminist. Sure he comes off as a sexist pig and he is the king of inappropriate comments. What most people don’t know is that my Dad told me nearly every day of my life that I should be the doctor not marry the doctor.
2. Is this the hill you want to die on? My Dad has a temper, which my husband says our one-year-old has inherited, and, if I were to be honest, probably didn’t really skip a generation either. Despite that my Dad has always told me to pick and choose my battles. Sometimes that hill just isn’t worth dying on.
3. Experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted. You didn’t get what you wanted? Too bad. Learn from it and maybe next time you will.
4. Read with your kids and they will learn to love to read. It doesn’t matter what you read to them. Kids just love having that special time with you. My Dad read me everything from Charlotte’s Web to Stephen King novels. This might explain a few things about my personality.
5. It’s never too late to go back to school, but it’s a whole lot harder when you are older and have a family to support. When I was in college my Dad decided to go back to graduate school. It took him nearly 10 years to finish his PhD, but he did. Seeing him graduate was probably one of the proudest moments of my life. I have immense respect for anyone who has a family and goes back to school.
6. Parental advice isn’t always correct. When I was in Junior High my Dad told me not to take typing class because I would have a secretary to do all my typing for me. This was the worst advice I have ever been given by another human being. I type badly every single day because of that advice. I have never had a secretary and if I ever do get one, I am sure they would tell me to type my own damn e-mails.
7. Dads are just as important as Moms. As a Mom I like to think I am pretty damn important. The reality is, however, that Dads are just as important as Moms. Dads are really the unsung heroes of the parental unit. They get shafted on Father’s Day and are given all kinds of crappy Daddy duties. You know what I mean by Daddy duties, right? It’s a polite way of saying “Hey Dad, we need you to kill something or clean up a dead thing.”
8. You can do whatever you want with your life after you finish graduate school. I wanted to go to cooking school after college. My Dad cried so I went to graduate school instead. My husband, however, is still bitter that I didn’t go to cooking school. But, not to worry! According to life lesson #5 there is still time for cooking school.
9. It’s not about the destination, but the adventure you have getting there.My Father has a terrible, and I do mean terrible, sense of direction. Life has, therefore, always been about the adventure because we just never knew if we were going to arrive at the destination.
11. Every child is born a scientist. My Dad told me this and then he went on to curse me. He said he hoped that my children asked me as many why and what questions as I asked him. As a child I thought this meant he thought I was smart. In reality he was looking for payback.
12. Not all step-mothers are wicked. I had one Step-Mother who was pretty evil. I am pretty sure I once caught her polishing apples. I had, and still have, a second Step-Mother who is amazing.
13. Marry your best friend. When you do finally decide to make that contractual and spiritual arrangement with another human being make sure they are your best friend. This won’t guarantee that everything works out, but it certainly helps.
14. Enjoy your youth. According to my Dad getting old sucks. There was actually a few chosen swear words in front of sucks when he told me this. Then he went on to add that your golden years is just fancy way saying you have to pee every 20 minutes.
15. Good Dads tend to worry a lot about being good providers. Being a good provider has always weighed heavily on my Dad. With age, I have come to learn that this is common to most good Dads. They work long hours and even on weekends. They are not worried about balance, they are worried about keeping everyone fed.
16. Enjoy your kids when they are little. This is the only time they will think you are awesome. Once they are older they will start to see you for who you really are. You will be sad and miss the 4-year-old version of your kids. After a while, however, you will start to get immense pleasure from embarrassing them in front of their friends. This somehow eases the pain of losing your awesome status.
17. If you do a good job your kids will fire you. They will leave you and start their own lives. Not being needed will be painful. On the plus side you will suddenly have a lot more disposable income. The increase in your net worth will soften the blow that your kids don’t need you that much anymore.
18. Failing at something does not make you a failure. A lot of things you do in life will fail. It will blow, but failing does not make you a failure. So when you do fail or fall pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and keep going.
19. Keep your sense of humor. Life gets complicated. You can’t prevent people you love from getting sick or dying. But a good dose of laughter can help you through those dark days. It’s life, baby, and you aren’t going to get out alive.
