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.
- Had Bush and Gore been the only presidential candidates to choose from, I would have voted for the man who was willing to tell the voters significant facts nobody wanted to hear.
- According to the Federal Reserve Board of St. Louis, in 1999 women's median hourly earnings were 83.8 percent of men's.
- While some pundits warn us against rushing to embrace emerging technologies, such as nano technology, history proves that those societies who keep their options open and are willing to embrace change are more likely to survive and thrive than those societies which do not.
- Extremists believe nobody has the right to not support their cause.
- Never let a day go by without forgetting something.
- Feminist extremists (pop feminists) are the female equivalent of the old "male chauvinist pig": the former says male control is bad, the latter says female control is bad, and they're both wrong.
- Thanks to pop feminists, many women can no longer tell the difference between a friendly man, a flirtatious man, and a sexual harasser.
- The most successful salesperson I've worked with did not lie to customers about products or prices, but about herself.
- Recently, an advertisement on television defending the right to have an abortion focused on people living in third world countries where women are unable to "space" the births of their children. Okay, spacing births can be a good thing and birth control is an appropriate means to do this, but what about abortion? According to the Statistical Abstract of the United States, it's not working. Table No. 99 shows that in 1997 32.4% of all births were to single mothers compared to 22.0% in 1985. And Table No. 100 shows that while the birth rate per 1,000 unmarried women was 29.4% in 1980 (up from 26.4% in 1970, according to Table No. 94), it grew to 45.1% by 1995. Abortion: it isn't doing for Americans what they say it is.
- While conservatives bemoan the dearth of virtue among the masses and liberals loudly lament the callous unconcern of conservatives for those same masses, they both ignore the dearth of virtue and lack of concern now characteristic of their corporate sponsors.
- Is Dilbert a corporate attempt to dissipate anti-corporate sentiments by getting us to laugh at their outrageous behaviors instead of actually doing something about them?
- Life is a process, not a goal.
- If Bush was so certain he won Florida legitimately, he would have had the dignity to let Gore squawk and demand a full-court recount. The fact the Bush camp circled their wagons and broke out the heavy artillery tells us they had something to hide.
- Did Showgirls bomb and Elizabeth Berkley's career stall because she dared to portray competition between women in the context of sex, and this offended pop feminists?
- Gore and Bush: I blame them on us. On my generation: the baby boom. Our parents put the good of the nation over the individual, then babyboomers came along with their protests and marches, sit-ins and demonstrations, drugs and free-love, and what did they do? Turned into Yuppies. They went from pot smoking hippies to coke snorting money mongers, all the while focusing on "looking out for number one." The "me generation," whining about what they want, their rights and feelings, their due. So should we be surprised if the first member of our generation to occupy the White House (Clinton) is a philandering fool? Should we be amazed when the first two members of our generation from both major parties to face off over the presidency end up squabbling like two spoiled brats? "It's mine!" whines one. "No, it's mine!" sneers the other. Neither one deserves the office.
- A critical woman is intelligent, a criticized woman is abused; a woman who wins an argument is powerful, a woman who loses an argument is a victim.
- Even though I did not vote for him, I like Ralph Nader the same way I like Jimmy Carter: they think big, imagine a better world, and live by high standards. When I told a staunch Gore-supporter this, she thought a moment then replied that she did not like Nader. "He's an arrogant jerk," she said. When I asked why, it turned out to have nothing to do with his politics and everything to do with the geek factor: she doesn't think he's sexy, he opposes her party's primary sex symbol, and he tells the truth, so she dislikes him. When I pointed out to her that her dislike was personal and not political, she got a headache and left.
- If the tight presidential election sends any message, it is that Bush and Gore moved so close to the middle that only the party-faithful can tell the difference between them. Next time, everybody should vote their conscience instead of for the candidate they perceive as the lesser evil.
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