August 30, 2004
Gmail Invites
Flush with over $1 billion in cash from the IPO, Google is doling out Gmail accounts again. I have six invites, leave a comment or email if you would like a Gmail account.
Permalink | Comments (2)DC Weather Blog
A blog microfocused on the weather in Washington DC. Of course, I subscribed.
Permalink | Comments (0)Distributed Travel Directory
Julie is wishing for Yahoo Maps to point out the location of the nearest Starbucks, or ID hotels with free wifi service. They can do that tomorrow, if Starbucks or Holiday Inn pays to advertise on the site.
But it got me thinking - that kind of localized, frequently changing data is just begging for a Wiki or Open Directory approach. Imagine a site organized by Interstate Highway exit numbers where a local person maintained data about local services, hotels, gas stations, restaurants, etc.
That would be cool.
Is there a mySQL developer in the house? Open Directory data is open source - is the underlying software available too? This would almost be easy if somebody handed me the underlying code to run the site.
Permalink | Comments (2)Bowling Gets Cool
Rob Glaser (CEO of Real Networks) and a couple of other rich geeks bought the Professional Bowling Association for $5 million. They bought the whole league for less than what many baseball players make in a year.
They should turn a profit next year. Neat story. Who would have thought bowling would be cool again?
New lanes opened near us last year - all no-smoking all the time, which is nice. However a family bowling outing costs over $40 now.
Permalink | Comments (1)You are not homeschooling if...
Repeat after me, YOU ARE NOT HOMESCHOOLING.
When did we become so trendy that public school parents want to pretend to be homeschoolers, without actually taking any responsibility for their kids education?
Permalink | Comments (5)August 29, 2004
The Public Education Conspiracy
Catawampus has a very nice rant on the real purpose of public education.
What? You don't really believe that the elite who run this country set up a public education system that will enable us to challenge their power, do you?
Read her rant - no need for me to repeat it here.
However, I do disagree on a one point. I don't believe that intelligence is as big a genetic factor as she seems to believe (based on her citing The Bell Curve). I think intelligence is more cultural. Yes, the outliers are either gifted or challenged from genetics, but I think most of us are born with similar potential and it's primarily cultural issues that cause certain races to underachieve in our society.
The meritocracy discussion is very interesting too. How is it in a country with 220MM people that a father and son become President, while another son/brother is Governor of FL? Is it intelligence? No way. I haven't seen anything to suggest that the Bush family is gifted with extraordinarily high intelligence. It's money, and access to power.
Do you really think they want to share that kind of power with the rest of us?
Permalink | Comments (3)August 26, 2004
No Nuts For you, or you , or anybody
A school in Maine has one child that is severely allergic to peanuts, peanut oil, and whole bunch of other stuff too. So, if you were the public school officials would you
1. Figure out a way to make reasonable accommodation
or
2. Ban everything even remotely related to nuts.
I think you know the answer. They haven't explained how they are still letting the school administrators on the property though.
And what about mom here? Her child might die from just being in the general vicinity of a peanut, and she is entrusting the public school system to actually keep him safe? What the hell is she smoking? This child should be homeschooled, for his own safety, if nothing else.
If the kid really is that sensitive, he has no business in a public school. I hope the other parents raise hell over this decision. Public schools, for all their faults, are public facilities. Basic public accommodation is all they should be required to provide.
Permalink | Comments (4)August 24, 2004
Running on Empty
A wake on Monday, a funeral today, and I'm toast. Gone. Kaput. The tank is empty. I have no mental capacity left for the week. The stress and emotion of the last few days has totally wiped me out.
However, I witnessed the most amazing thing today. A friend who just lost his wife to cancer somehow found the strength to stand up, hold it together, and deliver a eulogy.
I was in awe. I'm still in awe.
Don't expect much out me here the rest of the week.
Peace.
Permalink | Comments (1)August 23, 2004
1985 - Bowling for Soup
Take one very catchy up tempo song with nostalgic Gen X lyrics, add a video that spoofs Robert Palmer, George Micheal, Motley Crue, and Whitesnake's videos, and you have a recipe for a lot of fun.
Check out the video and song at Bowling for Soup
The video was obviously inspired by Stacey's Mom. However, Bowling for Soup has been doing the retro 80's rock sound for a while, so they aren't totally ripping off Fountains of Wayne - just borrowing the video idea.