20. Life is short so say what you want to say now. Every time I talk to my Dad he tells me two things. The first is that I am the biggest pain in the ass. The second is that he loves me anyway.
<Via Tiffany>
2. Is this the hill you want to die on? My Dad has a temper, which my husband says our one-year-old has inherited, and, if I were to be honest, probably didn’t really skip a generation either. Despite that my Dad has always told me to pick and choose my battles. Sometimes that hill just isn’t worth dying on.
3. Experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted. You didn’t get what you wanted? Too bad. Learn from it and maybe next time you will.
4. Read with your kids and they will learn to love to read. It doesn’t matter what you read to them. Kids just love having that special time with you. My Dad read me everything from Charlotte’s Web to Stephen King novels. This might explain a few things about my personality.
5. It’s never too late to go back to school, but it’s a whole lot harder when you are older and have a family to support. When I was in college my Dad decided to go back to graduate school. It took him nearly 10 years to finish his PhD, but he did. Seeing him graduate was probably one of the proudest moments of my life. I have immense respect for anyone who has a family and goes back to school.
6. Parental advice isn’t always correct. When I was in Junior High my Dad told me not to take typing class because I would have a secretary to do all my typing for me. This was the worst advice I have ever been given by another human being. I type badly every single day because of that advice. I have never had a secretary and if I ever do get one, I am sure they would tell me to type my own damn e-mails.
7. Dads are just as important as Moms. As a Mom I like to think I am pretty damn important. The reality is, however, that Dads are just as important as Moms. Dads are really the unsung heroes of the parental unit. They get shafted on Father’s Day and are given all kinds of crappy Daddy duties. You know what I mean by Daddy duties, right? It’s a polite way of saying “Hey Dad, we need you to kill something or clean up a dead thing.”
8. You can do whatever you want with your life after you finish graduate school. I wanted to go to cooking school after college. My Dad cried so I went to graduate school instead. My husband, however, is still bitter that I didn’t go to cooking school. But, not to worry! According to life lesson #5 there is still time for cooking school.
9. It’s not about the destination, but the adventure you have getting there.My Father has a terrible, and I do mean terrible, sense of direction. Life has, therefore, always been about the adventure because we just never knew if we were going to arrive at the destination.
11. Every child is born a scientist. My Dad told me this and then he went on to curse me. He said he hoped that my children asked me as many why and what questions as I asked him. As a child I thought this meant he thought I was smart. In reality he was looking for payback.
12. Not all step-mothers are wicked. I had one Step-Mother who was pretty evil. I am pretty sure I once caught her polishing apples. I had, and still have, a second Step-Mother who is amazing.
13. Marry your best friend. When you do finally decide to make that contractual and spiritual arrangement with another human being make sure they are your best friend. This won’t guarantee that everything works out, but it certainly helps.
14. Enjoy your youth. According to my Dad getting old sucks. There was actually a few chosen swear words in front of sucks when he told me this. Then he went on to add that your golden years is just fancy way saying you have to pee every 20 minutes.
15. Good Dads tend to worry a lot about being good providers. Being a good provider has always weighed heavily on my Dad. With age, I have come to learn that this is common to most good Dads. They work long hours and even on weekends. They are not worried about balance, they are worried about keeping everyone fed.
16. Enjoy your kids when they are little. This is the only time they will think you are awesome. Once they are older they will start to see you for who you really are. You will be sad and miss the 4-year-old version of your kids. After a while, however, you will start to get immense pleasure from embarrassing them in front of their friends. This somehow eases the pain of losing your awesome status.
17. If you do a good job your kids will fire you. They will leave you and start their own lives. Not being needed will be painful. On the plus side you will suddenly have a lot more disposable income. The increase in your net worth will soften the blow that your kids don’t need you that much anymore.
18. Failing at something does not make you a failure. A lot of things you do in life will fail. It will blow, but failing does not make you a failure. So when you do fail or fall pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and keep going.
19. Keep your sense of humor. Life gets complicated. You can’t prevent people you love from getting sick or dying. But a good dose of laughter can help you through those dark days. It’s life, baby, and you aren’t going to get out alive.
