What Women Want (acc to the WSJ)

Not sure how many of you read the Wall Street Journal today (Nancy-stop laughing RIGHT NOW!) but I was struck by an editorial titled "What Women Want".

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118852164900914160.html

(If you can't read the link send me an email and I'll email the article to you.) The subhead is "How the GOP can woo the ladies." So, when I saw that, I had to read it.

The basic premise is that Dems need the female vote and the Republicans seem to have conceded it to them but shouldn't. Ok, fair enough. There were some nice quips in the article that resonated with me like " The Democrats' own views of what counts for 'women's issues' are stuck back in the disco days”. This is in reference to Hillary’s focus on "equal pay" and "choice" (aka abortion) and Richardson's alleged support for ERA and something about Family leave (no details were mentioned).

The author contends that Republicans have a fighting chance among women by focusing on issues she cares about (like Iraq, the economy, etc) and reframing the issues that are of importance to working women and mothers. She illustrates 2 examples: income equality and flex time. She has a nice twist on income equality by lamenting about the tax code and how it punishes second incomes by taxing them at the higher marginal rate. This is such an interesting argument vs. the typical refrain about women making x cents for every dollar a man makes (even though it is an erroneous stat b/c it does not take into account hours worked or control for education attained). Of course, this is a very middle/upper middle class reaction to this issue. I also appreciated the twist on the second key issue (workplace flexibility) and that big labor is standing in the way of that. I think this argument is weak at its heart (some women need to work overtime to get the time and a half pay associated with it) but is definitely an interesting argument to explore.

Anyways...I always love a provocative article that turns the orthodoxy of one position on its head by reframing the issue. I am also tired of the stereotypical liberal rant about "women’s issues”. I am more than a uterus. Abortion is not the biggest issue on my radar. It wasn’t when I was 18 and it still isn’t 20 years later. And the more I learn about it the more I think it is wrong (but that is the subject of another posting). The war in Iraq, the economy, and the impending financial implosion b/c of the lack of planning on the part of the baby boomers (both individually and as govt leaders) are much more impt to me. While workplace flexibility is personally impt to me, I think this is an upper middle class issue. The reason a lot of women work is to put food on the table and help keep a roof over their heads. If that was why I worked, i would have much less angst over missing a school event. I do not see govt intervention on this issue as a solution.

I also have to say that I was pleased Barack was not mentioned in this article. Does that mean he is above the fray on this issue, and not hewing to the orthodoxy? I hope so.

Why My Husband Rocks (reason #345)

My birthday is coming up. It is a mere 23 days away. As my husband knows, I like to have a whole month-long celebration. Or at least I get great joy out of announcing my birthday countdown to Alan and the kids. So other than putting up with my various psychoses, why does my husband rock you ask? Well...he's taking me to the Chicago Bears/Dallas Cowboys football game for my birthday. I could not be more excited. We have very good seats (or so stub hub prices lead me to believe this). It's a Sunday night game. It’s my birthday wknd. And, it's two of my favorite teams of all time.

I grew up a HUGE Cowboys fan. Why would a girl from Ohio love the Cowboys? I think it all started with my brother being a Steelers fan. Back in the 80s (or was it the 70s?) the Steelers and Cowboys were big rivals. Rooting for the Cowboys was contrarian enough to aggravate my brother and they were a winning team-a perfect combination! I never went to a game though.

So...when we moved to Chicago 13 years ago this fall, I declared that I was now a Bears fan. It is important in my family to declare your football loyalties before the season so you are not accused of being a "bandwagon" fan, one of the biggest crimes in NE Ohio (reference all of the Browns "dog pound" fans from the 90s-or was it 80s?)

Anyways...Alan is taking me to my favorite sport, with my favorite teams, on my birthday wknd-even though I know he thinks it is a tremendous waste of money and would have rather bought me jewelry or taken me out of town for the wknd.

That's love (and why my husband rocks)

What About China???

I am not sure how you feel about all of the recalls coming from products manufactured in China, but I am freaked out. On one hand, manufacturing in China is a great example of the creation of an interdependent world, where each country can focus on best use of its talents, based on what the market will bear (from a price/cost perspective). Americans love a great price and China (via WalMart) and immigrants have been able to facilitate this. What is shocking to me is the magnitude of the safety problems. It feels like the slow drip of water from a faucet, first Thomas wooden trains, then Diego/Nick products, and now Polly pockets. And that's just toys.