Permalink | Comments (0)Recess buried under red tape
Games involving any physical contact are not allowed (no dodgeball, no tag, no touch football, no pushing your friend on the swing), other games require written rules to reduce potential conflicts.
Conflict resolution was probably one of the most important things I learned on the playground. I also learned that if I didn't like being picked last for the team I needed to work harder to get better at the games. If team picking is even allowed these days I imagine there is some sort of quota system to make sure every kid gets picked first.
Permalink | Comments (1)Golden Smog - MP3 of the week
I'm going to borrow somebody else's MP3 of the week. With all the stress this weekend I totally blanked out on it last night - and this morning Fred at A VC posted a very cool tune by Golden Smog , comprised of former Wilco, Soul Asylum, and Jayhawks members. That is a mix that has all kinds of potential.
Also - Rob Russell & The Sore Losers are at Bogart's in Richmond Saturday night. If you are in the area you don't want to miss them. Flat out, the best roots rock and roll band you've never heard of. In honor of that, here is a bonus MP3 for the week, What Do You Know - from their soon to be released album, Lucky.
Permalink | Comments (0)August 22, 2004
The only thing we have to fear is fear itself
Gene Weingarten, humor columnist for The Washington Post, shows he can write unfunny stuff quite well too. He took a terror trip to ride buses in Jerusalem, ride the same train line that was bombed in Spain, and took the oft canceled British Airways to Dulles flight home.
Brave guy!
He did it to understand the terrorized. We in America are new to this living in target zone stuff. What can we learn from the people of Jerusalem, who deal with this stuff every moment of every day?
Permalink | Comments (0)August 21, 2004
Losing The Cancer War
A 30 year old friend lost her fight with cancer last night. She received a clean bill of health at least two times after treatment and surgery, only to have the tumor come back even more aggressively each time. I thought it was a watershed moment in getting older a few years ago when I attended more funerals than weddings in a single year . Now I'll be attending a funeral for somebody younger than me.
Nixon declared war on cancer in 1971, when the survival rate was about 50%. 30+ years and God knows how many billions of dollars later, the survival rate from cancer is between 50%-64%, depending on whose numbers you believe. Neither number strikes me as anything to be proud of. I can't help but wonder if maybe we are fighting this war all wrong.
These folks certainly believe we are fighting the wrong war. They charge that government and industry is too focused on treatment and neglecting prevention. I suspect they may have a point. I'm going to download the 66 page report (pdf) they released last year and start to formulate an educated opinion This group seems a little over the top- and they may be totally whacked for all I know - but you have to start somewhere.
Update: I skimmed the report. If you took this report as gospel, you would immediately move your family to a farm in central Kansas where you would consume only the organic produce and livestock you raise. Further, you would make sure that the farm is on a hill, to avoid runoff, and you would also make sure no electrical lines of cell phone towers were in the vicinity. Many of the chemicals they matter of factly ID as well known carcinogens are disputed elsewhere in the web. However, many of the disputes seem to rest on the fact that the govt revised the known carcinogen list in 2001 based on a new belief that rats have some unique digestive issues that don't carry over to humans, so those studies that showed cancer in rats from ingestion (ie saccharin) are not indicators for humans.
The government controls cancer research in this country. Do you trust the government? Do you trust big Pharma?
Who can we trust? Anybody want to recommend a relatively unbiased source of cancer information?
Permalink | Comments (3)August 20, 2004
Happy 13th
I 'd like to wish my marriage a belated happy 13th birthday (it was yesterday). Fortunately, I did wish my spouse a happy 13th on the correct day.
We did nothing, nada, as in absolutely nothing. I had to trek in to the office, got home around 7. She brought me dinner from Hardees on her way home from picking up Breck at a birthday party, and we lounged on the couch and watched the Olympics.
How romantic, eh?
Permalink | Comments (5)August 19, 2004
When Monkeys Attack
I for one, will welcome our new monkey overlords.
Permalink | Comments (0)August 18, 2004
PSA: Blog Etiquette
If you are the author of this article and you write me to complain about my post on your article, it would be very helpful for you to first ensure that I did indeed actually write something about said article.