20. Life is short so say what you want to say now. Every time I talk to my Dad he tells me two things. The first is that I am the biggest pain in the ass. The second is that he loves me anyway.
<Via Tiffany>
Republican plans for budget cuts
The US budget deficit for 2010 is 2.7 Trillion. The DEBT is 14 Trillion. Yep. Cut NPR. That will make a dent...
Corporation for Public Broadcasting Subsidy. $445 million annual savings.
Save America's Treasures Program. $25 million annual savings.
International Fund for Ireland. $17 million annual savings.
Legal Services Corporation. $420 million annual savings.
National Endowment for the Arts. $167.5 million annual savings.
National Endowment for the Humanities. $167.5 million annual savings.
Hope VI Program. $250 million annual savings.
Amtrak Subsidies. $1.565 billion annual savings.
Eliminate duplicative education programs. H.R. 2274 (in last Congress), authored by Rep. McKeon, eliminates 68 at a savings of $1.3 billion annually.
U.S. Trade Development Agency. $55 million annual savings.
Woodrow Wilson Center Subsidy. $20 million annual savings.
Cut in half funding for congressional printing and binding. $47 million annual savings.
John C. Stennis Center Subsidy. $430,000 annual savings.
Community Development Fund. $4.5 billion annual savings.
Heritage Area Grants and Statutory Aid. $24 million annual savings.
Cut Federal Travel Budget in Half. $7.5 billion annual savings.
Trim Federal Vehicle Budget by 20%. $600 million annual savings.
Essential Air Service. $150 million annual savings.
Technology Innovation Program. $70 million annual savings.
Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) Program. $125 million annual savings.
Department of Energy Grants to States for Weatherization. $530 million annual savings.
Beach Replenishment. $95 million annual savings.
New Starts Transit. $2 billion annual savings.
Exchange Programs for Alaska, Natives Native Hawaiians, and Their Historical Trading Partners in Massachusetts. $9 million annual savings.
Intercity and High Speed Rail Grants. $2.5 billion annual savings.
Title X Family Planning. $318 million annual savings.
Appalachian Regional Commission. $76 million annual savings.
Economic Development Administration. $293 million annual savings.
Programs under the National and Community Services Act. $1.15 billion annual savings.
Applied Research at Department of Energy. $1.27 billion annual savings.
FreedomCAR and Fuel Partnership. $200 million annual savings.
Energy Star Program. $52 million annual savings.
Economic Assistance to Egypt. $250 million annually.
U.S. Agency for International Development. $1.39 billion annual savings.
General Assistance to District of Columbia. $210 million annual savings.
Subsidy for Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority. $150 million annual savings.
Presidential Campaign Fund. $775 million savings over ten years.
No funding for federal office space acquisition. $864 million annual savings.
End prohibitions on competitive sourcing of government services.
Repeal the Davis-Bacon Act. More than $1 billion annually.
IRS Direct Deposit: Require the IRS to deposit fees for some services it offers (such as processing payment plans for taxpayers) to the Treasury, instead of allowing it to remain as part of its budget. $1.8 billion savings over ten years.
Require collection of unpaid taxes by federal employees. $1 billion total savings.
Prohibit taxpayer funded union activities by federal employees. $1.2 billion savings over ten years.
Sell excess federal properties the government does not make use of. $15 billion total savings.
Eliminate death gratuity for Members of Congress.
Eliminate Mohair Subsidies. $1 million annual savings.
Eliminate taxpayer subsidies to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. $12.5 million annual savings.
Eliminate Market Access Program. $200 million annual savings.
USDA Sugar Program. $14 million annual savings.
Subsidy to Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). $93 million annual savings.
Eliminate the National Organic Certification Cost-Share Program. $56.2 million annual savings.
Eliminate fund for Obamacare administrative costs. $900 million savings.
Ready to Learn TV Program. $27 million savings.
HUD Ph.D. Program.
Deficit Reduction Check-Off Act.
GOP trend setters: New Hampshire straw poll picks future hopeful dictator
A straw poll of Republican Party wannabees (and haz-beens) in New Hampshire shows that Willard "Mitt" Romney has bought 35 percent of those citizens polled.
