Weird comment of the day

Over at the Washington Post, there is a rather pathetic article entitled "Why are we in this debt fix? It’s the elderly, stupid." In response, a commenter agrees with this "angel of mercy" with the following:

MarkMacDonald:
Thank you Mr. Samuelson for stating flatly what I have believed for many years: seniors are eating the seed corn of the future and there is no end in sight. I am 54 years old and have made a commitment not to live longer than 70. I will work as long as I can and have no desire to retire at all. We all know that the elderly are by far the wealthiest group of Americans and yet their demands on current and future generations are insatiable: they want to retire earlier and the expect more assist...See More
7/29/2011 8:37:59 AM EDT

Some of the responses to this weird comment asked the same question I had. How is he going to carry out his "commitment" not to live longer than 70? It's an odd thing to say and I wonder if he is really thinking through what he is saying? It's easy to say you will do something rash like this when you are not actually 70 but I wonder when the time comes what his thought process will be? And why should anyone else want such a depressing end? I know people who are 70 who can run circles around younger people, why should they be the target of such blatant prejudice and hate?

The Washington Times: "States no longer wedded to idea of alimony for life" (Link fixed, thanks!).

Is Michelle Obama trying to kill me?

I have a post up at the PJ Lifestyle blog asking "Is Michelle Obama trying to kill me?" that looks at the new changes to Happy Meals. Go take a look at it and read the comments --some are quite entertaining as well as insightful.

Ed Driscoll at PJ Lifestyle: "The no kids-allowed-movement is spreading."

I was at a law conference last night where there was a reception for the Federalist Society, a group of libertarian and conservative legal scholars. I have been to this reception a few times over the years and this year seemed to be the biggest turnout yet (though maybe some were just there for the free food and drinks). I spoke with a number of bloggers, including David Bernstein, from the Volokh Conspiracy and author of Rehabilitating Lochner: Defending Individual Rights against Progressive Reform and one of my favorite books You Can't Say That!: The Growing Threat to Civil Liberties from Antidiscrimination Laws. It was great to see and talk to so many people who support and write about individual freedom and libertarian ideas. It's a sharp contrast to the news and media culture that we live in at the current time.

Buffalo Books has a good interview up with Barbara Oakley, author of Cold-Blooded Kindness: Neuroquirks of a Codependent Killer, or Just Give Me a Shot at Loving You, Dear, and Other Reflections on Helping That Hurts.

Will women ask to see men's biceps before having sex?

I read this article in the New York Times (via Hot Air) entitled "Scientific Advances on Contraceptive for Men." This paragraph caught my eye:

Of course, women may have to trust that their partners are using birth control, as men do now. But at least one method, hormone implants, visibly bulge from a man’s bicep. “Guys like it because they can show it off,” Dr. Amory said. “Proof that the male is contracepting"...

So there is one method of birth control--the implant--that is visible and lets women know that the man is really using birth control. Wouldn't it also be helpful for men if women had something similar? Instead of just having to trust that a woman is taking pills, shots, etc., a guy would be able to see something tangible.

I actually like the idea of male birth control because it gives men more control over their reproductive lives. Right now, they simply have to "trust" that their sexual partners are using birth control. I wonder how women will feel when they have to do the same? At least if the guy is using an implant, it will show. But men? No such luck.

And honestly, wouldn't the feminists be all over it if women had to show the same kind of transparency? Hypocrites.

Should teens have sex at home?

Stephen Kruiser at PJ Lifestyle linked to an article over at the NY Times entitled "The Sleepover Question." The article was written by Amy Schalet who is a professor and author of a forthcoming book Not Under My Roof: Parents, Teens, and the Culture of Sex. Schalet seems to think that Americans could improve their family life if they let kids have sex at their home:

Would Americans increase peace in family life and strengthen family bonds if they adopted more accepting attitudes about sex and what’s allowable under the family roof? I’ve interviewed 130 people, all white, middle class and not particularly religious, as part of a study of teenage sex and family life here and in the Netherlands. My look into cultural differences suggests family life might be much improved, for all, if Americans had more open ideas about teenage sex. The question of who sleeps where when a teenager brings a boyfriend or girlfriend home for the night fits within the larger world of culturally divergent ideas about teenage sex, lust and capacity for love.

What's your take?

Men and women do similar amounts of household chores.

