Wow, so no matter what happens in November – no matter which candidate wins, a historical first for our country will occur when either the first black man is elected president or the first woman sits in the vice presidential seat. After reading who McCain chose as his running mate, I have experienced a variety of emotions. As a woman, I have a sense of excitement that a woman might actually hold such a high office – and then I remember that should that happen, McCain will be our president which makes me very unhappy to think about. I also feel a little used as a woman because I can’t help but think that McCain chose Palin in hopes of not only attracting those Hillary supporters who don’t like Obama, but also blue-collar workers who might identify with Palin’s husband who is/was an oil worker in Alaska (oh, and he’s white – I read a blip in the P.I. yesterday saying that a number of union workers may not vote for Obama because he is black). Or maybe I’m just pissed because I’m afraid this move will take away from Obama’s chances of winning – this person (I’m talking about Obama here) who seems to have a greater interest at heart than just what will get him elected or make him popular, who is more in touch with today’s society (hello, at one point recently Jay told me that McCain had never been on the internets – !), who chose a running mate in part because he thought that person would challenge ideas he disagreed with (really, is that a qualification many presidential candidates look for, I don’t know, but am guessing no), and who might actually be able to make some changes (tho I’m not sure I believe that is possible with our current governmental structure). So I’m left feeling a bit upset that a woman has been chosen to run as part of the Republican ticket – and also feeling sad about my feelings there. Of course I would love to see a woman in such a high office, though I would never vote for a person based on whether they were a man or a woman – but it does tug at my heart and sense of feminism. Is that part of what the McCain campaign is hoping for? I just hope that anybody at all swayed by the fact that Palin is a woman also looks closely at her record and opinions. From the little bit I’ve read, she’s not in support of the same women’s rights I am, but Obama and Biden seem to be.
(Doctors of political science who may read this, please excuse my lack of understanding of anything I’ve mentioned – I’m going from the gut here 
)
I found this article pretty interesting, not only because our own Mr. Anderson has agreed there needs to be a conversation about the legal drinking age and its merits, but also I had no idea that the law needs to be reauthorized next year. I haven’t read any of the buzz mentioned but I’d assume we’d be hard pressed in this country to do any actual changing of the drinking age. Read on.
8/24/08
College presidents’ debate on drinking age raises ire
Critics say discussion avoids work
P-I STAFF AND NEWS SERVICES
The college presidents said they wanted a national debate on the 21-year-old drinking age. They got it.
For years, former Middlebury College President John McCardell has been criticizing the law, saying it only encourages binge drinking and pushes alcohol into the shadows.
But then McCardell quietly enlisted about 100 college presidents — including Pacific Lutheran President Loren Anderson — in a campaign calling for the drinking age to be reconsidered. After The Associated Press reported on the effort this week, the issue erupted into the biggest discussion on the subject in years — in blogs, over e-mail, in newspaper editorials and around office water coolers.
College presidents usually avoid contentious topics because alienating alumni and politicians poses big risks and offers few rewards. So it was big news when so many leaders of the nation’s best-known institutions signed on to McCardell’s “Amethyst Initiative,” named for the Greek gemstone said to ward off intoxication.
Supporters included presidents of private universities such as Duke, Dartmouth and Johns Hopkins, and public schools including Ohio State and the University of Maryland. So far Anderson is the only college president from Washington state supporting the effort.
“I’m not among those that has concluded that changing the drinking age is what needs to be done. I am one of those who feels the issue needs to be studied, that there needs to be a national conversation about it,” Anderson told KIRO News Radio last week.
“Alcohol use is an incredible problem in our society, but it particularly affects the college campuses because our primary group is in the 18, to 23, 24-year-old age group, where this transition is occurring…. I looked over the focus and intent, and it seemed to me appropriate, as a higher education leader, to say not only does higher education but the larger society needs a conversation about this.”
