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It’s the time of year when we celebrate mothers and — about a month later — fathers. But the way we view each holiday reveals a lot about the growing gap between cultural gender stereotypes and the reality of most families’ day-to-day lives.
How do we celebrate Mother’s Day? Well, it’s Mom’s day off. This is the day she does no cooking, no cleaning and, of course, no childcare. She is brought breakfast in bed and taken out to a restaurant. Cards abound that show women soaking in bubble baths, sipping wine, reading books with their feet up. Mother’s Day is the one day she doesn’t have to be a mother, a job for which she is on duty the other 364 days.
The other half of this image is the hapless father, trying to take her place for that one day. You know — breakfast in bed is served, but the mother is already imagining the disaster in the kitchen, with pancake batter all over the floor and dishes mounted in the sink. Dad is clueless, and dresses the kids in striped shirts and plaid shorts. (To take just one example: “For my Wife, on Mother’s Day. You just relax. I’ll take care of everything,” one card reads. The cover shows a guy in sports jersey holding out a flower. Open it up and it says, “By the way, where is everything? Happy Mother’s Day!”)
FORT HOOD, TEXAS — A military judge has refused to delay this month’s scheduled trial of a Fort Hood officer charged in a deadly 2009 shooting rampage at the central Texas post.
Maj. Nidal Hasan’s attorneys on Thursday failed in their request to have the Army psychiatrist’s court-martial pushed back from late May until Sept. 1.
Jury selection is to start May 29, with testimony to begin July 1. The trial will be held on the Central Texas Army post.
Hasan faces the death penalty or life in prison without parole if convicted of 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder.
Moderation through explanation. Alternately, this section could be called Where Dunning-Kreuger meets politics. Four researchers at three different institutions joined forces to ask a simple question: why is it that people have such extreme positions on subjects that are rather complicated and nuanced? "We hypothesized that people typically know less about such policies than they think they do," the authors write, going on to discuss their experimental method: asking people with extreme opinions to explain the issue. That brought an end to their subjects' belief that they actually understood the issue they were otherwise willing to argue passionately about (or, as the authors put it, "undermined the illusion of explanatory depth"). Once people recognized their ignorance, positions tended to moderate.
In contrast, simply asking people to explain why they like their preferred policy kept the illusion intact. "The evidence suggests that people’s mistaken sense that they understand the causal processes underlying policies contributes to political polarization," they conclude.
Mark Sanford’s victory in the special South Carolina house race on Tuesday made for easy tweets about the hypocrisy of the South as the Bible Belt and the GOP as the party of traditional values.
And there’s plenty of truth to that. Many Dixie evangelicals and Republican bible-thumpers are guilty of taking a “do as I say, not as I do” approach to personal morality, and that gap makes some uneasy. As the WaPo’s conservative blogger Jennifer Rubin put it:
Whether we are becoming a more libertarian or a libertine society is a matter of debate. But the real take-away is that Republicans talk a good game on “family values” but don’t take it all that seriously.
A group of rich Republicans is raising money to support same-sex marriage. By doing so, they reveal a fundamental split in conservative ranks between two very different philosophies.
On one side are Western or frontier conservatives, who truly believe in small government and individual choice. On the other are Southern or evangelical conservatives, who think government should be used to enforce moral values and determine personal decisions.
One key supporter of gay marriage is Paul E. Singer, a billionaire hedge fund manager who has contributed heavily to many conservative causes. He’s a Jewish guy from New Jersey, not a Westerner, but he also has a gay son who is married to his partner. And when it comes to social issues, Singer identifies with the pragmatic, live-and-let-live tradition of the frontier.
“The concept of gay unions fits very well within our framework of individual liberty and our belief that strong families make for a stronger society,” Singer told The New York Times. “The institution of marriage is in very bad shape in this country, yet gay and lesbian couples want very much to be part of it. ... This should be what we want as conservatives, for people to cherish and respect this model and to want it for themselves.”
Ayn Rand’s books have been popular for decades. When I was young, I read three of them: “Atlas Shrugged,” “Fountainhead” and “Anthem,” which I liked because of the innocence and independent spirit of the protagonists. But as I matured, I realized that Rand’s work promotes the idea that the individual is the center of the universe, appealing to the self-centered adolescent mentality. I knew I was not the center of the universe. I am part of a family, a community, a nation. Later, I learned that Rand hated all religions, including Christianity, and she was vehemently opposed to any notions …
Linda Fondren, a mayoral candidate in Vicksburg, Miss., not only admits to a past life in prostitution, she says her husband was one of her Johns.
"I was a working girl in a legal brothel over 30 years ago. It's true, my husband was my client. My husband and I have been married for 28 years," Fondren told WLBT-TV.
"I knew it would surface because it was around. I just didn't think it would surface and I would be sitting here doing an interview with you today."
Fondren tried to hold off making that admission for weeks, and she even dismissed reporters who brought up a possible tie with Sagebrush Ranch, a legal Nevada brothel.
“These are rumors, and politics is really a business that people do whatever it takes to get things said about people instead of discussing the issues, what concerns people the most,” Fondren told the Clarion Ledger on March 29.
If "gun crime" has been falling dramatically for decades, and the "gun control" advocates are still shrieking for fundamental changes in gun laws, what is their objective? It can't be "gun violence prevention," or they would be demanding more of what we have been doing with such favorable results since the mid-'90s: dropping "assault weapon" and "high capacity" magazine bans, more "shall issue" concealed carry (or, indeed, more Constitutional carry), more "stand your ground" laws, etc.
Since they are instead advocating exactly the opposite, whose side are they on? Perhaps the side that benefits from higher "gun crime" numbers?
Obama appears with a bull’s-eye on his head in a new English-language magazine published online apparently by Islamist militants, who also urge Muslims around the world to try to hack and manipulate American drones.
“Wanted Dead Only. Barack Obama Mass Murderer. Reward: in the Hereafter,” reads the full page poster that depicts a darkened image Obama as a target.
Elsewhere in the 80-page tome, the magazine calls upon the “Ummah,” the community of Muslims all over the world, to hack and manipulate U.S. drones, identifying drone attacks as “one of the utmost important issues that the Ummah must unite to come up with an answer to.”
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s office has released a new video produced for the annual New Jersey Legislative Correspondents’ dinner.
The spoof video features Christie’s hunt for his famous fleece, featuring pop culture references and cameos from Alec Baldwin, James Carville and Jon Bon Jovi.
The video also pays tribute to last year’s popular “Texts from Hillary” meme.
At Breitbart’s "The Conversation," Ezra Dulis says that Chris Christie “gets it” when it comes to blending pop culture and politics.
Christie gets it. He knows he’ll gain greater name recognition and likability with goofy YouTube videos (this isn’t his first) than any political stunt–or position, for that matter–that could backfire on him. He’s sucking up to celebs who will increase his exposure and his “cool factor.”
Libs have gotten a bit pissy because Mark Sanford won his seat back in South Carolina.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, filed an amendment on a new immigration bill that would eliminate a path to citizenship for the 11 million illegal immigrants already here. Continued...