A reader sent me a video segment from the Today show discussing a study showing that married men are spending slightly more time at household chores than married women without children: 8 hours and 11 minutes for men vs. 8 hours and 3 minutes for women. With women with children, they did only 20 minutes more than men. Note the male suck-up in the video who says the bad rap against men is justified. Even when presented with evidence to the contrary, he can't keep from criticizing his fellow man. Though I don't typically use the term "mangina," I think this man fits the bill.






The video is here--just click on where it says, "You may not want hubby to read this"

My post over at the PJ Lifestyle blog: "A Bridal or Glass Bikini?: Who designs this stuff for real women?"

Textbook Rental on Amazon Kindle

I just saw on Fox Business that you can now rent textbooks on the Kindle. I went over to Amazon to check it out and read this:

Kindle Textbook Rental is a flexible and affordable way to read textbooks. You can rent for the minimum length, typically 30 days, and save up to 80% off the print list price. If you find you need your textbook longer, you can extend your rental by as little as 1 day as many times as you want and just pay for the added days.

Given the price of textbooks these days, this seems to be a great idea. Where was this when I was in college?

Ed Driscoll has an interview up with Ben Shapiro, author of Primetime Propaganda: The True Hollywood Story of How the Left Took Over Your TV.

John Hawkins at RWN: The Slow, Painful Coming Death Of The Independent, Conservative Blogosphere.

The Warrior Ethos

Glenn received some new books in the mail from author Steven Pressfield and one that caught my eye was The Warrior Ethos. Pressfield has some great books that have sage advice such as Do the Work that explains how to overcome resistance and procrastination. The great thing about blogging is that I can now procrastinate about doing work while reading a book about how not to procrastinate and call that work for blogging. Oh, never mind...

Anyway, Pressfield describes himself as a writer who writes about war:

...external wars and internal wars, wars ancient and modern, real wars out of history and imagined wars that exist only in speculation.

The The Warrior Ethos was written for our men and women in uniform, but its utility, I hope, will not be limited to the sphere of literal armed conflict. We all fight wars--in our work, within our families and abroad in the wider world. Each of us struggles every day to define and defend our sense of purpose and integrity, to justify our existence on the planet and to understand, if only within our own hearts, who we are and what we believe in.

One interesting section called "The Warrior Archetype" discussed the archetypes of psychologist Carl Jung and looked at the stages we pass through on the way to maturity:

The warrior archtype clicks in like a biological clock sometime in the early to mid-teens. We join a gang, we try out for the football team, we hang with our homies, we drive fast, we take crazy chances, we seek adventure and hazard.

The lessons we learn in this "warrior" phase, the book says, are with us our whole lives as we move through our different life phases. What is learned in the warior phase carries over to being a good father, mother, husband or wife. Finally, the last chapter sums it all up: "The hardest thing in the world to be is ourselves."

How do we get to the point where we understand who we are, what we believe and how we want to live? This book asks a lot of questions--it's up to the reader to find the answers. It is also available in a Kindle Edition here.

Cross-posted here at the PJ Lifestyle blog.

"Burnt-out" or just working like a man?

Over at the Daily Mail, there is an article on "the burnt-out generation." The word "generation" would imply that it would include men, but no, the article is about how women work too hard at home and work. The piece discusses a book by Dr. Joan Borysenko who wrote Fried: Why You Burn Out and How to Revive and she had this to say:

Dr Borysenko believes women suffer so severely because they are more likely than men to be people-pleasers who ignore their own needs.
Trapped in a cycle of trying to do their best, but not realising the toll it’s taking on them, they end up in a cycle of despair.
‘Burn-out is a disorder of hope. It sucks the life out of competent, hard-working people. You lose motivation and vitality,’ says Dr Borysenko, a Harvard-trained scientist and psychologist.
‘It happens when you feel you can’t stand it for one more minute. You have such thoughts as: “I hate my life.” ....

Dr Borysenko says women close to burn-out often put themselves last on their own list.
‘Women in burn-out exhaust themselves by doing, doing, doing,’ she says. They also become cynical and negative about life. Feeling relentlessly put-upon creates a martyr complex and a raging sense of resentment and indignation that often makes burn-out victims feel justified in lashing out...

She is worried about the toll on mothers trying to do it all, especially now that a job is no longer a matter of choice for many, but is instead essential to keeping the family finances afloat.