Critics led by Mothers Against Drunk Driving got their view across, too, accusing the presidents of seeking to avoid the unpleasant work of cracking down on campus lawbreakers.
MADD marshaled critics, including the acting chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, who called changing the law “a terrible idea” that would “jeopardize the lives of more teens.”
Amid the backlash, two presidents — Robert Franklin of Morehouse College and Kendall Blanchard of Georgia Southwestern State — withdrew their support.
“We welcome an honest discussion and that begins with a clear discussion of the science,” MADD CEO Chuck Hurley said. “We are hopeful that that will be the focus going forward.”
But at least 20 presidents have added their names this week, including the presidents of Montclair State in New Jersey and the University of Massachusetts system, bringing the total to at least 123.
“We’re not burying our head and trying to hide behind laws,” said Father Paul Locatelli, president of Santa Clara University in California, who meets personally with every student written up for alcohol infractions. “We’re trying to say, ‘What is the best way to approach this issue?’ ”
Whether the debate will lead anywhere is unclear. Opinion polls suggest most Americans support enforcing current drinking laws.
In a MADD news release, Rep. James Oberstar, a Minnesota Democrat and chairman of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, said he would not consider any effort to repeal or weaken “this lifesaving law.”
Efforts in states including Minnesota, Wisconsin and Vermont to relax the drinking age have been rebuffed. A 1984 federal law limits a state’s access to federal highway funds if it sets a drinking age lower than 21.
But that law is up for reauthorization next year. McCardell wants it changed so states can decide for themselves the best drinking age, without fear of losing federal money. He hopes the drinking age will become an issue in the fall election campaign.
I feel like I know a few people who could be responsible for this…
8/22/08
Typo fixers get probation for damaging rare sign
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
PHOENIX — When it comes to marking up historic signs, good grammar is a bad defense.
Two self-styled vigilantes against typos who defaced a more than 60-year-old, hand-painted sign at Grand Canyon National Park were sentenced to probation and banned from national parks for a year.
Jeff Deck and Benjamin Herson pleaded guilty Aug. 11 for the damage done March 28 at the park’s Desert View Watchtower. The sign was made by Mary Elizabeth Jane Colter, the architect who designed the rustic 1930s watchtower and other Grand Canyon-area landmarks.
Deck and Herson, both 28, toured the United States this spring, wiping out errors on government and private signs. They were interviewed by NPR and the Chicago Tribune, which called them “a pair of Kerouacs armed with Sharpies and erasers and righteous indignation.”
An affidavit by National Park Service agent Christopher A. Smith said investigators learned of the vandalism from an Internet site operated by Deck on behalf of the Typo Eradication Advancement League, or TEAL.
Authorities said a diary written by Deck reported that while visiting the watchtower, he and Herson “discovered a hand-rendered sign inside that, I regret to report, contained a few errors.”
The fiberboard sign has yellow lettering with a black background. Deck wrote that they used a marker to cover an erroneous apostrophe, put the apostrophe in its proper place with white-out and added a comma.
The misspelled word “emense” was not fixed, Deck wrote, because “I was reluctant to disfigure the sign any further. … Still, I think I shall be haunted by that perversity, emense, in my train-whistle-blighted dreams tonight.”
Deck, of Somerville, Mass., and Herson, of Virginia Beach, Va., pleaded guilty to conspiracy to vandalize government property.
They were sentenced to a year’s probation, during which they cannot enter any national park or modify any public signs. They were also ordered to pay $3,035 to repair the watchtower sign.
The TEAL Web site now has only this message – “Statement on the signage of our National Parks and public lands to come” – without a period.
My Breaking Dawn Reading Experience at bookshelves of doom
and
there is a whole forum for moms who love this series. all i can say is–yikes!
ETA: Is She or isn’t She at The Longstockings
ETA2: The Twilight Saga is a Lot of Things more on SM and racism at bookshelves of doom
Many apologies to those that did not receive word already but here we go….cool beans to be spilled!
