Why did so many women vote for Trump?

Although I haven't read it yet, First Things has an article "How Trump won over women voters."  How Trump Won Over Women Voters | Rachel Bovard | First Things I'll give my own opinion and read it later--usually you can read that excellent religion and culture journal free for one or two times.

 
My take. Although highly paid and over-educated women as a group do lean to the left and are easily led because they are too busy with career and kids to carefully research the issues of the day, most women care about their budget, their children's education, their neighborhood, the safety of their families and community, and they love being women. They may love men, but don't want to compete with them for restroom facilities or athletic scholarships. Also, they don't like wimpy, childish men. Really.

 
That would sum up a Trump voter, or at least a voter who realized Harris didn't align with their values no matter who was running against her. Women voters knew, because Harris said so, that she was the last person in the room when Joe signed off on the Afghanistan bug out, when he showed the world how weak and feckless he was throwing us into 2 wars with no vote from Congress, and how she went along with the country lock down mandates, how the churches closed without a whimper from fear, and how children were unnecessarily forced to get the jab or be locked out of their schools and athletic events. Women voters saw other women being cancelled for speaking out or deciding not to run for school board or city council out of fear of retaliation. Women voters saw their own grocery bills and housing costs soar while illegals were being housed and fed in hotels. https://nypost.com/.../nyc-now-using-14-hotels-to-house.../

"In the real world, where the vast majority of American women actually live, this shift was inevitable. Most American women are turning to the right because the elite left has turned against most American women.

According to exit polls, women voters’ top concerns in 2024 were the economy and “threats to our democracy.” By contrast, Democrats’ top campaign messages were “abortion-on-demand” and “Orange Man Bad.” 

Maybe their marching song instead of "I am woman hear me roar" (1972) became "I am woman respect my body and my vote" (2024).

Biden's folly--IX changes

Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972 is a single sentence. It simply bars sex discrimination in any federally funded education program. See what happens in a bureaucracy, in the swamp? The latest disaster is 1,577 pages. Both parties have created a monster, but the Democrats have defied God, nature, science and history. Nothing more evil than that. The party of intersectionality, of wokeism, of feminism, of transparency, of "me too" and rich old fools has dealt a death blow to women's safety and equality in scholarships and ambition. Way to go, Biden.

That Was Fast: 3 Federal Lawsuits Challenge New Title IX Rule (dailysignal.com)

A message from President Carter of Ohio State University

 "I value and welcome free speech. I have spoken to this since the day I arrived here at Ohio State. As many of you know, I wore the cloth of our nation for 38 years to support and defend these rights. What occurred on our campus on April 25 was not about limiting free speech. It was an intentional violation of university space rules that exist so that teaching, learning, research, service and patient care can occur on our campuses without interruption.

As a public university, demonstrations, protests and disagreement regularly occur on our campus – so much so that we have trained staff and public safety professionals on-site for student demonstrations for safety and to support everyone’s right to engage in these activities. Sadly, in recent days, I have watched significant safety issues be created by encampments on other campuses across our nation. These situations have caused in-person learning and commencement ceremonies to be canceled. Ohio State’s campus will not be overtaken in this manner."

And so forth, but they did it anyway, some were students, but most were outsiders.  I don't know why they talk about negotiation.  What's to negotiate with non-students and outsiders?  They can't settle the Israel-Hamas war, and the rules for encampment were set. Other college presidents have folded immediately.  Let's see how long Carter will stand up to bullies.

https://studentlife.osu.edu/articles/finals-week-message-to-all-ohio-state-students/?

Police confirm 36 arrested at OSU anti-Israel protest Thursday night (dispatch.com)

Flying is safer than driving

"In 2020 alone, 30,250 people died while riding in passenger vehicles. Forty-five percent of these were in cars, 34% in light trucks, and 18% on motorcycles.

 
There were 614 serious injuries in the air from 2002 to 2020, an average of 32 per year. Comparatively, Americans suffered about 2.3 million injuries per year in passenger cars and trucks on highways."

https://usafacts.org/articles/is-flying-safer-than-driving/?

Per mile motorcycles are the most dangerous, however, in my opinion, no matter how you travel you are not safe with the latest DEI standards for employment --whether pilots, bus drivers, repairmen, or factory assembly workers. You don't want a diversity hire or union boss guiding your transportation. Merit and skill matter more than ethnic background.

