It’s not your mother’s Democratic Party

"Today, the survival of the liberal establishment depends upon hyper-moralized political correctness and the relentless search for racist transgressions and crimes of exclusion. Over the last generation, rich voters have shifted to the Democratic party. After the 2018 midterms, the Democratic party holds the ten richest congressional districts and 41 of the fifty richest. Whatever remains of the New Deal rationale for the Democratic party has evaporated. It used to be the party of the working man. Now it's the party of Silicon Valley. This necessitates shifting political energy toward anti-discrimination imperatives, all of which REQUIRE discrimination in order to maintain their salience."

". . . Aggressive, minute, and punitive political correctness . . .serves a political need. The Democratic party is the party of the rich. That fact must be disguised, and thus the public square echoes with dog whistles warning of discrimination. White nationalism! Toxic masculinity! This serves to keep immigrants, women, and minorities in a state of constant fear, calling them to come under the protection of the liberal establishment."

". . . Our ruling liberal elite NEEDS racism, sexism, homophobia, and the rest. As a result, the institutions they dominate--mainstream media, universities, the art world, large corporations, and the Democratic party--devise theories, imagery, and rhetoric to ensure that bigotry and "hate" endure forever." R.R. Reno, First Things, April 2019, p. 62

Nothing goes away on social media

Racism and Sexism charges a cover up for political bias

Can’t criticize her or it is racism.

Can’t criticize her or it is sexism.

Why are women a protected class after all this time?

A 50s kind of guy

A friend from high school sent a message asking how I could spend so much time on Face Book and still have time to do all the chores a wife is supposed to do. Now there's a real 50s kind of guy! God love him!

Bill Maher's sexism and racism

He's good at finding subliminal racism in others, like an abbreviation for "negative," but stuck on stupid about sexual slavery and "don't teach them to read" advice from ACORN. Just google Bill Maher and ACORN. Oops. Nothing there. Oh, except to shoot the messenger.

Glenn Beck’s army of zombie retirees are marching on Washington in protest of, well, everything. It’s the Million Moron March, although they won’t get a million of course, because many will be confused and drive to Washington state. But they will make news, because people who take to the streets always do. They’re at the town hall screaming at the congressmen, we’re on the couch screaming at the TV.

So folks, he calls you morons for expecting your representatives to represent you, but sex slavery of children is just not worth commenting about. He says you, Democrats and Republicans and Independents, can't find Washington DC. I think the last count was around 2 million. On ACORN, he's tongue tied. Slavery only matters to a liberal if it happened in the 18th century.

Imagine if a Bush advisor had been this sexist

You know, like calling a Dixie Chick a bitch or a lesbian like Lindsey Lohan a dog because she didn't support his politics. How long before there would have been a congressional investigation with an enraged Barney leading the charge?

The double whammy of aging

I've blogged about the verbs for death and dying used in obituaries, but I hadn't really thought about the photos. Most announcements don't carry photos, and usually I can tell from the eye glasses and hair styles (of women) the age of the photograph. And I'm not surprised when the subject or his children select a military photo--which sends several visual messages--youth, vigor, patriotism, camaraderie, history. This research at OSU on "ageism" and bias, did surprise me, however, I suppose in the conclusion. The last "formal" portrait I have of my parents is from a 1991 church directory when they were in their late 70s. They died in 2000 and 2002. It's a nice portrait, and informal photographs I have of them later are nice, but it's that one I keep displayed. Glancing around my office, I think that one may even be better of my father than the one taken in 1984 for their 50th--the year he was recovering from heart surgery and he was very gaunt and thin. And we have a family portrait of my father-in-law with his four children taken on his 90th birthday which is quite nice. My mother-in-law was in such poor health the last 25 years of her life I would probably select a nice Valentine photo of 1963 with her husband if it didn't have other negative memories (death of our oldest son same week).

"Results of the study showed that age-inaccurate photos increased steadily each decade: from 17 percent (1967) to 27 percent (1977) to 30 percent (1987) and finally to 36 percent (1997). The researchers found that each additional year in age at time of death increased the odds of having an age-inaccurate obituary photo."

The author of the research, Keith Anderson, Assistant Professor of Social Work at Ohio State University, says it's a double whammy for women--ageism and sexism. It may also be cultural--how often do you have a formal portrait taken after, say, the grandchild's wedding, or the 50th anniversary? And who's to say that person in the mirror at age 85 is more you than the one who used to be there 25 years ago?

What do you think? Do you have a photo in mind?

What Sarah really said to Charlie

Remember how she was denigrated and dissed for that interview? Read the full interview and see what was edited out. She had a whole lot more to say about Russia and Iran than what we heard.

The Charlotte Front and Center is a PUMA website for Hillary supporters and it is supporting McCain-Palin in their anger over the sexism and misogyny by the Obama people and supporters in the MSM.

The Emmys

Primetime Emmy Awards “inexplicably attracted the franchise's smallest audience in its history. A mere 12.2 million viewers watched an . . . “orgy of trophy dispensing and politically charged speechifying.” (WaPo, Sept. 23)

Yes, ageism and sexism was in full flower--racism of course, has been entirely eliminated from their scripts. The entertainment industry mined that vein dry years ago. For that you have to read the recent polls of the Democratic party which show some ordinary working folk are tired of being called names and constantly insulted by the rich know-it-alls in their party. They're just not sure they want to pull the lever (punch the button, mark the ballot) for Obama.

