Blogs Bring Back Sensationalist Yellow Journalism

Thanks to Jon Stewart for this media commentary on the blogosphere :)

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As a Woman, I Need Friends to Help Me Make Decisions

"Women sometimes need a little more handholding, or they need their friends to help them make a decision."
-- RNC co-chair Jan Larimer, on GOP efforts to recruit and train more women candidates


Honestly, this quote probably applies to everyone, men as well as women. Sometimes we all need a little help making decisions, or handholding when it comes to charting new territory.

But perhaps there are other reasons that women are not terribly interested in a GOP candidacy. I have two reasons right here:

1. Perhaps women who are interested and active in politics are more likely to be liberal.
2. Maybe conservative women feel that taking good care of their families and being there for their children, and raising them to be good citizens, is a more important endeavor than being involved in the time-consuming game of politics.

I'm sure you can think of many other reasons that the GOP is having a hard time finding women candidates. And I'll bet they have little to do with some inherent neediness to have someone else to handhold them.

Shameless Self-Promotion: The Old Standby

When I feel guilty that I haven't been posting on this blog, I get to pull out the old shameless self-promotion. Does it make me feel even worse? Yes. But it means that I am posting.

It's been an interesting couple of months, with me dropping three clients (equaling four blogs). It's kind of nice. It has me looking forward to when Josh is done with his Ph.D. and I drop a couple more clients...

Anyway, enjoy this dose of self-promotion:

1. How to Build a CD Ladder: Learn how you can create an awesome emergency fund via CD laddering.
2. How To Be a Successful Freelance Writer: Find out a couple things about how I have managed to support my family as a freelancer.
3. State of the Union: Can Barack Obama Kickstart the Economy?: A look at Obama's plans from his SOTU, and a little commentary on how I think it's kind of unrealistic.
4. David Bach's 5 Ways to Save $5,000: A video blog from iMommyTalk about how you can save a little money.
5. What To Do When Your Wallet or Purse is Stolen: A step-by-step look at what you should do when someone rips off your wallet or purse.
   

Actually, "The Left" Hasn't Been Getting Anything It Wants

As a progressive, I've been fairly annoyed with the lack of, er, progress being made in terms of legislation and what-not. Actually, it's probably the same sort of frustration many conservatives felt back when they controlled all three branches of government in the early-ish years of the George W. Bush presidency. If the Supreme Court, Congress and White House were all controlled by Republicans, why couldn't they get Roe v. Wade overturned or even bigger (and permanent) tax breaks and other cornerstones of conservatism passed? Probably for the same reason that "the left" hasn't managed to truly implement any of its agenda points, even though it controls two branches of government:

Because things in Washington are run to maintain the status quo. No matter who's "in charge."

Anyway, I've been too busy and overwhelmed to actually write about my thoughts on this subject, so it's a good thing Glenn Greenwald did in Salon:

In what universe must someone be living to believe that the Democratic Party is controlled by "the Left," let alone "the furthest left elements" of the Party? As Ezra Klein says, the Left "ha[s] gotten exactly nothing they wanted in recent months." The Left wanted a single-payer system, then settled for a public option, then an opt-out public option, then Medicare expansion -- only to get none of it, instead being handed a bill that forces every American to buy health insurance from the private insurance industry. Nor was it "the Left" -- but rather corporatist Democrats like Evan Bayh and Lanny Davis -- who cheered for the hated Wall Street bailout; blocked drug re-importation; are stopping genuine reform of the financial industry; prevented a larger stimulus package to lower unemployment; refuse to allow programs to help Americans with foreclosures; supported escalation in Afghanistan (twice); and favor the same Bush/Cheney terrorism policies of indefinite detention, military commissions, and state secrets.

The very idea that an administration run by Barack Obama and Rahm Emanuel and staffed with centrists, Wall Street mavens, and former Bush officials -- and a Congress beholden to Blue Dogs and Lieberdems -- has been captive "to the Left" is so patently false that everyone should be too embarrassed to utter it. For better or worse, the Democratic strategy has long been and still is to steer clear of their leftist base and instead govern as "pragmatists" and centrists -- which means keeping the permanent Washington factions pleased.