In 2020 although there was a decrease in miles traveled due to the lockdown, there was an increase in pedestrian and bike related fatalities. Another problem our "health" experts didn't think about.

The big three for roadway fatalities:  Alcohol, speed and not wearing a seatbelt.

Jennifer Sey, former gymnast, fired for speaking out for children

Jennifer Sey lost her dream job with Levi Strauss for speaking out against the crusade against children, forcing them to wear masks and lose 2 years of education. Earlier she was (belatedly) considered a hero for exposing the underbelly of the gymnastics Olympics. But when she used that toxic mix to speak up for the voiceless, she was "cancelled."

 
"More broadly, emotional and physical abuse was actually the norm and we were all so beaten down by that and made so obedient that when we knew there was a sexual abuser in our midst, we would never say anything," Sey recalled to Indianapolis Star reporters in a scene captured by the documentary.

 
"The standard methodology of coaching in elite gymnastics was cruelty," she told the documentary." But when she said the school lockdown and masking were cruel, no one listened. In fact, her woke corporation sent this life-time Democrat packing.

https://www.oxygen.com/true-crime-buzz/netflixs-athlete-a-who-is-former-gymnast-jennifer-sey

https://summit.news/2022/02/16/levis-brand-president-says-she-was-offered-1-million-to-shut-up-about-being-fired-over-criticizing-covid-restrictions/

“This didn’t seem at all controversial to me. I felt—and still do—that the draconian policies would cause the most harm to those least at risk, and the burden would fall heaviest on disadvantaged kids in public schools, who need the safety and routine of school the most.”
“In the summer of 2020, I finally got the call.”

“‘You know when you speak, you speak on behalf of the company,’ our head of corporate communications told me, urging me to pipe down.”

Despite pleading that she was merely speaking in a personal capacity as “a public school mom of four kids,” Sey said the final straw was when she appeared on Fox News with Laura Ingraham and criticized further school closures.

Levi Strauss & Co. subsequently released a false statement claiming Sey had “resigned from the company.”

Women on a bus in 1957

"On a recent trip to visit family, I found myself frequently travelling alone on public transportation. As a female, out of my usual surroundings, I always looked for the safest place to sit. Where might I be safe on this subway, in this train, on this bus? Is there anywhere safe anymore?

Over and again, I found myself seeking out the nearest mother with a child in a stroller in order to seat myself near them. Did that mother have a special forcefield around her? Why did I gravitate to the mother with the child as the safest haven? Because I realized that this mother had made a conscious decision to stand on the front lines." https://www.thecatholicthing.org/2022/07/16/we-are-the-front-lines/?

That's a quote from an article about how Christians are on the front lines in the culture wars. However, for me, I recall an exact incident like this in June 1957 that happened to me. My parents had taken me to the bus stop in Dixon, Illinois, to begin a very long trip by myself at 17 to Fresno, California for a summer term in Brethren Volunteer Service. I've written about it at this blog with photos. https://collectingmythoughts.blogspot.com/search/label/Fresno I certainly didn't have experience at 17 of traveling alone, but I looked for the first adult woman with children (she had 3) I spotted on the bus and sat with her. She couldn't have been more than 20 herself and had an Appalachian accent. I ended up being her babysitter half way across the country, sitting with the little girl and telling her stories while I combed her wispy hair, stories my mother had told me to keep me quiet about critters who snarl the hair of little girls. I think I also used my own money to buy her snacks because her mother didn't get off the bus when we took meal breaks. I felt safer, and the mother was certainly trusting, as I took the little daughter into the rest room, helped her with the toilet and cleaned her up while mommy tended to the boys (the children all had the strong odor of unwashed clothing and bodies).

Maybe it's instinct for women to seek each other for safety. With the culture wars of today, who can you trust?

Please look out for bikers

“Drivers overtaking bike riders are the biggest cause of death among cyclists, says a study released Tuesday by the National Transportation Safety Board. Bike safety is a growing problem that appears to be getting more worrisome, and, the board reported, “current available data likely underestimate the level of bicycling activity in the United States.” In 2017, 806 cyclists died in crashes with motor vehicles, which it found “was comparable to the deaths resulting from railroad or marine accidents and more than twice the number of deaths resulting from aviation accidents in the same year.” Last year, the death toll jumped to 857, its highest since 1990. The NTSB report, its most comprehensive look at bicycle safety in 47 years, comes as both Republicans and Democrats in Congress are pushing hard to provide more funding for what they see as a growing problem."

