Don't Sweat the Small Stuff

Do you ever just have one of those days when it seems like every bit of technology you have starts breaking down? Today was my day for busted batteries; it started out with getting in my car and just hearing that little click that tells you your battery is shot. So I go to get my cell phone (naturally I am not at home when this happens) which gives a few infuriating beeps with the display indicating, "battery low, phone turning off" and then the phone dies. I went to a family member's house, called the car roadside assistance which was awesome, they were here within 15 minutes--Thanks, Mercedes (no, I do not have an "expensive" Mercedes, I have a 2002 C230 that has been a fairly reliable car up until now). These kinds of annoyances no longer bother me much; as far as I am concerned, as long as the battery in my ICD works; I am having a good day and am not going to sweat the small stuff. If Richard Carlson were here, I bet he would have said the same thing.

Good Cause of the Month

I heard through the Conservative Grapevine that Michelle Malkin is finalizing her plans to go to Iraq to do some first-hand reporting: her goals are two-fold:

1) to report on how the troops perceive mainstream media coverage of the war (with a particular focus on the wire services relying on local stringers); and

2) to report on progress and interaction between U.S. troops and Iraqi Army trainees.

Some of the commenters in a previous post seemed taken aback that I bragged about using money from Blogads to take a beach vacation. As I mentioned, the additional Blogads revenue I made to take my wonderful vacation was made possible, in part, by extra traffic from links from lefty bloggers such as Glenn Greenwald and Alicublog. (Thanks again, boys!) However, after considering that maybe the commenters were correct, that I should be giving the money to good causes and not spending it all on myself, I decided to take their advice to heart and donate some of my revenue to my favorite right-leaning causes, starting with a check I just mailed to Hot Air to help pay for Michelle's trip to Iraq--I hope they will put it towards extra security.

Perhaps every once in a while, I will find a right-leaning or libertarian cause that I believe in and send some of the proceeds from the Blogad revenues their way. It's a good feeling, knowing that I am helping to make the world a better place and that every person--trolls included--coming to this blog will help to contribute in some small way. Thanks everyone!

Podcast on Marriage and Caste in America

Today, we are talking with Kay Hymowitz, author of Marriage and Caste in America: Separate and Unequal Families in a Post-Marital Age. Hymowitz says that marriage and parenthood have more to do with wealth and poverty than vice versa, and offers some suggestions on what we should be doing to encourage responsible parenting. We also discuss whether or not it is good to have a "kid-centered" culture, the pros and cons of gay marriage, the break-down of the black family, and whether the next generation of young girls is headed back to the 1950's.

You can listen directly -- no downloads needed -- by going here and clicking on the gray Flash player. You can download the file by clicking right here, or you can get a lo-fi version suitable for dialup, cellphones, etc. by going here and selecting lo-fi. A free iTunes subscription -- the best way to go -- is available by clicking here. You can visit our archives here.

This podcast is sponsored by Volvo at volvocars.us.

Okay, New York City, perhaps this is a consequence of what happens when you try to ban trans fat. If these poor dieters had just eaten a nice fattening burger fried in regular oil, your subways might be running on time.

Fight the Matriarchy!

Have you seen the new study that shows how "Queen Bee" women are actually holding back other women's careers? If not, here is an excerpt from Timesonline (Hat tip: Ginny at the Chicagoboyz):

FORGET “jobs for the boys”. Women bosses are significantly more likely than men to discriminate against female employees, research has suggested.
The study found that when presented with applications for promotion, women were more likely than men to assess the female candidate as less qualified than the male one.

They were also prone to mark down women’s prospects for promotion and to assess them as more controlling than men in their management style.

The findings, based on experiments carried out among more than 700 people, suggest that the “queen bee syndrome” of female rivalry in the workplace may sometimes be as important as sexism in holding back women’s careers.

What, women capable of stereotyping? Say it isn't so! I guess the "Sisterhood" is only alive and well when the drones know their place.

Senior Prom

Today, I was reading Kay Hymowitz's book, Marriage and Caste in America: Separate and Unequal Families in a Post-Marital Age, for an upcoming podcast and found it interesting that she stated that today's generation of young girls is a throwback to the 1950's in their longing for marriage and family. Hymowitz describes the "Millennals," the cohort born between 1981 and 1999 as more "staitlaced" than their parents and as "marriage nuts" with 88 percent of male high school seniors and 93 percent of females believing it is extremely or quite important to have a good marriage and family life. Perhaps these girls will be a new breed from the more traditional 1950's housewife, but I wonder if their quest to rebel by being traditional coupled with "feeling entitled to it all" will lead to heartache with the perfection that they seek. Are they setting themselves (and their potential dates) up for failure?

Talk to many young girls--even younger than 12!-- these days and you will find that they talk incessantly about their desire for a man who is tall, older and rich. Yet ask them how they will find this guy and they seem to think he will appear by magic. They hesitate to call a boy for a date or ask him to a dance, expecting him to make the first move. Then they wonder why they are sitting home on a Friday night or going to dances with their girlfriends (nothing wrong with that of course, unless you would like to go with a guy). And of course, if the guy does not meet their requirements, they don't want to go anyway.

I remember my Senior prom; I really wanted to go and being the loser that I was in high school, knew I didn't have a chance if I didn't do the asking. I never had an idea of some older, taller guy--I was willing to take short, broke or in my date's case, a younger guy who just had a nice smile. His name was Wilson and he was 16; I was 17 and he was two years behind me in school. I told a friend of mine that I was interested in asking him to the prom--when she mentioned it to him, he smiled and said, "sure, I would love to go with her."

I picked him up in a limousine with my best friend and her boyfriend, and he gave me a corsage. He acted like a perfect gentleman and was as mature as any 16-year-old I had ever met. To this day, I am totally indebted to him for going with me and not turning me down. It gave me the courage to do the asking out in the dating world, because I always remembered that he had said yes to me and treated me in such a kind way. If I had learned to sit back and wait to be asked for a date, or needed perfection, I would probably still be waiting. You can see the picture of us at the prom--I, of course, look like a doofus and he may also, but he had the graciousness to accept my invitation at an important time in my life, and for that, I will always be grateful. His smile, and his kindness, now, that was perfection.

Update: Bitter at the Bitchgirls bows to peer pressure and posts a picture of herself and date at the prom. Anyone else out there brave enough to do the same?

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to all my readers and others out there surfing the internet. I typically don't make any New Year's resolutions. No, I don't think I am fine the way I am as much as I sort of evaluate any changes I need to make all year long and try to make changes or adjustments as the year goes by rather than all at once. However, this year, I do have a resolution I want to try and keep--to have a thicker skin and not let people or their comments bother me. I am fairly imperturbable when it comes to personal insults or criticisms but there are times when I realize that I am letting people get to me more than I should. I hope that this year, I can actually learn to ignore people's insults completely--yet at the same time, I want to take constructive well-meaning and well thought out criticism to heart. Thanks to all the trolls who have come to this blog in the past year and helped me learn to work on my tolerance of stupidity and classlessness. You can continue to be part of my psychological growth project in the coming year if you wish or you can decline to participate in my psychological health by going elsewhere.

What about you, do you make any New Year's resolutions? If so, do you actually keep them?

Well, maybe there is some hope for positive press for responsible gun use. Vicki Nicholl, the author of Women Learning to Shoot, sent me an article from a Boulder newspaper about women getting together for target practice entitled Girlfriends, Get Your Gun. At least, maybe it is a start towards fair gun reporting.