Good intentions don’t always yield good results. Some say that the road to a pretty unpopular place is paved with them. The problem is not with the intentions themselves. The problem is the unintended consequences that come with them.
It’s been a very enlightening, and sobering, week and a half, especially for the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation — and a very lucrative week and a half for Planned Parenthood.
Friends of Karl Rove say the Republican strategist was so angered by a two-minute commercial featuring Clint Eastwood that aired during last Sunday’s Super Bowl that he is considering retaliating against the movie giant by revealing the identity of the iconoclastic character Eastwood played in “High Plains Drifter” known as The Stranger.
In fourth grade my parents sent me off to private school thinking it would be the best educational setting for my curious mind. But instead of becoming acquainted with Shakespeare, King, Lincoln and Ghandi, I became “fast friends” with the bullies who would wait for me by the front steps in order to shout disparaging remarks about my Indian heritage, and who were even creative enough to make fun of the old brown station wagon my parents brought me to school in.
The parade of planets has intrigued star-watchers for thousands of years. Here is a group of what look like bright stars - minus any obvious twinkle - which unlike the rest of the starry dome, they keep changing position. Referred to as “wandering stars,” they were seen to loop around the sun and Earth from our perspective, and it took many centuries to untangle just what they were seeing - what went around what? Debates about a flat Earth were coupled with the heretical notion that the Earth may be one of those “wandering stars.”
Today the Pentagon announced that it is opening more than 14,000 jobs to women in the military, though not in direct combat roles. As violence spins out of control in Syria, news reports will say “including women and children” when reporting casualties. Almost every news cycle, we see a sensational story about some horrible act of violence, usually murder, committed towards a woman victim. No matter how far we believe we have come in our society towards an equalization of the sexes, it is readily apparent in our portrayal and general thinking of women that they are the weaker, innocent, and less violent members of our species. This antiquated generalization doesn’t hold water when confronted by the reality. Attitudes that still incorporate this stereotype lead to unfair applications of laws and place an unequal value on human life.
Valentine's Day is a day for anyone and everyone to say, “I care.” It’s a day to teach love, tolerance and forgiveness to your children. It is a day to share happiness.
How can I have more of a presence at parties? I have always been kind of shy, and I’ve heard that you have a very large personality, and I was hoping you could give me some pointers. I would like to come out of my shell, and I’ve heard you’re the authority on this topic!
The reason the GOP mastermind is upset with the ad is not because it intentionally called for the re-election of President Barack Obama later this year. Karl Rove is mad because the ad points at the success of the bailout and the idea of halftime in America which, while it was directed at football teams and automobile manufacturers, could see some overdrift into the Obama campaign in 2012.
The next step in getting your financial house in order is to set a plan for your investments. This plan must start with an understanding of your risk tolerance - how much volatility you will accept before throwing in the towel and abandoning the plan. Many wish for never losing value and gains that will keep up with the Standard & Poor's 500 index of stock prices. Keep wishing and blow out all your birthday candles, because this is a wish that is unlikely to come true each and every year.