Call me crazy, but I don't expect Congress to solve this--they are much too busy trying to undo the election of 2016. However, why not lessen the hype on bicycles being a healthy lifestyle exercise and answer to fossil fuel global warming? Let's crack down on drivers using their cell phones--we lived nicely for years without talking on phones while driving. You might just save some bikers from death or injury.

I've looked at the report, https://www.ntsb.gov/…/Documen…/2019-DCA18SS002-abstract.pdf and unfortunately, it only includes the number of deaths, not the increase in bicyclists sharing the roads (if there is such a figure which would give the real story). Doesn't include the age of the bikers--is this like the huge increase in number of falls among the elderly--the boomers are taking more chances? Is there really any evidence that ripping up streets to create narrowing spaces for cars with bike lanes is actually decreasing accidents, or does it just encourage more bikers who eventually merge on to more dangerous roadways which have no protected lanes? That's what I think about when I see numbers, without rates, without percentage.

If accidents go up 2x, but the number of bikers has also gone up by 4x, then that needs to be included in the report before suggesting legislation and expensive regulations. Also, if it took 30 years to get to the 1990 number, then what has changed? Cell phones and age of riders trying to be "woke" is still my guess.

UA CARES

Our program at the UALC Thursday Bible study lunch [delicious, btw] was UA CARES, which stands for Community Assistance, Referrals and Education Services. A representative from the Fire Division of Upper Arlington explained many services they offer to make our homes safer ranging from home assessments, coordination with care providers and medical services, to grab bars to a handy little feature I'd never heard of called KNOX.

"Knox Box is a mini, lockable steel vault that provides firefighters and paramedics access to keys for entry to a residence or business in an emergency. Only the UA Fire Division can access boxes in Upper Arlington. The vault is installed by the resident or business owner on the structure’s exterior near the entry. In an emergency, the dispatcher tells first responders if a Knox-Box is onsite for easy building access, without forcing a door or damaging the building.’

Many communities have similar services.  The speaker said 80% of what the Fire Division does is NOT fighting fires.

Walls, fences, passwords, locks and security systems

I don't know if Meryl Streep’s mansion has a fancy wall around it or not (saw a photo on the internet, but you just never know), but I do know the "open border" liberals I know are not compassionate about others invading their space or belongings. They have locks on their doors, windows, phones; they have fire walls, security systems, passwords; they have their pets tattooed, locks on their bikes, fences made of steel, brick, concrete or even an electric wire to keep out the neighbors' dogs and burglars; they have play pens to keep an eye on their kids, a cloud to take care of their computer documents, a safe to hold their jewelry and guns; they use a fingerprint to open their I-pad, or their office elevator, they have garage door openers--which btw--don't open without the gizmo; they have safe deposit boxes and pin numbers on their library cards and credit cards. My open border friends want aliens to vote, but they personally don't want to pay the taxes if they don't live in my township/city/state which have boundaries. Some open border liberals, particularly the young ones, think there are "safe spaces" with imaginary boundaries where no conservative, Trump supporter, or Republican can wear a red MAGA hat.

Falls and the elderly

I've been nagging my husband about ladders.  I think we've got help at the lake house, but there's still the pesky storage for Christmas décor that is stored in the garage attic using precarious stairs that need to be pulled down. I followed my own advice, and decided to help him drag out the x-mas decorations from the attic by standing beside the ladder and making sure nothing stupid happened. One very large box fell and broke the lid. And while I was trying to grab it as it fell, I pulled my back a little.  But he's fine.

I think it's about time to go to the little tiny tree that sits on a table.

My letter to Target CEO

He may never see the letter, but the envelope should get someone's attention.  As near as I can figure, there's no way to run an envelope through my new HP Envy 5660 wireless printer so I taped the address to the envelope. This is the blog entry I sent him.

My letter to Target CEO Brian Cornell

What if Target just did what was good for ALL customers

Let's play "what if."

I shopped at Giant Eagle this morning--love that store, and it's a treat to see the fabulous and over priced products, some twice what I pay at Marc's. But it's also interesting to see how a major grocery retailer with a small profit margin has responded to consumer demands for organic, gluten-free, no hormones in meat, grass fed Buffalo burgers and cheese from sheep and goats, and maybe yaks--3x higher in omega-3 fatty acids than the cheddar cheese I bought for sandwiches.