Thanks to Dissenting in Part for bringing it to my attention.

Happy New Year!

I'm at my parents' and enjoying the festivities. So I'm pre-posting this. And, because I'm a blogger, I'm going to let you know what my resolutions are. Just in case you care.

On a personal level, I want to continue to improve my overall health. It's nice to say that I'll lose a certain number of pounds, and I'd like to. But, really, I think I'll shift my focus to improving my fitness with regular exercise and getting better nutrition. Which means that I'll be practicing portion control. And maybe having only a couple of sweets per day instead of five or six. Seriously.

I'd also like to carve out more time for music practice. I started taking guitar lessons, and I'd like to improve. And my piano skills are a bit rusty. In order to find this time, though, I think I'm going to have to carefully consider some of my clients, and cut a little bit of my workload. Which should be doable since I have two or three clients that ask for an awful lot, but pay very little. Getting rid of the inefficient clients should free up a little more time.

And, of course, I have personal finance goals. If I didn't, I wouldn't have anything to write about for all those blogs I contribute to. My three main personal finance goals for 2010 are:

1. Refinance the house
2. Open a Health Savings Account (and switch to a high deductible plan)
3. Get a retirement account going for Josh

I even have plans for how to accomplish each of these financial New Year's resolutions. You can cynically scoff at these resolutions, but really I use them as a starting point for improvements. I expect to tweak them throughout the year, and add other aspects for personal improvement. Because the bottom line is this: You are more likely to accomplish something if you formally resolve to do it.

Happy New Year!

Shameless Self Promotion, Holiday Style

Hope you're having a good season. We sure are, with my husband's parents here and his brother coming tomorrow. It's fun to be so busy. But it's murder on getting anything done. SO, here are some of the posts I've written during the holidays about...the holidays. Good times.

1. The History of Christmas and Its Traditions at Personal Dividends
2. What Do You Want Your Children to Get This Holiday Season? at Personal Finance Corner
3. Reducing Financial Stress During the Holidays at Money Ning
4. Advantages of Holiday Shopping with Credit Cards at Moolanomy
5. Tips for Holiday Tipping at Peak Personal Finance
6. Investors Looking Ahead to the Santa Claus Rally at Banks.com

What Happened to Civility in Political Discourse?

Today I am preparing a Sunday School lesson about good citizenship. And I came across a great quote from President Hinckley, which immediately made me think about the tone of so-called political discourse in this country:

“Civility is the root of the word civilization. It carries with it the essence of courtesy and politeness and consideration of others. How very much of it we have lost in our contemporary society. The lack of it is seen in the endless barrage of faultfinding and criticism spewed forth by media columnists and commentators…Talk show hosts become rich and famous by snarling at callers and heckling guests. All of this speaks of anything but refinement. It speaks of anything but courtesy. It speaks of anything but civility. Rather, it speaks of rudeness and crudeness, and an utter insensitivity to the feelings and rights of others” (Teachings of Gordon B. Hinckley, pages 131-132).

But, of course, as we found during the last election, civility, eloquence and education are qualities deserving of derision -- signs of the "elite." It's really too bad that pundits on both sides of any issue so often stoop to personal attacks. But I'm especially sad that one of these pundits is himself LDS, and someone who once publicly professed great admiration for the man he claimed to follow as a prophet. (Hint: I'm talking about Glenn Beck, who recently lowered the bar in political "discourse" with flat out falsities and outrageous remarks designed solely for the purpose of stirring up controversy and bringing more money for him, rather than facts and concern about actual political debate and providing reliable and useful information for his droves of followers.)

It's a sad state affairs when bombastic attempts at money-making take precedence over actual political debate. Yes, these pundits are well within in their rights, and they are obviously very savvy businesspeople. It's just too bad that so many of us think that these attacks are true debate, when they are often laced with falsehoods and deliberately distract from the true policy issues on the table. Rousing people to irrational and uncivil anger with untrue information and emotional appeals, rather than facts, is profitable for pundits, but it is detrimental to society, since it creates an electorate that is incoherently angry, mostly impotent and woefully uneducated when it comes to the actual issues.