In this column I pose questions and raise issues. I don't always agree with the conclusion, implied or stated. The purpose is to put a slightly different spin on each item and to promote discussion.
- Evil ignored, thrives.
- You can't play dirty pool and expect everybody else to play by the rules.
- First comes knowing who you are, next comes family, community responsibility and giving away your power, then your place finds you.
- When we focus on men's issues and female sexism, pop feminists accuse us of being one-sided. When women focus on women's issues and male sexism, a growing number of men backlash by accusing them of being one-sided. We can do better.
- At Overlake Hospital in the shadow of Microsoft, either you're completely indigent and pay nothing, or you pay full price, even if you're poor. Unlike most other hospitals, they do not offer a sliding scale for patients of limited means. According to several nurses who work there, however, not only is the workload on their nursing staff continuing to increase, but the hospital's administrator makes several million per year. Evidently, charging top dollar for putting the squeeze on the people who actually do the work pays well.
- Mae West said that "when a woman goes wrong, men go right after her." True, but it goes both ways. The relationship between the sexes is symbiotic.
- Isolated from family, cut off from a real community, the lone couple is inherently unstable and vulnerable to disintegration. As Camille Paglia points out in "Vamps and Tramps," the only traditional family is extended.
- UPS Teamsters would be wrong to hold the company solely responsible for the contract mess they're in right now. Two other parties share the blame: the Union, and the union members who voted to accept the contract in 1982. Because the contract did not affect employees hired under the old contract, the Union recommended acceptance. I was there, and despite that I and others argued against it on the basis that it would come back to haunt them later, the drivers and warehouse workers took an "I've got mine" attitude. Certainly, UPS management deserves a fair measure of criticism, but they're not the only ones.
- Why are Euro-Americans to blame for the enslavement of African people who were sold into slavery by other African people?
- If a woman is so caught up in the John Wayne bullshit that she can't handle seeing her guy weep when the president's wife dies in "Independence Day," then she can go find herself a cowboy who doesn't cry, doesn't care, and rides off into the sunset when her boobs begin to sag. An emotionally healthy woman wants a whole man, not an emotional cripple who would rather take TagametTM for his ulcers than bawl when they bury "Old Yeller."
- Naomi Wolf thinks women should not only have the freedom to slut around with "cads" (which they already have), but the right to be loved, respected and swept off their feet by the "dad" of their choice. Isn't that like the old double standard that said men could "sow their wild oats" but expect their fiancee to be a virgin?
- If Euro-Americans should apologize or otherwise compensate African-Americans for slavery, then shouldn't African-Americans thank and compensate Euro-Americans for the undeniable benefits all Americans enjoy over living in other countries, and the majority contributions Euro-Americans have made (without denying or ignoring the minority of contributions African-Americans have made) in areas like medicine, electronics, aeronautics, engineering, manufacturing, and so on?
- Diligently, we watch for women who gaze with glowing eyes at men who treat them with compassion, care and respect, and instead, find most fawning over Duke, Dangerboy and Dominator. What should this lead us to believe?
- "Free Installation," the ad for Les Schwab Tires reads. You might think that means you drive out the door for the advertised price. Think again. It means they put the tires on the wheels free of additional charge. What? You want air in those tires? Air's free, but that'll be two bucks each for the valve stems. You don't want your wheels to buck and shimmy like a hundred horsepower vibrator set on frappe? $6.50 each to balance the tires. What happened to "free installation"? Why the hidden charges? "They (retail tire outlets) all do it the same way," Les Schwab Sales and Marketing Manager Brian Capp said. "In 45 years, it never came up." It's okay "because everybody else is doing it"? Better not try that one on my dad.
- It is appropriate to acknowledge Euro-American racism, but are we to ignore African-American racism toward American Indians? Or the racist animosity between African-Americans and Korean-Americans?
- If female dock workers are paid the same as male dock workers, then why does Labor & Industries expect employers to instruct female workers to have their male coworkers lift and carry the heavier loads for them?
- Do TCI Cable's computers assume their customers are all deadbeats? Maybe. If you're late paying, even if you have already made arrangements to get caught up, their computer will turn you off after 60 days.
- When husbands do more than 40% of the housework, that's inconsequential, but when women account for more than 20% of the homeless, it's a national disgrace.
- Management thinks the purpose of business is to make a profit. Labor thinks it's to provide jobs. HR thinks it's to employ Stepford workers. The rest of us just want to work and be happy.
- One of the greatest fallacies is that trends invariablly persist.
- While the US government encourages Americans to stop smoking, thanks to political pressure on foreign governments to open their markets to American-made cigarettes, tobacco companies are making record profits.
- From China to Japan, Australia to Austria, where ever America's newest immigrants have come from, in most cases their new home is far more open to immigration than their country of origin.
- The law dictates that bicyclists use the road same as cars, but not that insurance companies offer bicycle insurance. Nor do most (if any) insurance companies offer to insure bicyclists.
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