Further, upon receiving my reply asking for a link to my comments, because I honestly don't remember writing anything about Scholastic Books taking money from the American Petroleum Institute, it would be especially helpful if you didn't respond by sending me the full text of Daryl's post commenting on your article.
Because, if you do all the above, it's very likely that I will publicly mock you on ODonnellWeb.
Permalink | Comments (4)August 17, 2004
Pot kills Cancer
Marijuana inhibits the growth of brain cancer by reducing blood flow to the tumour. So, when the government told us pot kills brain cells, they weren't really lying. They just weren't very specific about which cells.
Schools as Wellness Centers
The editorial team at my local fish wrapper is enamored of this FL school that received a $1.5 million grant to combat obesity.
As part of a $1.5 million grant to combat childhood obesity, students will learn to read food labels, choose exercise over sedentary recreation, and pick out healthy snacks. Fourth- and fifth-graders will receive pedometers to measure their activity levels, and learn to do the calculations in math class. Best of all, teachers and parents will be encouraged to join the get-fit regime, reinforcing the lessons students learn.
It takes over a million bucks to tell the kids to choose an apple over a snickers bar at snack time? Pedometers for 4th and 5th graders? 4th and 5th graders should be outside PLAYING. You can't measure fun with a damn pedometer. And what about equality? We can't have little Johnny taking 200 steps between the classroom and the bathroom, and little Timmy only getting 150 steps in for the same trip. That would not be fair. Maybe they will teach all the kids to goosestep equally.
Permalink | Comments (6)August 16, 2004
Hurricane Disney
Apparently, Disney isn't a bad place to ride out a hurricane.
Permalink | Comments (0)Creative Christian Discipline
Lisa Whelchel, Christian homeschooling mother and author (and better known as Blair on The Facts of Life), uses biblical passages to defend some rather unusual child discipline beliefs in her book Creative Correction: Extraordinary Ideas for Everyday Discipline.
For example, she quotes the Book of Proverbs -- "The mouth of the righteous brings forth wisdom, but a perverse tongue will be cut out" -- and follows with this suggestion: "A short pinch by a clothespin on the tongue can discourage foul language."
In addition, Whelchel offers the following: "For lying or other offenses of the tongue, I 'spank' my kids' tongues. I put a tiny drop of hot sauce on the end of my finger and dab it onto my child's tongue. It stings for a while, but it abates. (It's the memory that lingers!)"
Whatever happened to curing potty mouth with a bar of soap and some water? Also, lying is not an "offense of the tongue." It is an offense of the mind. Why do I suspect that her kids are prone to lying due to fear of the extreme punishment that will result from the offense?
Hat Tip: SixDifferentWays
Permalink | Comments (3)August 15, 2004
Carbon Leaf - Celtic Inspired Rock
When you are looking for Celtic inspired rock, Richmond VA immediately comes to mind, right? Well it should. Carbon Leaf just released Indian Summer on Vanguard Records. Barenaked Ladies meets REM meets Great Big Sea, or something like that. The MP3 (The Boxer) is from an earlier album. Their web site has several songs from the new album available via Flash player.
Fans of Great Big Sea (hi Darby!) should eat this up. I am.
Permalink | Comments (1)August 13, 2004
Aim High
The vision statement for the Washington (Seattle Area) School District.
Students as well educated as any in the world
That is poorly worded, even by vision statement standards! What the hell does that mean? I can read that as a goal to not be the worst educated in the world. After all, if your education matches that of a poor kid learning in a thatch hut in Kenya, have you not met the standard provided above?
I think we know what they mean, but I guess it would be too un-PC to just say it out loud.
The best educated students on the planet
I can just see the cheerleaders at football games, "We are just as good as you". "We are just as good as you." I'm sure "We're #1" is totally off limits.
(Not that a public school has any chance of achieving such a lofty goal. But, they ought to at least try)
via Catawampus
Permalink | Comments (0)August 11, 2004
Madden 2005
The Bill Simmons review of Madden 2005 is classic. Maybe the best video game review ever written.
I doubt I'll get it though. I'm not obsessive enough about video games to spend $59.95. I am eyeing NFL 2K5 though. It's only $19.95 and the game play is more than good enough for me.
Permalink | Comments (2)Yet Another Reason to be happy I'm Married
According to CBS Marketwatch, the average cost of a first date (dinner & a movie) is $117.00.