So what if, instead of submitting to the gay mafia, Target had begun advertising, "Safe, secure, lockable, child friendly rest rooms for all if desired." No hoopla, just good customer service to let everyone know they are welcome to shop there without fear. Many of us already use lockable single stall restrooms in stores, public spaces or historical buildings that don't have enough space for two plus a handicapped on the main floor. It's in the building code, and is OK.

Giant Eagle doesn't tell me I can't select what I'm used to, or I can't purchase off brands at a cheaper price, or I can't buy processed food, even if the CEO is a vegan who thinks I'll go to hell. A good business in a capitalist economy does a market study and provides for all, even the majority.

"What if" doesn't work with this fantasy, because it isn't about good business. It's about pushing a set of values and narrow morality, as though the customer can't check out without getting a religious pamphlet. It's about blurring the clear differences between men and women. Toilets are just a small part of this cultural package. There's already a move to erase gender from birth certificates, the terms mother and father from school records of children, and husband and wife from marriage licenses. There are groups demanding respect for polygamy and incest. Check your public library and you'll find a huge number of YA books on gender bending far out of proportion to religion, but with the same missionary zeal. And for whom? A fraction of a fraction who for the most part just want to quietly live their lives without government, religious or social interference. That's a right that is NOT available for the other 97% of us.

 http://www.silvaconsultants.com/blog/2012/03/26/security-of-public-restrooms/

Planet Fitness expels female member for complaining about a man in her dressing room

Planet Fitness Welcomes Men in Women’s Locker Room, Kicks Out Objector

“Woe to those who call evil good and good evil,
who put darkness for light and light for darkness,
who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!”
~Isaiah 5:20

On Saturday, Feb. 28 Yvette Cormier entered her Midland, Michigan Planet Fitness gym to work out. To her surprise, she found a man just inside the locker room entrance. She reported the incident to the front desk and was told that the man “identifies” as a woman and that Planet Fitness gyms—including their locker rooms—are “no judgment zones.” It should be noted that girls as young as 13 can join Planet Fitness and enjoy their “no judgment zones.”

I’ve seen his photo.  There’s just no way this is a woman. I don’t know why men think a padded bra, tights and a wig makes them  women.

Planet Fitness

“In the service of maintaining a “non-intimidating, welcoming environment,” corporate bigwigs allow a man in a women’s locker room and expel a woman from the gym because she doesn’t want to get naked in front of a strange man. Yes, the man in question was an actual man—you know, the kind born with anatomically correct penises. Even “transactivists” know humans can’t change their sex.

How, pray tell, do club managers verify the “sincerity” of a male member’s or guest’s claim that he wishes to be a woman? And why does sincerity of desire about one’s sex trump the objective state of one’s sex?”

Safer sex vs. safe sex

I noticed in the JAMA article about topics doctors need to cover to prepare for barriers that LGBT patients face, safer sex was on the list. Wasn't familiar with that, so I googled it.

It's another term in our ever changing lexicon. It is now used instead of "safe sex."

"When people speak of "safe sex" today, they are referring to abstinence. Abstaining from sex and sexual play is the only sure method to avoid catching an STD and to prevent an unplanned pregnancy. Although it may not prevent a pregnancy, having sex within a committed, monogamous, long-term relationship with someone who has tested free of any STDs is also generally considered to be safe sex."

Actually, because an inflected comparative such as "safer" or "handsomer" or "brighter," would mean "more than safe," or handsome or bright, the term "safer sex" to mean something less safe than no sex (abstinence), really makes no sense at all. This might be difficult to understand for a non-native speaker--or even a native speaker!

Dumb and dumber jogger

A lady jogger appeared from nowhere crossing McCoy Road in Upper Arlington (35 mph, 4 lanes) in front of me. I braked. Thinking she must be heading for the sidewalk, I watched in the mirror, but she continued to run against traffic in the street--pushing a one-seat jogging stroller with 2 children, a toddler and an infant. With the canopy down, she can't even see the kids. If you jog, concentrate on the jogging; if you're watching children, do that. Don't multitask at the risk of your children's lives, or causing an accident crossing busy streets.

I wonder if it was the same gal, but with more clothes on? Same neighborhood, same coloring, similar build.