I shudder to think about the food supply. Here we are worried about terrorist attacks on the food supply when our good ol' capitalist system might undo us first. I find it shocking that I do not know from where my food comes. yes, I know my grapes are from Chile and my strawberries are from California (depending on time of year), but from where does my apple juice come? I now buy Indian Summer b/c the label says its made from USA apples vs. China/Argentina/USA blends from Mott. But what about my goldfish crackers? Cheerios? teddy grahams? Are all of the ingredients from the US? Based on a conversation with "the big guy" tonight (Alan, not God), it is highly likely that there are ingredients from China and/or India in many of the packaged foods the kids eat. Are you kidding me?

From an economic perspective, I understand what is happening. Manufacturing occurs in China b/c labor and other costs of goods is cheap. However as the competition for labor increases, the price of wages et al raises. As such these companies are under pressure to hold the line on costs or risk losing business to Vietnam and other low priced Asian countries. So what's a Chinese mfg company to do? Substitute the expensive lead free paint for paint with lead. Replace the wheat gluten with wheat flour and fertilizer because this will pass the quality test for presence of nitrogen-even though it turned to to be lethal to how many animals in the US? I do not believe these substitutions are done in malice but simply through ignorance and greed.

And...how do we get out of this mess? I am not seeing concrete action in Congress. Oh that's right, they are on vacation right now. US companies need to know their supply chain and have approp quality controls. But coming from a big company, that is easier said than done. I don't want to be an isolationist but we deserve better than what we are getting right now. To start, I truly believe all products should be labeled with country of origin. yes, this will cost money. yes this will reduce the flexibility of manufacturers to adjust production. Sorry. The stakes are now too high to NOT do this. Once awareness is raised I think the market will kick into action. Wold i pay a dime more for US applesauce? Yes! I think others will do the same. I can also bet you $50 that mfgrs will not want to reveal how many countries sourced material for the typical protein bar and will clean up their labels in advance. Hooray.

Anyways...enough of my rant. I can't believe there isn't more of a public outcry over this issue. But I need to go to sleep on my China sheets, after I turn off my China TV and my "designed in California, made in China" mac laptop.

A race is shaping up..sort of

I have been watching with interest the latest goings on in the march to the white house. I read an interesting article the other day that suggested it was good that campaigning has started so early and that the primaries are front-loaded so that we may know who the nominees are by early spring 2008. The author's point was that this would allow the candidate to assemble a cabinet earlier than ever (and we may actually get to know who they are). Here’s hoping.

By now, many of you know that I am leaning towards Obama. I like his fresh perspective. I am particularly pleased with his clear message on Pakistan-if we know where Bin laden/al qaeda are and Musharaff does not take them out, we will. As you might imagine, the left wing of the democratic party went nuts and Hillary took a holier than thou attitude about what a candidate should say in public. I agree with Obama. In today's world force is sometimes necessary. While I absolutely agree that we need to address the root cause of the problem (e.g. our/our allies dependence on foreign oil requires us to support dictatorships-think Saudi Arabia-and have troops on holy soil which is offensive to some and our nearly blind support of Israel despite the apartheid they practice wrt the Palestinians) the terrorists need to know that we will find them and justice will be served. I know, I know, this sounds like the Bush preemption doctrine. I still don't believe that we should be in Iraq. I still believe that toppling the Taliban in Afghanistan was right. I am extremely worried about Iran getting nukes and have a need for our govt to do something about it. the Russians don;t care. they wold still be helping the Iranains if the Iranians were on time with their payments.

Back to the campaign...I feel that Obama showed courage with his remarks and I appreciate it.

I watched with interest the Iowa straw poll. Yes, I know it is meaningless on many levels b/c you basically buy votes and it is a testament to money and org skills more than anything. Of course Romney won. I don’t trust him-not b/c he's a Mormon but b/c he's wall street and he flip flops. I am interested in huckabee's (sp?) 2nd place finish. Perhaps he could be the real challenger to Romney? His social conservative credentials are rock solid. He’s been governor/lt gov forever. Money will be the issue but I think he could break out given Romney’s weakness among the base. I actually think Obama would do better against Romney (money aside) b/c he might seem as moderate as Romney whereas Obama will prob look liberal vs. huckabee. Interesting times.

Why I Love Oak Park

Tonight was a fun night. We took our kids to their final swim class of the summer and tried to make the final kickball game of the season. Unfortunately we were too late and missed the game. I did have the chance to go out to the Ale House to celebrate the end of the season-despite the fact I participated in only 2 games!