Ouch!
Way back in the olden days, I used to spend $5 on dates with Michelle. $2 to get into dollar movie night, and then $3 for Taco Tuesday at Taco Bell after the movie (3 tacos for a buck).
If the 80/20 rule applies - where 80% of first dates don't lead to anything meaningful, guys are throwing a lot of money away on first dates :) One of the points in the article is that it's still the guy paying most of the time. Funny how feminism missed that little corner of the world.
Permalink | Comments (3)August 09, 2004
You can't handle homeschooling
He has an Ed degree - so he must be right.
I think that most of the reasons that one generally gets for doing homeschooling, while well meaning, are more often than not, emotionally and intellectually harmful to the very child that it proports to be helping.
Of course, he has absolutely no evidence to support this statement. If you are going to start an essay with a statement like that, you should provide supporting facts. You'd think an education major would know that. As an example to help any other education majors that may be lurking here, here is a study that shows homeschoolers grow up to be normal responsible adults.
See, that wasn't difficult.
While *any* kid is capable of learning with homeschooling, I am pretty sure that a good many of the parents that get the most fired up about homeschooling, really aren't intellectually or emotionally set up to actually be a good homeschool teacher.
I wonder what "good many of the parents" is code for? Christian? Conservative? He never says, but he obviously has some group in mind.
Admittedly there is a fairly large pool of home school curricula out there, but the vast majority of it is agenda driven
A clue - "agenda driven." Hmm, I wonder who he has a problem with?
Choosing a balanced and effective curriculum will do a good bit of the work *for* you, but most people tend to just end up with whatever curricula that whatever organization inflamed them with the desire to homeschool suggests, which means that you have people that are teaching agenda as fact to their children, which leaves the kids with an education with gaping holes in it, and only a single (skewed) viewpoint
This unnamed group are apparently mindless sheep, enraged to the point of homeschooling by some outside force. Again, things that make you go hmmm. Of course, there is absolutely no agenda in the public school system. All they care about is educating our kids to the best of their abilities.
The biggest problem in homeschooling however is more often related to socialization, not the purely intellectual. Kids are often home schooled "to keep them from being exposed to bad influences"
You knew this was coming. It wouldn't be an anti-homeschool essay without the "S" word.
They lack basic social skills that are developed incrementally by playing on the playground with one's peers end up being missed out on, which means that since our social development is laid down and built upon in successive layers, they don't have the basic levels that one would need to build more advanced social frameworks upon
Apparently, in his bizzaro world, playgrounds only exist in the public school system. Thus, kids that don't go the the local indoctrination center daily never get to play on a playground. The irony is that NCLB is motivating many schools to eliminate or reduce recess time. The HS'ed kids are the only kids with daily playground time.
The right "homeschool association" can be very helpful, if its a *good* homeschool association... of course it can also simply provide a way for a bunch of social misfits to get together and pretend that they aren't actually all that socially backward
Again, one wonders what makes a *good* homeschool association. Let me take a guess...secular, with the racial, income, and sexual orientation of the members in proportion to the local community. Maybe we should start forced busing of homeschoolers - to make sure the homeschool groups have the appropriate mix.
Lest one think too harshly of homeschooling however, it is quite likely that someone in a public school will end up socially stunted too, especially if there is some stigma that is unfortunately applied by their peers, if someone is highly transient so that one never learns how to make long term relationships, if one never engages in extracurricular activities, or if the school is so large that a child simply slips through the cracks
Nice of him to notice. I didn't realize my military and very transient upbringing was condemning me to a life as a social misfit. It does explain the Saturday afternoons spent playing D&D though ;)
I for one chose to homeschool my kids
Weren't expecting that, were you?
They were incredibly intelligent and exceptional
Of course they were.
Despite having a teaching degree I took my kids to be tested to have them placed in public school, and got second opinions from teachers that were used to dealing with exceptional students. The general consensus was that they would be ill served by a traditional educational system, so we continued with classes as I had been with them, and adopted a more formalized curriculum. The deciding factor in all of this was that my kids were intrinsically motivated to learning. I had never had to force my kids to learn... some of that might be because when they asked all those myriad questions that kids ask while they are young that I took them all very seriously. I didn't talk down to them, or give them easy answers or blow them off, and as a result, they would keep come to me with questions.
