We here at The Blue State have beentossing around the idea of as "Book club", "RecommendedReads"...etc. I don't think the books all have to have a politicalplot of theme. An example I could use would be a few books I think are worthy; '', '', "", '', and a to name a few of the non-politics book I have read.. Naturallythere will be many political books. I mentioned books with great plots and"moral of the story" type.
If anyone has a book(s) you would like to share and feel are worthy,please leave in the comments section of the post. This is just a "feeler",and not definitive as of yet.
We here at The Blue State have beentossing around the idea of a "Book club", "RecommendedReads"...etc. I don't think the books all have to have a politicalplot of theme. An example I could use would be a few books I think are worthy; '', '', "", '', and a to name a few of the non-political books I have read.. Naturallythere will be many political books. I mentioned books with great plots and"moral of the story" type.
If anyone has a book(s) you would like to share and feel are worthy,please leave in the comments section of the post. This is just a "feeler",and not definitive as of yet.
Every time there's a or one of the WH staff are being investigated,the conservatives (andtheir talking heads) are always quick to blame the liberals and the"left wing bias" media. posted an interesting study from "" that sheds a little light on their reasoning.
Conservatives: "described by their teachers as easily victimized, easilyoffended, indecisive, fearful, rigid, inhibited, and vulnerable at age 3."
Liberals: "liberals had developed close relationships with peers andwere rated by their teachers as self-reliant, energetic, impulsive, andresilient."
All people are born alike-except Republicans and Democrats," quippedGroucho Marx, and in fact it turns out that personality differences betweenliberals and conservatives are evident in early childhood. In 1969, Berkeleyprofessors Jack and Jeanne Block embarked on a study of childhood personality,asking nursery school teachers to rate children's temperaments. They weren'teven thinking about political orientation.
Twenty years later, they decided to compare the subjects' childhoodpersonalities with their political preferences as adults. They found arrestingpatterns. As kids, liberals had developed close relationships with peers andwere rated by their teachers as self-reliant, energetic, impulsive, andresilient. People who were conservative at age 23 had been described by theirteachers as easily victimized, easily offended, indecisive, fearful, rigid,inhibited, and vulnerable at age 3. The reason for the difference, the Blockshypothesized, was that insecure kids most needed the reassurance of traditionand authority, and they found it in conservative politics.
As "I know our right wing commenters are goingto think this is a cheap shot against conservatives"
It's a shame how the conservatives are victimized.
I know this might not seem like a political issue at heart. But the way I read into it, this tells us a lot about the direction political trends will be heading sharply within the next five to ten years -- towards privacy.
In the , columnist Michael Thompson was brave enough to ask whether parents should let their children roam freely on the internet. He draws an interesting parallel between overbearing parents and the appeal of personal sites like Myspace for teenagers:
Kids today spend almost no time “in thewoods,†and their moments spent away from their parents’ watchful gazeare precious and few. In our middle and upper-middle-classneighborhoods, children are largely indoors, taking lessons doinghomework and getting ready to go to town sports. They are endlesslysupervised and monitored. How many parents today are willing to do whatour parents did: shovel us out the door at noon, saying “Don’t comeback until 6 o’clock?â€
Wecannot bear the anxiety of not knowing everything about our children’swhereabouts in the physical world. So our children wander off intocyberspace, killing zombies, talking to strangers and visiting allkinds of Web sites, weird and stupid and sexy. And they know we don’thave the time, attention or expertise to follow them there. TheInternet is often the only private place for a child today.
That isn’t to say that parents and administrators should turn a blind eye their children’s online activities, they shouldn’t...
...I hope my inner psychologist has the courage to remember his ownboyhood and to keep reminding parents of how precious a bit of privacywas to them when they were growing up.
I am only a college student, so I can't say that I know what parents go through. I am, however, part of "generation y" that has been in a unique position to watch America slowly change as a culture. Socially, this country is miles apart from where it was fifteen years ago. But human nature is still the same. Kids want to be kids, and kids need to be kids. Obviously, parents should to monitor their kids' online activity -- no one is questioning that. But this discussion would not be taking place if children were left on their own a little bit more, then they would not rely so much on sites like MySpace. Every child has to learn consequences. You can't learn solely by being told, you learn mostly from living.
This is strictly a political site for political junkies. But when something like this happens, you can't just let it pass without getting in a word or two.
Last night on the show Dancing with the Stars, Tucker Carlson -- the well-known conservative Republican commentator with the bow tie who was two years ago -- took to the stage and got his groove on with a dancer that was clearly out of his league:
<< (YouTube)
--- Partial Transcript ---
TUCKER CARLSON: "The key I've decided to this whole enterprise is don't think. This is a physical thing. I have total confidence. I think of myself as a cha cha master."
DANCE INSTRUCTOR: "Uh, yeah, okay. Good..."
The judges sure liked the routine:
JUDGE #2: "Well, Tucker, the best part was the start. All the problems started as soon as you stood up."
Ouch! For a political commentator, I say he actually did pretty well. That took a lot of guts. But maybe he should stick to his MSNBC job!
It would be nice to see Bill O'Reilly and Al Franken compete against one another on that show -- finally settling their .
Sorry for my utterly weak effort on this web site these last few days. Things have been rather hectic lately. I am traveling to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico (The Marriott Resort) this morning (Thursday) with my family to attend and participate in my older brother's wedding (Friday). I will be back Thursday, August 24th. The only way that I can possibly update this site is by borrowing a laptop from somebody and writing a few posts here and there. So don't expect more than one or two posts each day. Some days I might not have time to post anything. I'll just have to see how it goes.
So keep this site book marked! I will be back next week. I plan to do a lot of reading during the course of this vacation. The books coupled with the added leisure time will allow me to return with a fresh perspective on things as we head into the crazy two month stretch that leads to November.
I do not work for any campaign. But as a people powered grassroots community, we need to do our part by getting involved in the campaigns of Democratic candidates that are in close races. Below are a list of candidates that need our help. What we can do as progressive activists will make the difference between a blue Congress and two more years of sitting on the sidelines as a minority party. So please, help in any way that you can:
First, for Senate
PA-Sen: Bob Casey () ()
MO-Sen: Claire McCaskill () ()
WA-Sen: Maria Cantwell () ()
TN-Sen: Harold Ford () ()
RI-Sen: Sheldon Whitehouse () ()
Now, for House
Visit the for details on battleground races that you can impact.
See you all when I get back! Again, keep the site book marked. It's only for one week. Bye until then!
It really must be a slow news day for The Hill magazine -- or a slow news day for me since I am following it. The Hill revealed their . Personally, after looking at it, I don't know how some of those people made it on there. Nonetheless, scoring in at number one was Michelle Persuad:
Michelle Persaud’s delicate features burst into a smile as she describes the mistake many men make with her.
Seeing her dark eyes and mocha skin, her flowing black tresses andexpansive lashes, they sidle over, take in a breath and start speaking… Farsi!
“I just look at them and smile,†the Maryland native, who has noPersian ancestry, says with a chuckle. “I get that all the time.â€
Michelle Persuad serves as a staff counsel to the Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee. Lucky them! Although, I'd say numbers three and four could have gone number one as well. Maybe could ask one of those younger women to explain the internet to him.
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Other blogs writing about this issue: , , , , , , , , , , , , .
I'd like to give a big blue shout-out to everyone visiting this site from . This web site is updated frequently each day. So take a look around, comment on the posts and come back soon!
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