It’s been years since I’ve seen an awards show. 12 million people with nothing to do--sounds like a lot of dumbed down couch potatoes to me. But I’ve seen snippets of this one. Oh, that prune political joke was almost as amusing as the SNL joke on incest, which is also going around and continues to insult women who make a difference and run for political office. Yes, the American entertainment industry deserves an award all right. You begin to understand better the view of the radical Muslims on the worth of pop culture. But hey, I share the blame. I have a TV in every room (except the dining room), and went to three or four movies this summer.

Stephen Colbert, eating from a bag of dried plums, told co-presenter Jon Stewart: "Right now, America needs a prune. It may not be a young, sexy plum. Granted, it is shriveled and at times hard to swallow. But this dried-up old fruit has the experience we need."

Shame on you, Charlie

The not-so-subtle sexism and hostility in Charlie's opening question for Sarah Palin about experience and hubris would have never been asked of Barack Obama, or any man running for public office. Fortunately, she was a lady as well as an experienced leader, and she "didn't blink." Ladies, we have a long way to go--vote McCain-Palin.

Mr. Gibson, she answered you the first time, you didn't like the answer, and then you just looked silly.

GIBSON: What if Israel decided it felt threatened and needed to take out the Iranian nuclear facilities?

PALIN: Well, first, we are friends with Israel and I don't think that we should second guess the measures that Israel has to take to defend themselves and for their security.

GIBSON: So if we wouldn't second guess it and they decided they needed to do it because Iran was an existential threat, we would cooperative or agree with that.

PALIN: I don't think we can second guess what Israel has to do to secure its nation.

GIBSON: So if it felt necessary, if it felt the need to defend itself by taking out Iranian nuclear facilities, that would be all right.

PALIN: We cannot second guess the steps that Israel has to take to defend itself. More here

Girls they just wanna have fun--in libraries

Can hardly believe that after almost 40 years of the current women's movement, we still need special programs to "fix" girls who chose interests other than boys. How sexist is that? It's the old "gender divide" we heard about in the early 90s.. . before these girls were born! And they still can't get teen girls to think computers are fun? Aren't they text messaging, talking on cell phones, sharing it all on FaceBook or what ever social site is popular now, downloading the latest teen music? I think they are techie enough to suit their needs. Give up and let the girls be girls.

Farmer, Lesley S.J.. "Girls and Technology: What Public Libraries Can Do" Library Hi Tech News 25(5)(June 2008) - Public libraries that have computers labs, offer free internet access, IT training programs and console games that all enjoy high usage may make the mistake of not analysing the use and effectiveness of those programs. After all, if it ain't broke (people are using the library and facilities are booked out) then why fix it (why waste time analysing success)? Farmer's article is a call to public libraries to ensure that their programs are meeting the needs of an underserved cohort of library members -- teenage girls. Farmer's assertions that "even in the twenty-first century, a gendered digital divide exists" and "libraries offer a safe learning environment for girls to explore technology" should remind public library managers, childrens' and youth services librarians and IT librarians to ensure that their IT programs and facilities include this important group of library members. An easy-to-read article backed up by statistics, an outline of principles to consider when planning IT programs, and some examples of successful public library programs.
Summary from Current Cites, August 2008

Maybe someone should suggest books to the teen girls. I hear they still like Jane Austen. It might just be innovative enough to work!

Knocking down a straw man

Straw man n (ca. 1900) a weak or imaginery opposition (as an argument or adversary) set up only to be easily confuted.

I saw this flat out lie in an annoucement about a program being offered Thursday for students at Ohio State.

"Racism, sexism and ageism have all been at the forefront of the 2008 Election."

The forefront? Who are they kidding? Naive students who don't know any better, never read the newspaper or unplog their I-pod, that's who. The rest of us know better. The whole nation has been tippy toeing around these three issues (even though I did see a comedy show on cable ridiculing John McCain's age and you can find outrageous slander on the Daily Kos, all written by the left about their own).

I'm 68. I believe Obama, a mixed race American (white mother, African father, raised by white grandparents), is a marxist keeping company with strange and evil cronies, many Communists; I believe Hillary Clinton, a white woman age 60, a former first lady of the nation (God bless her for her service), a New York carpetbagger, is a Socialist; and I believe John McCain, a white man age 72, who left his wife for a younger, richer woman, is a RINO who has sucked up to the main stream media and independents and is now about to get stabbed in the back by the people he tried to placate. Does that mean I'm a racist, a sexist, or an ageist?

You can tell liberals set up this OSU discussion program. I don't plan to attend, but I think I know what will happen. It will turn into an Obama rally. Conservatives don't talk that way. They don't like to mush people together in little groups and then turn them against each other.

Conservatives believe that if a black candidate talks about raising our taxes until our investments are destroyed, regulating what car we can drive, wants judges who will make the constitution their personal playground of their own values and beliefs and waffles on what he said about concessions to militant Moslems who want to destroy our ally Israel, that he's not a good guy to put in the White House. We have a lot of history books (at least those published before the early 90s) that tell about what happens with appeasement--either pre-WWII with the Germans or post-WWII with the Soviets, or with North Korea to close out the Korean War, or even the worse course which was to run off whimpering the way we did in Vietnam. Millions died from our "talks and concessions."

And if a white woman is trying to sneak her husband in for a third term on her petticoat tails and wants to destroy the health care system, she's not going to be my choice for the first woman to lead the country. We only have to go north of the border or watch the rich rulers from socialist countries fly in on their private jets for complex and swift medical care to know we don't want her.

If the decorated 72 year old Vietnam veteran who bravely served his country even as a POW can't figure out how to secure our own borders, or that the global warmists are hucksters bent on destroying our economy, God Bless him for his bravery 35 years ago, but he's not my man regardless of what he says about Iraq.