See, only exceptional parents like him (that have a teaching degree) can homeschool successfully. The rest of us are just fooling ourselves and condemning our kids to a life of social neglect.
By age 8 and 10, before I separated from their mother, both had gotten their GED's
hmm....
...my kids are now attending public school at age appropriate grade levels
They already have GED's , but they are still in school? What am I missing?
I worry about those other 12 and 14 year old kids that are in college already... I think they are going to regret jumping into college before they are ready socially and emotionally...
I totally agree with him here.
The moral of the story (at least the one that I am getting from it) is that there isn't anything inherently wrong with homeschooling, and generally not that much inherently wrong with traditional public schools, but that the best interests of the individual child should be the deciding factor... not whether it fits in with the parent's agenda or not.
That is a fine moral, but it is not the moral of his story. The moral of his story is that only certain kinds of people are capable of homeschooling. I suspect most of my readers would not pass his stringent standards. I guess it's a real good thing that none of us gives a damn about what he thinks :)
Permalink | Comments (3)Homeland Security to use schools
Taking a page right out of the Hitler Youth playbook, Homeland Security announced a comprehensive campaign to indoctrinate kids in grades 4-8, and use those kids to modify parental behavior.
"It takes a long time to create a movement," says Susan Neely, who's in charge of the programs at Homeland Security. "Seat belts took 20 years.
Actually it took a federal law that strong armed the states into passing seat belt legislation. So, I guess we'll all be required to keep 2 dozen D Cells in the garage soon. I'm sure Duracell will be totally in favor of that legislation. Then we'll need an army of battery testers to go door to door in neighborhoods, testing batteries and handing out fines to those unprepared families.
Just as children learned to bug their parents to quit smoking and wear seat belts, Homeland Security officials hope grade-school kids will prompt moms and dads to put together emergency plans.
I guess this means the ports and borders are secure, since Homeland Security has time for this crap. And really, do we need to be scaring our kids with this? Nuclear armegeddon was a constant backdrop to my childhood. Do we really want our 4th graders obsessing over car bombs?
I'm not against preparedness, and honestly, we probably aren't prepared. I keep the flashlights in good working order, and I always have a couple of bottles or propane for the camping stove. But we don't have a plastic tub stocked with MRE's and a sidearm that we can throw in the car to evacuate within 5 minutes. If 9-11-2001 didn't motivate somebody to be more prepared, I doubt coloring books featuring the Homeland Security dog will make any difference.
Permalink | Comments (0)August 08, 2004
License To Chill - Jimmy Buffett
Mostly cover tunes as Jimmy gets in touch with his country roots by having a who's who of country help on the songs. Some work well, some not so well, but overall it's good. Where I come from, we don't speak of ill of Jimmy Buffett, ever.
I might as well make Buffett the MP3 of the week too. The first single from the album is a fun cover of Hank Sr.'s Hey Good Looking (WMA).
I also updated the CD list.
Permalink | Comments (0)August 07, 2004
Bald Eagles, and not in a zoo!
It was 58 and sunny when I got up this morning. The high today was in the upper 70's. I love the first taste of fall. I'm sure it'll be 90 again by mid-week, but it felt great today.
Determined not to waste a 78 and sunny day in August, I poked around the web last night looking for something new to do. I decided on Bald Eagle watching at Caledon Natural Area, about 30 minutes from home. The girls didn't want to go, so it was a father-son adventure.
The park closes the trails to the river for the summer, to protect the eagles nesting area. They do take two small groups in each weekend day though. We got in on the 12 PM trip. A short van ride down a dirt road brought us to the edge of the Potomac. Even there we were a good 200 yards from the eagles. With the help of a spotting scope and binoculars, we were able to pick out several mature bald eagles perched high in the trees along the river. We also saw them diving into the river hunting for fish. We spent about an hour on the bank of the river watching the eagles. I would guess we saw about 6 separate eagles.
Seeing the national bird in the wild was a majestic experience. Our view of them as regal is probably colored by its place in our culture, but still, they are magnificent birds, large, strong, and very distinct.