Funny, feminists have always told women they "could have it all." Now that they do, they are all a bunch of martyrs, no different than the way the 1950s housewives were described by feminists. Have you noticed that women are always portrayed as a bunch of martyrs who "never put themselves first," no matter the circumstances? The solution to their woes always seems to be to get more "me time."

I often watch men drag themselves to work or do things that call for sacrifice without complaining or sometimes, they have a heart attack or other health problem that no one really cares about and certainly, they get little sympathy.

Men are also adapting to new roles and doing much more in the home as well as working. People just call that "life" if you're a man. If you are a woman who works too hard, you are "burnt-out" and need help. Maybe "burnt-out" is just another phrase that means "work like a man." Feminists and their suck-ups are always saying that women are "superior" to men, but when I read articles like this one, I'm not so sure.

"Manorexia" is on the rise:

NHS figures have shown a 66 per cent increase in hospital admissions in England for male eating disorders over the last decade.

A spokesman for the charity beat said the rise could be attributed to the struggle to attain a 'perfect' body shape.
She said: 'Sufferers can become obsessed.

How to land your kid in therapy

Lori Gottlieb, the author of Marry Him: The Case for Settling for Mr. Good Enough has an interesting piece in the Atlantic entitled "How to Land Your Kid in Therapy." Apparently, in today's society, parent's obsession with their kids happiness is likely to bring a lifetime of adult misery:

The irony is that measures of self-esteem are poor predictors of how content a person will be, especially if the self-esteem comes from constant accommodation and praise rather than earned accomplishment. According to Jean Twenge, research shows that much better predictors of life fulfillment and success are perseverance, resiliency, and reality-testing—qualities that people need so they can navigate the day-to-day.

Earlier this year, I met with a preschool teacher who told me that in her observation, many kids aren’t learning these skills anymore. She declined to be named, for fear of alienating parents who expect teachers to agree with their child-rearing philosophy, so I’ll call her Jane.

Jean Twenge is the co-author of The Narcissism Epidemic: Living in the Age of Entitlement and in the article says that kids never really learn how to fail anymore. They are all told they are terrific and everything they do is great.

So where would kids learn perseverance, resilience and reality testing? Even our government officials show few of these traits, particularly the latter.

"The only ones who seem to get upset are the ones who don't control their children."

A restaurant bans kids under six from eating there:

It hasn't been a banner year for the under-6 set.
Starting July 16, McDain's, a Pittsburgh-area restaurant, will ban children under the age of 6 from its dining area. Restaurant owner Mike Vuick said the policy came in response to complaints he'd received from older customers about kids causing a ruckus. In an email to his clientele, Vuick wrote, "We feel that McDain's is a not a place for young children … and many, many times they have disturbed other customers."

If parents can no longer control their kids, should businesses and their customers have to pay the price? What do you think?

John Kendrick at the Washington Examiner: "How to fix the budget without raising taxes or cutting spending."

New PJ Lifestyle blog

I have had some trouble with Blogger again but I am over at the new PJ Lifestyle blog with some posts on college drinking, sex and culture!

Grade Inflation, Standards Deflation

I am reading Iain Murray's new book Stealing You Blind: How Government Fat Cats Are Getting Rich Off of You and his chapter on "The Education Bubble" caught my eye.

Murray discusses grade inflation and states that "the education establishment often points to rising grades to justify this high spending, but when you look closely at the issue, you find that we've actually suffered a two decade-plus period of grade inflation, not rising standards." Apparently, grades are rising much faster than ACT or SAT scores. This grade inflation is a problem for colleges. For example, "In 2006, UCLA received 47,317 applications, of which nearly 21,000 had GPAs of 4.0--or above."

So next time your kids brings home a B, should you start to worry since it's probably the new C?

"75% of women wouldn't marry someone who was unemployed..."

So Glenn linked to this story about how 75% of women will not marry an unemployed man. "That sounds interesting," I thought and headed over to read it. Here is the gist of it:

According to a recent YourTango and ForbesWoman survey, 75% of women wouldn't marry someone who was unemployed, and 65% wouldn't tie the knot if they themselves were jobless. Ironically, 91 percent of single women say they would marry for love over money.

"It is ironic that women place more weight on love than money, yet won't marry if they or their potential suitor is unemployed," said Meghan Casserly, Reporter, ForbesWoman. "A job can make or break the longevity of a relationship and the results of the survey demonstrate just what an important role careers play in romance."