A full 11 percent support former newsletter publisher and rascist lunatic Ron Paul.
Eight percent support future laughing-stock fodder Tim Pawlenty, and seven percent support GOP Best Bet freak - Sarah Palin. Newt (Newtie) Gingrich is circling the drain. Mike (Huckleberry) Huckabee and Mitch Daniels at three percent.
Yep. It has have never looked so favorable for Fred Thompson.
A full 11 percent support former newsletter publisher and rascist lunatic Ron Paul.
Eight percent support future laughing-stock fodder Tim Pawlenty, and seven percent support GOP Best Bet freak - Sarah Palin. Newt (Newtie) Gingrich is circling the drain. Mike (Huckleberry) Huckabee and Mitch Daniels at three percent.
Yep. It has have never looked so favorable for Fred Thompson.
January 21, 2011
January 20, 2011
Howard Zinn sez
“From that moment on, I was no longer a liberal, a believer in the self-correcting character of American democracy. I was a radical, believing that something fundamental was wrong in this country – not just the existence of poverty amidst great wealth, not just the horrible treatment of black people, but something rotten at the root. The situation required not just a new president or new laws, but an uprooting of the old order, the introduction of a new kind of society – cooperative, peaceful, egalitarian.”
-Howard Zinn, from his 1994 memoir, “You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train”
-Howard Zinn, from his 1994 memoir, “You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train”
January 19, 2011
Academically Adrift?
What happens when you fail to invest in education (and no, I don't mean investment in excessive layers of school administration), the most important single item in our nation's success or failure? You end up with this result:
An unprecedented study that followed several thousand undergraduates through four years of college found that large numbers didn't learn the critical thinking, complex reasoning and written communication skills that are widely assumed to be at the core of a college education.
Many of the students graduated without knowing how to sift fact from opinion, make a clear written argument or objectively review conflicting reports of a situation or event, according to New York University sociologist Richard Arum, lead author of the study. The students, for example, couldn't determine the cause of an increase in neighborhood crime or how best to respond without being swayed by emotional testimony and political spin. [...]OK. So you haven't tortured yourself enough. From InsideHigherEd dot com we have this review of a book being published by the Univ. of Chicago Press: Academically Adrift by Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa.
Forty-five percent of students made no significant improvement in their critical thinking, reasoning or writing skills during the first two years of college, according to the study. After four years, 36 percent showed no significant gains in these so-called "higher order" thinking skills. Read more: link
<snip>
- 45 percent of students "did not demonstrate any significant improvement in learning" during the first two years of college.
- 36 percent of students "did not demonstrate any significant improvement in learning" over four years of college.
- Those students who do show improvements tend to show only modest improvements. Students improved on average only 0.18 standard deviations over the first two years of college and 0.47 over four years. What this means is that a student who entered college in the 50th percentile of students in his or her cohort would move up to the 68th percentile four years later -- but that's the 68th percentile of a new group of freshmen who haven't experienced any college learning.
January 17, 2011
10 quotations
"What is needed is a realization that power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love". -MLK
Positive liberty vs. negative liberty
Ideologies Have Overlap <via Ian Welsh>
Ideologies neither form a spectrum, nor a grid, nor even a circle. Instead the reality is more complicated, with ideologies agreeing on different issues, often for different reasons in some very odd ways.
Progressivism (as I understand it, I would not call myself a progressive) is fundamentally and first about domestic issues. If someone is willing to sacrifice liberty and economic progress for war then they aren’t a progressive. Likewise, Ron Paul for example is not a progressive because he disagrees on key domestic issues (even as he agrees on other domestic issues and many issues surrounding war.)
The paleocon right, the libertarian right and the “hard” (what passes for hard in America) left agree substantially on some specific foreign policy issues (the end of empire). They also agree on many economic issues and liberty issues. They disagree on redistributionism and they disagree on positive liberty (making sure that people actually have an even break), as opposed to negative liberty (making sure the government isn’t actively stopping them from having an even break).
Ideologies neither form a spectrum, nor a grid, nor even a circle. Instead the reality is more complicated, with ideologies agreeing on different issues, often for different reasons in some very odd ways.