Mrs. EKBO is the super-sleuth! Yes, my previous grant was FINALLY funded! Sorry if this disappoints some– no husband and no dead evil person. But, for me, this is huge. I’ve been working towards this end for over a year. I had been worried, discouraged and seriously considering a different line of work….seriously, it was either going back to med school or Starbucks (or dare I say, both!). But, now there is hope!! Yay! So, now I can just teach med school and get lattes from Starbucks…..ahhh, that’s the way I like it! A double shot with extra foam. Many thanks and hugs to you all for the support and putting up with my crazy science world. Love you!
I’ve been thinking a lot about something I heard the other day. Basically, it was idle gossip about a couple I know of and the essence of it went like this: said couple has set a deadline for procreating because their friends have started having children and they don’t want to be the ones without them.
I don’t begrudge anyone their wish for children because I realize that wish usually surfaces from a place few of us understand. I’ll even go so far as to say I don’t begrudge anyone no matter what kind of capabilities I feel they’ll have at actual parenting because people will surprise you with just how capable they turn out to be. But when I look at my own little guy that kind of reasoning fills me with an almost unspeakable rage. How could anyone base their reproductive plans on what their peers are doing? Are our children fashion pieces now? Are we having kids to keep up with the Joneses? How can people like that possibly deserve to have a child? Am I going too far in saying that people who look outward for the inspiration to have children can’t possibly produce the selfless (or should I say more than selfless, because really it is like that sometimes. you need to be ready to give more of yourself than you ever thought possible, “self” melds into something totally new) love that every child deserves?
I think I could go on and on about this. But I won’t. None of you need this lecture.
As some of you know, today we took our kids to the Central Library to see Captain Bogg and Salty – a band of pirates who sing very catchy tunes about life on the seas that my kids love! The library was packed for the show (at 10:30am) and the band was awesome! Not sure if I would go see them without kids, but their music was really fun! Half way through the first song, the two girls I was sitting with (because they were rather leery of what these pirates would look like) we clapping and dancing in their seats – I soon got the comment, ‘I’m not afraid of these pirates, I like their songs!’ So those of you with wee ones may be interested in checking them out – and those of you without wee ones should check them out too:
www.eatalime.com
(and who the hell knows if that will act like a link… apparently I do not know what I am doing!)
to some this might look like an enormous mess, but it is in reality my 747 airplane to seattle. it involves the kids piling up all the toys possible on one of the couches or one of their beds. sometimes they “nap” on the airplane–i will come in and they are laying down quiet as two little mice. i’m unclear as to what happens beyond that, but whatever it is, this game keeps them occupied for a good hour almost every day.
riding planes and trains is not a new game for them, but the taking-mama-to-seattle part has just happened this week. it surprised me a little when they started it. i’m not sure where they picked up on me being homesick. i don’t talk about it with them, and i feel pretty confident that i don’t talk about it to pat when they are around. they always seem to know more than i give them credit for.
on a side note, it will most likely be 2-4 years before we move back, but i’m fairly certain we will be back. i’d love for the kids to be bi(or tri)lingual, but not so much that i can stand living here for so long. switzerland is really nice, i can’t deny that, but it’s just not home!
*a special thanks to jody and mark for helping me get this formatting thing down!!! yay! i don’t hate my mac after all*
Ahh, I love that I’ve conjured up a little hoopla! If you are still interested in the aforementioned “BIG news” please stop by Seven Stars Pepper at 7:30 on Friday for the reveal*! I may just show up with my new husband and leave the slain corpse in the car…
*For those whom are unable to attend due to geographical constraints (ie., Switzerland) a special Skype session can be arranged for later Friday night (Swiss early Sat morning).
and i have no idea why people are so disgruntled. damn. must try and get a copy this weekend. there is a bookstore in lausanne that likely has them for sale. if not, will order from amazon ASAP!