We learned that less than 10% of bald eagle fledglings survive to maturity (4-5 years old). They really don't have a natural predator, but the adults do little to teach the young how to survive on their own. Once they can fly, it's hasta la vista baby. Many young die because they never master the art of hunting for fish. However, they are doing fine as a species. In fact, they come off the endangered species list this month. It seems cruel, but I guess nature works. If 90% of them lived, the rivers would probably be picked clean of fish.
They were at the closest 100-150 yards away, so I couldn't get a good picture. This was the best one I got, and it needed full power digital zoom, which tends to distort the image. That is the white of the tail feathers reflecting the sun as it flew away from me.
Permalink | Comments (0)August 05, 2004
School Supplies No Longer in School Budget
School budgets have doubled in the last 20 years, but actual school supplies continue to be cut. From CBS Marketwatch, The list of things parents are expected to supply continues to grow.
Parents plan to spend an average of $483 on all back-to-school purchases this year, including clothing and electronics, up 7.2 percent from about $451 last year, the survey found.
$73 of those dollars are for pens, paper, etc.
The stores around here start running the back to school ads in late July.
We never quit, so there is no back to school for us!
Permalink | Comments (2)August 04, 2004
Tigger found not guilty
Tigger was found not guilty of improper paw placement on a breast.
That doesn't change the fact that Tigger made a play for my wife though.
Permalink | Comments (1)The W Blog
President Bush is a blogger. Who knew?
Permalink | Comments (1)August 03, 2004
Duck & Cover
Remember learning to "duck & cover" in case of an atomic bomb? (like that would really help). Well, here is the civil defense film that taught us that important concept. I got a major chill watching this - the narrator's voice brought back all kinds of memories from elementary school.
The Prelinger Archive is an amazing collection of old civil defense films, health and safety films, sponsored corporate films, and more. I could spend days at this site - and I probably will.
via PCJM
Permalink | Comments (1)August 02, 2004
MP3 of the week - Rob Russell & The Sore Losers
This is new feature on ODonnellWeb. Yes, I know it's not particularly original, however I hope to introduce both of my readers to music they would never otherwise hear.
First up - Rob Russell & The Sore Losers. They have a new album in production, and Believer is a track from it. (Windows media - not MP3) I'm not offering a description, the idea here is for you to click the link and take a listen. Their first album is one of my favorite records, ever. It's that good. If you like rock, blues, or country, you'll like the way they mix all those elements, and more.
RRSL will be in Richmond on Aug 28. I'm going. My dear wife has already opted out - she isn't into the smoky bar thing. Her loss. If Google happens to deliver any other RRSL fans here that are planning on going to the Richmond show, drop me a line.
Permalink | Comments (0)Roger Clemens Ejected...
from a youth baseball game. As a Little League and youth basketball coach myself, I hate parents like him.
From a coaching perspective, it's worse when it's one of your parents. If our opponent's parents are exhibiting bad sportsmanship, I can use that as a teaching moment. That is difficult to do when the kid is on your team.
Update: Clemens may be getting a bad rap on this one. However, his behavior throughout his career made it easy for us to believe this story.
Permalink | Comments (1)Stay-At-Home Moms Suck
At least that is the message of Gretchen Ritter, director of the Center for Women's and Gender Studies at the University of Texas.
(link requires registration or Bug-Me-Not)
I think this one requires a fisking.
Ritter asks, It is time to have an honest conversation about what is lost when women stay home. In a nation devoted to motherhood and apple pie, what could possibly be wrong with staying home to care for your children?
Then she answers her own question.
It denies men the chance to be involved fathers.
Wrong. If anything, a stay-at-home mom enables the father to be more involved. Two income families have no time during the week. They work, eat, do homework, put the kids to bed, and then repeat the next day. Weekends are spent doing all the "stuff" you can't get to during the week. One parent at home all day can take care of the domestic day to day responsibilities, leaving dad free after work and on the weekends to coach Little League, take junior fishing, help with the science fair project, or whatever. From what I've seen, very involved fathers usually have a stay home wife supporting them.
Women who stay at home also lose out — they lose a chance to contribute as professionals and community activists...It is not selfish to want to give your talents to the broader community — it is an important part of citizenship to do so, and it is something we should expect of everyone.
I thought when you had children your primary responsibility was to raise those kids to be productive members of society. In Ritter's bizzaro world, your children are apparently no more or less important than your responsibility to get a law degree and file class action suits against WalMart for sex discrimination.