Good Samaritan saves a tire

At church Sunday, someone took the time to write out a note and slip it under the windshield wiper of my husband's car, "low tire." This nice person wasn't counting on the way my husband processes information. All he saw was a restaurant check (other side) and he put it in the car thinking it was from me (this baffles me, since this isn't how we communicate). Last evening he brings the "restaurant check" to me and asks what I want done with it. I looked at it and didn't recognize the name of the restaurant, so I asked him where it came from, and he said it was on his windshield. So, being a clever investigative librarian, I turned it over and saw the note. "Someone has left you a note. Do you have a low tire?" "Don't think so, but I'll go look." He came back in the house and confirmed that yes, one tire was very low. He'd already made a number of errands that day. So today he took his SUV to our son at Jack Maxton, who found all four were low, but one was really low.

Thanks, who ever you are, for saving a tire or preventing an accident.

The illusion of safety

While I was in the car today I was listening to a talk show where the host and listener/caller were discussing texting while driving. The caller was a truck driver and he said it was a federal crime with a $2700 fine and points on your license to text and drive for truck drivers. But he was talking on a hands free phone--assuming that was safe! It's not the hands, it's the brain. It's the equivalent of driving while drunk.

The Illusion of Safety « All 2010 News « News « College of Liberal Arts & Sciences « University of Illinois

Rescue teams reach stranded teen sailor

I've been known to over react where the health and safety of minor children are concerned, but I believe Abby Sunderland's parents/guardians are guilty of neglect and child abuse. Her father compares her adventure and desire to set a world record for "youngest" to teens driving on the interstate. So would he send her cross-country alone driving a semi-truck loaded with explosives? Not a good example, daddy. If as a nation we had the collective balls to raise the legal driving age to 18, we could save 5,000 lives a year. Hard telling how many permanent brain injuries and damaged limbs that would involve. A 16 year old doesn't have a mature brain, and a teen girl, regardless of her athletic ability and sailing experience probably doesn't have the physical strength or body mass to ward off pirates and typhoons.

Rescue teams reach stranded teen sailor - CNN.com

Reach deadline at risk

Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemical Substances (Reach).

And after the deadline, then what? I'm assuming that once the chemicals are registered with the required safety information THEN they will be withdrawn because they will be declared unsafe. That might be why some are still not registered. Also, in the EU, not all are using English, so those safety and substance requirements are a bit dicey. Lots of really fun acronyms in this article.

Reach deadline at risk

800 U.S. war dead in Afghanistan

Since October 1, 2001. Think about that. That's less than the murder rate in most major American cities (see Forbes, "America's most murderous cities"). It's far below the death rate for teen drivers and passengers (16-20), which is something like 5,000 a year (NHTSA)! If the soldier is your son or daughter, father, husband, brother, then the totals don't matter. But I think war protesters ought to think about totals. The Iraq War protesters extended the war, just like they did during the Vietnam era. It gives courage and resolve to the enemy and makes little difference to the people in government. The Iraq War had the backing of many Democrats in Congress, until they decided there was political capital in changing their minds and blaming Bush saying they were misled. That's an ugly thing to do. Either they are liars or easily intimidated wimps. Maybe both. And now we have a President who doesn't believe in victory, waffles on Afghanistan and has changed his mind on Sudan, endangering every military family and America's security in general. And Democrats are still divided, still trying to blame Bush.

But back to the numbers. Did you know the recession has saved lives? Yes, less driving, fewer deaths. Fewer in 2008 than 2007--down 9.7%--and 2009 will probably drop even more. And motorcycle deaths are increasing--probably some folks trying to save gasoline! And did you know that the decade following 1995 when the speed limits went back up (had been 55 mph), studies show an additional 12,500 people died and about 36,500 injured through 2006, even though overall deaths are going down due to safer cars, more seat belt use, and alcohol crack downs.

So why does the media and special interest groups try to get political mileage out of 800 deaths in 9 years, and pretty much ignore 12,500 deaths in 10 years which resulted from societal pressure and special interests? Are those families grieving less because the white cross is along interstate 70 or Rt. 64 and not in a military cemetery? Also, a new study shows that texting increased the danger of driving by 23.2 times--taking your eyes off the road is a lot more dangerous than talking on a cell phone. So what's up? Why is one story so much more compelling, more political, and yet the carnage is so much worse on the highways? [from "Studies probe US traffic injuries, deaths" by Mike Mitka, JAMA, Sept. 16, 2009, p. 1159-1160 using figures from NHTSA]