Progressivism (as I understand it, I would not call myself a progressive) is fundamentally and first about domestic issues. If someone is willing to sacrifice liberty and economic progress for war then they aren’t a progressive. Likewise, Ron Paul for example is not a progressive because he disagrees on key domestic issues (even as he agrees on other domestic issues and many issues surrounding war.)
The paleocon right, the libertarian right and the “hard” (what passes for hard in America) left agree substantially on some specific foreign policy issues (the end of empire). They also agree on many economic issues and liberty issues. They disagree on redistributionism and they disagree on positive liberty (making sure that people actually have an even break), as opposed to negative liberty (making sure the government isn’t actively stopping them from having an even break).
January 14, 2011
Here he is.
This is the thankless punk that will grow up to be an insufferable douchebag that your daughter (or mine) will be dating. Let's hope this specimen turns out to be sterile.
January 13, 2011
Both parties do it...
"Only one side has made the rhetoric of armed revolt against an oppressive tyranny the guiding spirit of its grassroots movement and its midterm campaign. Only one side routinely invokes the Second Amendment as a form of swagger and intimidation, not-so-coyly conflating rights with threats. Only one side's activists bring guns to democratic political gatherings. Only one side has a popular national TV host who uses his platform to indoctrinate viewers in the conviction that the President is an alien, totalitarian menace to the country. Only one side fills the AM waves with rage and incendiary falsehoods. Only one side has an iconic leader, with a devoted grassroots following, who can't stop using violent imagery and dividing her countrymen into us and them. Any sentient American knows which side that is."
-- George Packer, on the "Both parties do it" horseshit
<Via New Yorker Magazine>
-- George Packer, on the "Both parties do it" horseshit
<Via New Yorker Magazine>
January 12, 2011
Roy Edroso nails it
The "eliminationist" tropes we've been hearing about recently are part of the problem, but so are the less violent notions we see them parroting every day: That Obama is a Muslim, an alien, a psychopath, and consciously trying to destroy the United States; that Teddy Roosevelt was a dangerous radical; that America's scientists are engaged in a deliberate conspiracy to bankrupt the nation via global warming fraud; that deficits, which were harmless and even kinda fun under Reagan, are under Obama a menace to the future of our famous statues; etc. etc. etc.
The cumulative impact of this kind of magical thinking may or may not lead to assassinations, but it certainly weakens the sufferer's ability to respond to even obvious problems in any reasonable way. And in the long run this is more dangerous to the Republic than the grrr-lookit-me-I'm-a-Minuteman blood-lust we're currently focused on. The wingnut looks, for example, upon millions of citizens financially unable to visit a doctor when they're sick, and the first thing he asks himself is, "How can we defend these people from socialism?" He sees the stock market doing great while ordinary people can't find jobs, and surmises, "This Administration is anti-business." Etc.
Even if you embarrass them (fond hope!) into talking less about guns and revolution, you aren't touching the real problem. I'm not confident that it's curable. The best we can do is keep them away from sharp objects and the levers of power.
<via Alicublog>
The cumulative impact of this kind of magical thinking may or may not lead to assassinations, but it certainly weakens the sufferer's ability to respond to even obvious problems in any reasonable way. And in the long run this is more dangerous to the Republic than the grrr-lookit-me-I'm-a-Minuteman blood-lust we're currently focused on. The wingnut looks, for example, upon millions of citizens financially unable to visit a doctor when they're sick, and the first thing he asks himself is, "How can we defend these people from socialism?" He sees the stock market doing great while ordinary people can't find jobs, and surmises, "This Administration is anti-business." Etc.
Even if you embarrass them (fond hope!) into talking less about guns and revolution, you aren't touching the real problem. I'm not confident that it's curable. The best we can do is keep them away from sharp objects and the levers of power.
<via Alicublog>
Mario Savio: December 2, 1964. Berkley, CA
"There is a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can't take part; you can't even passively take part, and you've got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you've got to make it stop. And you've got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you're free, the machine will be prevented from working at all."
-- Mario Savio. 12/8/1942 - 11/6/1996
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