Full-time mothering is also bad for children. It teaches them that the world is divided by gender. This sends the wrong message to our sons and daughters. I do not want our girls to grow up thinking they must marry and have children to be successful, or that you can only be a good mother if you give up your work.
Of course, full-time mothering teaches nothing of the sort. What it does teach the children is that their parents consider them important enough to sacrifice lots of other stuff to raise them. But I'm sure Ritter would counter that raising children is a job for the village (government) because no single parent is qualified, particularly those moms so unsophisticated that they think staying home and mothering is admirable.
The new stay-at-home motherhood movement parallels the movement to create the "perfect" child. It's not just that mothers are home with their children; they are engaged with their children constantly so they will "develop" properly. Many middle-class parents demand too much of their children. We enroll them in soccer, religious classes, dance, art, piano, French lessons, etc., placing them on the quest for continuous self-improvement.
It's primarily the two income families that do this, probably because they feel guilty about neglecting their kids. A SAHM would be doing all the shuttling around, and quickly cut back. But when your nanny is doing all the logistics, what do you care?
Finally, the stay-at-home mother movement is bad for society. It tells employers that women who marry and have children are at risk of withdrawing from their careers, and that men who marry and have children will remain fully focused on their careers, regardless of family demands. Both lessons reinforce sex discrimination.
Why is this a bad thing? It's about choice. If women want to stay home they can make that choice. The trade off is that staying home with your kids is not a great career move. I think the moms get that. Ritter apparently doesn't.
This movement also privileges certain kinds of families, making it harder for others. The more stay-at-home mothers there are, the more schools and libraries will neglect the needs of working parents, and the more professional mothers, single mothers, working-class mothers and lesbian mothers will feel judged for their failure to be in a traditional family and stay home their children.
I'll bet Ritter has no problem with certain "privileges" afforded other minorities. But if the SAHM garners occasional privilege, it's the end of the world as we know it. (I used that phrase just to stick the song in your head for the rest of the day). Is Ritter so insecure in her beliefs that she needs to demand everybody do it her way? She apparently is terrified that stay-at-home moms might prove her wrong.
By creating an expectation that mothers could and should stay home, we lose sight of the fact that most parents do work — and that they need affordable, high quality child care, after-school enrichment programs and family leave policies that allow mothers and fathers to nurture their children without giving up work.
By enabling parents to outsource their parental responsibilities to government, we ensure that the kids will be raised to think like Ritter. That I believe, is what she is really after here. Stay-at-home moms might teach their children something different. We can't have that. The parents must both stay busy with work, so they don't interfere with the indoctrinization of their children.
Raising children is one of the most demanding and rewarding of jobs. It is also a job that should be shared, between parents and within communities, for the sake of us all
I had not read this far when I made the "It takes a village" crack above. Ritter is quite predictable. That's because every one of her arguments has been debunked over the last twenty years. This is probably a term paper she wrote in the mid -70's, in-between bra burning rallies. She obviously hasn't learned much since then.
A hat tip to Izzy, who pointed to this World Net Daily editorial, which led me to the original article.
Permalink | Comments (8)August 01, 2004
Baseball Geeks Unite!
My baseball simulation league is looking for a few more owners. We play with Out of The Park 6. The league itself is free, although you do need to own the software ($35) to play. It's well worth it, rotisserie baseball is a kids game in comparison.
If you poke around the league site, I'm the Florida Marlins.
Email me, or leave a comment if you are interested.
Permalink | Comments (1)Grant Comes East
Lee won Gettysburg. Then he crushed the Army of the Potomac at Union Mills. Now Lee sits on the doorstep of Washington DC, just three short miles from capturing the Union capital and ending the war.
Fiction (obviously), but very well written and entertaining. The authors William Forstchen and Newt Gingrich (yes, THAT Newt) really do a good job of providing just the right amount of detail. They don't go overboard ala Turtledove, but enough detail is present to understand the motivations of the personalities involved. The book moves along swiftly without getting bogged done in the minutia of battle.
This is book 2 of a trilogy. I haven't read book 1, Gettysburg, but I will remedy that soon enough.
Related: my story of meeting Newt at the book signing.
Permalink | Comments (1)