At first, I was a little put off by the results thinking that the women didn't value men except as a "walking wallet" but since 65% of them didn't want to marry if they themselves were unemployed, it doesn't seem to be too bad. Perhaps the women feel that both spouses should be in a more stable place. What do you think? Would you marry someone if they were unemployed?

Amy Alkon: When Women Confuse Being Asked Out With Being Raped At Knifepoint in an Elevator.

I knew people were shy but bladders? Apparently they are (via Hot Air):

Given the choice, you probably prefer your home porcelain throne to using a public toilet. But for more than 20 million people in North America, peeing in a public restroom is no simple matter.

People with a "shy bladder," a real condition also known as paruresis, are fearful of urinating when other people are nearby.

At least there seems to be some help available:

Eighty to 90 percent of sufferers can get considerably better through cognitive-behavioral therapy, which gradually exposes people to their feared situation in small steps, says Soifer, author of "The Shy Bladder Syndrome."

I am reading a book sent to me entitled Professor Cromer Learns to Read: A Couple's New Life after Brain Injury. It was written by Alan Cromer's wife Janet, who is a psychiatric RN and discusses the difficulty of being a caretaker to someone with a brain injury. If you have ever suffered a brain injury or know someone who has, this books seems very helpful as it "provides the details of what it takes to undertake the awesome roles of survivor and caretaker."

She talks about what it was like to have had her husband suffer a heart attack after boarding a plane to go home. Her husband, Alan, was left with a severe anoxic brain injury from lack of oxygen to his brain during the resuscitation effort. While the book discusses a depressing topic, the author offers hope and humor for those going through such an ordeal. It is definitely worth a read if you or someone else you know is facing severe illness.

The Barefoot Bandit

I was interviewed for the "Barefoot Bandit" show for the Biography Channel which comes on tonight at 10pm and 11:00pm Eastern time. You might remember that the Barefoot Bandit was the teen, Colton Harris-Moore, who stole airplanes, boats etc. and eluded the police for months. If you like such shows, check it out tonight (Thurs. July 7th) or Friday July 8th at 10 pm ET.

Blogger Update

So my blog was down for the day after my password was changed and now it seems to be working. I have to say that the engineers and support at Blogger have been terrific in helping me access my blog and I have been very impressed with the service! That said, I probably do need to move to a different site at some point as this blog grows in posts and becomes more difficult to move.

The College Scam?

Last night, I saw John Stossel's show on Fox on the college scam that featured Naomi Schaefer Riley, the author of The Faculty Lounges: And Other Reasons Why You Won't Get The College Education You Pay For. I have been reading her book which just came out a couple of weeks ago, so I watched with interest as she and Stossel discussed why college is not always worth the money. From Stossel's blog:

How can college be a "scam"?

We hear that young people need to go to college.

"Your future depends on it!"... "It's the only way to get a good job!"

Hillary Clinton says: "Graduates from 4 year colleges earn nearly twice as much as high school graduates...an estimated one million dollars more."

Many experts agree.

But I argue that for many students, if not most, college actually is a scam. Clinton's $1,000,000 earning disparity is deceitful because it's based on a census study that doesn't factor in the fact that kids who apply to college are already more motivated.

The truth is that many colleges don't teach much. Many students are not right for what is taught. Yet this decade, college tuition rose 92% (the CPI was up about 27%).

Tonight, I expose blaring liberal bias on campuses, and lazy tenured professors, who spend little time actually teaching America's kids.

I assume the show will be re-run many times on Fox Business channel, so check it out if you know someone who is college-bound. Or take a look at Riley's book, it has some ideas for what parents and students can do to secure the best education at schools "that are committed to teaching real subjects to undergraduates."

Disaster preparedness book

I have been looking for a good disaster preparedness book along with a good refresher on basic first aid so I was happy to see one show up in the mail to Glenn. The book was entitled IT'S A DISASTER! ...and what are YOU gonna do about it? (5th Edition) and was written by Bill & Janet Liebsch.

It's a small concise manual that asks the question "Is your family or business really prepared for a disaster or emergency?" It touts information on protecting your family and property from natural disasters and nuclear threats, how to reduce infectious diseases, make an emergency plan with tips that include special ones for kids and the elderly, how to assemble "Grab & Go" kits for your home, car and office, and how to apply basic first aid.

Luckily for me, it reads like a very straight-forward manual with very clear sections with lists to check off for each type of kit etc. It looks like a good book to include in your reading if you want to prepare for various types of disasters.