What does this have to do with Oak Park??? I love the fact we have an adult kickball league. How crazy is that??? I also love the mix of who we have on the team-from engineers to marketers, to lawyers to PhDs in art/religion to stay at home moms to working moms and everyone in btwn. Most, if not all of us, belong to Ascension and most of our kids go to Ascension. How cool is that???

I also love that we can discuss religion and politics and not get into one liners and the sounds bites that are fed to us in the mainstream media. Yes, we say those one liners but usually we say those as a way to provoke a conversation rather than as a replacement for the substance of the conversation. I love that despite all of our apparent similarities we have such different life experiences-from where we grew up to the politics of our parents to the movies we watch-I can honestly say I have never watched a French movie whereas I sat next to 2 ppl tonight who had seen the same movie and had a great conversation about their different interpretations of the end of the movie. I was so out of my element-and loved it!

So tonight, as I walked in the door of my 80+ year house, I smiled and thought this truly is a wonderful life.

You Tube Debate

I just had a chance to watch some snippets from cnn.com on the you tube debate with the democratic presidential candidates. I liked the idea of 'real' Americans asking questions of the candidates. It's definitely more interesting than the typical q&a.

From a style perspective, big points go to John Edwards. He’s very poised under questioning. He was unabashedly liberal, which clearly played to the crowds. I was impressed that he did not pander on the "gay marriage” question.

Obama was not as polished as Edwards or Clinton. I continue to like his message. I am impressed that he is not totally pandering to the left. His comments on education, "gay marriage" and role of faith were decidedly moderate/somewhat conservative. I am not sure if these are the answers he has practiced b.c he is trying to appeal to the Reagan Republicans, or what. His comments on "gay marriage" I thought were particularly well done. I appreciated the distinction he drew btwn "civil unions", recognized by the govt vs. church recognized "marriage". His point was that gay couples should be granted civil union which afford them financial protection, hospital visits, rights of survivorship etc. whereas religious denominations should be free to make their own determinations on marriage. Well played. I also appreciated his answer on conscience and church/state separation-which allows for the flourishing of churches/religion not the suppression of it-check out his answer on cnn.com. Once again a nicely nuanced argument.

And, what about Hillary? She was poised as always. I don’t know what it is. I don’t trust her. I feel like she'll say whatever it takes to get elected.

I love my block

A few days ago I wrote a note about our block's summer tradition of highballs and highchairs. As if that wasn't enough to love our block, today was another great day on the block.

I love that on a beautiful day like today we can walk outside and usually see a neighbor (or 5) gathered together. Alan had a chance to catch up with one neighbor earlier today when he was watering the garden. Later in the day, while Alan was hanging blinds, I took the kids outside and we had a chance to see a handful of neighbors. Our son was running through the sprinkler with some of the kids while our daughter was watching the world go by. Later she persuaded some of the kids to play hide and seek while I got caught up on new jobs, new baptism, and the latest on the block party planning. I truly feel blessed to be on such a block and part of such a community. These are the best of times.

Pope Benedict's note

Not sure if you have heard about all of the drama around Pope Benedict's note that protestant churches are not "churches". Of course that is how the secular media would cover it. When Mom mentioned this "controversy" earlier this week, I asked for the original doc. I explained this probably had something to do with apostolic succession and that the media was probably sensationalizing the story. i went to relevant radio and found the original doc on the morning air blog. Thankfully it is a short doc. And, sure enough, the church went to great lengths in the doc to affirm the other Christian communities and all of the good that they do.

To quote from the doc "It follows that these separated churches and Communities, though we believe they suffer from defects, are deprived neither of significance nor importance in the mystery of salvation. In fact the Spirit of Christ has not refrained from using them as instruments of salvation, whose value derives from that fullness of grace and of truth which has been entrusted to the Catholic Church”.

Of course we do not hear about that in secular media. What frustrates me is that this such a non-story. Here is the link to the doc.

http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20070629_responsa-quaestiones_en.html

I can't believe our pastor did not use his homily to explain this teaching on Sunday. To hear that he contradicted the Holy Father on this shocks me. Did he not read the original doc? What a lost opportunity!

highballs and high chairs

What a fun night! Tonight our neighbors hosted highballs and highchairs, a somewhat weekly summertime gathering where most of the families with young children on the block get together to catch up (or build community as I like to say). It all started a few years ago when I was home on maternity leave with B, when many of our kids were in high chairs. It's so hard to believe that the kids are not in high chairs anymore!